Nascar Thunder 2004 Critic Reviews

Gone are the days when bouncing off another car to make a turn was acceptable. In Thunder 2004, you can still pull crap like that, but don't be surprised if your victim stuffs you into the wall on the next lap.

In Thunder 2004, you take the track with 42 of the most vindictive drivers ever to hold a wheel.

If you're the kind of hardcore NASCAR fans that will revel in the challenge of Career mode, you'll have an absolute blast with Thunder, particularly now that Tiburon has included a ton of in-game help and redesigned the interface to be massively more usable.

It's quite a phenomonal take on the sport. Where most developers spend their time making sure their physics engine, models and sound effects accurately portray vehicles driving extremely fast, EA Tiburon has already accomplished this years ago, so instead they focused on the personality of the sport and it makes all the difference.

As long as you don't come in expecting any serious realism in the driving model, there are many ways to play and enjoy this title...The game is simply PACKED with playing modes and features, all of which look and sound great.

Extremely fun to play and highly addictive! And there are so many options that will keep you running back to your videogame system time and time again.

The improved career mode, new SpeedZone, online play, and more crashes are nice, but the title's draw is the AI. Finally, a racing title breathes life into the cars around you.

The "Madden" or "Tony Hawk" of stock car racing games. It's as close as you can get to the real thing.

Does an excellent job of representing the sport that it is supposed to replicate – the trouble doesn’t really lie in EA – it stems from a sport that is shallow - painfully repetitive to watch and even more so when you’re playing.

The meat of the game is in the career mode, which is incredibly deep, but takes a real time commitment to get the most out of.

Taking the checkered flag involves strategy, which the Grudge/Alliance feature exemplifies perfectly. Still, the controls are a bit too unforgiving for the casual racing fan.

A well-done racing title that strikes a good balance between realism and accessibility.

An awesome trip around the racetrack.

It has enough useful, new features to make it a worthy addition to the family, including the tremendous inclusion of Internet play and a fully fleshed-out career mode.

Fanatics will tweak tire pressure, suspension, and build dynasties, alliances, and sponsorships; rookies can learn the nuances of drafting, passing, and holding position on dozens of real-world tracks.