NASCAR Heat Preview
Unless something goes seriously wrong between now and its release, NASCAR Heat will undoubtedly give NASCAR Racing its first true challenge as king of NASCAR simulations.
Hasbro Interactive didn't exactly garner the love of simulation fans when it announced over 18 months ago that it would no longer publish military simulations. Almost immediately, hard-core gamers began berating the company for its decision, usually getting in a jab or two at kiddy software titles like Furby or Mr. Potato Head in the process.
Hasbro Interactive might have given military sim fans reason to howl, but you certainly can't say the same of racing-sim fans. Late this summer, Hasbro promises to deliver not only the long-awaited Grand Prix 3, but also the highly impressive NASCAR Heat. Though the press demo we've been playing lacks several important features that will be included in the final version, it offers a tantalizing taste of what might be the most realistic, well-rounded NASCAR Racing simulation ever to grace the PC.
If pedigree means anything, NASCAR Heat can't miss. The sim is being developed jointly by Monster Games (which gave us the excellent Viper Racing nearly two years back) and Blue Fang Games. But what's more important than the company names are the people behind them. Handling producer chores at Hasbro Interactive is Ed Martin, who was responsible for Papyrus' NASCAR Racing Online series. Monster Games was founded by Rich Garcia (the first employee at Papyrus after it was founded by Omar Khudari and Dave Kaemmer), who wound up working with Martin as lead engineer for the NASCAR Racing Online series. And Blue Fang Games was founded by Adam Levesque, John Wheeler, and Lou Catanzaro - the producer, lead engineer, and lead artist respectively for Papyrus' NASCAR titles through 1998.
With so many Papyrus folks working on NASCAR Heat, you might expect NASCAR Heat to slavishly follow all the conventions set by the NASCAR Racing games. But Martin feels that, as good as NASCAR Racing is, it can be improved on in several key areas. "Papyrus' NASCAR Racing series is a flat-out sim," he says. "The gameplay pattern is pick a car, pick a track, set some options, drive fast, and turn left.
"NASCAR Heat has both a sim side, called expert mode, and an easier-to-drive normal mode. The idea behind normal mode was to open the game up to people who aren't hard-core sim fans - to give them something that's approachable, yet challenging, and make it adjust to them. So, while it's somewhat artificial, it's a ton of fun because for the first time the average NASCAR fan can grab the game controller and have a competitive racing experience out of the box. And it always dangles that carrot out in front of them, constantly challenging/pushing them to get better."
- Hasbro Interactive
- Monster Games Inc.
- Stock Car Racing
- Release: Sep 27, 2000
- ESRB: Everyone
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