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[Solid]

http://uk.konami-europe.com/news.do?idNews=55

18.02.2005
Exclusive ENTHUSIA interview

We caught up with the producer on ENTHUSIA Manabu Akita recently and grilled him on all things related to this fantastic looking game.

Why is it called ENTHUSIA?
I came up with the name originally from a Japanese term for car enthusiasts, called 'Enthu', and based on that I came up with a new name: ENTHUSIA.

The game holds a lot of in depth appeal for car enthusiasts, but what is the very basic thing that would attract a more casual player?
I think for the average gamers it would be better if they start with the Driving Revolution mode, which in essence has a more 'videogame' feel. Once they play the game and get used to the control, and get used to the physics and the cars' behaviour they can probably try out the ENTHUSIA Life after that.

What are the biggest advantages of ENTHUSIA if you compare the game to its biggest rivals?
We didn't create ENTHUSIA just to compete with other titles in mind. The basic concept behind ENTHUSIA is to create something new and different. And, of course, delivering more realistic physics and car behaviour. New game modes like ENTHUSIA Life and Driving Revolution, I think, bring something different to the racing game [genre].

Will the cars suffer any kind of damage?
Car damage will not be shown graphically in this game.

What are your thoughts on the current racing game market at the moment, how do you see ENTHUSIA fitting in to that market
Rather than being placed somewhere in the market, this is also Konami's first racing title. So with this new concept, we'd like to create a new position in the racing market. We'd like to open up a new frontier, having realistic car behaviour and physics and graphics. Even with that in mind we still have something that delivers a driving game as a fun videogame.

Can you tell us about the origins of ENTHUSIA - how was the idea first born? Why did you want to do this game?
I'm also a car enthusiast, but more than that Konami did not have a real simulation type of racing game and we thought that this would be a good opportunity to open up this market for Konami.

Why is there no network gaming mode in ENTHUSIA?
Initially we did have the idea of having online and also thinking about what kind of game mode we could put for this type of network play. But in the end we thought that the ENTHUSIA Life mode and the Driving Revolution mode had enough content and replay-ability. So for this particular game we haven't included online aspects in the end.

What cars do you drive - what are your favourite cars?
I own two cars: one is the Skyline GTR, the other one is a Roadster.

Was the VGS (Visual Gravity System) something that was in place right from the very beginning of the project, and does it simply show more information to the player about the car's behaviour or can the player read the information to help his driving improve?Normally in a racing game, the information provided to the player is very limited, so we thought of bringing in a new type of visual interface so that players would be able to read and obtain more information when driving.

How close to reality do you think ENTHUSIA is? Is this 100% simulation, or has there been a consideration to appeal to a wider audience?
If you play the game in regular settings, it will be almost 100% to the actual car and the game will be almost the same in terms of car behaviour. But the players can go to the options and tweak Computer Assist for traction and such that cannot be done in real life but can be done in the game.

Check back next Friday to see the second part of this interview.

 

[DarienA]

How close to reality do you think ENTHUSIA is? Is this 100% simulation, or has there been a consideration to appeal to a wider audience?
If you play the game in regular settings, it will be almost 100% to the actual car and the game will be almost the same in terms of car behaviour. But the players can go to the options and tweak Computer Assist for traction and such that cannot be done in real life but can be done in the game.

ummm... no(100% to actual car)... and ummm... huh(almost the same in terms of car behaviour... well that's not 100%).

 

[gtmax]

Konami updated Enthusia's site with two new tracks and additional game mode information.

 

[Arcticfox]

I'm really looking forward to the Enthusia demo that is supposed to be in the next issue of OPM. I hope its physics are as good as advertised.

 

[Virgin Wii]

I wish they would talk about opponent AI. I want to know if there will actually be some competition in the single player game. Overall though, I'm much more interested in this than GT4.

 

[Solid]

Part two launched.

You have a lot of experience in motor sports, with Le Mans and such. What experience did you bring from these races to the game?
I worked with the team that won in the Le Mans race and gathering data from that particular car was very useful in recreating the physics engine. So, through this data I think we were able to achieve the upper limit of a car's behaviour, like maximum performance. Being able to produce that was much better.

In the intro movie there is a female character. Does she have a role within the game, or will she become a mascot type girl, and be on the packaging and so on?
Initially we thought of having this sort of character integrated into some sort of story within the game but ultimately, as we were making the opening movie, we decided it was probably better just to keep her as a character in the opening movie itself, but not in the game.

In the presentation you mentioned about having a driving rhythm. Is this something that you believe is lacking in current games, or something that you just wanted to emphasise to the player?
What I wanted in Driving Revolution mode is to teach the player more about being able to know how to control - when to apply the gas, more or less. So it's a pretty good tutorial in a way, telling you how much gas you should have.

So is the intention with ENTHUSIA to lead you by the hand that little bit more?
Yes, basically this mode, while still being a realistic simulation game, through this videogame type mode it will probably give players a better handle on how to play this type of racing game.

ENTHUSIA seems less on the arcade and more on the simulation side. How difficult was it to balance those two aspects? Also it has things in common with a driving lesson, so is it your intention to use it in Japanese driving schools?
For the most part, car behaviour and physics and such would pretty much be towards the realistic simulation game. Of course we've implemented something that is more game-like as well. With ENTHUSIA life you'll probably take about 40 hours to complete the game, and we have the Odds system that was influenced by horse derby racing, where each horse has an odds value - they give you a ratio, and stuff like that. The ranking system was also taken from Tennis ranking. In terms of a training program, it would be a little bit difficult, but in terms of car behaviour it's very realistic so right now we're also thinking of doing a tie up with a particular company that we can't mention yet but we're planning to do a sort of real driving simulation on a particular course using ENTHUSIA.

What is your personal favourite car in the game, and what is the most challenging course in the game?
I think each and every car has its pluses and minuses, so it's hard to say which is the best. But my personal favourite is the Skyline GTR and my Mazda Roadster MX5. And the hardest course would be the Nurburgring course - it's well known for its difficulty and it takes probably eight minutes to complete the course. For a human to be concentrating on racing throughout the entire eight minutes, I think, is pretty difficult.

Is it your intent to have this game make a huge technical hit, or to really hit people emotionally in the style of the old arcade games. How would you like this game to be remembered: technical or emotional?
Both technical and for excitement: Technical, of course, would be down to the car behaviour and the graphics - we want to astonish players with those technical aspects. In terms of excitement, this would be down to ENTHUSIA Life mode and Driving Revolution. Through playing this we hope that players will feel more excited while racing the courses in these modes.

Two commercials

http://www.konami.co.jp/ja/tv/entertainment/0502_enth_1/br.asx
http://www.konami.co.jp/ja/tv/entertainment/0502_enth_2/br.asx