NASCAR Heat Evolution

Paul Jeffrey · May 21, 2016

After several below par official NASCAR releases in recent years, the franchise for one of the most popular American racing series returns home to the team behind the original highly acclaimed NASCAR Heat and NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona.

During a recent press event, Monster Games have confirmed a deal to bring the NASCAR licence back to American soil after taking over the licence held by UK development studio Eutechnyxn since 2010. Monster Games and Dusenberry Martin Racing have promised to build the new NASCAR game "from the ground up" and aim to include several new game modes into the title's core offering.

SEE ALSO: Purchase NASCAR Heat Evolution on Amazon

"Challenge Mode" is due to make a return to the game, letting players recreate key scenarios from the previous NASCAR season and play as their driver of choice to relive or rewrite the season’s most memorable moments. Pick up and play races, Career Mode and Chase Mode, where the players race the final 10 rounds of the season in a recreation of the real life "Chase for the Cup" format have all been confirmed as making an appearance in the new title.

Although not much detail has been revealed at this early stage, it appears that NASCAR Heat Evolution has made an attempt to improve the often criticised artificial intelligence of previous offline experiences, with the inclusion of a new "AI and Speed Rating system" designed to adjust the level of difficulty based on your own speed and results. Early Monster NASCAR titles are still highly regarded by some members of the sim racing community for its intelligent AI and many will hope this can translate into an enjoyable and challenging offline experience with this latest reboot of the franchise.

NASCAR Heat Evolution is confirmed for release on the 13th September 2016 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Featuring the official NASCAR licence and containing all drivers of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and all 23 licensed NASCAR tracks.

Do you have an interest in a quality NASCAR title? How do you rate previous NASCAR releases? Did you play NASCAR Heat and Dirt to Daytona? Let us know in the comments section below!

jimortality · May 21, 2016

Are there any right turns in this one?

kamackeris · May 21, 2016

if they can better nr2003 i'm in. played that game to death !!

thatmotorfreak · May 21, 2016

I'm not even going to expect Papyrus quality here, just a decent accessible NASCAR game similar to the old Heat games. I hope the present Monster Games team still know how to make racing games after all those years making games for Nintendo consoles.

I had memories of NASCAR Heat before on my Xbox, all I did was drive the wrong way during Happy Hour sessions.

Robert_S · May 21, 2016

As soon as I read ...........for Xbox One, PlayStation 4...... I lost all my hope

Radu Oros · May 21, 2016

Robert_S said:
As soon as I read ...........for Xbox One, PlayStation 4...... I lost all my hope

Their website says, in the about section: NASCAR Heat Evolution will race its way to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on September 13, 2016. http://www.nascarheat.com/

I guess if they show retailers to select just for ps4 or xbox one, it could mean for PC will only come through Steam and not physical stores like for consoles.

Kenny Paton · May 21, 2016

I did my very first online race with the original version it had good steady netcode and plenty of mods and add on tracks, it was overshadowed by the release of N2K3 but was a good game in it's own right. This could be a winner if the dev team take as much care with the reboot and present us with a complete game.

antirussia81 · May 21, 2016

My first contact with NASCAR (both game and racing series in general) was NASCAR the Game 2013 by Eutechnyx. That experinence put me off the oval racing very effectively.

theravenousbeast · May 21, 2016

This has potential. Dirt to Daytona is the best singleplayer oval experience IMO.

Will Mazeo · May 21, 2016

Oh please don't build from the ground, use ISI 2.5

4 8 15 16 23 42 108 · May 21, 2016

I do not expect this to pick up where 2003 season stopped at. But these days I learned that you won't have new sim quality when the game produced offers a licence for the masses.

howitzer155mm · May 21, 2016

Will Mazeo said:
Oh please don't build from the ground, use ISI 2.5

As good as rFactor/rF2 is, I think we have enough NASCAR games with PS2 graphics.

howitzer155mm · May 21, 2016

jimortality said:
Are there any right turns in this one?

To be fair: Sonoma and Watkins Glen.

Will Mazeo · May 21, 2016

howitzer155mm said:
As good as rFactor/rF2 is, I think we have enough NASCAR games with PS2 graphics.

And? You can integrate the physics engine to another graphics engine, would be a better money and time spent than building it all from 0. And maybe it could be financially very good for them if they do this and send this job "back" to ISI, could end up being a good $$$ deal. The physics engine and the AI alone would worth it for a NASCAR game.
But ofc it looks like a game done for the masses, not expecting much from it.

howitzer155mm · May 21, 2016

Will Mazeo said:
And? You can integrate the physics engine to another graphics engine, would be a better money and time spent than building it all from 0. And maybe it could be financially very good for them if they do this and send this job "back" to ISI, could end up being a good $$$ deal. The physics engine and the AI alone would worth it for a NASCAR game.
But ofc it looks like a game done for the masses, not expecting much from it.

Nah, man, I want a dedicated physics engine, rFactor 2 is already a massive clusterf**k, if anything, I want the iRacing, or NR2003 engine for these stock cars... They've both already done an excellent job. And building from the ground up is always good when done right, when more developers start reaching the same conclusion, it means they've found a good benchmark, and closing in on realism. Hopefully we see something good from this. I personally like the selection of different physics between games, because no one gets everything right, most get certain aspects right while lacking others. The only way to get the best result is to put every physics engine in the world together.

quicksilver384 · May 21, 2016

I have to admin I find NASCAR 14 (I think) prety crap as even on low dificulty the AI is much faster so there is no physical way of winning. So if this has changed then maybe worth a look

Will Mazeo · May 21, 2016

howitzer155mm said:
Nah, man, I want a dedicated physics engine, rFactor 2 is already a massive clusterf**k, if anything, I want the iRacing, or NR2003 engine for these stock cars... They've both already done an excellent job. And building from the ground up is always good when done right, when more developers start reaching the same conclusion, it means they've found a good benchmark, and closing in on realism. Hopefully we see something good from this. I personally like the selection of different physics between games, because no one gets everything right, most get certain aspects right while lacking others. The only way to get the best result is to put every physics engine in the world together.

to me nobody is doing it better than rF2 atm (tho I spend nearly 1% of my sim time in it xD), if only ISI had a bit of a different direction, too much potential being wasted
I hope this could be the "not rF3", let's see. Not a NASCAR fan but racing online with them is sure fun

howitzer155mm · May 21, 2016

Will Mazeo said:
to me nobody is doing it better than rF2 atm (tho I spend nearly 1% of my sim time in it xD), if only ISI had a bit of a different direction, too much potential being wasted
I hope this could be the "not rF3", let's see. Not a NASCAR fan but racing online with them is sure fun

I know how you feel, I love rF2, but I barely play it, I made a few NASCAR skins for the ISI stock cars, but personally I barely drive them. My main reason for buying rF2 was actually the IndyCars, but for NASCAR, I have to be in like a certain mood to drive them. But when I am, it's tons of fun.

I just wish production would speed up, but part of me feels like it will never get better. It just seems like there isn't enough of a fanbase or support to push it. Most rF fans are playing the first one, or have moved to iRacing, or Assetto Corsa.