do i need this game?

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I have to agree that the selection of tracks is Enthusia a weak point. But for me who just enjoys to drive, I just take any car any day and do time attacks on Tsukuba or the Nurburgring. I have no complains about the AI in Enthusia, and I feel sometimes the AI in Enthusia and other games(not GT4) are given an unfair treatment. You have to pay attention to cars behind you aswell, if someone tries to brake on your inside, you can't just cut him off, because than he will hit you. I can't rember if this happens in Enthusia becuase I haven't raced against the AI for a long time. Again I'm not saying people are bad racers, but I think this consideration is more diffiuclt to take in a computer game because off lack off fear factor. Also look at all the angry race drivers in real life, because the are hit by others. I'm sure the complain of other drivers AI aswell. Sometimes I think it's our own mistake that we get hit, point being we can't just blame AI if we sometimes get hit. It happens in real racing to I guess.

Cheers
 
I feel that EPR feels as real as GT4 looks, and the joy of getting the cars around the track smoothly, and with style is unmatched in GT4.

Plus, the drifting physics modeling, being able to get a Dauer 110EB around the long turn in Cosmic Eggway, sideways the whole time is niiiiice.

What can I say, I'm big into the drifting thing.
 
Been playing Enthusia for a couple months now--actually did a search for Enthusia forums a while ago and didn't see this one (it's pretty far down on Google). To quote Blade Runner, "We're so happy we found you."

Anyways, I love this game! I've with the "converts" crowd. I've played GT4 a couple times since, but not for very long. Enthusia, otoh, is amazing and I keep coming back because it feels so much more real. My favorite arcade game of all times is still Race Driving--one of the original Atari driving simulators before they retuned it for "fun" and started making those ridiculous San Francisco Rush games. Enthusia reminds me a lot of that.

As far as progress goes, so far I'm at 93% (98%?) on DR--gotta get an S-License in the Caterham; only got a B right now. I may have to resort to the clutch trick to pass that sucker. I managed to get KOTY in a tuned Integra R. That was an incredible pain! Many many practice laps of the Ring first followed by a lot of learning how to block cars effectively whilst resetting over & over & over... :D

Serves me right--I wasn't paying attention, heard the nifty new music and hit save. THEN I realized I was in the wrong damn car to attempt KOTY! :scared:

I finally bought a DFP, which has made it so much easier, btw! Actually, I spent the last couple weeks since I bought the DFP just messing about. I find I want to do a lot of FR to test how each car feels now. Spent last night twiddling with the Evo 8 up Dragon Range and on the Enduro track learning to drift it.

Anyways, great game & glad to find a forum dedicated to it finally! :cheers:
 
Welcome aboard, glad to see there are still some EPR players joining the fray.

God I hope this game sold better than the net traffic suggests and we get an EPR2.
 
So do I, a next gen EPR would be fantastic.

I won the Ruf Turbo R today, ace car.
 
I checked on Amazon.co.uk and see that Enthusia has a sales rank on place 1571. GT4 is ranked 29. Anyways it seems most people say Enthusia sold badly??? :indiff: Not sure how you find that out, but let's hope it good enough for Enthusia 2. I'm sure if they can beat launching it on the PS3 before GT5, if possible, would give it some free hype and well deserved credit.

Fingers crossed 👍
 
Bullitt73
I checked on Amazon.co.uk and see that Enthusia has a sales rank on place 1571. GT4 is ranked 29. Anyways it seems most people say Enthusia sold badly??? :indiff: Not sure how you find that out, but let's hope it good enough for Enthusia 2. I'm sure if they can beat launching it on the PS3 before GT5, if possible, would give it some free hype and well deserved credit.

Fingers crossed 👍

Indeed. Fingers are seriously crossed!

I think in a way it will depend on whether management understands that they're taking on the King Kong of driving games when going up against the GT series. If they do, they may be able to realize that they're going to need to stick with it for a while (ie, make a v2 that really carries on the tradition of excellent physics and amazing cars that they started with v1 and keep pushing it out there until people really start to get it).

If I were them I would have tried to cater a little more strongly to the fan base they did get. Since word-of-mouth is obviously giving it a better review then the professionals and all. Have a nice web site & forum dedicated to it, kind of like they do for UT. Maybe get some interaction going with the game designers, too.

I sure wish the reviewers had been a bit more thoughtful in their reviews though too! Every single one was such a wishy-washy "well, it's cool but it's really annoying in some ways" review... meanwhile, I bet a lot of people who did dare to try it out like us are having a blast!
 
I bought Enthusia yesterday (for $20 new, I couldn't refuse, although I did have to also by a new memory card so I could actually save my game :)). I played it for 3 or 4 hours yesterday. My first impression? Meh.

I expect it to get much better of course. The physics are indeed better than GT4, but I think they may have made it almost TOO real. I'm "driving" with a DS2; I can't control a virtual vehicle like I would a real one. Therefore, the realistic physics have a steep learning curve. The physics engine itself is not hard to get used to, but being able to manipulate it with two buttons and a joystick certainly is. I'm excellent at partial throttle and brakes with the DS2, so with more practice, I should be able to drive smoothly in this game.

I'm still confused and somewhat disinterested in the actual gameplay. The odds system is nice, but I don't really feel like Enthusia Life mode has much direction. It's just sort of "win some races, and advance to the next level." Again, this will probably get more exciting as I progress deeper. Driving Revolution is very cool, though 👍

The track selection and graphics are far inferior to GT4. Many of the little beginner tracks are boring layouts that look like arcade games. Also, the Nurburgring is completely sterile. It's dark, dingy, and offers less in the way of fear than the GT4 version, mostly because the little bumps aren't as prevelant, and the game lacks a real sense of speed.

Another thing that I would like to have seen is all of the cars. I like GT4's method of having most of the cars open to view right off the bat. It gives you incentive to play the game when you have aspirations to acquire certain vehicles. No such luck in Enthusia. I don't know when, if ever, I will get an interesting car worth driving for several hours on an empty track, just for fun.

Enthusia is good, no doubt, but so far I don't see anything that will cause me to favor it over GT4. Enthusia is better at physics, but GT4 is better at everything else, and still well above average in the physics department. It was said about GT4 that graphics alone does not a good game make. Well, I'll say this about Enthusia: outstanding physics alone does not a good game make, either. You need a healthy mix of everything to make a truly great game, and my opinion is that GT4 does this better.

So I'm not a total convert yet, but I do like the game, and am glad I added it to my collection 👍
 
1st post here...i've been lurking for a few weeks

i've read many posts saying 'yeah enthusia has good physics but the rest of the game doesnt compare to gt4'

now i do know that some players play driving games for fun and are not so concerned with realism...

but here people are comparing 2 driving SIMULATORS.

for me if a game advertises itself saying something along the lines of "over 700 cars, 50 tracks, 1 'REAL' driving simulator" but them u go and fork out some hard earned cash only to find that its no 'REAL' driving simulator u feel kinda ripped off...

i've read on the posts on this thread and someone said gt4 has the numbers down quite precisely but in the end its doesnt translate very well to actual feel and physics...

yes i agree enthusia has quite the bad gameplay with the odds system and random cars but i've learned to live with it (although i still dont like it), the fact is enthusia's physics is far beyond gt4 and thats what matters in a DRIVING SIMULATOR whos purpose is to be REAL.
 
If you can't feel it in your ass, it's not a driving simulator :) Therefore, all video games are disqualified.
 
well as a simulator we all know enthusia is better than gt4..physics wise of course

like u said we are talking about games here...if u want to feel it in ur ass then go drive a real car...
 
Ya know, I saw a neat gadget at a Tokyo tech show.

They look like headphones, but they go over your temples, and when they activate you lean to one side or the other.

Hook a pair of those up to a driving game, and that's the closest to feeling it in the seat of your pants that you can get without a few thousand dollars of pneumatic computer controlled chair.
 
Nah, it was just a magnetic field with a specific "tuning" that affects your sense of balance.

It makes you think you're leaning left or right, so you try to resist, when you're walking it makes you veer the opposite way (it says you're leaning left, you'll go right) in a chair, it would just give the sensation of lateral G-forces.
 
After reading this forum, I bit the bullet and bought a copy of Enthusia from my good friend, eBay.

Worth every cent.

It's rough around the edges, but that adds to the charm. Being able to race Tsukuba and the Nurburgring backwards still has me scratching my head, though.

"Do I need this game?"

Yes, you do.
 
i'm glad to report another convert to the merits of enthusia.

i've been extolling the virtues of this great game to my bro in law for a while now and finally got around to showing him the game for real last night. i was expecting a few negative comments but no, he was suitably impressed and has asked me to pick up a copy next time i see one in town

result!
 
poolio
i'm glad to report another convert to the merits of enthusia.

i've been extolling the virtues of this great game to my bro in law for a while now and finally got around to showing him the game for real last night. i was expecting a few negative comments but no, he was suitably impressed and has asked me to pick up a copy next time i see one in town

result!

Ebay - got mine for a fiver ;)
 
hi guys........i got my Enthusia for 14 euros @ ebay. and i have to say it's worth every cent!! i've played GT4 for a very long time, and got it to about 93%, but i was never soo much fun and reality than Enthusia. the handling of the cars is so awesome!! YES you NEED this game!!

viper
 
As more and more praise pops up in this forum, I find it so strange, how polarizing Enthusia's physics are...almost everyone either completely abhors them, or absolutely loves them... :lol:
 
Er... :indiff:

I think you'll find that the majority of driving game fans hate Enthusia, and that includes GTP. We're an endangered bunch, here in this forum. :lol:
 
It's a pity I don't get more time to play it than I do, easilly the most fun sim I have, not as realistic as Live for speed, but it's certainly not worse that GT4, is it better, in some way's yes, in other's, not sure. But the games certainly not worse than GT4.
 
I don't know about live4speed, but I remember when I played Enthusia for the very first time -- I was amazed at how the game felt like a "Live for Speed Lite," and that's pretty much how it was in May of 2005. Of course, Live for Speed has moved on since then, and Enthusia is a bit farther behind... :D

Even today, "Live for Speed Lite" is about as simple of an explanation as you can get, but I'll try to elaborate. :)

Most racing games, including GT4, have simple (or not-so-simple) physics engines where everything revolves around the car as a single object. When you turn right, the car rotates to the right, following guidelines about cornering speed and whatnot that were given to it by the programmers. When you hit the gas, the car moves forward, and when you hit the brake, the car slows down, again following guidelines that the programmers set up regarding the limit of traction, wheelspin, etc.

Sounds logical, right? Well, the real world isn't that simple.

Live for Speed and Enthusia both follow the same principle of driving game physics -- they let the tires do all of the work, because that's how it works in real life. In LFS and EPR, the car's visual exterior is suspended at four points by the four wheels, and everything works independently (instead of the car being a single object, the car is five objects). When you turn right, the front wheels rotate to the right, the tires attempt to grip the pavement, and the car responds to this grip appropriately (that's the idea, anyway), instead of just "rotating" to the right. When you hit the gas, the drive wheels (which depend on the drivetrain, of course) are given power, and each individual wheel/tire must struggle for grip on its own, and the push/pull of the wheels/tires are what propels the car, not a simple piece of programming that says "go forward." When you hit the brakes, the car doesn't just "slow down," a braking action is applied to each tire, and each tire must again struggle for grip based on the surface it's rolling over and the weight being placed on it, or the wheel(s) will lock up.

To summarize, GT4's cars were told exactly how to behave by PD's programmers, and can only do what PD told them to do. EPR's cars, and to a much greater extent, LFS's cars, were told by their programmers what each part of the car does, and what the laws of physics are...the cars are free to do (almost) everything that is possible within the laws of physics.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, maybe this will help. :)

The problem with EPR, as compared to LFS, is that compromises were made to make it more accessible -- the steering has a lot of compensation when you're using the DS2. Tires are somewhat grippier than in LFS or real life, especially in the rain, snow, and dirt, and racing slicks are way, way too friendly and predictable in their transitions between grip and no grip. The snap-back oversteer that you get from over-correcting a drift is a bit soft and on the easy-to-control side. The clutch is always slipped in such a way that you get the best launch possible. Locking your brakes is possible, but too easy to avoid...

...you get the idea. Konami tried to make a compromise between realism and playability, and I think they pulled it off very well, producing a game that is both fun and more realistic than any other PS2 game I've ever played.
 
Wolfe2x7
...you get the idea. Konami tried to make a compromise between realism and playability, and I think they pulled it off very well, producing a game that is both fun and more realistic than any other PS2 game I've ever played.

amen!! that's all i can say...... 👍 :bowdown:
 
Well, any game/sim's physics is going to be an approximation. The Calculations are too complex. But I agree, Enthusia's physics feels responsive - more like a real physical system. Lap after lap will feel different. GT4's is so sterile and unresponsive, imo, I ended up resenting it.

The DS2 may be part of Enthusia's problem popularity wise. Drifting's OK with it, but it's no fun for me in comparison with the DFPro. And despite any 'compensation', you can't yank the steering around like you can in GT4. So you need to take up the slack on the sticks in order to be able to apply controlled inputs or else you'll be sideways; not everyone wants to drift everywhere, you know! :)

I agree the snap-back oversteer isn't sharp enough. On the other hand, GT4's is ridiculous: you counter-steer, nothing happens at all (I've heard track drivers say it's much easier to catch a slide in RL than in GT4) and then it snaps back with *no* warning. You can learn to predict it if you're familiar with that particular car and bend, but it just seems to be following a crude rule.

I agree about locking breaks.

I've got RBR on PS2. That feels quite similar to Enthusia, and I've heard the track drivers say it's very realistic. But being mostly 4WD, and dirt, I'm less interested. Main problem with RBR is the road detail makes it difficult to judge how fast you're going (this effects cornering performance! :)). Also, kinda sad when the late RB's voice says 'I'll have to watch out for you". :(
 
Wolfe2x7
I think you'll find that the majority of driving game fans hate Enthusia, and that includes GTP. We're an endangered bunch, here in this forum. :lol:

From what i've seen of the Enthusia love/hate arguement, those who love Enthusia love it's handling realism - those that hate it are usually those who are too young to have spent much time behind the wheel of a real car.
 
I like Enthusia, but I still love GT4. Enthusia is the mistress I take to an hourly-rate motel.
 
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