NTRA Breeder's Cup World Thoroughbred Championships

[Bill_Abner]

Bill, everything you said is pretty spot on. As I mentioned, the 2 year-olds racing in January is crap as is the 1 1/4 distance. The silk designs are pretty limited. The fact that there are no replays is really bad. How hard could it have been to put them in? You are right about not being able to go straight to your race. You have to skip each race on the card manually which is stupid and is a big pain. I am still enjoying the positives I mentioned and I hope they do come out with another version in the future to fix the problems.

Ohyeah I do'nt think its a lost cause, and I see a good game buried in here. It's just not here yet.

[pk500]

The only worrisome aspect of the future of this franchise is the publisher -- Bethesda.

Bethesda has a pretty lousy record of upgrading console games. The IHRA Drag Racing franchise is a fine example. That was a PSX-quality game when it first was released for the PS2 and Xbox. Now, in about its third or fourth year, it might have just about enough features and graphical quality to be called a PS2 launch game -- five years after the system was launched.

Another classic example of a stripped-down, barely this-generation sports release from Bethesda was AMF Bowling 2004.

I would like this franchise to have more features and modes in a sequel, but I wouldn't trust Bethesda to do it, sadly, unless the NTRA's licensing fee drops considerably. Or maybe the NTRA can pay Bethesda to make the game.

Bethesda is the king of $19.99 shovelware for consoles. I think Take Two has spoiled many gamers with quality, feature-rich (albeit buggy) sports games for $19.99.

Take care,
PK

[Bill_Abner]

I can't believe you have to manually skip each race until you get one that your horse is running in. You have to do this even if you dont have a horse racing in that day. That is the most insane design gaffe I have seen in a long, long time.