Konami Gamers' Day 2005 Hands-On: Enthusia Professional Racing
Is there life outside of Gran Turismo for racing sim fans? Konami seems to think so, and after a little hands-on time, we're inclined to agree.
Published: January 31, 2005
It's tough to be a racing sim on a Sony platform. Polyphony Digital's strangle hold on the niche refuses to ebb even a bit, and with the historical insanity that is GT4 it looks like the grip is only going to tighten. But what about other entries, ones that don't try to trump the series, merely offer something else, something that may actually be -- gasp -- realistic and yet not a carbon copy of the world's best-selling automotive sim?
We entered Konami's Gamers' Day venue last week with a firm "no" in our heads -- especially after playing around with the E3 build of Enthusia, which just couldn't hang with GT as we recovered, flushed and spent in the afterglow of playing through what seemed like the 20 billionth build of the game. After a couple of months' break and an experience that only allowed us to experience [i[Enthusia[/i] without immediate comparison, it was far easier to appreciate Konami's racer for its own merits -- and it really does have them.
The core of the Enthusia experience is an unwavering attention to detail when it comes to reproducing the way gravity affects cars and their handling. A handful of meters and readouts all relay real-time data on how turns and the gradations of the courses affect the handling of the cars.
To this end, a simple meter delivering information on how g-forces are tugging on the wheelbase of every car is constantly available. A small yellow ball shifts as you make turns, showing where the center of gravity lies, while the grip of all four tires is represented with individual meters that fill as more of the contact patch widens. The tires flash red when traction is lost, and wild shifts of gravity will send the yellow ball flying all around the meter. It's a novel, if mixed way of showing how your car is hugging the road, but it remains to be seen if it'll actually come in handy with extended play.
It wasn't something we could particularly use while driving with the in-car camera, unfortunately, since almost all the attention has to be focused on the race, but the outside view offers a bit more relevant info in the form of yellow arrows on either side of the car that push left or right as side g-forces increase or decrease. Konami also tried to show the effects of centrifugal forces by allowing a light grey border at the edges of the screen to move around as gravity shifted. Again, it wasn't something that was immediately useful, though, since so much attention must be paid to the action in the middle of the screen.
It should also be noted that Enthusia has an exceptionally steep learning curve, since the cars handle, well, like a real car, leading to more spinouts and hit walls than we can recall in past racing games. Once you get into the flow, though, it does promote tight, controlled racing lines and watching how gravity shifts really does help balance how tight turns are with how fast the car is going.
The real draw, though -- at least from what we can tell -- isn't so much in how the game handles gravity (sure, it's novel, but at least right now it was far too much data to take in at once), it's in the game's impressively detailed Enthusia Life mode, which plugs in almost RPG-like experience and hit points to the races. Sound confusing? Well, it is, but that doesn't mean we won't try to sort it all out for you.
We entered Konami's Gamers' Day venue last week with a firm "no" in our heads -- especially after playing around with the E3 build of Enthusia, which just couldn't hang with GT as we recovered, flushed and spent in the afterglow of playing through what seemed like the 20 billionth build of the game. After a couple of months' break and an experience that only allowed us to experience [i[Enthusia[/i] without immediate comparison, it was far easier to appreciate Konami's racer for its own merits -- and it really does have them.
The core of the Enthusia experience is an unwavering attention to detail when it comes to reproducing the way gravity affects cars and their handling. A handful of meters and readouts all relay real-time data on how turns and the gradations of the courses affect the handling of the cars.
To this end, a simple meter delivering information on how g-forces are tugging on the wheelbase of every car is constantly available. A small yellow ball shifts as you make turns, showing where the center of gravity lies, while the grip of all four tires is represented with individual meters that fill as more of the contact patch widens. The tires flash red when traction is lost, and wild shifts of gravity will send the yellow ball flying all around the meter. It's a novel, if mixed way of showing how your car is hugging the road, but it remains to be seen if it'll actually come in handy with extended play.
It wasn't something we could particularly use while driving with the in-car camera, unfortunately, since almost all the attention has to be focused on the race, but the outside view offers a bit more relevant info in the form of yellow arrows on either side of the car that push left or right as side g-forces increase or decrease. Konami also tried to show the effects of centrifugal forces by allowing a light grey border at the edges of the screen to move around as gravity shifted. Again, it wasn't something that was immediately useful, though, since so much attention must be paid to the action in the middle of the screen.
It should also be noted that Enthusia has an exceptionally steep learning curve, since the cars handle, well, like a real car, leading to more spinouts and hit walls than we can recall in past racing games. Once you get into the flow, though, it does promote tight, controlled racing lines and watching how gravity shifts really does help balance how tight turns are with how fast the car is going.
The real draw, though -- at least from what we can tell -- isn't so much in how the game handles gravity (sure, it's novel, but at least right now it was far too much data to take in at once), it's in the game's impressively detailed Enthusia Life mode, which plugs in almost RPG-like experience and hit points to the races. Sound confusing? Well, it is, but that doesn't mean we won't try to sort it all out for you.
