Activision has announced its own NASCAR racing game to compete with Electronic Arts’ own NASCAR series. NASCAR Unleashed will take a different tack than NASCAR XX as it will be an arcade racer, rather than a serious simulation.
”NASCAR has been tremendous in that they’ve given us the flexibility to design different kinds of racing games for their vast audience,” Activision senior VP David Oxford stated in the press release, ”We really wanted to make something electrifying for all NASCAR fans, not just the hardcore.NASCAR Unleashed gives players a new style of speed and excitement, without sacrificing accessibility.”
Players will pick a turbo-charged racing machine from 15 of NASCAR’s biggest names, including Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Jeff Gordon, and Joey Logano. Gameplay features lax physics rules and kart racing-style gameplay, as players are encouraged to bump and grind opponents out of the lead. Some physics are retained, though, like drafting and sling shotting, but doing so will cause “boost” power-ups to appear.
The race tracks in the game are based on their real-life counterparts, including Daytona International Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Martinsville Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, but, as with arcade racers, players can drive off the tracks and onto pavements, beaches and offroads, as well as finding shortcuts.
NASCAR Unleashed will be released in November 2011 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.
