First Encounter
Last year’s EA stock car offering, NASCAR Thunder™ 2004, was an impressive achievement that set several benchmarks for success, most notably the aggressive and popular grudge system, which gave AI racers the ability to remember when you screwed them over, and get back at you in a later race down the road. Stellar, shiny graphics and an incredibly robust career mode were dampened, however, by the lack of online multiplayer support. With NASCAR® 2005: Chase for the Cup™, EA Sports has embraced Xbox Live® and rebuilt last year’s game from the asphalt up. This is the deepest, fastest, craziest NASCAR racer yet.
You’ll see the changes in NASCAR 2005 right from the start, when you’re matched with your first pro racer on the streets of a large metropolitan city. Wha—? Street racing in a NASCAR title? See, I told you things changed. Yes, you start off this game (and your new NASCAR career) with a flat-out street competition against Ryan Newman, Viper against Viper. Once you beat him in this short, exciting race, he’ll give you a call on your handy cell phone (NASCAR racers can get your phone number even if you’ve never met them—now that’s power). Get used to the phone; it’s going to be the main interface for various elements of your Fight to the Top career.
So if Fight to the Top is the career/owner mode, what’s Chase for the Cup? Simply the best re-creation yet of the real NASCAR tournament system (and the first Xbox® version of the new NASCAR point system the pros use). This ten-race championship mode gets its own separate game mode, or you can play it as part of the Fight to the Top mode. You get four authentic racing series to compete in, including the NASCAR Busch series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Featherlite Modified Series (probably the first one you'll race in), and the biggest competition of them all, the NEXTEL Cup Series.
As we've already mentioned, one of the coolest aspects of NASCAR 2004 (since it lacked Xbox Live) was the competitive feel of the grudge system. And really, wasn’t it about time the AI racers started fighting back? They’ve been taking heat from this reporter since the days of Night Driver, so one figures they’ve earned the right to go after you, right? One problem—this system was really hard on new players, since even the slightest unintentional bump could transform Dale Earnhardt, Jr. into a mobile engine of bloody-minded vengeance. Fortunately for the innocent, doe-eyed ranks of NASCAR fandom, you’ll largely get to settle these feuds off the track, in street races just like the one that got you into this business. Better yet, you now have a lot more control over creating rivalries thanks to the intimidation button—if you hit this button when you’re drafting behind another racer or slamming into his bumper, he’s more likely to get ticked off. This means the noobs can avoid the hate, and veterans will have more control of their favorite rivalries.
Die-hards needn't worry that things have been dumbed down too much or de-NASCAR-fied, because the hardcore racer now has even more options for tweaking individual cars and their own self-created teams. Xbox Live play means you’ll be able to take on other online racers and their own teams in 44-car blowouts that let up to four gamers compete online in one race. We’ll have more details on all Xbox Live brings to NASCAR 2005 in an upcoming article, but, suffice to say, EA Sports and Xbox Live are going to bring great things to the world of online stock car racing, with all the trimmings. By Ben Barker |
