Review Fix chats with Ed Martin, Eutechnyx Executive Vice President, North America about NASCAR ’14, which is currently set for a Feb. 18, 2014 release for Xbox 360, PlayStation and PC (via Steam) about the game’s development cycle online features and what makes it one of the most unique racing games on the market today.
Review Fix: What makes NASCAR 14 special?
Ed Martin: One of the challenges with sports games in general is that you can only do so much to replicate the sport; no NASCAR fan is going to be happy if we start adding in things “that aren’t NASCAR.†But there are 2 big areas that we’ve played with in NASCAR ’14. The first area is online. We’ve added the #1 requested feature – online leagues. And we also have added dynamic skill matching to online races. So, you will end up racing against people of similar skill and experience. That makes it better and broader for everyone. The second area is NASCAR Highlights. It’s the next evolution of the telemetry features. We take the best, most exciting or most controversial moments of the races and drop the player into the exact moment with every detail replicated. So all of us “arm chair quarterbacks†that love to talk about “what if?†will now have the ability to really experience the moment and see what we can do to change it (or not).
Review Fix: What’s your favorite new feature in the game?
Martin: We’ve done a lot of work on the AI for NASCAR ’14. I’ve traditionally not been a huge road course fan for NASCAR. But wow, are they fun now!
Review Fix: What feature do you think could be overlooked, but is essential to the game?
Martin: We’re shipping with a bunch of NASCAR Highlights from the 2013 season in the box. But everyone really should try at least one DLC pack with the 2014 Highlights. I know we’ve packed tons of hours of fun into the box. But there’s nothing quite as cool as being dropped into a recreation of an exact moment and specific event at a race shortly after it has happened in the real world… and getting a chance to see if you can do something different with it.
Review Fix: Graphically, how do you think the game stacks up to the competition?
Martin: Well, we’re dealing with an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that are 5+ years old. Not too many people are still using the same PC hardware that they had five years ago. So it gets harder and harder to eek more tricks out of the consoles. On top of that, NASCAR requires the nightmare scenario that no other racing game has to face – 43 cars all in a pack. There’s nothing to hide. But all that said, I think NASCAR ’14 looks fantastic. Our guys keep finding more tricks.
Review Fix: How important are the online features in this year’s game?
Martin: Hugely important. And I would say that since we started doing NASCAR games, it has been our top focus because online gaming just continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It’s an area that we never stop developing and growing building upon all of the tech from previous games. Then, we heap on big new features like online leagues and dynamic skill matchmaking. It’s better than ever.
Review Fix: There are a lot of racing games out there, how is NASCAR 14 really different?
Martin: There are other racing games, but there is nothing like NASCAR. NASCAR as a sport is all about door-to-door, fender-to-fender racing. You don’t see a rabid pack of 43 cars in any other game out there. And that to me is what makes the game great. Sure, the sport gets lot of knocks from non-fans who talk about “drive fast, turn left.†Well, go ahead and try that with 42 other cars on the track and on your back and tell me it’s not exciting.
Review Fix: The feeling of being inside a car, going as fast as these guys do must be incredible, it’s essentially the big attraction to the sport for many. How does that come across in the game?
Martin: There’s a great sense of speed in the game. We do it by hitting as many of your senses as we can – audio, force-feedback and graphics. We do “cheat†in certain areas to enhance the sense of speed. For example, if you ever counted the actual fence posts at any given track in the real world, you’ll find that our in-game tracks have more… because in your peripheral vision, the more vertical objects you pass, the faster it seems. But the reality is that even in a real car, the sense of speed isn’t what you imagine when you’re sitting at home. If you’re going down the highway, 80 or 90 doesn’t feel much faster than 50 or 60… ESPECIALLY when the other cars around you are going the same speed. So yes, you are going 200 MPH down the back stretch at Atlanta… but so are Jimmie Johnson and 41 other cars. So it’s the environment around you that gives you that sense of speed. Oh and if you miss a brake point or if there’s a wreck, you’ll sure notice it in the closing speed to the cars on front of you.
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