Customer Reviews
Need For Speed:Shift
Before making a purchase, I
always do my homework. As much as I hate Electronic Arts I must say,
they have a winner with Need For Speed:Shift. This is the reason why it
is being attacked up here.
Some reviews posted up here are not
reviews but short narrow-minded paragraphs designed to scare people away
from the product. It is called, "Fanboism" and is highly distasteful.
Such "reviews" do not help the perspective buyer one bit.
I raced
with Shift for a couple of weeks after installing it on my system
before writing a review. This gave me time to earn some unlocks. It also
gave me time to experience MORE of what Shift is all about.
The
previous releases in the Need For Speed (NFS) series were all surreal
arcade-style racing games. The physics were not that realistic.
NFS:Shift however, leans heavily toward simulation.
Career
Shift
is career driven. You start at the bottom and fight/race your way to
the top. As you do, you earn money and points that unlock more vehicles,
tracks and upgrades for vehicles that you own.
Profiles
You
create a name for your profile when Shift starts up. Any progress made
in your racing career will be saved under that name.
During a
race, you earn points both in AGRESSION and PRECISION driving.
An
aggressive driver is likely to block other drivers from passing them on
the track or cause other drivers to spin out of control. Such behavior
is risky and may cause the aggressive driver to spin out and lose
valuable time as well.
The Racing Line
By default, there
are green arrows on the race track. These arrows form what is called,
the Racing Line. The Racing Line shows the shortest route around the
track. If you keep your car on the arrows, you minimize the amount of
time it will take you to complete a lap. Staying on those arrows
maximizes precision points you earn during a race.
The arrows
also change color with your cars speed. Red arrows mean you are going
too fast and are going to turn wide, run off the track and most likely
crash. If the arrows are yellow, you will most likely make the turn but
your turn will be wider then it should be. Green means you are traveling
at a speed optimal for cornering.
The Racing Line in Shift helps
you to master the track and its brake points faster. It also helps you
to become a better, more precise race car driver.
Earning
Aggression and Precision points increases your Driver Level and unlocks
more tracks, cars and upgrades for cars that you already own.
When
you feel you have mastered the tracks, the Racing Line can be turned
off in Options.
Stars
If you come in third place in a
race, you earn one star. Coming in first earns you three stars. As star
counts are built, you unlock new competitions and advance your career.
"Bonus
stars are available for pulling off special objectives like racing
clean or holding a drift long enough. You can even earn stars by racking
up enough Profile points in a single race."
Badges
As you
hit minor milestones, you will be awarded badges. Racking up mileage on
a car, mastering corners, winning consecutive races, or defeating rival
drivers will earn you badges.
Minor badges add up to major
badges as you continue to excel at racing.
Garages
Every
driver starts with a two-car garage. You earn more garages as your
Driver Level increases.
The cars you purchase with the money you
win from racing can be upgraded, downgraded or sold. Aerodynamics, power
train, wheels, tires, brakes, for example can all be upgraded and
downgraded at will.
There are some cars that may be a bit too
wimpy for your liking. I have upgraded the engine in only one car so far
my career because I didn't think it had enough horse power. Its
acceleration was very poor (Nissan).
Cars can be painted any
color or have decals assigned to them. This includes custom jobs.
You
will race Front Wheel Drive, Rear Wheel Drive and All Wheel Drive
vehicles in Shift. If you race enough, you will notice that each car has
its own personality as they do in reality.
Race events include:
Race
- This mode allows you to set up a race with up to 15 opponents. You
can even set it to "0" opponents and race by yourself.
Eliminator
- race against others and the last one to complete a lap is eliminated.
The race isn't over until there is only one car left (maybe you?).
There is also a time variation of this race where the last place holder
is eliminated every 30 seconds.
The other events include; Drift,
Driver Duel, Series, Endurance, Manufacture, Time Attack and Hot Lap.
AI
Cars
The AI cars do not have glue on their tires. I've seen
quite a few lose it on a corner and even spin out on straight-a-ways.
They do seek revenge if you show aggression towards them though.
Multiplayer
Yes,
you can race against other people over the Internet.
Game Screen
The
Game Screen has a mini map in the lower left-hand corner showing your
position on the track in relation to other drivers.
Perspective
views include; chase view of your car, cockpit view and hood view.
Tunnel
vision blurring
When a driver is speeding down a straight-a-way,
his mind is focus on what is on the road ahead of his car. The
peripheral view will somewhat blur in this situation. This simulates
tunnel vision. At slower speeds this effect does not occur of course.
G-Force
The
cars have more detail in them then most other racing games presently on
the market.
The cockpit view in Shift is quite impressive. The
dashboards are accurately modeled and look quite realistic. The gauges
work, the steering wheel turns with your action and you can see the arms
of your virtual driver steering and shifting as well.
If you
accelerate quickly in a real car, you will be pushed back into your
seat. This is simulated within Shift. It's a nice touch and adds to the
realism.
The race tracks are quite detailed as well. Not just in
texturing, but in terrain mesh as well. There are small bumps in the
track (as you would expect). You will become air born briefly on some
tracks, so watch your speed!
There are crowds in the stands,
photographers with flashes and guys waving flags lined up sporadically
along the banks of the tracks in strategic parts, too.
If you
have a supported steering wheel with force feed back you will feel the
bumps and dips in the track. You will even feel the steering wheel
vibrate and hear the rumbling noise as your tires run over the red and
white cornering markers.
When you drive over dirt, dust is kicked
up. When you drive over grass, grass is kicked up and when your tires
lose traction, they squeal and smoke.
During the race you can
cycle through 4 different perspectives. Two of the most popular are;
chase car view and cockpit view.
Screen Shot
When the race
is over, the race is replayed. The VCR controls allow you to fast
forward, rewind or pause the replay for a screen shot. You can even
cycle through perspective views in this mode.
Controllers
I
am using the Logitech G25 Steering Wheel with Shift. All functions this
wheel has are supported by Shift, including the CLUTCH.
Recommendations
for installing:
Make sure your system meets the minimum
requirements!
Make sure you are running the latest Graphics
driver for your video card before installing Shift. Many people fail
miserably at doing this and when it comes time to install a new game,
they get the dreaded Blue Screen of Death at runtime.
If you have
sound difficulties during runtime, update the driver for your sound
card.
After installing Shift, defrag your hard drive to maximize
system performance then reboot to clean out main memory. When Windows is
through loading, run Shift.
Final Words
Shift is
receiving high marks in reviews all across the web, including Youtube.
There
is more to Shift then even my review reveals. I am not going to write a
book about it here. I just hope my review helps you make a more
educated decision.
I'm out.
Have fun racing!
A fun and exciting hybrid racing game with some
frustrating flaws (Edited)
Everyone knows what SHIFT is:
the NFS franchise's attempt to create a more realistic driving game
using all the current-gen bells and whistles. The game makes a great
first impression, and is a visceral, addicting, immersive racer with a
(thankfully) more sim-based approach to driving, but the more you play,
the more you realize that this game isn't really for sim fans nor arcade
fans, and its shortcomings stem from trying to please both at once.
One
of the problems is once you get to the higher-tier cars, it becomes
less of feathering the throttle & brakes and precise steering around
curves to more slamming on the throttle & brakes (or even the
E-brake, which is a little too effective) and yanking the wheel, tires
screaming the whole way around. It basically feels like you are simply
turning the wheel to 100% and driving with the throttle most of the
time. I was having a lot of fun and it actually felt like I was playing a
driving simulation until I reached the higher tiers, at which point I
opted to ditch the wheel and pick up my XB360 controller for Windows.
You can tell after using both the wheel and a controller for extended
periods of time that the game just works better with a controller since
you feel like you are trying to do a lawn job on the infield as you
slide around the corners. If you use a FFB wheel I wouldn't suggest
turning it to a high setting because of how violently you have to yank
on it. Everyone realizes that console optimization is something PC
gamers have to deal with, and though individual results will vary, I was
simply a more competitive racer using a gamepad online and off.
There
are also a number of technical issues such as bugged cars that sit in
the middle of the track, long loading times, and serious framerate
problems for many users; a thread on the EA forums is currently almost
30 pages long and consists of nothing but user complaints.
Worst
of all though is the AI, which is almost completely brain dead. Don't
expect to get any room on the track whatsoever, and when going around
curves with any amount of traffic in front of you it is nearly
impossible to avoid ramming unless you slow to a crawl, in which case
you will then be rammed. It feels like everyone out there is either
trying to assassinate you or just seemingly oblivious to your presence,
and fighting your way to the front of the pack is like driving in a
demolition derby, especially on the very narrow tracks of which this
game has plenty. AI cars will literally turn right into you and squeeze
you off the track like you're not even there. Also, you can pretty much
total your car (200+ MPH head-on into a wall) and yet it still magically
moves down the track. Even with the option set to full, the damage
model is way too forgiving and doesn't give you any incentive to
preserve your car; although this may be a good thing because the only
way to effectively deal with the excessive AI aggression is to fight
fire with fire... which is actually pretty fun. Cars go flipping and
flying when you ram them as if an explosive went off underneath them,
but if you go in expecting a positional, side by side sprint to the
finish you may be disappointed. Not many of the heedless AI drivers will
oblige, and given the fact that there is no qualifying, what results is
a ridiculous spectacle of ramming and slamming on the first lap of
every race if you hope to make it to the front of the pack on the short
career races. They will run you off the track before turns, and
accelerate through your rear fender during them, both scenarios ending
with you in the dirt struggling to get back on track after pulling out
some hair. Although the AI drivers in the front of the pack quite
noticeably slow down towards the end of the race to let you catch and
pass them. It's a method used to keep the races close throughout
regardless of how tight your driving is, and it is both effective and
frustrating. Undoubtedly my biggest complaint about this game is the AI
(or lack thereof).
Since the cars are tanks, driving like an
animal and plowing into the back ends of others is easier than timing
your braking, and the game rewards this behavior. This means SHIFT
invites the crashing kids with open arms to ruin your online racing
experience, and thanks to the way the game handles stats, win/loss
record is pointless. People can easily cheese their way to 1000 wins and
0 losses by disconnecting or restarting to avoid a loss. What makes
this fact even worse is SHIFT follows the disturbing trend of no
dedicated servers. You are thrown into race after race via match-making
with very little control over your online experience. Another thing: the
custom paint jobs and decals feature is not fleshed out at all and is
essentially a waste of time. Clumsy, cumbersome menu navigation also
makes upgrading cars, selecting rims, or simply finding a good race
event feel like a chore.
Not all is bad though, of course. The
graphics are great, aside from the in-game videos which are grainy.
Likewise, the race line assist that glows around the track is one of the
best racing assists yet. It calculates your speed and changes from
green to yellow to red depending on the adjustments you need to make to
stay on course. What it does is essentially eliminate the need to
memorize tracks by heart, turn by turn, and makes it easier to use the
in car perspective and still line up angles on the corners; though it's a
bit of an eye sore. Speaking of cockpit perspectives though (of which
obviously this game has the greatest to date), designing the game around
this fact has caused side-effects: the chase camera looks strange, and
the way the cars move just looks unnatural. It appears that the back end
of your vehicle is sliding off the track, but then the car suddenly
rights itself on its own. Remember Daytona USA?... You really notice
this in the 3rd person perspective. Playing SHIFT from the chase cam,
though still fun, is rather awkward-looking at times. However, even
though you can't actually see this behavior in the 1st person, the front
end of the cars still feel very light and floaty in general.
I
thought I finally found a game to replace GTR 2 but I guess I am still
waiting. NFS:S is very enjoyable though, the graphics are quite good and
once you start playing it's hard to stop. Definably worth owning for
fans of racing games. Just realize that although the game was touted as a
pure driving sim, it really isn't that exactly. Ian Bell himself even
admits that they were more concerned with mass appeal than creating a
pure driving simulation; a fact evident in the way the cars handle, the
track design, and the fact that players must trudge through a career
mode full of 2-lap sprints earning stars in order to unlock tiers for
setting up custom races to jump into (something many sim fans probably
won't appreciate). I realize that we (sim fans) make up a small portion
of the market, but let's hope the developers also realize that we may be
the only ones still playing this game 6 months from now, especially if
they can fix some of the issues and give the mod community room to grow.
Flaws
aside, and especially if the more serious flaws are patched (I'll
update this review if they are), SHIFT is somewhat easy to recommend and
is a fun, glossy racer. The bottom line however is this is a strange
title; arcade fans may find it too unforgiving, while true sim fans may
be turned off by the power-sliding and defensive style of driving needed
to be competitive.
Something important to point out is the ATI
performance; namely, it sucks. If you have an ATI card you may want to
wait for a patch (they claim they fixed it...). I recommend checking out
the technical support thread at the EA website to see if your hardware
may be affected.
EDIT: The 1.02 patch went live today, and it
delivered. Just about every issue has been either improved or fixed
altogether. Among other things, vehicle handling is greatly improved,
car physics are improved, and most importantly ATI performance has been
fixed. Before the patch I was getting a low of around 15 FPS with a full
grid in traffic, now it is a rock solid 60 (vsync) under all
conditions. Also, though it still looks awkward at times, the chase cam
is improved and the cars behave a bit more smoothly when using it.
Although my opinion of the game at launch will obviously not change and
it was clearly released 2 months too early, it is now easier to
recommend that racing fans at least give SHIFT a try.
SHIFT DOWN AND ACCELERATE!
After the previous,
well...disastrous NFS releases, the franchise was in need for a breath
of fresh air. Luckily the new developers seem to love racing and
provided just that.
The first thing that you realize is that
NFS-SHIFT is not just eye-candy (although I have rarely seen better
looking cars on a PC): it is more of a simulation game than previous
installments of the series. Metal gets bend, windshields get cracked,
performance gets affected and crashes will leave you dazed.
I
especially enjoyed the in-cockpit perspective (every model with its
accurate interior and the helmet-mounted camera tilting back when
accelerating and dipping when braking). Having said that I have to make
clear that SHIFT is NOT strictly a driving-simulation game. A number of
assists take care of whatever you cannot (or do not want) to handle. You
can tweak them or let the initial test-lap to determine the optimal
level of difficulty for you. All in all, this game is true to its arcade
pedigree but is also makes more than an honest effort to accommodate
simulation gamers.
There are 5 tiers of events with each tier
consisting of a series of events (races, time trials, head to head,
drifts, endurance and eliminator). Each event awards a number of stars,
cash and points towards your overall driver rank. Precision, aggression
and drafting get rewarded. As points get accumulated, new cars and items
get unlocked.
The competition will adapt to your level of competence
so any amount of experience with racing is welcome. On the minus side,
this may be one of the shortest NFS carriers ever (hence the star
withheld).
When it comes to the DRM front, it is a
bad-news/good-news situation. The bad news is that, yes, this game comes
bundled with SecuROM 7.xx. The good news however, is that (similarly to
FALLOUT 3) it uses only a disk-check: it does not require neither
OnLine Activation nor limit the number of installations. Personally,
that is where I draw the line of barely acceptable. However, if you are
boycotting SecuROM, you now can make an informed decision.
RECOMMENDED!
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