Game Review: "NASCAR Thunder 2004"

Welcome to my Blog. In this opportunity I bring you this publication, on the analysis of the NASCAR Thunder 2004 Game. This is a videogame of the race Simulation genre, Launched on September 16, 2003 by EA Sports, for Windows, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 platforms , Xbox and GameCube. The game features all the teams, drivers and tracks of the 2004 season of NASCAR's first division, the Winston Cup, what we currently know as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. In the presentation of the game is Tony Stewart, who is champion of the series in the 2002, 2005 and 2006 seasons.

Anthony Wayne Stewart, better known as Tony Stewart (born May 20, 1971 in Columbus, Indiana, United States), is an American speed racing driver. He has won titles in several categories of ovals, in particular the NASCAR Cup in 2002, 2005 and 2011, in addition to being second in that contest in 2001, fourth in 1999 and sixth in 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2009. He also owns the team in which he has been running since 2009, Stewart-Haas Racing. The press nicknamed him Smoke ("Smoke"), for skidding the wheels in the races on land and then for melting several engines in 1997. Wikipedia

Within the NASCAR Thunder 2004 Game Modes, we have Single or Race Mode, Season or Championship mode, SpeedZone, Lightning Challenge, Online Mode and tutorial mode. Race mode This is like the Single mode of other games of the same genre, where players can choose their team, pilot and even the circuit they want to run, Configuring the normal options of the track temperature, the rules , the difficulty of Artificial Intelligence, among other things. What's new in this mode is that the player takes control of his team, where we can obtain our own sponsors and garages for the team.

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The season or championship mode, is where we must go through each of the events, with a driver and team of our preference of the 2004 NASCAR season, in which we have to fight for the championship of drivers and teams against the artificial intelligence. Also, different options are configured, such as difficulty, weather conditions, rules, type of restart, among other things.

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The mode that always moves us the most is Online mode, in which a total of 43 real life players can run, as long as they have an Internet connection available. One of the best things in this way is that a support is available, which allows the use of a microphone for the interaction between players. It is also important to note that no microphone use is not available for the Xbox and PS1 platforms. Also, we have available the Tutorial mode with the legend of NASCAR Richard Petty, in which we must follow a series of races in voice of Petty.

One of the modes that one does not consider important, but it is the Test, which has the same function as the Career mode, in terms of the configuration of the options, but there is not the presence of Artificial Intelligence ( IA). The IA of NASCAR Thunder 2004 is one of the best things of the game, it is for her that it is considered a simulator, since the AI ​​run cleanly in the race, without crashing the competitors in a deliberate way, so it makes the game more entertaining and fun for the touch of realism, due to the great competitiveness that are given in the races.

The graphs of the game are not good, compared to other games of the time like Nascar Racing 2003 Season, the textures of the tracks and the pilots are not well made, could have improved considerably with respect to the Game of the year that I speak to you in one of my previous posts. The sound aspect is good, with one excellent sounds of the roar of the engines, both the internal camera (car cabin), and the external one (outside the car). One of the things that are still good, in the aspect of sound is the Spotter, who gives us different important indications, such as lap times, cars in our environment when it is turning on the tracks, the conditions of the car,We should or should not enter pit, among others. The bad thing is that the track engineer and the Spotter are only available in the English language, because NASCAR is a series from the United States. However, there is currently a series in Mexico, but at the time there was not one.

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The events and tracks available in NASCAR Thunder 2004:

1. Daytona 500: Daytona International Speedway
2. Subway 400: North Carolina Speedway
3. UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
4. Golden Corral 500: Atlanta Motor Speedway
5. Carolina Dodge Dealers 400: Darlington Raceway
6. Food City 500: Bristol Motor Speedway
7. Samsung / Radio Shack 500: Texas Motor Speedway
8. Advance Auto Parts 500: Martinsville Speedway
9. Aaron's 499: Talladega Superspeedway
10. Auto Club 500: California Speedway
11. Chevy American Revolution 400: Richmond International Raceway
12. Coca-Cola 600: Lowe's Motor Speedway
13. MBNA America 400 "A Salute to Heroes": Dover International Speedway
14. Pocono 500: Pocono Raceway
15. DHL 400: Michigan International Speedway
16 Dodge / Save Mart 350: Infineon Raceway
17. Pepsi 400: Daytona International Speedway
18 Tropicana 400 Presented by Meijer: Chicagoland Speedway
19 Siemens 300: New Hampshire International Speedway
20. Pennsylvania 500: Pocono Raceway
21. Brickyard 400: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
22 Sirius at The Glen: Watkins Glen International
23. GFS Marketplace 400: Michigan International Speedway
24 Sharpie 500: Bristol Motor Speedway
25. Pop Secret 500: Darlington Raceway
26. Chevy Rock & Roll 400: Richmond International Raceway
27. Sylvania 300: New Hampshire International Speedway
28. MBNA America 400: Dover International Speedway
29.EA Sports 500: Talladega Superspeedway
30. Banquet 400 Presented by ConAgra Foods: Kansas Speedway
31. UAW-GM Quality 500: Lowe's Motor Speedway
32. Subway 500: Martinsville Speedway
33. Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500: Atlanta Motor Speedway
34. Checker Auto Parts 500 Presented by Havoline: Phoenix International Raceway
35 Mountain Dew Southern 500: North Carolina Speedway
36 Ford 400: Homestead-Miami Speedway

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In conclusion NASCAR Thunder 2004, is a great game with great best with reference to the games of the same genre from previous years, with a great creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that make the game very realistic, with great effects in regards to sound. However, its flaw is in the graphic aspect, since for being the retro game of 2003, it does not have the graphs of the current games of NASCAR. The Innovation of the availability of the use of a microphone to be able to communicate in Online mode. In Fin, NASCAR Thunder 2004, it's a good game. I recommend them, I hope you get to Try.

Here are the NASCAR Thunder 2004 system requirements (minimum)

• CPU: Pentium III or Athlon equivalent
• CPU SPEED: 800 MHz
• RAM: 128 MB (256 MB if running Windows 2000 or XP)
• OS: Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / XP (NT & 95 & 2000 Server not supported)
• VIDEO CARD: 32 MB video card with DirectX 8.1 driver and one of the compatible chipsets (NVIDIA GeForce2 + / ATI Radeon 7500+)
• RAM VIDEO TOTAL: 32 MB
• SOUND CARD: yes
• FREE DISC SPACE: 1 GB
• CD-ROM: 8X Speed ​​CD-ROM or DVD-ROM

NASCAR Thunder 2004 requirements

• CPU: Pentium 4 or Athlon XP
• CPU SPEED: 2 GHz
• RAM: 512 MB
• OS: Windows XP
• VIDEO CARD: 128 MB DirectX 8.1 compatible video card (NVIDIA GeForce FX or higher)
• TOTAL RAM VIDEO: 128 MB
• Pixel shader: 2.0
• SOUND CARD: yes
• HARD DISK SPACE: 1 GB
• CD-ROM: 8X Speed ​​CD-ROM or DVD-ROM

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Thanks for your visit. I hope you liked it.

Until next time

No more to say, goodbye to you, your friendly server @franz54.

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