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Electronic Arts still runs
this franchise to this day, and it all started with this
game way back in 1998. Well actually that’s not strictly
true, because this is actually a sequel to Andretti
Racing, but with a change of licence, so really NASCAR
’98 was the second game in the series.
I’ve already reviewed Andretti Racing on the site and
awarded it a respectable 7/10, whilst there were many
flaws to the game, it was huge, and in career mode it
became engrossing, so what did EA do with a year to
improve the game? I’ll tell you what they did, they
ruined it.
With the Andretti dynasty not involved out went the
comprehensive career mode of the original, out went the
Indycars, cos obviously with the NASCAR licence they
could not be featured, and out too went half of the
tracks. All the good tracks because they belonged to the
Indycar circuit. All of the interesting street circuits,
gone. I understand why this had to be, this is an
official NASCAR licence, and it is faithful to the
NASCAR season, but in effect EA have thrown away half of
the game, and sadly the half that they threw away was
the good bit.
So what are we left with? A load of boring ovals, that
all play exactly the same way. I love watching the Good
ol’ boys on telly, I really am a NASCAR fan, but an
exciting videogame it does not make. Whilst there are
loads of circuits, all you ever do is steer the car
left. This is tedious enough, but the car handling makes
the game about as much fun as drinking vomit. The game
handles worse than Andretti Racing did, in fact the
handling is some of the worse that I’ve ever come across
on the Saturn, and I’ve played Scorcher.
The music is dreadful, as you’d expect, the sound
effects will irritate rather than improve the
experience. I really am struggling to find anything to
say that positive at all….there must be
something…hmmm….oh yes, it comes in one of those hard
backed EA games cases. They are very nice boxes, very
strong, your game and sleeve won’t get damaged. I really
can’t think of any other redeeming features. It had all
of the official drivers in it, which was nice, and
seeing as NASCAR drivers never seem to retire many are
recognisable even today, but really the Saturn can do so
much better than this, and so really can you.
I bought this game so that you don’t’ have to.
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