rec.autos.simulators

Has anyone tried Indy Racing by ABC Sports? Is there a demo anywhere? Is
the game arcade-lime or is it a sim? What is the control like? How are
the graphics? What's the deal?

Cordially,
Buddha

Yes.

Not that I'm aware.

The former.

Fair to median.

Not bad...not good, but not bad.

None...Full retail.

Cheers!

Marc

Marc J. Nelson
Sim Racing Online / Sim Racing News / The Sim Project
http://members.aol.com/simracing

                                                         Cheers,
                                                                 Ken

I actually kind of like it, but it's not much of sim. Other than a tendency
to rack you up on the start, the AI is pretty well behaved. The track seem
accurate and you can adjust the detail levels and textures to get a decent
D3d frame rate. I've had fun. Needs a paintkit and a save game feature
though.

Cordially,
Buddha

I just got my review copy, and by mid-next week you can expect a fully
detailed review on Digital Sports, where I also revied CPR and Test
Drive 4 (shameless plug).  

I will tell you now though that, at least on a P300, its not a bad sim
at all.  I'll need to run it upstairs and see how it runs on my P133
so I can give a more balanced look, but so far its okay.  

The game is definitely not arcade, and nothing obvious stands out
that's wrong about the physics model.  You can definitely get
oversteer or push into a wall.  One thing I did notice weird was that
after pushing up and touching the wall, t seemed like my wheels stayed
locked even though I was no longer on ANY of the pedals.  I'll have to
explore that more.

If you have the 3D hardware for the game, it looks quite nice, though
some of the scenery around some tracks is noticeably absent.  (compare
Nascar 2 Phoenix to Road to Indy Phoenix and you'll see what I mean),
but its still more detailed over all then its predecessors.   I was
going to grouse about the AI, but after getting rear-ended from an
overaggressive AI car, and noticing that the offender was one Dr. Jack
Miller, I decided that having questionable AI in the IRL is probably a
feature which provides realistic IRL racing <grin>.  

The biggest thing about an IRL sim is that its main benefit is that
you can race the Indy 500.  If you're looking for close racing on
ovals, NASCAR 2 can't be beat for that.  If you're looking for the
best Indy Car sim, then this one has tough competition from CPR and
ICR2.  So the issue is how much do you like ovals (since that's all
there are in the IRL) and how do you feel about doing nothing but
racing 8 ovals in open wheel non-turbocharged IRL cars.  If the idea
appeals to you, then you'll probably like the game, provided it runs
well on your hardware.  But its not quite as deep as its competitors
are in the options department.  For those keeping score, here are a
few nits:

- no custom saved setups.  You can customize the setup and it retains
a race and qualify setup for you separately, but there is no file
system for setups.  So you can't easily back out of a change if you
forget what it was!
- The setup option increments are fairly coarse.  You go from 17degree
rear wing to 14 degree rear wing in one notch, for instance.
- The crew chief is both the best thing you have and the worst (he
won't shut up and gets repetitive on matters that you don't want to
hear about all the time).
- The mirrors are tiny.  Even if you have them on, I find them almost
useless.
-  The replay only has rear and in-car camera angles.  No TV-style
replays here.

Anyway, read more about this one during the next week.  Right now I'd
say its a good sim, but not a great sim...but I reserve the right to
change my mind.

Randy

Cordially,
Buddha

Randy

  Thanks for the kind words. The whole reason I started the game is that I was
sick and tired of the majority of the reviewers at the corporate mags and sites
who don't even seem to really "play" the games that they review. Sure there are a
couple of decent sites that are unbiased, but there aren't nearly enough. The Game
Pad is a site for us, the gamers, to voice our opinions. Send us a review and as
long as it is fair-we will post it! BTW I should have our CPR review up in the
next couple of days. Be sure to check back. Thanks.

                                                                Ken
The Game Pad
http://gamepad.org/

It sucks.  Plain and simple.

- Bryan Davis                                   ExecPC Technical Support


- ExecPC Frequently Asked Questions List -- http://galaxy.execpc.com/FAQ

Randy

Didn't play the game much, did you?

which, on ovals, is better than CART Precision Racing's AI I must say.

Well, if your observations are all I have to rely on, then I have to
say that I think you're dead wrong.  Arcade/Simulation is not a
boolean "IT IS" or "IT ISN'T".  Its more like a scale with arcade on
the left and simulation on the right. I'd put Indy Racing at about a
75% simulation, 25% arcade.

Randy

Actually Mark is pretty close.  There is no VISIBLE car damage and some of
my fastest laps have come after flipping end over end at over 200mph
while playing the game on the "simulation" setting. I have raced alot in
"Road to Racing" and have never seen a yellow (just like CPR) and the AI
is nonesistant. The CPU cars all run their "line" as if they are on rails.
They are totally unaware you are there. If you stop on the track about
half of them slow down and go around, the rest slow down and continue to
ram you over and over and over. The only thing "sim" about this game are
some of the car setup options. The gameplay, car physics and AI all scream
"ARCADE" and eye-candy game, and not a good one either. The sprint car
portion is the only reason I didn't take this game back. I was desperate
to race sprints in the dirt and find it pretty cool in this game. I wrote
a couiple of in-depth reviews <plug, plug> on this and CPR at
http://gamepad.org/

Let's go racing,

Ken

At what level of difficulty?  The game doesn't simulate real life
physics and difficulty  utnil you reach 9.  10 and Expert are meant to
go beyond 'real'.  

You haven't raced a lot.  Sorry.   I did a race at Indianapolis
against a full grid and within the first 50 laps there were two
yellows, both caused by cars' engines letting go in a huge plume of
cool looking steam.  Your car is put into autopilot mode and you can
elect to enter the pits under yellow at anytime by pressing a key.  In
the many races I've done, I've seen enough yellows to be convinced
that they are not only there, but work pretty well.

Another comment that doesn't hold water when compared against reality.
I've tested the AI, and I've also looked at replays after impacts
which I felt were NOT my fault, and found that more often than not it
was happening on exits of turns where I moved up into an AI car.  In
NASCAR, the spotter  would have said "Car high" and I would have
lifted a bit to give the guy racing room, but in many cases I didn't
or the overtake speed was too high for there to be as much warning as
there is in NASCAR.

Interesting how you can say the AI is "non-existent" and that they are
"totally unaware you are there" if half of them slow down and go
around!    If they don't know you're there, why are they slowing to go
around you?!

Sorry, but I have to disagree STRONGLY with you.  In addition to all
of the above observations that I've debunked, can you tell me what you
set the difficulty slider at?  At level 9 and above in simulation
mode, the game models trailing throttle oversteer convincingly, and
the car feels very solid to drive. At difficulty level 3, I can rund
around Indy flat out and put up impressive lap times.  At difficulty
11, I couldn't do it.  Not only did I have to lift, but I had to lift
carefully to avoid inducing oversteer, and at the same time had to
lift enough to avoid pushing into the wall.  This is one of the better
oval physics models I've seen.  Your assessment of the car physics and
AI just doesn't wash with me.  Sorry.

What a pity you didn't get it right.  Oh well, you have a right to
your opinion, even if you didn't spend enough time with the game to
see all the stuff that I have.

Randy