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Petty, Allison, Pearson, Yarborough. These were the good ol' boy legends of stock car racing, who could turn left better than anyone in the business and ultimately paved the way for today's crop of highly paid NASCAR superstars. The latest chapter in Papyrus and Sierra Sports' long-running NASCAR Racing series offers gamers the opportunity to slide behind the wheel of one of their Dodge Daytonas, Ford Torinos, Mercury Cyclones, or Plymouth Superbirds and take to the high banks of some of the most storied stock car tracks in American racing.
NASCAR Legends is a direct offshoot of Papyrus' recent NASCAR Racing 3. Incorporating the same graphics and physics engine as its slightly older sibling, Legends also takes a page from Papyrus' earlier Formula One simulator Grand Prix Legends and time-travels back to a period when drivers were one part athlete and nine parts daredevil. Set during the 1970 season, the simulation pays respectful homage to the pre-television era of NASCAR, when men were men and rental car companies were nervous.
Legends exhibits the same level of craftsmanship that made NASCAR 3 such a polished and entertaining product. The Direct3D and Glide-enhanced graphics feature some convincing translucent smoke and dust effects, as well as dynamic skidmarks and a fully shaded racing groove. Resolutions as high as 1024x768 are supported, and the enhanced detail that results is quite remarkable. Sponsorship logos may have been a lot smaller back in 1970, but theyre clearly legible from any angle with Legends' spiffy new paint jobs. The games working caution lights and animated flaggers add even more flair to the proceedings. Pop-up has also been dramatically reduced from earlier NASCAR chapters, and a silky-smooth framerate can be achieved quite easily on a wide range of machines.
Even more outstanding are the game's superb audio effects. Employing the same powerful 3D sound engine as N3, Legends exploits the capabilities of A3D 2.0 or DirectSound 3D-enhanced sound cards by generating some truly amazing positional audio effects. When funneled through a subwoofer-equipped surround-sound system, you will not only hear A.J. Foyt's car trying to pass you on the outside of turn four, you will feel it.
Papyrus has painstakingly re-created 16 of the most fabled circuits from 1970, including Thompson Speedway, Bowman Gray Stadium, Greenville-Pickens Speedway, and Riverside's famous road course. As with each of its earlier NASCAR titles, Papyrus couldn't get the rights to the Sega-controlled Daytona International Speedway, so the famed Ontario Motor Speedway in southern California (which wasn't actually on the 1970 NASCAR calendar) has been drafted into service to take its place. Although most of Legends' tracks can also be found in the modern version of the game, venues like Michigan and Darlington have been given a marvelous retro treatment that reflects the relaxed safety standards of the day. Spindly-looking armco barriers often substitute for the rigid concrete walls used exclusively today, and the lack of any pit lane speed limit means you can roar past your parked competitors at breakneck speeds without worrying about a black flag penalty.
The driving model employed in Legends is based on the same tried and true physics engine that has been powering Papyrus' NASCAR titles since 1996. The grip of each car has been noticeably reduced in deference to the bias-ply tires that were used in 1970, as has the fuel economy of these classic American gas-guzzlers. At Alabama Speedway, I was lucky to get in 25 laps before my car was sucking fumes. Tire wear was also a serious problem with the heavy Ford and Chrysler products of the era, and careful tire management is a critical component of getting up front and staying there. A comprehensive car set-up screen that permits upward of seventeen individual chassis and suspension adjustments will assist you with this task, however.
As impressive as this physics engine is for its age, it still employs a rudimentary FAR (feels about right) formula to impart what the car is doing on the track. Papyrus has fine-tuned these "best guess" algorithms to offer a very convincing ride in Legends, but there are still some significant oversights. Wheelspin and brake lock-up are not modeled in any way (apart from an overly sensitive burnout feature) and you can also steer your car abruptly from the steep banking to the flat inner apron on many turns without suffering any adverse effects. Although extremely sensitive to adjustment and user-friendly to a fault, this aging NASCAR 2-based physics engine still doesnt hold a candle to the remarkable high-fidelity driving model that Papyrus used in Grand Prix Legends.
The simulation's gameplay options are a carbon copy of those found in NASCAR 3. These include solo races, full championships, a super-stick arcade option for sim-challenged newbies, and a comprehensive replay screen and car-customizing paintkit. The AI drivers are much savvier than in previous editions, but they still exhibit an annoying habit of forming a stationary conga line whenever the track is even partially blocked.
The multiplayer component in Legends is definitely one of the more impressive aspects to the game. As with N3, you can connect to Sierras dedicated WON.NET matchmaking server from directly within the game to host or join an online race. Although as many as 32 players can theoretically link up, small fields of five to ten cars are usually the norm. Latency can be a significant issue if you're using a dial-up connection, however. I experienced a lot of warping when connecting with a 56K analog modem, but switching to a high-speed ADSL line cleared up the problem immediately.
NASCAR Legends is a well-crafted racing sim that delivers all of the entertainment value of NASCAR 3 and then some. This is hardly surprising when you consider that they are essentially the same game with different drivers, cars, and tracks. Some might argue that Legends should have been offered as an add-on package rather than a stand-alone product, but the unique track artwork would have probably presented some difficulties there. Some small hiccups aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the game's unique historical twist and expect to see it taking up residence on my hard drive for quite some time.