NASCAR The Game: Inside Line Patch Has Finally Arrived For 360, Post Your Impressions

[TCrouch]

Alright, Test Results:

Wiped my profile, started an entirely new save, and left controls at default with my Fanatec CSR Elite set to 900 rotation on S1 setting that I use for PC sims.

All I did was go into controls and drop FF to about 30% and dead zone to zero--it already had sensitivity raised to 75%. Went into a Hard race at Phoenix as Kasey Kahne, and took the pole with a 27:55 over Denny Hamlin's 27:57. Control felt surprisingly good without doing anything to it other than those 2 things.

I lean on Hamlin a bit in T1 and get the shot off of 2, and get a couple of tenths on him. I smoke the brakes hard getting into T1 on lap 2, and figure that's a bad idea so I start backing up my braking point. After 6 laps (37 laps on 10%), I've gapped Hamlin by about half a second. I'm killing him in turns 1 and 2, and he's eating me up in 3 and 4. By lap 8, he's back on my tail with a .1 gap. I hit my marks and keep him back between .1 and .3 until I catch lapped traffic on lap 13 (Josh Wise) on the back chute. I dive bomb him getting into 3, lean on him a bit and get past coming off of 4, but Denny is stuck behind him.

Now I'm curious if Denny can get by, because 3rd place caught him, and he was stuck up high behind Wise heading down the front stretch. He yards him coming off of 2 the next lap, and by then I've knocked down 2 more lappers--Nemechek and somebody else. The 11 has only dropped back to .8 at this point on lap 15, instead of 2.X+ seconds like I've seen in the past...and I'm AGGRESSIVELY knocking off lappers with reckless abandon.

Pit Stops begin as I'm coming back to the line to take lap 16. I get up to 1.58 seconds ahead of Denny, but I put Cassill and Gordon a lap down on 16, and Denny is only 1 second back now. I lost time with the lappers while he had a smooth section. Denny pits at the end of 16 in a 37 lap race.

I make it to my lap 19 pit strategy lap, and my chief tells me to come in. That's good, I was coming anyway. I see a caution in T3 as Nemecheck tries to blend coming off. Not good. That's what pissed me off before, but to be fair, there were about 4 cars near. I had a lapper come up near me as they came onto the track, but they dove back down instead of continuing up into my lane. I'll need to see more to make a judgment.

I pit under yellow, and since I was the last to come in, most of the field got their lap back when I pitted. But the field was all jumbled up, with backmarkers like Michael McDowell in the K-LOVE car running second. It was a good 2 laps before Kyle Busch got through the mess, and by then I was 8 seconds out front with 15 to go. I get up to 14 seconds ahead as the mess of a field continues, and another caution comes out on lap 30...again, it look like pitters merging.

I don't pit, because I'm a sitting duck. Everybody else does, and the 4 tires kill me on the restart at lap 32. Harvick goes by on the outside of 3 and 4, Tony Stewart follows his lead in 1 and 2, and I don't have enough grip to compete at this point. I run it in hot in T3 trying to slide job Stewart, and Kyle Busch sneaks under me in T4, and yards me down the front stretch. I chrome horn him deep into T1 to try to break him loose but he's stuck like glue. I at least maintain position and force Smoke to stay high and give up the spot. Burton and Truex are all over me in T4 but I beat them into 1, they go 2 wide, and let me get a little gap. Busch blows by Harvick with 2 to go. I push as hard as I can, but I can't do anything about those 2.

I scrape the wall in an attempt to get a run on the outside on 37, finishing 3rd.... .95 seconds behind the winner.

The caution from mergers is still troubling, as is the fact that the AI probably would have pitted twice in a possible 1-stop race, but that would be REALLY pushing it to the final lap on fuel, so I can cut them some slack there.

Going to test some more later tonight, as I ran out of time at lunch. The high points were control with my wheel--not once did I get that "wiggle" and tag a wall, or hit the brakes and dive right into a wall on corner entry. The AI respected my position more than I'm used to, as well.

Low points were the weird cautions still, and merging. It was only one race, but considering those were huge problems before, that's not a good sign.

[Lieutenant Dan]

That was an exciting writeup, thanks TC!

Sounds like it still might be a mixed bag...guess we'll find out this weekend.

[TCrouch]

I managed to run 10 laps at Charlotte before lunch, and let me say--that write up won't be pretty. Caution at lap 4 because they still can't drive the doglegs. Cars coming to a stop in T3, and coming off of 2. Caution again on lap 9...because the AI can't drive the doglegs.

Nothing changed there. So while the cars not pitting every 5 or 6 laps may be good, there are still massive, massive issues in some spots. I'm going to start a career to see how it goes. Maybe I'll put it in the careers forum.

[YeOldTonk]

Stuck at work so have to wait until tonight to test it out.

Is the AI awareness still wacked out? That's the big thing for me right now, going into a corner and having the cars cascade down on you.

[TCrouch]

I had instances where I noticed that would have happened in the past, where it didn't in my test. The car started to come down, but then instead had a massive "wiggle" mid-corner and jumped back up a lane. Like they realized I was there very late. Same thing from under me with a merger coming up...had it continued, I would have blasted him in the *** heading into 3, but he had the wiggle-shimmy-shake and jumped back down out of my way.

I had a couple spots where I was afraid the AI would slide up INTO me on the exit of 2 or 4--that's where I noticed it the worst in the past. I never got turned coming off of 4 at Phoenix, so that's good news. I didn't even get turned at Charlotte from that. I did slam into hilariously slow cars in 3 and coming off of 2, though.

[YeOldTonk]

Quote: Originally Posted by TCrouch

I had a couple spots where I was afraid the AI would slide up INTO me on the exit of 2 or 4--that's where I noticed it the worst in the past. I never got turned coming off of 4 at Phoenix, so that's good news. I didn't even get turned at Charlotte from that. I did slam into hilariously slow cars in 3 and coming off of 2, though.

That was half the problem for me also. Glad to see that it looks like it has been adjusted for the better.

Looks like I will restart a career and take another shot at it.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Quote: Originally Posted by TCrouch

I had instances where I noticed that would have happened in the past, where it didn't in my test. The car started to come down, but then instead had a massive "wiggle" mid-corner and jumped back up a lane. Like they realized I was there very late. Same thing from under me with a merger coming up...had it continued, I would have blasted him in the *** heading into 3, but he had the wiggle-shimmy-shake and jumped back down out of my way. I had a couple spots where I was afraid the AI would slide up INTO me on the exit of 2 or 4--that's where I noticed it the worst in the past. I never got turned coming off of 4 at Phoenix, so that's good news. I didn't even get turned at Charlotte from that. I did slam into hilariously slow cars in 3 and coming off of 2, though.

*sigh*

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[TCrouch]

Exactly, Dan. All you can do at Charlotte is ride the high line and try to avoid getting walled on 2 and 4 each lap. That doesn't appear to have changed.

But I haven't tried to see if I can pin a car low yet. I'll try that tonight when I start my career just because I'm masochistic.