Being a big race fan I was really excited about NASCAR finally returning to game consoles earlier this year. Unfortunately Eutechnyx/Activision dropped the ball and put out a good looking but really subpar racing game, and the patches to hopefully fix and update the game to 2011 has been so delayed that myself and many other NASCAR gamers are pretty much done with the series.
One developer that I felt has always done racing right has been Codemasters. Last year they captured the F1 series and converted me to an F1 fan. F1 2010 really put gamers into the racers life and was able to replicate a race week to the T. Then you get have the Dirt/Grid series from Codies which is just a stunning looking and intense playing game. Bottom line both racing series from Codemasters are the best racers out on the market and while the team thinks they are still the underdog in the racing genre, in my book they are king.
While at E3, we stopped by Codemasters to check out F1 amongst other titles they are working on, and again the team amazed us even at this early stage. However, while talking to some of the development team we discussed the possibility of NASCAR coming to the Codemasters family. While nothing is confirmed and the team is in the middle of F1 2011 development, they did say that they are in early talks with NASCAR and that they are very hopeful to start developing a NASCAR game within the next couple of years. Due to the quality of F1 last year and the awards the game won, they said that the chances of a NASCAR deal are very good and that NASCAR so far seems very receptive.
NASCAR fans, our prayers might be answered. We might finally get a quality NASCAR gaming experience that gives us amazing gameplay and a full and true NASCAR experience. For those of you out there I suggest you give F1 2010 a try, or wait till 2011 hits later this year and see the quality of game the gang at Codies produces, and just see what could be…
**UPDATE** Just a little update since I see this post has created a bit of a stir. It seems Eutechnyx has an exclusive NASCAR deal for a couple of years, this makes sense. However it’s possible that we might hear about where the games will go after them before said deal is over. Another thing, while this is a rumor, it’s great to hear that at least Codemasters is thinking about it, starting to talk about it and open to NASCAR. Also the more us gamers talk about it, and from various forum postings it seems many want this to happen, but the more you all talk about it the better the chances are that NASCAR will give Codemasters a shot.
