GameCube

NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup

EA has long been the king of sports titles, and happily enough for me and thousands of other NASCAR fans, we have not been left out. Last year’s NASCAR 2004 was a great title, and at the time I didn’t know what they could do to make it even better. Well, once again EA comes shining through with a new NASCAR title called 2005: Race for the Cup, and has included even better options and game modes to really maximize and enhance the racing experience.

What can I say? NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup is one of the best racing games I have ever played. Yes, I am a big NASCAR fan and if you like NASCAR, I definitely recommend the game because you will not be disappointed. If you are not a NASCAR fan then you should at least rent this game, because I think a few hours with it and you will realize that racing three wide at close to 200MPH takes more skill than you would think. Plus, with the road courses and production vehicle races there are more than just left-turn oval tracks to race on. With great graphics, sound effects, voice-acting, replayability, gameplay, and controls, plus decent rock music NASCAR: Chase for the Cup takes the checker flag in 1st place.

The simple answer to my strapline is yes. Before I get into why, I feel compelled to preface this review with a bit of honesty. My experience with NASCAR gaming prior to this assignment largely started and stopped on the PC where I was privy to some unfathomably bad efforts and some astonishingly good ones (sweet Papyrus and your Heat, how I will forever remember thee fondly). This is important to note because I've had to reacquaint myself with what is essentially a different franchise (even had to go back and play previous NASCAR titles on consoles). Like EA's Tiger Woods of earlier years, NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup is significantly different from the PC simulation games which may misleadingly feature similar titles.

Gaming and NASCAR have definitely had a love/hate relationship, one that's often ebbed and flowed with the times. On one hand, fans have seen the evolution of the sport on both PCs and consoles. The inclusion of new racing series and racetracks, for instance, has expanded the scope of the NASCAR game significantly. Unfortunately, many other gamers have dismissed the action of these titles as simplistic, boring or lacking in depth. I've personally heard plenty of these players remark, "who wants to drive in a circle with a bunch of hicks?" Well, for you uneducated drivers, NASCAR's image has received a massive facelift, and is now one of the hottest sports around. Reflecting this new attitude, EA's popular Thunder series has been retooled as well, pulling into store shelves as NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, a title that has more than enough play to interest even the most cynical driver out there.

EA Sports' decision to coin the subtitle of its latest NASCAR game, NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, after the new Nextel Cup championship eligibility rules, makes sense from a branding standpoint. NASCAR is calling the last 10 races of the season the "Chase for the Cup," so a video game with that same slogan is sure to catch the attention of NASCAR fans. But, the problem with that subtitle is that it's too much of an understatement; it doesn't even come close to tipping off potential buyers to all of the wonderful improvements and additions that EA Sports has made to this year's game.

EA Tiburon has spent a year toiling with the whirling-dervish intensity of a pit crew scrambling through a four-tire change, and that effort has paid off with a massive overhaul in the freshly renamed NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup. A dazzling new career mode called Fight To The Top is the star of the show, but some wonkiness in how the pack drives in response to the new hero/villain ratings takes some of the wind out of NASCAR?s sails. It's an amazing overhaul, but it falls one key ingredient short of greatness.