You will have the opportunity to enter into a career as a rookie WoO driver with sponsorships, prize money, broken parts and a dwindling bank account just like the big boys. The only thing that's not included in the career mode is the travel expense. However, a driver can and will spend many late nights trying to figure out how to get his machine to go fast enough and acquire enough grip to get past the cars tuned by likes of Carl Kinser who is probably one of the best tuners in the business. The AI in Sprints are tough and it will be a blessing for the novice sim-racer to be able to adjust their strength down to around 80% or 85% to get the feel of the cars and to gain some experience. That experience and car control will be an essential element for anyone wanting to venture out online to race with the hardcore sim-racers that already have quite a few laps in this type of sim.

I was fortunate to beta test Sprints because of my experience and expertise as a dirt track crew chief and also the time and dedication I've put forth in the sim market. Our beta group was full of very talented racers from many different forms of Motorsports. The input from these testers has added some outstanding features to Sprint including a replay feature, which will be a useful tool to critique your driving and others. You will also be able to configure many types of steering wheels, both Force Feedback and analog. On those steering wheels you can program your view perspective and also the commands to look left & right from the in-car view. The wing is adjustable from inside the car and in the garage you can add a wicker bill to give the wing an added surface to put more down-force in the wing. Your set-up will involve selecting the correct tire compounds, proper air pressure and the tire stagger needed to get these cars to handle. Shocks are programmed in two separate parameters for compression and rebound and are also a crucial element of tuning. Weight distribution, gearing and wheel offset are also some important tuning tools. For those of you who liked Dirt Track Racing AKA DTR, you will love Sprints.

The graphics of both the cars and the tracks are very well done. 3D sound is also included and the engine sound has been greatly replicated. For those of you that have tried the Demo of Sprints, I can honestly tell you that you aint heard nothin' yet! The 3D sound and the final version of the engine sound was not included in the demo in order to save space and probably for other reasons as well. I think you will be amazed at the sound that a methanol burning, fuel-injected 800hp engine makes. The sound, at least in the beta version, is AWESOME.

Ratbag will include a file extractor for those folks that like to paint their own cars or to add different series for the Career mode and online competitions. There are also some brilliant add-ons that have been created that Im sure will find their way onto a few hard-drives.

We havent yet been able to convince the bigwigs at Ratbag to install a paint program inside the game such as Nascar Heat and some other have but Im working on them. For twenty bucks though, this is an outstanding game and if you love Sprint Cars, this ones for you.

Back	Back to Reviews