Video Gaming News - May 2005

Redwood City, CA (May 3, 2005) - Konami today announced that Enthusia Professional Racing for the PlayStation 2 has shipped to retail stores nationwide.

From Konami:

Enthusia is the ultimate driving simulation for gamers who would prefer to spend time behind the wheel rather than "under the hood." Designed to bring all of the white-knuckle energy and thrill of car driving to life, Enthusia features groundbreaking gameplay mechanics, unparalleled physics and pixel-perfect graphics to deliver an unprecedented driving experience.

Enthusia's realism is second-to-none with masterfully recreated vehicle physics, performance and motion. A true racer for driving enthusiasts, the game rewards superior driving ability and assists gamers through Konami's innovative and proprietary Visual Gravity System, which conveys a true sense of G-forces experienced by high-speed driving and maneuvering around a race track. This groundbreaking feature is a first for the driving simulation genre and gives gamers the ability to see and "feel" the pressure exerted on a car during driving.

Also included in the game are a variety of innovative modes that put the gamer into the driver's seat. In the Driving Revolution mode, the player faces a variety of challenging tests of their driving skills as they learn to utilize rhythm in their driving technique with a variety of tracks and cars. Enthusia Life is the core mode of the game, offering both accessibility for beginners and a comprehensive driving experience for the true "auto enthusiast." The players participate in different racing events from week to week, improve their driving skills, unlock new courses and cars, adapt the vehicle setting to suit their own personal activities on the racing circuit and earn skill points for their driving ability. Rather than utilizing a money-based system like other games in the genre, Enthusia Life introduces an odds system to weigh the competitive abilities of cars. Cars with low odds stand a higher chance of winning, while cars with high odds do not so that players compete based purely on their own driving skills rather than the capabilities of the car.

Enthusia includes more than 200 cars from 50 real manufacturers including classic muscle cars, and high performance racing cars from the last 50 years. Each vehicle was digitally captured in real life and recreated in painstaking detail by the development team. Photo-realistic graphics stand out as players race through dozens of real and fictional tracks around the world. Multiple camera views, including both a first- and third-person orientation, allow players to either get behind the wheel or on top of the action. Variable weather conditions pose additional challenges that require players to stay on their toes.

As players pass and weave their way to the front of the pack, they benefit from on-the-fly information about car handling, tire traction and more. While stage-based tuning allows even those who could never do their own oil changes a chance to upgrade their cars, proprietary AI demands that even the most "suped-up" entry make the right moves on track. Approachable gameplay for novice drivers yet challenging for experts makes Enthusia a racing game that will appeal to players of all levels.

Playable in single- and two-player split-screen mode, Enthusia takes advantage of the PlayStation 2 controller with pressure sensitive control of the analog buttons - allowing players to "feather" the gas and brake. For gamers that want to experience an added sense of driving realism, Enthusia will also be compatible with PlayStation 2 driving wheels, including the Logitech® Driving Force Pro(tm) steering wheel, which features full 900° rotation.

Enthusia is rated "E" for Everyone by the ESRB and is available for the SRP of $39.99. To learn more about Enthusia, please visit: www.konami.com/enthusia.

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