NASCAR 08 for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

This game is average, the game play is definitely NOT diff. from any other recent NASCAR EA titles. I DONT understand why EA who has made million's of dollars off of NASCAR, could'nt have put a little more time and effort in this GAME. EVERYTHING seems the same except for the NEW earn your stripes, which in my opinion is a waste of time, b/c I dont know anyone who can compete with the time trials they give you. REALLY all in all, if you OWN Nascar 2007, 06, 05...just continue to have fun playing those, b/c this ONE is HARDLY any different, they dont even TELL you DRIVER names in this NEW VERSION. Bottom LINE this GAME should've been much better, I waited all this time for nothing................

Best NASCAR game yet!

let me preface this by saying i am not a NASCAR fan but wanted to give this game a chance because the franchise has been so highly received in the past. I certainly don't fully understand the nuances of NASCAR racing, but it didn't take too long to get the hang of this game.

PROS:

1) can be fun to bully a bit on the track and sacrifice precision and making allies for aggressive driving and 1st place finishes.

2) easy to tweak the car to perform better for your individual style

3) fun to build your character and race up ladder of circuits

4)the driving controls as well as developing a driving style took only a full race to understand.

CONS:

1) umm, you drive in a circle. the entire game. i suppose i should've realized how boring that can get...

2) had DIRT for the xbox360 at the same time and found more often than not, i got tired of NASCAR and switched games

3) not enough ways to upgrade car and as you progress, upgrades get too expensive too fast

4) some of the game play features were awful. if you get spun out early in the race amidst a large group of other racers, you sometimes need to reverse and reset by that time, you can already be down too much to recover

5) i reached virtually every "medallion" yet only was credited with doing so a fraction of the time. For example, if a race calls for you to pass 20 cars (in a field of about 22) i figured i'd just skip the time trials and start last. Every time i did this and won (meaning i went from 22nd place to 1st), i never received a medallion for this accomplishment

6) if you get far enough ahead early on, you basically drive in circles by yourself for sometimes 20 laps. drove me insane and i was ready to punch a wall.

7) seems to be only about a dozen different courses. maybe it's realistic but again, it was like fingernails on a chalkboard to me:

i know many people LOVE this game and i honestly gave it a real chance, but in the end, i was just driving in circles. BORING! rent DIRT over NASCAR!!

If you kinda liked NASCAR 07, then you will like this game a little better. But the replay value is not as high unless you are a NASCAR junkie and you can't get enough NASCAR, then I would recommend renting it. But don't buy it until it drops to about $20 to $25 bucks. Also I like that you can sign short contracts (in Earn Your Stripes mode AKA Fight to the Top) not like the last 2 games that you had to stay with that team until the end of the year. And if you sign a long contract and it would run into the next year, it will end at the end of the season and you could resign or find a better offer. Hope this rambling helped.

This game is awesome. They changed the Fight to the Top Mode to something called Earn your Stripes. It's almost the same but it is just as good. Anyways, the graphics are next-gen, The sound quality is excellent, and the gameplay is awesome. There isn't Carl Edwards though in the game! YOU SHOULD BUY IT!

I hope any racing game fans like myself will take this warning. I will start by admitting that I did not even make it far enough to even try the game play and after 2 minutes in the options, I didn't even want to. I am warning anyone who has a similar driving style as me to STAY AWAY!! This is for one simple reason: controls. I have refined my skills using the right analog stick as my throttle and brake and have no intentions of changing. Nascar 08 has 4 default control settings, and every one of them uses the right analog to look around. There are a couple of racing games this could be handy for, but in a Nascar game, where the majority of players already know ALL of the tracks, this is a wasted feature. I'm sure someone will call me a wuss for being unwilling to change, but i shouldn't have to. If you use buttons for your brake and acceleration, go ahead and give it a whirl. But if you're like me and need to be able to use that right stick, steer clear, because EA doesn't care about you, me, or the rest of us.

Thought this would be a pretty fun game, even for a novice racing gamer, but it just didn't have the zeal I was looking forward to. The sprint cars were fun, and the original courses were definitely the best feature. Come to think of it, any of the tracks that had more turns other than just LEFT.
Having said that, I did see a real NASCAR race (Pomona 2007)and it was one of best things I've ever seen, felt and smellled. Yes, smelled. Race fuel, I say. Ya gotta go for yourself to beleive it.
EA sports seems to not have the best graphics IMHO, in all the games I played from them... but if you really are NASCAR fan, you would love the little details, such as adjusting tire pressure and how many turns on the suspension, etc...I say go for it.

the game had very good graphics but was a little hearder then nascar 07.But over all I rate it a 7!!!!!!

This games graphics are horrible...I expected much better from EA sports but they dissapointed me...The physics are also not up to par. Paint schemes look good but custimization and the career mode is a bust...

i'm not a huge racing fan, but i thought the game was ok. if you are a racing fan you will probably love it. the steering is a little out of control for me, but the graphics, and game modes are good...

Good game, fun to play and addicting. Somewhat realistic team offers to join. Even the opposing drivers seem realistic and make you wonder what the heck they are doing. I loved driving vehicles sponsored by Richard Petty driving experience.

im not a nascar fan. but it was a ok game. was just wishing for better crashes.but i got bored quick.

I haven't been satisfied with the way the NASCAR series has been going. I like the career modes, and the best one of them was the 03 nascar thunder. They keep taking control away from you in the career mode as it pertains to your team. The AI is tougher, the gameplay is excellent, just all the things that I know i have loved in the past versions with career mode, are gone. They need to bring it so you can basically operate your own team, contract drivers, add cars, contract cars, manage cars, sponsors. Don't see why they haven't done that much yet

ea has done it again. they screwed up another game. and im getting very upset with them. they are dissapointing me with the 08's(except for madden) especially nascar. r2 is to accelerate now, and it feels like xbox on ps2. its completely ridiculous. and the game is WAY more pressure sensitive. however, it is more realistic when u crash, which i enjoy doing. but u liked the nascar's in the past, u might be disappointed with this. however, if ur a hardcore nascar fan, u might enjoy the challenge nascar 08 brings.

This game is great. The only reason i didn't rate this a 9 or better is my game stopped working with in 2 weeks of when i rented it. So it would be best to rent it before u buy it.