The physics of the race cars are surprisingly realistic. Being just a PSP game, I wasn’t expecting much, but the way the cars react to certain situations and collisions is overall, very well done. Drafting and staying in the groove is always the quickest way around the track. If you happen to catch the back end of a race car, you are going to spin them out and possibly cause a large wreck involving several cars. Collisions are interesting, because if it is a serious one, time seems to slow down a bit and the camera angle will change to get a better view of the accident. Honestly, the first time I picked this game up I was just crashing into everyone to see how cool it looks and how realistic the game’s physics really are.
Another great part of the racing is that there is a social element placed in the game. Based on how bad you tick other drivers off, you can form enemies or lose some of race partners. Now, if you just like spinning everyone out to get to the head of the pack, it is going to come back to haunt you when all the other drivers are racing against you. This is a really neat feature that adds a lot of realism to the game. Coupled with the realistic physics, the racing is overall well done.
Nascar looks all fine and dandy graphically…until you actually start a race. The menus and loading screens look amazing, but the actual graphics aren’t that great. The biggest problem is that it looks grainy instead of nice and smooth. Also, being that almost everything is gray, there isn’t too much to look at in this game. But the graphics are at least decent. The lighting looks great, especially on night time races where you can see the shadows of the cars against the bright stadium lights. The colors of the car also add much needed color into the mix.
Luckily the game sounds better than it looks. The soundtrack includes many Southern rock artists and is overall pretty good. However, once you start racing there is no soundtrack, but just sound effects. These include normal sounds such as your engine, tires screeches, and your pit crew that lets you know what’s going on. The sound effects are well done and sound realistic, just like the actual gameplay.
Nascar, for PSP, is overall a very well made game that does work well on the PSP. The amount of gameplay options are just amazing and the racing is quite realistic. When you get down to it though, it is just another Nascar game. If you are into Nascar, it’s great and you are really going to enjoy this game. If not, then you will probably get board out of your mind quickly playing this. If you are a Nascar fan and are looking for a new PSP game, it is going to be worth every penny. If Nascar isn’t your thing, steer clear!
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| The Core Score |
Overall
7.3 |
| Fun |
|
6 |
| Gameplay |
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8 |
| Graphics |
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5.5 |
| Audio |
|
7.5 |
| Replay |
|
8 |
|
| Kid Safe Score |
| 10 Great |
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Nothing at all to worry about in this game. |
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