Product Description

Need for Speed SHIFT is an all-new simulation racing IP that combines the true drivers experience with real-world physics, pixel-perfect car models, and a wide range of authentic race tracks. Need for Speed SHIFT takes players in a different direction to create a simulation experience that replicates the true feeling of driving high-end performance cars. Players are thrust into the loud, visceral, intense, athletic experience of racing a car on the edge of control from the drivers perspective through the combination of perception based G-forces, the hyper reality of the cockpit view, and the brutal experience of a first person crash dynamic. Need for Speed SHIFT features an accurate, accessible physics-based driving model that allows you to feel every impact, every change of track surface and every last bit of grip as you push yourself to the edge.

Need for Speed SHIFT is being developed by Slightly Mad Studios in collaboration with Black Box and senior vice president Patrick Soderlund at EA Games Europe. Slightly Mad Studios includes developers and designers that worked on the critically acclaimed games GT Legends and GTR 2.

• True Driver's Experience A variety of visual cues delivers the true driver's experience including a three-dimensional HUD that mimics driver head movement, inertia and G-forces. The depth of field also adjusts based on the speed of the car
• So when the car is travelling at high speeds the perspective will shift to the distance putting the car/cockpit out of focus
• Enhanced AI A sophisticated AI system will mean that your races are more exciting than ever before. AI opponents will react and perform based on the player's aggression and overall driving skill thus creating race experiences for all skill sets
• Dynamic Crash Effect - When the player hits a static object or opponent car, the player will feel like they are

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #371 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2009-09-18
• Platform: Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: .28 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Need For Speed is one of the best-loved and most successful driving game franchises ever – but you can forget everything you knew about it, as NFS Shift – the clue is in the name -- takes a radical new direction. You could argue that it has grown up – it has moved, by and large, from the streets to legendary race-tracks like Spa, Donington and Laguna Seca (although there are street circuits, too), and gives you the chance to pilot drool-inducing machinery like the Pagani Zonda and Koenigsegg CCX.

The shift in emphasis becomes immediately apparent when you start a Career in the game: there’s not a cop-car in sight, but instead, NFS Shift assesses your driving skills by putting you in a BMW 3-series and dropping you into a short race around a gloriously detailed reconstruction of the legendary Brands Hatch. Buy a car and you instantly have a choice of five races. What initially strikes you are the stunning, mega-crisp graphics, best enjoyed through NFS’ famous cockpit view, which now has a level of attention to detail that beggars belief.

You swiftly come to appreciate the structure of Need For Speed Shift’s Career Mode, which sounds complicated but has been cleverly designed to work in your favour. To progress through the game, you must win stars, which are given out for finishing on the podium (three stars for a win and so on), but also for passing thresholds for Profile Points in each race. Profile Points are awarded for two opposite aspects of your driving: aggression and precision, and the balance between them defines your driving style. This system works brilliantly, as you actually get awarded for indulging in driving that would be frowned on in real life, such as punting opponents off the track or four-wheel slides. Those who fancy themselves as budding pros will undoubtedly want to earn more points for precision than aggression, though.

There are four Tiers to negotiate before you even get to the NFS Live World Tour, the two-series culmination of the game, in which you compete in the world’s most exotic cars – to move up the Tiers you need to collect specified numbers of stars. And your Profile Points let you level up as a driver, to a maximum of Level 50. Each time you level up, you get rewards like sponsorship, new rims and vinyls, plus invites to extra races.

NFS Shift boasts straight Races, Time Attacks – in which you get a certain amount of time to post the fastest lap – Eliminators, Drift events, Driver Duels – in which you pick one of two cars and must defeat the other over three races – Endurance races, Manufacturer races – in which you’re given an identical car to everyone else on track – and Hot Laps, where you have three target times to beat in order to grab the stars on offer. You earn plenty of Invitational Events along the way, and you can see who out of you and your Friends owns each event in Career Mode. NFS Shift is sure to be a big draw online: up to eight players can compete in Races, Time Attacks and Drifts.

Factor in realistic handling with bags of feel, AI that makes rival drivers improve steadily through the game and extensive customisation of both mechanicals and bodywork, and you have what must be the most complete, best structured and best-looking racing game ever, whether you’re a serious petrol-head with dreams of becoming the next Lewis Hamilton, or an enthusiastic amateur who tends to favour arcade-style racers. With Shift, Need For Speed has stepped up several gears at once.

Customer Reviews

Need For Speed: Shift - It's No GRID
No. No no no no. Not for me.
It's pretty, yes, but not much prettier than GRID. There are lots of cars, lots of customisation and lots of tracks, well many different versions of each track. And they included the Nordschleife which is quite a feat considering they had to map it all.
But with my steering wheel (Saitek R440) it refuses to play nice. This has continued the gradual devolution of the control I have over the settings on my steering wheel; from TOCA Race Driver 3 - which gave me near total control over every aspect of the wheel, to Race Driver: GRID - which needed the steering wheel software to set the wheel settings, to this, which just says tough and gives me a featherlight response, with no resistance which renders it very difficult to drive. This is the sole reason I won't be completing this game, as reaching the NFS World Tour is easy and to complete the game means having to go through every race (with stupid steering) and win stars and points.
To progress to higher tiers you have to win these stars, there are ones for podium finishes, points targets and another target such as beating the lap record or leading for a lap. Once you progress to higher tiers you get options to buy new cars or tune your current car to a higher level.
Speaking of Points - these are won in races, sort of like reputation points in GRID, and increase your 'driver level', but whereas in GRID reputation points move you up a leader board in Shift there is no comparison between rivals, and they merely unlock driver levels, which unlock new graphics, wheels, sponsor money (there's no actual sponsorship (at least not up to Level 18)), vehicle slots and prize cars - which for the life of me I couldn't find. The vehicle slots I can't see you needing, as it took me 3 cars to reach the World Tour, even if I did drifting then that's just another one slot.
It certainly isn't as rewarding as GRID, which has league tables and eggs you on to complete everything, to increase your reputation and move you higher up the leader board.
But maybe I'm just swayed by its insistence that my wheel be set-up how it wants. But no, there's more, the load times are HUGE. I mean that you could enter an event, get up, pour yourself a drink, come back and still watch the loading screen. Even if you miss that you have another 10 seconds where the camera does some nice sweeps of your car to say 'hey, look how pretty it is', and you get some halfwit on the radio saying things like 'have fun, be careful' or 'we're going for a podium on this one'. And you think that's it do you. That that's the only time you'll here it. Not if you crash and restart, you have to go through the rig'n'roll all over again. Also, if you so much as scrap a wall you go colour-blind, as part of the effects. I can see this being the case in a crash into the wall, but to tag the wall and go colour-blind seems like overkill.
But maybe this game is for you. Maybe you haven't got my steering wheel and you have one that works. If so (or you use a keyboard *shudder* or gamepad) then buy this game, as you will get quite a lot of fun from it, if you can bare the load times and the halfwit at the start of every race.
But my steering wheel doesn't work so I can't enjoy it, and would probably recommend GRID over this even if the wheel did work.
While I'd love to give it 1 star I feel that would be unfair, as I would have rated it at least 4 stars if it worked with my wheel, and you may differ in experience.


P.S. Are colons the new numbers?

Need for Speed Shift: very addicting. Patch cures freeze issue
One of the best Need for Speed titles. Nice graphics. Gives a real feeling of speed. Support for Logitech G25 900 degrees steering wheel. Manual shift is possible, however no penalty for not using clutch pedal. Racing line in three colors is handy tool.
However, the game freezes sometimes unexpectedly, especially when you should get the control after initiating a new race.
The first released patch appears to solve this issue.

EA need for speed shift
This game is great...if it would work, or if there was some sort of support from it. i have tried the forums but still nothing and a lot of people have the same problem i have.
currently there is still no fix it seems, basically i get booted and an error code .
the game played for a short time and i got the feel of it [1 race or so] and it seemed very good but for me anyway its been a waste of money and so i had to mark it down simply due to the lack of tec support.

the graphics are good and the physics are very sim orientated and feels very very good and precise..if the game works i would recommend it but for me sadly if i want to play this it might have to be ps3 :(