Xbox

NASCAR Thunder 2004

NASCAR Thunder 2004 is a great update to the franchise and the only solid option for NASCAR fans.

If you're the kind of hardcore NASCAR fans that will revel in the challenge of Career mode, you'll have an absolute blast with Thunder, particularly now that Tiburon has included a ton of in-game help and redesigned the interface to be massively more usable. On the flip side, more casual players will appreciate the breeziness of Season mode, and the game also scores big with smartly designed mini-games that perfectly mix fast bursts of action with helpful instruction for novices.

All in all, NASCAR Thunder 2004 is the Madden or Tony Hawk of stock car racing games. It's as close as you can get to the real thing, at least until the next release, and the sheer litany of options ensures that the game will appeal to a wide range of NASCAR fans.

NASCAR Thunder 2004 is a very good game and a great racing title. Does this mean I am now a NASCAR fan, hell no! But I am now a fan of the EA Sports franchise. They managed to make me like a game that is affiliated with the NASCAR name. I am totally basing my rating on this title being a racing game alone. And as a racing game, it really kicks ass! I am actually going to go back and check out NASCAR Thunder 2003 because EA Sports has made me a believer in this title! If you are a big fan of NASCAR, this title is definitely for your taste. If you are not a fan of NASCAR (like myself) you still need to check out this great title. It is extremely fun to play and highly addictive! And there are so many options that will keep you running back to your videogame system time and time again.

So, what's the final judgement on this title? As long as you don't come in expecting any serious realism in the driving model, there are many ways to play and enjoy this title. It has all the Winston Cup tracks and a bunch of really nice new fantasy tracks, which are oval-optimized road courses (banking, wide sweeping turns, etc). It has a career mode, a season mode, Thunder Plates, the Speedzone challenges, the real-life situation Lightning Challenges, customizable paint jobs, customizable soundtracks, tutorials and training videos, etc. In short, the game is simply PACKED with playing modes and features, all of which look and sound great. If you are unsure about whether you will enjoy driving this physics model and you didn't try out last year's physics, rent this one and see if you can deal with it.

The only area that the Xbox version of this game really pales in comparison to its PS2 brother is in the lack of an online mode -- a pity when the system has the necessary hardware built right in! This could be a big deal, if you are a big online gamer. If you do most of your gaming solo, or with buddies around your living room TV, however, then NASCAR Thunder is rock solid from bumper to bumper.