Actually, I am,
Wolfe2x7.
I've never hated playing Enthusia. The game still has that little extra which keeps you playing. I've gone from being stuck in RIII and taking some rest breaks until I unlocked the Mercedes SLR McLaren in the game. I'm basically undefeated in RII with the SLR McLaren and have it as a Level 8 car (max weight reduction, level 2 power, level 2 tires). Only gripe about the car is that it still has some understeer problems. But other than that, the car is great in the game. My best car before the SLR McLaren was a Nissan Skyline GT-R (???) Nür. A gripe I have is that you can't look behind you unless with your in-car view. One other thing I notice about Enthusia- it rarely slows down. I think people don't give as much credit to this game as people do. One magazine said that Enthusia was "Attack of the Minivans" because of some of the different minivans and SUVs in the game. This game is VERY diverse in cars you can race with. I have a strange addiction to the Mercedes-Benz G500L SUV in Enthusia. The G500L is the least-powerful variant of the G-Class SUV line. It is a boxy vehicle that costs maybe $10K less than a Dodge Viper. It's also a boxy vehicle I'd rather use in a game than a Hummer H2 or H3. You even get the Volkswagen Touareg. Believe me when I say this- Enthusia probably has greater diversity of cars and trucks than GT4 and Forza combined. Well, maybe just more than GT4 since mostly sports cars are the name of the game in Forza. Also believe me when I say that Enthusia has those little touches that break itself from GT4 and Forza. The lighting effects are one example. Notice Speediapolis Ring and how the sun sparkles across some of the glass around the track. GT4 won't give you Enthusia's effects and neither will Forza.
Marco Strada and Route de la Seine have very nice themes to them. Enthusia seems to have more European influence than GT4 does. Whether or not that's a good thing is your call. I guess this Euro feel relates to the music as well. Some of the music is all classical. Note the violin usage in some of the songs, especially the introduction and with Route de la Seine. The more American courses feature rock music since rock is an American tradition here. And could you imagine if Enthusia had its own Photo Mode? It means you could look for wonderful places to take pictures of your car. Since I love San Francisco here in America (I also love Miami and New York City), I could probably take a picture with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance with Pacific Gateway. I could also have my car positioned at Dragon Range so that I get my car, the track, and the city below. The game is completely underrated and actually isn't a bad game at all. I even gave my Final Verdict by giving the game an 8.00 out of 10.00. Enthusia isn't the best game between GT4 and Forza, but it's the small details that sets it apart from the two games. Forza established itself out of the gate, Enthusia didn't. But does that mean Enthusia was a flop? Absolutely not. Konami has made several racing games in its past as this is their first sim racer. Give them credit because they did a great job. I think only the ones who realize that Enthusia has most of the essentials down like with GT4 and Forza will love the game more than those who think it's crap because it isn't GT4. It takes some time to understand Enthusia. But once you get it down, only thing you have to do is go racing and enjoy winning races. You can do everything from customizing grids*, changing races if you need to*, test drive cars in your collection**, and all that (single asterisk pertains to Free Race Mode and double asterisks pertain to Enthusia Life). Now for some things I didn't know or have special comments on:
---JOHN'S ENTHUSIA NOTES---
* I didn't know the Smart fortwo cabrio was actually rear/RWD rather than what I thought was front/FWD.
* A "grocery getter" you might like is the Nissan Elgrand, since it's RWD.
* The Peugeot 206 WRC is my new rally weapon since it handles better than the Impreza WRC. That makes the 206 WRC one of my favorite rally cars in GT2-4, Colin McRae 2, and maybe some other games I've played. No wonder it's a championship-winning rally car.
* I hated in Raffles that I didn't get the car I wanted. I sometimes kept pressing "X" on the car I wanted. I sometimes just don't get the car. It's almost as if you have to time it right to have a lock on the car you want. But if you don't get it in Enthusia Life, KEEP TRYING!
* There aren't as many same car battles in Enthusia as in GT4. The only chance of me losing some races was to a clone of my car. It was because of this that I was almost un-undefeated at Edge of the Road in Enthusia Life.
* There is probably too many menus when you go looking for cars in Free Run, Time Attack, and Enthusia Life. But you get so many options to narrow down your search. Now imagine if you could have Enthusia's searching of cars for GT4. Food for thought.
* I think a virtual showroom would have been a great idea to know all of the cars in the game without me having to find all of them cold turkey. The Library feature on each of the makes is a very nice deal. I didn't know that Cadillac was once run by a Ford guy until it became GM property.
* Enthusia probably gave Caterham fans something for PD to think about since there is the Caterham with a rag top. Maybe there were too many polygons for the Caterhams that they ended up being "Special Cars" in GT4. Those rag top Caterhams would have been the saving grace to get Caterham fans to go pack racing. And I bet races with Caterhams will be the equivalent of a maxed-out Suzuki GSX-R/4 Concept Car.
* I remember sometime in the past when (then) CART was thinking about having a street course race in San Francisco. I wonder if something like Pacific Gateway would be the course they were thinking of. I tend to like Pacific Gateway more than Seattle Circuit because it's more beautiful (not taking away from Seattle) and a bit more challenging. I grant you, imagine racing Pacific Gateway in Enthusia with the physics and driving dynamics of GT4. If you don't think that sounds like Heaven, then you're not a racing game fan.
* "Who wants to race minivans around a street course?" Well, who wants to race nothing but sports cars all the time and crashing out while at it? Enthusia makes even 60 mph exciting. Who else can give you that?
Replies, comments, questions... go!
