Recent reviews by Commodore89

Remembering this released recently and is in Early Access state, I do overall recommend this to anyone who enjoys survival games and/or extraction shooter games as it is an interesting blend of the two. That said it is early release and there are some issues popping up but the devs are active on discord trying to fix those, some they already have. I do think there is a little too much reliance on PVP for progression for the average player. However, they are also still creating more new content to add to the game as presented on their preliminary road map that they released as well, so the game does seem to have a good future. That said, if you're the type that can't stand grinding or don't want to deal some bugs here or there, maybe give it a couple months, but definitely look into it again when some updates have dropped.

This game, when it was first released, was anticlimactic at best. However, the developers really do care about this game, they are still improving it to this day, as a new update full of intriguing things is about to release. When this game first came out I probably would have suggested waiting and seeing before buying it. Now, though, with all the updates, fixes, changes, and other improvements, all of which are still being done today, I would definitely suggest buying this game. This game is absolutely amazing, ground-breaking in certain areas, and well worth the price. Add to all of that, this game is now VR capable, which just continues to enliven the game and immerse the player within.

As we are likely nearing the release of the games successor it seems like a good time to write a review, hopefully it will have some impact.

I'll start by saying that I ultimately would recommend this game and am overall satisfied with it, however, there is always room for improvement, and in this case there is a lot of room, I'm talking Talladega backstretch room.

First, and foremost, the physics of the game have quite a bit of adjusting to make. First, we have to ask ourselves, what is physics? Then move right past that reference and realize it's a lot easier to say 'fix the physics' than it is to actually code and/or re-code everything to do so, and I realize this is only the second NASCAR game they have made, which is why I am satisfied, to have everything hashed out by game two would have been astronomically unlikely. Now, to try to be constructive here, the biggest issues I have encountered with the physics, is draft impact, apron contact, and collisions. I will say the collisions are much better than Heat 2 were, the pin-balling is far less present, but there's still room to improve for a cleaner ability to race side-by-side. The draft impact is very aggravating, when you can run a quarter second or more faster than the field but not be able to pull away, even at some short tracks, is nerve-racking and inaccurate. Having said that I realize the new game would likely have the 2019 "package" and so all that aggravating nonsense will be the norm. Finally, the apron contact, yes, hitting the apron can spin a car out in real life, but when you hit about an inch of it and spin like a dreidel during Hanukkah something's not right there, now this isn't the biggest issue, as it isn't an issue at all tracks, so I would not prioritize it, but it's there.

On to the other issue that this game currently has, online gameplay. Now, I have noticed that this game is one of the best in recent memory when it comes to connection stability, NASCAR '15 players know what I mean, so it's really good there. However, eSports, lets talk about this, I know you don't want to, remember the Champions events that led to a trip to Homestead for championship weekend, and the eSports champions event, yeah that. So, PC users were not eligible for the trip or final prize, which severely impacted the amount of players we had to race with online, as many, naturally, went to PS4 or Xbox to go for the trip. Which is understandable, and I also understand why 704 organized the competition that way, but perhaps giving a free PC base game download code to purchasers of the game on PS4 or Xbox, perhaps to be claimed within the first 2 weeks of release, to keep it from getting crazy, or costing 704 much to do, might have been a good way to retain our player base, and also give those that desired a chance at the final prize. Having said all of that, I will go back to the fact that this is only their second game, and the first to have any kind of eSports in it, so there were bound to be bumps along the road, and I expect that in the next iteration the online aspect will see improvements.

Another topic for improvement here is the dreaded AI. I'm not sure what it is in their programming that doesn't see anything to the right of their cars, but it is extremely irritating. Every single time you go to the outside in a turn and come back on a straightaway you get doored into the wall like your not even there. The other problem with the AI is the ridiculous level of dive-bombing, somehow from even a half second back they just won't have to break in the slightest going into a turn and slam into your left rear and spin you, I don't know why, and it's not a constant thing like the dooring is, but it's there.

The final topic for improvement, and possible the most important to my graphic arts brain, is the create-a-car, please for the love of love make the paint schemes customizable, or at least greatly expand the stock schemes you have available, it's hard to be unique when even with a dozen people racing, half have the same paint scheme just with different colors, and it just looks silly. Finally on the note of create-a-car, please please please add more custom numbers, six 28's, four 8's, and three 99's in one race is ludicrous. If it's a licensing issue then please explain to me how NASCAR '15 had every number from 0-199 available? At the very least the should be no issue adding them to the dirt series, it's a fantasy series.

So, that's quite a bit to read, and if you actually made it this far, I'm impressed, but as I said earlier, there's plenty of room for improvement, but I still would recommend the game, it's still far better than most any NASCAR game we have gotten lately and the career mode improvements definitely make that mode a lot funner to play. Most of all, at least they're trying to make a good NASCAR game instead of whipping something together quick to use the NASCAR name and make a few bucks. I hope, and expect, to see a good future for these games, with more and more improvements along the way.

A great game for those who enjoy motorsports, but also enjoy 'b-spec' racing that is more strategy based. The only criticism I'd have is that the demand can be overwhelming to a new player, and the vehicle upgrades can feel like they take forever. So, if you're just playing to have fun and less stress, I'd recommend either finding or creating a mod to make the game more fun to play. Overall, though, a very good game ad I would recommend it, especially if you can get it on sale.