Score
Gameplay:	7
Graphics:	8
Sound:	8
FunFactor:	7
PlasmaFactor:	7
Overall:	7.4

NASCAR 09 Review
June 18, 2008 by Jereme Puik

Electronic Arts has just released a their newest title in the NASCAR series, NASCAR 09. This stock-racing sim will put you behind the wheel of a race car as you try to beat your opponents. However, how does NASCAR 09 stack up to the other NASCAR games out there?

Hi, I’m Jeff Gordon

Just as in the demo released over Xbox Live, players will be greeted with the ever cheerful cover boy, Jeff Gordon. Gordon is about as photo-realistic as you’re going to get and interacts with you through your menu browsing. To get you up to speed about with everything you need to know about the races you are going to encounter and other fun little tidbits added to the game. Jeff Gordon is your mentor and gives you tips on making certain decision throughout the entire process before you head out for your first race. When you begin the game you are asked to create your profile and much of the standard riff raff.

After getting yourself organized, you can head out onto the track. Frame rate here is pretty smooth and you don’t find anything jittery about your car or your opponents around you. It’s quite surprising how EA Sports organized this title and strived to make it the most realistic stock-car race sim. Unfortunately that’s where the striving ends, drivers and actually other cars seem a bit too stiff. Backing out into third-person view and the one thing you’ll notice you about your driver are his hands moving from side to side as you keep the car on track throughout the laps. There really isn’t much variety in animation. Your opponents don’t give you much of a challenge during races and races will just end up boring.

Car controls are a bit flaky at times and are tight when you’re heavy into the race and making turns. You could find yourself running into a bit of caution flags if you don’t watch you’re driving. There are surprisingly many, many options if you want to have a good search as you can turn off black flags, caution flags…etc. Turning off these flags reduces your stress in these races by a good margin. Crashes feel uninspired and if you have flags turned on you could easily find the race over quickly. Camera angles are fairly decent and give you a good look at the different views of your car during races. You have the option of viewing from the hood of your car, inside your car as the driver, or in third-person view above the car. Another interesting little addition is an car interface which keeps track of how your car is doing and will show you when its recommended to make a pit stop.

One nice little addition to the gameplay is the voice of the spotter in your head at all times during the race. You will get help when cars are catching up to you or when you’re driving erratically. The spotter will warn you at times if cars are coming too close and will recommend when you want to pit during a flag. Sometimes you might find this voice-over a bit too annoying if you’re getting into the race and want no distraction.

To keep the game fresh and add some replay ability you can complete track challenges. These give you the chance to raise your skill in driving and help you win those races you keep losing. Each challenge offers its own unique challenge. Each challenge tests you of your skill on the track, and provides challenges of things that would occur seem like a real chance they would occur on the track. To add on to the fun you gain reputation points when you pass each challenge and you are welcome to retry as many times as you can to earn those points. These reputation points help you increase the performance of your car and earn respect from drivers around the league. You can earn these from winning races or completing these challenges.

If multiplayer is your thing, don’t expect to see some split-screen action on the same console. Unfortunately, the entire multiplayer takes place online and boasts 2-16 player matches. Online lets you customize just as much as you would offline. Matches seem fairly decent on the EA servers, although depending on your connection you could be kicked out a lot. Again, no real innovation or originality here as it’s all the same. There is some lag I noticed when playing a few matches that you might notice with other players as well. There is one addition to the online facet that gamers might not find very useful, but is worth mentioning. If you go onto the marketplace and you are into the whole customization aspect of the title, you can download car templates to work with. This will allow you to show your cars off to your friends with your creations.

Graphics

Various cars and in-game shops are modeled well and don’t seem to suffer from much texture loading. When you head out to the track, you will notice a pretty seamless transition when you get racing. Crowds are nicely done although are probably basic models since you don’t see them up close but that’s not the focus of the game, so that shouldn’t matter. Pit-crew teams are also a nice touch and react exactly as they should and show you the pitting experience.

Sound

As your racing down the track, you will come to appreciate the sounds of the cars passing by you and even your engine as you revved it up to being your race. Crowd noise is obviously a given and something you come to expect from this kind of racing sim and works. Jeff Gordon stars as himself here and with an interestingly written script he will guide you through the steps to become the next champion. When you’re in the garage you can hear all the knicks and tricks of the workshop. A pre-recorded soundtrack of some good old country music will fill your ears as you browse through the in-game menus.

Plasma Factor

NASCAR 09 tries its hardest to be a competent stock-car racing sim. If you’re a fan of the sport you’ll just be glad it’s a new entry in EA Sport’s ever growing list of yearly releases. However, EA Sports certainly gave all the effort they could in this entry. With neat little custom shops and race challenges, you won’t find yourself getting too bored with the title after you’ve completed that “Sprint for the Cup” championship. Online racing could give you that thrill if you’re looking to banter back and forth with your mates. So, if NASCAR is your thing, then you certainly won’t be disappointed if you pick this up with all the little details you will pick up on immediately after booting the game up.

Conclusion

Despite its underwhelming lack of excitement during the races, NASCAR 09 proves that you can have a nicely detailed stock-car experience. With Jeff Gordon at the helm, you shouldn’t get too confused if you’re new to the sport. NASCAR fans will enjoy the nice touches added to the detail of every race and track available to you. Online will give you some fun as you’ll enjoy racing with your friends and you should have some fun with the customization aspect. Overall though, NASCAR 09 is a fairly decent entry into the string of NASCAR games of the past. Giving you the most realistic entry to date, it might just get some gamers interested in the real sport behind it.