Top Row Seat - NASCAR 99
Dateline: 11/18/98Today the long awaited sequel to Papyrus' NASCAR Racing hit store shelves. I've had a chance to turn some laps this evening and here's what I've found during the first couple hours of racing.
MegaByte Shock
First of all, before you head off to the store make sure you have some free space on your hard drive. The full install of this bad boy consumes 255MB (!) of drive space. But with two distinct physics models (one for the trucks and one for the cars) as well as 35 different thoroughly accurate race tracks covering the complete Winston Cup, Busch Grand National and Craftsman Truck Series schedules (with the exception of Daytona and Indianapolis Motor Speedway) I guess I should have expected it to be pretty big.
Cool Things
Number one on the list here is the fact that there are 35 different race tracks in the box and two very different ways to drive them. The cars drive very much like the cars did in NASCAR Racing 2 which allowed me to swing into the seat at Homestead (a track I'd never driven before) start dead last and finish fifth in my very first race there.
However, the trucks are a whole 'nother ballgame. There is most definitely a learning curve involved in figuring out how to coax one of these monsters around a race track. I defy anyone to hop into a truck and keep it between the fences at Louisville without first earning hundreds (if not thousands) of laps of experience first.
Disappointing Things
At the top of this list is the lack of "Wow." Now don't get me wrong, I love this game and I believe that it is a MUST for any race fan with a computer, even if you already have NASCAR Racing or NASCAR Racing 2. However, the difference between this version and the last version just isn't as stunning as the improvements from the original NASCAR Racing to it's sequel.
And one other disappointment was the fact that Nascar 99 has exactly the same spotter, saying exactly the same .wav files from NASCAR 2. I would have liked to hear a few surprises from the spotter so as to keep the game a little more fresh.
Overall
Even though NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition isn't the jarring revolution in gameplay or physics model that I had hoped for, (or maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough in my "dump it in and hope it turns left" driving style to pick up the nuances) this simulation is still absolutely worthwhile. 11 never before seen racetracks and the new feel of the Craftsman Trucks singlehandedly make it worth the $0 (after competitive rebate) upgrade.
Nice Touch
If you take the time to watch the credits (and pack a lunch because the disclaimers run for over ten minutes) you'll see one single line run by that dedicates the game to "The Langinator" Mike Langston. Mike is a legend among cyber-racers.
He wasn't the fastest guy to ever race his computer, but nobody loved it more. Thanks Mike....
