NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

[RunN1st]

Re: NASCAR '14 Official Impression Thread

Well Dan - due to bad weather I just got the game in the mail this morning. I am playing both the PS3 and PC version and running short to long runs, and testing the AI on 50% difficulty up to 75/80% so far. They run so much better at the 75/80 mark than the default 50. Testing career right now, and will be testing online tonight hopefully - goals is to have the review done tomorrow, and possibly live tomorrow also -

Bob, I can help you test out the online performance and functionality tonight. (PC version)

[TCrouch]

Re: NASCAR '14 Official Impression Thread

Same--I tried a quick race at Daytona set to 95%, and they ran off at the start of the race when I started from the rear of the field

Restarted after qualifying and struggled to start 20th on the grid, and worked my way up to the lead before getting careless and wrecking out while FOUR WIDE. They did a better job of getting a run on you.

But by the time I got to actual racing, it was way late in my lunch. Controls were wonky at first (but at least I can use my TX Wheel on PC now instead of having to use the keyboard to navigate the UI, and the separate shifter works instead of one overwriting the other like before).

I'll dive into it tonight and would be up for some quick sprint style races to test the various tracks and whatnot.

[bluengold34_OS]

Re: NASCAR '14 Official Impression Thread

Bob, I can help you test out the online performance and functionality tonight. (PC version)

Sure Run -

[BurghFan]

Re: NASCAR '14 Official Impression Thread

Obviously I am working on the review - but I wanted to throw these quick nuggets out for those that are interested -

- Gone are the days of choosing Easy/Medium/Hard for opponent difficulty.You can now choose difficulty in increments of 5% points at each track.

- Car handling is much different than in '13, and I for one really like it

- AI is better, but still some issues there - but def better than last year(so far at least)

Ah, that's reminiscent of the old Papyrus NR2K3 days (and I'm guessing other Papy PC titles as well as I really only playe 2K3). I like this though as it seemed that the difference between medium and hard difficulties was astronomical at times last year to the point where I would struggle mightily on hard but dominate on medium. Here's my question though. Will the game remember your difficulty setting for each track or will you have to set it each time?

Minimum length for stops is 10% race length. Anything less, 4x wear/fuel use won't help.

But something that bugged me to no end last year--even if I set it to 4x wear and the CPU could make it 50% of a race distance when set to 10%, they'd short-pit it by a lap or two and make it a two-stop race. That's ridiculous.

Then, there was the inevitable instances where 1 or 2 cars would inexplicably NEVER pit, leading to a win by a large margin. So many head scratching instances in the previous games, which still occurred on PC as recently as last month when I ran it some more.

Yeah, that was a real gear grinder for NTGIL. It seemed especially prevalent at the Coke Zero 400 when running 20% race (32 laps). I and most of the rest of the field would have to pit around lap 20 while almost every time someone would manage to go all 32 laps without pitting.

I'm planning on picking this up for PS3 on Friday.

[j2thec]

Re: NASCAR '14 Official Impression Thread

picked up this game, not expecting a whole lot but I am actually surprised.

The cars handle much better, the AI isn't as stupid and I found that the difficulty settings are a little better. Though I will say I was blasting the field pretty good until about 90% or so with the default setups.

The big problems I see are the fact that you sometimes have weird problems when a caution comes out. For instance I ran a race at Vegas, caution came out and for some reason an AI car stopped well ahead of the wreck and everyone just piled into him. Its happened on the older versions of this game and I find it really annoying.

The AI doesn't wreck very easy either. I rammed some of them pretty hard and they would just slip up and keep going. I couldn't get one to spin out or anything like that, as someone in this thread had previously stated.

I think its an improvement but if your looking to do a season/career type thing its probably best to stick with an updated n2k3, as it still has the best AI on the market.

[brandon27]

Re: NASCAR '14 Official Impression Thread

I've got to say... I just ran a 26 lap race at Vegas, no wear, no setups or anything like that, I qualified on the pole, but had a hard time keeping the lead. I lead 10 of the 26 laps, the AI was racey as all hell! It was a ton of fun. I noticed no brake checking at all, I was pretty much racing in the top 10 the whole time though. I found the AI to be pretty aggressive too, although it could have just been me not paying attention to my surroundings sometimes too.

Anyways, I ended up having a green/white checkers finish. I restarted in 6th, the car in front of me spun its tires on the restart (which tends to happen alot), so I easily snuck inside him, then picked up another spot in turn 1 pretty easily. I was sitting in 3rd as I took the white flag, picked up 2nd place coming off of turn 2, then I dove underneath Ambrose going into 3, we rubbed in the middle of 3 and 4, i got a good run off 4 and had the lead and then all of a sudden im getting nailed by Stewart from the side just out of 4, had a photo finish at the line, side by side. I had no idea who won until it came up on the screen that it was me, driving the 99 of Edwards (puke).

That's some of the most fun I've ever had in this series racing.

Check out these pics! (sorry for the crappy quality, cell phone pic, off my tv screen!, Just had to share this awesome experience)

[Stormyhog]

Re: NASCAR '14 Official Impression Thread

Well if you do a 2% race at Marty - you cannot set fuel and tire wear high enough(only goes to X4 for each) to accomplish that, but at 5% races it looks like it might be needed this year - but haven't tested it - .

Ok thanks. How does the dualshock controller feel is control tight or loose? Thanks.

[bluengold34_OS]

Re: NASCAR '14 Official Impression Thread

Ok thanks. How does the dualshock controller feel is control tight or loose? Thanks.

Not bad, but I prefer the way the 360 controller feels. I tried to use the DS4 controller - but it didn't recognize it.

[brandon27]

Re: NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

I want to kind of take back alot of what I said about the visuals earlier. I do still feel like they are maybe downgraded a tiny bit, but I think alot of it was my tv. I had the Motion Blur setting on for some strange reason, Once I turned it off, everything now looks much better overall. It still feels a bit toned down from last year, but its nowhere near as bad as I had mentioned earlier.

The more I play, the more I'm enjoying it.

Did have a race at Chicago though tonight too, did notice some braking issues from the AI. Not anywhere near as bad as previous though.

[OPDriver]

Re: NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

Wow, this game is disappointing. Should have trusted my gut feelin amd just stick to pc racing.

[Aggies7]

Re: NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

Just picked up the game but at work til 0630. Anyone try out career mode yet?

[Flamehead]

Re: NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

Downloaded it off Steam and spent a few hours dialing in some settings and playing around at Daytona in Race Now to get a feel for it. A few observations:

1) With my gtx670, I was able to max all the graphical settings and average between 40-60 FPS (I use vsync and triple buffering). Looks pretty good.

2) Unlike previous iterations, I was able to dial in some very comfortable wheel settings for my Thrustmaster in no time at all. Being able to drive smoothly around the track makes such a big difference. I suspect this probably dovetails with the better driving model.

3) I would like to try out other tracks as well, but spending a bit of time at Daytona was pretty fun--definitely improved. I had no trouble bump drafting and being bump drafted around the track. Some white-knuckling pack racing to be sure. The AI was very racey.

I did notice, however, some banging around in the pack that would have resulted in spins in nr2003--that being said, this developer never claimed to be making a hardcore Nascar sim so I can overlook that. I admit, I had fun trying it out.

I suppose I'll find more issues as I spend more time with it, but I can see how they've improved upon last year. They are getting better. I don't see it replacing nr2003 in my racing rotation, but I can see it supplementing it. It's definitely decent and has more potential than all the previous versions IMO.

[[Icy]]

Re: NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

Couldn't manage to setup my G27 wheel to even a playable way.

I have played with the sensitivity but either it turns way too much or nothing, and it feels totally off with the on screen wheel.

Also I might be spoiled by Iracing and Assetto Corsa and even nr2k3 but the FFB is really bad, jerky and not related to the road to the point i prefer to have it totally off.

[Motown]

Re: NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

Hmm...might have to pick this up. Is this available via digital d'load? thanks

[[Icy]]

Re: NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

Hmm...might have to pick this up. Is this available via digital d'load? thanks

Yes through Steam platform.