I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

BIG CAROLINA...sorry I couldn't hook up with you last night to race, I was just on a rapid fade and was asleep ten minutes after turning off the 'box.

I messed around with a few quick races. I'm looking forward to starting a 'test' career this evening, and I'm curious about online so I'll watch Bob and Rick and BIG C for their next run and crash the party. :wink:

First off, I really like the presentation this year. Garage is really lively, and I love the great touch of having the garage areas at each track be track-accurate.

Also, I ran three races at three different tracks and the AI was mixing up paint schemes on the cars! Nice touch that many fans were asking for. Funny how a little thing like that can make such a difference.

Graphics are significantly improved. Nice, bright tracks, pavement is the right color lol. Fans look better. Track details are better. Cars look awesome and are well lit (but TOO bright inside the cars; it's like they have sunroofs in there when you see the driver inside the car on replays).

Speaking of replays, you can now select the 'trackside' camera instead of it switching off. Nice....that's a 'little thing' I was asking for at the official forums last year.

Also on the graphics, the shadowing isn't overdone to me this year, looks much better. No more dark side of the moon on cars in shadow....at least so far as I've noticed.

The sounds are good, I like Evernham's radio/spotting so far. Big improvement there. The engine sounds are good, but I still think NT2005 might have been better. But it's certainly not bad or anemic.

There's also some trackside sounds this year with the occasionally audible PA announcer while you're tearing around the track.

The AI is much more racey this year (I was playing on Hard last night with just two star assists and no braking help). I was really working at it! It's like a whole new game in a way, and after playing F1 (BIG C knows), well, we may have to just dedicate a stretch of days to this OR F1 because you have to work in BOTH titles now.

The N:IL cars now feel like their weight and size and power actually transfers to the game, much like F1 does in F1 2012. It's great! But SO different as they are such different beasts that playing one game will screw you for the other in the same day LOL.

I raced at Indy, 'Dega, and Miami (and ran some time laps at Kentucky and Pocono). I got my *** kicked at Indy and Miami, but 'Dega I won due to some weird pitting moves by the AI. After cautions many cars would pit on the following lap, and there was a late wreck which brought a green-white-checkered finish. Many cars pitted, then when we went green, several again went in to pit?? It was weird, and that's how I won; blowing by the pit parade in turn 4.

I hope the pitting logic gets sorted for those weird cases, but otherwise the AI runs good races. It feels MUCH more organic this year, and much less 'fixed line' than last time. Three wide at 'dega several times, AI wrecking itself, tangos, it was cool to see and harrowing to be in the middle of LOL. Don't you guys feel like "Please don't wreck! Please don't let me **** up!" when you're in the middle of the pack trying to move thru traffic at 'Dega and Daytona? LOL That's how it's supposed to feel!

Also, at Miami they were running really well, with people passing each other, more than one line (no congas). Again, felt more organic.

Again early impressions...but I'm very pleased so far. I think there are still some things to patch, but no deal breakers so far. From where I'm sitting, looks like the longer races you can run (race length), the better results you will see in realism. In-race save, please?

This game will have to last us awhile, it's my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) that we won't get a new one till 2014, so I think they'll duly support this title and deliver a whopper next time.

Despite some odd AI behaviour, this still feels like a pretty polished effort so far. Should make for some fun racing, and the fact that I want to play it instead of sitting at the office (almost took a 'Nascar fever' day) speaks well for it. Especially given that the season is nearly over, but we are just getting started.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

Jeeezus....sorry for the long post, guys!

[TCrouch]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

THIS IS GOING TO BE A NOVEL, so I apologize up front. I'm sure there are people on the fence with this thing, so I figured I'd lay out my experiences last night. And there were a lot of them.

I had mixed feelings after a solid night of racing last night. But I at least felt the need to race for most of the night, so that's progress. I ran all of my tests at 10% length with 4x tire wear/fuel use, and Hard AI.

Overall, I enjoy the racing, but the CPU does seem to brake too much on corner entry or mid-corner to get that "perfect line", then manages to accelerate off VERY hard, making for some strange racing from time to time.

I ran some tester races at Martinsville and Dover, as well as Michigan and Bristol. Martinsville was very clean, oddly enough. As long as I could get the car slowed down and hug the inside corner, I was impressed. The minute I moved up, it's like the AI expected me to check up on exit, because they'd just move right up the track into my fender as if I wasn't there on exit.

Dover was A LOT of fun. I wasn't very fast down low, as I only qualified 20th with the default set, and couldn't make up a bunch of ground on the low side. However, once I moved around and stuck it about 2 lanes up, I was literally flying around that track. From 20th to 15th to 10th, up to an 8th place finish, all on-track. That had me grinning from ear to ear, as it was an absolute blast to battle the AI at that track.

Michigan was a bit wonkier than I could imagine. It's normally such an easy track to drive, but for whatever reason, I couldn't be as competitive there. Either I check up too much for corner entry, or I just don't know how to drive the track in the newer cars. If I just lift slightly and let it roll into the corner, the AI are charging down low VERY hard. Then they some how get slowed down to the perfect speed and accelerate off even harder than I can a full lane or two higher. If I try that, I can't stick it low, and end up either drifting up, or having to shut it down too much and losing a ton of time on the low end. I was not successful at Michigan, qualifying 34th and finishing 32nd in an uneventful race.

Bristol was a hoot, but it was very bumper-oriented. Cars would get on the binders pretty heavy mid-corner it seemed, but I never outright wrecked anybody. It was just a lot of chrome horn behavior by both myself and the AI, but I was much faster here from the outset--qualified 7th, and charged to the lead fairly early. Got into lappers about 30 laps in as the pit stop cycles came through, and that was interesting. Some guys moved over easily, and others pinched me down and fought very hard. Got the win there despite some troubling Pit Stop AI issues (discussed later).

Then I decided to hop into a career on the same settings. Having a car that doesn't shift well or get up to speed very well makes for an interesting run at Daytona. I almost ALWAYS give up a good 4 to 6 spots on restarts, but gain it back in the pack. I won the Duels, and started pretty high in the order for the 500. I took the lead a few laps in and dominated the majority of the Daytona 500. Sometimes the cars would just get an incredible run up high (or I'd move up high and they'd go by down low), but I either led or was in the top 10 and charged back to the front shortly thereafter for the entire race. However, with the pit strategy settings, I could run 10 laps on a full tank and the entire race was only 20. But my pit crew wanted me to pit at lap 9, meaning I'd be coming back down pit road on lap 18. I declined, came in on 10, and got ready for the second half.

I took command again in the second half of the race, but as luck would have it, a caution flew on lap 18 as some AI cars couldn't figure out how to merge with full-speed traffic on the back stretch. Now I was screwed. I wouldn't have fuel for a G/W/C finish, so I had to pit for a splash. I came back out in 42nd as everybody else had pitted. But a second attempt at a G/W/C would happen when another dust up occurred, this time moving me up into the top 10 again as the majority of the field either got tangled up in it and had to pit for repairs, or decided to pit for fuel. ANOTHER caution as the idiots couldn't figure out how to finish the final two laps occurred, but this time it was because I was passing McMurray and he just chose to block--too late--and send me spinning across the infield. I would finish 38th in a race I firmly controlled for most of the day.

Then I went to Phoenix, a track I always hate. It's a b*tch to drive well, because you're always fighting the balance of the car. To go fast, you have to constantly balance deceleration versus losing the rear end of the car, but I was very pleasantly surprised here. The AI brakes a little early for my taste, but I was able to adjust and have a phenomenal race in my last of the evening. I ran a lot of practice laps, messing with the wedge and front weight bias and brake bias to get it to turn in like I wanted. I posted 11th quick practice time in my beater-mobile, and qualified 15th. In the race, I had so much fun, it was amazing. I tried very hard to get down low and ride that low line, but I just couldn't do it. I had made my car too loose to get down there and stick under power, but I found I had turned it into a rocketship if I stuck to the high groove and really let it roll hard into a corner.

I picked off about 10 cars getting into turn 1, pinching them down, and getting to the gas quicker off of 2 this way. I sucked in 3 and 4, and would constantly be challenged by the cars I passed back in T1 back on the front stretch, until I could beat them back to 1 and get cleared enough to stay low in 4. It was an amazing race, to be honest. I picked my way through the field and managed to take the lead on ANOTHER sequence of mid-race cautions as AI cars piled into each other, but couldn't hold off Kyle Busch with the aforementioned tactic. He was too fast, pushed me up the track further in 1, beat me into 3, and cleared me with ease. Then Hamlin got by me and I settled into fighting with Jeff Gordon for 3rd for the remaining laps. He got by me, I'd get by him, but it was a duel for the ages where I narrowly blocked him coming off of 4 on the final lap and got the 3rd place finish in the 2nd career race.

On the evening, I saw a somewhat troubling trend--with races that have pit stops under green, the AI will almost always cause a caution trying to either get onto pit lane, or merge back onto the track afterward. You're better off waiting until the last minute to stop, because chances are you're going to get a yellow. That's not good, but it wasn't so horrible that it will irritate me to no end, either. Most of the time the stoppers get wave-arounds if you pit anyway, so it doesn't do much other than cycle the field in the first place.

But on all those cautions, I never once saw cars get taken completely out of the race, and I had damage set to Full. At Daytona in particular, there should have only been about 10 cars running at the end. That's concerning.

But under green flag conditions, I had an absolute blast. There are still moments of bizarre braking and times when the AI cars don't seem to know how to follow each other at full speed, leading to the player picking up chunks of positions, but it's not nearly as big an issue as it was in NTG2011. I really had fun racing with this one, and can't wait to go to Vegas tonight after work and tinker some more.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

Great read, TCrouch. You were better able to hit on some of the green flag pitting behaviours at the superspeedway that I also was experiencing. I'm thinking they can fix that.

[TCrouch]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

I was just thankful you posted a long one, too! If nothing else, I think this thread is proving that there are a lot of people who still want a NASCAR game that is fun to race. We can put up with a lot if the AI is at least somewhat believable. I don't need it to be the second coming of NR2003, although even that took a while to fix the little nuances it had, but getting onto or off of pit road has been the bane of NASCAR games since the dawn of time.

It must be incredibly hard to code, because nobody has gotten it 100% accurate.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

I was just thankful you posted a long one, too! If nothing else, I think this thread is proving that there are a lot of people who still want a NASCAR game that is fun to race. We can put up with a lot if the AI is at least somewhat believable. I don't need it to be the second coming of NR2003, although even that took a while to fix the little nuances it had, but getting onto or off of pit road has been the bane of NASCAR games since the dawn of time.

It must be incredibly hard to code, because nobody has gotten it 100% accurate.

You are correct sir...that's a LOT of math going on with 43 cars.

But...I DO think Nascar Thunder 2005 did a helluva job to that end. I had no complaints on pitting for that one (or anything else, really).

Liking what we have here so far with Inside Line.

[cusefan74]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

Test career:

Hard AI
30%- 4X tire and gas

1st race- daytona with duels

Overall im loving racing, but will probably move up to champion, started 13th after duel result. Finished 6th after a caution filled race, not just me, haha. Like 9 total cautions in 30% race, 30 laps.

My serious issue, AI COMING INTO FULL SPEED TRAFFIC out of pit!!!

This is not good, and hoping maybe doesnt happen ln champions level?

They still pull in front of you on champion mode.

The biggest thing I am seeing at least on hard is that everyone is slowing down in the corners at Daytona. I always have to get off the gas or hit the brake when behind someone because the slow way down. Then if I time it right it's just like last year, you can pass a bunch of cars on the inside. Daytona is easy to win on hard.

[Hunkerdown]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

They still pull in front of you on champion mode.

The biggest thing I am seeing at least on hard is that everyone is slowing down in the corners at Daytona. I always have to get off the gas or hit the brake when behind someone because the slow way down. Then if I time it right it's just like last year, you can pass a bunch of cars on the inside. Daytona is easy to win on hard.

Yes, glad i am not only one seeing strange pit occurrences, hopefully will be fixed. Green flag racing is a blast though. We can change level of AI at each race, so maybe Champion at super-speedways and hard at other tracks. Ofcourse I based my impressions on default setups and base car we start with.

So my two biggest issues I hope are corrected with a patch(but not game killers by any means):

1 - AI pit strategy tweaked - including going in and out of pits
2 - DNF's actually occurring - especially with some of the amazing wrecks I have seen, no way some of the cars should not be in garage and multiple laps down.

[cusefan74]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

Yes, glad i am not only one seeing strange pit occurrences, hopefully will be fixed. Green flag racing is a blast though. We can change level of AI at each race, so maybe Champion at super-speedways and hard at other tracks. Ofcourse I based my impressions on default setups and base car we start with.

So my two biggest issues I hope are corrected with a patch(but not game killers by any means):

1 - AI pit strategy tweaked - including going in and out of pits
2 - DNF's actually occurring - especially with some of the amazing wrecks I have seen, no way some of the cars should not be in garage and multiple laps down.

I tried champion at Daytona and started 42nd, and by the end of the first lap I was behind the pack by 3 seconds.

You are right about the green flag racing, it is a blast, but they said they had fixed the AI pit strategy, which they didn't, and I have not seen 1 DNF yet, and I hit the wall straight on earlier at about 150 mph and it stop me right in my tracks, there was a big flash of light and I thought I'm done, but no there I was on the restart, not even a dent in my front end.

So although I think the game is a big improvement from last year, it still needs some work. I did race a couple of races on-line and that was better, when I could finally get in a room.

I'm gonna stop playing my career right now and just do a race at every track to get the feel for them.

[nc0ffey]

i hate i didn't get to run with you guys today, i discovered that it is a NAT issue, but am having trouble deciphering the computer jargon i've been reading to resolve the issue. i've done a number of searches with my modem and router info but cant make heads or tails of it. Hopefully I'll get it resolved in the coming days.

[RunN1st]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

Guys,
Thank you for all of the impressions! (The lengthier the better.) :wink:

[RunN1st]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

i hate i didn't get to run with you guys today, i discovered that it is a NAT issue, but am having trouble deciphering the computer jargon i've been reading to resolve the issue. i've done a number of searches with my modem and router info but cant make heads or tails of it. Hopefully I'll get it resolved in the coming days.

Bob can help you with NAT issues. He has plenty of experience! (Sarcasm)

[Hunkerdown]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

I tried champion at Daytona and started 42nd, and by the end of the first lap I was behind the pack by 3 seconds.

You are right about the green flag racing, it is a blast, but they said they had fixed the AI pit strategy, which they didn't, and I have not seen 1 DNF yet, and I hit the wall straight on earlier at about 150 mph and it stop me right in my tracks, there was a big flash of light and I thought I'm done, but no there I was on the restart, not even a dent in my front end.

So although I think the game is a big improvement from last year, it still needs some work. I did race a couple of races on-line and that was better, when I could finally get in a room.

I'm gonna stop playing my career right now and just do a race at every track to get the feel for them.

This^^^

They have the option for full damage, hopefully that just is not triggering for some reason? Hopefully easy fix. Pitting is disapppointing, hate to ask, but anyone tried 100% race to see if better. If they fixed these two issues it would be up there with F1; which by the way is even more outstanding, if possible? After patch #2.

[Segagendude]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

No it isn't some people are just haters. Played my first race at California speedway on normal 25 laps. Full damage flags and 2x tire ware and boy they aren't kidding about that! Pick #43 and got the pole. 10 laps in of a 25 lap race the tires really got away from me. The only caution of the race was from Denny Hamlin coming back on to the track after hitting the inside wall and running right in to Danica Patrick. Everybody pits under cation i come out 32 and after the restart Danica pits the first lap after the restart and a bunch of cars slow down and i pass them and make it back to 15th place. Tires go away again and i finish 20th.

I'm no h-a-t-e-r, but God that video was aweful....

[cusefan74]

Re: I have the NASCAR The Game: Inside the Line

This^^^

They have the option for full damage, hopefully that just is not triggering for some reason? Hopefully easy fix. Pitting is disapppointing, hate to ask, but anyone tried 100% race to see if better. If they fixed these two issues it would be up there with F1; which by the way is even more outstanding, if possible? After patch #2.

I have it on full damage. I have not tried 100% only up to 30%. One thing I did notice was that while at Daytona the AI would pull right out in front of you on green flag pit stops, but I did a race at Martinsville and during the stops none of the AI drivers came out right in front of me. Maybe they only do it at some tracks.