While at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, we had a chance to check out the latest build of the next installment in Bethesda's drag racing series. The 2005 edition of IHRA Professional Drag Racing is getting a complete overhaul, intended to make the action a lot more accessible and visceral, and also to better cater the game to console gamers. While this may cause longtime fans of the highly technical series to scoff, Bethesda is offering its assurances that the technical, simulation-oriented side of things will not be neglected in IHRA 2005--it just won't be taking center stage quite so much. One can only assume that the developers know full well what they're doing with this significant change of direction. Many racing gamers probably like the idea of drag racing quite a bit, but might have felt lost in the minutia of previous versions of this series.

IHRA 2005 will also be getting a complete makeover, among other things. Thanks to the ubiquitous Havok physics engine, realistic collisions have been added, which--while not really a part of real-life drag racing--do make for some spectacular visuals here. We saw as a dragster clipped a wall at some 300 miles per hour and basically turned into splinters as its ruined husk of a body flipped end over end. Of course, though, as in real drag racing, the object isn't to carefully navigate corners, but rather just to push your machine to its absolute limit without blowing out the engine. This will be a process that demands split-second timing and practice, and split seconds are what will determine winners and losers in the championships.

An arcade mode has been added that strips drag racing down to its fundamentals, and models its gameplay on the popular Atari 2600 classic, which delivered a threadbare simulation--but a simulation, nonetheless--of what it might be like to crank some serious horsepower out of a dragster. A simulation mode will be available as well, which will go into much greater depth in terms of gameplay, and multiple difficulty settings should also allow gamers to find a sweet spot between pick-up-and-play accessibility and complex, challenging simulation. IHRA 2005 will also put you through a license-earning program, which will serve as a tutorial for those learning the ropes; and it'll let you race single sessions or work your way through entire seasons if you prefer.

Other details will include a splitscreen multiplayer mode (no online play will be included in this year's installment, however), as well as a trophy room where you can collect your accolades. The game will feature four different categories of drag racing, each of which should provide a noticeably different experience in terms of raw speed and acceleration potential, as well as pre-rare commentary about the various tracks and drivers. In partnership with the IHRA, Bethesda is attempting to deliver true-to-life authenticity on all the tracks and in all the cars here.

IHRA Drag Racing will be shipping in October to coincide with the drag racing series, and the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game will debut with the PC version to follow. This next game in the series is taking a calculated risk, but with many of the same diehard drag racing enthusiasts at the helm of the project, we expect that IHRA Professional Drag Racing 2005 won't compromise much or any of the series' previous strong suits in favor of its more user-friendly, more graphically impressive approach this time around.