NASCAR Legends by Papyrus/Sierra Review by Jan Kohl

NASCAR Legends is Sierra/Papyrus's latest in the series of NASCAR releases, this one simulating the 1970 NASCAR season. This is going to be an interesting review, as I can see I'm going to have to whet the appetites of 3 types of people...the ones who want to know whether or not this is NASCAR 3 with different cars, the ones who want to know if this is any better than our own N@50 patch, and those who just want to know..."Hey, is Riverside any good?"

The answer to all 3 questions, incidentally, is yes. (That surprised you, didn't it?). But of course, I'm not going to just give you that down-and-dirty answer and just leave it at that. Because the answer to 2 of the three questions could also be no. (Riverside is good, no matter what...)

First off, this is basically NASCAR 3...menus are still no different than Papyrus's 1997 NASCAR2 release, and all the updates that were done with NASCAR3 are in here...full Windows program, Internet multiplayer capability, the better graphics, smoke, and better handling of the cars is here. I'm not going to go into too much detail here, as I'm sure that 90% of the people who read this review know of at least one of the Papyrus products. Basically, it's the best stockcar simulator available. Plus, with NASCAR3 now you can run at 800x600 and 1024x768 screen resolutions. Beware...your older NASCAR2 capable machine may not be able to run NASCAR3, NASCAR Legends is NO different. Make sure you have the hardware to back it up.

Ok, up to the next question...is it any better than Simulator Cyberworld and The Pit's own 1998 release, N@50? Considering we're going to be a bit biased about it, the answer is still yes, it sure is. First off, in our recreation of the 1971 season, we didn't have the resources available to do everything exactly like we wanted, for example, you can now run the Plymouth Superbird with it's huge rear wing right next to a Ford Torino Talladega (without a wing)...wow! That's nice, and something we could never do with N@50. Plus, they have a shortrack car as well as a superspeedway car. The Charger was Dodge's shorttrack car (no rear wing) while the Daytona was Dodge's superspeedway car, with the rear wing and pointed nose. The cars are all well done, there are a fair amount of drivers in the game, and like NASCAR3, you can run 43 cars. The Torino shape is not as good as The Pits' Gilles 3do shape for the Torino, but then again, who expected it to be? ;] However, unlike our cars, their cars have been remapped and built for this purpose, so the decals on the sides are clear and readable.

They have several new tracks, and here's the FULL list...Bowman Gray (tiny track, with the pit road outside the track!), Michigan (same), Texas World Speedway (kinda like Michigan), Thompson (a Bristol-like track), Bristol, Ontario (like Indy, but in California), Greenville-Pickens (tiny N. Wilksborough-like track), N. Wilksborough, North Carolina (Rockingham), Alabama (Talladega), Atlanta, Charlotte, Darlington, Martinsville, and last, but not least, Riverside...and while we did do quite a few of those tracks, we didn't do Michigan, Greenville, Thompson, Bowman, or Riverside. But they don't give you any dirt tracks, either...

The sim has some other neat additions...you can change the wheel color, and the paintkit works fine...but the amount of decals are a bit lacking. The cars automatically change body styles for the type of track they are on...superspeedway, they have the manufacturer's 'aero' body. Short track, they take the standard body. Setup options are the same as N3, except that the grill tape and spoiler angles are gone, but sway bar and torsion bar are there. Torsion bar, you ask? That's one of the ways you could jack around the suspensions with the older cars, although if I remember correctly, only Dodges had torsion bars...

So, how do the cars really handle? Well, about the same as our N@50 patch, as they used the same techniques to make the cars feel a bit on the edge of traction. Nothing breaking edge here.

And just how is Riverside? Well, it's a blast. Heading up the hill with quite a few other cars is a treat, and the track is definitely slippery enough...you'll take to the dirt along with a few other cars trying to negotiate the treacherous esses with a huge Yank Tank...

Multiplayer is pretty fun, and it's a new experience to drive these old cars in the multiplayer arena...with less traction than drivers are used to, you have to be really careful and give alot of room if you don't want to put the next guy into the wall.