Need For Speed Shift 2: Unleashed

Its scary how realistic this game is. The physics and graphics are outstanding. Was glued to the game the whole way through. Would highly recommend to any gamer!

I read the other reviews before purchasing this and have the older Need for Speed Shift. The visuals have been improved but they decided to make the handling worse....one clip of the curve and you WILL face the worng direction. Slam into an oppoent and they will wedge you against a barrier to put you in last place, and driving in anything but a stright line is tricky as all the cars now come equipped with healthy amounts of grease on each wheel...not present in the original game!
If the handling was not so bad it would have been a Forza beater but if you are a casual racer like me then you will find after 30 mins you will be getting very angry as yet again someone slams up your rear end and loses your race for you!
However for a bit of extra cash is you have 1200 points you can unlock everything and avoid the annoyance of the career mode and do your own custom races.
A reals shame as the original game had som any nice features but they wrecked it by tweaking the handling - the developers forgot the old adage of that "if it aint broke don't fix it".

This game is a little bit like marmite you either love it or hate it.
This game was build to use helmet/behind the wheel camera. This is the way you can get the most out of it. otherwise it losses 70% of its value. It may be difficult to get use to in the beginning but it is totally worth it, I learned so can you. IMO if you are going to use any other camera do not bother. Get yourself Hot Pursuit, Burnout or Forza and enjoy behind the car view.
OK, so how is the game. I personally love this game. I loved the first one despite some minor flaws. The sequel is much improved upon the first Shift. The first thing you will notice is a nicer soundtrack while you in the menu :) no more teeth grinding and brain drilling reparative roars. Although, it is still cool and aggressive. Once you on the track, it is all about climbing your way up. It is much more difficult now, opponents are still aggressive, and it is easier to get out of track if you hit other car. The graphics. Wow. One word: impressive. Much much better than the first Shift, it is different type of graphics compared to i.e. Forza where it is all nice an shiny. Here it is dirty (tracks are dirty, your windshield is covered in dirt catching rubber or flies whatever it is). The sound. Oh god the sounds. This is another forte of this game. You can feel the roar of the car down your spine. It is top notch. The best sound of cars I have heard in racing games (and I played most of them). Full stop. There is no music during the race but you do not want it and it is in line with the style of this game. It is fast, it is serious and it is aggressive. It is not NFS Hot Pursuit type of game where you drift at 200MPH. Here you need precision and you need to focus (ideally with lights off and your headphones on) it is almost like you are sitting in a car. The view is not static. You move, react to your actions, this is how it supposed to be. Do not be put off by the steering! A lot of people seem to be put of by it but please give it a chance (change it if needed so it is less sensitive) because once you learn it, it will reward you. This is one of these games where the learning curve is present. It is not easy but it is thrilling, full of adrenaline, speed and dirt.
Every car feels and looks different (I mean it), I actually want to drive different cars because I am curious how they drive and look. In car view is simply the best. The level of detail is unmatched. It all goes down to intentions of producers, they focus on the driver, not cars (Forza) but the thrilling experience that the driver has when trading his paint with other cars and driving 150MPH. You can feel the speed here. There is a choice of cars as well, do not get me wrong. But they are tools not shiny nice objects to look at as in Forza. I am sorry if I brought up Forza too many times, comparison was quite useful I think for the purpose of this review. Both games are great in their own ways.

Enjoy Shift 2.

I loved the first Shift and had to get this one and as you would expect it looks wonderfull.The in car or helmet cam really adds to its realism although I still prefer the behind car view.There are plenty of cars to choose from and you can now tweak and play with the settings to please the petrol heads that like tweaking suspension and gear ratios etc.
There are so many tracks, many very familiar ones, new ones and some I remember from the first Shift and they all look good to.
I think the lighting conditions in this game really adds to the fun sometimes you have the low sun in your eyes other times its at night and during the sunny day, no wet conditions which is a shame though.
The gameplay is at first a nightmare until I found out how to change the settings and this has transformed the game. The best way of describing it for me was like driving a roller skate on ice, even the best 4WD cars were a nightmare, but with the correct adjustments it makes a huge difference.
The problems for me with this game are drifting and how hard it is. The drifting section I hate, but its because I dont particulary like it and the fact I am rubbish at it. Having said that I did get through all the sections until the last challenge where I will never do it as long as I am breathing.
As you progress, as you would expect it gets harder, the cars get so fast I am beginning to struggle with it. Until now I am on normal mode and I really dont want to change it to easy but I feel I may have to if I want to complete the game. The AI can get quite aggressive and its frustrating when they nudge you off the track, especially when you on lap 23 of 25, not as bad as the muppets online though.
Online seems to be very quiet, there doesnt seem to be many people online playing it, and I cant get anyone to play the online catch up events. The online looks just as good and plays just the same but as you do with racing games you get as mentioned earlier the idiots that just want to take you out. So if you want the "play for 10 hours online" cheevo it may be hard to find the games to do it, or if you can stomach the idiots that long.
Overall I really like the game I find it so addictive, but as I am nearing the end I do wonder if I will ever complete it.

having played this game from the day of its release i gave it 4 stars after a week of playing it. i said it should deserve 5 but i could only give it 4 stars at the time because of some minor issues that are about to get fixed by a patch that is coming out shortly. so i'll pretend that the technical faults like game crashes have been fixed for this new review.

so why 5 stars well i've played many driving games from fun arcade games like split second to your supposedly sim driving games like forza. but shift 2 unleashed meshes the two together. its complete and utter fun and a blast hammering it around corners and down long straights while feeling completely in control of your car at all times. now some reviewers have complained about car handling and also not being able to take a corner very fast or your spinning of the track. well yes when you first start off in a rubbish ford focus you will find these things happening but bear with the game and once you unlock the GT3 series which is the start of the pro racing then you will also have cars that will stick to corners like glue and travel at such rapid speeds that you will let out a wow wow sound before slamming on the brakes and then throwing your car into the next corner confident it will respond to your every command.
this game is not for drivers or racing fans that dont like a challenge. to unlock the GT3 series you will find it hard going. you will not win a race first time you will get frustrated and you will feel the same delight that a real driver probably feels when he wins a race in real life. your emotions and skills are constantly tested. but you will be rewarded with your patience once that GT3 opens up to you. because at level 15 you will get the free Porsche 911 GT3 that will leave all other cars eating its exhaust fumes. this car like many of the cars in this category are outstanding in performance and handling. trust me you will love them.

now for the car handling this is a major talking point with this game i use the official xbox force feedback steering wheel and i spent at least 2hrs messing about with the settings using the F1 Mclaren car to try out the settings on because its one of the best cars for handling and super fast and you also get to use it in the early stages of the game. you do need to get the settings just right for the game to really come alive. if you cant be bothered with doing this then dont buy the game. but if you are dedicated to your driving and racing games then getting the steering wheels settings right is a must in this game. i've also played it with the game-pad and its also alot easier than with the wheel so dont think just because you like a driving game but dont have a wheel you wont get alot from this game you will and i completed may races in 1st place with the pad so dont be put off with all my wheel talk.

the in game car A.I. is aggressive if you bang into them or shunt them from behind. so dont be surprised when they do the same back to you but it adds to the realism and character of the game.

the graphics are good and the sound is excellent. but remember its a driving game that means fast frame rates and with all the car and track damage that remains throughout a race your xbox is doing well to produce everything you see considering the xbox is running on outdated software these days.

i've not played online that much only about 2 or 3 games so i'm not going to say if its good or bad just that its pretty much like every other driving game when you play it online. it all depends on the other drivers whether you'll have a good time or not.

so if you've been unsure about renting or buying this game you have to give it alot of time and patience. but i love it

I was a massive fan of NFS shift. One of the best racing games I've ever played. So I was aching to get this! But... It's just too difficult. It's drowning in complications. I mean, do we really want to waste time deciding what the PSI should be in each individual tire?! Save that geeky stuff for simulations like F1, all I wanna do is blast round my fave race tracks in the worlds elite cars. Like you could in the first game. After trying so hard to like this new game, my conclusion was that the fun and thrill had been replaced by techno-nerdy-split second racing which I hated. So I went out and bought back my original shift, still loads better as a blast around driving game. One good thing about the new game, the helmet cam, brilliant! But it didn't make up for the rest.

I have re-written this review after playing it quite abit for the past 2 weeks and think I was a little harsh on first impressions. Online is great apart from the usual morons who always crash you off the track and the career is long and mixed cars/events, if a little shorter than the original.
All those who arn't sure about buying this because of the handling you can on advanced options again tweak the wheel/controller down to 1% differences of clutch/steering and breaking sensitivity and now i have found the right setting that suits me. on par with codemasters and forzas and it is fast I mean really shaking/g-force fast once you get inside GT3bmw or a FIA GT1 Lambo this is where the game excels especially racing 10 GT3 cars around Monza GP for example in hemet cam mode. The graphics are 30fps on the xbox and move quick and nice details and exact tracks I think around 30-40 including new tracks like bathurst (Australia) and DubaiGP and keeping alot of the originals. Some look stunning others are a little poor (trees etc). The night time racing feels like night time and you can see your shadow infront of you so you know someone is chasing you the city ones are lighter but SPA/Road America/Bathurst are great in the dark or at dusk. The car interiors are again outstanding in detail and now have less blur and softer and I think the Helmet cam is for me now and i know it blocks some apexs but it feels fast and real.

I think this game has pure racing sim in its heart (developers are Slightly mad studios and are race track mad!) but tweaked for the EA nfs franchise and hence the arcade feel to some of it. If you can accept it isn't 60fps and smooth and want something different and have time to mess with the steering options and only use the Interior cams (sim) then my opinion is you will not regret buying/renting this especially side by side as an option to forza/GT5 this is racing but 'fun and enjoyable'. Don't listen to other sites/reviewers or people who want to drive at 250mph into corners this is a sim and if driven carefully a worthwhile purchase. If you have the original and enjoyed that then having now played that again I think it is worth upgrading purely for the new cars and loads more new tracks. I hope this helps anyone who hasn't brought it yet as I don't think there is a demo of this yet.

love this game very addictive, on the edge driving a must buy if you like racing cars, helmet cam brilliant

After anticipating Shift 2's arrival, since EA confirmed it's production, unfortunately it's nowhere near the game I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are above standard, however, in my opinion, that's the only improvement from Need For Speed's first installment..

I'll begin with the Helmet Cam. Before Shift 2 was released, there was a lot of hype and drama about the new "Helmet Cam". Sounds great? Don't get too excited, as it's a bitter dissapointment. The camera angle itself is rather impressive, but the persistant problem is when the entire camera directs itself to the rapidly approaching corner BEFORE you're actually within turning point. Now, when you're travelling around 150 MPH, approaching a corner, it's rather annoying when you're view is then restricted by looking left/right - you tend to brake later than you would and end up hitting a tire wall.

Dirty tracks seem to be more and more common in Shift 2. Just about every corner has an abundance of gravel and tar, which makes this horrible knocking and grinding sound once it's been driven over. In all fairness, we can relate that to real-life to an extent, that once the track has been in use for a few laps, these materials can build-up around the bends, however, prior to a serious race beginning, every race track is cleaned and wiped of any filth to prevent accidents. I've not noticed any performance or grip issues after driving over the dirt, but who's to say it doesn't directly effect handling?

Car Handling in Shift 2 is a joke. It's as if the steering wheel isn't attached to the car whatsoever. Any adjustments that you do make in the "Car Tuning" menu, don't actually seem to make any noticable difference.

Works Conversion on every car! Fantastic?! Well, possibly. Considering you can (on some cars) do an "engine swap" modification, which in some cases give you better performance ratings than going for the Works Conversion. Hardly seems worth it eh? Spend all that money to make the interior of your car look like a builders workstation to save weight, and the engine's not as tuned as it could be.

I haven't fully completed the career mode, however, I have noticed that it's not as long as Shift 1. It does seem slightly more involving than it's predecessor, but lacks creativity.

I don't see Shift 2 having as much replayability as Shift 1, as I occasionally still complete races for better lap times on Shift 1. I don't see me doing the same thing with Shift 2. It's a decent racing simulator, but if you've not currently played the first Shift, try that first before purchasing this.

Well bought this game on saturday after completing crysis 2 and what can i say i think this game is truly imense, the graphics and headcam are out of this world. The car sounds are all pretty near as and the car dynamics are really good for example the focus rs, it has alot of torque steer as in the real car. Amazin 10/10