It's in the game
INTRO
With all the annoying EA commentary and such EA sports pulls thru agian with a above par racer that cmpetes with anything on four wheels. While exitebike and the crusin' series have action packed fun nascar thunder has arcady simulation that rounds off the spiraling tracks.
GAMEPLAY
Within the thunder challange mode you will go through "moment of the race" challanges that really do push the meaning of challanges. You will push through "the big one" unscrathed. You will finish races under differnt circumstances than what happend during the race. This mode really puts a spin on things. In career mode you get to manage everything down to each color and sponser on your car! I also liked managing a fast and good pitcrew. Sometimes the sponsers expectations are set a little low. For example I signed K mart in. There expectation was for me to get an adverdge of 40th place in the 3 races that i'd run with them. I practily cuased stock car road rage on the first course which happend to be an 100 lap daytona race. I ended in 31st place and raked in some dough. If I didn't run out of fuel on the 38th lap and would have finished the race then I would have been in tenth place since I took most of the cars out of the race. The thunder plate challange mode is hard but rewarding. If you are trying to whoop a friend on there faviort course, this is where you should practice. The season mode is broad but can get a little dull. There is quick race mode also which I play most frequenlty. Unfortunatly you can't bag cash in quick rash so turn off the cuations-they seem pesky and unneeded!
CONTROLS
In the beggining you will find yourself running into walls on accident and rapidly pressing A trying to get away. With some long term practice how ever you can dodge into a turn and then shoot out by the wall without a scratch. The reverse function is pretty easy. I suggest you turn off the cuation becuase it really bogs the game down which eternaly slows the race down and makes it not fun to crash into people which is why I love the control scheme. I just wish I could slide ride over on the qualifying laps,shift into gear with the R button and ruin my opponents chances of ever getting anywhere. I have never really got into NASCAR but when I am invited to go to events at my nearbye spped way i'm there. So naturaly I want the suppense and thrils of real stock car racing. Thunder delivers leaving the impression that you are the driver and you can win no matter what the odds.
GRAPHICS
To say this is a game is almost a joke. I feel like a NASCAR maneger or something! I mean i can custimize everything! Clearly this was made by artistic and creative people becuase when you have great sound,fun,and controls mixed you obviously have to finish the package with the graphics. The cars are so real. While the national anthem planes you get to watch blimps and such hover about the sky while the supporting sound supplys you with a feel of actualy being in the experience. The cars roar with might and pump out steam and smoke like there is no towmarow. The fire effects get a little lame. The pitcrew dosn't help if you haven't hired them yet so be sure to hire them so you can watch them stomp out to the car while giving you odd coments. The cars leave tire marks on the tracks permently through the race and the impact look really blew me away!
SOUND
The booming of the engines is uncomparable. How can you beat an adreanaline rush at 220 mph on a very nice speedway in the midnight while the sound is blazing from behind you? You cant! EA trax set out from the start to bring you songs that really bring life and spirit nascar and while you are not playing the game the songs will repeat over and over in your head.This is about 50% of the reason I bought the game in the first place!
REPLAY
With all the nice modes,graphics,and sound thunder pulls you into the reptitive circut and keeps you there for hours at a time. Ounce you start you must try to stop. It is an addiction. I'll say that much! With all the drivers and courses you can unlock thunder bears the replay value with all of my standerds for a racer. By the way did I say that there were over 70 drivers? No? Well you will be suprised to find out that it does then! This car is worth your money unless you are sick of having to buy a new instalment each year. 8 GAMEPLAY:
Better than any other nascar game.
7 CONTROLS:
It is hard for acouple of hours. After you get some needed practice in by yourself you will be roaring across the tracks with furious speed.
8 GRAPHICS:
The graphics are crisp! I like how the cars look and all the differnt models!
9 SOUND:
The blaring tone and rythem can not be matched by ANY game. Unless it will be anouther nascar thunder!
9 Replay Value:
Worth the time of all nascar freaks. Worth the money and most of the time of everyone else.
8.2 Overall:
Its only competition is nascar:dirt to daytona! Which is a weak game. But I won't get into that now. You should get nacar if you are into amazing physics and dynamic graphics that rule any previous nascar,or even racing games. You shouldn't get nascar if you have a big problem with good games, or hate challange and lots of fun and speed!