Steer the course
Shift 2's challenge stems from its greatest weakness: despite being a vast improvement over the original, handling is still inferior to Forza 3 and GT5. Car weight is disappointingly insubstantial. For all but the most upgraded cars, traction is extremely tenuous and understeer a threat at every turn. Understandable when racing off the forecourt in an unmodified Golf GTI, it's unforgivable when taking to the track in a Porsche 911 GT2. It feels like a ploy designed to nudge casual racers towards the game's detailed tuning system, as simple tyre pressure and downforce adjustments easily correct the inherent imbalance.
Bridge the gap
Impossible to correct, however, is the weight difference between you and your competitors, which sees you come off second best in almost every collision. Being nudged sends your car into an uncontrollable spin or careering off track and into the tyre wall. But nudge anyone yourself and the same thing happens.
Collisions are, of course, best avoided when racing, but Shift 2's catastrophic consequences are invariably disproportionate, spoiling the view of car damage decals and spectacular – if lengthy - crash animations, and instilling a fear that makes you yearn for the rewind facility de rigueur in other modern racers.
On the grid
It's a shame, because smart competitor AI and breakneck speeds already make for a sufficiently nerve-jangling drive – most exhilarating from behind the new default helmet-cam view. Improving upon Shift's already visceral cockpit POV, inertia and G-force are translated into dramatic visual effects. Hit the accelerator and dashboard instruments begin to blur, slam the breaks and you lurch violently forwards, crash and the screen drains to black and white, simulating momentary concussion. Most impressive of all, as you approach apices the helmet-cam turns to follow the driving line.
Next page: Racing ahead
COMMENTS
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If this new one is anything like the original Shift, it will be a total flop. I gave Shift a try and found it virtually un-playable. For me the shift from the arcade handling of Most Wanted and Undercover to the "we copied GT5" handling in Shift ruined this game series.
please stop with this
stop putting out game reviews on a site that primarily caters to PC users when you dont test the game on a PC unit. Shift 2s predecessor suffered from ATROCIOUS analog-input-to-PC control conversion and was unplayable unless you had some sort of derpstick-equipped controller or a wheel.
same crap with the deadspace review. If I wanted to read console reviews I'd go to every other games hub on the net that doesnt seem to think PC gaming still exists : you know, IGN, Gamefaqs, 1up, etc etc etc.
you're writing for a PC-portal. review the PC version. End of Discussion.
No helmet cans, please. Thank you.
"helmet-cam turns to follow the driving line." GEBUZ ALMIGHTY NO. Please no, have mercy.
At the infancy of racing games, Microsoft tried to do a racing game (googling result is Microsoft CART Precision Racing), that had that same "feature". It made the driving so dizzy, and hard to focus, that it gave me headaches.
The cam would turn so badly that it wouldn't show the "windshield" anymore. Ops. Is that the gearbox of the car in front of you, or are you front spoilers happy to meet my helmet?
Lo and behold, somebody tried to pull that off 20 YEARS LATER. Even in the tiny screenshot provided here, thank you, but no thank you.
Intelligent AI? HOW ABOUT RUBBER-BAND AI? In the Most Wanted series, even if you could outrun, out-turn, and outwit the crap of the AI, there they were whizzing by you on the next corner after you nicked an oncoming car, when you had clearly opened some, say, 200 meters ahead of them.
That was most glaring when (ahem, in the purpose of research) you cheated the hell out of the game with trainers. You could enable infinite boost, infinite slow motion, and there were the AI cars one corner behind you, even when they clearly couldn't have infinite boost as well. Or could they?
So I found out that you should upgrade only suspension, tires and brakes; everything that help you corner. Provided you don't hit anything, you are bound to win every race. However, you can't do that for very long, because the cops need to be rammed, and you can only do that with plenty horsepower.
Not even cheating helped the game, so I dumped it in a drawer. Yes, MW is fun at first, but then the AI starts to annoy you with its infallibility. To prove my point I ran all the timed courses, and the AI just broke her own record of the track just to keep up with me while I was not cheating, and did it again when I cheated heavily. Consistency FAIL.
Of all the games mentioned here, I liked NFSU2 with its full Arcade approach to handling that responds very well to gamepads, and the classic Gran Turismo 2 in the original PSX that was pretty unforgivable, but it was fair regarding the AI behaviour and theoretical lap record for each course, and you had to actually learn cornering, braking, and following the line in any course.
Meh, you guys suck at driving games
Having played NFS since the original road & track on the 3DO it seems that the NFS series is in its 3rd nadir (The other 2 being the original and Underground 2). I found the original shift had the right balance between arcade/simulation which you could affect by your driving style.
Yes the drifting sucks (why is it nowhere near as good as Underground 2?) but I have managed to get to world tour without completing more than a couple of the events.
As for a comparison against GT5 .... well nothing will ever be as good will it? Even if GT6 featured a lego car on a roundabout it would still be lorded as the greatest ever, except to my brother, a huge GT fan since the first, played the 5th ...... and started spitting at his PS3 in disgust (GT5 was the only reason he bought one)
Anyway back to Shift ...... NFS has never been a sim, it's intended to be fun and both myself and my 9 year old son love it.
Is there any %#$@ DRIFTING?!?
I put the original Shift away WAY too soon. Why? The stupid drifting challenges I had to finish to advance in the game.
I buy a racing game to RACE, not to spends hours over-revving engines and sliding around like a jackass. Put drifting in it's own game. I have no interest in it!
