NASCAR Heat 5 Gameplay Video - Menus, Modes, Custom Options, Camera Views & Race at Talladega

[Steve_OS]

Soundhead Entertainment has posted a new NASCAR Heat 5 gameplay video, as he goes through the menu...

Written By: Steve Noah

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[brandon27]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Gameplay Video - Menus, Modes, Custom Options, Camera Views & Race

Wow, that really just solidified my justification for not buying this year. Some of the new features they've promoted this year are shown in the video which is nice...

Custom seasons, OK, cool. Nice touch, but I know I'll never use it. Ive really only ever played career mode and done envision myself wanting to play a fake season.

New paint schemes and paint booth options... but they look largely the same, and are still completely boring, but hey... now you can color the spoiler & rims any color you want, and have a common sense way to pick your number and font.. Great, but hardly enough to consider a "feature". Looks like the rear quarter panel sponsors are still going to be out of whack compared to the rest of the car based on the logo. Some look too small, some look way out of place; all depends on the logo really. Not much to see here in the way of improvement really.

Test mode... while we don't get to see it in this video we can see what it is. A mode with a new paint scheme for every car that is a "test scheme" with no sponsors so you can run a glorified practice mode.

The new camera angles... You now have a roof cam and it's EXACTLY the same view as the hood cam. Literally no change to the actual view, all they did was change the part of the car you see in the view, the actual field of view never changes. Then there's the NEW chase cam, which is the same view we've always had, but with the ability now to circle 360 degrees around your car now. Not bad for the 5th edition of the game, right?

Then there's the racing, which by and large looks the exact same. The visuals, the driving, the AI. Now, the AI isn't necessarily a bad thing. I hope they've made it a bit more functional for pad players, but visually it doesn't appear there's any changes in Talladega's visuals from NH4.

Oh, and that crash in the replay... brutal. Still a lack of stats other than the finishing order and fastest lap time at the end of the race. They said they implemented something there, but I guess that's in career mode only.

All in all, it looks to me like it's basically the same game except for some new race names, logos, a roster update & a custom season mode. Hardly worth the price tag IMO. Tells me they've maxed out their ability within Unity, or just put bare minimum into NH5. Either way, if these guys don't get it together I think we're going to be without a console Nascar game soon. It may always exist, but as we transition to the next gen consoles who's going to want to play a game for a top sports division in this state, on this game engine? It's just not good enough for a 2020 release IMO. Sad really, because they've built a nice foundation, but it's just stale because of the engine they're working with. I think the only thing that might save this one for me is seeing something nice and new added to career mode (but it doesn't seem like that's the case) or a really big sale early on.

[StoneCalf]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Gameplay Video - Menus, Modes, Custom Options, Camera Views & Race

The addition that interests me the most is the custom seasons. I used that feature a lot playing EA's Nascar '09. The appeal for me is that if there's some tracks that I either don't enjoy or suck at, I can exclude them. I wonder if the custom season can be incorporated into a career, or if they're just for a stand-alone season.

[jackrifter]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Gameplay Video - Menus, Modes, Custom Options, Camera Views & Race

may be a mistake!