NASCAR 21: Ignition In A Horrible State Before Release

NASCAR 21: Ignition is the upcoming racing game from Motorsport Games, that simulates the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. Of course, it’s a huge deal for the company, as it has been acquiring licensing deals from a few racing series, such as IndyCar and NASCAR, recently. In August, Motorsport Games announced NASCAR 21: Ignition, the official NASCAR game, for PC and consoles. However, as the game gets close to release, it seems like the company should’ve waited more.

Earlier this year, Motorsport Games acquired Studio-397, the developer of rFactor 2, which brought some new technology to the company that it has now used to make NASCAR 21: Ignition. The game uses Unreal Engine 4, alongside the physics of rFactor 2. While this was enough to create some high expectations for players wanting a realistic and engaging racing game, things didn’t turn out like that.

Earlier this week, content creators and video game reviewers got to play the game and give their early impressions. Among them was David Schildhouse, a streamer on Twitch and videographer for Rick Ware Racing, and his experience of NASCAR 21: Ignition shows why the game isn’t ready for release. While streaming a race at Talladega Superspeedway, the game changed to a cutscene of the pit stop in the middle of the race.

https://twitter.com/ZD14_Racing/status/1450341888469385218

Furthermore, the cutscene continued to repeat on a loop not once, not twice, but for more than 9 hours, along with the in-game spotter’s dialogues, “the leader’s in the pits,” “leader just hit pit road,” and “leaders are pitting now.” David Schildhouse left the stream running and went to bed, and the game finally crashed the next morning. After the fourth sequence, even the driver began floating awkwardly outside the car.

However, this wasn’t enough, as more glitches emerged soon after, too. This time, cars in the game started moving at increased speeds, as if the game had been sped up — all the cars, except for the one that David Schildhouse was driving. A few seconds after, the game froze and crashed.

https://twitter.com/schildhoused/status/1450880819862585350

David Schildhouse isn’t the only one facing these glitches and bugs either. Davin, a streamer on Twitch, also got the chance to play the game before anyone else and summarised in a recent thread on Twitter that, while NASCAR 21: Ignition is “awesome” presentation and atmosphere, there are a few things that the game “needs to fix before others play.” 

after 3 hours played, these are the things that NASCAR 21 Ignition got right:

– the presentation and atmosphere is awesome
– the soundtrack is bangin
– the animations are great
– the paint booth exists
– they gave me a free copy to review and that's cool
– looks very pretty

— Davin (@DriveThrough_) October 19, 2021

NASCAR 21: Ignition will supposedly receive a day-one patch when it releases on 28th October. However, some content creators and video game reviewers, such as Gary Owen, have reported that the game’s review version already comes with the day-one patch, which means that these issues will stay with the game for a while.

UPDATE: It has been confirmed we already have the day one patch of NASCAR 21 Ignition…

Review coming this weekend.

— Gary Owen | GOWEN (@GOWENYT) October 20, 2021

Yesterday, Motorsport Games posted a message on the official NASCAR 21: Ignition requesting feedback from the community, so it seems like the company is, at least, aware of the issues with the game and is working on resolving them. However, it’s still not certain how long these issues will take to be resolved completely.

We are listening and share your passion! pic.twitter.com/5uMPfDZt86

— NASCAR 21: Ignition (@NASCARignition) October 20, 2021

For a game that costs $59.99, NASCAR 21: Ignition doesn’t seem to live up to its expectations at the moment. Hopefully, Motorsport Games resolves these issues soon, as players are certainly not satisfied with the current state of the game. Fortunately, the company has reaffirmed that it’s actively working on updates for the game.

What do you think about this? Do tell us your opinions in the comments below!

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