The same effect is accomplished through the use of varying weather conditions during and between sessions. What this means is that you'll need to be prepared in case the clouds go away and the track heats up or if the rain starts to fall. As any experienced racer knows, you have to drive the track conditions as well as the car. Other small touches have been added, as well, including realistic flags so you can tell at a glance which way and how powerful the wind is blowing, animated objects, varying car models, animated drivers in replay mode, and opponent pit crews re-creating the confusion that can occur when multiple cars are coming into pit row at the same time.

The most important changes, however, are those that have been made to the computer-controlled AI cars. Papyrus has always allowed the player to adjust the AI settings to make for more competitive races, but in NASCAR Racing 2003, they've taken this to the next step, adding what they call "Adaptive AI" and "Auto Adjusting AI." Grant Reeve, the AI engineer for the game explains what these mean and how they'll come into play:

"The Automatic AI percentage is an estimation made by the game of about where it thinks your driving skill is for each track. After a race is complete the game compares the speeds of your laps to the speeds of the AI's laps, and makes an adjustment to the auto AI percentage. The aim is to try to come up with AI of fairly similar strengths within a couple of races.

Papyrus hasn't been content to rest on its laurels in the physics department, either. Most PC racing aficionados would agree that the last NASCAR game was an amazing representation of how a real car performs. So what did Papyrus do? They went in and reworked almost every aspect of the physics model to bring it even closer to what a real driver would experience out on the racetrack. Steve Myers, one of the game's producers, explains and describes the changes:

"Quite a bit has actually changed in the physics model -- I would go as far as saying that everything in our physics model was tweaked or changed for "NR 2003." Manuel Daskalos and the guys at Jasper Motorsports gave us data to improve our aerodynamic modeling, engine power, suspension geometry, steering geometry, sway bar stiffness, and much more. Mike Stackpole and his team over at Goodyear gave us every piece of information they could on how a real-world Winston Cup tire works and we have implemented all of it into our sim.

So, what do all these changes do to the game? You should notice a difference in your first few laps. There is so much more down force and power that you really will need to forget everything you learned from previous versions of our physics model. The updated tire model has added more grip along with helping you "feel" what the car is doing more than ever before. I am confident that the end result of all these changes is the closest thing you will find to driving a real race car on the PC."

As a veteran of the series, my first hour spent with the game was somewhat frustrating as I struggled to deal with the new dynamics of the physics model. Tricks and techniques that worked in the past had to be not so much relearned, but rethought. Once I became comfortable with the new feel, though, I was impressed at how intuitive things were.

Anyone with an interest in racing games should be looking forward to this latest release, especially since this is the last NASCAR game that Papyrus plans on making -- EA has acquired the exclusive rights to the NASCAR license for the foreseeable future. The time spent with the demo has this longtime fan excited to get his hands on the full release, which will contain all the teams, drivers, sponsors, and tracks that will make up the 2003 season, including the new renovations of the Infineon and New Hampshire circuits. It's a crying shame that NASCAR has effectively shut out Papyrus from making future versions, but at least we'll have NR2003 to remember them by. RacelineCentral Bids a farewell to a couple of the finest game making companies to appear in the community. Papyrus and Sierra, Now hit the history books as their doors close for good. The gaming community hopes that history will only help to improve the future of gaming and not to repeat itself with the loss of gaming icons we grew up with and enjoyed for years. We will miss you both...