Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Sep 14, 2019

  First Impressions after about 90 minutes worth of play: Pros: -UI update is great -Now feels like an actual challenging Nascar game, probably the best since Nascar 05 -Draft partner mechanic works, the lead of your train will try and make moves through the field at Daytona -goal times are a challenge AI is not afraid to door or bump you, even if you are not rivals with them -you can and will break loose if you are careless -the miniscule adjustments to your setups actually matter as much as they should -you can now more easily dump somebody in front of you by making slight contact instead of plowing them and they barely falter from their line. (not that I race dirty, but can be effective for bump and runs which were hard to do in previous titles) -Your name appears in place of other driver's names on the vehicle itself, even when you are driving somebody else's car/truck. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS, 704! Cons: -WE NEED MORE SPONSORS AND CONTRACTS WITH THEM! -Slight sound bugs whenever you wheel hop or spin into corners with more worn tires or with other AI around you -Spotter volume seems really low even for turned up high, barely able to hear Jeff Gordon over the engine -AI is sometimes too aggressive Summary: Easily the best Nascar title since EA's 2005 Chase for the Cup. If you have been wanting a proper challenge in this franchise, this is the best game yet and will highly reccomend to any fan of the sport. Did I mention Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are in this game? Please keep up the good work, 704, you have done nothing but greatly improve this series and are quickly bringing Monster Games back to their prime Dirt to Daytona form! (all I would like is some extra career depth, please!)
• gamedeal user

  Sep 14, 2019

  This game is a huge upgrade from any of the previous NASCAR Heat Series. Thankfully, the devs have really upgraded not only the visuals (clearer graphics, better anti-aliasing, much better lighting and the game no longer has a yellow filter look to it) but also the sounds. The tracks look great but the spotter can sometimes confuse you or be a little late in his calls. Pros; Better graphics and visuals Better sounds (sound reverbs off the walls when close by) Tracks look great, and now the sky has character to it, not just a black looking overlay at night All tracks have bumps in them and the car reacts accordingly Picks up your wheel and controller from start up, not much setup needed Physics are great. You no longer spin out if you slightly touch another car or wall Now has a track map! Cons; For a PC game, you would expect more graphics customization. Currently you can only adjust AA, Bloom and Shadow Quality. Please give us the option to turn off the motion blur effect which can sometimes make it look strange No TV style presentation still Day 1 DLC at an additional cost Still no caution replays. Crashes play a huge part of NASCAR so this should be a focus Some frame rate issues even on a high end PC Overall 8.5 out of 10 currently. Huge upgrade from the previous games and best NASCAR game in atleast 10 years. Series is certainly on the right track
• gamedeal user

  Sep 15, 2019

  NASCAR Heat 4 is a game with revamped physics and graphics from its previous title, heat 3, still lacks an emmersive racing experience that so many of us long for, but is still a very fun, and welcome addition to the nascar video game family 9/10
• gamedeal user

  Sep 16, 2019

  note: See the very bottom of my review for a helpful tip for gamepad users! NASCAR Heat 4 is a big improvement over the last game. The developer has addressed some of the biggest concerns from Heat 3, including AI, physics, and sound. Pro: - nice graphics upgrade from Heat 3; texture work on the tracks this time around is phenomenal. - superb audio; they went from "barely acceptable" to "as good as it gets" for stock car racing games. All 4 series have new sound samples and the whole audio engine was redone with FMod. - AI is SO good this time around. Their lap times fall off with tire wear, they run multiple lines, they can lose control and spin just like you can. They also don't send you spinning if you bump them like in Heat 3. - career mode, largely unchanged from Heat 3, is still a ton of fun to play. Does have some small fixes such as the manufacturer matching the real sponsor and such. - just like Heat 3, excellent value for money. Dirt late models, Gander Outdoors trucks, Xfinity, and Monster Energy cup cars, all with the real cars and drivers, and 38 tracks. 38! That's awesome no matter how you slice it. Con: - still no caution replays (a replay of the incident that caused the caution to come out) - still no race day atmosphere like announcers, "drivers, start your engines", or things of that sort (minor) - gamepad controls need a little tweaking to feel good IMO. Once you change some settings it's just fine, but out of the box it doesn't feel very good. - wheel support is basic, though it is improved from Heat 3. I'd suggest playing with gamepad. - paint booth is still basic, though it does have more sponsors, paint layouts, and full choice of numbers this year (YAY!) Overall this game is just FUN, both as a NASCAR game and as a racing game in general. Just go in understanding some of the downsides and manage your expectations a little (i.e. don't go in assuming Iracing level physics and multiplayer.) NOTE: Here's a tip for how to configure the settings to feel as good as possible with a gamepad: Deadzone: set to one notch right of full left (which is default) Steering sensitivity: set to three notches right of center Steering rate: set to three notches right of center Braking range: set to full left Braking rate: set to center Throttle range: set to center Throttle rate: set to full right To further improve gamepad feel, do the following. For each track, create a custom setup. Press X or square a second time to load one of the preset setups into your custom setup. Set your "steering lock" degrees to 0. In multiplayer with no custom setups you cannot do this, but the settings above should be a big help on their own.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 16, 2019

  Let's start with the obvious. This is not iRacing. This is an arcade sim built for consoles and controllers. Much like a NASCAR version of F1 2019. I mainly do road racing in the Skip Barber or Ford FR500s Mustang on iRacing and have a Fanatec setup with an 8020 rig with triple monitors. It might be easier to play this with a controller. I found this game to be a fun way to relax and wind down. No worries about safety rating, irating, or ruining someone else race. Sure, this thing does not drive right, the force feedback sucks, the initial setup for my wheel/pedals/shifter took more tinkering then it should have,and there is amazingly NO FoV adjustments. For some reason I have still been enjoying it. I hope they add FoV adjustment and make the Force Feedback better. Regardless, I find it is still able to provide a scratch to that oval itch I sometimes get but allows me to just hop in and play with little practice or consequences. Worth the buy. Edit: Just to clarify, it took about 30 mins of tinkering, but all my Fanatec gear worked fine.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 12, 2019

  After all these years since Papyrus NASCAR series, this one goes up to 11. Crank up the handling and the AI settings (you can also fine tune a ton of stuff) and disable the assists. This game can get intense and not for the faint of heart. These stock cars can get loooooose on the track. Turn it wrong and you get bit. Still is riddled with that good old console gaming auto pilot when yellows are out, before green and in the pit lane and a bit of stability assist here and there (just a little). Forget all those EA Sports Nascar games and get this one.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 2, 2019

  This is going to be long, but I would say it is worth the read. I've never played a NASCAR Heat game before. I've played all of the NASCAR games in my day, starting with NASCAR racing on floppy disk and Windows 95. Even in the console world I've played them all. With that said, I bought this game because I wanted something modern and up to date that I can play by myself. I didn't get it for online racing. I have a current subscription to iRacing for that. Before this game came around I was still playing NR2003, which is still great and fun to play but as hardcore players of that game will know, it has core parts that just aren't up to par with today's games. There are a few major flaws with this game that have turned me off of it, and I have a hard time firing it up because of this. Major Issues: After a few caution flags in a race, the AI engine sounds stutter horribly. Sometimes this can be fixed by pausing or changing camera views, but not always AI Rivals try to wreck you on lap 1, and even if you're the leader putting them a lap down. I get it, they are mad at you, but if you're running 29th and going a lap down, even if you hate the guy you're prolly not going to try to take him out. Stuttering. This is the biggest issue of them all, and its makes the game very hard to play sometimes. It happens are every track in the circuit, and its random. But you're going to have it at least once a lap during a race. The game will drop down into the 20-15 FPS range whilst just running at 120+. I don't think it is my hardware, as I'm only seeing a 40%ish CPU usage, and at max a 34% GPU usage. I have seen several others complain of this, and not just on PC either. The spotter is HORRIBLE. It does not talk to you when you need it, and it does when you don't. So so rarely does the spotter actually call a call to your inside or outside until you've crashed into them, or you've passed them and he clears you. This needs so much work it isn't funny. There is a lot of good with the game though too. If you're looking to do a semi-realistic career mode this has almost everything you'd want. The graphics are very well, although there is 0 dynamic lighting or shadows, but the detail is great. The sounds are incredible. When they work of course. But they nailed this one on the head. Engine sounds and tire squeals are spot on. Contact sounds are not good, but I've never played a game that had good crash or contact sounds. A couple other minor issues are the controller settings are just never quite right. The car is way to jumpy left to right, and it makes racing at plate tracks or road courses impossible. I have a wheel I could use, however this is a casual game and I like to play it on my PC in my living room sometimes and for that I use a controller. Which, I figured this game would of been tailored to since its an arcade game. I would recommend this game for anyone who just wants to play alone and do their own career. I would NOT recommend it if you're looking for the most realistic racing game on the market, whether its physics or AI, this isn't for you. If you have 25 years in racing experience on PC and console, you'll kind of understand the flaws and they are going to drive you nuts. In the end I cannot recommend this game, its way to expensive for the underlying issues that it has, and 704 has shown no effort in resolving them. If you can get over those issues, then snag it. It's fun sometimes!
• gamedeal user

  Dec 1, 2019

  I race with a Fanatec CSL Elite, and having tried NASCAR heat 2 and 3 in the past, I hated both, as they felt so terrible with a wheel and I was always off the pace compared to controllers. This game feels great, and after some fiddling I have the wheel setup almost perfect for me. (With only daytona still giving me some issues, for some reason I just can't seem to keep a smooth line here like I can at Talladega and its frustrating) That said, NASCAR heat 4 is in my opinion, the best nascar game in over a decade. The last nascar game I enjoyed for this long was NASCAR 09. While that game sucked in many ways and was not as in depth as 2005 chase to the cup, it was the last nascar game I could play consistently. NASCAR 2011 I played quite a bit, but ended up quitting due to the insane amount of glitches. One of the other major issues I had with Heat 3, was that contact with AI would send you flying off of them, even slight door contact, which made going through the tri-oval at somewhere like Charlotte side by side on the outside with AI a death wish. That problem no longer exists in Heat 4. While there is still an issue of any contact with the AI making you get tight (doesn't matter which side of the car they connect with, even if you bump into the back of them, you get tight as hell and they carry on normally, until the next corner where they will spin for no reason sometimes lol) it is overall a massive improvement. My biggest issues with the AI, come mostly from the bottom lane speed boost they get. While not as bad as heat 3, the problem does still persist, and on some tracks, like Dover, if you come up off the bottom not even half a car, the car behind will speed boost straight through you forcing you up the track and usually into the wall which can be infuriating. Its more annoying on some tracks, and less on others. Running the outside line is still possible on most tracks. But I've watched the AI speed boost past me and then wreck the 3 cars in front of me because it was going too fast lol. Humorous admittedly, but I do hope its addressed in the next game. The second, slightly more avoidable issue with the AI is the rival system. Which if I could erase one thing from the game, this would be it. If you make contact with the AI too much they will become your rival, which is fair enough, but the issue is they will then ram into you every single time you are around them. I've even had them start ramming me under caution before I had control over my car. Because you are making contact with them, it makes them dislike you even more, which puts you into an infinite feedback loop that can become nearly impossible to escape if its a car you race around often. On top of that if they manage to wreck you, then the other cars you hit while wrecking will often become rivals, which exacerbates the problem. Luckily once I made it to cup, I have manged to avoid the issue almost entirely. Overall though, this is easily the best nascar game that doesn't charge you per track and car with a subscription on top of that currently out right now. Most certainly the best one for offline racing. The career mode is simple, but fun. I do hope they expand on it, I'd love to be able to own a 4 car team, or, help raise a lower tier team up to championship caliber. I'd love to jump in the 3 for example, and be able to win championships without having to turn down the difficulty, or tweak other settings to adjust balance. Speaking of which, you can adjust tire wear and grip independently now for the player and draft effects which makes tweaking the game to your liking easier. I do hope they expand on this and allow for a little more fine tuning rather than "More, less, normal" as the only options. I'd also like to be able to turn black flags on and off independently of yellows, and disable corner cut penalties offline (or have them improve the way they work, as now it just stops your car causing massive pileups). And speed limits for pit road need to be displayed further back so you have time to slow down properly. Handling physics are probably the most fun I've ever played in a nascar game, I would be content if they were not changed at all for the next game. Overall, I'd say this game is 100% worth the full price if you enjoy nascar. This is a massive step from Heat 3, and if they can make an equally big step forward with heat 5, they will have something really special on their hands. Maybe everyone will talk about heat 5 being their favorite nascar game of all time instead of 2005 chase for the cup or dirt to daytona.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 6, 2020

  Nascar Heat 4 It's not perfect, but it's one of the best Nascar racing games, since NASCAR Racing 2003 Season in my opinion .
• gamedeal user

  Jan 14, 2020

  This is the PC version for review. Overall the game is well put together & is the closest & imo of what a nascar game should be like NASCAR 2003 from papyrus. That game was way ahead of its time & this game reminds me of the fun times we had racing that. That being said Sean Wilson & 704 gaming take note. We pc players applaud your effort on NH4. But please improve the interface from hell. No mouse support to start is JUST sinful & in this day & age unacceptable. Also the multiplayer hosting is terrible. I can't host a private match with my buddies & have a practice time then qualify then race on our time schedule vs you have 60 seconds to wait & go directly to the race. You guys needs to have dedicated time for practice, qualifying & racing. That brings me to my next bigest gripe on this game. No garage acessability during multiplayer mode. Really I can't adjust on my car while in game I have to quit multiplayer go to quick race adjust the setup there save then rejoin to run. That's really bad. Just please have all three modes in the multiplayer section of the game & give option to skip if someone hosting wants to go straight to racing. Another thing on multiplayer mode is I can't specifically add a particular amount of AI cars in. It's all or nothing!. Sometimes you want 5 or 6 AI cars in to make it more interesting like on super speedways. The damage physics need to be looked at as well & improved apon. Please add some tutorials for your game for the new people wanting to play. This would help to understand basics & help avoid negative reviews becacause I had to go online & watch youtube reviews to figure out how to dial in a wheel. This should not be this way. I know you guys are squeezed for time but a bit of preventive maintanance (instruction & tutorials ) goes a long way. I am looking forward to Nascar Heat 5.