Indianapolis 500 Evolution (360) Impressions

[toonarmy]

I was out shopping this morning and saw Indianapolis 500 Evolution for the Xbox 360, it was 29.99, so I made an impulse buy, as if I need any more racing games. I never even heard of this game, although I had played the Indy 500 Legends game on the DS. This game was supposedly released a couple weeks ago according to Amazon.

So far I am liking the game. It covers each season from 1961 to 1971, with the original cast of drivers each year. There is individual tire degradation. Fuel load makes for a noticeable impact on speed and handling. Pit stops are pretty cool. The AI is generally good. In career mode you actually get rated by each driver. If you drive clean, the drivers will give you more room on the track in subsequent races, however if you make them mad they will be more aggressive. The tracks are fun, and supposedly accurately rendered based on the time period. You get credits during the race for stuff like clean passes. You can use these credits throughout the career to buy and upgrade equipment. You can also use these credits to buy challenges from each of the eleven years based on historical scenarios. Each year also has an area where there is real life footage of the races, fully narrated. There is a photo gallery from each year, which is also really cool.

The driving itself I am finding very challenging. There is definitely no rubberband AI. Get off line a little bit and prepare to get passed like crazy. I am on the middle difficulty level (limited damage, medium AI), and I am getting my ass handed to me. I have yet to win a race. I am only doing short races (10 laps), but there are various options on race length, all the way up to full race. Fortunately there is the option to save at any time during a race and pick up where you left off later on. The wrecks look nice, and the AI wrecks on its own from time to time without the user initiating things. You have to watch out for flying parts because they can make an impact. The handling is solid, but challenging. This is certainly a game for those gamers with steady hands.

As far as graphics go, they are adequate. The buttload of different cars over the 11 years appear to be accurately modeled, and the tracks look fine. This is nothing on par with Shift or Dirt graphically, but the graphics get the job done and run smoothly. The sound is fine as well.

I have only run three races so far and am still getting acclimated to the controls and tracks. I am currently 9th in the 1961 season standings. The highest I have qualified is 5th, and that was after driving really good and steady laps. I would hate to see what the hardest difficulty is like with full damage and better AI. I'm sure there is stuff I have not delved into yet, but thought I would throw up a few impressions for those people interested in racing games. At this point I'd say if you are interested in the history of American open-wheel racing then this game is worthy of your time. It is quite a bit better than I expected it to be.

[Naples39]

FYI Toon, DChaps has a few posts of impressions for this game over in the racing sim thread.

Good to hear a second opinion though.

[toonarmy]

Ah, ok, I don't usually read that thread since it mainly deals with PC games. Thanks for the heads-up.

[toonarmy]

Updated Impressions:

After more races I am getting the hang of the controls and actually won a couple races. I had one of the most exciting races ever in a videogame at Langhorne in Pennsylvania. Off the main racing line there it is totally gritty and slippery. It feels like you are literally driving in a circle, basically turning left as hard as you can the entire race. f***in Andretti about punted me into the wall a couple of times, but I was able to hold on and avoid disaster. My heart rate was going pretty fast, as I had to give total focus in a large field of cars, going full throttle round and round, trying not to touch wheels with anyone. I also had a hell of a race at Milwaukee in which Dallenbach was able to keep a low line the final three laps and keep me from passing. I kept drafting and trying to go high on him, but could not get past him. I really like open-wheel racing of all types, so this game is an incredibly pleasant surprise for me. I think I will attempt a full Indy 500 race with full damage on and see how many laps I can last. It would suck really bad to get most of the way through the full race then have it all end due to one little slip-up. No rewinds and mulligans in this racing game.

[DChaps]

Thanks for posting your impressions toon. This game is starting to grow on me after my initial impressions were somewhat negative. The AI is definitely stout and the game on Pro mode allows for basically zero mistakes (i like that ). A few things that still bug me, mainly because this comes so close to the Indycar console sim I have always hoped for. I will post my impressions here as well. Only reason I posted them in the racing sim thread was that simo had asked about it there, and I figured there was no one else interested. Would you be interested in trying some online tonight? I have yet to find anyone to race with. Also, are you using the controller or wheel?

Anyway, here is my original impressions as posted in the the racing sim thread. I hope to post some further comments as I get more time with it this weekend.

=========================
First Impressions Indianapolis 500 Evolution for Xbox 360:

Well, this past weekend I could not help but pickup this game at Best Buy for $29.99. My instincts told me not to, especially since I already have the Wii version of this game. However, I thought maybe with the upgraded graphics, steering wheel support, and Xbox Live, there could be more fun and substance to be had. I was also all geared up for it after listening to the AJ Foyt/Robin Miller interview on Speed.

First off, I will admit the concept of this game is literally my racing sim nirvana. There is no period in racing that intrigues me more than Indycars, the tracks, and the drivers from 1961-1971 that this game replicates. Plus even though I love all forms of racing, Indycars has always been my favorite, and my Dad was at every Indy 500 from 1961-1971 so I know the era well from his stories, programs, books, and newspapers. The drivers of this era are legendary to me (Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Rutherford, Gurney, Clark, Hill, Brabham, etc., etc.).

The promise of a racing sim with authentic tracks, cars, and drivers that change as the seasons change from 1961 - 1971 following the transition from front engine roadsters to rear engined winged monsters is like the fullfillment of a childhood dream (ok, maybe that's too dramatic). Racing at the Indianapolis 500, Milwaukee Mile, Trenton, Riverside, Hanford and Langhorne Speedway, it's idea is basically Grand Prix Legends for the Indycars, but have it follow an entire 11 year period.

For me it sounds so, so cool on paper. And I can only imagine it sounds cool on paper to like a mere handful of other gamers (pk, simo, etc.) Which makes the target audience of this game seem so very strange. Who are they really planning to have buy this game? Certainly not the Shift, Grid, Dirt crowd, nor the Forza, GT5 crowd. I can't imagine it appealing to the budget minded gamer, or the impulse buyer.

No, a game like this could only be made for the hard core, old school racing nostalgia geeks and aficianados like myself, right? Who else would even be remotely interested in a game like this?

Well, unforunately, like many Indycar console games before it, this game only hints at what could have been. I am going to give it as much time as I can possibly bear, but so far it only confirmed for me what I got out of the Wii version. A niche concept, created by a team operating on a small budget with little vision for their target audience. I just can't imagine the licensing costs that it would take to produce something like this to then so half-ass the actual game. From what I have read, the dev team certainly meant well and wanted to respect and recreate the era as best they could, but it all seems to fall short.

Graphics: PS2/Xbox graphics at best. There are also real frame rate issues once you get in a pack. The Wii version had really dark/bleak graphics and the 360 version is not much better. Seems a little brighter, but still hard to see. It says it supports 720p, but on my 1280x1024 monitor it looked stretched. It was also letterbox ala Grand Prix Legends. Only 360 game that does this on my setup. It could be something I need to change, but I could not find any settings in game. The text on screen is jaggy and almost unreadable. I know they may be trying to recreate on old news reel type atmosphere, but the end result is just very ugly, especially if you have just played Dirt 2 or Shift.

Control: While the back of the box shows wheel support, the implementation is poor at best. Very floaty with a HUGE deadzone and no option to adjust that I could find. Minimal force feedback and no weight to the wheel at all. These cars had no power steering, and just last night AJ was talking about how hard it was to drive these things. They could have at least implemented the tightness of the wheel. Not so. Even at the 1961 Indy 500, which still featured almost the entire front stretch of bricks, you feel absolutely NO CHANGE in surface in the wheel, not even the slighest rumble. You do feel a little bit of tire scrub if you start to get it too loose, but overall the FF and control with the wheel is just not there. I have not yet tried it with the regular Xbox controller.

Online: The main reason I bought this game was the thought that maybe, just maybe the online might make it worth the $30. It promises 8 players with the rest of the 33 car field being filled out by AI. Also, you can supposedly run from 10 laps to the full 200 lap race. I know the game was just released, but in 3 different attempts last night to get online, there were no other players online. Could it be that I will be the only person to buy this game.

Indianapolis 500 Evolution for Xbox 360 Impressions Continued:

Hopefully I will have some time later tonight to give it another go and I will try with the controller. I think there are basically 3 difficulty settings and I am not sure if it just changes the performance of the AI, or if it also changes the physics difficulty. Pro is the highest setting and in my first race at Indy I qualified 9th with the default car and no upgrades to engine, etc. I have not seen yet if there are setup options, but you can change your car for historically correct engines, etc. Brain in the Jar is the developer of this game which I think did both the Codemasters Indycar games or at least the first one. Like those games, it does attempt to mimic true Indy qualifying where you can waive off attempts, and it even simulates bump day. However, as much as I appreciate the effort, it just cannot recreate the "excitement", especially from back then when you had 50+ cars trying to qualify. I doubt I will ever have to worry about being "on the bubble", as my qualifying 9th was with some pretty bad laps. In the race though the AI seemed decent. I was dicing it out with Lloyd Ruby and ended up hitting the wall after 6 laps. I had yet to make a pass. The damage model does seem solid as I lost a wheel, caught fire, and was immediately out of the race, which is the way it would have been back then if I had tried the move I did.

On the other hand, in the mission mode the AI seemed very weak. It's a very cool idea as each year has a couple supposedly historical race situations with a bronze, silver, gold achievement for each. I tried a 1965 scenario where I was Lloyd Ruby leading at Langhorne where I had to hold off the field for the last 5 laps. I ran pretty inconsistent laps and never saw an AI car and got the gold. No challenge at all. I don't know that all the missions are like that, but if they are there will be no compelling reason to try the rest.

Anyway, more rambling impressions later......

[pk500]

It feels like you are literally driving in a circle, basically turning left as hard as you can the entire race.

That's because you are, man! Langhorne had no straightaway whatsoever. It was one giant circle. An incredibly dangerous track that's now a housing project, strip mall or something like that.

I posted an old, black-and-white overhead shot of Langhorne in the Racing Sim thread.

Glad you're enjoying this game.

Take care,
PK

[toonarmy]

Thanks for posting your impressions toon. This game is starting to grow on me after my initial impressions were somewhat negative. The AI is definitely stout and the game on Pro mode allows for basically zero mistakes (i like that ). A few things that still bug me, mainly because this comes so close to the Indycar console sim I have always hoped for. I will post my impressions here as well. Only reason I posted them in the racing sim thread was that simo had asked about it there, and I figured there was no one else interested. Would you be interested in trying some online tonight? I have yet to find anyone to race with. Also, are you using the controller or wheel?

Anyway, here is my original impressions as posted in the the racing sim thread. I hope to post some further comments as I get more time with it this weekend.

=========================
First Impressions Indianapolis 500 Evolution for Xbox 360:

Well, this past weekend I could not help but pickup this game at Best Buy for $29.99. My instincts told me not to, especially since I already have the Wii version of this game. However, I thought maybe with the upgraded graphics, steering wheel support, and Xbox Live, there could be more fun and substance to be had. I was also all geared up for it after listening to the AJ Foyt/Robin Miller interview on Speed.

First off, I will admit the concept of this game is literally my racing sim nirvana. There is no period in racing that intrigues me more than Indycars, the tracks, and the drivers from 1961-1971 that this game replicates. Plus even though I love all forms of racing, Indycars has always been my favorite, and my Dad was at every Indy 500 from 1961-1971 so I know the era well from his stories, programs, books, and newspapers. The drivers of this era are legendary to me (Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Rutherford, Gurney, Clark, Hill, Brabham, etc., etc.).

The promise of a racing sim with authentic tracks, cars, and drivers that change as the seasons change from 1961 - 1971 following the transition from front engine roadsters to rear engined winged monsters is like the fullfillment of a childhood dream (ok, maybe that's too dramatic). Racing at the Indianapolis 500, Milwaukee Mile, Trenton, Riverside, Hanford and Langhorne Speedway, it's idea is basically Grand Prix Legends for the Indycars, but have it follow an entire 11 year period.

For me it sounds so, so cool on paper. And I can only imagine it sounds cool on paper to like a mere handful of other gamers (pk, simo, etc.) Which makes the target audience of this game seem so very strange. Who are they really planning to have buy this game? Certainly not the Shift, Grid, Dirt crowd, nor the Forza, GT5 crowd. I can't imagine it appealing to the budget minded gamer, or the impulse buyer.

No, a game like this could only be made for the hard core, old school racing nostalgia geeks and aficianados like myself, right? Who else would even be remotely interested in a game like this?

Well, unforunately, like many Indycar console games before it, this game only hints at what could have been. I am going to give it as much time as I can possibly bear, but so far it only confirmed for me what I got out of the Wii version. A niche concept, created by a team operating on a small budget with little vision for their target audience. I just can't imagine the licensing costs that it would take to produce something like this to then so half-ass the actual game. From what I have read, the dev team certainly meant well and wanted to respect and recreate the era as best they could, but it all seems to fall short.

Graphics: PS2/Xbox graphics at best. There are also real frame rate issues once you get in a pack. The Wii version had really dark/bleak graphics and the 360 version is not much better. Seems a little brighter, but still hard to see. It says it supports 720p, but on my 1280x1024 monitor it looked stretched. It was also letterbox ala Grand Prix Legends. Only 360 game that does this on my setup. It could be something I need to change, but I could not find any settings in game. The text on screen is jaggy and almost unreadable. I know they may be trying to recreate on old news reel type atmosphere, but the end result is just very ugly, especially if you have just played Dirt 2 or Shift.

Control: While the back of the box shows wheel support, the implementation is poor at best. Very floaty with a HUGE deadzone and no option to adjust that I could find. Minimal force feedback and no weight to the wheel at all. These cars had no power steering, and just last night AJ was talking about how hard it was to drive these things. They could have at least implemented the tightness of the wheel. Not so. Even at the 1961 Indy 500, which still featured almost the entire front stretch of bricks, you feel absolutely NO CHANGE in surface in the wheel, not even the slighest rumble. You do feel a little bit of tire scrub if you start to get it too loose, but overall the FF and control with the wheel is just not there. I have not yet tried it with the regular Xbox controller.

Online: The main reason I bought this game was the thought that maybe, just maybe the online might make it worth the $30. It promises 8 players with the rest of the 33 car field being filled out by AI. Also, you can supposedly run from 10 laps to the full 200 lap race. I know the game was just released, but in 3 different attempts last night to get online, there were no other players online. Could it be that I will be the only person to buy this game.

Indianapolis 500 Evolution for Xbox 360 Impressions Continued:

Hopefully I will have some time later tonight to give it another go and I will try with the controller. I think there are basically 3 difficulty settings and I am not sure if it just changes the performance of the AI, or if it also changes the physics difficulty. Pro is the highest setting and in my first race at Indy I qualified 9th with the default car and no upgrades to engine, etc. I have not seen yet if there are setup options, but you can change your car for historically correct engines, etc. Brain in the Jar is the developer of this game which I think did both the Codemasters Indycar games or at least the first one. Like those games, it does attempt to mimic true Indy qualifying where you can waive off attempts, and it even simulates bump day. However, as much as I appreciate the effort, it just cannot recreate the "excitement", especially from back then when you had 50+ cars trying to qualify. I doubt I will ever have to worry about being "on the bubble", as my qualifying 9th was with some pretty bad laps. In the race though the AI seemed decent. I was dicing it out with Lloyd Ruby and ended up hitting the wall after 6 laps. I had yet to make a pass. The damage model does seem solid as I lost a wheel, caught fire, and was immediately out of the race, which is the way it would have been back then if I had tried the move I did.

On the other hand, in the mission mode the AI seemed very weak. It's a very cool idea as each year has a couple supposedly historical race situations with a bronze, silver, gold achievement for each. I tried a 1965 scenario where I was Lloyd Ruby leading at Langhorne where I had to hold off the field for the last 5 laps. I ran pretty inconsistent laps and never saw an AI car and got the gold. No challenge at all. I don't know that all the missions are like that, but if they are there will be no compelling reason to try the rest.

Anyway, more rambling impressions later......

Interesting impressions. I guess I had a more positive initial experience. That is likely due to expectations. You seem to be more demanding of realism in racing games than I am, so I can understand the difference in opinion. I'm glad I did not read these impressions before I saw the game today or I might have thought twice before my purchase . You hit the nail on the head in terms of this being a game produced on a small budget and aimed at a niche market. I think that is why I am impressed that this game even saw the light of day and is actually not too bad of a racing game. It could definitely be better in some areas, but I will take what I can get with something of this nature on a console.

I am using the controller since I don't have a wheel. The control is fairly forgiving I am noticing as long as you enter and exit corners at proper speed, the way it should be. I am also liking the importance of momentum in being successful. Any loss of momentum due to talking a poor line is deadly.

I doubt I will want to play online tonight since I am still trying to become proficient on the medium difficulty level and would like to start my full Indy 500 race (thank goodness for the in-race save feature!), but I would definitely like to play once I do not suck as bad and understand the game's mechanics better. I think it sounds like fun online since you can race with a full grid of AI cars. It's so freaking cool to look up at the race order and see all those actual names from the 60s up there, driving their actual cars. I'm also having fun watching the informative movies from each year.

[GB_Simo]

Only reason I posted them in the racing sim thread was that simo had asked about it there, and I figured there was no one else interested.

Which is usually a safe assumption when it's me asking the questions, mate.

It sounds impossibly cool, this thing. Already I'm trying to find out if it's one of the select few NTSC releases that isn't region-locked, in the hope that I can import it. I'm having no joy at all finding a UK release date for this, and given the subject matter I do suspect I might never see it. Saying that, we did get WoO: Sprint Cars and Saturday Night Speedway (the latter a year late, under a different name), and waiting for me when I got home tonight was my pre-ordered copy of Stoked, the snowboarding game that's been on store shelves in the USA since the beginning of this year...

[toonarmy]

It feels like you are literally driving in a circle, basically turning left as hard as you can the entire race.

That's because you are, man! Langhorne had no straightaway whatsoever. It was one giant circle. An ncredibly dangerous track that's now a housing project, strip mall or something like that.

I posted an old, black-and-white overhead shot of Langhorne in the Racing Sim thread.

Glad you're enjoying this game.

Take care,
PK

Haha! Nice picture. If the track was anything in reality like it is in the game, then the drivers back then had to have attachments the size of pineapples to run Indy cars on that track. Racing on it in the game is just insane.

[Naples39]

Awesome read about Langhorne Speedway:

With cars in a constant four-wheel drift or running sideways in great dirt-throwing powerslides, Langhorne treated the spectators to some of the closest, most fiercely contested events in the history of American auto racing. Unfortunately, the close competition also caused some terrible accidents. On August 7, 1926, former prizefighter Lou Fink became the track's first fatality when his car crashed near the main stands. That October, Russ Snowberger drove a Miller-powered racer to victory while dodging rocks, holes, and crashes in Langhorne's first 100-mile contest. "The dust was so bad," Snowberger exclaimed, "I couldn't see more than ten or twelve yards ahead." And it only got worse. Its underground springs and shifting subsoil made Langhorne a treacherous course. Racing cars quickly rutted the surface and dug up huge holes, and the dust was so bad that fans stopped coming in 1928 because they could not see the action.

The track was in danger of closing when racing promoter Ralph "Pappy" Hankinson took Langhorne over. Pappy dug up the track and treated the soil with 30,000 gallons of used motor oil, which cut down the dust, held the soft spots in the track together, and soon turned Langhorne into the "Indianapolis of the East." On May 3, 1930, Hankinson carded a 100-mile race, which featured a tremendous duel between Winnai, Deacon Litz, and future Indy champs Wilbur Shaw and "Wild Bill" Cummings. This battle royal went to Cummings. "That was the toughest race I ever drove," the exhausted Cummings told Hankinson. "Don't ever run another 100-miler here. Long races at this place are too tiring to be safe."

What made Langhorne so tiring was the absence of straightaways. To navigate "the big left turn," drivers had to grip the wheel without rest in a death-grip left-turn that lasted 100 miles. Auto-racing historian Joe Scalzo recalls an additional danger, explaining that "as a cut-rate way of taming the dust storms, management routinely had contractors pump vast reservoirs of used motor oil and crankcase sludge onto the track. Essentially, drivers were putting their cars and lives at risk upon a slick witches" brew of toxic sludge."

From 1956 to 1970, the United States Auto Club sanctioned open-wheel races at Langhorne won by such famous names as A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, and Gordon Johncock. Serious injuries and fatalities continued, so in 1965 Fried and Gerber reshaped and paved the track into a "D" configuration. Although dirt-track purists and many of the drivers felt the racing was less exciting, faster speeds and close competition kept fans coming and ended driver fatalities. On October 10, 1971, Fried and Gerber staged the last race at Langhorne, a 200-mile "National Open" for modified stock cars won by Roger Treichler. A few days later a developer began to bulldoze the world's most famous one-mile speedway to make way for a shopping center.

http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=994

[toonarmy]

I just tried a full Indy 500 on the highest difficulty setting using Rodger Ward. I made it a full 6 laps before having my right rear tire barely touched, sending me into the wall. I was forced to retire. I think I will try normal difficulty level now, which has a limited damage model. Pro level is an absolute beast.

[Dave]

How open are your options at the beginning of the game? Can you run late-60s cars immediately or do you have to work your way through the earlier years to unlock them? That's one of the things that made me sour on the Wii game from last year, too many limitations without unlocking.

Thanks for the impressions, this game will be an eventual purchase for me. The Milwaukee Mile is a track I am strangely addicted to, I guess it goes back to the Papyrus IndyCar days. Add in one of the coolest eras in racing and apparently decent physics and AI and it is hard for me to resist.

[toonarmy]

How open are your options at the beginning of the game? Can you run late-60s cars immediately or do you have to work your way through the earlier years to unlock them? That's one of the things that made me sour on the Wii game from last year, too many limitations without unlocking.

Thanks for the impressions, this game will be an eventual purchase for me. The Milwaukee Mile is a track I am strangely addicted to, I guess it goes back to the Papyrus IndyCar days. Add in one of the coolest eras in racing and apparently decent physics and AI and it is hard for me to resist.

Well, if you want to do a quick race you can choose any year, any car, any driver. In career mode you start with a 1961 model, and then have to earn credits to buy a new chassis, gearbox, and engine. It does not seem to let you get too far ahead in purchasing equipment too many years in advance in the career mode, at least from what I can tell at the point I'm at (beginning of season 2). The Milwaukee mile is a fun track. I seem to do really well there so far.

[toonarmy]

I went ahead and tried a full Indy 500 race on normal level after getting owned in pro. I made it about 25 laps. I got wrecked twice by an angry A.J. Foyt and had to pit too much to remain competitive. I bumped him in a corner on lap 3 and from that point on any time I got near him he would either squeeze me on the bottom or at the top into the wall. This game definitely teaches you to race clean.

I then started a career and got through season 1 (6 races). I did pretty well except in the two races at Trenton. I need to practice that track because turn one eats me up in traffic every time.

One thing I need to do is correct something in my original post. You do not have to use credits to buy the missions from each year in that mode. You actually receive credits that you can apply in career mode. I had just flipped through that mode at first and was under the impression you had to buy the missions. I am definitely going to complete some more missions to stockpile credits I can use to upgrade equipment.

This is a very addictive game. The short races (10 laps) are about the right length for me in career mode. Once I get through all 11 seasons I will start doing longer races for fun. A nice touch I've noticed is that the IMS changes appearance over the years. For example, in 1961 there are a lot more bricks down the straightaway, but later on there is just the little strip of bricks that we see today.

[toonarmy]

Awesome read about Langhorne Speedway:

With cars in a constant four-wheel drift or running sideways in great dirt-throwing powerslides, Langhorne treated the spectators to some of the closest, most fiercely contested events in the history of American auto racing. Unfortunately, the close competition also caused some terrible accidents. On August 7, 1926, former prizefighter Lou Fink became the track's first fatality when his car crashed near the main stands. That October, Russ Snowberger drove a Miller-powered racer to victory while dodging rocks, holes, and crashes in Langhorne's first 100-mile contest. "The dust was so bad," Snowberger exclaimed, "I couldn't see more than ten or twelve yards ahead." And it only got worse. Its underground springs and shifting subsoil made Langhorne a treacherous course. Racing cars quickly rutted the surface and dug up huge holes, and the dust was so bad that fans stopped coming in 1928 because they could not see the action.

The track was in danger of closing when racing promoter Ralph "Pappy" Hankinson took Langhorne over. Pappy dug up the track and treated the soil with 30,000 gallons of used motor oil, which cut down the dust, held the soft spots in the track together, and soon turned Langhorne into the "Indianapolis of the East." On May 3, 1930, Hankinson carded a 100-mile race, which featured a tremendous duel between Winnai, Deacon Litz, and future Indy champs Wilbur Shaw and "Wild Bill" Cummings. This battle royal went to Cummings. "That was the toughest race I ever drove," the exhausted Cummings told Hankinson. "Don't ever run another 100-miler here. Long races at this place are too tiring to be safe."

What made Langhorne so tiring was the absence of straightaways. To navigate "the big left turn," drivers had to grip the wheel without rest in a death-grip left-turn that lasted 100 miles. Auto-racing historian Joe Scalzo recalls an additional danger, explaining that "as a cut-rate way of taming the dust storms, management routinely had contractors pump vast reservoirs of used motor oil and crankcase sludge onto the track. Essentially, drivers were putting their cars and lives at risk upon a slick witches" brew of toxic sludge."

From 1956 to 1970, the United States Auto Club sanctioned open-wheel races at Langhorne won by such famous names as A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, and Gordon Johncock. Serious injuries and fatalities continued, so in 1965 Fried and Gerber reshaped and paved the track into a "D" configuration. Although dirt-track purists and many of the drivers felt the racing was less exciting, faster speeds and close competition kept fans coming and ended driver fatalities. On October 10, 1971, Fried and Gerber staged the last race at Langhorne, a 200-mile "National Open" for modified stock cars won by Roger Treichler. A few days later a developer began to bulldoze the world's most famous one-mile speedway to make way for a shopping center.

http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=994

According to the in-game information, the drivers nicknamed it "puke alley" due to the dizziness they got while racing on it. I can see why. The cockpit view in this game is very cool, as it truly puts you near the ground. On Langhorne, after so many laps, I kind of lose track of where I am on the track and am in a semi-trance. It's a pretty intense experience. You literally cannot glance away for even a split second.

[pk500]

A nice touch I've noticed is that the IMS changes appearance over the years. For example, in 1961 there are a lot more bricks down the straightaway, but later on there is just the little strip of bricks that we see today.

That's excellent attention to detail by Brain in a Jar. Very cool!

The front straightaway at IMS was all bricks until the summer of 1961, right after A.J. Foyt's first Indianapolis 500 victory. It was paved with asphalt that summer, leaving only the Yard of Bricks at the start-finish line that you see today.

Again, nice attention to detail by Brain in a Jar.

Take care,
PK

[Gurantsu]

I just snagged this over the weekend from Best Buy. Only had time to run one quick race at Trenton when we got home from the in-laws last night, hopefully I can mess with it some more today.

Man, seeing some of these cars brings back some (admittedly faded) memories. I wish they could have stretched it to 1972 so I could drive Al Unser's Johnny Lightning car.

One thing about this era was how much drivers jumped from one series to another, these guys just loved to race anything. Seeing an open wheeler with Cale Yarbroughs or Donnie Allisons names on them is cool. And didn't Mario win Daytona during this time-frame? 1969 maybe?

[Gurantsu]

Ah, the Johnny Lightning car is in the game, so apparently I'm older than I thought! Man, how old was I when my brother and I had that poster of Unser?

It certainly has the feel of a budget title, but a fun budget title and if you are willing to overlook the lack of polish it's a real hoot. The movies included that show some of the history of races and cars are awesome.

And I just ran a race at Riverside in the 1965 Lloyd Ruby car that alone was worth the price of admission. It's certainly not for everyone, but there are worse things to spend 30 bucks on. And for me the trip into the Wayback Machine is worth it.

[toonarmy]

I ran a full race at Indy last night. I planned on doing half last night and half tonight, but to my chagrin I found out the hard way that you cannot save in the middle of races on the quick race mode. I was at lap 100 and went to the options area and realized there was no option to save in quick race. All is good though because I had an absolute blast doing the whole race in one sitting. A few comments about the full race:

1) There are no cautions.
2) There are quite a few wrecks, so dodging debris and sliding cars in front of you is of great importance. I got caught up in a few wrecks which made me lose a lot of time.
3) The timing information stinks in this game. There is not enough information given during and after the race. After putting in 200 laps I would like to see something other than merely my fastest lap.
4) I had climbed into first by four seconds, but was running out of fuel with 7 laps left, so I had to pit and put a little more fuel in the car. Fortunately, there were quit a few cars significantly behind me due to crashes, so I managed to eke out 6th place.
5) The racing was marvelous. Drafting is very nicely modeled in this game. The AI is also really good most of the time. If you give the other cars room and maintain smooth control then you do not need to worry about being wrecked. If you bump other cars or intrude into their space and squeeze them then prepare to get wrecked.
6)The tire wear makes a big difference in the full race. There is big time noticeable difference between worn tires and fresh tires. You have to slightly alter your entry and exit speeds out of the corners every so many laps due to the difference in tire performance.
7) If someone can finish a full 500 on pro level I want to meet them and give them an award. Just like in real life, it does not take much of an impact to put the car out of the race. Seeing as how many wrecks occur in front of the car over the course of the race, it would take unreal skill to make it the whole race.
8.) As has been mentioned before, this game lacks some things in terms of stat tracking, rules, and depth of car setups that we've come to expect in racing games. Heck, you cannot even make any steering settings. However, so many of the little things are done well that I can overlook any shortcomings due to the sheer fun of the racing.

Dirt 2 and Shift are a blast and excellent games and were seeing a lot of time from me, but since I got Indianapolis 500 Evolution it is the only game I have been playing. I am going to spend four or five more hours tonight in season mode. There's something hypnotic about trying to shave tenths of a second off each lap while racing against a full field of Indycars piloted by legends of the sport, knowing that the slightest error will cost you the race.

[vader29]

Nice impressions guys, I'll eventually pick this up but I am currently having a blast with Dirt 2, hoping to finish it before Forza 3 comes out.

[Gurantsu]

ARGH! I was so close to the Borg-Warner trophy!

I started a career, and the second race was the Indy 500.

I ended up on the pole, and as the race started I got shuffled back to 5th, as I was trying to stay out of trouble. By lap 3 I was back in the lead and averaging about 3.5 seconds between myself and the second place cars.

Had I set the race for 10 laps, I would have won it. Heck, 20, 30 laps I would have won it. But it's Indy baby, so I set it for 50 laps.

On lap 33 I'm looking ok on fuel but it would be close, and my tires are getting a little worn. I figure I'll do one quick stop at some point once I get past some traffic. Well Chuck Stevenson was feeling racy, and after I lapped him (cleanly I might add!) he hits me from behind. We both slide through the short chute between 3 and 4, with me planted on top of his hood. I can't move, and he won't move. Eventually his car disappears. So I get slapped with a drive-thru penalty for being stationary too long, plus some car damage. I do the drive through, then come in for a little fuel and tires (I told the crew to forget the damage just get me back out there!).

So with 15 laps to go I'm in 29th place. I drive the wheels off the thing, with the engine sputtering now and then from the damage, hoping desperately that the leaders will need to stop for tires. No such luck though and the race ends with me in 13th. It was frustrating but fun as hell. The ai is actually pretty good and race you and each other realistically (at least until you park on their hood!).

At least I know for next years 500 that I should be able to make it on the one tank of fuel. Of course I'll probably buy a new chassis and engine by then so it will probably be completely different.

Anybody try online yet?

[webdanzer]

... I already have the Wii version of this game. However, I thought maybe with the upgraded graphics, steering wheel support, and Xbox Live, there could be more fun and substance to be had.

So is the actual gameplay much different from the Wii version, Don?

(which I also have and have found to be somewhat of a fun distraction from time to time.)

[J_Cauthen]

Thanks Gurantsu and Toonarmy for your detailed reports on this game. I had deleted it from my Gamefly GameQ, and then reinstated it to #1 after reading your impressions.

[DChaps]

So is the actual gameplay much different from the Wii version, Don?

(which I also have and have found to be somewhat of a fun distraction from time to time.)

In general I would say the gameplay is similar, but I am always so focused on the control that it is difficult to compare using the Wii controller with the steering wheel for the 360. I have not played the Wii version in awhile, but I don't remember the AI being as racy in Pro as they seem to be in the 360 version. I have yet to get back to trying this with the regular 360 controller. I would say a good bit of my negative first impressions are due to the wheel support being so weak. I also played the game right after playing Forza 2 and the Forza 3 demo where the wheel is implemented so well.

Anyway, we have got to try this out online now that there are a few of us with it. Could be fun.

[GB_Simo]

This is the first time I've ever been so keen on a US release that I've emailed the developer to see if it's region-free or what. Their reply - "Indy Evolution is currently being localised for a European release and should be out just after Christmas" - damn near made me cry tears of joy. The whole lot of you are making this game sound so cool that I don't know whether to hug you or kick you.

7) If someone can finish a full 500 on pro level I want to meet them and give them an award.

If Terry Crouch starts playing this, have the engraver on standby, my good man.