NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

[brandon27]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

So... I'm at level 2 when it comes to unlocking the tracks. I need either a driver rating level 3 at each track to unlock the next group, or 20,000 speed points. I've ran a damn race or more at every track. However, I noticed that Talladega my rating was only a 91. I need a 92 to progress it to L3 to unlock more tracks. I keep running there. I take the pole. The AI lags behind, I end up running laps almost a second faster than them, Winning the race by 4 or more seconds, and I constantly get a 91. Never increases. So this morning I didn't bother to qualify, start in the back, thinking well drafting with the AI should get my speeds up, and my rating up, right?

WRONG. I fly through the pack, with the same experience as someone mentioned above. The AI just, essentially moving out of my way. I can't draft because I'm running faster than them. Pass the whole field, from 40th to 1st, in a 4 lap race. What's my speed rating... 91? So I think ok, I need more speed. Into the garage I go, tinker with my setup. Set a qualifying lap almost a second faster than my previous track record. Run the race from the pole, smoke the Auto AI field again with no challenge at all. Ran all of my laps within .1 second or so from my qualifying pace, win the race, what's my speed rating... 91 again, still level 2, next set of tracks still locked. Completely ridiculous.

I guess I've got to experiment at Talladega with my own custom AI so I can draft to get this to work. Funny thing is though, no problem whatsoever at Daytona. I think I hit a 98 or something there.

The decision to lock these tracks, is one of the stupidest decisions I've ever seen in a game.

Also, we should also open up a thread for setups here. I know they traditionally don't seem to go well though since most people don't seem to want to share for online racing reasons or something, but I think it would be a good thing.

[bravesfan1984]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I would definitely like to see a thread for setups since I have no earthly idea how to make adjustments to a car. It could be quite helpful for many people. I do hope the AI gets tougher as our speed rating increases because so far it is way too easy!

On a side note, I sitting here at work itching to get home and race...I haven't had this feeling since NASCAR games on ps1/2.

[SIR924]

I ran a few races last night, and my thoughts were the graphics didn't jump out at me, but when I played online the graphics seem to be more next gen, and that could have something to do with how many cars are on the track at one time. (only 3 one race, and 12 the other vs full 43 offline.) The first race I ran I won pretty easy, but after that it was a bit more challenging. I didn't play with flags on, but had limited damaged on. AI cars didn't crash much, but If you hit someone in the corner of the car, they can spend out. or just get them loose. I think once you get some adjustments down with the sensitivity the car can handle pretty well. Just hearing the spotter can be boring, but the car sounds are legit in my opinion. Didn't play sim mode, so that's about all I can say.

[huskerfan4life]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I would definitely like to see a thread for setups since I have no earthly idea how to make adjustments to a car. It could be quite helpful for many people. I do hope the AI gets tougher as our speed rating increases because so far it is way too easy!

On a side note, I sitting here at work itching to get home and race...I haven't had this feeling since NASCAR games on ps1/2.

I second this about a thread about setting up a car or mabe even a teach me how to thread like is in madden & 2k basketball thread, I am a big time NASCAR fan but when it comes to the settings of wedge, track bar, tape, tire setings then all the advanced setpups I am totally lost, I know that many of us here would love to know the intracasies better

[jway44]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Played about 4 hrs yesterday. After one practice race, I immediately switched to full damage and simulation mode. I have been tinkering, but I just can't seem to get the controller settings to where I can drive a straight line. Last night at Dover, every time I went to apply the brakes, the car just shot up the track hard right. As if I had turned the wheel toward the outside wall. It's definitely a struggle to figure out the handling. I am not passing judgement on the game just yet, although the graphics and frame rate are atrocious, but I'm just having a hard time handling the car at this point. I can't believe how many times the game will just freeze for 4 or 5 seconds, mid race, and then start playing again. To me, that is a bit inexcusable for this current generation of hardware. Hopefully they are hard at work on a patch for some of these issues. The game definitely has potential, but really shouldn't have been shipped with so many bugs. Seems WAY too rushed at this point. I'm all for supporting the devs so that we can get quality games and features in the future, but at least fix this current game where we can enjoy our time with it. F1 is so polished this year, and then we get this. I'm holding on to the hope that they will patch this game and support it going forward.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[brandon27]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I agree on the framerate issues. It absolutely has to be fixed. Playing on XB1 here. One of my races at Talladega this morning, a wreck happened behind me, I'm pretty sure I caused it (lol) and it was as if once the car behind me spun and triggered the big one behind me, the framerate dove, and it actually froze a split second, by the time the game came back to moving, now I was spinning in the wall due to the freeze. Unacceptable at a top tier game price point.

[Turbojugend]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Impressions from last night:

Let's start with the good. On-track, the game actually feels pretty good for a console racer. The cars handle well and feel "weighty" like a stock car should. I stuck to the novice settings because I'm a controller warrior and anything but a great driver, but I did experience some fun racing against the A.I. A bit easy, but there's plenty of room for me to bump up the difficulty. Also, the drivers and tracks themselves are well represented. Daytona looks and feels like Daytona, and it's a blast. There are no classic drivers or tracks to choose from, but I wasn't expecting that anyway.

The bad? Unfortunately, just about everything else. I'm glad to see you guys mentioning the frame rate, because it is a big deal. To see this game crawling along at 30fps, you could easily be forgiven for thinking this is a previous-gen title. There are glimmers of hope here and there, race a practice lap and Kansas and you'll see the game seemingly break the fps barrier. But throw a full pack on the track or even turn on the rearview mirror and the illusion is immediately dispelled. For a game this far along in the PS4 cycle, this simply does not cut it.

There are other visual nags as well. For example, drive directly onto the infield grass at any raceway and start doing donuts (not a good real-life strategy but hey) and you will see absolutely zero turf wear. Audio is no better, the engines sound dated and the spotter audio is annoying repetitive and poorly stitched.

I just returned from a three-state vacation where I visited Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Phoenix Int'l Raceway and Autoclub Speedway in Fontana. My plan was to race these tracks when I bought this game just to revisit my memories. So how many of these tracks can I race on when I pop the disc in? Exactly none. After two hours I did manage to unlock Fontana, so there's that. For those who were wondering, the tracks are not locked in Career Mode, they appear just as they would in a regular season.

Speaking of Career Mode: My favorite NASCAR game of all-time is NASCAR 06: Total Team Control, which features what is arguably the best Career Mode ever seen in a racing game. In a nutshell, you start out in the Whelen Modified Series and work your way up through the leagues, eventually owning and managing your own team if you choose to do so. Along the way you will be negotiating contracts, responding to driver challenges, directing your teammates' racing strategy, becoming a hero or villain on the track, managing fan requests, and even playing Fantasy NASCAR against CPU opponents. It's the NASCAR version of Dragon Quest and it's freakin' awesome.

In NASCAR Heat Evolution, you get none of this. You do get to create your driver's likeness, which feels kinda like the Elder Scrolls without the kooky lizard and cat races. You can create female drivers but no fat guys (sorry Kyle Busch fans). But unless I'm missing something, you can't even edit your driver's name. I hope you enjoy your console profile name. If not, welcome to the bigs bubblezdachimp_69.

After that they throw you directly into the Sprint Cup Series and tell you to get out there and earn some sponsors. That's right, you're racing against Dale Jr. and Jimmie Johnson on the biggest circuit of them all... in a plain white stock car. This is every bit as immersion-breaking as it sounds. Fortunately it's only two races before you get a sponsor, so after that you're set.

There are some things I really like about NASCAR Heat Evolution. When I'm on the track it's mostly all good, and that's where it counts, right? It's a decent enough start, but at the same time it feels woefully underdeveloped for a game that has been in development for this long. There's so much basic stuff that is either poorly designed or outright missing. Why can't I look right or left? Why can't I save my camera preferences? Why is there an "advanced settings" submenu tucked away in an options menu that takes up less than 1/3 of the screen?

As it stands, my hope for this game is that it is not an annual release but more of a WIP release along of the lines of Rory McIlroy or UFC. If that's the case, there is some serious potential here. If not, it's impossible to justify the price tag this game currently commands.

tl;dr = 5/10

[Happy29]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I hate it I didn't pay $60+ for a game that only comes with a few tracks and challenges unavailable and I have to spend hours making accomplishments to earn what should have come with the game to begin with. It's going back to the store. No more console NASCAR games for me it's iRacing only from now on.

[OPDriver]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I don't know if I'm missing something or what, but not really having fun with this game right now.

I start a career, finish in the top 30 and go to the 500. (Dumb concept btw) Start the 500 in the back and end up wrecking a few laps into the race and my engine is blown. No caution comes out, so I wait for the pack to come back around as I'm going 35 mph around the apron. Pack finally comes back around at a snails pace and I purposely wreck right into them which then conveniently brings out the caution. I choose to pit and fix the damage, tires, etc. After the pitstop my car is all of a sudden fixed, with no blown engine and is running the same speed as before. End up wrecking again to see if the caution would fly, which it did and I end up being a lap down. No major damage this time around, so it's straight to the restart. Green flag drops and I start flying by everybody. Literally to the front of the "pack" in a half lap. Then I proceed to pull away from the leader and end up gaining 10 seconds or more in the next two laps.

Now the settings are on simulation and hard difficulty with all flags and damage on. So maybe I'm missing something setting wise. I was hoping to see the percentage difficulty option for career mode too. Really was looking forward to this game, but pretty disappointed to say the least. Maybe a patch can fix some of these issues.

[StoneCalf]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I'm 8 races into my career, so time for my impressions, part 2:

-XB1, controller, normal physics, "hard" career setting, 2x wear, 13% race length-

Still enjoying the game. Would like to know how to make car adjustments in career mode other than the choices during pitting. I am not making upgrades/purchases in race shop yet because the game challenge is ok where it is, and I don't want to make the game any easier at this moment.

After finishes of 26th at Daytona and 28th at Atlanta, here's how I've fared in races 3-8:

Race 3 at Las Vegas: I incurred a black flag while pitting- wasn't aware of the correct pit road speed limit. I finished 35th.

Race 4 at Phoenix: Finished 24th. There was one caution (not me). I've noticed that so far, about 1 CPU caused caution per race is the average. I'm standing at 32nd in overall points.

Race 5 at California: Something weird happened on a restart. I was a lap down, and when the field went green, I basically took off like a rocket. I had 2 fresh tires, but that shouldn't have propelled me to overtake the leaders and check out. Not sure what was up with that- maybe a glitch on the adaptive AI. (so far through race 8 that was an isolated incident, so I'm not going to get too worried)

Race 6 at Martinsville: First time I qualified better than dead last. Started in 17th position and finished 19th. 65 laps. Had my highest speed rating at 89. (I'm usually in the range from 85-87). Pleasantly surprised at how good this short track racing was. Historically in Nascar games, my weakness is short tracks and road courses.

Race 7 at Texas: Qualified 40th (brushed the wall). Finished 32nd. Had my first run-in with another racer. Didn't catch who it was in the fury of the moment, but I basically got pinched up against the outside wall in the latter stages of the race. It crunched my nose some and my radiator damage indicator turned yellow. Still managed to finish on the lead lap (barely).

Race 8 at Bristol: OMG, this is the first Nascar game where I won't have to dread coming to Bristol!! It was an outstanding race with some expected light beating and banging, but no major wrecks or damage. Had an awesome battle on the last 2 laps with Greg Biffle. My RF tire was run down to about 50% in an effort to get to him. He was in a wad of lap cars and on the last lap of the race, I set up a pick and got past him. I thought I was in the clear, but in turn 4 he came back on me, whipped to my inside and got me by a nose! I still came away with my best finish of the season so far at 19th, albeit 2 laps down. (Qualified 14th at 19.300s) My best race lap was 19.306. Winner was Matt Kenseth, while #22 Logano clocked the fastest lap at 18.378 seconds. (let me just restate how happy I am that I can log laps at Bristol without running into the wall)

OK, gotta balance out the joy with some criticism:

• I can't figure out where to make car adjustments in career mode
• I don't think there's a quick look behind button, nor on the sides.
• Would like to see more statistics at the end of a race. All there seem to be is total race time per racer, but no list for fastest lap, only notes who led most laps, who had fastest lap, biggest mover and who had a tough break.

There was one of the old games, I think it was an EA game where you could have multiple cars in your garage (career), and develop and improve them individually. For example you could have a short track car and a separate super speedway car. I really wish this game had some deeper features like that. But, with that said, I think this game is a good foundation for them to build on and maybe it will be improved on via DLC or next edition.

Racing on normal physics is pretty forgiving. I'm tempted to try simulation, but gonna stick with what I'm doing now for a while as I continue to get acclimated.

[OPDriver]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I can't figure out where to make car adjustments in career mode

You can change setups and adjust on the car when its in the pits during practice, qualifying, etc. On PS4 you can hit the L1 and R1 buttons to change between setups and you can press square to change your small setup details.

[Turbojugend]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

To all locked track haters (pretty much all of us):

It seems as though the quickest method to unlocking all of the tracks is to race a few races at 20% or more track length. I was going for individual track ratings but that's all wrong, 20,000 points is enough to unlock everything and that's way quicker. If you end up with a high enough point bonus [Speed Rating x Track Multiplier], you should end up with enough points to unlock all of the tracks in about an hour.

[krtgolfing]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

To all locked track haters (pretty much all of us):

It seems as though the quickest method to unlocking all of the tracks is to race a few races at 20% or more track length. I was going for individual track ratings but that's all wrong, 20,000 points is enough to unlock everything and that's way quicker. If you end up with a high enough point bonus [Speed Rating x Track Multiplier], you should end up with enough points to unlock all of the tracks in about an hour.

What mode should you be doing this in? Definitely want to get all the tracks unlocked for "Race Now" events. Do not really want to do career mode as I am doing that in F1.

[krtgolfing]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I don't know if I'm missing something or what, but not really having fun with this game right now.

I start a career, finish in the top 30 and go to the 500. (Dumb concept btw) Start the 500 in the back and end up wrecking a few laps into the race and my engine is blown. No caution comes out, so I wait for the pack to come back around as I'm going 35 mph around the apron. Pack finally comes back around at a snails pace and I purposely wreck right into them which then conveniently brings out the caution. I choose to pit and fix the damage, tires, etc. After the pitstop my car is all of a sudden fixed, with no blown engine and is running the same speed as before. End up wrecking again to see if the caution would fly, which it did and I end up being a lap down. No major damage this time around, so it's straight to the restart. Green flag drops and I start flying by everybody. Literally to the front of the "pack" in a half lap. Then I proceed to pull away from the leader and end up gaining 10 seconds or more in the next two laps.

Now the settings are on simulation and hard difficulty with all flags and damage on. So maybe I'm missing something setting wise. I was hoping to see the percentage difficulty option for career mode too. Really was looking forward to this game, but pretty disappointed to say the least. Maybe a patch can fix some of these issues.

Where can you find the difficulty settings? I only found where we could either do simulation or arcade? What am I missing?

[Turbojugend]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

What mode should you be doing this in? Definitely want to get all the tracks unlocked for "Race Now" events. Do not really want to do career mode as I am doing that in F1.

Just "Race Now" at Bristol. It's a short track so you'll get a bigger track multiplier.