CSM Writes:
"The decision to make Jeff Gordon not only the game's cover athlete but an in-game narrator and mentor as well goes a long way towards injecting some much-needed soul into the franchise. Also rewarding is the video footage of other popular drivers laying down challenges and giving advice about particular tracks in the Sprint Driver Challenge mode. The other three modes are a career mode where you create a character and fulfill contract and sponsor obligations to earn Reputation points; a Season mode where you can race a full, partial, or custom season as a NASCAR driver of your choice in either the Sprint Cup, Nationwide, or Craftsman Truck series'; and a "Test and Tune" practice mode. Another new addition is the ability to switch between Normal mode for more skilled drivers, and Rookie mode for novices that enables automatic gear shifting and various assists to make the car more stable."
In the economic hard times of late, many industries have been greatly effected. One, in particular, is NASCAR. Stock car racing is one of the biggest sports in the country. Now I know many people will argue with that because they might not watch NASCAR, but just look logically; the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama holds 125,000 people, the Daytona 500 is one of the most watched single day events every year, right behind the Super Bowl, and sponsors pay millions of dollars just to get their logo on a car knowing that if that car wins, the fans buy the product. But recently, with companies not willing to shell out so much money, sponsors have gone down, ticket sales have dropped and the revenue of NASCAR in general is low. And it doesn't stop there…
I am not entirely sure how licensing works but if I recall correctly GT5 bought the Nascar license but again I don't know if that affects EA drastically or not. You would think it probably is related somehow...
Oh well, they always rehashed the same game every year. Atleast in GT5, fans of these games will be racing in 1080p glory with the most photorealistic graphics as they go round and round.
This week's "What They've Been Playing" features discussion of Splosion Man, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Madden 10, Battlefield 1943, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a Darklord, Nascar 09, Hour of Victory, and much more. They follow that up with some gaming news including the announcement of Sam Raimi as director of the World of Warcraft movie and the record-breaking sales of Battlefield 1943.
Pictures, videos, and little notes from the event. Guests included Tiger Woods, John Cena, Derek Jeter, Reggie Bush, Denny Hamlin, Jameer Nelson Major Nelson, and a random appearance by Jimmy Kimmel's parking lot security Guillermo.
