NASCAR 2008: Chase for the Cup

Review - Anyone for deja vu?

When it comes to the big EA Sports franchises barely a review goes by without at least one small grumble about the never ending cycle of annual releases that offer minimal improvement in exchange for maximum profits. So perhaps it's time stop thinking of ourselves for a change and spare a thought for the team designing these titles, the creative souls who've found themselves contractually obliged to churn out these titles on request. How must it feel to have to come up with new ways to 'do' sports that remain fundamentally the same year in year out? Developers of games like those in the NASCAR series must suffer this headache more than most, while Tiger Woods can tweak the putting controls and offer new courses and FIFA can offer more depth to the management and tactics while ever upping the fluidity of the on-screen action NASCAR is, and always will be, about nothing more than driving a car around a large oval and trying not to crash.

So, when it came to developing NASCAR 2008 for the PS2 there were realistically only two ways it could have gone (we'll ignore the third option that would have been to admit last years effort was as good as NASCAR is going to get on the PS2 and spend the time creating something new and exciting instead), they could have built on the solid 2007 offering, polishing it to perfection and added in a couple more modes or mini games to give gamers the sense that although similar the new 2008 version was really the ultimate NASCAR experience on the PS2. Or they could have realised the futility of it all, actually removed a few of the features from last year's effort, shuffled things around a bit, changed the title and took a few months extra holiday while hoping no-one cared enough to notice. Can anyone guess which road they decided to travel down? You wouldn't have through it possible, even for EA, to actually shorten the feature list from one year to the next yet here's the proof it can happen. Anyone out there who played any recent entry into the NASCAR series and enjoyed modes like Dodge Challenge and Speedzone or the ability to switch into the cars of team mates mid race will find those features sorely lacking in this years edition, their removal all the more galling when you realise they've not even been replaced by anything.

What we are left with is the normal quick race, tournament and career modes as well as the entertaining 'Chase for the Cup' mode that lets you take part in the final climactic ten races of a season in a bid to steal the title. As ever the meat of the game is in the career mode which this year is called 'Earn Your Stripes'. It's suspiciously similar to last years 'Fight To the Top' mode but you cant blame EA for at least trying to make it look new. Although perhaps reusing some of last year's FMV wasn't the best way to keep the illusion alive. As career modes go there's nothing revolutionary here, create a driver and use him to race your way through a series of circuits earning bigger and better contracts and more money as you progress through a range of official NASCAR championships.

Once on the track things continue to look more than a little familiar, the already ropey graphics from last year reappear with little or no noticeable improvement and while the damage modelling has allegedly been improved it's still nothing to write home about. The driving experience itself is fine, it does what it says on the tin and the fact you can still intimidate other drivers and build up mid-race rivalries as well as issue instructions to team mates all adds to the sense of involvement, however it should be noted once again that none of these are new to the series. One new feature that does improve the experience is the ability to save mid race. This means those after the authentic experience of racing for a couple of hundred laps around Daytona can now do so without the need to set aside a whole afternoon to the job.

There's over twenty track included in the game, both real and, well, not real (imaginary makes them sound fantastical) and what looks to be a full roster of licensed drivers and cars to throw around them. For reasons best known to themselves the brains behind the world of NASCAR have seen fit to call their new vehicle design standard 'The Car Of Tomorrow'. Thus ensuring it not only becomes outdated the minute anyone drives it (as it then surely becomes 'The Car Of Today') but also makes it sound like it's direct from a 1950's documentary about how life would be in the future. Unfortunately this new wonder car doesn't hover or make the tea; it is however available here for the first time in a NASCAR game so that's better than nothing. Anyone hoping for a deep and involving online multiplayer experience to prolong the game's life is going to be disappointed, this may be 'only' the PS2 version but how much effort would it have been to include a few more modes and features considering they'd done the hard work by implementing the online mode in the first place.

Much like baseball and American football, NASCAR is another of the big American sports that's failed to really impact here in Europe. While we enjoy the likes of Touring Car and F1 (complete with corners that go both ways) NASCAR has never really been anything more than an American curiosity leaving the sports' pixellated representation similarly marginalised against the plethora of other racing games available. While there is no denying NASCAR 2008 does a perfectly competent job at recreating the sport, it's not a good enough racer when compared to the genre as a whole to tempt anyone but the most devoted of NASCAR fans. Why those loyal fans should shell out for a game with less features and no real improvements over the version they bought last year is another question and one that EA perhaps need to ask their development team when they get back from their holiday.

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