Nascar '15 Victory edition review

I just couldn’t resist the urge to play a NASCAR game again. It only cost 9 euros on steam but it’s well worth it. This review will tell you what you need to know… TO GET UP TO SPEED ON NASCAR ‘15 VICTORY EDITION… Sorry for that Donut media joke…

So just like last time with HP 2010, I’ll have some criteria to judge the game on… except a NASCAR game is a different world entirely so I had to change some guidelines. So for this review, here are the following criteria :
-Career mode
-Gameplay (this includes driving physics)
-Graphix and sound

Just like last time, multiplayer can’t be reviewed because I haven’t tried it yet but I assume it won’t be all too different from the usual gameplay. Every category will also get an individual rating, and at the end of the review, a total score will be given.

Without further ado, let’s begin with the career mode.

NOTE: Don’t be shocked when your car doesn’t drive when you first play the game. The steam controller interface is the cause of this… No idea why. It’s mandatory to disable said interface in order for your Xbox or PlayStation controller to fully work.

So career mode starts with you taking your own car for a spin around Indianapolis. You have to do 2 laps so you can get used how the car drives, get introduced to your crew chief, spotter and get informed about the racing rules.

After the shakedown, you start your first career race, being the Duel at Daytona. Yes, that’s right. The career mode integrates the full incarnation of a NASCAR season, including the All-star race. After loading the event, you will have to set up your race weekend settings. Make sure you get it right from the first time because you can only do that once per weekend.
Race weekend settings include driver difficulty, race length, qualifying length, flag rules and wear ratios for fuel and tires. You have a good amount of liberty so every kind of player can enjoy the career mode in his or her way.

After finishing your first race, you will acquire a random sponsor who gives you an additional credit payout so you can develop your race shop and car. Money is something you’ll badly need because your car is painfully uncompetitive at 75% or higher difficulty. Your best chances for victory with your starter car are at the superspeedways so make sure you give it a 100% at those races to get your car upgraded ASAP.
To give you an idea of how bad it is, I qualified 2nd on Daytona and yet with the same car I qualified usually at the back of the field (sometimes 40th or lower) on the intermediate ovals. Same or higher difficulty as well and yet I feel I’m giving it maximum pace in qualli. The only thing that saves my races are my pit stops but even then other drivers quickly make up lost ground.

Starting from your next race, your sponsor needs to be placed on your car on any of your car’s bodywork… That’s right, you can make your own car paint schemes and they get carried over to single race as well! Be aware though that your favourite race number may be already taken. That’s why I hate Mister AJ Allmendinger for taking my precious #47.
Although I absolutely love that you get to make your own race schemes, for some players it might be annoying to make them. It would have been nice to have the option to just have a themed livery from said sponsor. The game does have some preset schemes for your car so you only have to apply the sponsor on them.

As stated previously, your car is painfully slow on anything but the superspeedways, and even on those, it’s RNG if you win or not. You’re already 260K in before you can get actual upgrades for your car. What is nice however is that certain upgrades change the visual layout of your race shop so bonus points there!

Review score for career mode: 8/10

This is my first paintscheme i made myself... You might reconise a certain team for another racing game...

Next up, gameplay.

First a word on the driving aspect of the car. On a controller, it feels quite solid with no hiccups. Cars do slide out if you push them too hard, which will result in you slamming into the wall and possibly causing a caution.
All tracks, whether they are ovals or road courses, feel different and require a change in driving style. I absolutely love that.

Racing dynamics and atmosphere are absolutely ON POINT. The fans cheer, going 3 and 4 wide feels super scary, qualifying on pole on the superspeedways feels like a bad position on the starting grid and cautions pitstops feel quite strategic. There are even pre-race ceremonies with Mike Joy and Darell Waltrip doing a prelude on the race. DARELL EVEN DOES HIS BOOGITY BOOGITY BOOGITY ON THE RADIO AT THE START. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve played a racing game that nails this subject this good.

One mechanic I absolutely love is the engine temperature VS drafting management. Every race on my career mode that isn’t on a superspeedway usually featured engine damage because of this mechanic. And once you’re engine is damaged, YOU WILL see the difference.

Maybe one small negative note is that getting cautions is a bit difficult. Back in NASCAR ‘08 (my first and only NASCAR game), cautions happened whenever someone spun out. In ‘15 VE, cautions don’t trigger that easily anymore. No biggie, just something I noticed.

Review score for gameplay: 10/10… I just can’t give it a lower score.

Graphix and sound up next…

Can’t really say much about this. The game looks nice on a 5 to 6 year old laptop on near max settings.
Sound is also very nice, especially the engines when they accelerate.

One thing to note is that there is some sort of glitch when you let the game open and you open up your internet browser, the game it’s menu’s drastically minimize. This can easily be fixed by going into the graphics settings and increasing the resolution.

Nothing mindblowing or really negative about this subject: 7,5/10

Total review score: 25,5/30

Only 9 euros for this good of a NASCAR game? That’s a good deal.
If you want a NASCAR game that isn’t made by 704, I recommend buying it.