The NASCAR racing series is the most popular form of racing in
America. Papyrus has made quite a name for themselves with
Indy500, Indy Car Racing, NASCAR, Indy Car Racing 2, NASCAR
2, Grand Prix Legends and NASCAR 1999. All of these games
were cutting edge racing simulators when they were released.
Can there be a new computer-racing simulator that truly captures
the NASCAR magic? How does N3 stack up, compared to
Papyrus previous offerings?
A very annoying problem with N2 and N99 was the fact that the
DOS versions of these games (a requirement for multiplay) do
not support the popular force feedback steering wheels that are
now so popular. N3 not only supports these devices, but delivers
among the best Force Feedback effects in a racing simulator!
You can feel the steering wheel get light when the front tires lose
grip. Another effect modeled is very believable rumble effects in
the grass. The best effect though, is when one of your good buddies
slams you into the wall or when he bumps you to let you know he
is there.
The graphics are simply awesome. The game supports either
3DFX/Glide or D3D. Smoke effects are finally modeled properly,
though the sparks when you scrape the wall are somewhat lacking.
The general detail of the cars with anti-aliasing smoothing effects,
and tracks with the inclusion of racing status lights are top notch.
A graphics setting of 800x600 with a full field and maximum detail
is no problem on a P2-450 with a 12MB Voodoo2 card.
N3 was built largely on the N2 game engine. Many annoying "features"
in N2 are seen in N3. Yellow flags are the major problem with the game.
Namely radio commands which do not make sense, black flags given
when no black flag infraction has occurred and the field coming to a
complete stop as you enter the last turn as the race restarts. On the
plus side, N3 now sports a 43 car field, even on short tracks. This
traffic makes for a wicked and awesome driving experience all at the
same time. You need quite a bit of patience to drive through the field.
You will see cars that randomly spin out, and other cars that randomly
start smoking.
The sound has been tweaked since N2 (which many considered weak)
to produce a very pronounced stock car sound. The skid effects and
crashes have also been tweaked and sound much more believable.
The "spotter" is back this time with more speech and is even more
accurate than in NASCAR 2. So when he says you are "clear" you
really are clear.
How is the multiplayer support? The game lacks straightforward
modem-to-modem play. You're limited to IPX (Netware), TCP/IP
and Internet. So while you may be able to connect to your ISP and
simply create a race, it just adds to the confusion when all you want
is to race with a friend. Because of this limitation I have not tried the
multiplayer option. Reports on the Internet range from awesome to
very poor and full of network warps. So I think it may still be too early
to tell how solid the network play is. Bear in mind that the NASCAR
Racing Online Series (NROS) is very popular, and Papyrus games
have been known as the very best online racing simulators.
There is not a better NASCAR Simulator on the market. Graphics,
sound and force feedback effects are all topnotch. If you can get
past the yellow flag problems, N3 is a "must have" for the PC
stock car racing enthusiast.
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