Review NaN of 11
, from NORFOLK, Va.
Price Paid:
$50.00
from GameStop Summary:
EA Sports first introduced console gamers to the fast and furious world of NASCAR back in 1997, when NASCAR ’98 hit the PSOne. The game, while nowhere near perfect, brought America’s faster-growing sport to the living rooms of millions and a new franchise was born.
Now, six years later, EA’s stock car racing series is NASCAR’s number one-selling franchise (according to TRST’s total franchise sales for 2001). The series made an inconspicuous debut on PlayStation2 with the decent yet uninspired NASCAR 2001, so the sports gods at EA went back to the drawing board.
Handing the series over to Madden developer Tiburon, the series was renamed NASCAR Thunder, and a complete overhaul was underway. The first NASCAR game under Tiburon, Thunder 2002, took an already successful formula (America’s most popular drivers and tracks) and added a bit of substance to it (nice presentation, tight gameplay, deep career mode). The result was an enjoyable NASCAR product in a growing market for racing games.
Funny thing about the videogame industry, though, is that once a developer succeeds, everyone expects it to repeat the effort, only better. So what did Tiburon do with NASCAR Thunder 2003? Why, take everything that made 2002 a success and improve on it, of course! Take a visually strong package, add strong gameplay, a ton of depth and a nicely improved career mode, and NASCAR Thunder 2003 is one sweet ride.
In typical EA fashion, Thunder 2003’s presentation is bar-none. While Infogrames’ Dirt to Daytona is content to rest on its gameplay and depth to rake in sales, EA goes the route of visual splendor, and for the most part, succeeds. From the moment you pop in the Thunder 2003 disc and hear any one of NASCAR’s most recognizable faces say, “EA Sports…it’s in the game,” you know the developers are going all out.
The menu screens are at once beautiful and easy to navigate. Uniformity envelops the game in this regard, which makes navigating through the menus and selection screens more user-friendly. A small touch, but every little bit adds up in the end. As you make your way through the menus, EA Trax gives you one of four songs to listen to (Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride,” Nonpoint’s “Circles,” (hed)p.e.’s “Get Away” and Fenris TX’s “Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car”). I just wish there were more than four songs in this lineup.
When you hit the track, you’re treated to a nice “pre-race show,” thanks in part to the folks at MRN Radio, a national radio network that broadcasts Winston Cup races every weekend. Joe Moore and Barney Hall set the scene for the race nicely, and a slightly abbreviated rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner (followed by those famous words: “Gentlemen, start your engines!”) really puts you in the crowd as the cars roll off pit road. Should you give the game a chance, Joe and Barney will give you a rundown of the 43-car field before you go racing.
A new feature to the series this year, whenever the caution comes out, the game will give you a replay of the event that brought out the yellow flag. You’ll see the incident from a few different angles and it’s just another really nice touch. Replays after races are still a bit on the weak side, though the voiceovers from Joe and Barney at the end give the presentation a sense of credibility.
Should you win the race, EA adds to the presentation value by 1) giving you the option to celebrate your victory and 2) showing you a short video of you and your crew in Victory Lane. Watching drivers celebrate victories is just hella cool (I remember Martinsville last October…Kurt Busch did his victory doughnuts five feet in front of me!), and it’s even cooler now that you can do this yourself in Thunder 2003. The victory lane sequence, while a bit clunky and trite after seeing it over and over again, is just a really nice touch.
Visually, Thunder 2003 is a marked improvement over its predecessor. Smooth animations and killer lighting effects are the name of the game here, and the car models look splendid. The boring, hunky tracks of 2001 are history, and though the occasional jaggie pops up on the outside retaining walls, this is one nice looking game. Consider that 43 cars are on the track at once and the level of detail in this game is amazing.
Each track is faithfully recreated, damage modeling is more detailed this year and everything just looks better. Thunder 2003 isn’t perfect, but it is a feast for the eyes.
Every track on the Winston Cup circuit is represented in this game, which is something Dirt to Daytona can’t boast. Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, Infineon, Texas…they’re all here. EA even added a fictitious superspeedway and a few infield road courses, which can be unlocked, for variety. You can even race the old Daytona beach course.
Add over 150 cars, including a slew of current Winston Cup stars (Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip, Kurt Busch, Sterling Marlin, et al), Busch drivers (Ashton Lewis, Jason Keller), fantasy racers and legends (Richard Petty, the late Dale Earnhardt) and you’ve got a lot of drivers and cars. If having all the cars and tracks are your thing, Thunder 2003 can’t be beat.
Most of these tracks and drivers will have to be unlocked, which right away adds a bit of replay value. By winning Quick Races on Veteran or Legend difficulty, you unlock tracks, drivers and paint schemes in the form of Thunder Plates. These plates, similar to Madden Cards in Madden NFL 2003, can be collected for easy viewing on top of their ability to unlock secrets. Thunder Plates can also unlock sponsors and paint schemes, which can be used when creating a car of your own.
Another way to earn Thunder Plates is to make your way through the 30 “MRN Moment of the Race” scenarios. EA’s answer to Dirt to Daytona’s Beat the Heat mode, this mode puts you in the seat of various Winston Cup rides in actual NASCAR situations. A video of the driver in question sets the scene for you and you go race. Accomplish your goal, and you get a Thunder Plate or two.
Thunder License mode takes you to each of the 23 tracks on the Winston Cup circuit, showing you the ropes and the fastest way around the track. Richard Petty will introduce you to the track with a one-lap fly-by, then it’s up to you. You can choose one of twelve drivers as your “coach”—a translucent representation of your driver showing you the best line and coaching you through the track. Follow Jeff Gordon through Watkins Glen a few times and you’ll be set. The Thunder Plates this mode unlocks will help you in qualifying in Quick Race mode.
Season mode lets you go 12, 24 or 36 races—or create your own custom season—to fight for the Winston Cup title. This mode is a staple of the series and practically a mandate of the NASCAR sub-genre.
All these modes and the ability to unlock Thunder Plates gives a lot of replay value to Thunder 2003, but the real bread and butter is the revamped career mode. Thunder 2002’s mode, while deep and involving, was limiting when it came to letting the player race. Tiburon changed that this year, and players can run the full 36-race schedule at 100 percent race length if they wish. I prefer 10 percent race length myself, but the fact that the option’s there this year is a nice step forward.
This year’s mode has the same goal as last year’s—win eight championships in 20 years—but it’s much deeper this time around. You create your team, sign sponsors and all that, but this year you actually have to manage a pit crew and shop workers. Building engines and chassis is a must (as is repairing and overhauling them), and you’ll need to keep your pit crew happy in order for them to perform well.
Sponsors also have to be kept happy, because they give you the money that lets you build your engines and chassis. Yeah, your equipment is going to suck your first year, so how do you improve it? Rather than buying upgrades, you have your shop guys do research and development. R&D work will improve your stats and your parts, which will ultimately improve your performance and your standing with sponsors. Do well enough, and as the older drivers retire, you could find yourself looking at a Winston Cup sponsorship offer.
Thunder 2003’s career mode can’t compare to Dirt to Daytona’s when it comes to sheer depth and longevity (20 years in Winston Cup as opposed to 30 seasons in four different racing leagues), but it still gives the player enough options and variety to keep the game fresh and interesting for a long time.
All these options are well and good, but they wouldn’t matter a hill of beans if the game didn’t play well. Fortunately, it does. While Thunder 2003 may err a bit on the side of arcade, it’ll cater to the casual player with its pick-up-and-play nature. Controls are spot-on, with the DualShock2 responding perfectly to the commands given to it. Each track presents a unique challenge to the player, which is nice when you look at the “drive fast, turn left” stereotype often associated with the sport.
Setting up the car is integral in succeeding on the track. The options are deep, but still to the point where non-gear heads will still be able to figure things out without having to go to Waldenbooks and grab a copy of NASCAR for Dummies. Gears, wedge, suspension…tinker with it and practice; otherwise, you’ll never find your way to Victory Lane.
One of Thunder 2002’s weaknesses was the lackluster AI. It became too easy to win too quickly. Thunder 2003 hasn’t totally solved the problem, but huge strides have been made. This game will challenge you—particularly in the first few seasons of your career---with unforgiving AI and the prospect of fighting with 42 other rockets to see who crosses the striped line first.
Tough AI, tight controls, a user-friendly interface that appeals to both hardcore NASCAR fans and casual gamers make Thunder 2003 a dream to play, but the game is not perfect. As was said before, this game is a little on the arcade side, which may turn off some of the hardcore stock car racing fans looking for that perfect representation of the sport. Sadly, they won’t find it no matter where they look, but Thunder 2003 doesn’t quite have the physics model necessary to be a hard-nosed sim.
Also, there seem to be a few hiccups when playing multiplayer split-screen mode. The slowdown isn’t horrible—it’s better than it was in 2001 and 2002—but it’s still noticeable and something the Xbox version doesn’t suffer from.
Overall, NASCAR Thunder 2003 succeeds where Dirt to Daytona failed (presentation), while giving fans an easy-to-learn experience that’s fun and engrossing. This game isn’t as deep as Infogrames’ effort, but it’s still plenty deep, with career mode taking literally months to complete. If asked to pick Thunder over Dirt to Daytona or vice versa, I couldn’t pick (hell, I own them both), but EA’s latest offering is a wonderful racing experience in its own right.
THE JEFF CUNNINGHAM BREAKDOWN (ON A SCALE OF 10):
PRESENTATION: 9.0
A rocking soundtrack, the MRN treatment, TV-style replay cameras…the whole nine yards. Presentation has always been EA’s strength, and Thunder 2003 is no different.
GRAPHICS: 8.5
There are some jaggies and slowdown cramps split-screen mode, but the damage effects, lights and car models are among the best in the genre.
SOUND: 8.0
EA’s selection of background music is nice, but the fact that there are only four songs hurts. Joe Moore and Barney Hall do their job well, as do the sound effects.
GAMEPLAY: 8.5
Too arcade for some, this game is still a lot of fun, with good speed recognition, tough AI and a nice control setup.
LASTING APPEAL: 9.0
You’ve got 20 seasons to take eight Winston Cups—not to mention over 170 Thunder Plates to unlock—this isn’t Dirt to Daytona, but you’ll be playing this one for a while. I promise.
OVERALL: 8.5
NASCAR Thunder 2003 is a vast improvement over its predecessor and one hell of a racer. Gentlemen, start your engines!
Report this review >>
|
5 of 5
4 of 5
