NASCAR 09 (Xbox 360) Review

Posted by Ty Huston on 08.23.2008

Can EA's latest racing creation change the mind of one of the racing genre's biggest skeptics?




Game: NASCAR 09
System: Xbox 360
Developer: Tiburon
Publisher: Electronic Arts




I’ll come out right off the bat and let everybody knows that I personally hate racing games. This hatred makes it difficult for me to even play games with racing sequences, such as the Grand Theft Auto series. I have never been a fan of the genre, and when I decided to take upon the task of reviewing NASCAR 09, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect; a bunch of cars, constantly turning left, with piss poor controls and mass amounts of boredom.

Right from the get-go, you can choose any type of race you want. You walk through a bunch of guided tutorials and the redneck Messiah himself – Jeff Gordon – walks you through the majority of the menus and anything to do that doesn’t involve revving an engine. While Gordon is sort of helpful, he’s also a terrible actor and can’t seem to deliver the lines from his cue card without sounding like he’s constipated.



That's Professor Jeff Gordon to you.


The customization of the game is great – especially if you like to drive cars that are built for the sake of stomach-churning amounts of product placement. You can damn near slap any sticker or decal on your car from Big O Tires to Bubble Yum Bubble Gum – they’ve got it all. Although I find this level of product placement to be sickening, it is realistic to the sport as cars are coated with just about every kind of sticker imaginable. Therefore, I let it slide.



Realistic, but disgusting at the same time.


Gameplay

As a self-professed “racing game hater” I can attest to one thing – somebody finally got the controls right. Finally. It’s only taken 30 years to get right, but they did it. And I’m not talking about the controls for those of you who actually like these games enough to buy a wheel and pedals, I’m talking about controls for the regular Joe Blow to use.

The reason that the controls work so well for this game is that they have been tightened to a point where you have incredible accuracy but not overkill enough that a simple tap to one side or the other will send you into a tailspin. It’s a quality control scheme that works and works well enough for just about anybody to pick up the controller and do well.

As with any game, there’s at least a small learning curve and within probably an hour I was winning races.



I feel like I’m in Days of Thunder.


There are a handful of different camera angles to choose from and I personally found the cockpit view to be too enclosed so I chose the angle right above the car looking forward. With the tap of a button, you can add your rear view mirror to the top center of the screen anyway so it worked well for me.




Besides the stock cars, you can also drive trucks and indy racers.

There are a bunch of modes to play, the truck series, indy racers, stock cars – plus you get to sign sponsors and make them happy by winning races or other such requirements to keep them happy. Winning races and making sponsors happy helps greatly during the chase for the Sprint Cup considering they affect your reputation and you have to build up quite a bit to keep climbing through the game. Some of the races are quite challenging and the importance of qualifiying high is a must because when you qualify last you don't stand a chance in hell of ever getting to the front of the race. There are simply too many cars on the track and trying to pass that many cars without causing a ridiculous amount of wrecks is simply impossible. However, for a guy like me who typically sucks majorly at racing games, I definately felt a sense of accomplishment for actually placing first.

The A.I. in the game can be a challenge as they really make solid attempts to keep you behind them. I noticed personally that if I followed the typical formats when it came to making passes that the game would hold you back very well, however I am always a more unorthadox player and using crazy strategies to get ahead seemed to work pretty well.
Graphics

The animations are awesome, textures are smooth and the colors are beautiful. Again, I am not a racing fan but this game definitely has some quality artwork put into it. EA can really be hit or miss on these things in their games but they’ve done quite the job on NASCAR 09.

Sound

The sound is good. It won’t be blowing your mind anytime soon, but the sound effects (vroom vroom) and such are clear and the music is … annoying. One second you’ll be rocking out and the next song will be some rockabilly stuff that just shifts the mood back and forth with this game. I think they were trying to pick a soundtrack that everyone would enjoy but it turned out pretty bizarre.


Lasting Appeal

Not my cup of tea, obviously, but for racing fans I can see this being an incredible game. Plenty of modes, options, tracks and races to play – it’s like a hillbilly’s wet dream. Don’t believe me? Go dig up some cheat codes. Only in a NASCAR game can you get a cheat code for a Wal-Mart specific track AND car. Yes, you heard me right.


Fun Factor

Let me tell you, I walked into this game with a very poor attitude. EA, however, have produced a quality game that despite even my personal feelings toward the genre, created a fantastic game that is loads of fun and impressive enough for me to play quite a lot. I won’t be keeping it around, but I’ll remember to give NASCAR 2010 a try.


The 411

Without a doubt, this game is the best racing game I’ve ever played. Trust me, I’ve played a lot. Over the years I have tried to enjoy racing games. I really have. From Pole Position to Cruisin’ USA to Grand Theft Auto – I’ve tried them all. This game gives me hope that some day an absolutely amazing racing game might come out. One that is so realistic it’ll blow your mind. Until then, NASCAR 09 is the closest you can come to perfection in a racing game.

Graphics	8.5	Although the visuals are quality, they are by no means groundbreaking or innovative. Is it quality art? You bet. But then, they only really had to work with cars, a video capture of Jeff Gordon and the tracks.
Gameplay	9.0	A 9.0? Seriously? Yeah, I am actualy giving a racing game an awesome score. I'm impressed. I really am.
Sound	6.0	For what it is, it is. Beyond that, nothing special.
Lasting Appeal	7.5	I'd play it again or do some ranked races online if I have the chance.
Fun Factor	7.0	I don't think I'll ever truly find a racing game that provides me with much fun honestly, but this year's installment has got to be as close as it gets.
Overall	7.6   [ Good ]

Screenshots
All 40 NASCAR 09 Screenshots