NASCAR 08 for the 360, PS3, and all was a travesty. But with any EA game it'll slowly get better. Anyway, I'm not focusing on that right now because there's no demo and the game isn't out. So I can't comment on gameplay right now. However there is a new feature in the game, the NASCAR 09 Paint Booth. This feature allows you to download car templates to your PC from the NASCAR 09 website, edit them in any photo editing program you like (Photoshop, paint.net, etc) and then upload the custom paint schemes to the game, allowing you to race a car that is totally designed by you. Number, sponsor, color, whatever. Though as a small note, you can paint any number on your car, but I believe you must choose a different official number to be scored as in the race, unless you've chosen a number that is not taken by a current driver. But that's a small detail that doesn't have any affect on how your car looks. Having just realized all of this, I am designing cars now. Please visit here - http://www.easports.com/nascar09/paint-booth.jsp There are videos and tutorials there that can help you figure out what you're doing. You can use anything from Adobe Photoshop, to Paint.net, the Gimp, when editing your paint scheme. I strongly suggest going through the tutorial at NASCAR 09's website and watching a few of these videos that you can also find there. But for practicality I'll post a few of them in Youtube format. (the tutorial I mentioned is not one of these Youtube videos, there's still a flash app tutorial on NASCAR 09's website) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rJ04xBBdQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v1NKpY6KMk This means, you can make your Sprint Cup COT, Nationwide Car, or CTS Truck, look ANYTHING like you want. Your only limits are your imagination... and your patience and skill with fooling around with picture editing software. Here is an example (reduced in size for the forums) of what the downloadable template looks like. Here's what I came up with on my first attempt There are a few small issues that I need to correct, but I'm happy with how my first try came out. If you have your paint scheme ready and want to see it on a 3D model, follow these directions. Some of these directions are also explained in the videos linked above. - Download a program called "AC3D" Just google it and you can find a free 2-week trial. - Make sure whatever program you're using can save files as a .dds file. I know that Adobe Photoshop requires a free downloadable plugin. Just google "DDS Exporter" takes 2 minutes. - Make sure to delete or choose not to view the Reference layer of your paint scheme, otherwise your car will be shown with graph lines. - Once you do that, save your paint scheme as a .dds file. Here's where it gets a little tricky. - Go to http://www.easports.com/nascar09/paint-booth.jsp - and click "Design Your Car Now" That will open up a popup window. RIGHT CLICK on the word Tutorial at the bottom to open a sub-menu. Click "Play" that will take you to another screen. You will have to do this roughly three times until you're brought to a screen where there's a box in the bottom right corner that says PREVIEW DESIGNS. There's a link for each Series' car. Click and download the desired .obj file. - Open AC3D. - Go to FILE, select OPEN - Choose the obj file wherever you saved it. You might have to click to view All Files on the Open-file box. If you don't, then you won't initially see the .obj car model you downloaded. - Once the car is loaded click OBJECT at the top of AC3D. - Go to TEXTURE, click LOAD TEXTURE, and select the DDS file you initially saved. - Go to VIEWS at the top of AC3D and select NEW VIEW - This will open a new box. There are like 4 buttons at the top right. Click the farthest on the right to remove the wire frame. You can expand the box, zoom in and zoom out, and spin your car around. So if any of you want to do this and have questions, just post them here and I'll try to help. And I don't care if you like NASCAR or not. Having been a fan for many years, I've heard the left turn jokes. Nothing surprising there.

Whoa whoa whoa, not on the 360 though, right? This is pc -- or at the very least, pc and ps3 -- only, right? o_0 I thought Microsoft wasn't allowing such things?

To my knowledge the game isn't even being released on PC. I don't know if Microsoft will have something against this or not. I'll try to find out. The game comes out in June, but EA has had their templates available for a while. Edit: From what I can tell. You upload them to your "EA Locker" online, then you can access your EA Locker from in the game. You will also be able to use your custom schemes in online races. Edit: And now I'm going to a wake, so I'll answer any questions when I get back.

Whoa whoa whoa, not on the 360 though, right? This is pc -- or at the very least, pc and ps3 -- only, right? o_0 I thought Microsoft wasn't allowing such things? Good lord I hope Microsoft allows it and that there turns out to be a Twilight Princess-like buffer overrun. Anyway. The problem with this paint thing, and the reason it's still inferior to Forza's unnecessarily complicated bullshit is that you can only paint boring-ass Nascar cars. Good lord NASCAR has the absolute most boring car designs.

Whoa whoa whoa, not on the 360 though, right? This is pc -- or at the very least, pc and ps3 -- only, right? o_0 I thought Microsoft wasn't allowing such things? Good lord I hope Microsoft allows it and that there turns out to be a Twilight Princess-like buffer overrun. Anyway. The problem with this paint thing, and the reason it's still inferior to Forza's unnecessarily complicated bullshit is that you can only paint boring-ass Nascar cars. Good lord NASCAR has the absolute most boring car designs. They're kinda goin for aerodynamics.

Here comes the Penisport 500.

Whoa whoa whoa, not on the 360 though, right? This is pc -- or at the very least, pc and ps3 -- only, right? o_0 I thought Microsoft wasn't allowing such things? Good lord I hope Microsoft allows it and that there turns out to be a Twilight Princess-like buffer overrun. Anyway. The problem with this paint thing, and the reason it's still inferior to Forza's unnecessarily complicated bullshit is that you can only paint boring-ass Nascar cars. Good lord NASCAR has the absolute most boring car designs. They're kinda goin for aerodynamics. No, Formula 1 is going for aerodynamics. NASCAR is going for, you know what, I don't even think they know what they're going for anymore. Originally the words "stock car" were in that acronym somewhere, meaning that the cars used were stock, unmodified, right off the showroom floor. That was kind of interesting. Then they changed that, first in the interest of safety and then because they wanted to downplay the importance of the auto manufacturer, and now I guess every driver uses the same car model, and it's not a car that's available for sale anywhere, but it looks vaguely like a large sedan?

Whoa whoa whoa, not on the 360 though, right? This is pc -- or at the very least, pc and ps3 -- only, right? o_0 I thought Microsoft wasn't allowing such things? Good lord I hope Microsoft allows it and that there turns out to be a Twilight Princess-like buffer overrun. Anyway. The problem with this paint thing, and the reason it's still inferior to Forza's unnecessarily complicated bullshit is that you can only paint boring-ass Nascar cars. Good lord NASCAR has the absolute most boring car designs. They're kinda goin for aerodynamics. Uhh, no. This is going for aerodynamics. This is going for aerodynamics. Hell, this is going for aerodynamics. This is the result of some really ugly restrictions and bureaucratic bullshit tied with some awful fan pandering. edit: beat'd. Basically, anyone who thinks NASCAR is at all driving the boundaries of auto technology is sorely misinformed. NASCAR cars are nothing more than the backwards hangings-on of backwards ideals in a backwards administrated motorsport.

Also, all of Nascar's tracks are boring fucking ovals, but I guess some people actually like that sort of thing so I'm not sure if it's as valid a criticism as the car design.

Hey. Short track NASCAR racing is fucking awesome.

So you're telling me that EA is finally doing what Papyrus was doing 10+ years ago? Bravo EA, bra-fucking-vo.

I'm not going to get into the discussion and explanations behind the "stock" cars, their designs, the car of tomorrow, and the tracks, since I didn't make this thread to discuss an autosport that a lot of people don't care for. (but I do care for it) But if anyone wants to actually talk about the game or custom designs, then great, do that.

Hey. Short track NASCAR racing is fucking awesome. Like I said, some people like ovals, and I can kind of understand it sort of: you end up with higher top speeds when there are no turns in the way. I personally think it's less interesting but can understand the appeal. But good lord, the cars! NASCAR's cars are deliberately bland, and I've never been able to understand it. edit: But if anyone wants to actually talk about the game or custom designs, then great, do that. Hopefully Forza 3 copies this, because it's a great idea and it would be much nicer in a game with more than three car models.

So.. How long until every race is against Team Penis.

edit: beat'd. Basically, anyone who thinks NASCAR is at all driving the boundaries of auto technology is sorely misinformed. NASCAR cars are nothing more than the leftwards hangings-on of leftwards ideals in a leftwards administrated motorsport. Fixed. Spoiler: show spoiler hide spoiler Because of the turns.

So.. How long until every race is against Team Penis. Porn Car '09 I imagine EA will find some way to police this since car schemes will have to be uploaded to their site, and then accessed through the game. There might be an approval waiting time, or maybe some cars can be flagged by other users for being offensive. I just hope it doesn't take them several months to get a service that works, like what they did with Skate.

So.. How long until every race is against Team Penis. Porn Car '09 I imagine EA will find some way to police this since car schemes will have to be uploaded to their site, and then accessed through the game. There might be an approval waiting time, or maybe some cars can be flagged by other users for being offensive. I just hope it doesn't take them several months to get a service that works, like what they did with Skate. You have to admit though it would be a good strategy. You put the most horrible picture you can think of on your car thats visible from all sides to distract everyone else around you. I wonder why they don't do this in real Nascar..

Well, Forza just does it by reporting violators who then get banned from Live, so I imagine EA could do the same thing.