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: #413 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

Getting better
This review is for the PC version of the game.

I was less than impressed when i first played this game. The handling just seemed all wrong, lots of sliding, hard to drive a precise line. Points awarded for drifting, even in a normal race. A race car sliding around a corner is not good. The AI is rubbish, plain and simple. Points awarded for knocking other cars out of the race. Nope this isn't how a racing game should be. Perhaps for a console but not the PC.
All the above is especially annoying when in the EA blurb they made a big thing about part of the GTR series team working on this game. I can only imagine it was the tea boy and receptionist that came across from Simbin to work on this game.

However there is good news. The PC community has already started modding this game. A mod called Real Mod 2.0b has already been released and changes a whole load of things, from the AI to the physics of the game. So the game is getting better. And EA have released one official patch already and are working on a much larger patch apparently. I think the game will completely transform to a point where the physics of the game will be completely different to how it was in original form.

I'm already having more fun with it now. And having played Forza 3 on the 360, i know NFS Shift is not the most disappointing driving game released this year. Forza 3 is dull with a capital D.

Some good some bad
Well, lets start with the good.
The graphics are amazing, the cars are great, sound is good and the Nordschleife is probaly one of the best looking versions I've come across in any game. So what may one ask is the bad.
To be honest the load times and game interface is poor(patch 1.1 helps a bit with the interface, don't hold your breath for the other issues). The physics are somewhat flawed, especially when driving slowly around a hairpin it makes the car feel like it's pivoting around its center instead of making you feel like you are actually cornering in a car.
The control implementation especially via game pad(and I have spent a LOT of time tweaking this) is a pathetic all or nothing affair. Imagine a +400HP Mazda RX7 suddenly getting full throttle in the middle of a hairpin while you barely touch the controller and you'll understand what I'm on about (dead zones and sensitivity has been adjusted to their lowest settings). BTW I do own 2 racing wheels and a good spec PC and on the Logitech G25 it still sucks. I didn't even bother with my other Logitech wheel.
I don't consider myself a hardcore sim racer, but there are some things when it comes to this title that one cannot ignore. Eyecandy does NOT a great racing game make and control must be consistent.

Get Race Driver Grid if you are still able to or the GTR2 | Evolution games by SIMBIN instead. They are not as pretty as NFS Shift, but the experience that one derives beats the "Shift" out of NFS Shift on all counts.
It's rather sad, I had a lot of hope for this one, better luck next time. Now lets see what GRID2 is like when it is released. Perhaps Code Masters will include the Nordschleife...

Absolutely stunning graphics. But, be aware of a Bug
Great game & gameplay. Lots of locations, race-types & cars.

The graphics, built on top of superbly rendered cars is real eye-candy.

Disappointed when first loaded 'cos it flagged up my system was missing an updated dll, and needed to rummage thro' Google results to find what & where to find the update.

Since then it had been go, go, go all the way.

HOWEVER - tried to play the game again today 8/11/09, & all career data lost. Message boards indicate I'm not the only one to suffer. Unless EA sort this out rapidly, then they'll lose a lot of sales (as an EA brand, not just as NfS)