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  Title: IndyCar Series Interview
User's Article Rating: 6.06
Number of views: 9639
Users's Comments / Reviews: 17 		Article Author: Jure Zagoricnik
Date posted: 13-05-2003
Pages: 3 / 3
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Total: 77 Screenshots

 
IndyCar Series Interview

BHMS: Let us not forget the damage model. Spectacular accidents aren't far away when open-wheels cars are racing wheel to wheel at speeds over 200mph. How much emphasis did you put on this part of the game?

Brain in a Jar: Damage systems are fast becoming an integral part of any racing game these days, and with that in mind a great deal of thought and effort went into ensuring that the physics and rendering system could handle displaying damage even with 33 cars on track.

BHMS: Staying on topic of damage, will parts fly off and will they have collision damage? What about oil on track, fire, etc. and let us not forget the breakdowns?

Brain in a Jar: Crash damage will vary depending on the difficulty setting you choose. On 'Easy' your car (and the cars of the other drivers) will be indestructible, while on 'Normal' the components of your car will only be damaged to a certain degree (it will always be drivable enough to get back to the pits for repairs). On Pro however your car will be susceptible to a wide array of damage that will impact on it's performance.
You may get away with a little rubbing against the wall with the only damage being some extra tire wear, but as the impact power goes up so does the damage. Heavier bashes will buckle your suspension or wing, costing you cornering grip and some mph from your top speed. Your cooling system, gearbox, electronic engine management system and the engine itself can also be damaged by impacts or even bad driving (run your car on the rev limiter for too long and you may blow your engine)!
If you get into really big smashes you may completely lose your wings, totally buckle you suspension, smash your engine and leave your car and you out of the race.

BHMS: Judging by the screenshots, IndyCar Series looks fantastic. What about the sound? Where did you get the samples, how important is the sound for you...

Brain in a Jar: Sound forms 50% of your experience in a game sometimes more, and so it's a very important aspect of the design. We sampled the racing cars at IMS and recorded impact, scraping, crowds and other sound effects to produce a rich audio experience.

BHMS: When the race is over, people like to view replays. How many cameras will there be and will we be able to save full race replays?

Brain in a Jar: There are a wide selection of cameras to choose from when watching replays, TV cameras, chase cameras, on-car cameras etc… And options to slow down the action, watch different cars and skip to different parts of the replay. The length of replay saved will depend on the platform and system the game is running on.

BHMS: Custom paint schemes have become big part of sim-racing. Will we be able to paint our cars in a paintshop or will we have to edit certain files? 20Q: Two companies released painting templates before they released their games. Are you thinking about following that trend? There's no custom editing but its something worth considering in the future!

BHMS: Release date is Spring 2003. Is there a set date for the promised demo version?

Brain in a Jar: IndyCar Series is releasing on PS2 in the US on May 13th, with PC and Xbox editions to follow in June. The games will also be launch across the rest of the world in June. The PC demo will be available just before launch, just as soon as we've perfected it!

BHMS: Thanks you for taking the time to talking to us (and our visitors).

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Author: jbodin 14-05-2003
I wonder if Brain in a Jar looked at any other Indy-style sims, or things like the now-defunct IRL Heat mod for NASCAR Heat? Also, I wonder where they found their pool of beta testers -- I know of nobody in the active sim racing community who was involved in the testing for IndyCar Series, and that makes me wonder about how serious they are about the "hardcore" aspect. -- JCB
Author: John Bodin 14-05-2003
The ability to save your progress after each race is pretty typical -- I think you can do that with virtually ANY halfway decent game that includes a career or championship season function. The part that sounds great to me is the ability to save your progress during pit stops within each race -- THIS is something that has been almost universally overlooked by most modern simulations (post-NASCAR 2, anyway). The setup options also sound encouraging. -- John Bodin
Author: davidan 14-05-2003
Is it true this game has no multiplayer, if so that's a real shame as it seems to have some potential based on their interview, but without multiplayer it's failed from day one in my opinion.
Author: Bobo88 15-05-2003
I have to agree with davidan on this one! The interview sure makes it sound tempting, but if it doesn't have multiplayer, I won't be buying it. IMHO, racing games are MEANT to be played against other humans! The AI are good for practice, but there is nothing like racing other who are unpredictable! The AI become very predictable eventually! Please consider multiplayer! Otherwise, the game sounds like it'll be great!
Author: TimCollier 15-05-2003
I also concur with Davidan...without multiplayer, you really have half a game based upon today's standards for ANY type of gaming, especially racing. While I'm sure that the final product will be polished and have it's merits, the two things that bring about concern is the multiplayer issue, and the "tweaking" of the physics engine, such as modification of the effects of drafting. What else might have been tweaked, and how much does it take away from this being a "true sim". I guess we'll know soon once a demo is released...but it's good to see a new face and a new form of racing come to the table.
Author: ThomasH 15-05-2003
Remeber, most of what has been said here, also were said when Nascar1 or/and Indycar Racing1 was released! It´s all realitive I guess...;) Just dont read to much into it...remember RaceDriver for one?
Author: leonardo 16-05-2003
what about multyplayer?!?!
Author: j_hotch 16-05-2003
Question: Custom paint schemes have become big part of sim-racing. Will we be able to paint our cars in a paintshop or will we have to edit certain files? 20Q: Two companies released painting templates before they released their games. Are you thinking about following that trend? Answer: There's no custom editing but its something worth considering in the future! Comment: You can't even skin your own car? What the crap?
Author: D_Kirsch 17-05-2003
"Our main drive in creating the physics model was to strike a balance between realism, accessibility and complexity." "We have actually slightly exaggerated the effect of drafting to create lots of overtaking." Those two statements are all I need to hear to decide that I won't be playing this game. What the developers had previously said suggested that IndyCar Series might be a racing sim with all of the aids turned off, but those two statements have made it clear that it's not. True racing sims don't "strike a balance" with the physics, or "slightly exaggerate" the effect of drafting. It's really a shame too, because IndyCar Series had looked pretty good, but if it's not going to be as realistic as possible, what's the point? "The physics model we have created is simple enough for a first time player to be able to pick it up with a default car setup and have fun with - while being complex enough for a hard-core racer to really get into tuning the car to achieve really fast lap times." It would certainly be understandable if the physics were "simple enough for a first time player to be able to pick it up" with the driving aids turned on, but that statement makes it sound as if the physics will ALWAYS be that simple, and that the only challenge will be adjusting the car to run faster lap times. If this is actually the case, the physics model must be dumbed down quite a bit, because in real life, even keeping an Indy car under control takes a lot of skill, and even experienced drivers can lose control in a heartbeat. I certainly hope that I've misinterpreted what the developers have said, and that this level of difficulty WILL be reflected in the physics model. Otherwise, I'm sorry to say that I have no interest whatsoever.
Author: Dan F 17-05-2003
Check the screenshots at worthplaying,com. They have a screenshot of the main menu and "multiplayer" is right there. The game has multiplayer...it does't have on-line play due to licensing restrictions, according to codemasters.
Author: TimCollier 19-05-2003
Dan, thanks for the info...I followed your lead and looked at the screenshot. What they were previewing was the PS2 version, not the PC version. I'm hoping for multiplayer in the PC version, but I have yet to read anywhere that it is a part of this game. Also, what do you mean by not having on-line play? Were you referring to the PS2 version? I'm not trying to start anything, was just hoping that we could get a clarification on this...
Author: jbodin 19-05-2003
I got a chance to check out the X-Box version at the Speedway this weekend, and I'm very encouraged now -- even though it won't have multiplayer support, it seems like Codemasters did their homework from a race sim perspective. What I experienced on the X-Box version felt a LOT like ICR2, with updated graphics (which ain't bad at all). I've posted a brief "First Impressions" piece on my site: http://irlinsider.adnetweb.com/sims/indycarseries/ At this point, I'd say that IndyCar Series seems promising!
Author: Scott 19-05-2003
I can't wait for this game!!
Author: koh feng wei 21-05-2003
this game can u give free?
Author: Ed d'Agliano-Luna 30-05-2003
A very concise, forthright, and honest question and answer article.
Author: DodgeRacer 01-06-2003
I am very dissapointed, i thought this game would include multiplayer. I was getting ready to buy it before reading that :(
Author: Allan 19-07-2003
These interview miss the point completely.Racing games should be meant to racing someone,not the dam computer.I'm only interested in online racing games no others.Does it linkup over the internet?how well and how many players.That's the only question that's seams to be left out all the time.

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