The official Need For Speed Shift thread

[Firestrm_ZA]

Ok so we started here

but lets get official.

Need for Speed SHIFT is out September 17th in Europe and September 15th in North America. It will be available on Xbox 360®, PLAYSTATION®3, PC and PLAYSTATION®PORTABLE (PSP) as well as on Mobile and iPhone.

Need for Speed™ SHIFT is an award-winning authentic racing game that combines the true driver’s 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 driver’s 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.

The all-new driver profile is the ultimate extension of the true driver’s experience. This system gives each player a unique persona based on a player’s driving skill and style - aggressive or precise. Driver profile impacts how a player unlocks cars, overall career progression and online matchmaking. In Need for Speed SHIFT, how you drive is who you are behind the wheel.

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.

Key Features
- 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 traveling at high speeds the perspective will shift to the distance putting the car/cockpit out of focus.

- Driver Profile – What kind of driver are you? Driver profile tracks the player’s evolution as a race driver from event to event. This system is made up of a driver’s personality on the track, their success rate and any profile points and badges accrued all of which work together to create a tailor-made career and game play experience. Driver profile is pervasive throughout all modes: career and online.

- Dynamic Crash Effect - When the player hits a static object or opponent car, the player will feel like they are 'taking damage'. A combination of visual and audio effects will leave the player disorientated and briefly disrupt the race.

- Total Customization – Need for Speed SHIFT features a comprehensive customization option that lets the player tailor every aspect of the cars performance and styling. Go under the hood to upgrade and tune your vehicle to increase its performance. The visual customization system allows players to personalize both the exterior and trick out the interior to reflect their individual style and preferences.

- Photo Real Cars and Tracks – Nearly 70 licensed cars are available including the Pagani Zonda F, Audi RS4, and Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. There is also over 15 real-world locations like Willow Springs and Laguna Seca as well as fictional circuits like downtown London and Tokyo.

Lets hear what you guys have to say? I bought mine today and have been playing for the past few hours, totally fresh approach I Must say the driving is "realistic" not too arcade-ish.... i love the format of building your driving skills up to unlock tiers.....

[Firestrm_ZA]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=21322797

for some full on wiki facts

[Firestrm_ZA]

some in game pics to tantalise the peeps.

[justinufo]

Reviews are looking solid.Imona pick this up soon!!!

[Firestrm_ZA]

Damn straight... if this is EA's first "hack" at sim racing, they have the right stuff.....

[StarBound]

Is this just a gran tourismo clone?

[Firestrm_ZA]

StarBound, Most definitely not.... It is a sim attempt from EA, but still wholeheartedly a NFS.

[Anakha56]

I'm not sure if I like it or not And I cant pin down the reason why I dont like it . Oh well carries on playing and getting annoyed, maybe its the graphics...

[Firestrm_ZA]

Anakha56, I think its the lack of a punchy storyline found in some of the NFS's or the lack of pursuits?

[KillerByte]

maybe its the life-long load times or weird stuff that happens. I have been playing non stop the entire weekend and I have really enjoyed it except for the load times and the fact that sometimes it will replay the race and sit in an endless loop. I've hit every key and nothing stops it. Eventually I have to kill the process.

By the way... loving it!

[Stuart]

Just leave it. The car will run out of petrol eventually.

[ManTroniK]

Well, if the damage effects, upgrading is the same as need for speed porsche unleashed... excellent.

[mrplaya911]

wow me the load times are super fast. loving the game...

[justinufo]

Feels like a cross between grid and PGR to me.

[DeDMeaT]

It's still very confused in the direction it's goin' for.
The controls are way tooo sensitive...I'm using my G25 & i feel like i'm controlling the car from having a seizure on the road
I found a site that has several custom configs for the game regarding custom wheels. If any of you guys are still having issues with sensitive & weird controls even after sitting & tweaking the settings for a couple of hours.... Try this link:

http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showt ... 378&page=4

[Dustman]

Well, if the damage effects, upgrading is the same as need for speed porsche unleashed... excellent.

Hear, Hear... I am waiting for a good PC racing game like NFS Porsche for quite some time.

[OmegaRed]

"Technical learnings of Need for Speed Shift for make benefit glorious PC Format readers"

Just thought I'd share a few things I've noticed about SHIFT that have made the game way more enjoyable for me and hopefully will do the same for you guys out there too.

1) Practice: I've found that the game seems crazy difficult and frustrating when you are trying to win a race on a track that you aren’t familiar with. It’s really stupid to be gunning for the front of a pack when you don’t know what’s up ahead and its incredibly difficult to concentrate on learning racing lines and braking points when some daft bugger in a RX-7 keeps cutting across your line. Case in point, the rival challenge in the tier two Japan series; I must have raced the boss 20 times and lost till I went to quick race, selected the track you race him on, and spent 10 practice laps just learning the braking points, best lines and limits of the cars you can challenge him in. Not only do the reputation points you score count towards your career, you get $20 000 for the effort, sweet! I was also surprised how addictive it is hammering around the same track just trying to shave 0.001 sec off a lap time. Doing this totally changed the game for the better and lead to a more enjoyable campaign experience all round. Actually preparing for a race makes the win more satisfying and makes it feel like you are progressing, and less like you are simply ticking boxes on your way to the final race.

2) Tuning: for once in a racing game the claim that you will need to tune your car to win certain races actually turns out to be true. Case in point: the RX-7 that wins easily because of its insane acceleration on a tight and twisty track like Glendale needs to have its gearing set more towards top speed on London River because of all the long straights. Also, the Evo X in Works trim under-steers and scrubs speed like a dog, unless you adjust the Diff' settings more towards the rear wheels to give you a hint of over-steer. Anyway, as only very few of the tracks have serious bumps, you should be adjusting spring and swaybar settings to +- 75% stiffness for improved responsiveness and reduced body roll.

3) Drifting: I found the drift sections in SHIFT utterly infuriating until I tried them in stock cars. Trust me; don’t try to drift your works 350Z. As soon as you even think of touching the accelerator you’ll be spinning in circles like a dog with its tail covered in hamburger meat. Take that same 350Z, buy all the handling upgrades but none of the power, engine and turbo upgrades and all of a sardine you’ll realise how easy it is to perform 4 second drifts.

4) Controller settings: I found that my MOMO wheel was far too sensitive on the straights and that in full lock; the in-game wheel wasn’t even turning past the 10 o’clock point. The reason being that the default steering settings have steering sensitivity at 50%, turn it up to 100% and it fixes the 10 o’clock problem. Admittedly, that then causes the car to be even more difficult to control in a straight line but that just means you should increase the steering dead zone from its 5% default setting to about 10% or 20% depending on personal preference.

5) Sometimes you need to go slower if you want to go faster. The prime example of this is the egg-shaped ovals that are so popular in George Dubya Bush’s neck of the woods. It’s seems obvious that all you need to do to post a fastest lap time is keep your foot down and gun it, but wait young Padawan, there is a better way. What often happens when you keep your foot down on these ovals is that you are forced to enter the corners carrying too much speed, which in turn necessitates turning into the corner too sharply, which make you scrub off speed In a cloud of tyre smoke and obscenities. I’ve posted my fastest lap times on these tacks by easing off the accelerator as I turn in; hit the apex of the corner (which on an oval should be the outside white line on the innermost lane of the track) and accelerating out of the corner while trying to limit screeching tyres and violent sharp turning of the steering wheel.

6) Finally, just because a particular car is your favourite in a class doesn’t make it the best in that class. I couldn’t conceive that an RX-7 is or should be better than a Skyline GT-R (old model) and yet after I tried the Mazda over the GT-R I realised it suits my driving style far better than the Skyline. Similarly, in tier 1, it seems crazy to think that the Ford Escort Cosworth could even compete with some of the other cars in its class like the TT. I assure you though, in a head to head race the Cozzie in works trim will thrash the TT in the tight Tier one tracks. The TT is stupendously fast and powerful, but it’s also way heavier than the Cozzie. The Cosworth has less power but in reality that just means you can be quite vigorous with the accelerator without losing traction, whereas the TT is too powerful; it spins out of control and its weight means you have to get on the brakes sooner and you often get thrown wider through corners than you may have expected.

There you have it, a few suggestions that will greatly improve your enjoyment of what is unquestioningly the best racing sim’ ever to come from EA games. Hope it helps and saves a few keyboards and racing wheels from getting smashed in frustration. Let the howls of disagreement and indignation from my fellow forumites commence……….

[Rish_zn]

Nice write up dude.

Im finding this game very enjoyable, The graphics and replays are the best ive ever seen from any game, definatley a huge improvement from their previous series they produced. Its quite difficult though.