So what market is Shift targeting? Sadly, I'm not sure I'm able to answer that, though I hope for the future of the genre there is one, since there's a definite need for competition to spice up the genre.
#Need for speed shift 2 reviews Pc
For PC fans and the hardcore racing simulator fans, rFactor is simply unbeatable. For Playstation 3 fans, Gran Turismo is the king of urban luxury street racing. Shift certainly has its own flavor that will be to the liking of many, however for XBox 360 fans, Forza is the king of circuit racing. Given the choke-hold the first party titles have on the genre, there's likely to be limited interest in the third wheel, which is a pity, since it's well put together and is definitely worth a try. The trouble exists not from a gameplay standpoint, but from a business one. It does a stellar job, and at least until next month when the next installment of said titles is released, it even bests them in some areas. I'm not saying that Shift does a bad job at cloning much of the strengths of the big guns, quite the opposite. While it's certain that Forza and Gran Turismo are the most profitable racing games around at the moment, it is puzzling that Need For Speed is attempting to clone them while Activision is attempting (though, given the recently announced delay, "struggling to attempt" may be a better phrase) to go the opposite direction with their new Blur franchise. This comes as a highly surprising and baffling move from EA.
#Need for speed shift 2 reviews series
Right down to the garage which allows very specific custom tweaking and requires a bit of knowledge of the inner workings of performance cars and the visible racing line nearly identical to that of Forza, this is a conscious effort to make the Need For Speed series compete with its more simulator like brethren. Utilizing a realistic damage model, more realistic physics for turns and speeds, collisions, car handling, and the differences between cars, etc, this Shift is markedly more like a simulator than its predecessors. Rather than sheer reckless racing, Shift signals an intent to try to clone the heavyweights of the console racing genre: Microsoft's Forza and Sony's Gran Turismo. Less talk, and more careening at high speed around large concrete barriers - as though we don't care much about whether our blood is located internally or externally to our craniums - isn't a bad thing in this genre. It doesn't warm the heart much, but, then, this is a racing game. The cut-scenes take the form of quick flashes of first person high speed racing, while your English accented racing manager talks to you about whatever it is he needs to blather on about between races. While the edgy electronica music fits the mood, there's a noticeable lack of personality to the game. The game has taken on a serious tone, though one with very little personality.
While we can still count on fast, shiny, overbuilt cars piloted by a silent hero that clearly must be compensating for something, much else has changed in the world of Need For Speed. EA declared that the NFS lineup will be split into several versions with Shift becoming the multi-platform flagship and representing a new direction in the form of a more simulator like racing game. The name "Shift," however, serves as a somewhat playful reminder that this new installment in the Need For Speed series represents a large titular shift from its mindless arcade origins. Fast luxury sports cars from the likes of Audi, BMW, and Porsche could always be counted on as players take the wheel on point to point impromptu urban city tracks in a fast paced adrenaline rush of reckless racing that could only happen in the arcade world of skewed physics and magic gravity.
It's had a pretty faithful following over the years due to its rapid impulse easy handling as an arcade racer. Need For Speed is a series with a legacy nearly as old as racing games themselves. In this, our first installment of the DoubleVisions series, we compare EA's Need For Speed: Shift against Codemaster's DiRT 2. We then take them head to head and show you the comparison to help take the guesswork out of which game you'd rather spend your hard earned cash on. The DoubleVisions reviews are a double-header of short format reviews of two tightly competing games. In that vein we're bringing you the first of what we intend to be a series of a new type of review.
Here at GameVisions we always look at things from a slightly different angle.
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