NTG:IL Road Course Progress Report.

So I've been working on my road course setups for NASCAR The Game: Inside Line. There are only two of these right-and-left handers: Watkins Glen and Sears Point AKA Infineon AKA Sonoma. How hard can it be?

Let's take a quick look at how that's been working out:

Nailed it.

#11 Bill Elliott Budweiser Ford Thunderbird

I used the automatic number tool for this mockup of the old Junior Johnson Budweiser/Amoco car driven by Bill Elliott between 1992-1994. It actually worked pretty well in this case.

NASCAR The Game: Inside Line - Headlight Glitch

There are some useful features in the NTG:IL paint shop that weren't there in the previous game. For one, there's an automatic number system that even gives you the option of changing the outline color. You unfortunately can't change the size of the numbers, though, meaning you often have to do numbers manually to make your car look right. The game does include small "contingency" sponsors, which you had to redo manually in the previous game. This is a great addition. As in the previous game, you can turn on or off the manufacturer headlights and custom grill styles. You can also select colors for your wheels, fin, spoilers, etc.

I have noticed a few glitches though. For one, the spoiler cannot be painted or written on. Any attempt to put a design on it will just go through. This wouldn't matter, except the spoiler color selector simply doesn't work very often.

This spoiler is supposed to be white. It reverts automatically to whatever color the main body of the car is.

There are other issues with things "resetting" as well. Because of the number-sizing issue, I've often just turned off the automatic number stickers and made my own. They have an annoying tendency to turn back on at random, turning the sides and roof of the car into an unreadable jumble.

The same thing happens with the headlight stickers, but with a weird twist. If you're trying to make a car from a different era, it's often useful to turn them off. The game will randomly choose to turn them on. As an added, "fuck you," it rotates them 180 degrees, making your car look glitched out.

This:

Becomes this:

Notice how the small squares mid-way up are also glitched out.

Those are supposed to be white rectangles:

Luckily, the problem with the numbers and headlights can be easily solved by going back in to edit your paint scheme, making sure those stickers are set to "off," and re-saving it.

NASCAR The Game: Inside Line - Crash Damage - 01

I decided to put NTG:IL through it's crash-damage paces. The easiest place to do this is at the road courses, where you're much more likely to clip walls, catch air, or go flipping. Excuse the incomplete paint schemes. I found that going on a quick wreckfest was a great way to blow off steam after wrestling with the frustratingly limited paint shop.

At first, the damage seems very realistic, notice how the front is crushed in as the car hits these tires.

 

Unfortunately, you quickly realize that the front-end damage is standardized. Rather than deform in relation to what you hit, it breaks in the same way every time.

Notice how this car has the same front end damage. Still, this is a lot better than the "cheese grater" damage the cars in NTG:2011 would somehow get. Even if the car will deform the same way every time, this is a good step forward. Check out the shower of sparks coming off the car here.

Yes, you can get stuck. In race conditions, this will bring out a caution even if they are turned off. In practice, it will eventually take you back to the Infied Garage menu screen automatically.

 This one is probably my favorite.