Video Game Review:

NASCAR 4
Sierra
Papyrus

reviewed by Nika�s racerdude Ed

Racing Simulation software, better known as racing "games" or "sims" have come a long way in the past few years. As the home PC has become more capable, programmers have taken us to new levels of sophistication and realism. We "gearheads"� now have a wide variety of products from Arcade style entertainment games to driving simulations worthy of professional use as a training and practice aid.� As a professional racing driver, I have used "sims" to learn new tracks that I am going to compete on, as well as polishing my skills in the off season. I often find that my lap times in the real car are not far from my computer lap times.� With the cost of running a modern racing car now measured in hundreds or even thousands of dollars per lap, "real" testing time is used up by engineers for setting up the car or evaluating a new component. Driver practice time is simply not in the plan. Because of this many drivers are turning to sims to get the time they need to get up to speed quickly on an unfamiliar racetrack.� Its not only drivers who work with racing sims either. I know of one instance where a NASCAR crew chief made a big change to his car set up based on the game NASCAR 4 and the driver promptly put it on the pole at a recent race. With all this in mind, I will be doing a few reviews of popular racing games for racerchicks.com so you can spend your money on racing software that is what you want, not just MS Pacman on wheels.

NASCAR Racing 4

If any of you snooty Formula car types out there still think that NASCAR racers are a bunch of good 'ol boys who pick up girls at family reunions and that Stock Car racing is the 4 wheeled version of Pro Wrestling, five minutes of playing NASCAR Racing 4 may change your mind.

Like its predecessors from Papyrus, NASCAR 4 delivers a racing sim that�s almost too good. What I mean by that is most users will never get so deeply into the amazing level of car set up options and strategy to fully appreciate how cool this sim really is. Even so, NASCAR 4 has plenty of fun for the instant gratification set, and eye candy junkies will be blown away.

The game was installed on a 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 with 256 Meg of RAM and a 64 Meg G-Force 3 video card.� While this is a fairly fast machine, it�s really the minimum level for serious gamers who want things to run smoothly.� While I'm sure most of the games that I will review would run fine on older machines, most complaints I have heard from users are a result of slow hardware. Go out and spend a few bucks to upgrade your stuff and then come back and finish this article. For the cost of a set of race tires you can get a fast processor and a new video card, throw in some more RAM and your life will be much happier. Before you know it you will be driving at the computer so much your kids will become independent and the dog will bark at you when you take potty breaks.

After you get the game installed, which was uneventful on my machine, you can choose to do a test session, a single race or go for the championship.

Before you become the next Patty Moise, or Jeff Gordon make sure you stop by the options menu and get the game set up for your controller. You DO have a real steering wheel and pedals right? I use a Logitech Wingman Force Feedback wheel because I like the cable drive feedback system, but almost any wheel/pedal set up is better than a the keyboard or joystick.� You also can choose driver aids like automatic, traction control, ABS braking and stability control. Turn them all off you big wussy and drive like a man ..er racerchick!!! The set up screens are well laid out and after a few minutes getting the controls where I like them I was almost ready to race.� I still had to enter my name and pick a team to drive for as well as a car I liked. I chose the #97 Ford and headed to Daytona for some night testing.

Once the track information loads, you choose Arcade or Simulation mode and click on drive.� The graphics in this sim are truly first rate. The view outside of the car for the Daytona night track is stunning. For the first few laps I found myself screaming down the back straight at 185MPH while looking at the stars and clouds "Hey, that�s the North star up there, what�s that crunching sound....?" After I got over the great eye candy, I got down to the business of driving the car and learning the track. Using the default set up, the car behaved very realistically, and although I have never driven a Winston Cup car, I have raced at Daytona and think that the vehicle dynamics of this game are very good.� I tried some set up changes and learned that I should stick to driving because I'd make a bad NASCAR crew chief. Nothing I did to the default set up made the car any better at Daytona. The best thing I did was take some front toe out of the car and that got me 3 mph on the straights, but it strangely heated up my right front tire too much.� I did like the feature where you can monitor your tire temps while driving using the F4 key. I wish real cars had that!� In fact the "F" key are how you monitor your cars performance and wear, communicate with your crew, and decide what to do on your pit stops. I couldn�t find the one that tell how bad you have to go to the bathroom after 500 miles, but I guess that�s why they pour water over themselves when they get out of the car after a win.

Now that I was comfortable in a Cup car at Daytona, something Scott Pruett hasn�t done yet, I decided to try a race.� In NASCAR 4 you can set the "competitiveness level" of your opponents down to where you can out drive them like they had a quart of "shine" in their water jugs. I was a good boy and let them have 95%.� I promptly put the #97 Ford squarely on the pole and started the race.� I set up a short 10% distance race, and won it very easily.��� I then set up 100% strength opponents, and started from the back to try some passing. I found out why these guys hate restrictor plates so much. I have never seen so much traffic!� The game ran very smoothly even with LOTS of cars on the screen, but I couldn�t pass anybody without "taking them out" first.� All the while the game has Ned Jarrett's voice working as my spotter, giving me traffic info and coaching me to do better. "You da Man!" was my favorite, but "it looks like we're all tore up in the back" was a close second.

Frustrated with Daytona, I thought I'd go to a road course and show these boys how a real race is run. Right off the trailer at Sears Point, I was slow..I mean REALLY slow. If a Cup car is really this bad on a road course then these guys are Wheel Gods!� I tried every set up option in the book, but I couldn�t get the car to work.� I did find one of the game weaknesses however. Once you get outside of a "typical" car set up, the game can't depict the car's behavior on track very well.� For example, while trying to get the car to feel more responsive, I set the front and real sway bars to full stiff. The way the car drove in the game was actually pretty funny. It had no grip, which was probably right, but it would go up onto 2 wheels without trying. I thought I had entered Joey Chitwood mode! Funny, but not too realistic.� Since I couldn�t get the car working in Simulation mode, I decided to try Arcade mode for a race.

In Arcade Mode, Sears Point suddenly became the scene of the most grizzly, violent NASCAR race in history. Some Rookie driver in the #97 Ford started at the back and systematically began a relentless rein of terror through out the field.� For some reason in arcade mode on a road course the car felt more realistic than in sim mode and I could toss it around like a real car. I also had more power than my opponents did and some sort of no damage mode.� I simply opened up a can of whoop-ass and lapped the field in 10 laps. I also found that by using the surrounding hills, you can carry more speed in the esses at Sears, at one point I think I actually jumped OVER Mark Martin, of course he IS a pretty short guy.� I finally wound up against the wall with a blown engine,� Say with hillbilly accent "first she dropped a valve, then she went on ahead an blowed up!" My crew chief didn't sound too happy when he told me I blew the engine.

After all the fun, I tried some other tracks, and set ups to try to get a better overall feel for this great simulation.� I can feel very comfortable recommending NASCAR racing 4 to anyone with an interest in any type of racing.� It is a very realistic simulation and has a fun side in its arcade mode for less serious drivers.� Like most modern sims, it has a multiplayer mode for network or internet play,� so you can share your empty, ruined life with other cyber racers.� One caveat, make the investment in a good controller and modern computer hardware, it will make your Cyber-driving much more enjoyable!