NASCAR Thunder 2004 Impressions

At today's Camp EA press event, EA Games had NASCAR Thunder 2004 on display and gave us a look at some of the game's new features, including the new "grudges and alliances" feature, as well as new graphical functions that allow for a much more realistic NASCAR racing experience.

NASCAR Thunder 2004's career mode lets you race against more than 60 of the best and brightest NASCAR has to offer. You'll start the game with a single car and a basic pit crew and then work to try and better your team by earning upgrades through winning races and gaining sponsorships from different companies. Cash management, as well as research and development, will be important factors in managing your team, as mismanaging your cash flow or not earning enough upgrades will cause your status to diminish significantly.

NASCAR Thunder 2004's gameplay is designed to be for the everyman NASCAR fan, so even beginners can pick up the game and start playing it right out of the box. One of the most significant new features added to the in-game racing is the grudges and alliances feature. Grudges and alliances revolve around the rivalries and friendships that are so prevalent in modern-day NASCAR. For example, when racing, if you have a racer who is an ally, he will attempt to help you out periodically by cutting off other racers, or even wrecking other cars. On the other hand, if a racer takes issue with you, he will try to keep you from winning the race. Grudges and alliances are tracked on a positive and negative point scale of 1-100, and you'll be able to quickly determine who is on your side by glancing at an icon that appears above rival and allied cars.

Graphically, NASCAR Thunder 2004 seems to be a fairly drastic improvement on recent installments in the series, since the game has a number of new effects and design elements that really enhance its realism. The game features a completely redesigned particle system, which in turn creates much more realistic smoke, fire, water, and so on. The game also features greatly improved lighting effects that allow for dynamic skies and much better-looking shadows across every conceivable lighting scheme. Even crashes look pretty spectacular at this point, since the game has lots of real-time damage effects and some pretty amazing crash physics.

NASCAR Thunder 2004 will be online for the PlayStation 2, making use of the EA Sports Online functionality. The game is set for release this September on all three consoles and the PC.