F355/Enthusia comparison

[Adam West]

I went back to F355 because it's the most unforgiving Racing Simulation on a console. I don't know if the AI cheat but this is one game where no one will say that the AI is slow.

I wanted to compare the physics of F355 to Enthusia. Sure there are no Ferraris on Enthu but when the physics are real the games will always be comparable.

I took outthe DFP and at first i thought i woudln't be able to play the game because it had a gigantic deadzone. it also defaults to using only 180 rotation of steering so the total steering was like -------- this much. I was surprised when i went into the options and was able to fix most of the deadzone to a level wehre the game is very playable.

Jumping into F355 from Enthusia was a natural transition. I didn't have to do many warm up laps or get used to a different set of physics at all. I'm confident that if Enthusia had Ferraris in it, they'd handle just like they do in F355. I was surprised because although i jumped right into F355, i still can't do the same on GT4.

The one thing i noticed about F355 is that the physics engine seems to be off when it coems to drifting. Everytime you lose it on the car, right after breaking traction, the car just feels like it's ice skating, making drifting very difficult. Maybe that's how the real car handles also.

 

[Tortus]

Can you say anything more about using the DFP? I found the 180 mode (which is meant to be 200 but isn't) to be totally useless in other games, and I don't want to buy F355 without a decent wheel to go with it.

 

[Adam West]

Well the force feedback is excellent, in my opinion. With other games it's to the point where you have to have a table bolted to the floor to play comfortably. In F355 i don't need my dumbells to hold the little table down. At the same time, you do get the proper kickback from teh wheel when you mess up.

I tried manually setting the steering angle to the range that i remembered the game had on the arcades, but what happened was that teh wheel is sort of all or nothing. By that i mean that when you unlock either 180 or 900, nothing in between. So i was using 900 mode to manually set it to something like 300degrees. In the game though, the bars that display your steering input don't fill up all the way so you end up with very limited steering. Finally i had to settle for 180.

Still, if you put the steering response to +3 there's very little deadzone and once you get into the game you forget about that 180 stuff. So it is worth it and you can find F355 for 20bucks or less in most places.

 

[Wolfe]

I haven't played the PS2 version, but I've played the Dreamcast version of F355 and the arcade version. The Dreamcast one is a joke, it isn't even fun (maybe just because of the DC controller). The arcade version is much better. It's quite realistic (and very fun with the 6-speed shifter and working clutch!), though, as you already hinted at, the drifting physics are horrendously retarded. The car feels like it starts accelerating as you slide, and the angle, direction, and controllability of the slide is just...wrong.

If the PS2 version is as good as the arcade one, I'd recommend it, as long as you can stand sticking to grip-driving only. However, that probably won't apply to most people here; this is the Enthusia forum, after all.....