Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed

i had a few drinks cause of oreca's victoery

Well unless they've decided to drop Willow Springs and put Yas Marina in the game we have basically only two tracks to reveal.
Suzuka is in the game but yet to be added to the official list which leaves the two slots in 'M-N' and 'R'.
These will be new tracks regardless, any thoughts?

Road America?

.....already on the list. Unless you meant Road Atlanta

Some of those questions asked from Forzacentral, James flew over from the US.

Some of these are questions answered by Drew, the community manager from EA, and Andy Tudor, lead designer from SMS, others I could answer with my time with the game. We played a ton. On Thu, we booted up the machines at about 9:30am, and turned them off at about 8:40pm. We took a short Q&A break, and breaks for tea, lunch, and dinner, but could still play and write down notes while eating if we wanted. Fri we played from 9:30 to about 3pm. We had access to complete game with everything unlocked (dev kits), we each had our stations, be it PS3s, 360s, or PCs to try out. They had two wheel setups on PC for people to try as well. The builds we played were about a month or two old.

Questions-

Why no pit stops?
-Pitting involves a lot of things, tire change, damage repair, fuel loads, player interaction or sometimes non-interaction. Basically it boils down to this, if they couldn’t get it all just right and perfect, they weren’t going to do it all.

Is tire degradation in or not?
-Yes it is. There’s been misinformation put online about this.

So then how does tire wear work with no pitting in?
-Tire wear is based on the number of laps of the race. There’s more grip at the start, and it’s timed to wear down through the race. If you do a long endurance race, it’s adjusted to wear through the duration.

Will track debris and marbles affect grip?
-Yes, they most certainly do. They do affect the tires and make the car feel more unresponsive.

Are Practice and Qualifying sessions included?
-No

Some FIA GT tracks are missing. Why?
-Track licensing is hard. Track development takes a long time, they had to predict if a particular course may be dropped from the next season. It essentially comes down to money and time. Some tracks are very difficult to license.

Will we get the rest by DLC?
-Who knows, can’t say right now.

Have some tracks been widened ( for example Bathurst)? What’s the reasoning?
-The tracks have not been widened. CAD data is used and they use driver feedback for any modifications, mostly by “feel”. They’ll change the elevation of a turn, but not the width. In the case of Bathurst, areas where 3 cars can fit door to door on the track, it’s the same in the game. They also had to take what they’ve built back to the track organizations for approval.

What is the relationship between EA and Ferrari?
-Sony has the license for their exclusives, MS has it for theirs. EA’s relationship with them is just fine contrary to all the internet rumors. It’s just hard to work our licensing right now.

Will DLC be available for PC?
-No. There’s not really a good way of supporting it.

What’s your opinions or stance of people modding it on PC?
- Most of SMS started as modders. While they can’t officially support it, they aren’t going to be hypocrites and stop it. They do watch and follow the mods closely.

How different are the underlying physics of Shift 2?
-It’s based on the same engine, but it has undergone tons of complete overhauls, from the physics, to the lighting, to supporting night racing, etc.

Will racing and drifting use the same engine this time?
-Yes. Shift 1 did use different handling models for the two modes. This time, it’s the same, based entirely on how you tune and setup the car.

Are the body mods different this time, down to individual parts or packages like Shift 1?
-Based on packages again.

(Already answered) How many garage slots are there?
-There are no slots now. You can fill it with any cars you like. And you can have multiples of the same model. That’s handy for one car with 3 different setups or mods, in different classes.

Are there any racing rules or flags this time?
-It’s the exact same as Shift 1. No flags. No driving backwards, like 1, you get 5 sec. Also, no penalties or flags for hitting other cars.

Have there been any changes to the photomode?
- Yes, it’s been beefed up. There are more options for camera angles, panning, spinning, tilting. You can also take photos in your garage, and in replays.

Can you elaborate on multimedia sharing?
-Both Photos and replay videos (SP and MP) can be uploaded and shared. Your friends can now “Like” them, and on PS3, videos can be uploaded to youtube.

Why so few classic cars?
-Licensing, and car choice for the direction of the game.

Any classic cars for DLC in the future?
-Can’t answer right now.

Were new sound recorded, or were they recycled from Shift 1?
-Some new sounds were recorded. Sounds are also modification specific, changing with upgrades. People should realize that for some trailers and leaked videos, the builds were older, the cars may not have been finished, and there’s no telling what upgrades were applied.

Can collisions be adjusted on or off online?
-No. Collisions happen in real racing, they’ll happen in races in the game. And there’s a conscious reason there’s no rewind button. You have to deal with the consequences of crashing in a race.

Will there be more rewards based on settings online (elite mode, cockpit, etc)?
-No. And there are no options to lock the aids used. There is an options to lock to helmet cam or cockpit though.

Can you talk about some of the online modes included this time?
-In addition to Race, Drift, & Time attack,
-Driver Duel- a get to the top of the mountain type game. You can invite friends now.
-Catch Up Pack- A cat and mouse type with multiple mice cars.
-Catch Up Duel- Classic matchups, old cars versus new. Head start for the old models.
Matchmaking is also based on recorded data and player trends. Smash into people non-stop, you’ll be matched with players who do the same. If you race clean, you’ll be matched with more clean racers.

Are all cars able to be tuned this time?
-Yes. And all cars can be converted to Works models.

Are there drivetrain conversions?
-No, engine swaps are in, but no drivetrain conversions.

What changes have you made to the AI?
-The AI is adaptive now, it adjusts to your level of skill based on data. Similar to final fantasy, as you get stronger, the monsters do too. If you suck a lot, the AI is dialed back to match. The AI also have unique personalities now too.

Are all cars unlocked for Quick Race?
-No, one car per class and no FIA GT cars. Those need to be unlocked, and you need to buy cars to fill your garage for more cars to use in Quick Race.

Is there a clutch?
-Yes, for wheels. Not supported on gamepads.

Is there an increased realism as far as track details, i.e. less billboards, fairgrounds, and extra stuff added to the track sides?
-Yes, these types of things have been dialed back. There’s a focus a direction for more authenticity. I did confirm this. The track sides look much better than Shift 1.

Can you talk about XP? How does this relate to precision or aggression?
-You gain XP through every action. The meters of Aggression vs. Precision have been removed, but there is a system behind the scenes collecting this data at all times. You also gain XP through the Autolog challenges.

Will you support online competitions?
-Yes, Hot laps, Game with Devs, Game with Fame, Autolog challenges, Photomode competitions.

Does this include more community engagement beyond Autolog such as in Forza's community i.e. gifting tunes, paints, cars etc?
-No, you can’t gift paints, cars, or tunings.

The car dynamics in collisions were game inhibiting and far too often when against AI cars, is this something that has been looked at/changed?
-Andy said the cars have been more grounded. In testing out the game, I found you don’t go flying at simple bumps from the AI now. They will shunt you right off however, if you cut in front of their line and slow down too much. They’ll try to stop, but most likely hit you.

Can you flash you headlights to intimidate drivers?
-No, I couldn’t find a high beams options for night driving.

The big one- On the scale of Sim vs. Arcade games, how would you rate this game?
-Andy said with the first game, it was in the middle of the scale, you’ve got Ridge Racer, PGR, then Forza and GT. Shift was right in the middle. This one is much closer to Forza and GT, the focus is on more sim and authenticity.

To answer some of yours Slim, the online room/lobby setups look very similar to Shift 1. Not the ammount of customization from fm2. Here's a few pictures of the online setup screens for you.

I still want to know if it's good or not! Looks like I will have to find out for myself

nice one thx very much ;O)

Lots of good info there - thanks Slim.

Particularly liking

"Matchmaking is also based on recorded data and player trends. Smash into people non-stop, you’ll be matched with players who do the same. If you race clean, you’ll be matched with more clean racers."

and

"Collisions happen in real racing, they’ll happen in races in the game. And there’s a conscious reason there’s no rewind button. You have to deal with the consequences of crashing in a race."

Does this include more community engagement beyond Autolog such as in Forza's community i.e. gifting tunes, paints, cars etc?
-No, you can’t gift paints, cars, or tunings.

gutted!

Tunes will be easy enough - just send a PM with the settings, or we can have a thread on here if you want to make them public.

Chris, yea think a public thread would be a good idea, if you look at the web for shift 1 a lot of sites shared set ups etc, but if those who wanted to remain private then they can as well so once game is launched I will set up set up section for each car and teir etc

Some more for you guys.

Other notes and or features-

-Dynamic/Tuning on the fly- What an EXCELLENT feature! I really wish more games had this. Go into tuning, tweak some settings, go to Test, pick any track and run some laps. Look at 3 telemetry screens (Friction, Tire Temp/Suspension, G Forces) for further info if you want, pause, go to tune, adjust more settings, and resume or restart the lap to see the immediate affects. Less menus, less waiting through loading times, and you see and feel the effects right away. Brilliant.



Then you can save the set up based on type (All, GP Short, Street, GP, Ovals, Drift, or Nordschleife) or to the specific tracks contained therein. So, you can tune one car with as many setups as you want, based on individual tracks. It's easy to do, easily categorized, and easy to load. That’s awesome. There are also more tuning options and better explanations of what changing each does than in 1. I took photos of the tuning screens if anyone wants to see them. Quick Tune is still in as well.




-The upgrade system is a bit different than 1. It’s by category rather than by stages, more like Forza- engine, tires, suspensions, etc, finally, works.

-When buying cars, you buy one model, all the liveries are then unlocked (for FIA GT models). Some cars have 10 preset liveries now instead of just 4.

-Decals can be mirrored on the sides now.

-Decals can be put on windows now.

-Decals can be gloss or matte finish.

-There are more rims to select this time.

-The Autolog is easily accessed now, hit back at almost any time to access and sort by local region, friends, world’s best. Andy said think of it as Autolog 2.0 now. Still console specific however.

-You can now drift on any track, and full laps. When choosing Drift in Quick Race, it also adds some additional drift layouts to certain environments.

-Damage is either visual or affects performance, like 1, but has been upgraded. You can really wreck your cars now. I rolled a Zonda at Monza and knocked 3 wheels off. Parts everywhere and when I landed the brake discs were still glowing. You can hit a button to put the wheels back on to limp to the end. The cracked windshields look very detailed now too.

-They did have reflections on the helmet visor on the helmet, but removed them. The driver feedback was that it was just too much on screen. They also toned down the helmet movement based on similar feedback.

-Spa is the newer layout now.

-Silverstone has the previous layouts as well as the new one.

-Not all tracks in Quick Race have night racing.

-The ending discipline in the career is a season of FIA GT1 (still shorter distances however).

More soon, including personal impressions and some more questions etc.

Love this insight / feed back. Defo glad I pre ordered. So cant wait.

Thx very much again.

Fantastic Slim!

This is more like it

Here are the Achievements and Trophies:

Amateur Reached Driver Level 5
Day Walker Master every location in day or dusk
GT1 Champion Beat Jamie Campbell - Walter and win the FIA GT1 World Championship
GT3 Champion Beat Patrick Soderlund and win the FIA GT3 European Championship
I.Am.Iron Man. Placed 1st in 5 consecutive Online events
Dominator Beat all the Rivals
Leno would be proud Have at least one car from each manufacturer in your Garage
Bounty Hunter Earn $10,000,000 total during your career
Night Rider Master every location at night
Pro Reach Driver Level 15
Proving Grounds Win Vaughn Gittin Jr's GTR Challenge
Recommended Completed an event recommended by a friend
Road to Glory Beat your first Rival
Semi-Pro Reached Driver Level 10
Veteran Reached Driver Level 20
Works Champion Beat Mad Mike Whiddett and won the Works Championship
Going the extra mile Completed 250 Event Objectives
Cub Scout Won your first Event Set Badge
The Driver's Battle Complete an event purely from helmet cam
Elitist Place 1st in an event using Elite handling model
Sports License Won 25 Career events on Easy difficulty or higher
Competition License Won 50 Career events on Medium difficulty or higher
Race License Won 75 events on hard difficulty
Sizzlin' Beaten the 1st Target Time in a Hot Lap event
The World is my Oyster Unlocked all Career Events
Nailed It Track Mastered your first location
Globetrotter Competed at every location in the game
Tic Tac Toe Own a Modern, Retro and Muscle car
Dialed In Used On-Track Tuning to save a Tuning Setup for a car
Workaholic Upgrade 3 vehicles to Works spec
Badge Earner Earned 10 Badges
Badge Hunter Earned 50 Badges
Badge Collector Earned 100 Badges
I'm going to Hollywood! Got through the Qualifying round in the Driver Duel Championship
Paparazzi Shared a photo or replay with others
Intercept & Pursue Completed an Online Catchup Pack and Online Catchup Duel event
King of the Hill Win your first Driver Duel Championship crown
In the Zone Won an online event from helmet cam
Notorious Played Online for over 10 hours total
Grass Roots Completed JR's Grass Roots event

So, no marketplace for buying/selling paints? Shame.

Still, I have my funds safely hidden away, and will be getting this day of release, can't wait!

Now.. to phone Hampden about that job

Lots of Scottish Cup play-off games coming up, and plenty of opportunities available to sell pies in exchange for a fiver an hour!

probably not new news but :

Porsche
Porsche 911 GT2
Porsche 911 GT3 R
Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Falken Tire
Porsche Carrera GT
Porsche Cayman S

Lancia
Lancia Delta HF Integrale

PORSCHE'S

Seems like there's a good number of GT2 cars appaearring too
Loving the dirt on the nose of the GT3 R. VERY realistic

Ouch


More ouch

Damage looks great!

And who doesn't love massive rollovers?

When the 'Vette went over I though, oh great it'll appear out of the dust with a few bits missing.
S to see that level of carnage was quite a pleasant suprise