Save your money...

[Cloud]

okay.. time to pull out the enthusia defense stick

u fool

a review is just a review. "save ur money." u should at least suggest renting the game. unless ur that cheap.

that IGN review is crap.

"The only thing missing from the racing through the tracks is the sense of speed. The cars can lose traction and there can be a blur effect that creeps in from the side of the screen, but it still doesn't add up to something that feels solid and dangerous. It's almost as if the gameplay has been sanitized for your protection and is missing out on some of the feeling of danger. In place of this feeling of speed, Enthusia makes up for it with a visual representation of what's going on so that racers can create a mental map of what's happening to the car."

GAWD.. IDIOT

u find me a magical car that doesn't lose traction.

motion blur can be disabled under "options" (it's in the main menu)

at least play the game before u say it's bad.

gg

 

[Lethalchem]

Regardless of whether this game is the best racing game you've ever played, I can' thelp but laugh at the people who say stuff like "Save your money". I just picked this game up tonight, and have been going through the Driving Revolution section. I'm enjoying myself just fine.

You guys are acting as if this game costs an internal organ or something. For most of us, it costs around $50 bucks. Big deal. Most of us blow 50 bucks on all sorts of things every week, none of which will give you longer lasting enjoyment than this game will. What's $50? A dinner out? A night at the club and/bar? That fun lasts us a few hours, yet we don't complain about that. Even if this game only gives you some fun for one week, you've still gotten more from your money.

I've completed 41% of GT4 and have over 40,000 Aspec points, 80 golds, and all missions completed. Playing this game is a nice break, and I will continue to enjoy both of them. In time, I'll pick up Forza as well. The more the merrier. I don't have to like just one.

 

[McLaren]

Regardless of whether this game is the best racing game you've ever played, I can' thelp but laugh at the people who say stuff like "Save your money". I just picked this game up tonight, and have been going through the Driving Revolution section. I'm enjoying myself just fine.

You guys are acting as if this game costs an internal organ or something. For most of us, it costs around $50 bucks. Big deal. Most of us blow 50 bucks on all sorts of things every week, none of which will give you longer lasting enjoyment than this game will. What's $50? A dinner out? A night at the club and/bar? That fun lasts us a few hours, yet we don't complain about that. Even if this game only gives you some fun for one week, you've still gotten more from your money.

I've completed 41% of GT4 and have over 40,000 Aspec points, 80 golds, and all missions completed. Playing this game is a nice break, and I will continue to enjoy both of them. In time, I'll pick up Forza as well. The more the merrier. I don't have to like just one.

Spoken like a true racer! 👍

 

[EAGLE 5]

I picked the game up at an introsale price of only 29.99 so I had a hell of a deal but I would have bought it anyways.

The game is really cool, I enjoy the challenges that it poses in the sense that here is just you, the car, and a clean racing line unlike GT4 where basically who has the most cash, tuning, and hit'n'run skills will win.
I particularly like also the ranking system which basically discourages you from taking the Bugatti EB110 against toaster vans because the points you'll get from winning will be scaled down (though I haven't figured out the whole award system yet guess I really should take out the manual huh?). I wish GT4 had horsepower caps like in GT2 those made the game more intelligent but oh well.

The only real gripe that I got is that the inputs can be somewhat inprecise. In one of the reviews I forget which one. it says that the analog input works 50% like it should and the other 50% is basically full throttle, which is somewhat true. I suspect that it will play much better with a Logitech FF wheel and not a PS2 analog wheel or controller.
Had they fixed that I would have called the feel perfect but for 29 who can argue right?

I got into this game mainly because it has a lot of great cars not featured in GT4 (The EB110 one of my favorites btw first featured in Screamer but that was an arcade, and I believe also in Automobili Lamborghini on the N64).
I also got it because a lot of competent people involved with the production said it was very well done. Some of these guys were engineers for Mazda, Mitsubishi, Daihatsu and . . . Motoharu "Gan-San" Kurosawa of Best Motoring fame which in his interview often implies about "another racing game" having some weak points that were addressed with Enthusia.

Overall I say it's a good game and you shouldn't slam it because IGN or Gamespot's reviewers can't apparently do their job.
Like someone said NFS:U 9.2 ? heh they must have just gotten off playing pole position on the C64.

 

[Tortus]

Yes, real sim racers are machine independent, well said.

The analog thing was mentioned in the IGN review, but luckily I'll be getting a DFP.

 

[newbielives]

I have been a defender of Enthusia ever since hearing of it and have been trying really hard to like Enthusia since shelling 60$ Canadian on it.

However, I must say... it really does not compare to GT4 at all.

I have been racing boring races in Enthusia trying to unlock Dragon Range and Nurburing using the DFP but after an hour of boring Enthusia races, I just could not hold the pain anymore and went back to GT4.
Doing my practice laps on the Nurb using the RUF BRT 86 with all aids off and DFP. Wow!!! the difference was amazing, GT4 felt like 2 times as fast, just as technical, and you felt like you were part of the car instead of floating around in Enthusia. I will go back to Enthusia when I find some cheats so I can unlock the tracks I want to play, but for now, I'm going to put it back on the shelf and declare GT4 the king of all racers.

Buying Enthusia for drifting fun? Try the RUF BRT 86 with all aids off in GT4 first and have some fun on the Nurb. That experience alone blows Enthusia out of the water into a shameful river of tears left behind by the producers of Enthusia.

Also what the heck is with FR cars in Enthusia, its like they can turn on a dime.

 

[sn00pie]

okay.. time to pull out the enthusia defense stick

u fool

a review is just a review. "save ur money." u should at least suggest renting the game. unless ur that cheap.

that IGN review is crap.

"The only thing missing from the racing through the tracks is the sense of speed. The cars can lose traction and there can be a blur effect that creeps in from the side of the screen, but it still doesn't add up to something that feels solid and dangerous. It's almost as if the gameplay has been sanitized for your protection and is missing out on some of the feeling of danger. In place of this feeling of speed, Enthusia makes up for it with a visual representation of what's going on so that racers can create a mental map of what's happening to the car."

GAWD.. IDIOT

u find me a magical car that doesn't lose traction.

motion blur can be disabled under "options" (it's in the main menu)

at least play the game before u say it's bad.

gg

Please don't call our members idiots.

 

[Max_DC]

I have been a defender of Enthusia ever since hearing of it and have been trying really hard to like Enthusia since shelling 60$ Canadian on it.

However, I must say... it really does not compare to GT4 at all.

I have been racing boring races in Enthusia trying to unlock Dragon Range and Nurburing using the DFP but after an hour of boring Enthusia races, I just could not hold the pain anymore and went back to GT4.
Doing my practice laps on the Nurb using the RUF BRT 86 with all aids off and DFP. Wow!!! the difference was amazing, GT4 felt like 2 times as fast, just as technical, and you felt like you were part of the car instead of floating around in Enthusia. I will go back to Enthusia when I find some cheats so I can unlock the tracks I want to play, but for now, I'm going to put it back on the shelf and declare GT4 the king of all racers.

Buying Enthusia for drifting fun? Try the RUF BRT 86 with all aids off in GT4 first and have some fun on the Nurb. That experience alone blows Enthusia out of the water into a shameful river of tears left behind by the producers of Enthusia.

Also what the heck is with FR cars in Enthusia, its like they can turn on a dime.

You just have to practice, of course GT4 is a lot easier, but you will learn the controls pretty fast, don't give up....

 

[LaBounti]

Please don't call our members idiots.

The IGn reviewer is a member here? no sarcasim, legit question.

 

[Tortus]

No Cloud was calling the haters idiots, the "omg IGN gave it 7.2 it sux GT4 rulz" types.

 

[newbielives]

I dont find it hard to control or to drift, its actually easier to drift in Enthusia.

My problem is that the force feedback sucks and there is no visual body roll so it just looks slower, there is like no sense of speed at all, when I say boring enthusia races maybe I should say winning boring enthusia races.

You just have to practice, of course GT4 is a lot easier, but you will learn the controls pretty fast, don't give up....

 

[NSX-R]

Could someone PLEASE tell me where Enthusia's physics engine is better than GT4's in DETAIL?

 

[Tortus]

I've heard it handles weight transfer better, and the cars have a good weighty feeling to them.

 

[LaBounti]

Could someone PLEASE tell me where Enthusia's physics engine is better than GT4's in DETAIL?

Hear are a few things I noticed. You can circle drift and contrl drifting easier. The clutch is very handy when gaining contrl of a slide. Other than that all i can say is rent it or just buy it, its worth $40. And if you get a powerful rwd on Dragon range you'll know the physics are better.

LB

 

[newbielives]

Enthusia doesn't do anything better then GT4, on the physics side especially with the FR cars, they are actually too easy to drive, its like they all have slight oversteer which I tend to like, but in Enthusia, it makes turning a FR car so easy, its feels arcady. AWD drive cars have slight understeer and feels pretty good, don't like FF cars, so I havent tried one yet. Braking distance etc all feel pretty much the same as GT4.

With drifiting, the front wheels seem to grip better when countersteering, more so then GT4 so its quite a bit easier to drift.

Could someone PLEASE tell me where Enthusia's physics engine is
better than GT4's in DETAIL?

 

[Cloud]

No Cloud was calling the haters idiots, the "omg IGN gave it 7.2 it sux GT4 rulz" types.

no i wasn't

i was talking about the IGNewb reviewer ...who could be a member? *shrug* who cares, sir. who cares.

 

[Tortus]

Damn I just can't wait to try out drifting in this game. It sounds like it's easy to get into, but hard to master. Would you say this is true?

Sorry for the confusion, Cloud.

 

[Max_DC]

Enthusia doesn't do anything better then GT4, on the physics side especially with the FR cars, they are actually too easy to drive, its like they all have slight oversteer which I tend to like, but in Enthusia, it makes turning a FR car so easy, its feels arcady. AWD drive cars have slight understeer and feels pretty good, don't like FF cars, so I havent tried one yet. Braking distance etc all feel pretty much the same as GT4.

With drifiting, the front wheels seem to grip better when countersteering, more so then GT4 so its quite a bit easier to drift.

of course FR cars have slight oversteer, all FR cars have ! That is a natural thing... so I think concerning physics Enthusia is way better than GT4, at least if you have a look at the standart ( you can finetune your cars in GT4 until they act quite realisticly).... But back to the FRT cars, it really depends on the car : If you have a old car without electonic helpers, controls can get pretty tricky (= drifts ) but if you have a mondern car, controls are just as easy as in real life....

 

[Scaff]

of course FR cars have slight oversteer, all FR cars have ! That is a natural thing... so I think concerning physics Enthusia is way better than GT4, at least if you have a look at the standart ( you can finetune your cars in GT4 until they act quite realisticly).... But back to the FRT cars, it really depends on the car : If you have a old car without electonic helpers, controls can get pretty tricky (= drifts ) but if you have a mondern car, controls are just as easy as in real life....

Not always true, it very much depends on the car and how the suspension is set-up. In fact most FWD road cars are set-up to intially understeer when cornering on the limit as its easier and more natural for the average driver to control and recover from. It also has the advantage of pushing an out of control car away from oncoming traffic, rather than spinning towards it!

Some RWD cars are nearly imposiable to get sideways, step forward for example the BMW 1-series, try and get that one sideways in real life, its nearly imposiable, I should know, I've tried.

RWD road cars with sufficent power can be forced to provoke oversteer, but this is normally on a corner exit, not entry.

 

[animateria]

okay.. time to pull out the enthusia defense stick

u fool

a review is just a review. "save ur money." u should at least suggest renting the game. unless ur that cheap.

that IGN review is crap.

"The only thing missing from the racing through the tracks is the sense of speed. The cars can lose traction and there can be a blur effect that creeps in from the side of the screen, but it still doesn't add up to something that feels solid and dangerous. It's almost as if the gameplay has been sanitized for your protection and is missing out on some of the feeling of danger. In place of this feeling of speed, Enthusia makes up for it with a visual representation of what's going on so that racers can create a mental map of what's happening to the car."

GAWD.. IDIOT

u find me a magical car that doesn't lose traction.

motion blur can be disabled under "options" (it's in the main menu)

at least play the game before u say it's bad.

gg

you misunderstood the traction... They are saying that the cars lose traction AND there is a blur on the side of the screen... Nothing negative in that comment... (Although the wording is bad).. The negative comment is that there is the blur effect but nothing more to show that the car is losing traction... (They don't make it a big deal either... Almost Identical to GT4s no feeling of speed on the screen...)

They are not bashing the blur effect they are saying that it doesn't seem enough... READ CAREFULLY BEFORE calling somebody an idiot...

 

[NSX-R]

Enthusia has more oversteer? Last time, I saw a white STi on Dragon Range DRIFTING with initial D-like smokes coming our of rear tires, is AWD really that easy to get loose in Enthusia?

 

[Hypertek]

The precise sounds of the rx7, rotary motor, the buzzing shift indicator and the brake squal is well worht the price.

The cars sound just like themselves...

And all the people that ***** about rwd cars turning on a dime- real life its true.. I drive a modded 240sx and it handles 10x better then a fwd car with simular mods...

 

[Scaff]

The precise sounds of the rx7, rotary motor, the buzzing shift indicator and the brake squal is well worht the price.

The cars sound just like themselves...

And all the people that ***** about rwd cars turning on a dime- real life its true.. I drive a modded 240sx and it handles 10x better then a fwd car with simular mods...

I did not say that in real life rwd cars can not turn sharply, what I said was that when cornering on the limit most road cars are set up for an initial handling balance of understeer.

Very, very few unmodified road cars are set-up with an initial handling balance of oversteer, from a manufacturers point of view its just too dangerous. Push the car to hard and your average driver would end up facing the wrong way, great for getting the law suites flying in.

For me GT4 and Enthusia are actually very closely matched in terms of physics, with pros and cons to both, and both are much better with the DFP. In my opinion GT4 has the edge with high speed traction limits and Enthusia with low speed limits. Enthusia's big strength is the lack of steering assistance that allows you to actually pull a handbrake turn or donuts, soon as I found this out I spent far to long just pulling handbrake turns in an old Mini.

In regard to FWD cars, I may be one of the few, but I strongly believe that GT4 has better represented the heavy understeer that they suffer when you ask too much of the front tyres. How a FWD car behaves on the track when driven hard is well created (and yes I do have experiece here) as the loss of traction is usually quick and the understeer heavy, particularly if you are heavy with the brakes, FWD likes trail braking and left foot braking. Enthusia has just dumbed this down a little too much (its not appaling by any means).

With the question of weight transfer, I don't think that GT4 and Enthusia are that far apart (Enthusia just edges ahead, but only just), but the ability to actually see the transfer in Enthusia is what helps give you the edge.

In regard to the AI, Enthusia is head and shoulders abouve GT4, just imagine how much better GT4 would be with this level of opposition.

Graphics are a real Enthisia let down (but then GT4 and TRD2 have spoilt us), the car models are OK, but some of the tracks are just appaling, for example the cardboard cutout trees on the 'Autumn' tracks.

On the subject of tracks, some are just plain wierd, very few are outstanding; I really like Dragon Range, Tskuba at night and the desert track (taking a SL500 on that just reminded me of when my dad worked in the Gulf). However what is going on with the underground caves (Mystic caves I think), a bit too mario-cart for my liking, and Rev city is straight out of Ridge Racer. The worst of all however is the 'ring, I've driven it in the real world and while GT4 has got the bumps and surface changes down well, Enthusia's flat and level track surface is just not good enough.

Overall its a great game, and hats off to Konami for giving us something this good, and it will make PD sit up and take notice.

However for some strange reason, Enthusia reminds me more of an update to GT2 than anything else, its not a bad thing, just a bit unexpected.

I do hope that they shift enough units to justify making further versions as the basics are more than right and they have a lot to build on.

 

[FIDO69]

After one solid night of playing, I'm not a fan of Enthusia... yet.

The good: the traction circle is a nice touch. The engines sound nice. The AI knows you are there (I haven't seen them drive real well, yet though).

That's it.

The bad: the tracks are terrible. Wide lanes (10 lanes??), no bumps, low textures, dull cartoony colours (yes, dull AND cartoonish at the same time. Wow what a bad combination.)

Worst part of the car physics is that the car does not pitch and roll. I feel like I'm sliding on glass.

I haven't seen anybody mention this, but the lack of road/tire sound effects is appalling. You can't hear your tires until they lose grip. That's too late.

I get motion sick easily (in boats and 1st person shooters), but never in cars. And this game, while not as bad as Forza, makes me a bit sick. I don't get this with GT4.

I don't feel any snap off oversteer when I let up on the brakes (actually I feel a little, but it seems like the computer is auto compensating).

Braking seems to be the same as GT4, i.e., you get automatic threshold braking by just slamming on the brakes. You only slide if you are turning at the same time.

Conclusion: Nice game, better than Forza (by a mile), but not as good as GT4. I am intrigued by the Life mode, as it seems to at least give you some challenge/reward. So, I'll reserve final judgement on the game for now.

 

[FIDO69]

For me GT4 and Enthusia are actually very closely matched in terms of physics, with pros and cons to both, and both are much better with the DFP. In my opinion GT4 has the edge with high speed traction limits and Enthusia with low speed limits. Enthusia's big strength is the lack of steering assistance that allows you to actually pull a handbrake turn or donuts, soon as I found this out I spent far to long just pulling handbrake turns in an old Mini.

Scaff,

I agree with this completely. But for my money, I'll take high speed physics over low speed physics EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK. I'm a racer, not a showy drifter.

When I do high speed sweepers in Enthusia, I just don't feel any sense of danger of losing it. Even with that COG dot jumping around crazily, the car (all of them) seem to just be way to stable.

 

[Scaff]

Scaff,

I agree with this completely. But for my money, I'll take high speed physics over low speed physics EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK. I'm a racer, not a showy drifter.

When I do high speed sweepers in Enthusia, I just don't feel any sense of danger of losing it. Even with that COG dot jumping around crazily, the car (all of them) seem to just be way to stable.

It gets worse the faster the car you pick, give the Free Run mode a go with the Nissan R390 (you get it from the start). Even with the standard tyres on, it is almost impossiable to unsettle this car. You can almost be as stupid as you want and get away with it.

Last night I ran it in the Speedopolis course (stupid, stupid name) and jamed on the handbrake while cornering at 150 mph, got into a perfect drift, caught it and regained control of the car. Total amount of effort/skill involved in this was almost nil, I almost believe my five year old could have managed it.

I have to say that Enthusia is a fun game, but the more I play, the more it seems just that, a game. While the physics seem correct up to a point, you can push beyond them quite easily and into the realm of the silly (as my example above shows).

As you get further in the Life mode the tracks do get a bit better (the names stay just as silly), however for all the claims about the number of tracks, I still only like a very small number. As I said before the Tsukuba night, Desert track (but thats more a personal thing) and Dragon Range (best track in the game is actualy a point to point road run). The 'ring is a waste of time, its far to flat and bump free.

 

[kamkor]

I haven't seen anybody mention this, but the lack of road/tire sound effects is appalling. You can't hear your tires until they lose grip. That's too late.

You just drive slow or simple not very well if you can't hear your tires until they lose grip. And in addition, the way in which tires sound in gt4 is akward and funny.

 

[slo-car]

Well, been playing Enthusia for a while now... and while the game is good, it's just not the same as GT4 -- where you can't get it off your mind the whole day, and where you can't wait to get home and play.

 

[cb1021]

got the game. didnt like the gameplay (couldnt feel the speed, couldnt care less about physics). played until i unlocked dragon range since that was the track i wanted to drive.

unlocked it, played it once. turned off ps2. maybe ill get back to it later with a faster car, im just not feeling any fun in my Sti especially with 4wd handling.

 

[LaBounti]

what level is your STI? The car sounds change when your engine level increases. My vitz Turbo sounds nice and the blow off valve sound is awsome