NASCAR Heat

Overall, NASCAR Heat is an excellent game, which is enjoyable for everyone to play, from very young children to full-blown NASCAR fans. Hasbro has included many unique features never seen in a NASCAR Simulation before. With easy installation, spectacular graphics, and a physics model never before seen in a NASCAR Simulation, Hasbro has done an excellent job, especially considering this is their first attempt at a NASCAR Simulation. Hasbro has hit the nail right on the head with NASCAR Heat, and it can only get better from here.

Nascar Heat is one of the most realistic racing simulation games out on the market today, giving you a gaming experience that is as close to real as you can get without buying one of the highly priced cars and entering a real race. Remember, Nascar Heat is a simulation game, so it is going to make it look and feel like a real race. If you are a racing adventure game fan where you like cars with guns sticking out the top and bazookas for headlights, there are many other titles to choose from. Nascar Heat is for those gamers that want to experience the exhilaration and the speed of an actual race.

When looked at as a complete package, NASCAR Heat is hard to top. Its physics model may well be outdone early next year by NASCAR 4, but the model in Heat is no slouch, and the gameplay is fairly well balanced here. The design goal of teaching beginners how to race and raising their level of proficiency seems to be met, for the most part. There are definite improvements which need to be made, and I hope will be made as part of another patch, but MGI has surprised many people out of the gate with a high quality first shot into the NASCAR world, perhaps a reflection of the Papyrus heritage of the company. They knew exactly how to go about doing what they did, and Hasbro gave them the resources to do it.

I found NASCAR Heat to be an enjoyable experience. With the exception of minor flaws, the graphics and playability are simple and fun, so all this makes a game that has a lot to offer to the fans of the sport.

NASCAR Heat is a good attempt at a Winston Cup simulation and arcade game all in one, and it almost succeeds. The innovative Beat the Heat and Race the Pro games are unique and fun. The physics engine is realistic, and gives for an accurate driving experience. However, until the damage and caution problems can be fixed, the general public should hold their money until NASCAR Racing 4 is released.

While it doesn't dominate the race, NASCAR Heat offers a sound stock car racing experience. It caters to both arcade racers and diehard enthusiasts by way of the variety of racing modes, although fans looking for an accurate simulation might be deterred by the lack of realistic damage modelling. The lack of a matchmaking service surely will make racing against real-life opponents a little difficult but visually, the game is spectacular and with most of the licenses in place, NASCAR Heat is an enjoyable ride.

Yet even with its problems, NASCAR Heat's thoroughly immersive driving model is very enjoyable, and even running practice laps or chasing the pros is practically worth the price of the game. However, NASCAR racing fans who prefer consistent realism would be well advised to wait on the patch before purchasing NASCAR Heat.

This is a NASCAR game. That means a boring ride around an oval track (unless you're a NASCAR fan). Unfortunately, the game looks like crap on the PlayStation. You can literally see the track build itself ahead of you, and the textures are fuzzy to the point of being illegible. The one thing that makes the game somewhat interesting is a cool draft meter that shows how much pull you're getting off the other cars.

Ближайший аналог этого безобразия — Andretti Racing 98 — давно уже похоронен и обнесен двухметровой оградой с колючей проволокой. Порой мне кажется, что он сбежал. Итоги печальны: хорошая графика никак не может компенсировать потерю самого главного — реализма. Выход есть — дождаться патча. Но на него я не очень надеюсь, ибо если у людей поднялась рука выпустить ТАКОЕ, то лучше уже не будет. Пойду-ка достану коробочку с Nascar Racing 2. Хорошее было время...

In the end, NASCAR Heat isn't quite the all-encompassing racing simulation that Electronic Arts' NASCAR 2001 is, but features like the beat the heat mode make the game worthwhile for any NASCAR fan.

Because of the weak gameplay, most gamers, apart from diehard NASCAR fans, will play the game only a few times. Being behind the wheel of a stock car should be an exhilarating experience, but NASCAR Heat leaves you cold, as the cars just aren't tuned up to maximum performance.