Need for Speed: SHIFT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85kwy4qMRT0

I'm not trying to be a dick but that is one incredibly boring video. I don't know much about driving sims; what is supposed to set this apart from the other trackracing games?

If you're not into realistic simulations, this isn't the game for you.

I haven't played a modern realistic driving game in a really long time. DAMN this looks good.

It's probably the best cockpit view in a racing game yet. Not only for the visual detail, but for the way the camera is actually in the drivers head, so as he/she speeds up the camera moves back, and when there's hard braking, the camera jerks forward. I can't recall seeing such an immersive cockpit view in any other driving game. Other than that, I honestly don't know what sets this apart from other sim-ish track racing games (it's not out for a couple weeks, and I've yet to play it). That's sort of problem with Forza 3 out a month later and GT5 probably out a month or two after that - it's an overcrowded season for those of us who do enjoy going for a drive around Laguna Seca.

a virtual drive, that is

read about this a while back, sounded excellent. lots of people involved have form on other good racing games.

if it's no good i'll be back with 'Need for Speed: SHITF' diss in tow, tho.

SHIFT happens...

the thing tht sets this apart from forza and gt (if we're comparing 'sim' for 'sim') is tht the racing in this actually looks intense and fun

not tht I've seen any racing from gt5 or forza3 but the racing in their earlier incarnations was just too staid for my tastes

yeah this looks very good

I'm a bit mystified as to how to knock other drivers out using red shells tho

that demo could've at least featured a crash or two hehe. but otherwise, looks good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxxJBS8p6c

http://www.virtualr.net/need-for-spe...efore-release/

""""This is going to be long winded.

Im going to begin by saying I am no hardcore sim racer by no means, but i do race Go Karts in real life and have countless hours on Forza and Race Pro and i do like racing games to be serious and realistic.

Yesterday i had the chance to play Shift (even won myself a key ring and an EA pen, but that is besides the point). Basically it was a competition thing and you had 2 practice laps and then a flying lap. Alas the steering assist, brake assist ABS, SC, TC & racing line were on (physics set at normal) for the purposes of the competition and i wasn’t aloud to take anything off. So, I was in a Nissan 350Z (the prize if you win the comp) on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, which is a track i have virtual miles on and real time miles on, so i was confident i would be cool with it. I got there early and i think was the 4th to have a go and the best time up until then was a 1:07.xxx i think, and suffice to say, i destroyed that on my first practice lap with a 1:04.xxx, then a 1:03.xxx and then on my final lap a 1:02.995 or something. But that isn’t important!
The car, the track, the feel….well. Even with the assists on, it was brilliant, i mean i felt sooo tied in with the assists on, but it felt good, REAL good. You drop into Paddock Hill bend and you just feel the car wanting to push wide, holding onto that fine level of grip and the back wanting to break free, the weight transfer coming through Surtees and up to Clearways, it was fantastic. Again, an issue as i was having to use a pad and im used to a wheel, but it still felt good. And the cockpits? Man they were amazing, the dials and everything just look beautiful.

Now, it doesnt end there, Seeing as it was early and no one was even interested or even heard of Shift, i got talking to the guy and asked if i could have a cheeky look round the game and maybe have a bash in an Aston or something, NO ASSISTS. Dude not only agreed to this, but even let me in his pink Veyron round Spa (it was savage to say the least), which handled well, but the back end (as you can imagine) was snaky, but could be contained.
All in all i played for like 2 hours on varying tracks and cars, different levels of assists and what have you. i drove:-

V8 Aston Martin Vantage (@ Spa & Indy Brands) - No assists
Veyron (@ Spa) - ” ”
Subaru Impreza (@ Willow Springs? Not sure) ” ” - Against a hard AI apponent

The Veyron was savage, yeah.
The Vantage….stunning. The cockpit was alive, it was like i was there, it felt poised, planted and so SO nice to drive, just what id imagine (key word) a Vantage would drive like.
The Impreza also very nice. Not a lot of tail action or drama as the 4WD system gave me some nice grip, but it felt brilliant. And the AI were challenging to say the least, i took a little too much curb and he pounced and got me and i really had to fight to get my position back, he was no pushover.
Despite the fact i was on a pad didnt ruin the experience, as you could tell the potential, and with the wheel i could imagine it would be even better.

Something that did and didnt surprise is that i was able to do like a 1:00.233 i think with the Vantage (Brands Indy) with all the assists on, and then a 0:58.xxx with everything off, however i think this had a lot to do with the start as the TC just ruined any sort of good start.

I was very optimistic for this game, and cant wait for its release so i can use my wheel and really give it some stick. ""

""Thanks man, glad to know my opinions/preview of the game is appreciated!
Now i do have some more info which i should have posted first time round, but by time id typed that block of text, id lost the will to live a little!

A few, maybe minor details i witnessed in the game i liked:-

The blurring of the screen at high speeds:-
I did notice the blurring of the screen, but less as a distraction, more because i wanted to see it as i like the idea of that effect, and even at 180mph in the Veyron down the Kemmel Straight at Spa, i didnt notice it that much, it just added a nice feel to the game.
The blurring as far as i know (for the 360 version) cannot be turned off, as i did sift through the menus alot.

Gravel traps:-
Now its no new thing, gravel traps should be “sticky” you shouldnt be able to continue through at race pace thats for sure. The ones in Shift are really good, you dont get beached like in real life as that would be no fun, but you do get rather stuck. Another note is that as they use the old Spa track, the Pouhon corner still has that massive gravel trap which i actually went into and flipped the Veyron! Which brings me onto my next point….

Crash blurring/effects:-
This was awesome. I “discovered” after my flip at Pouhon that if the screen goes into black & white and everything goes way out of focus…get this…the car will not move again until the screen has cleared! Just like in real life! I mean, if you glance a wall in real life and the car is somehow still able to move, you wont be moving away to the pits as soon as you know which way is up you will be shaken, sore maybe and will be stunned to say the least, so it will take some time to move off again, and the game does this. I was very impressed.

Demo:-
I asked the guy about the demo and he said it should have come out on August 28th, however they still have some bugs to figure out. He told me that the HUD some times went off, the times are out of wack and they round down instead of up or something. So there is still some work to be done.

Head movements:-
The in car view really gave me a feel of being in the car and that a real person was behind the wheel, under braking, during cornering, going over bumps, everything you would feel in real life is replayed to you via the head movements. Although there is no FFB with a pad, i could tell the tracks were bumpy as the head moved and the car shook.

Comparability:-
There is none. Straight up. Im not sure who said it, but i saw in a developer interview or something that the physics cannot be compared to anything, and its so true, the game feels like nothing ive felt before, its sensational.
Those worried about an arcade racer dont have to worry, with the assists on, it is kiiind of arcade like but with the assists off it could reach full sim potential. But, i cannot be 100% as i didnt use a wheel and only had a limited time on the game with limited settings.

The game IMO is worth all the attention (good or bad) it is getting as it really does seem like a fun, and great game to play.
If anyone has any questions, i’ll try my best to remember stuff and answer them!
"""

sounds good. I gave up on N4S years ago but they seem to be going through a FIFA style re-invention

those vids are amazing. it looks so frantic - is the nurburgring in it? idk if people are thinking it's a bit played-out to have it in a game but that would be an epic lap in this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCQ5EKObISo

baad, yeah, the only thing this one has in common with the previous Need for Speeds is the branding. I don't think anybody on the development team worked on the previous games. The next NFS looks a little more tradational NFS, and the one after that is apparently being developed by Criterion (Burnout team!). They do seem to be going a bit overboard with the brand, especially considering the last few games were so poorly received.

cozwn, the one weird thing it that guys wall of text you posted was that he says the game had no force feedback. I hope that was just in the build he tried out - there's gotta be FFB in the final release, right?

Here's the tracklist...

* Alpental
* Autopolis International Racing Course
* Ambush Canyon
* Brands Hatch
* Dakota
* Ebisu Circuit
* Glendale
* Hazyview
* Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
* London
* Miytomi
* Nordschleife
* Road America
* Rustle Creek
* Silverstone
* Circuit de Spa Francorchamps
* Tokyo
* Willow Springs

The track guides they've been posting have been excellent...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqvMDQnM5Mg

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/102/1023577p1.html

nurburgring no assists
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=131238846664&ref=mf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EErfROk_r2c

Can't wait for tomorrow!

Pretty good first impression. Graphics don't seem quite as sharp in real life as they did in the videos, but it still looks pretty good (not as good as GT5:P though) and cockpit view does indeed deliver - best I've ever seen. The handling is a lot less sim than I thought it would be - works good with a wheel - but has a VERY arcade feel so far. That may be a good thing. Have been playing on medium, but may ramp it up to hard as after a few races of getting used to the handling model, I won my last couple of races EASY (and I wasn't driving that great). A couple technical issues - noticed some draw-in on the rear view at least once & the game glitched into a replay mode that I had no way of getting out of w/o completely shutting down the game... so it's apparently not quite as polished as one would hope.

Like Dirt 2, after every race it seems like you get five or more "rewards." I guess this is the new trend? I think both games go a bit overboard in that regard. You get so much stuff & so many grades it's hard to keep track (and I only did maybe five or six races).

I feel like there's maybe a nice balance between the sim look and attitude, but more arcade-like gameplay that could make it a fun game, but I'm not yet sure if there's enough there to really grab me. Definitely need to try out the online, but it scares me a little, as the game seems to reward aggressive driving at times, or at least seems indifferent about it, which may make the online races more frustrating than fun.

wow looks good!

based on these youtubes the sounds are waaay better than forza2, we'll see about 3. the AI looks a LOT wilder too, both forza and GT4 (the last one i played) had really precise technical opponents, a little arcadeyness would be nice.

how is the car selection? race types? upgrades?

are you playing with all assists off, jeff?

tempted, but got burnt by GT5:P which I found so boring

cozwn - I've been fooling around trying to find what settings work for me. This morning I was playing with everything off except for ABS. It doesn't make the driving any more challenging with assists off though - it feels different, but it's actually easier as you're able to run faster. The one thing I haven't been able to figure out how to turn off yet is the racing line - hopefully I'm just missing the setting, or maybe you can't turn it off in the early races, but can later. The funny thing is, you really don't need a racing line with the handling in this game, which really encourages aggressive driving and whipping your car around corners as much as possible. There also isn't much penalty for slipping off the track, you don't seem to lose much speed and it's pretty easy to get back on, unlike in your standard sim race, where going off track basically fucks you for the rest of the race.

goole -there's something weird about the car selection, which is that you can buy any car in the game with microsoft points / i.e. real cold hard cash!!! You also earn currency in the game pretty easy. It seems like there's a lot of cars, but not a huge variety & nothing crazy (I'm still only using the first car I bought though). I think there are five tiers of cars. There's an upgrade system, which uses the in-game currency and seems pretty standard - different levels of upgrades - similar to the way it's done in Forza 2. Race types I've unlocked so far are standard races, time trials, and manufacturer races. The early races are only two laps, though I imagine as one moves up the tiers they get longer. I still have two stars to earn to get to tier two. The AI can be pretty aggressive - they will even bump you on purpose sometimes - it doesn't feel anything like GT or Forza. Maybe it's the mid-point between those games and Burnout?!?

thanks jeff, interesting. I know you hated GRID, is it at all close to the handling in that?

goole -there's something weird about the car selection, which is that you can buy any car in the game with microsoft points / i.e. real cold hard cash!!!

this is EA's model w/all of their sports franchises now btw (FIFA, madden); it's horrible imo and the madden implementation (pay for the highest difficulty level, pay for better online servers) is borderline immoral

borderline hilarious you mean!

It doesn't remind me of Grid at all, thank God! The thing about Grid, for me, was that the handling never felt right, too slippy, and it had a very serious damage model - making it very easy to fuck up your car, making it hard to finish the race without using rewind, which I never wanted to do. You can have damage on or off in this one, but even with it on full, it doesn't seem to have much effect, except for visually blurring and greying out the screen when it's on full - which does give crashes more impact. I tend to be a careful driver (to a fault) though, so maybe it has more of an effect if you're aggressively pushing cars out of the way - I'm not sure yet. I did mess up a couple of times in the a race and didn't notice any performance change to my car after the crashes (including a serious one off a wall that spun me in a 360).

woah - I unlocked the tier two events and the intensity pretty much doubled. Bought the 2006 Lotus Elise 111R and did a couple upgrades and game is suddenly crazy awesome. Their version of Spa Francorchamps is INSANE! (note: intensity level may vary if not played in cockpit view, three feet from 46" HDTV and with a wheel).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBmcjp-vAaY

ha, don't think I've seen u RAVE about a racing game before jeff!!! :D sounds great

this game is awesome.

but i've played it all day and gotten good, been out for some fishing, and now returned to it and can't quite remember how to play it!

my only gripe is it still has drifting events. eugh.

the racing line was a big help to me at first, but i had to get rid of it - became a little distracting. to my surprise when i turned it off i raced far better. Jeff, turn it off in the display settings.

the steering is the best i've ever felt in any racing game, very responsive. i'm not sure if this is just an in-car-view thing, as i usually play external view on other racing games. oh yeah, the external view on Shift is a bit crap but who cares when the cockpit view is so damn fun.

(i loved Grid, but Shift is tons better)

got the ford GT, superb fun around silverstone.
reluctant to add the extra upgrades to the body work that include the awful looking large spoiler and bumpers. prefer the original shape.

one thing i'm not keen on, some of the courses are really short and windy and are only 2 laps long. why couldn't they have made the short ones an extra lap or two, really hard to get to the front without being a bit dirty (which i'm not a fan of)

although i did purposely ram a car off the road - at full speed, after suspecting he'd already done something similar to me earlier. And it was fun.

sorry, correction. turn the best-line off in the Gameplay/Hud section.

Drove the Zonda today, not quite ready for that one. wow.

ste/jeff, have you seen this?

http://forums.xbox.com/29123795/ShowPost.aspx

hmm, although i'm on ps3 i would assume this affects us too, but I've not experienced any steering problems.

I did notice a new patch had been detected this morning. And also i've never driven a race car before so perhaps I just don't know about these things, and I've gotten used to the sensitivity already.

I really haven't had any problem with the steering controls. I know what they're saying though - basically that it doesn't feel right to them as they think it should feel like some other game's steering model that is supposedly better. I'm not saying the default steering model of NFS:S is perfect, it's definitely more arcade than sim (particulary in regards to cornering), but it's fun it you adapt to it, I think. On the other hand, if there's a way to adjust the sliders so it controls in a way you're more comfortable with, go ahead... cool it has that option

yeah totally.

just hit a major bug, a corvette challenge at donnington. my car will not budge off the start line, not even after a reset. yikes.

I'm still holding out for a price drop on this and batman; catching up on some PGR4 career in the meantime. a really fun driving game, I think

Ste - thanks for the help with turning off the suggested line - it definitely makes things harder when you've yet to learn the tracks, but it makes it a lot more fun.

Good to get back to this game. I unlocked the challenge race with the McLaren F1 which is absolutely crazy. The speed, combined with the bouncing and head bob made for a very difficult race. I'll have to practice that a bit to get the hang of it - just felt really out of control.

There will (supposedly) finally be a demo out for this game on Thursday for both consoles.

F1? oooh

This is clearly the best racing game of the year if the demo is indicative.

not played for a week, have they patched the bugs yet?

Hmm, this demo was fun enough to convince me I don't really want to buy forza...but maybe not fun enough to convince me to buy NFS.

Ha - I messed myself up by playing a bunch of Gran Turismo over the last week or so... going back to NFS:S's super aggressive driving model tonight was a shock & challenge & somewhat unpleasant, but I'll get back in the flow, I hope

Still haven't fixed the major bugs I see, I refuse to play until they do.

The only problem I've had so far with the 360 version (other than once when it wouldn't load out of a replay) is the game will occassionally hang when loading a race and then the steering gets out of whack (sort of floaty), you can still steer, but it doesn't have the right grip? It's sort of hard to explain... Hopefully a patch is coming since the game sold well, apparently, but who knows. Have they said anything?

searching the forums, can't seem to find any hard info but seems people are hopeful for something by the end of the month. but i dunno.

my problems are still that the corvette won't budge, which is criminal because it's a corvette only race and so how am i supposed to get all my stars!?

Ste - PS3 patch is supposedly (finally) out. On the 360 we have to wait another week or so. Here's the fix list...

NEW CONTENT/FUNCTIONALITY
- Increased the maximum number of online players from 8 to 12

BUG FIXES - CROSS-PLATFORM

- General game stability and performance improvements

- Improved car handling

- Fix for issue where some cars would bounce on their suspension during high load situations

- Fix for grass sometimes being displayed out of position

- Fix for intermittent incorrect driver duel results

- Fix for inverted balance slider operation

- Fix for online wins and losses occasionally being calculated incorrectly for drift races

- Fixed issue where loaned career car would inherit the player's career car tuning settings

- Fixed various usability issues with the advanced tuning screens

- Fixed lap timing for first lap of rolling start events

- Fixed car tuning settings sometimes not taking effect

- Fix to prevent rewinding past the start of instant replays

- Fixed car livery occasionally appearing all white during driver duel events

- Fixed incorrect screens being shown when player is disqualified

- Fix for occasional invisible opponents appearing during online drift events

- Fix for intermittent hang when skipping quickly through post-race screens

- Fix for intermittent hang when pressing X repeatedly in My Cars screen

- Fix for missing race groove on point-to-point tracks

- Prevented car livery resetting to default after an online race

- Fix for advanced tuning not staying unlocked on reload

- Fixed invitational event cars getting their setups corrupted and becoming undrivable (e.g. Veryon and Carrera GT)

- Fix for Lamborghini's having a low top speed when upgraded

- Fix for Corvette Z06 and Dodge Viper not able to move at the start of some events

- Fix for some upgraded AI cars bottoming out causing some instability over bumps

- Fix upgrade menu bug

- Fix for a force feedback strength settings save bug

- Fix multi-player settings for AI opponents and drift mode

- Fix for vinyls being incorrectly applied on rear wing

- Fix for a hang in lobby when accessing friend's list from car select

- Fix for profile load bug which skips save select menu when holding down Enter key

- Fix for jumping body parts when car resets

PC SPECIFIC
- Improved ATi graphics card support

- Improved dynamic vertex buffer usage (performance optimization on all PCs)

- Fixed crashes on certain PC configurations when changing shadow settings

- Fixed intermittent crash during first lap of races on certain PC configurations

- Disabled forced dampening for custom wheel presets on PC

- Optimized multi-GPU PC operation

- Fix for intermittent missing surface sounds on certain PC configurations

- Fix for intermittent black skies

- Fix for LAN menu hang for client when host quickly returns to main menu

GET IN

Many thanks Jeff!

seriously good news, glad they finally got around to it.

soo many games to be playing now.

the patch won't install :'(

panic over, retried, okay now

and YES cheers were heard in the household when the yellow corvette finally rolled away from the start line.

volume cranked up, the engine noises are belting.

Am VERY much looking forward to NFS hot pursuit later this year. This has always been my favourite of the NFS outings, on the ps2.

and big anticipation for Formual 1 next month, which looks very pretty indeed.

man the 'mastering corners' system on Shift is some kind of bullshit

also, when did race games stop featuring variable weather conditions?

F1 2010 looks like it is going to have great/variable weather conditions :)

Overall, I think so much work, money and time goes into making HD graphics and getting the game to run somewhat smoothly this gen that a lot of little things have been dropped (though I can't think of tons of old racing games that had variable weather conditions in the past either?).

The mastering the corners thing does seem kind of random sometimes - I pretty much never worried about it. Just another one of the little things about this game that is kind of distracting.

anyone ordering 2 ?

i'm watching my cash at the moment so this will have to wait, might have to opt for formula 2010 at twenty quid to keep me happy.

but it looks okay, not sure i see much difference apart from night driving and twice as many cars.

still playing shift 1 every now and again, but no matter how great i get at it - i can never even manage barely the first bend on the Nurbur with the bugatti

F2010 is on weekly special at shopto
http://www.shopto.net/page.php?page=dettagli&codart=XB2FO06&affiliate_source=aw&awc=2943_1301484265_61b5faf3d7a7b166f9a917f48468150c

Never played the first one (I think after hating GRID I just needed a break from racers), but I'm intrigued by the second for some reason. I think it's the helmet cam. Looks sweet.

Should I just pick up the first one for cheap? I don't have a wheel; is that a game killer? I found F1 2010 tough but workable without a wheel for the most part.

I'm not sure how much they've changed the helmet cam, in the first one it's a sweet experience.
I don't have a wheel either but I manage fine.

Every time I try and plug this game to a friend or colleague they just don't understand that playing it in car view is the way to go. Yes it means you can hardly see the bends approaching on the flat tracks, but you have to learn them is all.