NASCAR Heat 2 releases tomorrow, September 15, and publisher 704Games talked about what to expect from the upcoming racing title over at the PlayStation Blog. Sean Wilson discussed the fan feedback of the first game, the inclusion of new classes in the sequel, and the revamped career mode.
Here’s how Wilson describes the career mode:
Career mode has been completely rebuilt for NASCAR Heat 2. You’ll start without a ride, taking on Hot Seat offers in the truck series to earn your first contract. Hot Seat races are where teams let you fill in for a race to see if you’ve got what it takes to compete with the pros. From there, you’ll have to keep proving yourself as you work up the ladder into the other NASCAR series.
Your actions on the track have consequences. With our new Rivalry system, racing too aggressively will earn you a little heat and maybe even some payback from rival drivers! You can also earn a Momentum boost for skilled driving that can help propel your team to even greater victories.
If you want to know why this racing game is an improvement upon its predecessor, you’ll want to read our NASCAR Heat 2 preview. Here’s a snippet of what I had to say:
After testing out, and being impressed by the new addition of trucks, it was time to check out the regular cars in local split-screen. Any fears about the experience being compromised in split-screen went right out the window after I began. No frame drops occurred, and the racing felt just as smooth as it did when played in single-player. I also didn’t struggle to see the other cars when driving, as the camera still works perfectly despite the player’s view being half the size.
Neither myself or 704Games’ representative did very well in the short split-screen race, as we both finished in the mid-20s. I was told this was due to the game’s adaptive AI, which will continue to improve as players keep on racing. Since my appointment was on the third day of E3, several hours of racing had occurred. This made the computer-controlled drivers put up quite the fight, and we simply didn’t have enough time (the race was only set to three laps) to make it to the front of the pack. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the adaptive difficulty will manifest itself in the main game.
NASCAR Heat 2 will release September 12 on the PlayStation 4. We should have a full review soon.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
