Remember when the big four took a shot at Gran Turismo?

[Spiral1407]

I always found it interesting how the big four Japanese publishers during the early 2000s each had their own take on the simcade genre popularized by Gran Turismo (to varying levels of success). With how big game budgets and licensing costs are these days, I doubt we'll ever see something like this from them again. Which is honestly quite sad since the modern racing genre could use a bit of competition and innovation.

I've personally played Auto Modellista + Enthusia and enjoyed my time with them, but I haven't heard much about the other two. Has anyone played all four?

 

[DjQuick2008]

Auto modellista is great if its PAL version the handling is great. the NTSC version is a racing headache.

 

[Livekraft]

Enthusia slaps hard but you gotta play it with a FFB wheel, DualShock 2 can't deliver the feedback.
Tried Auto Modellista (US tuned) back then on the and it was straight trash.
R-Racing's experimental and aight, but it can't compete with Gran Autismo.
Driving Emotion Type-S is new to me. Checking it this weekend.

Great thread.

 

[BrawlMan]

View attachment 163568View attachment 163569View attachment 163570View attachment 163571

I always found it interesting how the big four Japanese publishers during the early 2000s each had their own take on the simcade genre popularized by Gran Turismo (to varying levels of success). With how big game budgets and licensing costs are these days, I doubt we'll ever see something like this from them again. Which is honestly quite sad since the modern racing genre could use a bit of competition and innovation.

I've personally played Auto Modellista + Enthusia and enjoyed my time with them, but I haven't heard much about the other two. Has anyone played all four?

I never played any of these during the PS2 era, and barely knew they even existed. Crazy times.

 

[DjQuick2008]

I got a copy of driving emotion type S hear its not good though.

 

[OPT1MUS]

@Spiral1407 - I own all four and enjoyed them all (which is obvious, since I'm an ex race car driver ).
Of course, one may be better or worse than the other—depending on personal taste and perspective—but I have to say that each one has its own merits and appeal, and is worth playing

 

[Scarlet Devil]

Auto modellista is pretty neat and stylish but you have to play the JP or EU version of it. The US one makes everything handle more slippery for no reason. Fairly short game tho.

R:Racing Evolution plays more like "what if ace combat was a racing game?" From the presentation and radio chatter, its very Namco in the 00s. Pretty unique and one of the coolest features is how staying on the ass of the driver ahead of you will fill out a gauge. Once filled they will fuck up giving you a chance to easily pass them.

 

[DayBreak_Illusion]

Were gonna brush off Project Gotham Racing?

 

[zombie100379]

WARNNG!!
long tedious post ahead:

never understood the popularity of sim type driving games "sim" to me means "complicated" and to me thats not fun - i did enjoy gran turismo 3 for a while and i do respect it but "midnight club 2 " , "nascar rumble" "burnout 3" and "tokyo xtreme racer zero" are the essentials for me and far less daunting - i just wanna get straight into it without having to worry about choosing the right upgrades and concentrate on the fun part of gaming. ( i don't know anything about cars only that they look nice and go fast - my favs include "kitt" , "karr" (the evil version of kitt) , magnum's ferrari , smokey and the bandits car , the A-team van and faceman's white corvette with the red stripe ( also from the A-team )

 

[DayBreak_Illusion]

WARNNG!!
long tedious post ahead:

never understood the popularity of sim type driving games "sim" to me means "complicated" and to me thats not fun - i did enjoy gran turismo 3 for a while and i do respect it but "midnight club 2 " , "nascar rumble" "burnout 3" and "tokyo xtreme racer zero" are the essentials for me and far less daunting - i just wanna get straight into it without having to worry about choosing the right upgrades and concentrate on the fun part of gaming. ( i don't know anything about cars only that they look nice and go fast - my favs include "kitt" , "karr" (the evil version of kitt) , magnum's ferrari , smokey and the bandits car , the A-team van and faceman's white corvette with the red stripe ( also from the A-team )

the fun aspect of GT is seeing cars you want to try out that you couldn't in real life. Also, for me at least; is tweaking cars with a certain PP and try to maximize them to the required race PP limit. That for me is the best part of Gran Turismo. Sim games like iRacing offer the same experience but are less restrictive like GT. From what I've played imo

 

[DjQuick2008]

I dont like simulated driving games although GT3 A spec was the job recently got a copy of it the rally stages are fun.

 

[BrawlMan]

WARNNG!!
long tedious post ahead:

never understood the popularity of sim type driving games "sim" to me means "complicated" and to me thats not fun - i did enjoy gran turismo 3 for a while and i do respect it but "midnight club 2 " , "nascar rumble" "burnout 3" and "tokyo xtreme racer zero" are the essentials for me and far less daunting - i just wanna get straight into it without having to worry about choosing the right upgrades and concentrate on the fun part of gaming. ( i don't know anything about cars only that they look nice and go fast - my favs include "kitt" , "karr" (the evil version of kitt) , magnum's ferrari , smokey and the bandits car , the A-team van and faceman's white corvette with the red stripe ( also from the A-team )

You're gonna love this. I got it time stamped.

 

[mid00sgamer]

i remember trying to emulate driving emotion s and the sound that came out of my speakers also deafened me,, never tried it again after that

 

[DAME NINGEN]

I've personally played Auto Modellista + Enthusia and enjoyed my time with them

Got anything more to say about either? I've been kind of itching to try Enthusia for a while and I really like how Auto Modellista looks but what I've read about it gives me such mixed signals.

 

[Jimmy3People0]

oh, R: Racing Evolution and Enthusia, you two have been on my to-do list for several years. I promise I'll get around to you. eventually.

 

[Lena CE]

Were gonna brush off Project Gotham Racing?
View attachment 163602

Not really trying to compete in the same way so idk if it really deserves a mention in the same way as stuff like Forza. The post is also specifically talking about major JP publishers and Bizarre Creations is not a big JP dev nor was Microsoft a JP company specifically.

WARNNG!!
long tedious post ahead:

never understood the popularity of sim type driving games "sim" to me means "complicated" and to me thats not fun - i did enjoy gran turismo 3 for a while and i do respect it but "midnight club 2 " , "nascar rumble" "burnout 3" and "tokyo xtreme racer zero" are the essentials for me and far less daunting - i just wanna get straight into it without having to worry about choosing the right upgrades and concentrate on the fun part of gaming. ( i don't know anything about cars only that they look nice and go fast - my favs include "kitt" , "karr" (the evil version of kitt) , magnum's ferrari , smokey and the bandits car , the A-team van and faceman's white corvette with the red stripe ( also from the A-team )

Casuals will typically not care about depth, they just want to feel cool for as little effort as possible. Honestly GT provides this in spades, most racing games aren't that hardcore and sweaty especially at the time. Sure if you're a racing game casual

Its like how someone who likes casually playing Command & Conquer vs bots won't like high level Starcraft. Yea, people just enjoy things differently based on how much they like it and how they like to engage with it. Some people like metal, others find it too abrasive. Some people like pop, others find it too sugary. All preferences are valid in their own way.

I like my games to be challenging, I like to look cool and play games with some level of skill ceiling to them. Burnout 3 is about as hard as Gran Turismo 4 in many ways, they just play different and require different skillsets to succeed. Which you prefer is entirely based on preference.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

Please correct me if I'm wrong... none of these 4 games have a free-roam / open-world mode, right?

 

[DayBreak_Illusion]

Please correct me if I'm wrong... none of these 4 games have a free-roam / open-world mode, right?

No its track selection or circuit racing

Post automatically merged: Mar 16, 2026

Not really trying to compete in the same way so idk if it really deserves a mention in the same way as stuff like Forza. The post is also specifically talking about major JP publishers and Bizarre Creations is not a big JP dev nor was Microsoft a JP company specifically.

I was thinking in-line with sim or simcade racing games. Wasn't thinking of Japanese published/developed racing games.

Casuals will typically not care about depth, they just want to feel cool for as little effort as possible. Honestly GT provides this in spades, most racing games aren't that hardcore and sweaty especially at the time. Sure if you're a racing game casual

That is not true. Casual racers obviously care enough since GT sells at a record every time. The game is easy to pick up but hard to master. But everything else you say is on point.

 

[Spiral1407]

Got anything more to say about either? I've been kind of itching to try Enthusia for a while and I really like how Auto Modellista looks but what I've read about it gives me such mixed signals.

Auto Modellista has a timeless aesthetic and presentation. The gameplay is also pretty fun, at least in the EU/JP version. However, it doesn't have a lot of tracks and is pretty short overall. I still think its worth checking out though.

Enthusia is super underrated. Nice car selection, a ton of tracks, visuals almost on par with GT4 and an incredible soundtrack. I think it also does a few things better than GT4, like the car handling and license tests. I'd love if Konami brought back the franchise, but I doubt it will ever happen since they never acknowledge it these days.

 

[Ne0Griever]

I see it backwards, i see gran turismo as the killer of racing games since more and more they tried to be a sim instead of arcade-y