Need For Speed: Shift

When I heard a guy from Simbin would be part of this project and that this NFS was going on the road of the SIM style, I couldn't wait to play it. But have been shifted backwards pretty fast.

From the first screen in the game, you already feel the arcade coming full gas to you, once you press career mode, it get's worse in their presentation. Once in the game, you understand that this isn't a SIM at all, it is just another NFS arcade, with races of 2 laps, where you get points and stars for each stupid slide, overtake, corner you take, after a few races it becomes already extremely irritating as you gain levels while driving, thanks to the points. Tell me what SIM game has such absurd idea's, or where in real life any of these features exist, except Drifting in Tokyo perhaps. The gameplay and driving is pretty unrealistic with tyres screeching every single time you dare turn your steering wheel oven 5%. The game doesn't even know what tire temperatures means as most career courses are based on 2-5 short laps.

Of course, EA will gets it success with the people aged under the 18, telling you it is unbelievable realistic, as they have never touched a real car, default of having a drivings license yet. The game isn't even very beautiful. Even with a 295 GTX with everything on max it is pretty Ugly, compared to a Iracing, or a GTR Evolution. I even have a feel these is on purpose so they can sell it to much more people if players don't need a computer from the NASA.

If this is the idea of a SIM by EA, I suggest they continue producing little people in the SIMS. A SIM game is about realistic and competitive driving. Not about, how good my car will look with the multiple choose of Vynils or rims. It's about stressing moments and endurance where 1 error can cost you a whole race. not this kind of 2 lap races where you are doing stockcar and gaining points because you have flipped another car of the road.

I would give it a 2 or 3 stars for an arcade game that is less good then GRID, but it has been presented as A SIM, that was gone kill games as Forza and so on, and it is not, it isn't even a great arcade game.

If you are young and like arcade, go on get it, you will enjoy it and have plenty to do, building your car. I have seen people complain on the Official site that it was not fun because you wasn't driving in towns but only on racetracks, so there you have it... It's the only SIM element of the game.

If you are a SIM driver, and love games like GTR Evolution, WTCC, STCC, RACE 07, Iracing, Rfactor or even Nascar Racing 2003, They Avoid this at all costs and wait for the new Race or Rfactor 2 coming soon.

If I have to compare Shift to the above games that they Promote as a SIM, then I can't give it more then 1 Star, even if they have a multitude of cars to choose from, I don't feel a real difference of drive feeling. Going from 12 place to 1st in a half lap after a spin, is not what I call realistic. A realistic race is like STCC where you drive for 1 hour and are for example 7th in the last 15 laps, knowing you will have to do you're ultimate best to finish 5th, and will try to qualify better next time, but are happy because you have a few points more. In shift On hard level in pro Mode (all aids off) I never lost a single race, it is a plain boring game.

EA obviously looked at Codemasters' succes with GRID and tried to jump the band wagon but... they horribly failed. The game looks nice and all, but a race game has to feel good and that's exactly where SHIFT completely blows it. The handling of the cars is impossible, they tried to turn this game into a simulation but while doing so they also reward people for driving aggresive more then they reward you for driving properly which is just not how it should be for a sim racer. SHIFT is an arcade racer with an attempted simulation car handling and it just doesn't work out the way they want it to...

In my opinion if you are looking for a good arcade racer: get GRID. If you want a good sim racer: there's plenty of other options like Live for Speed, GTR or some console exclusives like Gran Turismo.

If like me, your best game driving experience so far is GRID then this is going to be a bit of a shock. The scenery and graphics are fabulous but the default 'in cockpit' view is in my opinion poor. It wastes far too much screen space. I don't want to see moving scenery in only 1/3rd of the screen. I mapped the 'change camera' key to one of the buttons on my controller ( a logitech formula vibration wheel) and after a couple of presses it remembers and always starts with a full screen view (like the one in GRID). Handling is the exact opposite to grid - in that its poor and difficult to control from a keyboard/gampad but is absolutely fabulous when using a steering wheel. It really feels like your in control. Add in a flappy paddle gearbox and analog pedals and It gets to be a real handful - you'll need to practice a bit before you get the hang of it but if you do it comes together like nothing else I've ever played. As stated in previous reviews this is not a racing sim, and if you don't treat it as such you won't go far wrong - its just more demanding than your run of the mill racer. On a more serious note the downsides to this game are: 1) it takes forever to load between races. 2) The career mode and its panoply of badges and prizes of bits of paintwork are a complete waste of time. 3) The developers exibit their usual arrogance at the start by wasting your time on unskippable FMV and cut scenes. They also set up the handling for your profile based on the your first 60 seconds of driving. You'll have to change it once you get the vaguely proficient. My box spec is Q6700/4GB/GT8800(512MB)/Vista 64 and it runs beautifully at 1650x1050/4AA/Trilinear without a problem. All in all 8.5/10 - definitely worth a go, and the best so far if you are prepared to persevere.

i borrowed it from a friend & im so glad i did instead of buying it. its the worst one so far they really should have stopped making them after carbon. Graphics whise is good but game play is very poor & the controller assistant is annoying

If you liked the previous NFS games and that's the way you like your driving games then this might not be for you. The arcade feel and accessibility of the previous games has been lost in favour of more realism, but this isn't a simulation. It tries to enter the area Grid has been occupying, the grey area between simulation and arcade. This is a risky move from a studio that has built the franchise on good solid arcade driving action for years. Does this make it a bad game... no, definitely not. There are lots of similarities with Grid, the sensation of speed is much better here but the damage model and handling is better on Grid. The game looks stunning and the cockpits are extremely detailed, the in car visual effects work really well at conveying speed and impact. It takes some ideas from Project Gotham Racing too; you are awarded points for your style of driving (kudos) which go towards unlocking features. One feature that tries to be too clever is the driving assistant, when you first start a game you get to run a practise lap. The game then sets up the car handling based upon your performance, you will just end up turning it off. This is for the Grid fans, not the NFS fans. This is still a great game though, it's just not a NFS game.