Gaming Need for Speed: Shift Review

which unfortunately didn't go undercover


... see what I did there ?

 

This is definitely the best Need For Speed.

I like the 'simulation' direction. Skill is required for a game like this.

But I think the arcadish point system is 'pointless'. The rewards for bad driving and 'trading paint' would more suit a game like GTA. Also, trading paint is easy. Anyone can trade paint. A 3 year old kid can trade paint. I wouldn't expect a reward for crap driving. I would also agree with the review in terms of the graphics lacking. Some of the graphics are very bland and in need of some serious HDR or something.

Since the previous Need For Speed 'Undercover', I completely wrote them off, as the games were starting to get too far fetched and very unchallenging and boring. I'm not sure if Shift can be a pound for pound GRID beater, but it's definitely an 'Undercover', 'Underground', 'Most wanted' and 'Carbon' destroyer.

 

Greetings!

PC demo is out.

 

Something is definately wrong somewhere either with your eyes or with the game for a PC version to look weaker than a console. But then EA hates the PC anyway so I guess it is no real surprise. THIS is the real reason for a fall in PC games sales... not the lame whinging about piracy.

 

Interesting. In Page 3 it says about the FOV being wide, this makes me think that the reviewer spent the predominant quantity of the review playing with ONLY the outside view.
From all the other reviews I've read the game only really starts to shine when viewing from inside the car as that's how it was initially designed (or something like that).

 

Click on the forum link at the top of the page, find the relavent article under the 'Article Discussion' section, find your post, click edit at the bottom right of your post, edit post and click accept (or something like that). Job done!


One advantage to Bit-techs articles is that you can either comment directly on the article (like I am doing now) or in the forums itself. The later option gives you all of the edit functions of a forum post yet shows up on the comments section here.

 

Took 5 minutes of annoying narator guy and 2 slides repeated 20 times to load a single race, which was so underwhelming; im sure the 'sense of speed' is good in the fast cars but in the start cars if you break for 5 secs you cant tell any difference unless you have the retard break/corner lines.

 

if i wanted a sim game id buy a sim game

truth be told need for speed always sold well on been the arcade racer fast and the furious game . Id prefer it over this.

forza 3 gt5 will be sim games. Need for speed has never been a sim game. Want to buy the old one back,

 

The game uses the Physx engine, but that doesn't mean it has any "extras" like Arkham Asylum, it is probably just handling things like gravity and momentum.

 

Having now played the game for a little while, these are my opinions...

1) The cars in GRiD did look very good and I was impressed from the start when that came out, but I do think the cars in SHIFT just look that touch better but no major improvements. However, how far can they go? The cars in both games just look fantastic and very realistic.

2) Following on with the graphical details, again I was orignally impressed but what I did notice was that the scenery and backgrounds were very limited and flat in GRiD. This has been improved quite a bit I believe in SHIFT, especially the depth of background detail.

2) As for the driving, its almost a throwback to the days of Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast. That is to say that the handling on the original cars is shockingly bad. But this is soon improved massively by just a couple of upgrades that benefit the handling system. The AI I think is well balanced, they will tend to keep up but can be left a fair way behind should you put in an good performance. Your rivals will nudge and 'rub' you but you don't automatically go spinning of.
My main gripe with the driving is that when you drive some higher performance cars, like those from tier 3 when you do the invitationals, they handle just as bad or if not worse than your first standard car. Now this may be because they are basic models with no upgrades, but surely in the real world these cars would handle better than they do here? Especially when they seem to turn corners easier and faster at speed than if you brake and turn in. I was forever seeming to bump the walls or off in the dirt in the Ford GT, even when the racing line was still green for a speed indication.

4) A mildly confusing but not seemingly vital part to the game at this point are the bonuses and rewards that seem a bit vague as to how exactly you get them or when they are awarded. I am sure the answers are there somewhere but I haven't come across it yet.

I am a fan of racing games that are both entertaining and have a good mix of realism and that of the arcade. I couldn't stop playing NFS Most Wanted as I just found it fun, but I had an even bigger adventure way back when in the days of previously mentioned MSR which had me hooked from the demo with the VX220 and the MR2S.
NFS SHIFT is a good game, so far... and it does seem to be a fairly original take on the racing genre and a breathe of fresh air in the the NFS franchise. Only time will tell about the games longevity.

 

Can you adjust the sensitivity of the controls in the full game? I've just played the demo and had to turn the steering wheel half way before the game accepts any input from it, it then turns the wheel progressively instead of matching the position of the wheel. Makes me think it's designed only for use with buttons. bah!

 

there are some issues atm with steering wheel sensitivities, this thread over at SRF might help

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=338498&page=3

as for shift itself, well, ive cut my teeth on a HELL of a lot of racing games and sims over the years, everything from Motorhead to GTR2 and this is an excellent Driving Experiance with a solid physics model. its no GTR2 but its certainly up there when you turn all the child friendly fail aids off.

is it better then grid/gt5/forza? im laughing at the thought of even comparing them all. for me this is the closest ive gotten to re-enacting the 4 laps of the lotus test track i did in a racing spec Mustang back in '07.

Just listen to that ****ing ROAR! so much win it even shaked the piss out of my dog

 

alright so I played NFS Shift demo and I played GRID 1.1 demo and Im leaning towards GRID, visuals are almost the same, but GRID just seems to have a bit better damage, dont quote me on that as they are both demos kinda hard to call, all I know is I need a steering wheel and pedals now lol playing on a keyboard looses the whole feel.

 

Just a quick question about the AA. Were you playing the game on Windows 7?

I've played a few other games with AA on in Windows 7 (8800GT) and it didn't seem to work in all games.

 

I must say, having played the game till almost tier 3 now, that you did miss out on some of the problems when it comes to gameplay. Namely:

1) The ideal line assist is horrible at best. Sometimes braking in the full red will leave you short of the corner, while at other times even braking with half your car in the green will make you miss a corner. Also most of the time the line turns green way too fast. Meaning you can't take the corner at that speed without braking the tail out severely even though it's fully green.

2) AI != YOU. It seems to me that when it comes to impacts and running off the track the AI plays by different rules. They seem to be able to take rear impacts without much loss of control(@ medium difficulty) and can correct for side impacts nearly instantly and perfectly. This while the loss of control for me(not a bad player at all) is much higher and side impacts often leave me over-correcting and needing to throttle down to regain control.(costing valuable time) Also going off the track slightly seems to be a minor inconvenience for them while for me it is often impossible to steer back onto the track even with just two wheels off while maintaining speed.

3) Aggression/Precision imbalance. There is a massive imbalance when it comes to the aggression and precision points you can earn. The problem here is that it is much harder to get aggression points as aggressive acts such as tapping out or spinning an opponent are not only hard to achieve without getting into trouble yourself or losing too much speed and thus time, but also impossible to do while your in the lead. Meaning that even if you succeed in ramming and tapping out your way to the front you'll still end up with a precision finish as you can't do anything besides getting the tail out when you're in front.


For me personally the most annoying of the three is the "cheating" AI. They seem ok for a medium AI in all other ways, but when it comes to impact and off track control they don't act like you'd expect. The most convincing case of this for me was a time when I got extremely annoyed on Spa by cars ramming me in the first corner and driving me into the wall. I got so pissed after restarting for the 6th time that I just thought "F*ck it, I'm gonna ram that asswipe off the track.". However even trying that multiple times didn't make me succeed in repaying the favor. He'd just, almost magically, correct for my side impact and/or I'd go off the track as well. This while he could ram me into an unrecoverable course into the wall with ease and without even a hint of him going off the track with me. This seems very wrong to me and is very very frustrating. All the other things I can at least try to adjust for, this is just playing by different rules.


DRIFTING:

Maybe I'm not qualified to talk about drifting yet(as I feel I've still got enough to learn), but it feels WAY too hard. I've had to retry both events I drove probably 30+ times. I really have just two complaints here:

1) Doing slow speed drifts(on slow tracks or right after the start) and getting high points is impossible without losing control. There is no way to recover from the drift needed to get high points as you just can't correct enough before getting grip again. This will make you either drive off the track(and then try to make your way back on before the next corner) or brake and stop on the track(and lose all your speed).

2) There is a massive imbalance in the scoring system. It seems that drifts close to the corner give you WAY more points then high angle drifts. I noticed this especially in the first corner of the second event where just a minimal angle could get you 100+ points if close to the pin, while a high angle drift further away would get a pathetic 30-40.

Now the big problem here is that to get on the podium(on medium difficulty) you need to do every corner near perfection three times in a row. Compared to racing at the same difficulty level this is insane.


Overall I'd say the game is technically pretty good, but is not without issues that interfere with the experience. The biggest problem however I find to be the lack of fun. Having to restart a race over and over again and dealing with AI's ramming you off the track without a chance to correct(and thus losing your chance of a podium) is not my idea of fun. That's my idea of frustratingly annoying gameplay. I feel myself drawn to SHIFT often, but that only lasts until I experience once again the frustration the game can provide you with as well.

 

QFFT




Middle of Tier 2 I had to reduce the AI difficulty from Hard to Medium because it was bloody FRUSTRATING. They would repeatedly ram me off the track (see his point #2 above) and, of course, rubber banding. No thanks.
For crying out loud, I played GTR Evolution on Hard with Pro settings, no assists, etc and it was a breeze compared to this game.

Also, drifting is retarded. That is all.


Playing with a steering wheel with Pro settings, all assists off.

 

I havent read half the replys, but i started playing this today and the steering really is crap :/ Maybe i just need to play with the controls to get it to feel better but so far the steering is fail