Well, in typical EA fashion, I have yet to get the game installed due to an error that happens when installing. When I try to install the game, I always get stopped at about 33% because a message comes up and says, "A problem occurred when trying to transfer the file "xxxxx" from the media. The actual file name that it gets hung up on differs every time, but it still stops somewhere between 30-35%.
I have tried uninstalling, re-installing, etc. but nothing works. There are a bunch of posts on EA's forums with the same poroblem, but no solutions. Some recommendations are copying both disc images to hard drive and adding a second CD/DVD drive if you only have one drive. Another thread said put in disc 2 when it gets the error message then retry. All ridiculous solutions but I tried them anyway.
However, none of these options worked for me. It just locks up on the next file after putting in CD2. So is this a problem with all the discs, or just some of them? It appears it works for some people, so maybe I am just unlucky.
I have a brand new, very vanilla PC. When a game like this will not even install properly, it does not give me much confidence that game itself will be any better. Oh well nice try anyway EA.
The interesting thing is the wide ranging reviews of the game so far within the racing sim community. Of particular note is the IGN review of DSP's own Randy Magruder. I don't normally trust any reviews from IGN, but anyone who has been around the racing sim community for a number of years, knows that Randy is a racing enthusiast who understands sims and physics and has been considered a trusted source in the past.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/588/588381p1.html
That's some pretty high praise, and if it wasn't for the source I would not even give it a second thought. He goes into some detail regarding the physics in particular and why he likes it. He also points out the AI and Flag rule bugs, etc. So what's the reality with this game?It's been six years in coming, but EA has finally delivered the goods. They rewrote their physics engine, spent extra long months tweaking and tuning and testing after the console versions shipped. The extra time has paid off handsomely. EA's NASCAR SimRacing has earned its name, and in doing so, it has finally compelled me to free up the space on my hard drive that Papryus had occupied through years of EA's previous attempts to close the gap. EA has not only closed that gap, but they have exceeded Papyrus' efforts in many significant ways, such as the excellent physics model, featuring "drivable oversteer," third-party extensibility, and just about every option imaginable.
Some of the problems I have heard pointed out in the forums so far is the extremely buggy flag and rules AI, that the truck models are generic and do not reflect at all the actual makes and models, many missing tracks, bad replays, bad control with MOMO wheels, too easy physics, inconsistent damage model, etc.
If I decide to stick with the game, and I get it successfully installed, I will post my impressions later.