NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

[Turbojugend]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

It's a racing game. If you aren't going to give the player control over traction control, stability control, ABS and autobraking... what are you really doing?!

Exactly. Here's the thing: I'm a huge sim guy, I play FIFA and PES on full manual and I usually play my NASCAR games with as few assists as possible. With HE it's all or nothing, either you're automatically hand held through every lap or you have to deal with their extremely unpolished "Sim" controls. If Sim is what a real stock car feels like, it's a wonder anyone would ever want to race one of these things in the first place.

It's obvious that Normal (read: Casual) physics got the lion's share of attention in development. For an arcade racer, hey, Normal feels pretty damned good. On the other side, it seems like they added Sim physics almost as an afterthought, which is why the vast majority of their pre-release videos were on Normal. It's almost like they're saying "Here's Sim if you want it, but we really don't recommend it." Check out DMi's YouTube channel, their own dudes can barely get through a Sim lap without wrecking.

It's a foundation that can provide some positive experiences playing it, and provide a positive foundation to build on, but I can't help but feel this game was released due to a deadline of some sort. It feels rushed, and it shows. It's a shame the most popular form of motorsports in North America can't get a good game built for itself. It's one of my biggest regret purchases in gaming at this point. Hopefully it improves.

Again, totally agreed. I usually don't regret gaming purchases and I still don't totally regret this, but I do feel a bit misguided at this point. I'm sure DMi had the best of intentions but it just didn't work out. I still can't believe I'm seeing simple features that were present in PS2 NASCAR games and wondering why they aren't in HE.

[JMD]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

After reading all the impressions here I'm going to pass on this game, For now I'll continue to get mt Nascar fix from Project Cars using the Ford Fusion and Caper Monterey stock cars and all the short tracks. It's edge of your seat racing.

[Richzilla]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I'm holding off for the 19.99 price point.

[dubcity]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I'm holding off for the 19.99 price point.

Might be waiting a long time for that. The attempts to cash in via overpriced DLC right from the get-go doesn't say much for DMI's willingness to drop the price significantly. I'd say $40 by Dec is more likely, but I'm not even sure about that.

[goillini03]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

The $20 price point is where I am at as well. It does not help that I know F1 will take a price cut around thanksgiving, which is the next racer in my list.

[Richzilla]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

The $20 price point is where I am at as well. It does not help that I know F1 will take a price cut around thanksgiving, which is the next racer in my list.

F1 is a solid game. I would and did gladly pay full price for it.

I predict Nascar is a 19 dollar black Friday deal.

[BurghFan]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Though I have enjoyed the racing for the most part, the presentation is sorely lacking.

There seems to be very few options as far as adjusting driver assists.
I'm not even sure if I'm running on arcade or sim as I am using "Normal" difficulty setting in my career. To that end, I was very disappointed that they got rid of the incremental difficulty settings in career though they seem to be available (to an extent) in race now. The available race lengths are also limited. In the past I had always raced 20% races as I found this to be a good length, neither too long nor too short, but 20% isn't an option in this game so I have to pick 25% or 13% The customization options just see so limited compared to what we had in the past few games

In race, unless I'm missing something, qualifying has been the old 2 lap format for every race I've run. There wasn't even a Daytona duel for the 500.

The HUD is also lacking. I am disappointed that there is no track map. There isn't even an option to toggle what is on the HUD. In fact, there are no in race options period as the only pause menu options are resume, restart, and exit. Though I like the new toggle-able HUD windows for race and car info, the fact that the lap number isn't a permanent part of the HUD is rather annoying. Also, it doesn't appear to tell you what pit road speed is when trying to pit (though that may just be because I have flags turned off) so I have no idea what pit road speed is when I'm trying to slow down to enter them.

Finally, once the race ends, you can't even review the results at your own leisure as it just scrolls through them automatically without letting you have any control of it.

[LSX]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Agreed with everyone else who says this game is bare bones, lacking even the most basic features, and feels rushed/unpolished. That being said, I feel that it's a great foundation going forward. The Eutechnyx guys had several years to get it right and failed miserably. At least this game is functional from a racing standpoint.

I haven't touched career mode and have barely even raced single player, but I'm really impressed with the AI. Surprisingly, I've spent most of my time racing online. It's actually not too difficult to find a hosted lobby with 10-15 other guys who don't race like jackoffs. I've had a lot of fun with it so far.

[Turbojugend]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I'm not even sure if I'm running on arcade or sim as I am using "Normal" difficulty setting in my career.

"Normal" is basically casual/arcade mode: No track setups, autobraking and a heavy amount of steering correction.

I did open up a dialogue with the devs and customer support, citing many of the issues discussed in this thread so far. Hopefully these issues are addressed as I really have no interest in playing again until something changes.

[Murph]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Clearly, I'm doing something wrong. I started a career on 'Normal', but I'm getting smoked in every race, coming in last and once in a while getting lapped. Am I supposed to be messing around with car setup for each race on Normal? I thought that was the arcade setting.

[Turbojugend]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Clearly, I'm doing something wrong. I started a career on 'Normal', but I'm getting smoked in every race, coming in last and once in a while getting lapped.

It's partially the rubberbanding A.I. and partially the slow car they start you with. On Career (Normal physics/Hard difficulty.), the A.I. usually lets you coast into 20th place before kicking in. But even if you wreck or get a black flag, the A.I. cars should slow to a crawl and let you catch up.

On Normal you can basically disregard braking on most tracks, so maybe try that and see if you can improve your lap times.

Am I supposed to be messing around with car setup for each race on Normal? I thought that was the arcade setting.

Normal = arcade. You can't do setups.

[JMD]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Just want to show you guys this. It's a short clip of Project Cars NASCAR at Watkins Glen Short. There are no ovals in the game but there are several short tracks that make for good stock car racing. Car used here is the Ford Fusion Stock Car. Video is spectate mode on the PS4. The racing is quite excellent.

https://youtu.be/jhLzcNvmqSw

[Turbojugend]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Wow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPSHzuNMy7Q

Jump to 4:38 of that video, it's a graphic comparison of Heat Evolution vs. 09, Daytona night race. We're talking an eight-year-old game developed on previous-gen and it's not even close which one looks better. Not even close.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Wow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPSHzuNMy7Q

Jump to 4:38 of that video, it's a graphic comparison of Heat Evolution vs. 09, Daytona night race. We're talking an eight-year-old game developed on previous-gen and it's not even close which one looks better. Not even close.

Oy...that was brutal.

[brandon27]

Re: NASCAR Heat Evolution Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Wow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPSHzuNMy7Q

Jump to 4:38 of that video, it's a graphic comparison of Heat Evolution vs. 09, Daytona night race. We're talking an eight-year-old game developed on previous-gen and it's not even close which one looks better. Not even close.

So sad... Ouch. What a shame.