One year and a few days ago...

  • Thread starter Wolfe
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And guess what? I got to Level 17, Stage 4. They give QUALITY advice- "we don't have any more advice for you. Bring Luck to your side and get Rank S!" What kind of shizzle is that? Only good news is that this final challenge isn't something like, "Drive one whole lap of the Nürburgring Nordschliefe." Best I've acheived in Level 17 was a "B." Maybe an "A." Only thing left is the Level 17-4. I sometimes need to stop being overconfident when I've cleared some tests. The Pacific Gateway tests were pretty rough. The game probably figured that Americans probably rather wouldn't want some muscle that isn't American, so you have three American cars. One Ford and three Chevrolet Corvettes. That 1971 Sting Ray handles horribly. It handles like a race car in low speeds- apply too much throttle and expect a spin. Many of the DR tests really mess up good tracks. I would have liked two things- a proper rear view look (not just the mirror), and a map for the DR events instead of this "Dance Dence Revolution" map of upcoming indicators.

So I've unlocked Class F, Class E, Class D, Class C, and Class B for Free Run including about 27 courses. The default number of laps for each course is 3 in Enthusia's Free Run mode. That even includes the Nürburgring Nightmare. You will have almost 13 miles of road to try not to crash, go off course, or hit a car just to access Nürburgring Nordschleife Reverse. People think this is the best challenge of any racing game. There's a new sheriff in town- Löwseering. The course is a mix of many other courses in a challenging, yet sizable challenge. This track is Enthusia's Grand Valley. It is Enthusia's Alpine Ring. So all three of last year's games have a great fictional road course. The one that's been around longer was Grand Valley. If you could race all theee of these courses (granted they were real-life courses), which would you race with your aforementioned car?

[UPDATE]
I was close on the name of the Forza track I liked. I said it was Alpine Hills, but it's actually Alpine Ring. More info on all Forza tracks can be found here: { http://www.webquad.com/forza/content/view/40/45/ }. Thanks for your cooperation.
 
I don't know the Forza track, but, generally speaking, I like tracks where you don't have many "hard braking corners/hairpins" to do. Tracks where, to be fast, you have to go consistently fast and be very precise with the wheel movements and with throtle control (more than with the brakes). Loewenseering is like that, even more than Grand Valley (that's the one with the bridge, right?), so I'll pick the Enthusia track.

Examples of tracks like the ones I like (and miss, both in GT4 and Enthusia) are:

Spa (available in the F1 game and TRD3)
Brno (available in the 24HLM game)
Assen (don't know if cars are allowed in this one. You can drive it in the MotoGP games)
 
I am currently an Enthusia drifter in training. The only reason why I haven't tried drifting in Enthusia is because I'm thinking too much about Enthu Points in Enthusia Life. You don't want to lose any for crashing or going off-road. So that's why I'm doing some touge action with Wild West Enduro (okay, so rallying here) and with Dragon Range Downhill. I was more confident in GT4 because I could actually set my car up for sideways action. I turned off the ESC and TCS to attempt to go sideways successfully in the corners. My usual strategy for drifting was to do moderate or heavy braking and just aggressively turn the wheel in a certain direction to get the car to slide into the turn. I sometimes just vary throttle inputs into the corners to get around. My test ride on Dragon Range Downhill was a Fiat Abarth 131 Rally. Just the rally namesake and its RWD configuration seemed to make this suitable for understanding life without ESC and TCS in drifting technique.

My next test machine was the Toyota AE86 Sprinter. It's the ride of Formula D star Taka Aono. Who can recall the Formula D race in 2005 at Road Atlanta when it was Sam Hübinette vs. Taka Aono which had about two "ONE MORE TIME!" sessions? Hübinette won since Aono's AE86 had overheating issues. I was better able to control the car in Enthusia better with this ride. One corner looked to be pretty essential to drift around. So while I spun out at one point, I drove in the wrong direction in trying to clear that corner better. And I halfway did it right. I handled some of the corners better with the AE86 than I did with the Fiat I used earlier. I didn't want to be Takumi Fujiwara for a day, so instead of the familiar white and black colors, I went red and black. You don't get long trails of smoke in Enthusia like you do with GT rallying. I could have done better with some of the corners after looking at the replay. The key factor for all of this was control. I don't think I had as much control as I would in Gran Turismo games. The absolute perfect deal is if you can have controllable, arcade-style drifts. I had Sega arcade racing games in mind. I seemed to struggle with some of the switchbacks of the course. You know, you slide nicely through a right turn, but then a left turn follows. You sort of have to treat it as a double apex if you're drifting.

"Recreation of real physics! Enthusia!" Sound familiar? I'm talking about the "demo" (if you will) at the title screen. The Miata held its ground very well. While not established as one of the first names people will throw out when "drift car" comes to mind, it's surely a great car. I'm not really a Nissan guy as I have yet to do a race with the Nissan 180SX or the Nissan 240SX. This game offers something for everyone both on the car front and on the racing front. That is, except drag racing and some other stuff I can't recall right now.
 
Do yourself a favor and don't learn drifting with the Abarth. It's a small, light, short-wheelbase, rear-engined little monster that won't hesitate to kill you when you drive it incorrectly. Stick to cars like the AE86, Miata, and 180SX, then move up to cars like the RX-7s, the Supra, and the M3s. Just make sure to slide the differential setting all the way to the "locked" position (don't worry, it's not actually locked, just limited).

You say that Enthusia doesn't seem to give you as much control in drifting as Gran Turismo. I'd say that Gran Turismo 4 gives you too much control, and in a bad way. Any small amount of countersteer magically pulls a RWD car out of its drift as if it were FWD or AWD, and you can be as sloppy and ham-fisted with the steering, throttle and brakes as you want -- your car will not drift unless you're really trying to.

That's one of the reasons why I like Enthusia's physics so much...if you drive like a moron, you're punished for it with a loss of traction. No wonder so many videogame reviewers and average gamers had so much trouble with the game. :rolleyes:
 
@Wolfe: The Fiat 131 Abarth isn't the "Abarth" (based on the Fiat 600). It's the road version of one of the best Rally cars ever!

(retired with dignity, along with its main rival - the Ford Escort RS 1800 Gr. 4 - when the Audi Quattro and 4WD appeared in the WRC).
 
LATE BREAKING NEWS...

I passed Stage 17-4! I took a brief timeout when I was around the western end of the course. I said to myself: "I can do this." After some early troubles and several times redoing this course, I finally slain the monster. Now before you go telling me that I need an "S" to gain any love, at least I cleared this damn thing. It's not easy no matter how you do it. This has to be up there for "Most Frustrating Racing Tests and Races" in my book. It's up there with One Lap around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in either Mercedes-Benz and the Tsukuba TZ250 Challenge Mode race. But I slain the dragon even if I didn't ace it.

Now I got these Challenge missions in Driving Revolution. I'm supposed to slide out the rear end of a Mazda Miata, a Nissan Silvia S15 S-Tune, and the hard-to-control Caterham Superlight. I'll try to clear these challenges and maybe come back with a little more to talk about.
 
Congratulations! The drifting stages are fun but very frustrating (you cross the finish line once in every 20 starts).

PS - I must tell you that I only got "S" at the Caterham stage with a litle "clutch" help. Good luck!
 
If you think it could help you, John, I could upload my replay of my S run at 17-4. I made sure to save it as soon as I completed the run, with the filename, "Ridiculous." :lol:
 
Okay, I've made it into RS at long last! I didn't have a FWD car to compete in the first event, so my debut into RS is a good one. However, I have to do the freaking Nürburgring Nordschleife in Reverse. So all my precious Enthu Points are going to die like USA's chances of winning the World Cup this year! I still have to bring it, though. Now the calendar think makes sense since I'm in the RS class. My goal is to be #1 not only in the races, but in Enthusia Life. I may make it up the mountain standing tall if I get things done in this class.

Well, my trip to the world's most nightmarish race course begins when I'm done typing this post. And... now! Good luck, John!
 
Great to see some love for Enthusia around here, especially from JohnBM01.

Regarding the No Brakes-Mission after 17-4 (hehe, I also saved a Replay of that one ... and it's still fun to watch.), the best thing to do if you haven't got a Steering Wheel is using the clutch. I tried to do it just with the throttle(-buttons) and it's nearly impossible to do so, a brand-new DualShock2 has too much clicking going on and my DS2 is "a bit" worn out after 33.000 A-SPEC kilometres. But if you cleared 17-4, you should be able to get them, too.


[edit]
Speaking of Nur, today I noticed for the first time some of the criticism the S2000 got in various reviews.. especially on Nur, going from Flugplatz to Schwedenkreuz, where I lost the S2000 nearly two times - on a straight (okay, it's not exactly one straight but it isn't a corner, either).
I love the S2000, but it's all over the place if you are not paying attention for just one moment.


And yesterday I have started a comparison between the engine-noise from GT4s and Enthusias NSX-R ... I have to check in a few minutes, but I had the impression that the Enthusia-version was a bit closer to the original.
Youtube and other sources (TopGear etc.) have some coverage of some NSXes and NSX-Rs and especially some on-board-coverages provide a good insight into the soundtrack of the 3.2L V6.
 
Vio
And yesterday I have started a comparison between the engine-noise from GT4s and Enthusias NSX-R ... I have to check in a few minutes, but I had the impression that the Enthusia-version was a bit closer to the original.
Youtube and other sources (TopGear etc.) have some coverage of some NSXes and NSX-Rs and especially some on-board-coverages provide a good insight into the soundtrack of the 3.2L V6.
Click to expand...

It has been my observation that Enthusia's engine sounds are much closer to the real thing than GT4's, especially if the GT4 one has a modified exhaust on it. The E30 M3 at idle even sounds like my car at idle (the M3's engine is based on my 318i's engine)!

I once did a comparison for another thread here, revolving around V8 sounds. The Putfile links I used still work, so here you go:
GT4 Cobra / EPR Cobra // GT4 C5 Z06 / EPR C5 Z51
 
The car sounds on enthusia are great, not like in GT were some cars sound like skylines and fully modified civics sound like lawnmowers, i know this is off topic but i was wondering is there any chance of a time trial competiton being held again? i would really like to see how i fair against other racers on other tracks...
 
The Nissan Pick Up Dakar race track has very nice handling for a heavy racing machine. It's actually 25kg less than the Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution Dakar racer. I took it around the rally-like course of Burgenschlucht Normal and except for one off-course slide off, I stayed on the course very well. It is very controllable for its luxury car-like weight of 1800kg (about 3,968 lbs.). I give mad amounts of kudos to Konami for designing all the details of the Nissan Pick Up Dakar racer. I think there's a similarly-designed truck in "ToCA Race Driver 3" in the Off-Road discipline. Just that the ToCA RD 3 variant has a rear spoiler to it and a concealed rear. But just take a look at all the roll cage, spare tires, the differential, and all that at the rear of the truck. You can even notice some of the springs around the roll cage if you get a close-up look of them. It is a nicely-detailed race truck.

I will admit that the sounds do seem more like race cars and real models. Maybe you should add your latest comment to my "What(If Anything) Can PD Learn from Enthusia Professional Racing?" thread, Monteclaro.
 
Thank you very much, Monteclaro. I'd also like to thank everyone for reading my Enthusia posts in this thread. Would you realize that I've basically been playing through Enthusia for what seems to be forever since renting it twice? Now I've passed all Driving Revolution sections. I knocked down an "S" for one of the Level 18 missions. Let me just say that some of those Driving Revolution missions will surprise you. I'm just glad none of the tests were "drive one lap around the Nürburgring Nordschleife." I got some extra "S" grades for some of the other tests. I got just enough to unlock all A-Class cars. The "A" cars are the most powerful and most capable. Only thing left to do is get enough "S" scores to maybe get all the R-Class cars. Then I can basically run any kind of race without having to worry about trying not to crash or go off-course to unlock all cars I've beaten as well as tracks. I really hope I can unlock more courses from Enthusia Life. I refuse to do three laps of the Nürburgring Nordschleife without crashing or going off-course just to get the reverse version.

I actually don't like many Reverse courses in most games. I'm so used to going in one direction that going in a different direction can be challenging. It's like remembering the letters of the alphabet. Just about everyone knows their ABC's of the English alphabet. But think about being challenged to recall the entire alphabet from Z to A instead of A to Z. People in the GT4 and GT5 forums liked it because it's different. I think even Live4speed once talked about how PD has to chill out on being realistic all the time. He said that in a discussion about racing World Circuits in reverse. We all concluded that courses are raced as they normally are usually for safety and maybe better flow. Enthusia has only two reverse courses from real circuits. Tsukuba is probably better for normal racing rather than that reverse course in dry or wet conditions. The Nürburgring Nordschleife is a nightmare in either direction. It's even worse in Reverse. Only redeeming quality is that you get the easiest part of the track first- that LONG straight with the little kink. Speaking of which... it reminds me of my RS-Class debut. I lost all Enthu Points while not even halfway around the track on Lap 1. So I knew that I can drive like a jackass and try to win any way I could. It wouldn't matter much because I wouldn't be part of the Rev City event. Ended up winning the 3-lap race (remember that this track is about 12.4 miles long!) with no Enthu Points left and even with a number of head-on crashes with the wall. That dramatic slowdown and bright flash is scary. I sometimes intentionally crash out of Driving Revolution tests when I'm going to surely fail. I rested and won the Limestone Cup event after the break. My next race is the Arc de Triomphe Anniversary Cup event around Route de la Siene. Have I ever told anyone that Paris is one of my favorite cities in the world? I would probably like Enthusia's Paris course than the Opera Paris course in GT4. I will say that the RS races seem to be pretty interesting the way they are laid out. The calendar is in the format of year/month/week. The RS events will have four weeks of racing action. Let's examine it a bit further.

The January event starts off with Mirage Crossing. Doesn't this sound familiar, racing fans? Right! The Paris-Dakar Rally takes place in January. Mirage Crossing is sort of a nice way to get a piece of the Dakar pie, eh? The month of May has a race at Speediapolis Ring. Probably not the Speediapolis 500. But there's another track whose name is similar... oh for crying out loud! It's Indy, player! Then there are some interesting events not really based on actual race tracks or actual traditions. That includes the Pacific Gateway event on Thanksgiving. December closes out with racing in Japan, Europe, America, and the car-breaking mine field known as Nürburgring Nordschleife.

I'll come up with something similar for the GT5 thread about Enthusia. The calendar format is pretty interesting. But this RS system is something to give you something to look forward to later in games. Think about games where you have to have all kinds of tools and equipment to find in the game to access later levels. For example, take one of my all-time favorite SNES games- "The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past." You begin out with very little equipment and very little health. But later in the game when you're more experienced, you can enter tougher levels and go unlock things you couldn't unlock or access earlier in the game. Enthusia's case seems to have something to look forward to, but only when you've REALLY established yourself. The ones who REALLY established themselves in Enthusia get to race in the RS events for even more ranking points and that all-inclusive step to being the #1 ranked driver. I'm currently at #40 in Enthusia Life as of this post.

Again, thanks to everyone for providing their commentary since I've provided my comments earlier in this thread. I also thank everyone who took notice of my Enthusia review and liked it. I was simply looking for a general Enthusia thread and found this to be closest to something to generally discuss Enthusia. I thank everyone for continuing this thread and responding to my comments. I love being on GTPlanet and glad to meet noble ladies and gentlemen in my time on this message board. Thank EVERYONE for your input in this thread and this forum.
 
You're most welcome, John. I visit very often this forum and the GT5 one (hoping the best from next GT game), and I'm glad you "discovered" Enthusia, because I've read many of your threads and posts there, where I always felt Enthusia was missing (I must say that every now and then I nearly wrote - in the TRD thread you started there - that there was another game that PD should watch out, but I don't like to be acused of fanboyism, so I didn't write anything.

It's almost funny that this forum, normally a very quiet and slow-evolving one (considering how few Enthusia players are in the universe of GTPlanet members), every now and then gains a breath of fresh air when someone discovers this game and comes here to discuss it. I remember when L4S "landed" here (I even "bumped" my old review from the grave - last forum page - at the time), and that happened by the time where that discussion about reverse tracks happened in the GT5 forum, where we both posted, and talked about the reverse Nurb existing in Enthusia.

Now some bad news: you only unlock all "R" cars if you get all "S" in DR (I think up to level 17, because level 18 is almost a bonus/fun level).

Some other infos:
- be aware that the RS races calendar has weeks when you must be driving specifics types of cars (RWD, FWD, 4WD, Rally Cars, R-Class cars). So, if you want to race them all you can't do it in one game year (because you'll need to change cars and you'll lose a week each time you do it);
- You'll notice that the track in the first section of Mirage Crossing sometimes change. That's a under-developed feature of Enthusia, called "Random Track Generator".
- Stupid as it may seem, it's not getting to #1 in the ranking that gives you any award. In fact, nothing happens, besides your personal satisfaction. What makes the game give you a litle "you've beaten me" reward is winning the last race of the year (the in-famous "King of the Year Race", or "KotY" as we call it here). It's run in the Nurburgring - normal - and you must be in ranked in the top 6 to enter it. And have a good car to go for it too.

Hope this helps ...
 
Thank you. I'll take that advice. I'm doing the Arc de Triomphe event. Now here's the thing. Your position is maintained for a few weeks in RS. So I have a choice to make. Should I run the Arc de Triomphe event, or proceed to the next month of races? I have to have a FWD car, and I'm not using a FWD currently. Winning this race will get me all the ranking points, but many of them will be coming back as I change cars. You sometimes get your ranking maintained during car switching. So it's almost as if you have to win every race and commit as few mistakes as possible.

As I've noted in the GT5 discussion on this, Enthusia is more for perfectionists. I'd probably go on a level in saying that Enthusia is more of a perfectionist game than GTR or ToCA RD 3. It's almost as if you can do some hard racing, all at the expense of black flags and loss of Enthu Points. I'm sure you can't do too much "real racing" and come out smelling like roses in Enthusia. I think Enthusia 2 will need to be a little less of a perfectionist title to really give me an oppurtunity to attack for position better. I'd probably say that I can actually take my chances in GT4 and maybe try to advance positions by tactics like late breaking. Then again... what is the game called? Enthusia Professional Racing. So you can't do any of that Burnout stuff for too long and for too often.

I'll keep pacing ahead in RS. Who knows? I may just go from humble beginnings in Enthusia all the way to a happy ending... all in this thread! By the way, I decided to skip Arc de Triomphe. I may have a chance to win a mid-engined race car. It would be my first R-Class car in RS if I win this Autumn Hill event. My best quess is that it's the BMW M1 Procar. But we'll see if I knock down a win here in the 4WD championship.
 
JohnBM01
Only thing left to do is get enough "S" scores to maybe get all the R-Class cars.
Click to expand...

Yeah...as Hun200kmh said, that requires "S-ing" all of the other DR levels, including 17-4. Since there aren't very many R-class cars, I would personally recommend unlocking them in FR using the default-laps, default-difficulty, no-black-flag method.

That's what I did, although I later went back and finished DR to get a 100% completion rating.


As Hun200kmh also said, the real goal of EL is to get #1 and beat the KotY race.
 
Let's do a little more discussion. Do some of you people think that critics simply didn't like Enthusia simply because it wasn't GT4 or Forza quality? I think people who actually open themselves up actually see that this game is pretty good even if... again... is not GT4 or Forza quality. I'd probably say it's the most underrated racing game all of last year. But how did other see this game? I'm the link master, so here you go:

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT ENTHUSIA:
(Gamespot) http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/enthusiaproracing/review.html
Synopsis: A 7.4 rating, which accounts for "Good." Claiming that EPR had a touchy driving model and a complex career mode, it won't appeal to many people. It does provide in the difference department. A nice game to play with if you're looking for something other than a Gran Turismo. Gamespot claims that the car models look great, have challenging driving dynamics, and unique drive and collect system. However, they thought the menus were ugly and said that RWD cars were completely unplayable.

(Gamespy) http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/enthusia-professional-racing/610114p1.html
Synopsis: 3 1/2 stars, good for a "Good" rating. Multiplayer Factor is "Good" as well. Gamespy claims Enthusia has refined mechanics in driving and modes with a "DDR-style" Driving Revolution mode (I'll strangely agree). It also looks great. Their complaints had to do with touchy controls, a lack of intensity in races, and no online play (been down this road before with GT4 discussion). One reviewer said that this game is a virtual unknown which shown its stuff to GT4 and Forza.

(GamePro) http://www.gamepro.com/sony/ps2/17136/info.shtml
Synopsis: Graphics and sound rated 4.5 out of 5 and control gets a 4 out of 5. The Fun Factor is 4 out of 5. Average critic score is 3.35 out of 5. Enthusia is claimed not to be atop the racing game world, but is pretty good nonetheless. Further details noted that Konami could have cashed in on GT's issues, but failed to overtake GT for a few reasons. The reviewer claimed that Enthusia would have been better than GT4 if it had a damage model, better collision physics, and (of course to some people) online play. The reviewer would later claim that Driving Revolution is basically a replacment for License Tests.


Now to find some knucklehead reviews...

(Yahoo! Shopping) http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Enthusia Professional Racing PlayStation 2:1951017617:page=user-reviews
Synopsis: The reviewer, "ronny_09_1993" gave it 1 out of 5 stars overall, and given a 1 out of 5 to graphics, sound, control, and fun factor. He claimed that we shouldn't buy this game. He hated the graphics and said the cars are tough to control. Also hated on the POV of the game and doesn't like the Level Up system.

(Gamespot - Player Review) http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/enthusiaproracing/player_review.html?id=224349
Synopsis: The reviewer thought the game was Hard. He gave the game a 6.3 score, good for "Fair." He gave the most credit (7) to graphics, value, and tilt. He gave the worst credit (5) to gameplay. He played the game for about 10 hours or less. He thinks the game is absolutely slow and selecting cars stinks in the game. He hates the graphics, the soundtrack, and considers the overall gameplay boring. The races are hard for him as said in the review. And of course, told us to get Gran Turismo instead. Surprisingly didn't talk about the driving dynamics.


Can it get any worse? Check out THIS review from the same site:

(Gamespot - Player Review) http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/enthusiaproracing/player_review.html?id=192872
Synopsis: He said the game was Easy. The reviewer gave it a 3.5 review, good for "Bad." He gave a perfect 10 to Graphics, however a 1 for gameplay. It took a while for the player to know how to start a race. HE wished the book would have helpd better. Considers buying cars as hard as Michael Jackson buying nose jobs. The reviewer hates GT4, but says that GT4 is better than Enthusia. Claims that Enthusia puts you into all kinds of situations which makes no sense. Got stuck in the sand in one race. Found the game to be boring.


So did people completely underrate this game without considering what the game REALLY has to offer?
 
Most of the game reviewers are GAMERS, meaning they are not nessesarily car nuts.

We find "fun" in realistic motoring, which enables us to enjoy driving without empting our wallets for gas and tickets.

Their idea of fun is...well, fun! I'm pretty sure many of them will enjoy Ridge Racer more than GTR! Rarely do I see car enthusiasts write reviews on generic gaming sites because not a lot of gamers share the same point of view with us.

Realistic games on consoles will always be the rare kind. I'm just glad that Konami had the guts to make this great game for us to enjoy. No matter how underated it may be, it will always find a central spot on my shelf.
 
It's not that hard for a gaming staff to have a car nut on their staff as a "simulation" guy. PC Gamer magazine has one -- I forget his name, but he's a serious car and plane buff, and reviews all of the driving and flight sims. That's how Live for Speed got an excellent rating and a "PCG Editor's Choice" award, instead of suffering the fate that Enthusia did. A lot of people hate Live for Speed for the same reasons why most people hate Enthusia..."it's like driving on ice!" "this game doesn't make any sense. I can't even clear the first corner!" "these graphics suck, and there are hardly any cars or tracks"...
 
it's obvious that PC has way more simulations than counsole, therefore many PC reviewers are dedicated something-nuts because PCs are more capable to deliever more focused games. Enthusia would be a lot more successful and more appreciated if a PC version was released.
 
One interesting review is this one, about Enthusia and the DFP

http://www.firingsquad.com/games/enthusia_review/

It's 5 pages long, so if you don't want to read it all, here's the conclusion:

The final verdict for Enthusia requires a bit more discussion. Enthusia is like Dance Dance Revolution. While it’s possible to play the game with the standard gamepad, you really need a specialized input-device to play the game as it should be played. For DDR, it used to be $80 gamepads (before those budget mats were released) and so for Enthusia, the special controller is the Driving Force Pro.

In terms of gameplay, Enthusia isn’t that fun – the term fatiguing truly captures the experience. However, it is like going to a gym and getting tired. Weight lifting itself isn’t any fun – it’s having the strength at the end of the day that motivates you. Driving in Enthusia is a workout, frustrating while you’re in the moment, but rewarding when you are done. If you are willing to spend time with Enthusia, you’ll develop skills to become a better race driver. You just might not have a smile while you’re doing it. Readers looking for a more intense and serious experience than Gran Turismo or Forza offer should add at least 10 points to the score.
 
apparently it isn't so much about driving or racing in racing games anymore ... take a look at GT4HD. People go crazy about the demo of a (probably) next installment even though it's just a new resolution.

Now, compare Enthusia with GT4.


Not so shiny cars in Enthusia => can't be as good as GT4.
They simply don't care much about car models like we (at least I) do, they won't notice that for example the 206-taillights are pretty weak or that it seems that one of the audis has a wrong drivetrain-layout (I wouldn't have noticed if a friend of mine hadn't told me so). I wondered why the cars in GT4 are trying so hard to be shiny and reflect as much as possible, but with the PS3 trying to deliver the greatestest graphics off all time *TM*, it's clear that the market wants nice looking things rather than all the details on cars, like that Nissan Dakar-truck.

I'm sure most of the Enthu-players won't notice that little air deflectors on the front mudguards of the M3 CSL BMW racecar. They don't care about it, whereas I'm impressed by it. I have seen the car in a museum recently and it was then that I noticed that there were air deflectors, back at home I looked if Enthu had them - and yes, it has.


Something I noticed in Enthu as well, regarding the cars - Konami put some effort in having new cars and licences in the game, like the GZox NSX, the Nissan Dakar-truck, the Procar M1, the CSL and so on.

They brought some new cars to racing games, like that more powerful Fiat F500-clone, the Bugatti EB110, the DB5, the DS (I still don't get how PD could left the Goddess out of GT for such a long time. Fools!) and the likes of them.
With every car, you notice that the models are way superior to the GT4 ones where cars tend to have textures instead of air intakes (them shining and looking so awkward UNREAL) and reinforcing fins. It really should be the other way round, the newcomer should have textures instead of "real" reinforcing fins.
 
I'm not knocking GT4 in any of my discussions. I don't see GT4 as some overrated 800-pound gorilla. The series has still acheived a lot of fame regardless. I applaud Konami and Enthusia for the amount of detail put into the cars. I think Enthusia is more along the lines of precise driving more than fast all the time with real cars. If this logic is true, then I think GT (give or take some points of the driving model and car varieties) is sort of in the middle. I still think that Nissan Dakar truck has to be a killer example of design by a game team. The funny thing is that I could put this Dakar machine into Enthusia and be able to race against five other competitors. I bet it probably wouldn't slow down as much (or at all) if I had the other five drivers drive the same race truck. The detail is very nice. Only thing that would probably blow it away is if you had a visible and active driver in the car.

On the issue of cars in Enthusia vs. GT4, I normally don't like to rag on PD for something they didn't include. The usual notion people make is something similar to "GT4 has 700 cars, but don't have the xxxxxxxx yyyyyyyy!?" I once said that I was surprised GT4 didn't get in the Team Goh Audi. The funny case is that Konami is a sponsor on the Fuji circuit, but no 2003 or 2004 Goh Audi. Of course, GT4 has their Pescarolo squad with those beautiful Courage chasses. Not to stir up any fire, but between GT4 and Enthusia sponsored by certain race teams, the Goh Audi with the Enthusia logo won Le Mans over the Pescarolos with GT sponsorship (great... now I started a new rivalry!) Now back on topic. A number of people aren't going to like Enthusia for cars. One magazine jokingly reviewed Enthusia as saying "Attack of the Minivans!" But just like GT4, Enthusia has its fair share of exotic muscle. Among them is the mostly hated Mercedes SLR McLaren, the Ford GT, Dauer Bugatti EB110 (horrible to drive in the game), and the M1 Procar like Vio mentioned. I said that I had a strange liking of the boxy Mercedes-Benz G500L SUV. I found it to be a bit more agile than the VW Touareg. Enthusia isn't a bad game on the car front simply because it doesn't have a Forza-style lineup of mostly real cars. I did some Forza rounds over the weekend and noticed some cars I didn't know were in the game. Most notable was the Porsche 962C. Since Konami had the Dauer license deal, they would REALLY do justice because I think Dauer made a replica of the Porsche 962C. Even Konami knew that they didn't need flashy sports cars and high-profile sports car companies to get people to buy the game. Enthusia's car list is more varied than GT4's simply because of more different types of vehicles available. I still hark back to the point that Enthusia simply isn't about fast all the time. You still have to be a good driver in a number of disciplines. There is a such thing as going fast by going slow. Enthusia and GT4 teached it perfectly. Enthusia, however, does it with a more advanced driving model. GT4's driving model is more accessible to novice gamers.

I actually thought Enthusia was GT4 when G4TV show, "X-Play" covered E3 one year. But it was Enthusia. Another G4TV show called "Judgment Day" compared GT4 to Enthusia. My initial reaction is that GT4 is far more superior than Enthusia that the co-hosts, Tommy Tallarico and Victor Lucas "slightly" favored GT4 over Enthusia, claiming both of them have major problems. My views after playing through maybe 80% of the game is that Enthusia and GT4 are quite wonderful games. It takes anyone to play Enthusia. It takes anyone with an open heart and better interest in racing than crashing to appreciate this game. I still say that I like GT4 out of Enthusia and Forza only because of personal preference. I'll still come back to the GT series because I grew up with this series and still enjoy it no matter what knucklehead says about GT4. I will admit- I've been pretty hooked with Enthusia. GT4 and Enthusia proved something not a lot of people realize- racing games can still be fun and/or enjoyable without crash damage and online play. It almost seems like most of us old-fashioned gamers still know the basic essentials of a racing game and don't get caught up too much on secondary features which people consider primary. GT5 will be in the works, but I'd be interested to see what Enthusia 2 would look like, and if it would be a PS2 or PS3 title. Imagine what PS3 power could do for Enthusia. You could probably have 20 cars on your favorite 6-to-a-field track. Maybe you would see more barely-noticable effects like falling rain and lighting effects.

For those of you who consider Enthusia a waste of time, play the game again. Get into it. Enthusia is not as bad as you probably thought before. I found it to be not as fun as GT4, but certainly not too boring. If I could, I'd probably go to Japan and shake the hands of the people behind Enthusia. I think they did a great job for a great game. It just takes an open and concious heart to appreciate the game.
 
Sadly, there's no word about a possible Enthusia2, neither from Konami nor from anyone else. I think Enthusia must have been a commercial flop and I fear Konami have decided to drop it, at least for the time being (it was a stupid move from konami to launch Enthusia a few months after GT4 was launched. If this game was released a few months before GT4, every GT fan would have bought it, just to have a new game to use while waiting for GT4).

So, by now, my best hopes for a good driving/racing game are with PD. I don't know much about how they regard Enthusia, but I really hope they have payed attention to this game, because there are some "lessons" in it that PD should take while preparing GT5.

PS - If any konami guys read this (unlikely, but you never know), I want it to be known in your company that there are many players out there that think you made a splendid job, and that EPR deserves a sequel on the PS3. If PD and Sony make millions with GT, why can't you?
 
I agree with JohnBM01 that PD has done a great deal in defining the real driving simulator-genre as we know it today, and they did a good job in bringing us their games.

But with GT you get the feeling they didn't really try to make a 100%-game with GT4 like Konami did with Enthusia. It comes down to little details which show how much effort the studios put in their games ...


In GT4, the F1-cars crash for no apparent reason, as well as the BSPEC-driver does. I saw someone posting that you have to adjust your setup (having much more ground clearance than the default setup) to let BSPEC-Bob do a better job.

So if it's just about the setup, why didn't PD think of adjusting it for the AI-cars? If you see them spinning around like crazy in Nur, you start to wonder how they could miss that one. Also, the cars bouncing against the pitwall in Nur showcase some of the flaws of GT4 which shouldn't have been.
Like that air-inlet on the hood of the Storm V12 that shines after washing your car.

Furthermore, why can't I keep the old rims like in GT3, why can't I drive some cars on a selection of courses? Why can I equip a Spyker with Rally-tires (and race the rallies) and not the BMW M5? It looks like arbitrariness with that design-decisions and in the end it all adds up to a "WHY?" if it comes to GT4 - at least for me.
I'm not trying to make people support my opinion, should be said again here. I'm just so ... disappointed with GT4.

Of course, Enthusia has an easier starting position because it's their first shot and people tend to overlook flaws of first games because they try something new. However, Enthu feels in every aspect like Konami wanted to make it as good as possible.

You can't tell what it is, but you feel if people put a lot of effort into making a game good - even if it's not "your type of game", you'll sometimes end up playing a game just because of that.




JohnBM01
On the issue of cars in Enthusia vs. GT4, I normally don't like to rag on PD for something they didn't include. The usual notion people make is something similar to "GT4 has 700 cars, but don't have the xxxxxxxx yyyyyyyy!?" I once said that I was surprised GT4 didn't get in the Team Goh Audi. The funny case is that Konami is a sponsor on the Fuji circuit, but no 2003 or 2004 Goh Audi. Of course, GT4 has their Pescarolo squad with those beautiful Courage chasses. Not to stir up any fire, but between GT4 and Enthusia sponsored by certain race teams, the Goh Audi with the Enthusia logo won Le Mans over the Pescarolos with GT sponsorship (great... now I started a new rivalry!)
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There are some good choices in GT4, like the Spyker, the Protomotors Spirra (I really love this car), the old Renault and Peugeot Rallycars and the likes of them.

But instead of including way too much versions of cars (NSX from 90, 92, 97, 99, 02, Nissan R3x Version xyz, etc.) like PD did, Konami took another way.
Take the NSXes from Enthu, for example, there's just an old NSX Type-S and a new Type-R available. This example shows a different approach towards their target audience as well, GT4 is rather for people wanting to own cars they can't afford and drive them, whereas Enthu tries to have cars that have a special feeling to them and are unique in any way. Like you said, the Dauer EB110 or the G500L from Merc, it feels like the designers wanted to include cars that have a personality. Of course, there is always that bunch of cars that has to be in >every< racing game, keep that in mind.

Konami, btw, is featured on the Skyline R34 JGTC-racingcar in GT4, and, finally, the new Fuji Speedway has afaik a SegaSammy-sponsorship where the former Konami-ads where


For those of you who consider Enthusia a waste of time, play the game again. Get into it. Enthusia is not as bad as you probably thought before. I found it to be not as fun as GT4, but certainly not too boring. If I could, I'd probably go to Japan and shake the hands of the people behind Enthusia. I think they did a great job for a great game. It just takes an open and concious heart to appreciate the game.
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I still have a replay I show to people coming to me and taking a try at Enthu ...

Me, driving with a S2000 on Nur, forcing the car into a spin caused by the snappy oversteer of the S2000, comes nearly to a halt out of Kallenhard.
A NSX Type-R close behind (some 3 or 2 seconds) tries to take evasive action and chooses to try a line left of me, me spinning to left blocking the way though. He then swerves to the right, me getting a hold of the car in the middle of the road still being a bit into his line, he moves a bit more to the right and misses me with nearly hitting the grass, but he succeeds and I rejoined the race.

It was over after just some seconds but it was the best moment I had in a racing game up to now.


Ahem, got carried away there - regarding Enthusia 2, keep in mind that the game is just a year old. If they were to release a second Enthusia soon, I wonder if they could impress like they did with the first one.
If it's going to be 2009 until the next Enthu is released,fine with me, as long as it's as different to the other racing games as Enthu was.
 
No recent tidbits to report on for this game except that I recently registered Enthusia online. I haven't registered too many of my games, so I may want to start registering the games I do have. I'm taking an Enthusia break. Kind of think of this as "Resting to recover all my Enthu Points." Just hope I don't lose any ranking points. :lol:

I'm going to conduct a little experiment of my own using Tsukuba in both GT4 and Enthusia. What I want to do is sort of make a progress report of the differences in handling with driver aids off. The funny thing about Enthusia's Tsukuba is that while there are no pit stops in the game, there is a little section you can drive off into to drive around. However, you can expect a black flag and lost Enthu Points for two consecutive laps granted you don't reverse out of the pits. I'm going to maybe use the 2005 Ford Mustang GT as my test mule for both games and do about 10 laps. I really should be doing this for that physics thread in this forum. My thing is that I still feel pretty comfortable with racing in Gran Turismo 4 than with Enthusia. As much as I'm impressed with Enthusia, I still feel pretty comfortable with GT4 in modifying cars to an extent where I feel more comfortable doing racing duties. Only as long as upgrading doesn't lead to worsening cars, GT4 is king in this department.

Another thing about Enthusia is that there are a lot more street cars than race cars. So it's hard to actually say that a nicely-equipped car in Enthusia sounds any more different from its road-going variant with the stanard muffler. I still find it hard to actually judge what it is we're judging on in terms of accuracy in sounds. I think the GT4 crew was talking about taking sound samples from certain cars in some place. I don't really know how accurate things actually are for GT4 or Enthusia. So I don't know much on the sound front.

I don't really think that Enthusia would be a commercial flop. Let's look at maybe the last game to tried to beat GT and ultimately failed years later- the Sega GT series. I have respect for Sega GT for one reason-a version was available for PC. The first Sega GT was made available on PC. This proved that I didn't need a Dreamcast to play the game. It's also good because a game in the mold of Gran Turismo was made available for the PC. But most of the game seemed pretty uninteresting in racing and in track design. I don't think there were too many interesting enough courses besides the Night Section. The game was almost designed like it tried to cash in on the successes of Gran Turismo by coming up with its own version. I have respect for Sega in racing games. My all-time favorite arcade racing game has YET to reach a console or at least be some fan-made game- Sega Super GT/SCUD (Super Car Ultimate Drive) Race. The one-off Daytona USA 2 and SCUD Race tracks in OutRun 2 doesn't count. I'm talking about the original version game as seen in arcades going on ten years ago. But back to Sega GT. Sega GT ended up on the XBOX with a nice-looking version and a somewhat successful online-only version. If Konami sees Enthusia as a flop, don't. It's a completely underrated title. Konami is no stranger to racing games. This is the first of them in the mold of GT. The game is under 20 bucks. I bought it at one game store for less than 10 dollars used. What do you have to lose if you have a PS2 and love racing games? Maybe they can branch out their efforts for a sequel in an effort to maybe nip GT. Or if they want to make Enthusia a franchise hit like the Metal Gear series (should be a Hall of Fame game series), they'll need to BRING IT! GT4 and Forza would have one more contender if Enthusia continues the fight. They can still be the underdog catering to racing fans.

Now let me go to something someone mentioned. What if Enthusia was released before GT4? How would it sell? Would opinions change on Enthusia over GT4?
 
JohnBM01
Another thing about Enthusia is that there are a lot more street cars than race cars. So it's hard to actually say that a nicely-equipped car in Enthusia sounds any more different from its road-going variant with the stanard muffler. I still find it hard to actually judge what it is we're judging on in terms of accuracy in sounds. I think the GT4 crew was talking about taking sound samples from certain cars in some place. I don't really know how accurate things actually are for GT4 or Enthusia. So I don't know much on the sound front.
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Take a stock (level 1) Shelby Cobra out for a drive. Listen carefully to it (turn the music off).

Take a fully-tuned (level 10) Shelby Cobra out for a drive. Listen carefully to it (again, with the music off).

You'll definitely notice a difference, and I'm not just talking about the way the engine sounds.

JohnBM01
Now let me go to something someone mentioned. What if Enthusia was released before GT4? How would it sell? Would opinions change on Enthusia over GT4?
Click to expand...

I think it would suffer like Sega GT did? */House of the Dead 2 reference*

It would have garnered enough impulse-purchases from people waiting for GT4 that Konami would have decided to make a sequel, but everyone would still hate it and the game would receive a reputation of being a piece of crap (as it currently has). As a result, sales for the sequel would be as lacking as the sales for Enthusia actually were, and the series would end.

There is a possibility that enough hardcore players would have liked the game, and that Konami would have improved upon their mistakes in EPR2 so that those who hated the first game would like the second one...if so, the series might have been able to flourish. However, there isn't any GT-style series out there that has survived alongside Gran Turismo. It remains to be seen whether Forza can achieve that feat.
 

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