Need For Speed: SHIFT

In trying to offer something for everyone, this jack-of-all-trades racing game is unlikely to completely satisfy anybody. Good game, I fully enjoyed it!

Good:

-Makes a point of rewarding you, regardless of your driving style

-Very good assortment of tracks

-Sense of speed borders on scary at times.

Bad:

-Default controls are overly sensitive

-Modest car selection

-Drifting events are prohibitively difficult

-Career mode is very bare-bones

-Online play rewards other drivers for spinning you out

http://www.youtube.com/user/bodoblaze

This could and maybe should have been so much better. The game looks great, the cars are realistic and there is a fair amount of detail with the tracks. The feeling of disorientation when you crash is a nice touch but does get old fairly quickly. A decent selection of cars and upgrades helps with the progression. The gameplay is fairly solid with different types of races and stars to earn as you perform certain actions or meet requirements. Then, unfortunately is the handling. What the hell went wrong I don't know. Half the cars feel like they are tanks and the other half like shopping trolleys. There seems to be no balance and no connection to real world physics. Clearly the makers wanted a slightly more arcade feel to the game compared to something like Gran Turismo, but it really is a let down. So corners you can hurtle round at what feels like a million miles an hour and others, any faster than a snail and you are into the wall. I have been in some of these cars and trust me, they DO NOT HANDLE LIKE THIS!

Nice try but no winner. Play it for a day but don't buy it. Wait for GT5.

I don't understand some of the other reviews being critical of the handling, maybe its because when i came to play it, an update had fixed it.

Anyway, this is easily the best NFS AND, possibly the best next gen racer!

The selection of cars is brilliant, from the BMW's through to Lambo's and Zonda's.

The tracks too, are varied and challenging, especially when you unlock the supercars later on. There's also plenty of challenges, and the game rewards you no matter what your driving 'style' may be (rough and ready, or clean and smooth), with points awarded and your XP increasing with each race to unlock more garage slots (for new cars) and cash!

The events also include drifting challenges, 1 on 1's and grand prix's, so there is plenty to get stuck in to.

I would strongly recommend any race fan to rent this, absolutely brilliant.

First I woud like to say I am reviewing this game from the perspective of someone who has driven real cars - and real perfromance cars on track as well as road, and someone who uses a G25 steering wheel.

the game has a lot of good things going for it, the steering wheel compatibility is not one of them. Even in a very tame car, the steering is unstable, starting to oscillate wildly from side to side even when driving in a straight line. This totally ruins the driving experience for me, as it's not remotely realistic. These are standard cars not cars with 25deg of front camber. You can use the controller to drive, but what's the point. EA, you need to fix this bug in the future releases. Play GT5 prologue, the steering works fine. Try colin Mcrae Dirt 2, it's really very good.

The other thing that was very odd was the sensation of speed; there wasn't any. On certain tracks, the whole thing slowed right down. Autopolis GP was running so slowly I thought the car's engine was broken, or the track was at the height of Mt Everest and the engine was wheezing about. Then I looked at the speedo and it said 90mph. Mmmmmm!

Drifting is a waste of time. Being almost impossible to drive the cars. they are more tail happy than an early Porsche 911 turbo with wheels made of butter.

Anyway, nice try EA, great tracks, great cars, and good graphics, but as a realistic driving sim, you'd have more fun driving a nissan micra. If you are looking for a realistic wheel driving sim, try dirt 2 or GT5 (prologue) or the full game when it comes out later this year.

Graphically, Shift is very good, and the sound is great too. Very immersive, with beautifully constructed car designs. A great deal of attention has been paid to the cockpit driving view, which is a shame because it has been neglected from other views. There is only one view for controlling the car in 3rd person perspective, and if you prefer a different control setup, then you can't control where the camera angle is, so it feels very restrictive.

Speaking of control setups, there are only 3, and you aren't allowed to customise them, so if you prefer to be old school and use R-analog stick for throttle/brake, then you only get one setup to choose, which irritates me.

As others have mentioned, the stock sensitivity settings are appalling, and despite the games 'track racing' credentials, it still rewards you far more for setting up your car in an Arcadey style. For some this may appeal, but it rather undermines EA's claims to make this game about serious racing rather than their alternate-year street race games. Add to this the fact that you have to exit all the way to the top menu in order to access the tuning options for your car, making it inconvenient to adjust suspension/downforce etc settings for an individual race. This was badly thought out, and one of the many reasons why I think this game is still not as good as a serious racer as GT4.

In game, the racing is very fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Aggressive/Precision division of driver points, highlighting which type of driving you tend towards. I do think the game favours aggressive driving too much though, and it is far easier to level up barging your way through the field than it is to drive carefully. I do like the fact that you get far more points if you are in a fight for position though - which means you will level faster if you have the games difficulty setting at a level which challenges you, than if you race on easy mode, winning every race by a mile.

The cars on offer give a decent variety, and the upgrade options for each vehicle are simple but effective. Unfortunately, the driving physics in game doesn't quite justify the levels of precision for adjusting steering lock and other car settings.

All in all, it is a very good game, one that I plan on picking up once it drops in price a little. It is still not yet *the* definitive racing game on the PS3, but it is a solid game, and will hopefully tide me over while I wait Polyphony's next offering, whenever it arrives.