NASCAR 07

Well if you want to get technical, three lefts can actually make a right … but now I’m getting WAY off track (no pun intended considering this is a NASCAR review). I’ve been a fan of the NASCAR video games now ever since NASCAR 98, and every year they just seem to add a couple of things in that just make them better. Unfortunately, this year didn’t fare quite as well. Personally, I like the game, but there are some issues involved that may not work so well with some of you.

Anyone who’s played the past couple of NASCAR titles that they have released on Xbox won’t be a stranger to the overall sense of this one. You can choose to go for a single race, a season race mode where you select any of the four available series (Whelen Modified, Craftsman Truck, NBS, or Nextel) set the difficulty, length of each race and even customize the schedule to go for an entire season, Take Dodge Challenges, which are actual events throughout the race year that you run for skill points to unlock Chase Plates (these unlock new tracks, sponsors, cars, etc.), or Chase for the Cup which begins with 10 races left for the season with each driver separated by 5 points … your goal is to win this to unlock Chase Plates and earn more skill points. In addition, these skill points can also be used to upgrade drivers and you can also wager them on races that you do and based on the odds, look to win even more.

The main mode in NASCAR 07 is the Fight to the Top mode, which actually has you following a career in racing. You get an agent who calls you on your Nextel phone (which also comes in handy to get e-mails, messages, or to check the Internet for info), get info about teams and sponsors, and then off you go to the Whelen Modifieds to begin your career in the high-speed world of NASCAR racing. In this mode, you can also go to the Race Shop to view contract offers, change colors on your vehicles from all four classes, or buy a team. You can also check your career status, Hero rating (winning without low tactics like clean passing, sharing drafts with your teammate, etc.), Villain rating (win by underhanded methods … wrecking other opponents, mouthing off to another driver you may have angered, etc.), Prestige (do well on the track and this will increase, allowing you to get offers to drive in test sessions which gets bigger and better contract deals later), or check out your fan support … obviously the better this is the better offers will come up, the more money you will make on merchandise cuts, and you can focus on doing autograph sessions or charity races to help your “public view” for you and your sponsors.

The racing in NASCAR 07 is good, and the cars handle well. You can adjust everything imaginable just about to really give your car the feel that you want … everything from air pressure to gear ratios … to increase handling, speed, acceleration, etc. The game has it’s driver assist option available as always to help you in turns and such by automatically slowing you down or helping stabilize the car, but as you get better you can ease off of that and focus simply on setting it up to what you want to do with it.

While on the track, you have some options available to you as well to really try to capture the feel of real NASCAR racing. The game is primarily about racing, but as we all know from watching on TV there are rivalries and friendships that develop with the drivers along the way (remember the Jeff Gordon/Tony Stewart “almost” fistfight from a couple of years ago?), and in the game you can re-create these as well. The right stick is used for team communication, and at anytime during the race you can call one of your teammates to help you block out other drivers, follow you, or work with you. They can choose to accept or decline these offers, but using them wisely will help gain teamwork amongst your teammates and will help the overall individual and team prestige. In addition, you can even select to take control of one of the other cars to help the team do better or do something like blocking anyways even if they don’t want to. You can also use options to “share the draft” with another driver with a press of the A button to help build up ally status with him by giving him a push while he gives you a pull to help you both, or use the B button to “intimidate” and possibly cause the driver you have targeted to mess up. Sharing a draft obviously builds friendships, and intimidating builds rivalries that may lead to angry phone calls and possibly a one-on-one showdown to settle the issue.

OK … all sounds pretty good in the racing world, but as any of you reading this who have played NASCAR ’06 can see, there’s not really a whole lot that they did different in this version. Each year, the new Madden games, for example, try to do one or two little things to tweak the game and make it better, but NASCAR 07 doesn’t really feel any different than before. In addition, a few drivers seem to have been left off the roster, so while the top ones that most everyone follows on TV are present, some of the lesser known ones that have caught people’s attention may not be available for use.

Secondly, the game really tries to make everything as realistic as possible, but the phone you have to get info usually just consists of messages from drivers or your agent that don’t mean a whole lot. Praising you, just seeing “what’s up,” wondering why you wrecked Jeff Gordon in the last race, etc. You will get some race challenges from sponsors in there which is really the only useful info that you collect as you go, but for the most part I just deleted 90% of them without listening to them anyways and it didn’t make any difference on the gameplay or the outcomes. You can also select to do a NASCAR fantasy draft, but this is just tedious and really isn’t any fun and more than likely won’t be used by the vast majority of you. Good idea on paper, but doesn’t do anything for the game.

Overall, the game will appeal to NASCAR fans, and those of you who are die-hard racers should be Ok with it for a while … like I said I am enjoying it despite the issues that are apparent. For those of you who are more the armchair fans who enjoy watching it when you get the chance, the game will probably feel more repetitive and the excitement will probably fizzle out after a couple of weeks. Add in the fact that the graphics seem really outdated for an Xbox title, 360 being around or not, and you wind up with an average racer that would probably be better suited for a weekend rental if you’re excited about watching the next race on TV.

Gameplay: 7.0
The game is what it is … a NASCAR racing title. The cars handle well, you can adjust settings, run with teammates and for fans, it’s fun to go through all of the ladders of the NASCAR racing series. Still, the features that they put in like agent calls are mostly unimportant, and there’s not a whole lot to this game to really hold the excitement for a long period of time. You can also use the communicator headset to give voice commands to teammates, but they don’t understand or listen well anyways so it makes it kind of pointless.

Graphics: 6.0 
Ok … I’m smart enough to know that the big focus is on the 360 now, but there are still a lot of us loyal Xbox owners out there. The graphics in 07 look jaggy and outdated, and while there are some neat effects like the sparks, night track lighting through haze, and smoke … even these look jagged and blurred out. There are also physics issues with wrecks, like cars piling up on one another and going from 180 to 0 with little to no damage, and the flips or rolls look extremely stiff and make the replays not worth watching.  

Sound: 6.2
Obviously the whir of the car engines is Ok, and you can load your own soundtrack in, which is nice, but outside of that the crew chief says the same things over and over again and the voice messages you get on the phone are usually just dull chatter which will be skipped over by the majority of you.     

Difficulty: Easy
The game is user friendly enough that it explains everything you need to do and it’s simple to get into. Add in the fact that you can have AI assistance and car customization and there’s not a lot of reason that you won’t be able to pick the game up and get into it from the get go.  

Concept: 6.2 
It’s always exciting for me to open up a new NASCAR title, but unfortunately this one didn’t have anything really new in it to keep me that way after about an hour. It would have been nice to have the same features from last year with enough new options involved to make it really good

Multiplayer: 6.7
Multiplayer in a racing game is great to have, but I wish someone would explain to me why EA hasn’t developed a way to let more than four people race each other at the time? Even older games like TOCA allowed a bunch of racers, but NASCAR 07 only allows four to compete online. Major disappointment … period. This could have been a saving factor.  

Overall: 6.5
As stated, die-hard NASCAR game fans will find something to enjoy here, but may be disappointed in the lost drivers and lack of new features. For those of you who follow it when you get the chance and like playing it now and then, this is a good option for a rental but I wouldn’t suggest buying it until you check it out first.