It takes a special kind of person to be an IndyCar fan. Formula One, in my opinion, is dull. IndyCar is essentially Formula One without any hairpins, chicanes or right-hand turns. Ok, so there isn’t the predictability of the F1 season and the cars sure do zip along at a faster rate for a longer amount of time, but essentially, the sport involves driving a car around an ellipse as quickly as you can. For between 200 and 500 laps or so…
Brain In A Jar did a fair job of recreating the spectacle that is the IndyCar Series last year, but given the nature of the sport and an infuriating lack of any major innovations, the game didn’t really do too well at retail. Codemasters’ in-house development team have taken over to try their hand again on the Xbox, with a couple of new features to extend the replayability of the game. The first and most obvious of those is the head-to-head online racing over Xbox Live, where you and up to eleven other drivers can battle it out on any of the fifteen tracks to see who really is the king. In addition to this, third-party steering wheels are now supported in game and a new track ‘ the Twin Ring Motegi Speedway ‘ has been added to the roster. Drivers and teams have been updated for the new season, and the ‘Masterclass’ mode (featuring 2004 IndyCar Series Bombardier Dan Wheldon) has been expanded and is now as comprehensive as you could want.
But aside from that, not a great deal has changed. The front-end menus are pretty much exactly the same as last year, as is the control setup. The graphics haven’t been massively improved upon at all and could still be only rated as average at best. The pit crew still look they should have strings attached to their arms, but its a hoot to see them trying to repair damage. They emulate me fixing a car superbly, by simply hovering their hands over the broken part as if a little bit of faith healing is going on. I was almost expecting them to jump up, chanting ‘I HAVE the power…’ before sending you on your way.
Still as infuriating as before is the lack of any real damage in the easy mode. On the more difficult levels, full car damage (complete with retirements by yourself and AI drivers) is in place as are the full race rules, with the safety car and flags of all colours coming into play whenever something goes a tad wrong. However, learning to control the car on the more difficult levels will prove bothersome to all but the most dedicated of players, and if any game needed to hold onto as many of its fans as it could, this is it. With that said, if you like a challenge and don’t mind constantly finishing the race at the back of the pack (or more likely, not finishing at all) until you finally ‘get it’, then IndyCar Series 2005 will serve you well.
As is probably blatantly obvious, IndyCar Series 2005 is more of a ’specialist’ title. Its more than likely that you’ll know if you’ll want to play this game just by looking at the title. For general fans of racing, there are many, many titles available that will satiate your need for speed better than this effort. Not a tragic attempt, but at the same time, IndyCar Series 2005 is as close to average as they come.
