NASCAR The Game: Inside Line Review (360/PS3)

[MMChrisS]

Eutechnyx picked up the NASCAR license a few years ago and released NASCAR 2011: The Game. Unfortunately for them and Activision, it had numerous online issues, bugs, and a single player campaign that only lasted one season. With NASCAR the Game: Inside Line, Eutechnyx looks to fix all of those problems and make a NASCAR game that fans can truly enjoy from the first day.

Read More - NASCAR The Game: Inside Line

[brandon27]

Quote:

It would have been nice to be able to play through a full season with your favorite driver, but that is nothing that ultimately hurts the career mode.

Uh... you can do that. You can play either a single season mode using your created cars, or using any real driver, or you can play a chase for the cup mode, where you just play through the last 10 races and run for the championship. Hard to trust a review that misses a detail like that.

That being said, I don't think its a very fair review at all. Online play, I can't really comment on, racing games online generally are pretty difficult to play since alot of people either are awful at it, or they like to just cause wrecks.

The visuals are outstanding in the game IMO. Cars look great, the tracks look great, the lighting and the effects on the cars are nice, smoke and car damage from crashes look good too.

Commentary is pretty difficult to pull off in a racing game IMO. I dont think it serves a purpose. I'm too busy listening to the roar of the engines, and hearing a car coming up behind you, or inside, or driving by, or hearing my car if it bottoms out on the track.

Bottom line to me... I think the experience this game creates overall offline is that of a great racing game. You can have some pretty awesome races against the AI. It has a few issues, sure, mainly online apparently, but I wouldnt know, but overall the career mode is nice, the paint booth is nice, the racing is fun, and challenging at times.

To be honest, a 5.5 out of 10 is way too negative IMO. For me, without factoring in online, because as I said, I dont play it, I think the game is easily a 7. I'm sure most that have it would agree that the offline racing can be really good, and alot of fun. Maybe a higher rating could be warratned if they had some more features and game play modes, and made the career even deeper, its a big step from where it was last year, but more depth is always great. Just felt like reading this review from the get go was going to be negative.

[Stormyhog]

I think the review score was to heavily based on the multiplayer experience in my opinion. For me I don't touch multiplayer in any sports game just not as fun as offline to me usually to many issues. I am enjoying the game offline and don't regret my purchase at all. I would give it a 7.5 but would get higher if mp ran better. Maybe it's time OS has a seperate single player score because 5.5 makes it seem like it's terrible which it's not overall.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Like Brandon, I'm not an online racer either. I have heard there are issues again this year, but also have heard there was improvement over last year's game and that Eutechnyx are finalizing a patch.

If the MP is really that broken, I can see it putting a hurt on the overall score, but 5.5 seems a bit extreme.

Also, as Brandon pointed out, there are some flaws in the review. You CANNOT use your created car from the paint shop in your career mode at this time. You CAN race a full season as your favorite driver.

As to the game itself, I think it's got some problems but overall is quite a lot more enjoyable this year than the previous title was. The racing is quite a bit better, but the AI can be overly aggressive at times if they don't 'see' you. The 'retry' function helps with those WTF? moments.

Restarts can be weird at times, especially towards the end of a race. A bunch of cars will even try to pit just after a restart which you have to watch out for on the inside, as they slow down abruptly to enter pit lane and it's not expected. I am hoping this stuff gets addressed in the patch, but keeping outside on the first lap of a restart and be ready for anything helps.

Graphics are extremely good this year, I love all the improvements they made. The night races are now very good looking, no more of this starting at dusk stuff with the messed up tones and lighting. The tracks look much better, with proper coloring to the surfaces and brighter colors. It's a colorful sport, and it comes through here.

Sounds of the cars are really good. I like the commentary bits pre-race with the great camera scans of the track, cars, and trophy. Very NASCAR Thunder 2004-ish, but a lot prettier. The spotter is good for the most part, but I need him to warn me more accurately of cars entering the pits under green. The music has grown on me as I've spent hours in the paint booth listening to it while I work, LOL.

SP gameplay is fun this year, the cars have a better feel to them overall. I like that the game is 'racey' this year and the races feel more organic. Not F1 2012 level yet, but certainly improved and going in the right direction. The assists work very well. The gulf in difficulty between Medium and Hard is pretty wide, however. You can rule in Medium and then struggle on Hard. This is not a game-killer, but it could stand to be tweaked.

The Paint Booth is improved this year as well. The interface can be a little burdensome at times compared to last year's title, but it's worth it for Mirror Mode, more fonts, true black, extra sponsors, and better lighting in the garage so the colors represent accurately on the track.

In my single player world of Paint Boothing, single race events, and the Career Mode, I'm having a good time so far with Inside Line. As the game stands now with it's AI quirks in SP and whatever it's MP issues may be, I'd score it for the way I play it as a 7.5/10. Post patch, that might bring it up .5 or a whole point, we'll see how that goes.

[Rules]

Offline has been improved tremendously!!! Yes online is not working properly but outside of some minor bugs in offline that are set to be addressed with a patch, I would have to disagree with this review.

[RUFFNREADY]

This is a good game; and the review gives this game no justice. yes, the MP is terrible; but the devs are working on a patch that could hopefully fix those problems. As for the cpu/AI being overly aggressive is an understatement. lol
checkout what i mean:

And i don't drive on easy!
cheers

[Bubba_Zanetti]

Man, still heavily on the fence with this game. Still have little doubts about some of the silly AI stuff that happens. I only care about career mode -- too many idiots online (except for iRacing). I have NR2003 but I want a console Nascar game with better graphics.

I'm holding out for the patch before purchase.

[VisceralBishop]

Quote: Originally Posted by RUFFNREADY

This is a good game; and the review gives this game no justice. yes, the MP is terrible; but the devs are working on a patch that could hopefully fix those problems. As for the cpu/AI being overly aggressive is an understatement. lol checkout what i mean: And i don't drive on easy! cheers

I can't give a game a better score because a patch might fix the problems I had with it. As somebody told me on Twitter, "Offer a finished product to market, not a work in progress."

[VisceralBishop]

Quote: Originally Posted by brandon27

Uh... you can do that. You can play either a single season mode using your created cars, or using any real driver, or you can play a chase for the cup mode, where you just play through the last 10 races and run for the championship. Hard to trust a review that misses a detail like that. That being said, I don't think its a very fair review at all. Online play, I can't really comment on, racing games online generally are pretty difficult to play since alot of people either are awful at it, or they like to just cause wrecks. The visuals are outstanding in the game IMO. Cars look great, the tracks look great, the lighting and the effects on the cars are nice, smoke and car damage from crashes look good too. Commentary is pretty difficult to pull off in a racing game IMO. I dont think it serves a purpose. I'm too busy listening to the roar of the engines, and hearing a car coming up behind you, or inside, or driving by, or hearing my car if it bottoms out on the track. Bottom line to me... I think the experience this game creates overall offline is that of a great racing game. You can have some pretty awesome races against the AI. It has a few issues, sure, mainly online apparently, but I wouldnt know, but overall the career mode is nice, the paint booth is nice, the racing is fun, and challenging at times. To be honest, a 5.5 out of 10 is way too negative IMO. For me, without factoring in online, because as I said, I dont play it, I think the game is easily a 7. I'm sure most that have it would agree that the offline racing can be really good, and alot of fun. Maybe a higher rating could be warratned if they had some more features and game play modes, and made the career even deeper, its a big step from where it was last year, but more depth is always great. Just felt like reading this review from the get go was going to be negative.

The sentence you quoted was me referring to the career mode. I found no way to use my favorite driver (Jeff Gordon) in that mode. Yes, you can use them in the season mode or Chase for the Cup mode, but that's not what I was talking about. Honestly, that's my fault for bad wording, so I'll try and get that fixed.

If this was a review just for the single player portion of the game, the score would be higher. But when reviewing the game I have to include everything, not just the improved career mode.

I said the visuals were outstanding and I stated it was the best looking NASCAR game to date.

As for the commentary, I know it's difficult to add that stuff in, I even said this: "it's not something that makes the career mode any less fun to play."

Also, the score I gave it was due to the way OS handles review scores, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/SKqH7H

If Eutechnyx keeps going with the license, I know they can make an extremely polished NASCAR game, but when finishing up this review, Inside Line is not that game.

[MMChrisS]

Quote: Originally Posted by VisceralBishop

The sentence you quoted was me referring to the career mode. I found no way to use my favorite driver (Jeff Gordon) in that mode. Yes, you can use them in the season mode or Chase for the Cup mode, but that's not what I was talking about. Honestly, that's my fault for bad wording, so I'll try and get that fixed. If this was a review just for the single player portion of the game, the score would be higher. But when reviewing the game I have to include everything, not just the improved career mode. I said the visuals were outstanding and I stated it was the best looking NASCAR game to date. As for the commentary, I know it's difficult to add that stuff in, I even said this: "it's not something that makes the career mode any less fun to play." Also, the score I gave it was due to the way OS handles review scores, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/SKqH7H If Eutechnyx keeps going with the license, I know they can make an extremely polished NASCAR game, but when finishing up this review, Inside Line is not that game.

To follow on the score point -- most people consider a 7 or 7.5 to be average for a game. In our full 10 point scale, a 5.0 is probably more equivalent to what many are used to being a 7.