You may recall my Review of NASCAR Thunder 2003, in which I blasted that game for being too difficult. I then bought NASCAR Thunder 2004 for the PS2, which was not much better, but in both games I enjoyed driving the wrong way and causing huge crashes, which was a strange way of getting at least part of my money’s worth out of the games. Near the end of my time with the 2004 version, I went back to driving normally (actually trying to win), and noticed that the gameplay had improved, so that racing was not as hard as it had been in the past, although it still wasn’t great.

NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, which I bought for the PS2, was touted to be better than the other two, and it had other forms of racing, with modified cars, trucks, a minor-league NASCAR series (the Busch series), and the Nextel Cup series. All these may be confusing for you if you don’t know much about professional racing, but the point of all of them is the same: race a certain number of laps and finish ahead of the other racers (Mario Kart-style, without the cool-looking tracks and special items). This game offered a different career mode than past versions, and it had other gameplay changes that were put in to make racing more exciting. I decided to gamble on the NASCAR series (from EA Sports) one more time. Would Chase for the Cup be better than the Thunder games?

This Review is based on a 0-4 star scale. 0 is pathetic, 4 is excellent, and obviously more stars is better, except in the case of difficulty, which is rated on how difficult I feel the game is.

Graphics: ***

For the first time that I can remember, there are finally drivers in the cars! Yes, we now know that these aren’t Hot Wheels cars being driven around by invisible men, because you can indeed see the drivers in the cars, which I don’t remember seeing before. The drivers aren’t very detailed, nor are they very easy to see, but you can see them, which is an improvement in my book. The cars look much more realistic, and the damage looks better as well (or worse, I guess, if you know what I mean). There are some things that can still use some work… Why can’t there be pit crew members in multiplayer mode? And sometimes the cars look rather unreal when damaged. Still, it’s an improvement on past games.

Sound: ½

There’s one tune called “Thunder”, which is just a tune, with no lyrics, that I like. Besides that, nothing else in the sound department is good. The music is more of that 21st century stuff that I don’t like. It’s not that great, that’s for sure. The guy talking to you in your car? He isn’t exactly that useful for information. He tells you someone’s trying to pass you right after you pass them, which obviously isn’t the case. It is pretty humorous at times when he tells you that you’re making other drivers mad when you hit them (what a surprise!).

Difficulty: ***

NASCAR 2005 isn’t as hard as the past two versions. Nevertheless, it still isn’t easy. One of the hardest things about the game is that one bad accident may ruin your chances of winning (while in the glory days of Mario Kart 64, you could pull out a Lightning Bolt or Star and come back… but comparisons to the excellent MK64 are unfair). Another difficult thing is that sometimes when you try to pass your opponents, you’ll hit them and make them mad at you. Then, in future races, they’ll take revenge on you and try to hit you when you attempt to pass them. That is actually something I really like about this game, because it adds an extra challenge. You can try to drive clean and get your opponents to help you out, or you can drive mean and risk them ruining your chances. I once had a racer named Ron Hornaday in the #2 car in the Busch series run into me when I was in first place in a race, pushing me into pit road, where I was forced to go really slow, going from first to worst. This was a very aggrivating moment, but it adds an extra element into the game that made it more exciting. Due to factors in the gameplay I’ll explain later, you do have a much better chance of winning races or at least staying in them than in past versions of this game, which is something that I like a lot better about this version, and certainly something that makes this game easier than the past versions.

Controls: ***½

The controls are very easy to use. There are two accelerate controls and two brake controls, which is useful. The X and Square buttons are accelerate and brake respectively, and the same goes for Up and Down on the Right Analog Stick (actually, Down also controls reverse, but it first slows down your car if you are going forward). Why does this matter? Because pushing the X button down the whole way, in order to get maximum gas, can hurt your thumb after a while, so switching over to the Right Control Stick eases the pressure on your thumb. The L2 and R2 buttons are of big importance in this game as opposed to previous games, as they control the Intimidator and Share Draft features, respectively. I will explain these in the next section. Overall, the controls are great, though I wish that it was easier to steer, as often it is very difficult to maneuver your car around turns with the Left Control Stick.

Gameplay: ***½

Sure, this game is all about trying to win races, but there’s more to it. Here are the two big new features:

The Intimidator feature lets you “lock on” to a car you are chasing and “scare” them, which makes them mad at you, but also gets them to sometimes move out of your way and sometimes even crash. The Share Draft feature is used the same way as the Intimidator feature, but it makes the opposing racer happy with you, as well as boosting your speed. Why, then, ever use the Intimidator feature? Two reasons: one, if you go too fast behind another racer who’s not moving out of your way, you may hit them, and they’ll not only be mad at you, but you may be slowed down big time. Two, if you are a rough racer like me and like to “bump” other cars out of your way, you’re not going to make any friends. That makes your Intimidator feature stronger, so you can use it from longer distances, while your Share Draft feature is harder to use. The opposite occurs if you decide to race clean and use the Share Draft feature a lot, but that’s a lot harder to do, and you may have to sacrifice a few wins in order to do that.

These new features make winning races a lot more possible, because you can actually make comebacks. It’s an awesome feeling to come from behind a whole bunch of cars by using one of these two tricks. Sometimes the only way to pass an opponent ahead of you is by “bumping” them out of your way. Sure, that makes them upset with you, which can hurt in the Fight to the Top Mode, but if that’s what it takes to win, I think it’s worthwhile. Running an opponent off the road or into the wall may not be acceptable behavior in real NASCAR racing, but it’s awfully fun to do in the video game.

I still wish that you wouldn’t get pushed so far back out of a race when you get in an accident, while if your opponents wreck, they’ll be coming back on your tail within a couple laps or so (now I can make MK64 comparisons!). Still, the gameplay has been improved so much to the point that it’s as if this is a whole new series. The days of EA Sports’s NASCAR games stinking it up are over. This game makes NASCAR racing fun, challenging, and exciting all at the same time, and it starts here with the gameplay being so much improved.

Fight to the Top Mode: ***½

This is the heart and soul of this game, being the “Career” mode of this game, where you take a created driver from the Featherlite Modified series and try to make them the best driver on all four circuits, which are the Featherlite Modified, Craftsman Truck, Busch, and Nextel Cup series. You get offered tryouts with other teams as time goes on, and if you pass the test (very similar to qualifying before a race), you can get a contract with a team in another series. The game sometimes forces you to choose between two events scheduled for the same day: do you want to qualify for a high-profile race and give yourself a great shot at winning? Or do you want to race both, having to start from the back of the field in the second race? This makes for more interesting scenarios than simply going through the schedule. As you make more money, you can buy teams and hire drivers, but it takes a very long time to do so, especially if you want to buy a Nextel Cup team. This mode incorporates alliances and rivals, where everything you do related to other drivers during a race will affect how they think of you. If you use the Share Draft Feature with them and don’t bump into them, they’ll become an Ally, and they’ll return the favor. On the other hand, if you Intimidate your opponents and bump them out of the way, driving aggressively, they’re going to become Rivals, and as a result, they’ll go out of their way at times to run into your car, which usually ends up in your car facing the wall in the infield while the rest of the field drives away. You’ll gain a lot of fans one way or another, if you choose to be a Hero (have lots of Allies) or a Villian (have lots of Rivals). This leads to more money by having more fans, so occasionally it’s not a bad idea to go wreck your opponents if you have no chance in a race. You’ll finish poorly and lose a small number of prestige points, but you’ll also make more Rivals and gain more fans, which ultimately is more important.

So what do I think of this mode? It’s very well made, very deep for what I would think would just be a simple “finish with the most points in each series” mode. This mode even offers one-on-one races with all-star NASCAR drivers at times, where you’ll go head-to-head with an unlockable Production Car on the line. This mode is a lot of fun, and it is quite addictive, which is always good. With the improved gameplay, it’s not only playable, it’s awesome. I do wish things went a little faster, and you could get to the Nextel Cup circuit faster and buy a team faster, but it’s realistic in the sense that it takes a while to do these things in real life.

Freezing Problems:

Unfortunately NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup inherited some freezing problems from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, NCAA Football 2004 and 2005, Madden NFL 2005, and NBA Live 2005. These are all EA Sports titles that freeze at certain times during play, and there are times in which the game repeatedly will freeze in the same scenario. Why? For this game, it appears to be that loading that one tune I like when the end-of-season standings come up after the season’s last race freezes the game, as this has happened twice to me. I haven’t tried since that time, but I plan on trying to find a way to get past this freezing. It’s a shame, though, that such bugs are in these games, and they aren’t isolated incidents. If I just named six EA Sports games with freezing problems in the past two years, well, there’s a tiny pattern going on there, and I don’t think it’s my PS2, which doesn’t freeze that often on other games. Maybe we’ll see a change when I get the 2006 versions of these games on the Xbox, but regardless of system, I still think it’s EA’s fault, and despite the fact that I think they’re the best game developer in the business right now, they’ve got to fix these problems. They’re unacceptable and absolutely ridiculous.

Replayability: ***

This game will have you playing for a while. I wish that there were more “road” courses, or in other words, courses that are like real-life roads the general population drives on every day, fictional or not. If there were more, I think that some of the racing wouldn’t get as old, but don’t think it gets old fast, because anything can happen in these races.

Fun Factor!: ***½

This game is a ton of fun, and it certainly proved to me that NASCAR racing isn’t boring. Well, actually, maybe it is for most of the average race in real life, but in the video game, that’s a different story. This game delivers the excitement of winning that you couldn’t experience too often in the previous versions of the EA Sports NASCAR games.

OVERALL: ***½

This game is the most improved I’ve ever seen a series get in one year. One year, it’s hard, frustrating, and boring, and the next year, it’s challenging yet possible, exciting, and thrilling. This game is for all three consoles, and since I bet it’s about the same on the Cube, it would be the best racing game available on the Cube right now (the Cube doesn’t get the Gran Turismo series, although I played Gran Turismo 3 on the PS2 and found it to be vastly overrated anyway). It’s a must-buy for any NASCAR fan, and for that matter, any racing fan as well, as we haven’t seen many good racing games since the N64 (though we’ve seen our share of bad ones, unfortunately). What an improvement!

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