IndyCar Series 2005 Hands-On Impressions

Earlier today we paid a visit to Codemasters' E3 booth and took the Xbox version of IndyCar Series 2005 for a test drive. The game, which is currently set to be an Xbox exclusive in North America but will also be released on PlayStation 2 in Europe, will introduce online play for up to 12 players for the series and support races lasting between 10 and 200 laps. It's worth noting that the game will also support pre-race qualifying sessions online, allowing players to earn places on the grid rather than being randomly positioned, as is often the case in online racers.

We opted for the easiest of the game's three difficulty settings for our 10-lap race, and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the word "easy" didn't mean that the experience was completely dumbed down. In fact, although the game was very forgiving as far as minor collisions and excursions of the racing line were concerned, just retaining our position in the middle of the field proved quite challenging. On one occasion we managed to make up ground on the cars in the front and get close enough to slingshot past one of them; we found that this technique worked pretty well. Although, the energy bar-style indicator at the bottom of the screen that shows how much draft you're getting was pretty much useless.

IndyCar Series 2005 gave a good account of itself as far as the sensation of speed goes, although the visuals in the game, and in particular the textures, did look a little simplistic when compared to many of the other Xbox racing games present at E3. Nevertheless, IndyCar Series 2005 seems sure to appeal to fans of the sport and, with the addition of online play, might just be deserving of a place in your own collection when it ships next month.