NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

[TCrouch]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

I told myself I wasn't going to buy this one due to all of the pre-release interviews giving me big red flags on this being a copy/paste kind of year.

I still bought it, and played it for about 90 minutes before I really sat down to try to write down differences between NH4 and NH5, and what would make me keep playing this one.

I literally couldn't think of a difference other than roster/car scheme updates and testing mode. Honestly, being able to test the car solo on track is the big new add?!? The UI is still atrocious, controller configuration is a nightmare, can't get back to the options from the track...seriously? AI is still fun, but it was fun last year, too.

It's only the second time I've ever asked for a refund on Steam, and it's the first time with a racing game.

If you haven't played Heat in the last few versions, it's worth the purchase. If you have, it's nothing but a DLC pack that's over 10 times the cost of the stuff they put out last year.

[StoneCalf]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

If you haven't played Heat in the last few versions, it's worth the purchase. If you have, it's nothing but a DLC pack that's over 10 times the cost of the stuff they put out last year.

Fair assessment. Jury is still out for me. It met my expectations on first impressions and practice races, until I hit the game crashing bugs of (including, but not limited to) a) custom championship season bugged, can't proceed, and b) purported that also changing options/settings causes game to crash.

Given that, I shelved it, and did a complete uninstall, and waited on the patch. Looks like the XB1 patch just hit today, as while I am typing this, I checked online and there was an update available, which I just installed, small, couple of minutes, haven't started it yet though. (I think I read where the PS4 & PC patch hit on Friday, but I haven't had time to read and see how effective those are)

I plan to begin my NH5 career now, and hopefully the patch fixes those nasty bugs.

Over the weekend, I played a ton of NH4, as I was still amped about using my new G920 wheel, and it did not disappoint. The asphalt racing was very good, but I wondered how using the wheel would be on dirt. When I first tried a dirt track, I was so inept and out of control that I almost wrote off using a wheel on dirt. But I kept at it and started getting a feel for it. Practiced a bunch and now I'm having a blast! Using the wheel on dirt now FAR exceeds my expectations, and I am in better control now that I ever was when I was using my controller. On some of the short tracks, I learned a technique of quickly jerking the wheel sharply to the left, for just an instant, like as fast as you can, then returning it to your previous steering angle. The jerk sets your car into the sideways drift needed to slide around the corner. It's a thing of beauty when you sling it sideways in perfect tandem with the other cars around you.

So that was in NH4, and I would think that what I've learned on that should translate to NH5.

To TCrouch's point regarding what are the real differences from the last version, two more points that are key and significant enough to me to emphasize are 1) the far chase cam and 2) stat tracking in career mode. I've already tried the far chase cam before I put it down to wait on the patch, and it was very nice and useful for awareness of cars around you, especially on the super speedways. The stat tracking improvement in career is something I appreciate personally, as I'm a hardcore stat hog, and I dig that stuff. (I have stacks of journals from the NCAA FB series to prove it)

I was initially excited about the prospect of custom seasons, where you get to hand-pick the tracks you run, but sadly I think that feature is limited to custom season, not included as a part of career mode. I sincerely hope I'm wrong about that, but I think that's how it goes.

[Jeffrey99]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

After playing the game more over the weekend, I'm really liking it over 4. It seems much easier to drive with a controller. Maybe it's because I'm using a Xbox one controller instead of PS4 and sitting closer to monitor. IDK. But having more fun then Heat 4. The AI seems to drive better.

Still amazes me they couldn't update the menus. Like not a single bit. It's literally Heat 4 UI across the board.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[StoneCalf]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

Patch Notes upon launching the game today: (XB1)

IMG_5606 NH5 PN.jpg

[StoneCalf]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

After playing the game more over the weekend, I'm really liking it over 4. It seems much easier to drive with a controller. Maybe it's because I'm using a Xbox one controller instead of PS4 and sitting closer to monitor. IDK. But having more fun then Heat 4. The AI seems to drive better.

I too thought it handled better with a controller over NH4, but I need to add my sample size was small, but I was pleased nonetheless.

Regarding the AI you mentioned, I haven't played enough to say for sure, but am hopeful.

The horse has been beaten to death about how much of NH5 is a copy and paste, and that's a fair point, but another thing I picked up, either from reading or watching youtube videos, was that it has "Improved AI". I want to say I read that the game mechanics were also tweaked, but I'm just not certain I remember that part correctly.

[Bvrat76]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

Played a lot more over the weekend and determined this game is complete trash. Thankfully I conned the kid at Target into giving me store credit back for it so the wife has some money to get the kids clothes. This game is board line unplayable. Anyone saying that it has redeeming qualities needs their head examined.

1. Paint booth - AWFUL. I understand they can't do a "full" booth with downloadable logos but no reason you can't offer custom paint/colors and make the numbers the correct size. We won't get into the neon wheels/white number issue.

2. Damage - no other comment needed

3. Tuning the car the few options you have has ZERO impact.

4. Career mode - why in the blue heck do you start without enough crew members to work on the 3 aspects of the car? No detail, no depth the list goes on

5. DLC - your going to charge for paint schemes, but put in fictional drivers and made up cars from you "pro" league?

6. AI - the computer races way to clean, and in longer races the pitting makes no sense all all under green.

The list goes on and on and on...this game is complete trash, its not only a copy and past (dead horse being beaten again) it's an insult to anyone that dropped money for it. What makes it worse is these complaints have been around since the first edition and the developer could care less. If it was 2000 it would be a top notch non PC racer but its 2020.

[countryboy]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

The more I'm playing this game the more I'm enjoying it. Granted I didn't play NH4, so coming from NH3 to NH5, the differences are quite noticeable.

Car handling/driving with the controller is the biggest improvement for me. That and I like the career mode better this time around.

The game definitely isn't as "sim" as I would like, but its better than what I've played before and more importantly it's fun and a great change of pace from other games in my rotation.

[Dominic2670]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

Considering getting NH5 on my ps4, however, with the PS5 coming in the next few months, I want to make sure it will play on the PS5 with no issues. Can anyone help me out with this question

[sgf83]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

Played a lot more over the weekend and determined this game is complete trash. Thankfully I conned the kid at Target into giving me store credit back for it so the wife has some money to get the kids clothes. This game is board line unplayable. Anyone saying that it has redeeming qualities needs their head examined.

I want 704 and NASCAR Heat to be successful. I want to have a game that gets me hooked in for months at a time. It's sad when I can go and play a PS2 game from 2003 and it is better as a game than what we have today. I'm not talking about graphics either, that doesn't make a game good.

I guess I'm spoiled by Papyrus but I truly want a reason to buy/play NASCAR Heat. All you have to do is take Nascar Thunder 2004 and update graphics, rosters, tracks and sponsors and you will have an awesome game. It can't be that hard. Dirt to Daytona is another game they could just update.

[Jeffrey99]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

I want 704 and NASCAR Heat to be successful. I want to have a game that gets me hooked in for months at a time. It's sad when I can go and play a PS2 game from 2003 and it is better as a game than what we have today. I'm not talking about graphics either, that doesn't make a game good.



I guess I'm spoiled by Papyrus but I truly want a reason to buy/play NASCAR Heat. All you have to do is take Nascar Thunder 2004 and update graphics, rosters, tracks and sponsors and you will have an awesome game. It can't be that hard. Dirt to Daytona is another game they could just update.

I went into Heat 5 knowing it's Heat 4.5. There is literally very little different. Even menus are identical.

But I honestly wonder how many console racers want a realistic sim like the old Papyrus days. I do wish they'd atleast go the F1 route and go sim-cade and give us the options to make it more realistic. I think the AI is much better in 5 and it races better. Bit still dumb things happening under caution (like the AI plowing the player straight through the caution car or caution car with massive damage staying out and causing a massive pileup ok restart.

Heat 5 was a gift, otherwise I probably would have stayed with Heat 4.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[StoneCalf]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

First of all, this is the most I've enjoyed a Nascar game in a long time. I started playing Nascar games with Nascar '98 PS1, then enjoyed NR2003 on PC back in the day. I've also played several since then, most notably Thunder 2004, Dirt to Daytona (that one has a place in my heart, in the nostalgic section), most of the Eutechnyx offerings, and all of the Heat games. Oh, I forgot that I played a lot of EA's Nascar '09 on PS3.

Seems like Heat is a polarizing series. I'm in the camp of liking it and being able to extract quite a lot of enjoyment out of it. They will (most likely) be able to make a sale to me each year. This should not be interpreted that I'm fully pleased nor satisfied as some versions show more effort and improvement than others, but the series has shown continued improvement each year, in my experience and opinion.

Sure, I'd like to see a higher quality game on par with Codemasters F1 series. Maybe the series will approach that, but I'm not going to hold my breath or boycott for that. It will be interesting to see if the Developer makes the transition to a new engine and next generation without taking two steps backward. Even EA lost several key and beloved features from the 2003-2005 games as they progressed.

Sidenote: I'm going to try and not beat up on older games, because I do appreciate and respect those and opinions of others, but Thunder 2004 was hard for me to maintain interest in as the Rivals feature was always an issue for me, specifically it was way overdone with drivers seeking payback.


Now, on to the game feedback and career report!

Update, as I began my career in NH5, custom start in the Truck series. (because I played so much dirt in NH3 and 4 that I wanted a different start)

I've logged 12 races so far, and aside from being left in the dust at the opener in Daytona, I've very much enjoyed racing at the back of the pack as I improve my team.

I elected to start my own team, as opposed to joining a team. I also decline contract offers/opportunities immediately, as I just want to slowly grow my team, and feel the incremental effects of improving my departments and training employees, as funds allow. This part of the career is very good, and these granular improvements have a noticeable result on track. I love having multiple trucks and employees, and doing the prep and planning for upcoming events.

I race in what I think of as "sprints". Racing 25% with normal tire wear and fuel consumption. Good race length for me as races take about 20 minutes on average. I don't want to clench my butt cheeks for longer at a time than that lol. (TMI, I know) I suck at approaching the pits, so with the "sprints" I have enough fuel that I don't have to make a pit stop. One flaw with the A.I. that I've noticed so far is that when a caution occurs, none of the AI cars choose to pit and take on fresh tires. I would expect that if you're running near the back of the pack, it would be wise to get fresh tires to gain an advantage. I was doing that in my first races, but when I noticed that no other cars were doing that, I felt I was getting an unfair advantage, so I just skip pitting and that keeps me on a level playing field. So I've had to introduce my first "house rule", but no game is perfect and I'm okay with implementing things like this that improves my overall experience.

One more bug that I'll go ahead and get out of the way is that the glitch (from NH4) is still there where the reported fastest lap of the race is erroneous (for example a 14 second lap when it actually takes 32 seconds to make a lap). Oh and on the results screen after one race, the entire field, including the race Winner, finished one lap down....um ok....

Season 1 results so far: (Q = Qualified, F = Finishing position, My car ratings = #/#/#...Engine/Aero/Suspension)
(racing on Hard)

1. Daytona - Q 32, F 32 (73/70/72) lost draft early, then just made laps...sad
2. Las Vegas - Q 32, F 28 (75/75/75)
3. Atlanta - Q 32, F 19 (79/75/75)
4. Homestead - Q 29, F 21 (80/78/79)
5. Texas - Q 30, F 20 (80/79/81)
6. Richmond - Q 26, F 30 (80/79/81) struggled, bad setup, pushing
7. Dover - Q 30, F 27 (80/80/81) tough track for me! (but I like the challenge)
8. Charlotte - Q 32, F 25 (80/81/81)
9. Kansas - Q 29, F 20 (80/81/81) super fun race
10. Texas - Q 29, F 20 (80/82/82)
11. Iowa - Q 25, F 18 (81/81/85)
12. Chicagoland - Q 29, F 14 (85/83/85)

As you can see, tracking with improved results as the departments are slowly but surely upgraded, along with investing in training team members.

Currently standing at 27th in the Points.

For driving assists, the training wheels are slowly coming off- I have turned all assists related to steering to 0, as those began making things worse as my skills improved. I've still got "wall avoidance" on 35. Not sure exactly what wall avoidance does, but I like the sound of it lol, and I am not hitting the walls frequently like I used to.


And for anyone interested wheel stuff, here's a few notes from my experience with the Logitech G920 (XB1)

• Overall very pleased with this wheel and pedal set
• Good performance & has worked seamlessly & flawlessly on NH5. True plug-and-play
• I've got force feedback set to around 20% strength, personal preference
• One con is that it does have what people refer to as a "notchy" feel. One of my other hobbies is RC car and trucks, and I can tell it's the feeling of pinion gears on the twin motors against a larger gear or rack. Instead of being supersmooth (like I imagine some wheels with belts) you can feel tiny bumps as you finely steer. Not a big issue for me at all. Most important to me is performance & reliability

[Jeffrey99]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

First of all, this is the most I've enjoyed a Nascar game in a long time. I started playing Nascar games with Nascar '98 PS1, then enjoyed NR2003 on PC back in the day. I've also played several since then, most notably Thunder 2004, Dirt to Daytona (that one has a place in my heart, in the nostalgic section), most of the Eutechnyx offerings, and all of the Heat games. Oh, I forgot that I played a lot of EA's Nascar '09 on PS3.



Seems like Heat is a polarizing series. I'm in the camp of liking it and being able to extract quite a lot of enjoyment out of it. They will (most likely) be able to make a sale to me each year. This should not be interpreted that I'm fully pleased nor satisfied as some versions show more effort and improvement than others, but the series has shown continued improvement each year, in my experience and opinion.



Sure, I'd like to see a higher quality game on par with Codemasters F1 series. Maybe the series will approach that, but I'm not going to hold my breath or boycott for that. It will be interesting to see if the Developer makes the transition to a new engine and next generation without taking two steps backward. Even EA lost several key and beloved features from the 2003-2005 games as they progressed.



Sidenote: I'm going to try and not beat up on older games, because I do appreciate and respect those and opinions of others, but Thunder 2004 was hard for me to maintain interest in as the Rivals feature was always an issue for me, specifically it was way overdone with drivers seeking payback.





Now, on to the game feedback and career report!



Update, as I began my career in NH5, custom start in the Truck series. (because I played so much dirt in NH3 and 4 that I wanted a different start)



I've logged 12 races so far, and aside from being left in the dust at the opener in Daytona, I've very much enjoyed racing at the back of the pack as I improve my team.



I elected to start my own team, as opposed to joining a team. I also decline contract offers/opportunities immediately, as I just want to slowly grow my team, and feel the incremental effects of improving my departments and training employees, as funds allow. This part of the career is very good, and these granular improvements have a noticeable result on track. I love having multiple trucks and employees, and doing the prep and planning for upcoming events.



I race in what I think of as "sprints". Racing 25% with normal tire wear and fuel consumption. Good race length for me as races take about 20 minutes on average. I don't want to clench my butt cheeks for longer at a time than that lol. (TMI, I know) I suck at approaching the pits, so with the "sprints" I have enough fuel that I don't have to make a pit stop. One flaw with the A.I. that I've noticed so far is that when a caution occurs, none of the AI cars choose to pit and take on fresh tires. I would expect that if you're running near the back of the pack, it would be wise to get fresh tires to gain an advantage. I was doing that in my first races, but when I noticed that no other cars were doing that, I felt I was getting an unfair advantage, so I just skip pitting and that keeps me on a level playing field. So I've had to introduce my first "house rule", but no game is perfect and I'm okay with implementing things like this that improves my overall experience.



One more bug that I'll go ahead and get out of the way is that the glitch (from NH4) is still there where the reported fastest lap of the race is erroneous (for example a 14 second lap when it actually takes 32 seconds to make a lap). Oh and on the results screen after one race, the entire field, including the race Winner, finished one lap down....um ok....



Season 1 results so far: (Q = Qualified, F = Finishing position, My car ratings = #/#/#...Engine/Aero/Suspension)

(racing on Hard)



1. Daytona - Q 32, F 32 (73/70/72) lost draft early, then just made laps...sad

2. Las Vegas - Q 32, F 28 (75/75/75)

3. Atlanta - Q 32, F 19 (79/75/75)

4. Homestead - Q 29, F 21 (80/78/79)

5. Texas - Q 30, F 20 (80/79/81)

6. Richmond - Q 26, F 30 (80/79/81) struggled, bad setup, pushing

7. Dover - Q 30, F 27 (80/80/81) tough track for me! (but I like the challenge)

8. Charlotte - Q 32, F 25 (80/81/81)

9. Kansas - Q 29, F 20 (80/81/81) super fun race

10. Texas - Q 29, F 20 (80/82/82)

11. Iowa - Q 25, F 18 (81/81/85)

12. Chicagoland - Q 29, F 14 (85/83/85)



As you can see, tracking with improved results as the departments are slowly but surely upgraded, along with investing in training team members.



Currently standing at 27th in the Points.



For driving assists, the training wheels are slowly coming off- I have turned all assists related to steering to 0, as those began making things worse as my skills improved. I've still got "wall avoidance" on 35. Not sure exactly what wall avoidance does, but I like the sound of it lol, and I am not hitting the walls frequently like I used to.





And for anyone interested wheel stuff, here's a few notes from my experience with the Logitech G920 (XB1)

• Overall very pleased with this wheel and pedal set
  
• Good performance & has worked seamlessly & flawlessly on NH5. True plug-and-play
  
• I've got force feedback set to around 20% strength, personal preference
  
• One con is that it does have what people refer to as a "notchy" feel. One of my other hobbies is RC car and trucks, and I can tell it's the feeling of pinion gears on the twin motors against a larger gear or rack. Instead of being supersmooth (like I imagine some wheels with belts) you can feel tiny bumps as you finely steer. Not a big issue for me at all. Most important to me is performance & reliability
  

I agree with AI not pitting. You'd think a AI car with say 70-75% tires in 25th-30th would pit under caution to try and gain speed on new tires vs used. But I think it's setup that they will not pit until they hit XX% percent of tire wear. Not sure what that number is but seems to be around 60-65%.

The more I race the career the more I really like Heat 5. I've switched to no stages in the race at 50% length to add some strategy. I'm running trucks in season 1 and the AI really does seem to be vastly improved at being able to run 2-3 wide. I really just wish it had better damage. By far my biggest complaint.

If they continue to release Heat on PC I'll pick up the next one.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[StoneCalf]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

I agree with AI not pitting. You'd think a AI car with say 70-75% tires in 25th-30th would pit under caution to try and gain speed on new tires vs used. But I think it's setup that they will not pit until they hit XX% percent of tire wear. Not sure what that number is but seems to be around 60-65%.

The more I race the career the more I really like Heat 5. I've switched to no stages in the race at 50% length to add some strategy. I'm running trucks in season 1 and the AI really does seem to be vastly improved at being able to run 2-3 wide. I really just wish it had better damage. By far my biggest complaint.

I bet you're right on the % of tire wear and the programming for pitting.

One thing I meant to mention on my last write-up regarding the AI that I like and have noticed is that it seems like single position battles are better. For example, let's say I qualify near the back, then work my way up the field.... the first few cars I pass is not too hard because I'm just faster. Then I find that I'm not reeling them in as fast, which makes sense because I'm approaching faster cars and I'll eventually get to a point where a car is about on par with me. But when I do catch and pass a car that I'm just marginally faster than, it sure seems like they have more "fight" to them. What I mean is I finally got around that truck, but next thing I know it cuts back under and around me and I've got to earn that spot all over again. I love that kind of back-and-forth battle.

Plus it's great that some drivers aren't too aggressive, and will slide up a little and concede the position, while others will slam the door and deny your nose going into a corner. Don't know if that latter driver is just running his pre-programmed line, but it sure seems like he/she is thinking "not this time buddy".

[countryboy]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

AI pitting strategy is easily my biggest complaint with this game.

I just won a race at Iowa in the truck series in my career (hotseat) due to poor AI pitting strategy.

I was running 16th with 6 laps to go and a caution came out, so I pitted thinking I'd only lose at most 4 spots due to number of cars on lead lap. I actually came out 14th as other trucks pitted, but leaders didn't understandably.

Anyways I get a good restart (3 to go) and move into top 10 on backstretch. We come across to get two to go and my spotter mentions trucks pitting ahead. We come off turn 4 and to my surprise the 8 trucks in front of me all pit giving me the lead and a run away win by 3+ seconds! Why in the hell did they not pit under caution if they were close on tires or whatever? Why pit on the final lap?

I wanted to enjoy this victory but it was difficult due to the circumstances in which it was obtained.

Really hoping they address pit strategy in an upcoming patch.

[Jeffrey99]

Re: NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

AI pitting strategy is easily my biggest complaint with this game.

I just won a race at Iowa in the truck series in my career (hotseat) due to poor AI pitting strategy.

I was running 16th with 6 laps to go and a caution came out, so I pitted thinking I'd only lose at most 4 spots due to number of cars on lead lap. I actually came out 14th as other trucks pitted, but leaders didn't understandably.

Anyways I get a good restart (3 to go) and move into top 10 on backstretch. We come across to get two to go and my spotter mentions trucks pitting ahead. We come off turn 4 and to my surprise the 8 trucks in front of me all pit giving me the lead and a run away win by 3+ seconds! Why in the hell did they not pit under caution if they were close on tires or whatever? Why pit on the final lap?

I wanted to enjoy this victory but it was difficult due to the circumstances in which it was obtained.

Really hoping they address pit strategy in an upcoming patch.

I agree. That is by far one of the weakest links of the game.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk