Need for Speed Shift Impressions

[Emuaust]

Well I got to spend a far bit of time with NFS Shift on the ps3 and 360 today and wow, what a surprise, after the years of crap that have been before it they have put a solid racer together here. its fun to play a racer where the AI is so unpredictable.

I would avoid playing the PS3 version though unless you have a wheel, being forced to use the triggers instead of being able to select the analog stick, the way i like to use a Dual shock, made for much harder controlling then the 360 version.

What are other peoples impressions?

[Oobgarm]

Gave it a run last night and came away impressed. Had to restart the initial race like 5 times to adjust to the controls. Cars have a lot of weight to them. We'll see how it goes.

[alexkidd2000]

I have heard the PS3 has framerate issues (totally shocking from an EA release ugh). Anyone tried it yet on PS3? I would get it for my 360 but I have the G25 wheel for PS3.

[phreakindee]

I have been playing NFS games since the first one came out 15 odd years ago, so take my opinion how you wish.

I am not yet impressed, but am not disappointed. Yet. I feel it is neither an arcade racer or a sim. Certainly not a sim! And it's not really a mix of the two. Here is why I think this:

An arcade racer has simple controls, usually forgiving physics, crazy yet managable speed. Shift has none of these. Controls/handling feels off on many cars and just plain oversteer on most. The physics vary from very real to ramming someone and flipping them in the air like a rag doll. There is a good sense of speed, but it is nearly out of control. You feel like driving on ice.

Simulations should have real cars with real parts, the laws of physics when driving these real cars should apply, and you should be able to generally drive how you want no matter how bad. In Shift, there is almost no tweaking/upgrading compared to other sim games or even NFS games and no brand names to speak of. I have already mentioned how wonky the physics can be, and the handling... It is not as arcadey as say GRID, it is closer to PGR. It is in nowhere near a sim like Forza for instance. And the game simply will not let you do certain things, like drive the wrong way. Yes, if your car happens to drive the opposite way of the track, it gives you a few seconds before it penalizes and resets you, whether it was accidental or not. Unforgivable in a sim.
The graphics look nice enough and the car selection, while small for a sim-like game, is quite good. The user interface, at least on the PC version, sucks. No mouse cursor, can't change options during a race, too much clutter. About as bad as the past couple NFS games on PC as far as that goes.

Overall, I am not yet impressed. It was built initially as Pro Street 2 and it shows. Not a horrible thing, but nothing great. And certainly disappointing if you're expecting a full sim. I wasn't, but I wasn't expecting whatever in-between genre Shift is.

[phreakindee]

Posted a review of Shift here, I have come to respect a good bit of the game really. Enjoyable racer.

[duffmanth]

It's nice to see that Need for Speed is back on the right track after the last 5+ years of such shitty versions of the game. I'm going to get this game eventually when it drops in price, because I will NEVER pay full price for any EA game ever again.

[phreakindee]

I would agree. Rental for now, but certainly not a full-price game, from either EA or Activision for me either. It could be a really good game, if it weren't for better games in arcade or sim genres.

EDIT: I will say after playing it a few more hours, I have quite enjoyed the real sense of driving. The in-car perspective is very engrossing, probably the best I have ever played. And the sound effects are incredible, very realistic and gritty. Loving that.

[duffmanth]

Yeah agreed here. EA, Actiivision, or any games that come out on a yearly basis aren't worth paying full price for, cuz you know they'll be discounted within a few months.

[Emuaust]

I didnt notice any real frame rate drops on the PS3, just some screen tear.

[alexkidd2000]

I didnt notice any real frame rate drops on the PS3, just some screen tear.

Ok well thats good because I just bought the 360 steering wheel and it is BALLLLLS compared to my Logitech G25. Going to return it tomorrow and get Shift for my PS3.

[duffmanth]

I have heard the PS3 has framerate issues (totally shocking from an EA release ugh). Anyone tried it yet on PS3? I would get it for my 360 but I have the G25 wheel for PS3.

This is another reason why I won't pay full price for this game. I paid full price for Pro Street a few years ago for the PS3, and it froze up constantly online and offline, as well as frame rate issues. These issues have nothing to do with the PS3, it's got to do with the incompetence of EA. The only games that have ever given me issues on my PS3 have been EA games, NFS, Burnout, NHL, The Simpsons game, etc. This is also another reason why I don't buy that many multi platform games, or at least won't pay full price for them. You always get one solid version of the game and the rest are all buggy.

[Flack]

I spent a couple hours playing the 360 version last night.

I've been playing Need for Speed games for about 10 years now (started with NFS3: Hot Pursuit) so I was a little surprised to see that they dropped the entire "police pursuit" angle. In looking at online reviews it seems I may have been the only person who liked the street racing aspect of the past several games.

With the whole street car/pursuit angles gone, NFS: Shift is now "just another race game". Don't get me wrong -- it's a good one ... but there are lots of current gen "good ones" out there. Seems to me the NFS series dropped what made them different from other racing games. Maybe NSF: Nitro will be more up my "alley".

[meancode]

Posted a review of Shift here, I have come to respect a good bit of the game really. Enjoyable racer.

I have to disagree with the control of the cars. Unless you get a tier 3 or 4 car you do not understand how to handle yet, I find no fish tailing and tight controls. I am playing it on the 360, with and without the wheel, though mostly with.

Also, did you change the difficulty to be above "Normal" because "Normal" is way, way too easy. I also think it makes sense to disqualify you or penalize you if you go off the track, cut corners, etc.

And wow, you cant skip all the intro videos to the race types and the intro to the race itself on the PC? That is lame.

I enjoyed your review. I put it somewhere between PGR and Forza. If you turn the difficulty up it is closer to Forza, though still has an interesting notion of physics.

[phreakindee]

360 version, now that I've moved on to playing that, is much better for controls. It's mainly a few of the cars that seem to loose for my taste, when upgraded to Works status.

Difficulty is on Experienced for me.

And no, no skipping of race intros or anything on PC, not yet. Though they are patching it pretty quickly, and have already fixed a lot of stuff like no mouse in the menus.

[meancode]

I just unlocked the last tier, the NFS World Tour and am finally getting the hang of driving the Tier 3 cars without the "skating" effect. Gonna take a lot more work to beat the NFS World Tour tho.

What is your favorite fantasy track? Mine is the canyon one, I think it is called Ambush Canyon.

[phreakindee]

I am also a fan of the canyon track. Reminds of NFS 3 a little.

And car selection in Tier 3 makes a huge difference to the odd handling. Also, for some reason I have found out upgrading makes a HUGE and negative difference toward handling! For instance, in my Lamborghini LP640, if I upgrade everything involving handling, and then only the engine, it will handle beautifully. But if I start upgrading the turbo, gearing, and most of the "Extra" upgrades (including large brakes) it will slide all over the place, negating any performance boosts. I assume this could be fixed by then tweaking the car to handle the performance, but what I've done doesn't seem to help and the game gives no guidance on tweaking anything so I have no idea.

[meancode]

Just like it gives no guidence on Drifting. Which I am finally getting the hang of.

[Kid Ice]

I haven't seriously gotten into a car racing game since Gran Turismo 2* and haven't enjoyed any NFS title since the first one on the 3DO. I played the demo on the PS3 today and was seriously blown away...I've never played a demo and gone right out and purchased a game before but I might do so tonight.

The reason I'm so impressed is that I actually found the racing to simply be fun...rather than a "oh I've got to play another half hour to get this new car"...so any extra included stuff is just gravy to me at this point. I've certainly never seen a cockpit view used this well before in any game, but to be honest I haven't experimented much with that view in other games as I'm usually satisfied with the (normal) default behind-the-car view.

edit: correction I forgot about Burnout 3