This is aimed at arcade console racers, not sim-heads, so I can forgive the compromise on realism, but the way this title is implemented actually makes it much, much harder to drive smooth consistent laps using a standard XBox controller. Turning the driving aids off makes this even worse by making the car very prone to kicking you into massive oversteer, replete with tire smoke. In some cases you will have to REALLY squeeze it, or you'll rocket into the corner too fast, fail to bleed off speed, and push up the track either into another car or the unforgiving wall. This means that instead of just lifting and feathering the throttle to get through the turns, you usually have to brake.

In real life, the wall of air you're plowing through, the engine braking effects and of course tire scrub all conspire to bleed off your speed fairly quickly during cornering. The cars refuse to scrub off speed the way they should. In fact, every gripe I had with last year's physics engine is still there. For those who are expecting this title to break any new ground in realism for a console simulation, you won't find it here. On the other hand, you can use custom soundtracks from your XBox hard drive if you don't like the EA 'Trax' provided. Notably absent compared to its Playstation 2 counterpart is the online mode, directly attributable to the online cold war being waged between EA and Microsoft, to the detriment of gamers everywhere. Coming back this year are Thunder Plates, Career Mode, Season Mode, and Lightning Challenges. You get various tasks at different levels of difficulty to complete, such as blocking when you have the lead, passing cars cleanly for points (and losing points for contact), etc. Then there is Speedzone, the NFL Minicamp of NASCAR 2004. The other goal was to make more honest drivers out of all of us, by making us pay for using other drivers as bumper cushions for us to bounce off of instead of using discipline and skill to hold our racing lines. The goal behind this feature is to finally deliver on the promise to make you feel like you're racing against flesh and blood human beings, and not just AI drones plod along in circles for the duration of the race. The most notable addition to the console versions is 'Grudges and Alliances'.

Nascar Thunder 2004 Pc Full Game