Live for It, Die for It, Do Whatever it Takes to Get the Cup in “NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup”

by Louis Bedigian

“We take scenarios from the prior year of racing and go out and talk to the drivers to create situations that will be fun and challenging to the players.”

Sweat pours down your face as you strive to reach your goal.  Your opponents are as fierce as they come, each of them carrying several thousand pounds of pain.  They’re determined to stop you from reaching your goal – not like vicious monsters in an RPG or zombies in survival/horror – but because they too are determined to reach that goal.  Everyone could reach it, but only the one who gets there first will be the one that the world remembers.

That’s the life of a NASCAR driver.

I was in awe of the eye-popping, draw-dropping, awe-inspiring beauty of NASCAR Thunder 2002.  The graphics were so advanced that I could have spent the whole review talking about them.

Now EA is going to blow us away once more, this time with NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup.  Designed for the fans of this evolving sport, Chase for the Cup is EA’s biggest, most ambitious NASCAR game yet.  It’ll be on store shelves in less than one month, but my engine’s already started and ready to go.  Producer Scott Stutsman took us through the changes and additions to this exhilarating series.

NASCAR 2005 introduces a new mode called Chase for the Cup.  What makes it a significant addition to the NASCAR series?

Scott Stutsman: We have tied many elements together this year with NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup.  Out of the box the game is different as you get challenged by Ryan Newman to a street race in Dodge Vipers and by winning you get a ride in the Featherlite Modified Series.  This is the first of 4 series that you will be introduced to in our totally revamped career mode, "Fight to the Top."  You will work your way through the Modified [series], then go to the Craftsman Truck Series, the NASCAR Busch series and finally all the way up to the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.

From there you will ultimately be trying to race for the championship in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.  What makes Chase for the Cup significant this year is that as the sport of NASCAR continues to grow and evolve as we do in creating the game.  They have added what is basically a playoff system to allow the Top 10 guys in the point standings to compete for the championship.  Many times in the past with 10 races to go, there are only 2-4 guys that have a chance to win the championship.  Starting this year with 10 to go, they reset the points for the top 10 so that there is only 50 points separating 1st through 10th.  In NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, we replicate this playoff system in "Fight to the Top," our ever popular Season Mode and also a separate "Chase for the Cup" gameplay mode, where you get to set your starting position in the top 10 and who you want to race against.  You get a different amount of skill points based on where you start the 10 races and win the championship.

Awesome view.

Another new addition is the point skill reward system.  What is involved – how does it work?

SS: This year NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup has incorporated Skill Points as a means for rewarding the player for his on-track performance. Whenever the player performs a certain task with his driver while racing, such as a "Clean Pass" or "Lapping a Car", he will be awarded a set number of Skill Points. However, these same points can also be lost for reckless driving. At the end of any race, the total number of Skill Points earned are stored and can be used later to purchase locked items, like new tracks, drivers, and sponsors. This new system of awarding points for skilled driving is not only more dynamic than in years past, but it also helps enhance the player's driving skills.

Lightning Challenge features challenges that reflect real NASCAR scenarios.  Are the scenarios based on specific events that the players should be familiar with?

SS: Yes they are.  We take scenarios from the prior year of racing and go out and talk to the drivers to create situations that will be fun and challenging to the players.  Many of them are winning situations so the drivers give you insight as to what was happening out on the track.  They are a lot of fun to create and talk about and they turn out to be pretty challenging to the gamers.

Always wear your safety belt.

How does the Lightning Challenge mode differ from SpeedZone?  Is a reward given for completing either mode?

SS: Lightning Challenges put you into situations that NASCAR drivers have experienced and allows you to try to accomplish what they have done or improve on their results.  SpeedZone is a quick playing, fun game mode that also teaches you different skills like passing cleanly and blocking your opponents.

I love the real tracks, but there's nothing like a fantasy course.  There are going to be eight of them in this game – can you tell us anything about them?

SS: The fantasy courses turn out to be some of the [most fun] tracks to race on.  The artist love creating them as we put no restrictions on them.  We just tell them to make some cool environments.  There are 3 tracks that we created for Modified racing.  These are short tracks with some nice banking to allow for some great fun.  We've also created a track that races around the Daytona area that includes paths through the airport that is next to the track along with driving under that grandstand area.  So NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup should provide many different and challenging, but most of all Fun, racing experiences.

!!!!!

Talk about the all-new Intimidator Button, and how it could lead to races against production cars on city streets.

SS: Everyone knows Dale Earnhardt and the competitiveness that he brought to the sport that helped make it what is today.  With the grudges and alliances that we introduced last year, we had functionality built in that would allow you to share a draft with drivers to help create these allies.  The only way that you [could build] grudges was to bang cars out of the way.  You can still do that this year but you can take a more skillful approach with the addition of the Intimidator button.  When you saw Earnhardt in your rearview mirror, you started to pay more attention to him rather than where you were driving.  You can have the same affect on the cars that you are following by activating this button and causing the guy in front of you to get a little squirrelly.  It's really exciting to use this when you are racing against a friend.

Explain why it's important to build a strong fan base in this game, and what players can expect from the autograph mini-game.

SS: In NASCAR 2005: Chase for the cup, fans become a big part of the game.  Obviously as you win races you become more popular with the fans.  That leads to higher merchandise sales which helps you generate revenue to support your team.  As you become more popular, this will also make you a better catch for owners and you will be offered better rides in the upper series.  We've also introduced a cool new mini-game where you get to go out and sign autographs for your fans.  This will help you gain in popularity, or if you choose to ignore the fans, you will lose popularity.

I’ll bet you can’t wait to take these for a spin.

NASCAR 2005 will go online with both PS2 and Xbox Live.  Our engines are ready – give us the goods on this feature!

SS: We've gone out and doubled the number of players that you can race online by allowing you to race up to 3 other people.  You can also add AI cars to help fill out the field.  On top of that, we are now on Xbox Live which provides an exciting environment of gaming and a great platform to enjoy some fun racing competition.

What measures have you taken to reduce the amount of cheating that goes on?

SS: We are constantly looking for ways our system can be exploited and we take this very seriously.  That's the only way that we can work towards providing a competitive environment that people can enjoy and not worry about playing against cheaters.

Thank you for your time.