NASCAR Revolution

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Review: NASCAR Revolution

NASCAR Revolution is a direct challenge to the supremacy of Sierra's venerable stock-car sim. It features a glossy, menu-driven front end that all but screams "Hey, this is a rad game--and it's not so hard to play, either!" The arcade mode is designed to set you up in minutes with a humming engine and a start flag. The obvious goal is to provide quick, easy sense-searing action for those without the patience (or knowledge) to piece together a NASCAR Racing contest.

But while it's a technically perfect example of a flashy game, with graphics and sound that enthrall from the start, Revolution may well be too technologically advanced for its own good.

If EA's goal is to capture a portion of NASCAR Racing's gaming audience with this more accessible and beginner-friendly game, it's shot itself in the foot right on the bottom flap of the box. A P200? Yeah, right. You'll need a high-end Pentium II, 64 MB RAM, a 16x CD-ROM drive, and at least one 3D-accelerator card (and we're talking Voodoo IIs if you want to see all the fireworks) to play this game. You'll also need to set aside more than 400 MB of disk space for the game and its various saves and swap files.

And even if you've got the machine, you still won't have all the game. Frame rates suffer with each of the many graphical perks, like shifting cloudy skies, reflections off cars, and the gradual buildup of dirt on the vehicles sides.

Still, there's no denying that NASCAR Revolution is a treat for the eyes and ears. It practically beams out of the screen. The polygon counts are stupefying, with 1,700 used to render each of the opposing cars--and in a field with up to 43 vehicles, plus a track and a stadium full of fans, we're talking serious eye candy. You can see inside cars as you pass them. You can see incidental wear on car surfaces.

The game's audio dimension is just as stunning. The engines sound like real stock-car engines, behaving as they would under the rigors of an actual race. Unfortunately, the human element isn't so entertaining. The announcers are worthless, and your personal spotter rarely seems to be watching the same race. (He'll often advise you of passing threats which have already occurred.)

While NASCAR Revolution is technically brilliant, its gameplay will leave hardcore racing fans somewhat dismayed. The physics model isn't nearly as involving as NASCAR Racing's. The latter is designed for wheel users, and lets genuine feel and handling dictate the turns. Revolution, on the other hand, supports gamepads, which make turns a simple matter of gauging the proper speed in practice laps and then applying the formula in races.

Similarly, when you come in for a pit stop in Revolution, the computer takes control of your speed to give you time to attend to setup adjustments. Ugh! One of the great challenges of Sierra's series is that you have to navigate the pit stops yourself, while also calling your setups. NASCAR Revolution treats you to marvelous motion-captured pit-crew work, but denies you the tension.

Car contact, bumping, unrecoverable spinouts, and the like abound in Revolution--an obvious attempt to appeal to beer-and-pretzels NASCAR fans. Those folks will find a lot to be wowed by in NASCAR Revolution, and I can wholeheartedly recommend the game to anyone with a monster PC and the desire for beginner-friendly stock-car action.

But NASCAR 2 buffs should consider this review a warning flag.-- Daniel Morris / GamePro