Screenshots :.
IndyCar Series 2005
Xbox
Matt
21-06-2007
"Penske, sans evil tobacco livery. "
"Things can get slightly intense at times"
"Subliminal advertising doesn't work. I'm thirsty."
"Scott Sharp. Kind of old, but still quick."
Living in a continent that is regularly obsessed with the daily movements of messrs Schumacher, Alonso and Raikkonen means that it is a surprisingly difficult job to follow some of the other racing series that the world offers. In particular, the IndyCar Series – based in North America – consistently provides the kinds of photo finishes and exciting overtaking which many Formula One fans can only watch on grainy videotapes of older races.
The open wheel racing scene in the United States has changed dramatically since moustachioed moaner Nigel Mansell conquered it way back in 1993. Political in-fighting saw the original series split into two parts: Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. Whilst the former continued racing on a mixture of street, road and oval circuits, the latter’s entire premise was based on returning to the early days of American sprint racing and saw it racing on ovals exclusively.
IndyCar Series 2005 is based on the Indy Racing League, which means that any of you who enjoy your right-hand turns will not get your fill with this. Then again, you possibly might. See, what the game does well is replicating the concept of oval racing and making it feel entertaining and exciting for fans. Whilst course variations may initially seem few, delving a little deeper into the sport proves that not one of the game’s 15 circuits can be approached the same way.
Your first port of call, even if familiar with the sport, should be the tutorial section. Narrated – slightly stiffly – by Britain’s own Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon, the section provides the player with a number of scenarios in which he has to take control and perform various elements of race craft, be it drafting behind an opponent, basic racing lines and – most usefully – various setup tips. Given time to learn, you’ll soon have a good idea of what it’s going to take to see you out front and heading towards the chequered flag first.
Quite obviously, it isn’t anywhere near that simple. As mentioned previously, each of the game’s circuits are a unique challenge and will require a certain degree of car tweaking in order for you to get anywhere. Setting your car to fly along at 200mph may be all well and good, but take the same setup to the tiny Richmond bullring oval and you’ll be lapped in no time. The game is surprisingly deep when it comes to setting your vehicle up and to some the number of options and the fact that you can fiddle with a whole bunch of parameters in each will no doubt fill you with a slight sense of dread, but the game does try to give you a reasonable setup for each track as a default, so all is not lost if you are not instantly familiar with camber angles and gear ratios.
Out on circuit the cars handle pleasingly solidly, with none of the light, ‘floaty’ handling that has cursed some Formula One games in recent years. The keyword is smoothness when it comes to IndyCars and the Xbox pad is tailored for it, with the right and left triggers acting as your throttle and brake. Cleverly, Codemasters have also mapped a couple of basic options to the face buttons that can see you altering your car’s performance out on circuit. One of these is how much boost your engine is allowed, ranging from zero to seven, with the latter being the maximum amount and the former being used during caution periods as a method of saving gas. The other changes allowed are to the car’s anti-roll bar, which basically allows you to shift the centre of gravity as the car’s fuel load lightens to remedy various handling issues you may incur.
All of this would have come unstuck if the opposition AI would have driven as a pack of lemmings, but possibly the most enjoyable element of IndyCar Series 2005 is actually getting out on track and fighting against other cars. Your rivals will attack you and attempt to pass, but leave you just enough room to safely navigate the corner side-by-side if needed. Conversely, attempts to pass will see them running lower on the circuit and forcing you to go round the long way, making some passing moves incredibly risky. At no point do the computer cars intentionally ram you or slip too far off line, which makes the racing exciting and fair. That’s not to say that the AI are infallible, mind; rival cars do collide with each other and make mistakes, which adds a great deal to the sense of realism.
What doesn’t add a great deal to the sense of realism, though, are the slightly bizarre crash physics. Crashing at nigh-on 200mph is more than likely to produce spectacular results in real life, but cars in IndyCar Series frequently somersault down the circuit as if they were built of rubber. Not content with this, cars are then mysteriously placed back onto their wheels where they can drive off to the pits for repairs, although occasionally they disappear completely and are suddenly placed back in their pit boxes and into retirement. Having been an issue with the first game in the series that most purchasers complained about, it is shame that nothing has been done to remedy it.
The game has nothing to shout about graphically, either. Cars and circuits both look relatively basic and feature simple textures that you’d imagine don’t tax the hardware quite as much as they could. The car models in particular are noticeably simple and this results in a damage model light-years behind those that games such as Burnout 3 offer. The only saving grace as far as all this goes is that the sheer speed you will be zipping around each circuit means that looking at the scenery isn’t going to be high on your list of priorities.
Rating IndyCar Series is quite simple, at the end of the day. If you’re a fan of the series and have been waiting in anticipation for your chance to get out on circuit and test your mettle against the best the discipline has to offer, the flaws that exist in IndyCar Series 2005 will be noticeable but will be acceptable. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the sport or just wants another racing game to add to the collection, the fact that the title is so focused on the sport whilst not being technically impressive means that quite soon the game might be collecting dust on your shelf.
The open wheel racing scene in the United States has changed dramatically since moustachioed moaner Nigel Mansell conquered it way back in 1993. Political in-fighting saw the original series split into two parts: Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. Whilst the former continued racing on a mixture of street, road and oval circuits, the latter’s entire premise was based on returning to the early days of American sprint racing and saw it racing on ovals exclusively.
IndyCar Series 2005 is based on the Indy Racing League, which means that any of you who enjoy your right-hand turns will not get your fill with this. Then again, you possibly might. See, what the game does well is replicating the concept of oval racing and making it feel entertaining and exciting for fans. Whilst course variations may initially seem few, delving a little deeper into the sport proves that not one of the game’s 15 circuits can be approached the same way.
Your first port of call, even if familiar with the sport, should be the tutorial section. Narrated – slightly stiffly – by Britain’s own Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon, the section provides the player with a number of scenarios in which he has to take control and perform various elements of race craft, be it drafting behind an opponent, basic racing lines and – most usefully – various setup tips. Given time to learn, you’ll soon have a good idea of what it’s going to take to see you out front and heading towards the chequered flag first.
Quite obviously, it isn’t anywhere near that simple. As mentioned previously, each of the game’s circuits are a unique challenge and will require a certain degree of car tweaking in order for you to get anywhere. Setting your car to fly along at 200mph may be all well and good, but take the same setup to the tiny Richmond bullring oval and you’ll be lapped in no time. The game is surprisingly deep when it comes to setting your vehicle up and to some the number of options and the fact that you can fiddle with a whole bunch of parameters in each will no doubt fill you with a slight sense of dread, but the game does try to give you a reasonable setup for each track as a default, so all is not lost if you are not instantly familiar with camber angles and gear ratios.
Out on circuit the cars handle pleasingly solidly, with none of the light, ‘floaty’ handling that has cursed some Formula One games in recent years. The keyword is smoothness when it comes to IndyCars and the Xbox pad is tailored for it, with the right and left triggers acting as your throttle and brake. Cleverly, Codemasters have also mapped a couple of basic options to the face buttons that can see you altering your car’s performance out on circuit. One of these is how much boost your engine is allowed, ranging from zero to seven, with the latter being the maximum amount and the former being used during caution periods as a method of saving gas. The other changes allowed are to the car’s anti-roll bar, which basically allows you to shift the centre of gravity as the car’s fuel load lightens to remedy various handling issues you may incur.
All of this would have come unstuck if the opposition AI would have driven as a pack of lemmings, but possibly the most enjoyable element of IndyCar Series 2005 is actually getting out on track and fighting against other cars. Your rivals will attack you and attempt to pass, but leave you just enough room to safely navigate the corner side-by-side if needed. Conversely, attempts to pass will see them running lower on the circuit and forcing you to go round the long way, making some passing moves incredibly risky. At no point do the computer cars intentionally ram you or slip too far off line, which makes the racing exciting and fair. That’s not to say that the AI are infallible, mind; rival cars do collide with each other and make mistakes, which adds a great deal to the sense of realism.
What doesn’t add a great deal to the sense of realism, though, are the slightly bizarre crash physics. Crashing at nigh-on 200mph is more than likely to produce spectacular results in real life, but cars in IndyCar Series frequently somersault down the circuit as if they were built of rubber. Not content with this, cars are then mysteriously placed back onto their wheels where they can drive off to the pits for repairs, although occasionally they disappear completely and are suddenly placed back in their pit boxes and into retirement. Having been an issue with the first game in the series that most purchasers complained about, it is shame that nothing has been done to remedy it.
The game has nothing to shout about graphically, either. Cars and circuits both look relatively basic and feature simple textures that you’d imagine don’t tax the hardware quite as much as they could. The car models in particular are noticeably simple and this results in a damage model light-years behind those that games such as Burnout 3 offer. The only saving grace as far as all this goes is that the sheer speed you will be zipping around each circuit means that looking at the scenery isn’t going to be high on your list of priorities.
Rating IndyCar Series is quite simple, at the end of the day. If you’re a fan of the series and have been waiting in anticipation for your chance to get out on circuit and test your mettle against the best the discipline has to offer, the flaws that exist in IndyCar Series 2005 will be noticeable but will be acceptable. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the sport or just wants another racing game to add to the collection, the fact that the title is so focused on the sport whilst not being technically impressive means that quite soon the game might be collecting dust on your shelf.
6/10
