The most realistic racing game in PS2..

  • Thread starter Thread starter SL4sh
  • 80 comments
  • 33,113 views
uhmm......keeps quiet for the next 5 minutes...........

does that question need to be answered?? look around here. ;)
 
Enthusia Professional Racing. Sorry, but if Enthusia has something better than Gran Turismo, is (In my opinion) more realistic physics.
 
Enthusia Professional Racing. Sorry, but if Enthusia has something better than Gran Turismo, is (In my opinion) more realistic physics.

I agree, GT4 was good but the physics weren't stellar. I've only play Enthusia a bit but I found it to be very realistic and a very good game.
 
Enthusia is more realistic, but as far as playability, Enthusia won't last as long as GT4. I know that wasn't the question, but I'm assuming the OP plans on buying the games suggested here.
 
I don't really know...

In my opinion, it's a toss-up between Enthusia and GT4. Enthusia has a lower overall level of grip, and has more oversteer, but GT4 has some small embodiments of real-life driving quirks that add a feeling of realism to it, and GT4 definitely has in-depth tuning on its side.

The only other sim I've played was Toca, which didn't feel right at all.
 
Enthusia, definitely. If you're a fan of rally you might also want to check out Richard Burns Rally.

We have an Enthusia forum here in the Playstation 2 forum. If you're interested you should check out some of the threads there.
 
I got another vote for enthusia.


yeah, you play enthusia for an hour, then pop in GT4, and see which one feels like a real car....

I get my truck sideways in the snow all the time, and I use enthusia as practice for that. it has helped a lot in winter driving. I am learning how to drive to where you are gonna be, not where you are now.....
 
"most realistic racing game"

Having the thread title in mind, I'll have to think about what, in my opinion, makes a "realistic racing game". That'll be the following:

- Graphics
- Sound
- Physics
- AI
- Grids
- Tracks

Then, I'll say what are my all time favourite PS2 driving/racing games:

- GT (3, Concept and 4)
- Enthusia
- Toca Race Driver 3
- Le Mans 24 Hours



GT games win in the graphics department. They also win in the "size" department, but that doesn't make any game "realistic", it just makes it big. Both sound and physics are good, but not great. The AI is horrible, the grids are of 6 cars and not always evenly matched, the tracks are very good, but real life tracks are just a a few (even if GT4 has two of the best tracks in the world, the Nurb and Le Mans).

Overall, it's a very good game. However, the lack of proper AI and the "6-car-grids" don't make it a realistic racing game.


Enthusia has good but not great graphics and sound. It wins in the physics and AI departments. The grids are more evenly matched than in GT, so the races are more interesting in this game, but it's only 6-car grids again.
It's a smaller game, with a lot less cars and tracks than GT, and some of these tracks are a bit ridiculous (going through caves is a good example of what shouldn't be in this game :crazy: ). Thi game also features the Nurburgring, but it is too smooth, when compared to GT4's recreation. And it has some very good fictional tracks where it is a pleasure to drive and race.

Overall, Enthusia is a more realistic racing game than GT, because of its physics and AI


Toca Race Driver 3 is very different from GT and Enthusia. Its physics are more arcadey, its graphics and sound are just not at the same level. But ... the AI really fights you (sometimes a bit too much) you get up to 20 car grids, and loads of real life awesome tracks, all missing from GT and EPR, from Bathurst to Spa, from Phillip Island to Indianapolis, from Brno to Hockenheim, and so on ... ( did I say Zandvoort and Silverstone? :dopey: ).

And, it's the only of these games where you can play online, with online features unrivaled so far, even in the PS3. So, you get all that against human players (or a mix of humans and AI to fill in the blanks in the grid, as you wish).

I have raced many, many hours/nights, week after week, month after month, of TRD3 online, made a few friends there and I have to say that no other PS2 game could keep me busy racing for such a long period.

So, TRD3, as far as "realistic racing" is concerned, is also a good title contender, inspite the poor physics, graphics and sound. It wins over GT and Enthusia, by a long shot, in the tracks department and the grids size, and it's better than GT in the AI department (not difficult), maybe on par with EPR here. Being the only of these games that is playable online gives TRD3 an enormous advantage, but only if you want to play online, of course.

Le Mans 24 Hours is the older of these games, the graphics, sound and physics of it are more apropriate for a PS1 generation game, but I stick it here with the other three because I still think that my most realistic racing experience comes from this game. Of course I am an endurance racing fan ...atic :dopey: but if you want to do the full 24 hours of Le Mans in a game, it's this one you have to pick. The grid is still smaller than in real life (24 cars, when the actual race has about the double of that), but you have night and day, very well recreated pits and pitwork (better than GT4, and that is amazing), random weather, and the cars you race against don't have any "arcadey" behaviour (no rubber band effect, no rabbits), they just do the full race at the pace they're supposed to do, and either you can keep up (with the Audis and works Panoz and Pescarolo), or you can't.

All in all, if you want to buy just one game, it's a tough call. If I was in that position, I would probably buy Enthusia. But I would miss the other three, because they all gave me a good gaming experience.
 
Burnout3Takedown/BurnoutRevenge


why?

If you crash your car into gas truck it will explode!





there might be also some sort of damage modelling which makes it more realistic than hmm, GT?
(this feature is propably in even more BURNout games I don't know)
 
Richard Burns Rally is DEFENTLY the most realistic sim on ps2 (if you like rally then this is a MUST try), but its rally not racing. Enthusia has the most realistic physics for a racing game in my opinion.
 
Toca Race Driver 3 is very different from GT and Enthusia. Its physics are more arcadey, its graphics and sound are just not at the same level.

I have to disagree with you here. Now, I haven't played Enthusia (the lack of real tracks - and now your mention of caves - is scaring me away), but TRD3 had excellent sound compared to GT4. Not only are the exhaust notes much better, but in vehicles like the steel-bodied muscle cars you race around in on dirt, there's a kind of echoey noise, making it sound like the engine is really sitting in a hollow metal shell. And though they're not all that significant, skid marks and the sound of gravel flying off the tires and ticking against the car's body are very impressive touches as well. And you forgot to mention the great damage and roll-over physics.
 
Last edited:
I haven't played Enthusia (the lack of real tracks - and now your mention of caves - is scaring me away)
I suggest you try Enthusia, the physics system is known to be fantastic, better than GT4 in quite a few ways. Give it a try, it doesn't have as many cars or tracks, but it is certainly still fun. (BTW, the tracks with caves are all dirt and rally tracks if I remember correctly. It just adds to the environmental styling of the track. Otherwise, the tracks are quite realistic, despite not actually being real.)
 
Most, if not all of the street tracks are based on real-world locations (San Francisco, London, Tokyo, etc.).
 
admitedly i havent played gt4, but most seem to agree enthusia has superior physics. i say tokyo xtreme racer drift 2 has better physics than enthusia. after playing Live for speed for awhhile then comparing enthusia with txrd2, i say txrd2 is way more complete with the exceptions of some physics odditites.
enthusia was only realistic at low speeds, while it doesn't give the same instability feeling at high speeds. while txrd2 does that similar to how LFS does(i tried accelerating over 100mph and the wheel doesnt start swirling when you let go of it or get much tighter).
another thing is that you can't lock your brakes in enthusia or do a stand still burnout. if you have abs off and brake balance set to the rear in TXRD2 you spin out faster than anything if you brake just a little hard while going fast. enthusia cars just lunge forward when you brake unless you do it while turning. the game also doesnt suffer from brake wear or tire wear.
sensitivity to hills which enthusia is known for is again not really strong compared to TXRD2. up hill and downhill driving is really different in this game, and i've played on dragon range.
as far as counter steering during drifting goes, enthusia seems to get less feedback than txrd2. wheel doesnt become as heavy or move by itself as much.
you can say enthusia's stock car's more realistic since theres no pressence of minor tcs control and abs, but the tuning options easily elimate that. enthusia basically offers really little tuning options and the in ability to customize tires, steering, power, weight, braking, gt wing angle, etc makes it less appealing. think enthusia demands skill, try playing this game with race tires front/ spike tires on the rear wheels on dry roads, or better snowy whether with spike tires on the front, rear on the back.
 
Enthusia has a realistic automatic with kickdown.

The way Konami tried to make crashes epic... I guess your life flashes before your eyes before you plow into a 0 kph wall at 180 kph. :D

I'd like Enthusia a lot more if I could just simply stop drifting at the slightest provocation in my red Miata. It was fun for the first 30 turns on the Nordschleife, but I'd like to grip the rest of it.
 
I'd like Enthusia a lot more if I could just simply stop drifting at the slightest provocation in my red Miata. It was fun for the first 30 turns on the Nordschleife, but I'd like to grip the rest of it.


Hey, you are driving a lightweight RWD without TCS...you KNOW it will drift.
 
The way Konami tried to make crashes epic... I guess your life flashes before your eyes before you plow into a 0 kph wall at 180 kph. :D

how? it's not like a game where a crash wrecks your ca, and ends the race.
you can pretty much go 200 mph in this game a plow into a wall and get back into the race and wall ride. some enthu points lost can be gotten back.

I personally don't think the ps2 can handle games with realistic physics and realistic dramatic car damage. unless you take a lot of sacrfices like make a game with ps1 graphics and don't care about fun factor and make a hardcore sim. it won't sell well so it'll never happen
 
What do you mean, how? Did you try crashing into a wall at a good speed in Enthusia? I thought the effect was gimmicky.

I tried the ancient Mustang GT to see if it is less drift prone. No, it understeers like a battleship and then drops straight into oversteer. If battleships could drift, they would look like the Mustang GT in Enthusia. It was work getting it around the track.

The NSX handled well though. I was surprised how fast I could be in it without drifting.
 
everyone's crashed before in enthusia. you mean 200mph straight without turning? i would say i never tested that but either way, you just bounce off walls in this game. I found the MX-5 easy to grip and hard to drift in enthusia. maybe if i lvled it out in career mode and did some suspension/lsd tuning
anyways a short more indepth analysis attempt just on realism txrd2 vs enthusia

gearing: enthusia wins because it has auto transmition, and a clutch peddle. TXRD2 has the strength of letting you equip adjustable transmitions and better clutches to eliminate shifting time. It also has a bug that sometimes the car goes back to neutral when you don't gas for awhile and you push circle instead of downshift to reverse.

stock cars: TXRD2 stock cars come equiped with some TCS/abs that need to be disabled in tuning. Enthusia wins

Tuning: TXRD2 lets you change engine parts, carbon fiber hoods, wheel size, suspension, GT wing angles(if equiped), brake balance, abs level, computer, etc. enthusia would have been a bit better if they atleast let you choose what to level up/down.

traction: enthusia FR cars seem more front tire grippy in stock mode. but since txrd2 lets you adjust traction due to changing tires and leaves on the floor affect traction, and has more modes to adjust to manipulate traction. tires also get worn out and less grippy due to tire wear, and it also has more unpredictability while driving in dirt.

whether effects: Enthusia's rain seems to affect grip more, but not compared to stormy whether in TXRD2. which also has night, fog, snow and snowstorm. TXRD2 wins. If you can go fast with spike tires on front wheels and race tires on the rear, with an oversteery suspension/braking setup during a snow storm without crashing in that game, you are the man.

tire/brake wear: TXRD2 has it, enthusia doesnt

steering: big win for TXRD2 here. stronger feedback and seems a lot closer to LFS the way the car gets unstable and wants to correct itself during a slip.

accell/braking: TXRD2's braking is way more realistic with abs off. it actually feels like no abs. both seem to require similar acell sensitivity

AI: TXRD2 AI drive more like beginer drivers for the most part and the initial D turn off head light technique actually affects them. Enthusia is your typical follow the same line every time

race style: enthusia wins. TXRD2's arcady SP bar is exciting sometimes but not rreally realistic. the first and last battle has the rule that you can win by gaining enough distance but passing cleanly is just hard because of the narrow roads.

penalty system: neither are realistic but adds some challenge, or just pure frustration at times if you count the drift mode in TXRD2(nudge a corner lightly while coming out of a good drift, lose all your points for the section and can't get it back)

courses: all courses are TXRD2 are real and just look beautiful

career mode: TXRD2 is typical but has a little bit of a storyline, and lets you gain sponsor decals for easy money. enthusia's isn't realistic at all and just confusing.

gravity: though it's there in enthusia, TXRD2 just feels a lot stronger the way you can use gravity against/for you during the uphill/downhill sections which you get a lot of. Since enthusia has a touge track and TXRD2 is all touge, it's actually not too hard to compare.

originality: TXRD2 is the only game that i know of that focused completely on touge but kept similation aspects, and is one of the first games with a drift mode(TXRD1 was possibly the first). it also managed to keep an arcadish fun atmosphere. Enthusia though had original concepts, a lot of them were just odd, and the menu's werent really good. i have to scroll through a few tracks just to find tsukaba in reverse with rain for example, when you should just be able to select the track, reverse, n whether, etc.

overall: TXRD2 wins where it counts for me. i don't really care about things like automatic transmition and never drive them. Enthusia has it's stronger points in realistic aspects but also has a lot of weaker points. then again i'm probably kind of biased since i love that game and enthusia just gets an occasional pop in when i'm in a weird mood.
 
Last edited:
You need to get up to 70 mph or so and hit a wall dead on. Enthusia has a special effect for the occasion where it blanks out your entire screen as if you died and were given another chance. It might be lumped in with the shimmering effect at speed setting.

I didn't even have to touch suspension and LSD settings to start drifting the Nordschleife in the Miata. Looking back, I think I was going faster than the conditions warranted, but there's not much visual, audio nor rumble feedback to tell me I'm blasting by. I feel like I'm on a leisurely cruise around a slippery track. GT4 conveys the sense of speed well.
 
Last edited:
Back