NASCAR Thunder 2003

NASCAR Thunder 2003
PlayStation 2 cover art Pictured: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Developer(s)	EA Sports, Budcat Creations[1]
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, GameCube, Windows (PC), Xbox, PlayStation
Release date(s)	PS,[2] Xbox[3] & GC[4] NA September 19, 2002 PlayStation 2[5] NA September 29, 2002 Windows[6] NA October 16, 2002
Genre(s)	Sim racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer, online multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E

NASCAR Thunder 2003 is a racing simulator published by Electronic Arts in September 2002 for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Xbox and in October 2002 for PC. It is the fifth game of EA Sports' NASCAR series, and is based on the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series. The product features Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on the cover. It was the first time the NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award recipient was featured on the cover, although he did not win the award for the first time until the following year. The late Dale Earnhardt appeared in the game as a driver as a result of entering his name as a Create-A-Car driver's name, he did not appear in the previous game due to his death. He appeared as a legend in subsequent games.

Gameplay

Being a racing simulation, NASCAR Thunder 2003 places the player in control of a stock car in a NASCAR race. Players battle AI drivers for race position for a preset amount of laps. As the race progresses, players are forced to make a pit stop to refuel, replace tires and repair damage.

For multiplayer support, NASCAR Thunder 2003 becomes split-screen and eliminates much of the field. Normally featuring the normal NASCAR amount of 43 drivers in a race, it is limited to 18 or less with more than one human driver. As an option, the AI drivers can be disabled, allowing the players to just race each other.

Modes

Quick Race simply allows up to four players to participate on any track and race with a specified amount of settings. After the race ends, the game returns to the main menu.

Career Mode is the most involving mode of the game. Returning from NASCAR Thunder 2002, it places the player in control of a custom Winston Cup driver, who must manage pit crew, sponsorship and research and development for 20 seasons.

Although Season Mode, like Career Mode, allows the player to play through 20 seasons, it is essentially the Quick Race mode with season standings. Unlike career mode, which starts the player with inferior equipment and pit crew, they are equal to the AI's from the start. Players have a choice to play as either existing or custom drivers, and the settings are completely customizable, unlike the limited options in Career Mode. To achieve multiplayer compatibility, it not only decreases the amount of AI drivers in a race while also randomizing them, meaning only a handful of drivers end up participating in the entire season. However, like in Quick Race, they can be disabled for a 2-4 player competition.

Thunder License is the time attack mode of the game; basically a tutorial and time trial of how to race across the included tracks.

PC version

A month after the console versions' release, a PC version of NASCAR Thunder 2003 was made available, becoming the second PC game in the series. However, despite its later release, it removes all special modes (and the entire Thunder Plate system) except for Season mode. A new testing mode is added, and 16-player multiplayer over the Internet or LAN is supported. It generally received lower scores from reviewers than the console version did.

Lightning Challenges

Lightning Challenges are playable re-enactments of Winston Cup races from 1999, 2000, 2001, and the 1st part of 2002. These challenges are played on all three difficulty levels. The drivers tell the players about what happened to them in the race. The player then has the chance to re-enact or alter history according to the particular scenario's requirement (i.e. having a driver pass the leader and win the race whereas the real driver might not have been so lucky.)

References

1. ^ "Gamespot: Nascar Thunder 2003 PSX". http://www.gamespot.com/ps/driving/nascarthunder2003/index.html. 
2. ^ "Release information for PlayStation". http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/563124-nascar-thunder-2003/data. 
3. ^ "Release information for Xbox". http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox/561459-nascar-thunder-2003/data. 
4. ^ "Release information for GameCube". http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/561234-nascar-thunder-2003/data. 
5. ^ "Release information for PS2". http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/561364-nascar-thunder-2003/data. 
6. ^ "Release information for Windows". http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/561995-nascar-thunder-2003/data. 

External links

• Official EA Sports website for NASCAR Thunder 2003
• NASCAR Thunder 2003 at MobyGames

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