Ashwin Hary
Edward 1
EA Sports: Nascar 09
June 18th 2008 15:10
Released in June 2008 in the U.S. Nascar 09 is probably the newest driving game created for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Now, although I'm not much of a racing fan, I love me some driving games. 
It's so different than sitting in your living room and watching however many cars race in a circle trying to win. All the drivers and cars blend together, and it can be hard to tell who's who and what's what, but when you're in the driver's seat, and you're the one in control, you get a whole new respect for racing. Granted, of course you're not in danger in your house racing in comparison to on the track, but you get the idea.
It's actually pretty hard to simulate the drama and excitement of real NASCAR into a video game, and Electronic Arts has struggled to do it, but personally, I think they've done a great job making fun and entertaining sports games. Yes, the cars tend to look the same and the characters are sort of blended together, but people love NASCAR as it's truly an American sport.
EA took the basics from NASCAR 08 and added a few new features that actually don't add too much to the game. It may sound like I'm downplaying a racing game, a style of gaming that I actually love, but one can must give you all that is encompassed in the game.
The one big difference between NASCAR 08 and NASCAR 09 is that Jeff Gordon helps you through the game, either encouraging you to sign with a new sponsor or consoling you when your team boots you for underperforming.
Once Gordon has you started, you're off to racing in the Nationwide,, Craftsman Truck or Sprint Cup series. You can play in the career mode where you start out in the beginning of the race season and build your reputation as you go along the way. Once you gain a good reputation, you'll open up sponsorship options and deals so that you can begin earning money. Although, there's no use for the money, the sponsorship deals really don't have a function in the game, but they add to the gameplay.
What you want to earn are the performance points, not necessarily the cash from your sponsor. Rack up the points by racing in the Sprint Driver Challenges, so that you can test your skills at pit entry, drafting, speed maintenance, hitting your racing line, and avoiding wrecks. There are 77 tests that you want t compete in.
The performance points can be separated into the speedway, superspeedway, short track, and road course, and within each of these categories there are areas for detailed upgrades. Although, the system is simple and bare-bones, it won't affect your individual vehicle, but your overall garage.
There are two basic difficulity levels- normal and pro- that allows you to tailor your racing experience. Pro mode lets you tweak your car controls, and normal mode lets locks the controls to a pre-set control. You get a more arcade simulation in normal mode than in pro mode.
My favorite aspect of NASCAR 09 is the paint shop that lets you custom your car in the in-game paint shop. You can make a new school design or an old school design, it's up to you how you want to custom your car. The actual paint shop is a very detailed and tedious aspect that a lot of gamers won't even use this feature. You have to download a template and import it into the professional image editing system in order to actually create your design. You may want to just download a third-party design from the EA website and downloading that to your console, but only the people you play online will be able to see it. To everyone else your car will just be a basic gray.
Other than image, NASCAR 09 includes a number of racing preferences. For example you can turn on either black flags which make racing in normal mode a tad difficult, yellow flags that turn caution on, or no caution flags at all.
If you barely tap the bumper of the care in front of you, you'll get black flagged, meaning you'll have to roll slowly through the pit while the race continues without you. This is something that you can't skip.
NASCAR 09 doesn't have all the details that make for a great racing game. I mean the crashes are basic and nothing spectacular. For most racing games the crashes and collisions are the excitement point, so this sort of makes the game drag a bit, but hey if that's not your thing and you really just want to race, then by all means go for it.
When you're in third person view, the driver's hands don't move on the steering wheel. There are also a few perspective problems when in third person view, as well.
If single player mode is a little dull, try playing with a friend, as multiplayer mode (online only) eases the dullness. You can choose tracks, damage, flag rules, and more. Basically, you get to customize the race and all of it's specifications.
For the most part, NASCAR 09 is not the game for hardcore race gamers, but it can serve as entertaining on some level. There's just nothing special about this particular game that struck my fancy. Sorry to those who were interested in the game. I will admit, though, it is worth a first try, but I'd suggest renting the game before you buy it, just so that you're not out $50.
It's so different than sitting in your living room and watching however many cars race in a circle trying to win. All the drivers and cars blend together, and it can be hard to tell who's who and what's what, but when you're in the driver's seat, and you're the one in control, you get a whole new respect for racing. Granted, of course you're not in danger in your house racing in comparison to on the track, but you get the idea. 
It's actually pretty hard to simulate the drama and excitement of real NASCAR into a video game, and Electronic Arts has struggled to do it, but personally, I think they've done a great job making fun and entertaining sports games. Yes, the cars tend to look the same and the characters are sort of blended together, but people love NASCAR as it's truly an American sport.
EA took the basics from NASCAR 08 and added a few new features that actually don't add too much to the game. It may sound like I'm downplaying a racing game, a style of gaming that I actually love, but one can must give you all that is encompassed in the game.
The one big difference between NASCAR 08 and NASCAR 09 is that Jeff Gordon helps you through the game, either encouraging you to sign with a new sponsor or consoling you when your team boots you for underperforming.
Once Gordon has you started, you're off to racing in the Nationwide,, Craftsman Truck or Sprint Cup series. You can play in the career mode where you start out in the beginning of the race season and build your reputation as you go along the way. Once you gain a good reputation, you'll open up sponsorship options and deals so that you can begin earning money. Although, there's no use for the money, the sponsorship deals really don't have a function in the game, but they add to the gameplay.
What you want to earn are the performance points, not necessarily the cash from your sponsor. Rack up the points by racing in the Sprint Driver Challenges, so that you can test your skills at pit entry, drafting, speed maintenance, hitting your racing line, and avoiding wrecks. There are 77 tests that you want t compete in.
The performance points can be separated into the speedway, superspeedway, short track, and road course, and within each of these categories there are areas for detailed upgrades. Although, the system is simple and bare-bones, it won't affect your individual vehicle, but your overall garage.
There are two basic difficulity levels- normal and pro- that allows you to tailor your racing experience. Pro mode lets you tweak your car controls, and normal mode lets locks the controls to a pre-set control. You get a more arcade simulation in normal mode than in pro mode.
My favorite aspect of NASCAR 09 is the paint shop that lets you custom your car in the in-game paint shop. You can make a new school design or an old school design, it's up to you how you want to custom your car. The actual paint shop is a very detailed and tedious aspect that a lot of gamers won't even use this feature. You have to download a template and import it into the professional image editing system in order to actually create your design. You may want to just download a third-party design from the EA website and downloading that to your console, but only the people you play online will be able to see it. To everyone else your car will just be a basic gray.
Other than image, NASCAR 09 includes a number of racing preferences. For example you can turn on either black flags which make racing in normal mode a tad difficult, yellow flags that turn caution on, or no caution flags at all.
If you barely tap the bumper of the care in front of you, you'll get black flagged, meaning you'll have to roll slowly through the pit while the race continues without you. This is something that you can't skip.
NASCAR 09 doesn't have all the details that make for a great racing game. I mean the crashes are basic and nothing spectacular. For most racing games the crashes and collisions are the excitement point, so this sort of makes the game drag a bit, but hey if that's not your thing and you really just want to race, then by all means go for it.
When you're in third person view, the driver's hands don't move on the steering wheel. There are also a few perspective problems when in third person view, as well.
If single player mode is a little dull, try playing with a friend, as multiplayer mode (online only) eases the dullness. You can choose tracks, damage, flag rules, and more. Basically, you get to customize the race and all of it's specifications.
For the most part, NASCAR 09 is not the game for hardcore race gamers, but it can serve as entertaining on some level. There's just nothing special about this particular game that struck my fancy. Sorry to those who were interested in the game. I will admit, though, it is worth a first try, but I'd suggest renting the game before you buy it, just so that you're not out $50.
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