Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed

Chris wrote:How can you write a game off before you try it? This kind of attitude really annoys me. There have been a bunch of games recently where people said "oh no another bad [insert name here] game" pre-release that has turned out to be very good, and they have suffered because of the pre-release bad-mouthing.

Occasionally the post-release feedback shines through and people get over themselves and try it (like Batman: Arkham Assylum) but others, which are still great just remain slow burners (like Transformers: War For Cybertron).

I've even seen teams of developers get made redundant on release day because of the pre-release trending, and then the game has gone on to become profitable (Ensemble Studios: Halo Wars sold over 1m copies in the first month).

But on the basis of racing games they get major hype and turn out rubbish.

How can we write a game off before its released can be easy by making release day purchases and feel ripped off, grid, race pro, shift 1, F1. So its easy

Chris I am not writing the game off, I am just saying everybody seem to be giving it huge hype pre-release. Nobody has played it yet, so the people who are saying it is going to be amazing are in the same category you are putting me in with regards to me saying it's rubbish before it is even released. No one know what it will be like.

It's EA and NFS, thats all I'm saying. I hope I am proven wrong, but from what I have seen it just looks like Shift 1. I can't tell from that if the handling will be any good or not but everyone else seems to be saying it will be good going by a couple of flashy videos.

Like I said, I will be waiting for a demo. If it proves to be good then great, the more good racing games the better. Especially with the license they have in the game for GT1 etc but I'm not in the least bit excited for it. I'm not even gonna buy into the Forza 4 hype machine until the game is out.

It's funny, I've been playing Shift alot recently, and apart from there being waaayyyy too much in the way of body roll. The suspension is too soft on the basic tunes, but later updates aparently cured this, (or certainly made it alot better).
I actually bothered to play with the tune and it's better. Also the sound and immersion of the game is soooooooo much better than GT5 and Forza (granted at the moment a different type of game) but you genuinely feel lke you're in the car, with a whopping great V12 behind your ears. Fire up the Zonda R and prove me wrong.
I found I actually cared ALOT about winning races and beating the whatnots out of my opponents. This does not happen when I'm racing against Commander Data in GT5. No 'emotion', no mistakes, no deviation from preordained lines.
It's soooooo not the case in Shift. Yeah I perhaps believed the naysayers last time and ot rid of it earlier than I should have. It's better now and I'm glad I have it

The track that was shown in the Huayra trailer:

Its Monaco, but the track takes a shortcut at St Devote and goes the other way round the fountain at Casino. If you have ever played Formula One on the PS1, you will know about that particular shortcut

So.... hang on a mo. What does this mean? I'm confused. That was from a mod for the first game yeah? What's it doing in the Shift 2 trailer?

it was a DLC track in Shift 1 and will be in Shift 2

So still no pitlanes?

It hasn't been confirmed yet. That video is from Shift 1.

With Pagani signing that exclusive deal to Shift 2 I guess they won't be in Forza 4. Shame

They said that about the Nissan GTR with Gran Turismo and it ended up in Forza via DLC.

Shift 2 looks like it has some N24 entries among it's impressive car roster. Have seen the N24 version of the Schubert Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 and this vid of the #100 Audi R8 LMS

game looks good,i would be interested to see some game play footage from behind the car as this is the view i use.

Notice how Shift is happy to advertise Gran Turismo in the name of realism

Is that not a modded Shift 1 in that video Matt?

Shift 1 has become a very popular ''sim'' with plenty of mods.

Well as I say, I HAVE seen an N24 Z4 GT3 in a Shift 2 video. So the jury is open

VVV worm wrote:With Pagani signing that exclusive deal to Shift 2 I guess they won't be in Forza 4. Shame

It will be in Forza 4, Pagani have only given them the rights for 2011. So expect it as DLC next year.

^ you are mental!!

>street car (not your average street car for sure)
>takes rumble strips (most cars can drive over kerbs let alone rumble strips)
>has traction everywhere and dosent go flying into a wall (ever heard of a driver, well they have control and stop those things happening. Maybe a lesson for some there!! lol)
>realistic (its a game, but looks bloody nice thank you. Yup its aimed at simulation, but I bet it's better than FM3 manages for feeling)

Was trying the Bugatti Veyron race around the 'Ring earlier today.... my eyes hurt after that! Trying to keep the car away from the walls as well as off the other Veyrons was a serious challenge.
Essentially it was a multi-million pound touring car race, and a rough one at that. Like driving with twelve Rob Collards.

lol. if thats the invitational its bloody hard!!! I know about the hurting eyes bit too lol. I have the podiums and the points stars but still not managed to gain the clean lap star on the invitational though.

On the invitationals, any advice how to actually spin opponents around spa!!! just cant do it, always a tap or swapped paint ;O(

I need to buy Shift

From Virtualr.net:

"Yesterday, The Guardian hosted their Gamesblog Live event in London, giving interested gamers the chance to try Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed among other titles and meet Slightly Mad Studios’ Andy Tudor.

Thankfully, VirtualR reader Johnny P was among those that got some face time with the new title and tried very hard to get as much info for us as possible, below are his impressions of Shift 2:

“From my hands-on with the game, it appears they have made some well-needed refinements over the original game. I tried the Audi R8 LMS GT3, Porsche GT2 road car, DBR9 GT1 car, Maserati GT1 and Ford GT GT3 as well as a couple of others.

The game looks lovely. Bright, sharp and the car models are top-notch. The interiors also, as you would expect from the original Shift, seem authentic and look great (I watch a lot of GT racing on TV and have got a good idea how the real cars look inside).

There are marbles on the track, flies splatter on your windscreen and when you rev-up the engine, waiting for the lights to go green, the race car’s body panels vibrate in an authentic looking way (more so than Shift 1).

The tracks have also mostly been made more realistic and look all the better for it (i.e. they look a lot more authentic without graffiti sprayed all over every track‘s surface and ludicrous fairground rides all over the place).

The speed-blur effect that blurred out everything except the view of the road ahead (in cockpit view) that you got in the original Shift is now gone from the cockpit view of Shift 2, but is present in the all-new helmet-cam. The helmet-cam is good, but not the revolution I was hoping for. I don’t feel it adds all that much to the experience (although I am a confirmed cockpit racer). However, when you crash, you still get the disorienting crash distortion (like with Shift 1) in both cockpit and helmet-cam.”

Note: Johnny points out that he didn’t get to give the helmet cam a proper try.

“You can now roll your car (I saw one guy trash an R8 LMS quite badly – bumpers off and all – after rolling it in a gravel trap). Crash physics are much improved. No more cars riding up over yours if you tail-end them as with the original (thank god). If you clip the verge whilst cornering it spins you out most of the time.

AI was a lot less aggressive than Shift 1. I tried both medium and hard settings (as well as the Elite handling model) and it was OK, although I did get barged off track by a Ford GT at one point, harking back to the over-aggressive AI of the original. It has certainly been toned down a lot though and is all the better for it. The Ford GT incident was pretty much a one-off. I remember feeling quite impressed when a Porsche GT3 pulled a counter-overtake on me when I thought I’d nailed him into a corner.

Now for the main bone of contention, handling:

The handling in Shift 2 feels very similar to Shift 1. In fact, if you imagine Shift 1’s handling without the feeling of constantly sliding and you are pretty much there (as I said, I raced mostly with the all-assists off Elite handling model). It’s still involving though, and it doesn’t take much for you to lose traction and spin (or half spin like I did most of the time). It actually made me think about how much better Shift 1 would have been, if it had just been for a little bit of tweaking of the handling and how good the underlying physics actual were.

Shift 2’s handling really is much improved from Shift 1’s. I can’t emphasis that enough. I still maintain it’s because of what they took away (the constant sliding), but there have been a few tweaks (to the handling model) in there too, which improve the experience greatly.

There is a nice feeling of your car having momentum. If you screw up and badly out-brake yourself into a corner (for example), you don’t tamely trundle off into the gravel trap, you plough headlong through it – and if you’re going fast enough – into the barriers beyond, just like you would in real life.

It might not impress the hardcore sim brigade, but I thought the handling felt pretty good and managed to capture the excitement of racing without the constant feeling of sliding that you got with Shift 1. Overall, I liked it (and I ended up hating Shift 1’s handling).

Crash damage is also much improved and you can lose bumpers, bonnets, crumple body panels and smash windscreens. Not quite up to Grid standards, but better than FM3 and GT5 by quite a bit.

To sum up, Shift 2 rights a lot of the original Shift’s wrongs, it looks great, is fun and exciting and (as with Shift 1) also sounds wonderful too. However, those expecting a revolution will be disappointed.”

Adding to these detailed impressions, Johnny also got some answers from Andy Tudor that reveal some new facts:

- There will be no demo version of Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed
- The title does not simulate tyre wear or fuel consumption, there will be no qualifying either.
- There will be an improved livery editor with an emphasis on race car style design.

Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed will include the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship & GT3 European Championship among lots of other racing content, new features include a new helmet camera, night racing and more realistic physics. The second Shift title will be available for the PC, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 in late March"

awesome. I REALLY CANT WAIT NOW!! SHIFT 1 would be like a completely different game with the handling 'fixed' and it goes a little beyond that. I'm very happy to have pre ordered SHIFT 2 ;O) (as I'm currently loving SHIFT 1, the next chapter can't fail me surely) p.s I've never experience these server issues with SHIFT. Maybe I'm lucky!

You must be, I'm on the fence about getting the game because it's EA

wait for feed back buddy

Yeah it comes out on my birthday too!