Intelligent Game Reviews

For the past eight years here in Vancouver, the howling noise of race car engines has filled the air over the Labour Day long weekend. Last year, I remember passing over the race site near B.C. Place while on the skytrain (an elevated train that runs through the city). The drivers were doing their qualifying runs on that day and I remember wondering to myself what it would be like to be down there driving on the track at 200 km/h. As the train passed over the track, I had a great view of things. I spent the rest of my train ride daydreaming about being a race car driver.

Needless to say, I won’t be beginning a racing career anytime soon. However, this year I had the opportunity to get as close to racing as I can get, through my computer. Andretti Racing by EA Sports, also reviewed by GameGoldies, gives you the opportunity to drive both Indy and Stock Cars on some of the tracks the real drivers deal with.

Basics of Play

One thing should be established right off the bat. Andretti Racing is not a hyper-realistic race car simulation. It is first and foremost an arcade style game. That said, it still has a variety of aspects to keep players interested.

Before you begin racing, you can set several options that control the feel of the game, changing from arcade like play to more realistic driving. The three fundamental options you control are:

• Damage (on, off, or limited)
• Equipment failure (on or off)
• Pit crew mistakes (on or off)

Andretti Racing provides two ways to drive, either on the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) Indy Car circuit or on the NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) stock car circuit. Each one is a little bit different and gives the opportunity to try different driving styles.

In addition to the two types of cars, there are two fundamental ways to play, either exhibition mode or career mode. Exhibition mode is the most flexible, as it allows you to pick your car and then drive on any track you like in any order. You can set the number of laps as well (default is 3).

Career mode is similar, but after you choose your team (either Pacific Car Competition for NASCAR or Templer-Truer Racing for CART) you proceed through a 10 race season. The default number of laps for each race is 8 for road courses and 12 for oval tracks. You can adjust this number if you wish.

Your objective in career mode is to accumulate as many points as possible. At the end of a season, if you have been successful, you will be able to drive for another more successful team. Your ultimate reward is to be asked to drive on the Andretti Racing Team.

Prior to starting a career, there are a couple of cutscenes that run to establish the mood. First, James Brown of EA Sports welcomes you to the racing season. After that, you are taken to either Bob Jenkins on the Stock Car circuit or Derek Daly on the Indy Car circuit, who introduce the track and give a few comments about the race. These movie scenes are repeated each time you move to a new track, and are the same each time. The career mode option is well implemented and gives you a good feel of the life of a real race car driver.

Qualification is an element common to career mode and exhibition mode. Prior to racing with others, you drive the course by yourself. Your time around the track determines your position in the starting lineup (there are 16 starting positions). You are also provided with the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the race track without getting distracted by other drivers. This is important, as it allows you to determine where good passing opportunities are.

Andretti Racing incorporates the ability to customize the design of your car. You can do this prior to qualification if you wish, but after your qualifying race, you are automatically taken to this area. You can customize the following car characteristics:

• Tires
• Front wing (Indy Car) or Air Dam (NASCAR)
• Rear wing (Indy Car) or Spoiler (NASCAR)
• Gear ratios
• Fuel load

Adjustments to the above are made with slider controls. In addition to these choices, you can also select the type of transmission in your car, either manual or automatic. I have a degree in mechanical engineering, and I found myself wishing for more extensive car customization options. Add to that the fact that changing them has a questionable impact on car performance, and you can see that this is not the most realistic racing simulation out there.

The other point during a race in which you can make modifications to your car is in pit stops. In addition to fueling your car and installing new tires, you can instruct your crew to adjust your front wing/air dam and rear wing/spoiler. You can turn off tire and/or fuel service if you wish.

There are a variety of views available when driving. The default is “Behind the Car”, which is the view from a camera positioned directly behind your car. If nothing else tells you this is an arcade racing simulation, the camera position is a dead giveaway. You can see a lot of the track in this mode, including upcoming turns. It is one of the easier views to drive in. Similar to this mode is “Above and Behind the Car”, which has the external camera positioned higher and set further back, providing a more generous view of the race course. Further views include “High Bumper Cam” and “Low Bumper Cam”, each showing unobstructed views of the course as you drive. The final view available is “In the Car”, which has you seated in the car’s cockpit. This is perhaps the most realistic driving mode, as your perspective is limited and turns come out of nowhere. In addition to these five driving positions, you can look left, right, or back as you speed along.

There are several “dashboard” indicators available (except in the two bumper cam views) which indicate the status of your car and your position in the race. These include:

• Gauges (fuel level, speedometer, tachometer, current gear)
• Map (shows outline of the track, your position, and the positions of the three lead cars)
• Time (lap time, best lap, current/total laps, car position, time elapsed)

These indicators can be toggled on and off as you choose.

In the Car

Does Andretti Racing really capture the thrill of racing? Yes and no. I haven’t had a lot of experience with other driving games, but it seems to me that the driving model is a little basic. There were times when I thought I had exchanged my computer for a Playstation or Nintendo console. The game does impart quite a thrill however, and I found it quite enjoyable. Acceleration is smooth and so is gear shifting. The one thing missing, of course, is the lack of a distinct “feel” for the pavement beneath your wheels. I’m not sure how this could be accurately simulated, but it’s an important thing when driving any car. Lack of accurate feedback from the steering wheel detracts from the overall driving experience, in my opinion. One point to note is that Andretti Racing does support force feedback joysticks.

Andretti Racing offers you the choice of driving with an automatic or manual transmission. I’ve driven with both and I can honestly say that this game is best played with automatic transmission. Manual adds another level of realism, but it makes the game infinitely more difficult. It’s quite a challenging task to coordinate your braking, gear changes, and acceleration/deceleration. For those just starting out, it’s probably best to drive for a long time with automatic transmission, as it removes one thing to worry about. You can learn to brake properly when taking corners without having to gear down and then up again. Later, as your confidence grows, you can start playing with the gears yourself. I’ve never driven an manual shift car before, so needless to say I’m s
till using automatic.

Driver AI

The other drivers on the track are, to be polite, aggressive. They bump you constantly when you get near. They make your life most miserable if you try to pass and are too close. This aspect of the game is, I think, a little unrealistic. I realize that the race course is a tough place, but I seriously doubt that drivers in real life intentionally ram you and try to knock you off course… well not this often anyhow. I experienced many crashes after having been run off the track by overzealous AI drivers. It makes life interesting in any case.

Game Controls

When navigating around the game prior to racing, the mouse is used to select options. Once on the track, Andretti Racing is a gamepad game, without a question. I think a more advanced steering wheel and pedals setup would be a bit of a waste. I have a CH Gamepad, and it seems to suffice quite nicely.

Within the controls setup area, you can customize the buttons on your gamepad. There aren’t a lot of driving controls in the game, and I have my buttons setup to cover acceleration, braking, and gear shifting, all the fundamentals.

There are a few other keys for switching between views while driving, but generally speaking, there are not a lot of controls to remember in the game. The game manual is fairly well laid out, and all necessary driving commands are summarized on the inside cover.

Playing With Actual Humans

Andretti Racing does offer some multiplayer options. You can drive with others over a local area network (LAN) using the IPX protocol, over a modem-to-modem connection, or finally, over a direct serial connection between two PCs. Up to eight people can drive using the LAN multiplayer option. There is a setup screen available prior to racing other people, in which you can choose the circuit, the course, starting positions, and other such details.

Internet play is not provided, a big omission these days. I couldn’t evaluate the multiplayer aspects, as I didn’t have any local friends to drive against.

Graphics, Sound, etc.

When I looked at the system requirements for Andretti Racing, and saw some of the screen shots on the box, I questioned whether or not my P166 with 3Dfx accelerator would be able to handle the game in all its glory. After installation, I went into the setup area and cranked all the detail levels to the hilt. Then, I went to see how the game performed.

This game has some truly beautiful graphics. Cars are shown with lots of detail. Indy cars look truly realistic. I do have a bit of a beef with stock cars though, when you’re driving in the behind and above view, you can’t see the car’s tires. Looks a bit like your driving the body of the car with no chassis. Not a huge complaint, but I think the Indy cars look a heck of a lot better.

There are many good effects that occur as you drive. If you come to a squealing stop on the track, big black tire marks are left behind, and they stay there throughout the race. Also, nice looking translucent smoke erupts from your tires if you corner too fast.

The exterior scenery around each race track is really excellent. Thanks to the miracle that is 3Dfx, I actually felt I was driving around BC Place Stadium while on the Vancouver course. The North Shore mountains were clearly visible, along with a bunch of the downtown apartment towers in the area. A really good “you are there” atmosphere is created by the scenery.

The movie cutscenes ran really well, even without a full installation. I have a higher speed CD-ROM drive, so this was likely the reason. The quality of the cutscenes is also good.

The high quality visuals don’t detract from performance, at least in 3D accelerated mode. Driving was smooth regardless of the course I selected or the number of cars on the track.

The sound effects are a little on the basic side. Car engine noise is a bit weak, sounding more like an angry hornet than a howling race car. The engine sound does vary nicely as your car changes gears, but I thought it was lacking any real depth. Your tires make a realistic squealing sound if you brake while driving too fast, which was cool. Collisions have a fairly realistic crunching sound as well.

The music soundtrack that plays while you are in the car is ok, but I’ve heard better. It tends to get a little repetitive after awhile.

The Verdict

Overall, I liked Andretti Racing. It satisfied my desire to try out a racing game and I found it absorbing and a lot of fun. It has impressive graphics with lots of little details that don’t detract from game performance. Replay value is high since it takes a long time to become a skilled driver and there is a wide selection of courses.

On the other hand, I found myself wishing for a little more realism, as the game can be a too arcade like at times. If EA Sports had focused on one circuit, Andretti Racing would have been a better game.

Andretti Racing Screenshots

There are a wide variety of nicely modelled real world tracks to race on.	You can tweak your car setup, though not extensively.
The default driving view on the track at Cincinnati.	In the drivers seat of a stock car at B.C. Place.

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