NASCAR 08 Review (360)

[Steve_OS]

<img src="http://www.operationsports.com/images/racing/nascar08360/nascar08360mp.jpg" vspace="15" hspace="15" ALIGN="left">We have just posted our NASCAR 08 review. Find out what Clay Shaver and Terry Crouch had to say about it.

"There’s a new phenomenon that has cropped up in the past few years in the world of gaming that I like to call the “Next Gen Placeholder.” These NGP’s, as I like to call them, are not a creature that is unique to one system, genre or developer, but seems to have really spread like wildfire since the jump from the days of PS2 and Xbox to the PS3 and 360. While not unique to sports gaming, it really seems to be festering there these days. Now before you head over the Wikipedia to figure out what my newly created terms mean, I’ll define it for those who haven’t solved the riddle on their own. The NGP, in a nutshell, is the first iteration of a long time series when it makes the jump to Next Gen. While not true in all cases, these versions are usually stripped down; bare bones version of what we were just playing 12 months earlier, with graphics often times the only real improvement. They usually come with great pomp and circumstance and promise of “just wait till next year” written all over them. And while EA Sports is not the only developer to use the NGP, they have certainly mastered it."

[dave360]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

Good review fellas.

[RunN1st]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

Unfortunately, I couldn't agree with you guys more.

Don't get me wrong, I'll continue playing online but not without the frustrations mentioned. The driving model has kept me coming back to it.

[kennytomson]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

First off I think you guys should stop calling these reviews, to me they’re better than that. These are not just telling us first impressions, or an experience with a few hours of gameplay to gage initial reaction to the graphics and modes of play. I think you should refer to these as ‘multi month full breakdown/in-depth analysis’. You’ve spent enough time with this game to praise it for what it does right, car physics and control, and what completely ruins it. The lack of play during the extensive and frequent flag cut scenes is inexcusable for a 2007 360 game.

This game could really use sliders; flag frequency slider, driver aggressiveness slider, and a car damage slider. The extreme car damage that occurs even at low speeds with this game turns slight fender benders into full on mangled back ends that slow the car down (which every second counts in a NASCAR game). Granted a lot of the problems could be avoided with improved driver A.I., but you still shouldn’t see such extreme front and back end frame damage when two cars match up bumpers (especially with the COT which were designed for such things).

[xrams]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

I bought this game in 2004... I was fun for a while... so now I D/L the demo on PS3... and I can't really say that it's all that graphically diff. than the game I played 3yrs ago....??!?!? If any company needed comp, it's EA sports....

[Vince]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

I bought this game in 2004... I was fun for a while... so now I D/L the demo on PS3... and I can't really say that it's all that graphically diff. than the game I played 3yrs ago....??!?!? If any company needed comp, it's EA sports....

I bought Thunder 2004. Very good game. Much better than 08.

[mercalnd]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

I bought Thunder 2004. Very good game. Much better than 08.

If you can get NASCAR 2005, it's even better and should be cheap. It has a career mode where you start in modifieds and make your way to Trucks, Busch and then Cup. You can be in more than one series at a time and even get offers during the season. When there's two events on the same day, you have to pick which one to do, which is a nice touch even though they overdid it a bit by preventing from doing Cup qualifying and a Busch race on the same day, even if they are on the same track. It's a very addictive game and by far the best EA has put out as far as NASCAR goes.

[Rodster]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

If you can get NASCAR 2005, it's even better and should be cheap. It has a career mode where you start in modifieds and make your way to Trucks, Busch and then Cup. You can be in more than one series at a time and even get offers during the season. When there's two events on the same day, you have to pick which one to do, which is a nice touch even though they overdid it a bit by preventing from doing Cup qualifying and a Busch race on the same day, even if they are on the same track. It's a very addictive game and by far the best EA has put out as far as NASCAR goes.

Awesome game. Nascar 06 and 07 copied this formula. It was changed again for Nascar 08.

[Hokie20]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

Good review. I think I may hold out on this year's game and stick with NR2003 with the COT mod.

[thelwig14]

Re: NASCAR 08 Review (360)

Great review. Hopefully OS will continue to call these games out for what they are....