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- Act II: Video Game Station
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- Need For Speed Shift
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| Need For Speed Shift | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 27 2009, 10:19 AM (174 Views) | |
| Nail Strafer | Sep 27 2009, 10:19 AM Post #1 |
Flying Battery Act 2
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Before proceeding with the review, I recommend that you throw away your preconceptions about the NFS series. Shift is taking the series in a whole new direction, more or less. In fact, if NFS wasn't on the box, I would have never guessed this is a NFS game. Although that's not necessarily a bad thing...with the quality we've had in recent games. Resident Evil 4 was nothing like the RE games that came before it, and now it's considered a classic. So, obviously, the Fast and Furious theme that the series has adopted since 2003 is now gone, which I think is an excellent change. The only other character besides you is your crew chief, and he is a dead serious Brit who is calm and professional at all times. Yeah...older NFS games tried to take themselves seriously too, but it was impossible for the player to do the same since...once again, the over the top and ludicrous F&F vibe was too funny. But in Shift, you always have a grim, serious look on your face, just like your crew chief probably would if you could see his face. But that's okay...it makes it a lot easier to respect the game instead of just poke fun at it. Going with the serious vibe is a serious physics engine. With the exception of Pro Street, most recent NFS games have always been pure arcade. Not so with Shift. You have to brake hard and take it easy through turns. On long, straight sections where you're going very fast, any small mistake can cause you to spin out and crash. You go faster by drafting your opponents. All that good stuff. However, you can turn up or down the difficulty of the AI, and there are various driver assists you can activate to help out. The only noticeably unrealistic thing I spotted was the fact that these cars like to slide around a lot...even if they're AWD or FWD. You really have to be cautious about accelerating in turns, or you may find yourself spinning before long. The cockpit view is breathhtaking. Now, I know a lot of other racers these days have great cockpit views too, but Shift does a few things that are really good ideas and worthy of imitation. If you run into things, your vision will distort and maybe go to black and white, to represent whiplash when you hit things in real life. You can even hear your driver grunt. Your vision also distorts as you go faster and faster. Everything except the track in front of you just blurs. The car also shifts and bumps around you as you turn or hit things, and your HUD moves with it too. It's a nice touch after too many games where the cockpit view is pretty much static around you no matter what you do. And all gauges in the car work too...even the odometer. Trust me...unless you get motion sickness, do not play in third person...play it in first person. The game is a lot more thrilling this way. The AI is quite good. I haven't tried Hard mode yet, but they put up a very good fight for me on Normal even when racing is far and away the genre I'm best at. They do make mistakes though. You will see them spinning out or going too fast in a turn and into a sand dune. But still, the difficulty is only suitable if you are very serious about your driving. I should also mention the Driver Profile. You build your profile by acquiring points...and they're split into two categories: precision and aggression. You earn precision points by passing opponents cleanly, sticking to the racing line, mastering corners, and things like that. Aggression points are earned by hitting opponents, blocking them, and drifting around turns. I will say though that it doesn't really matter which ones you do...they both count towards the same total and it doesn't change the game much if you are considered a precision guy or an aggressive guy. As for racing modes...you have standard races, time trials, drift, manufacturer races, and car battles. The first three are self explanatory, so I'll stick to the last two. In manufacturer races, everyone is driving one specific stock car. Fortunately, you don't have to buy it. It's given to you automatically for that event. And car battles have you racing in two cars that are considered rivals in the car world...Evo VS STI...Audi RS4 VS BMW M3...those sorts of things. So after you pick your car, you have three heats. You can win any heat by crossing the finish line first or getting five seconds ahead of your opponent. And to even things up a bit...you start in the lead on your first heat...then your opponent starts in the lead in the second heat...then you start evenly in the third heat if it's not decided in the first two. It reminds me of the canyon duels in Carbon. I really wish there were music during these bits though. What made the canyon duels awesome was the theme music for them. It really lended a sense of drama to them. These car battles could really use something like that. Oh...hehe...I should mention too...these battles are actually pretty easy to win if you don't mind being a cheap *******. Let your opponent get in front...then slam him off the track. In this game, it's really easy to do. Then while he spins out in the sand, it'll be super easy for you to get that magic five second lead. GT is realistic, yes...but the series always had a very clinical, scientific feel to it since everything was always so shiny and clean and all the cars may as well be being driven by robots. Shift...however...just feels real because of the pure visceral experience it provides. Most everything in the game feels very serious, exciting, and fun...between the little nods to realism both in physics and inside the cockpit. I would say it does this even better than GRID, thanks to the shaky cockpit...which makes you really feel like any small mistake could blast the car to pieces. So yeah, GT is more realistic, while Shift just FEELS more realistic... You know...it kind of makes me wonder which one would be technically better. Just makes my head hurt thinking about it. To be honest though, I think this is more of a rental than a buy. I'm blazing through the game very quickly even though I've only played it for a few hours....and I don't think it'll be much longer before I finish it. |
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Neo Metallix
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Sep 28 2009, 08:03 AM Post #2 |
~Doomsday Overlord~
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From what I've seen of it, it's a game with simulator physics with arcadish style. It would be a hard decision between this and Supercar Challenge. |
   Puncture the Porcupine, my fancharacter! | |
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| King of Kings | Sep 30 2009, 06:37 AM Post #3 |
Sandopolis Act 1
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I've bashed the NFS series in the past. but it looks like they are taking a huge step in the right direction. I got to play the game at a game store, and it was quite fun. I found the previous installments were getting a little stale, but Shift is very fresh, and the cockpit view is amazing. |
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