NASCAR 09

Has the "Shake" but still lacks the "Bake"

Posted 4 years ago By - Jay Acevedo

EA hit a wall last year with its first NASCAR game on “next-gen” consoles. The game didn’t meet the expectations and many racing fans were disappointed. This year, EA Tiburon hits the road again with a new and improved version of America’s sport. But is it better? Is it worth it? Let’s find out…


This year’s version features Jeff Gordon, but not only on the cover but in-game as well. From the creation of your driver profile (still very limited…I’ll get there later on the review) to nearly every mode available in the game, Gordon will act as your mentor, showing you all you need to know to become the greatest NASCAR racer around. First, you’ll have to do two races: one Normal and the other Pro. So, depending on your wit and skill, Gordon will make you choose which difficulty you’re more comfortable with. Now, you’re ready to start your career.

If NASCAR 08’s career mode was incoherent to some, you’ll happy to know that the developers at EA Tiburon have made it easier and less linear this time around. This year’s version offers you the choice to either start your career in whatever the series you want and pile up the winnings or start from the beginning in the Craftsman series and finish with the Sprint Cup. The choice is yours. Frankly, this new way of managing my career really appealed to me and it will sure do the same to the others racers fans. And that’s not the only change done to the career mode. Instead of cash, NASCAR 09 was build up around “Reputation Points”. So for everything you do in the game, reputation and performance points will be given to you. Performance points will let you increase the handling quality of your car while Reputation points will be used as currency to sign sponsors and of course customize the visual of your car. So the better you race, the faster you’ll rack up points and climb the career ladder. These new elements give far more the impression that you’re really working for your career and not your banker. It feels more rewarding when you think about it. But the game also features other modes as interesting as the career mode.

First of all, let’s talk about the Driver Challenges. NASCAR 08 career mode (again comparing here) featured similar mini challenge games but were not only a pain in the neck but were very boring. This year, EA decided to put them away from the career mode and offer it as a whole separate standalone mode. Now, these challenges are still indirectly attached to your career because you’ll still be able to rack up “Rep” points as you do them. But you won’t feel obligated to do them. If you want to improve your skills and get some additional reputation points, there they are. Sprint Driver Challenges return, letting you complete various on-track objectives to earn a better reputation and driver development points as well as the Test and Tune mode, where you can work on setups for each track and upload them to your online locker to be shared with other drivers. And the last feature is rather interesting.


NASCAR 09 offers you the power to fully customize your custom car with a new feature called Paint Booth. For the first time, a car customization template will be given to you online via the EASports.com portal so you can import it into an image editing program on your PC and fully personalize your car. Once your dream car is complete, you export it back into the game and you’ll be racing with your new baby on Talladega in no time! Of course, you’ll need to accept the EA Online Terms of Condition, like any other EA game, and have a valid EA Account so you can link it to your gamertag. Say no to one of these and you can kiss this new feature goodbye. Yes, online racing is back featuring races up to 14 cars. Nothing too shabby…

Although the game has received many interesting changes, hardcore NASCAR fans will likely be a bit disappointed with the lack of various licensed car makers from the top three series since EA had some troubles with licensing. However, car customization and paints jobs will sure help you ease the pain of not having your Chevy with you during your career but let’s hope this matter will be fixed soon enough before NASCAR ’10 shows up… While the controls have been slightly adjusted in favour of a more easy and manageable driving, the game still rather the same. The A.I still doesn’t do anything interesting unless you play the game on “Pro” difficulty…but still.

Remember early on I was talking about how limited the profile creator was? I know NASCAR screams U.S.A…but as all sports fan knows, NASCAR has gone more international in the last couple of years with drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Patrick Carpentier and of course the imminent arrival of Jacques Villeneuve. Could someone at EA tell me why I can’t make my driver come from another country? What about women? I mean…Indy has Danica Patrick and sooner or later, a woman will come to NASCAR as well… Come on EA.


NASCAR 09 isn’t the greatest looking racing game out there on the PS3 and has minor problems the XB360 version doesn’t have. While the cars and tracks are well-represented, there’s a lot of texture pop-ins and framerate drops. I’m trying hard to understand why this PS3 version has issues. But here’s my big issue. If this is NASCAR, why I don’t see spectacular crashes and totally destroyed cars? I’ll be honest, I’ve been playing GRID while reviewing NASCAR 09 and I was kind of left with many “mehhs”… Don’t get me wrong, this game has good models but it kind of needs more of that “NASCAR feeling”. More action and more thrill, please!

In the sound department, I was surprised by the pit audio. It reflected exactly what NASCAR was all about. The soundtrack could’ve use more kick but it was okay. Is it me, or since the developers know people use custom soundtracks, they’ve stopped bothering?

Conclusion

Well, let me put it this way, NASCAR 09 is far better game than last year’s…but it still a long, long way from what we’ve seen in NASCAR 06, which I still think was and still the best NASCAR game ever. Overall, NASCAR 09 is a great improvement since last year and should satisfy any NASCAR fan…until “The One” gets released...next year I hope.

Verdict: It’s hard to convince a NASCAR fan not to buy. For the others, an automatic Rent.

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