[TCrouch]

I'm going to try to keep this level-headed, as I've been so furious at this game for so long, but I just tried 4 short races at lunch. I deleted all of my prior save games and data, so I had to set it up like a brand new profile.

I set the AI to Very Hard and the control to Legend (didn't see anything about Hardcore?). I wanted to do more "testing" in the first few races just to see what I'd have, and then run one short race at the end of my lunch hour to see how it played out to finish one.

First Test: Martinsville
I am decent at getting around Martinsville, so I decided to give it a shot. I loaded up a quick race, which I naturally forgot had NO PRACTICE. Straight to qual/race? I still think that's one of the worst design decisions ever. So I head on out for a qual lap, not having run the NTG2011 handling model in well over a month. I discover it's obviously a lot more forgiving than iRacing, and I putt-putt around the track, clipping the inside curb and generally being very slow.

I qualified 43rd...which was a good sign. Even on Very Hard at most tracks I could qualify near the front in my sleep before, so that was nice. At the start of the race, I'm able to run 3 wide with the AI cars through the corners, and they're taking very believable lines. I work my way up to 27th in about 10 or 12 laps, using both the inside and outside lanes to pass cars. Eventually I get a wiggle and an AI car dives underneath me. I don't notice it, move down, and get turned. Totally my fault--but a YELLOW FLIES!!! Holy crap, color me shocked. I don't pit, and I'm still in 27th. As far as I know, a spin was an EOL penalty? So that was off. But I hammer down again, pick up another 5 or 6 spots, and end up turned again due to my aggression. However, both times a yellow flew, so I was shocked.

I was actually having fun.

Second Test: California
I like to test at California because it's such a tough track to get the AI right on. The entries are so varied and the track chews the tires up so much that if you have something wrong, it's magnified. A few warts showed up here, but it was only one race so I'm not sure what to make of it yet. The AI cars took some REALLY weird lines into the corners. Some would drive it so hard down into the corner that they would be chewing that RF up--but they kept it up for quite a while, like they weren't losing time at all. I'll have to keep an eye on this. However, I qualified 24th using the standard default setup. I was able to work my way into the teens pretty easily by just managing my corner entry and beating guys into the corner. There were two very different lines here run by the AI, which was encouraging. However, with the default setup, getting it into the corner at the same pace as the AI cars had me tearing up my tires, and after 6 or 7 laps they were dusting me and I was dropping back rapidly. I'll have to test this more tonight, to see if running the high groove (or loosening the car up) will help. Another caution, but this one caused by the AI on a 3-wide attempt into turn 1. More encouraging sights.

Test 3: Daytona
I started a Career just to see how that first race would go. Using defaults again, I qualified 6th (instead of 1st, which was way too easy to do before!). The guys up front were Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, etc. Believable. I get a nose under Gordon heading down the backstretch and end up falling in line behind Stewart, who's leading. I drag my brake to avoid plowing him in the @$$, tuck up behind him, and am shocked at how easy it is to stay stuck on his bumper. Gordon ended up catching up, and the 3 of us started yarding the field. However, a 4-car train caught us on the outside and managed to power past. No two car tango, but it was still fun regardless. I backed out after about 10 or 12 laps of that, as I was starting to run out of time for a short race to finish.

Final Test: Michigan
I know my way around Michigan, so I figured this would be the best place to test an actual race from flag to flag. I set it for 20 laps so it would still be relatively short, and qualified 9th. To my surprise, the biggest AI issue of the day appeared here. Coming out of 4, the vast majority of the cars slowed to a crawl. I blew by the first few on lap 1, and then within a couple more laps took the lead. Their qualifying laps were fast, so something about side by side racing coming off of 4 scares them, which can be a problem.

Through 20 laps, I gained 7.8 seconds on 2nd place and won in a sleepwalker of a race. So there's the good news--I didn't have catch up AI that kept them 3 seconds behind me the whole race. The distance from me to Jimmie Johnson stayed consistently increasing. However, the AI off of 4 was bothersome, but I only saw them for about 4 or 5 laps. I'll need more time to really see if it's a huge issue or not.

At the end of my hour for lunch, I had one thought in my mind:

"Damn that was fun. Can't wait to try it again tonight."

Considering that's about the furthest thing away from my prior thoughts on the game, I'm pretty shocked. And my wheel didn't bug out on me during any of the races. It moved a little oddly when it went to a caution flag menu or something, but overall it was pretty smooth.

My biggest tests will be tonight, when I actually add pit stops into the equation. But considering how fun the AI was to run with and the frequency of yellow flags, the pitting under green may or may not be a problem anymore for me. I'll certainly find out tonight.

It may not be perfect, guys, but at least it seems playable.