Enthusia Professional Racing is exactly that, a simulated pro racing title. You get a good amount of car choices, exciting track designd, and realistic physics. Toss in a calendar based career mode and Enthusia has just what you need if you feel the GT series is a bit stale.

Enthusia looks great from head to toe. Even without progressive scan support, Konami has done a fine job making you “ooh” and “ahh” at standard television viewing. The car models are intricately detailed right down to the exhaust pipes, with each replicating the actual car to a “T”. Having beautiful cars is nothing if you don’t have wonderful environments to drive them on. Thankfully, Enthusia delivers here as well. Each track has a unique design, and Konami has chosen dozens of authentic racecourses, and have even created some fantastic fantasy courses. One track in particular is generated randomly every time you play it, which provides a new experience each time. The sense of speed and frame rate is very smooth and really felt when driving a supped up car. As with the GT series, the one big let down is that no visual damage is shown, so your car looks pristine from lap one to lap 3 no matter what you do to it.

Audio is remarkably realistic providing some of the most authentic motor sounds in racing history. Only if you are hard of hearing will you have a hard time telling that a Mini Cooper sounds vastly different from a 2005 Ford GT. The low hums to the screeching wheels are as ear pleasing as can be for gear heads. With the good comes the bad, and the bad comes in the form of hideous music. Seriously, for one, who listens to this tripe, and second couldn’t Konami shell out some dough for a few creditable bands. With the obvious lack of custom soundtrack option on the PS2, your options are to listen and suffer or turn the music down.

Game play is not for the arcade fans. This game is meant to appeal to the GT/sim racers out there, so you have been warned. Forget taking that turn at 70 mph, forget bumping and grinding cars to get ahead, and forget the strategy of bouncing off the walls like a pinball in order to be successful. What you have here is a meticulous racer that takes no prisoners. While I feel that turns and corner cutting is easier to do than in GT 4, you still have to drive like a pro or you will lose precious seconds and most likely the race. The controls are very solid, giving you the feeling of almost being behind the wheel. Enthusia provides unique vehicle behavior for each car, so taking a turn in one car will be different than taking the same turn radius in another. It is also nice to see weather effects such as rain and snow which can affect your performance. The A.I. is no pushover either; you will be neck and neck with the A.I. opponents who react more like real drivers than a scripted CPU.

Enthusia offers over 200 licensed modern and vintage cars from more than 50 of the world’s top manufacturers. You also have over 50 tracks to contend with, some providing thrilling straight away lanes, while others are tight corner mazes that will test your patience. The game also gives you the opportunity to build a career from amateur to pro in the Enthusia Life mode. This career mode is a lot of fun and offers a ton of challenges that will keep you busy for a good 100 hours or so. Toss in the typical arcade tracks and you and a friend can race it out and see who the king is. It would have been nice to have online play, but alas, like GT 4, if you want multiplayer action, you have to have your friends over to do it.

Is Enthusia the Gran Turismo killer? Nah, but it is a nice standby for those who want something more after playing it, or are just sick of the GT series and want something fresh. As a race fan, I can’t help but recommend this title, and it is nice to see Konami take a chance. I can only hope a sequel is in the works as this series can be a major contender to Sony’s behemoth.