Enthusia review (and a comparison to GT4 in places). (Long!).

Kit:
32" 100Hz Widescreen
5.1 Surround (optical)
GT Driving Force (not the 360 one).
Sofa. ;o)

I'm going to compare it to GT4 pretty much all the way through, mostly
because you'll have GT4 so will know the benchmark that I'm working from,
and of course it's easier to review like this.

So, where am I in GT4 - 15% & a BMW CSL tuned to 450Bhp with tricked out
everything else. Basically I'm having a blast with the game ATM.

But to Enthusia:

Menus:
Initial thoughts were that it's an arcade game. There's lots of Japanese
feel to the game, with "enthusia life" and various other modes that are
trying to be overly friendly in the way they're worded. All a bit experience
cliche for me.
Nice touch - There's a tutorial on every sub menu as you work your way
through, so lots of help.
Bad touch - the car list, seems over engineered when all you do is select
"OK" and scroll through the list.

Tracks:
Initial tracks (after about 4 hours gameplay) - all a bit short really. I've
been racing in a 4.2 A6 Audi and it's geared low and still not getting into
6th on any of the tracks.
Again, they seem quite arcade like. They're OK, but really not a patch on
any of the tracks in GT4 out of the box.
Look of the tracks is OK, slightly not real world, but OK.

Graphics:
As said, the tracks are OK. Not really GT4 - more NFS HP2 or Burnout 2. So
not bad, but not real.
The cars, well, I can't decide. You look at them and they seem good, and
well modelled, then one passes you in a race and it looks like a bunch of
polygons. But then you catch it up and it seems OK. Really I can't decide.
So - they look like real cars, but they look like really good last
generation (i.e. pre GT4) cars. Possibly not as good as GT3.
This is maybe a little harsh, but I can't put my finger on why they're not
realistic.

Handling:
This is probably my biggest gripe.
Again, I suppose I'm comparing an early game car with my monster GT4 CSL,
except I've now maxed out my A6 in Enthusia and really I'm not overly
impressed with the handling.
Best way to put it is that it's (again) a bit arcade like.
Any of the cars seem to have some major oversteer, coupled with some major
side slip when you do. So getting round corners can be a challenge.
It's not really helped by having 4wd or any other gadgets (I race with all
"helpers" turned off in both games).
The one redeeming feature of this is that it's possible to get some good
power slides going - easier than GT4 for sure. But it's not GT car racing in
any sense. More street racing at best. More NFS in real mode rather than
GT3/4

Cars & Setup:
Looking at the website, they've got a good selection of cars. Looking in the
game you don't see much of that. What's more there's some lottery thing at
the end of a race where you press X and it stops on a car (a bit like GT3's
thing). The problem is that all too often I seem to be getting "no car"
which is pants - having raced myself out of my "Enthusia Life Points" to win
the race with loads of top cars only to not win any of them is so
frustrating it's unreal.
So, can't wait to get something fast that's not my A6, but it's taking a
while...
Setup - relatively easy really. a set of selection boxes with sliders. For
example for spring rate there's sliders for Front & Rear, and a display that
show's a traction +/- and Understeer/Oversteer. Adjusting the rates moves
the indicator on the two display boxes.
All seems OK, but there's common displays such as the understeer/oversteer
which is not affected by the previous setting selection. So for example, I
can change the spring rate as above to major oversteer, then go to dampers
and the setting isn't reflected there... so I can then dial in major
understeer. So really, it's possible to totally stuff the handling of the
car.
Having said all this, I don't think it makes a huge amount of difference
what you do - that comes with the "power up" tuning. Which you get not a lot
of say over (turn it off if you've got it). More on points and power ups
later.

Racing:
So far it's not been bad. Even with my maxed out A6 it's possible to have a
good race with some of the faster lighter cars. And I've had more dicing in
corners and the likes than with GT4 - in GT4 you either win or lose, it's
decided almost by the first corner I find.
The real pain is that there's this Enthusia Life points thing (more below)
which every time you go off track for more than a second, clip a barrier or
shunt (or are shunted by) another car then you lose points. This is a
love/hate thing...
If you're out in front it encourages you to drive a really clean race and
mind the corners etc, so you drive "nice". If you're in front because you've
passed going into a corner, then the car behind can sometimes be faster out,
and will punt you. Which is fair enough, but when they sit there punting
away, and each time you lose points it starts to get frustrating (do you let
them past?).
And, if you're behind and you clip a curb (in some cases) you lose points.
If you out brake yourself and go wide, you not only lose position as it's
often sand etc, but you also lose points. It all seems a little harsh to me.

But, as I've said, the actual car on car racing is pretty good - but then if
you do get into a proper close race expect to have no points at the end of
it!

Points etc.
The points. *sigh*.
Why do this? I mean, there's points for driving well, points for having a
slow car, points for winning a race, points for losing a race, probably
points for saving the game (which is buried somewhere in the bowels of the
options) and points for being sunny outside whilst you're sat inside...
Basically, you get some skill points - crashing etc reduces these.
Then there's some multiplier for the car you use, the other cars racing you
and the driving aids you use.
Oh, and points for winning a race.
Then at the end of it you get all this worked out in intricate detail -
note, there's a nice touch where you can review the laps you've done and see
where you clipped the wall etc.
Once it's worked out you get three things happen (see it is complicated!).
1. Possibly a car tuning "level up". This increases something on your car
engine/tyres/weight.
2. Skill "level up" - Enthusia life points recovery etc not really sure what
the point of this is...
3. Enthusia life points (in fairness these go down in the race, not during).

The first two are fairly basic arcade things. The third is what allows you
to race.
If you end up with zero points then you can't race - so you have to "rest"
for a week, and in this time you ranking (based on the last 9 weeks of race
life) may drop. All a bit superfluous to actually going out and racing I
think. But a stab at making some form of career I suppose. The problem is
that there's no way to plan your career - no "I'll not race that as I need
the points to compete in that" type stuff. Think of it like a health bar in
some D&D game - grim I think.

Overall:
I read back through this and I think I've been really negative about a game
I've been waiting for about a year for. Perhaps that's the problem. Perhaps
I've been tainted by GT3/4 and their highly polished presentations.
Not sure.
But...
I think it's not a buyer - rent it first.
And if you're expecting GT4 from another source, forget it. It's firmly in
the Need For Speed HP2 camp of games. But then I think that NFS is the
better game to be honest. Although I get narked at the police chases that
you just can't beat in that.
And having said all this, I will continue to play it for some time, probably
keep it too.

But right now I want to go GT4 racing, in my CSL round the Nurburgring in
7:10 or less... ;o)

AndyC

Repost - problems with newsserver, so apologies if seeing this twice...

> Kit:
> 32" 100Hz Widescreen
> 5.1 Surround (optical)
> GT Driving Force (not the 360 one).
> Sofa. ;o)
>
> I'm going to compare it to GT4 pretty much all the way through, mostly
> because you'll have GT4 so will know the benchmark that I'm working from,
> and of course it's easier to review like this.
>
> So, where am I in GT4 - 15% & a BMW CSL tuned to 450Bhp with tricked out
> everything else. Basically I'm having a blast with the game ATM.
>
> But to Enthusia:
>
> Menus:
> Initial thoughts were that it's an arcade game. There's lots of Japanese
> feel to the game, with "enthusia life" and various other modes that are
> trying to be overly friendly in the way they're worded. All a bit
> experience cliche for me.
> Nice touch - There's a tutorial on every sub menu as you work your way
> through, so lots of help.
> Bad touch - the car list, seems over engineered when all you do is select
> "OK" and scroll through the list.
>
> Tracks:
> Initial tracks (after about 4 hours gameplay) - all a bit short really.
> I've been racing in a 4.2 A6 Audi and it's geared low and still not
> getting into 6th on any of the tracks.
> Again, they seem quite arcade like. They're OK, but really not a patch on
> any of the tracks in GT4 out of the box.
> Look of the tracks is OK, slightly not real world, but OK.
>
> Graphics:
> As said, the tracks are OK. Not really GT4 - more NFS HP2 or Burnout 2. So
> not bad, but not real.
> The cars, well, I can't decide. You look at them and they seem good, and
> well modelled, then one passes you in a race and it looks like a bunch of
> polygons. But then you catch it up and it seems OK. Really I can't decide.
> So - they look like real cars, but they look like really good last
> generation (i.e. pre GT4) cars. Possibly not as good as GT3.
> This is maybe a little harsh, but I can't put my finger on why they're not
> realistic.
>
> Handling:
> This is probably my biggest gripe.
> Again, I suppose I'm comparing an early game car with my monster GT4 CSL,
> except I've now maxed out my A6 in Enthusia and really I'm not overly
> impressed with the handling.
> Best way to put it is that it's (again) a bit arcade like.
> Any of the cars seem to have some major oversteer, coupled with some major
> side slip when you do. So getting round corners can be a challenge.
> It's not really helped by having 4wd or any other gadgets (I race with all
> "helpers" turned off in both games).
> The one redeeming feature of this is that it's possible to get some good
> power slides going - easier than GT4 for sure. But it's not GT car racing
> in any sense. More street racing at best. More NFS in real mode rather
> than GT3/4
>
> Cars & Setup:
> Looking at the website, they've got a good selection of cars. Looking in
> the game you don't see much of that. What's more there's some lottery
> thing at the end of a race where you press X and it stops on a car (a bit
> like GT3's thing). The problem is that all too often I seem to be getting
> "no car" which is pants - having raced myself out of my "Enthusia Life
> Points" to win the race with loads of top cars only to not win any of them
> is so frustrating it's unreal.
> So, can't wait to get something fast that's not my A6, but it's taking a
> while...
> Setup - relatively easy really. a set of selection boxes with sliders. For
> example for spring rate there's sliders for Front & Rear, and a display
> that show's a traction +/- and Understeer/Oversteer. Adjusting the rates
> moves the indicator on the two display boxes.
> All seems OK, but there's common displays such as the understeer/oversteer
> which is not affected by the previous setting selection. So for example, I
> can change the spring rate as above to major oversteer, then go to dampers
> and the setting isn't reflected there... so I can then dial in major
> understeer. So really, it's possible to totally stuff the handling of the
> car.
> Having said all this, I don't think it makes a huge amount of difference
> what you do - that comes with the "power up" tuning. Which you get not a
> lot of say over (turn it off if you've got it). More on points and power
> ups later.
>
> Racing:
> So far it's not been bad. Even with my maxed out A6 it's possible to have
> a good race with some of the faster lighter cars. And I've had more dicing
> in corners and the likes than with GT4 - in GT4 you either win or lose,
> it's decided almost by the first corner I find.
> The real pain is that there's this Enthusia Life points thing (more below)
> which every time you go off track for more than a second, clip a barrier
> or shunt (or are shunted by) another car then you lose points. This is a
> love/hate thing...
> If you're out in front it encourages you to drive a really clean race and
> mind the corners etc, so you drive "nice". If you're in front because
> you've passed going into a corner, then the car behind can sometimes be
> faster out, and will punt you. Which is fair enough, but when they sit
> there punting away, and each time you lose points it starts to get
> frustrating (do you let them past?).
> And, if you're behind and you clip a curb (in some cases) you lose points.
> If you out brake yourself and go wide, you not only lose position as it's
> often sand etc, but you also lose points. It all seems a little harsh to
> me.
>
> But, as I've said, the actual car on car racing is pretty good - but then
> if you do get into a proper close race expect to have no points at the end
> of it!
>
> Points etc.
> The points. *sigh*.
> Why do this? I mean, there's points for driving well, points for having a
> slow car, points for winning a race, points for losing a race, probably
> points for saving the game (which is buried somewhere in the bowels of the
> options) and points for being sunny outside whilst you're sat inside...
> Basically, you get some skill points - crashing etc reduces these.
> Then there's some multiplier for the car you use, the other cars racing
> you and the driving aids you use.
> Oh, and points for winning a race.
> Then at the end of it you get all this worked out in intricate detail -
> note, there's a nice touch where you can review the laps you've done and
> see where you clipped the wall etc.
> Once it's worked out you get three things happen (see it is complicated!).
> 1. Possibly a car tuning "level up". This increases something on your car
> engine/tyres/weight.
> 2. Skill "level up" - Enthusia life points recovery etc not really sure
> what the point of this is...
> 3. Enthusia life points (in fairness these go down in the race, not
> during).
>
> The first two are fairly basic arcade things. The third is what allows you
> to race.
> If you end up with zero points then you can't race - so you have to "rest"
> for a week, and in this time you ranking (based on the last 9 weeks of
> race life) may drop. All a bit superfluous to actually going out and
> racing I think. But a stab at making some form of career I suppose. The
> problem is that there's no way to plan your career - no "I'll not race
> that as I need the points to compete in that" type stuff. Think of it like
> a health bar in some D&D game - grim I think.
>
> Overall:
> I read back through this and I think I've been really negative about a
> game I've been waiting for about a year for. Perhaps that's the problem.
> Perhaps I've been tainted by GT3/4 and their highly polished
> presentations.
> Not sure.
> But...
> I think it's not a buyer - rent it first.
> And if you're expecting GT4 from another source, forget it. It's firmly in
> the Need For Speed HP2 camp of games. But then I think that NFS is the
> better game to be honest. Although I get narked at the police chases that
> you just can't beat in that.
> And having said all this, I will continue to play it for some time,
> probably keep it too.
>
> But right now I want to go GT4 racing, in my CSL round the Nurburgring in
> 7:10 or less... ;o)
>
> AndyC
>

AndyC wrote:
>
> Repost - problems with newsserver, so apologies if seeing this twice...

yup, are seeing it twice :O)

--
Paul (And I'm, like, "yeah, whatever!")
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

"Paul Heslop" > wrote in message
...
> AndyC wrote:
>>
>> Repost - problems with newsserver, so apologies if seeing this twice...
>
> yup, are seeing it twice :O)
>
> --
> Paul (And I'm, like, "yeah, whatever!")

Ah, sorry!
combination of pants news server and outlook express (Yes, I'm aware it's
tosh!) meant some confusion here...

Andy

AndyC wrote:
>
> "Paul Heslop" > wrote in message
> ...
> > AndyC wrote:
> >>
> >> Repost - problems with newsserver, so apologies if seeing this twice...
> >
> > yup, are seeing it twice :O)
> >
> > --
> > Paul (And I'm, like, "yeah, whatever!")
>
> Ah, sorry!
> combination of pants news server and outlook express (Yes, I'm aware it's
> tosh!) meant some confusion here...
>
> Andy

seems to happen a lot. I have been using netscape (4.8!) for ages due
to huge problems with OE. Can't even use newer netscapes as I am too
used to all the foibles of this one

--
Paul (And I'm, like, "yeah, whatever!")
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/