Okay here's my impression after a second day of playing Enthusia only today I had more time on it and I've finally got a TVR, oh yes (only a Tamora mind the babiest of TVR's but still). Enthusia is imo very much a drivers game, not a game for the type of people that like to put the power down full on exiting every corner, that'll only work on some of the lesser powered cars. I've decided to take a leaf out of Hun200kmh's book and keep with the one car until I get it to level 10 and only then change to a newer car. I've found that this completely removes the I'm not keen on this car, just because I spun it on the first attempt with it syndrome. So far I've maxed out the Mg MGB (my first car) and my Renault Alpine A110, I've had test drives in one or two others including the Tamora which is just mean.
Handling wise it's definitely the best and most realistic console racer around, I just love the way this game plays. In a market dominated by fake simulations this game deserves more than it's recieved, it's a true masterpiece and I hope to god that Konami don't give up on any potential sequel because of poor sales for this one. I honestly didn't expect this game to be so damn hard to put down having already experienced the delights of LFS S2, GTR and RFactor all of which I own. But I think it's the variety the game gives combined with the realism, what is a pity is that it doesn't have a proper in car view, but I can live with the first person one instead, for a game like this I can anyway but still even without an incar view an over the bonnet cam would have been nice as well. With regards to the car selection, theres a good few cars that caught me by suprise when I came up against them, cars like the Lancia 037, Citoren DS and others are cars that I really, really want to win, but everytime I race against them I either get something else or get nothing :sad:. I did a race earlier on the high speed oval (I'll call it an oval even though it's more like a square) and I wanted every car I came up against exept 1, a Honda City, guess what I won, the Honda City :sad:. I don't mind that though, becasue I would have got it at some point anyway and now if I race against it I won't re-win it.
Another thing I do love about this game is the Enthu points, I was a bit sceptical at first, and there are times when it's a little frustrating like when the AI cars hit you. But overall getting a bump by an aI car has no where near the consequences as it does in GT4's specail condition races, what the Enthu points do is tmake sure you try to race fai and don't cut corners and don't use other cars as brakes or barriers ect. I think even though it would have been nice to not lose any if an aI car hits the back of you, it's overall implemented superbly.
Words cannot describe how satisfying this game is, I've yet to do a touge course but I'll save that for tomorrow. Like I said, it's a game for people that enjoy driving. A major complaint I had with GT4 was that the AI was crap, it's not superb here, it's a lot better than GT4's but thats not saying much. But the difference is in the physics, Enthusia keeps you on your toes all the way through every race, GT4 doesn't so when your'e well ahead in GT4 it's boring, you get ahead in Enthusia and you're constantly correcting the car, making little adjustments, lining it up for the next corner, the feedback you get is great. And I've not even started on the 900 degree's with the DFP yet, it's heaven.
Overall out of 10, I'd give this game 10.