NFS Shift 2 Unleashed - Details

  • Thread starter LittleLefty
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The game is trying to simulate full on racing rather than simulating a sunday drive in the park.

It'd be nice to have the option though. If you want to go for the full on race experience, you can. If you'd like something a bit less violent, but still have the convenience of look to apex, it'd be nice if you could have that too.

And let's not get all uppity about what the game is and isn't trying to do already. Before you know it everyone will be in here calling it the real head shaking simulator, or the real roll over simulator, or whatever. If it's done well, there's plenty of room for everyone to enjoy the style of driving that they like most, be that extreme or otherwise.
 
I'm also impressed by those tarmac textures !!!

And another Video!!!


Well to be honest thats a video that I didnt like, because the rear wing of that corvette before that crash (must have had a crash before that one) seems to be floating (not attached) above the car, and thats a bug in my book. lets hope its one of the few.
 
It'd be nice to have the option though. If you want to go for the full on race experience, you can. If you'd like something a bit less violent, but still have the convenience of look to apex, it'd be nice if you could have that too.

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But the game is a racing game, if someone wants a virtual drive around for a sunday drive then GT5 or TDU is the game, why do both? Personally i think alot of peple are gettng caught up in the whole "sim" hype...this game is a racing game...you want a sunday drive do not play Shift 2.......go and play GT5 or TDU!!

I wou;d hate for Simbin to waste time on trying to tone the game down to make it a TDU type game.
 
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There's also a radical difference between animating a few things is an essentially static, simplistic environment, and animating 15 independent cars in a totally dynamic environment at a framerate for ALL of them that doesn't stutter around.

GT5 is a perfect example of bumping into the hardware ceiling of the PS3. Sure, it's 1080p (sort of), but at the cost of dynamic lighting effects chewing up sufficient horsepower that shadows get the jaggies, and road textures get the strobes, etc., etc..

Better to run more pleasing, smoother textures at a lower resolution than do a tech demo at 1080p that the hardware simply can't run well enough, IMO.

GT5 is definitely running in 1080p.

It just isn't native. Some people place more value on just the phrase instead of understanding the difference between the vertical resolution itself, and the native (read: actual) horizontal and vertical resolution, which is referred to as everyone and their grandmother as "Full HD".
 
But the game is a racing game, if someone wants a virtual drive around for a sunday drive then GT5 or TDU is the game, why do both? Personally i think alot of peple are gettng caught up in the whole "sim" hype...this game is a racing game...you want a sunday drive do not play Shift 2.......go and play GT5 or TDU!!

I wou;d hate for Simbin to waste time on trying to tone the game down.

I'm not seeing the waste of time. The helmet cam is the epitome of the racing simulation, that's what gives you most of the experience. But they still have the other views, the bumper cam, the hood cam, the non-shaky cockpit cam, the chase cam. Because people enjoy them too, and it takes little to no extra effort to include them.

Look to apex really only makes sense in a cockpit type view, where you have enough of the car around visible to orient yourself. It'd be pointless in chase cam, and horrible in bumper cam. I don't see why it's a big deal for them to take the look to apex code from helmet cam and put an option to use it in cockpit cam too.

I really don't see how this is toning the game down. If anything, it's providing an additional immersion feature (look to apex) that otherwise might not be used by some players because they don't like helmet cam. Personally, I doubt they'll do it because they'll want to promote people trying to get used to the helmet cam, and this might take away from that. But it doesn't take away from the point that options are usually good, and easy to implement options even more so.
 
GT5 is definitely running in 1080p.

It just isn't native. Some people place more value on just the phrase instead of understanding the difference between the vertical resolution itself, and the native (read: actual) horizontal and vertical resolution, which is referred to as everyone and their grandmother as "Full HD".

To go back to the original post:

No Full HD for consoles? In 2011? Great, just great. With all its many flaws, GT5 is 1080p. Is there a rational, technical, politically correct explanation for taking us gamers a couple of years back in terms of display resolution or are we just not worth it?

PS: For the record, 1080p utilizes 2¼ more pixels than 720p.

1280 x 720 = 921600

1280 x 1080 = 1382400 (1.50)

1920 x 1080 = 2073600 (2.25)

I think it's pretty clear what impression Sony were trying to convey by tossing around "1080" as GT5's resolution and a whole heap of people picked up on that (as above :)).

I think if we want to get into "native" we might as well throw in the towel and start counting antialias in resolution figures as well (you can't see it! but it's technically there! so it totally counts, no backsies! :)).

(ed - and it also comes to mind that GT5 gets a 50% increase in pixel resolution only if you drop antialias by 50% from 4x to 2x as well)

I don't know where "1080i" came from earlier though. That's just weird.
 
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Shift 2 looks pretty badass.

With this and Forza 4 coming up, Polyphony needs to start paying attention to the competition. I love Gran Turismo, and it's still unique in some ways, but in most ways it's being surpassed.
 
I'm not seeing the waste of time. The helmet cam is the epitome of the racing simulation, that's what gives you most of the experience. But they still have the other views, the bumper cam, the hood cam, the non-shaky cockpit cam, the chase cam. Because people enjoy them too, and it takes little to no extra effort to include them.

Look to apex really only makes sense in a cockpit type view, where you have enough of the car around visible to orient yourself. It'd be pointless in chase cam, and horrible in bumper cam. I don't see why it's a big deal for them to take the look to apex code from helmet cam and put an option to use it in cockpit cam too.

I really don't see how this is toning the game down. If anything, it's providing an additional immersion feature (look to apex) that otherwise might not be used by some players because they don't like helmet cam. Personally, I doubt they'll do it because they'll want to promote people trying to get used to the helmet cam, and this might take away from that. But it doesn't take away from the point that options are usually good, and easy to implement options even more so.

Sorry im mistaken, i thought you were asking for Simbin to tone then game down for gamers that didnt want to race rather more for gamers to leisurely take their time around different circuits or city's.
 
Well to be honest thats a video that I didnt like, because the rear wing of that corvette before that crash (must have had a crash before that one) seems to be floating (not attached) above the car, and thats a bug in my book. lets hope its one of the few.

Haha, well spotted. I didn't even notice the floating rear wing
 
Looks like DLC is not coming to PC yet again. They say there is "no good way to support it". Wonder what that means? People aren't smart enough to be able to download it on their own and it's too much investment to create a separate file for PC? Anyway, I'm guessing that these DLCs will be available through mods later, but it still sucks that PC users don't get the same treatment as console users. At least this quote makes me happy:
"Game looks really awesome on the PC, but I can't say that for the console versions where in fact it doesn't really look like it's improved much. PC however on a high resolution looks crisp and detailed."

Also this is a little weird: "Elite mode is basically just all assists off, including abs, traction control and driving line". I thought that it was basically more realistic physics, not just "assists off" mode, but I guess it makes sense - less work for SMS if they have only 1 single physics model used throughout the game.

Anyway, overall the game looks pretty promising and I'm excited to see how the final product will end up in a little more than a week now.
 
Looks like DLC is not coming to PC yet again. They say there is "no good way to support it". Wonder what that means? People aren't smart enough to be able to download it on their own and it's too much investment to create a separate file for PC? Anyway, I'm guessing that these DLCs will be available through mods later, but it still sucks that PC users don't get the same treatment as console users. At least this quote makes me happy:
"Game looks really awesome on the PC, but I can't say that for the console versions where in fact it doesn't really look like it's improved much. PC however on a high resolution looks crisp and detailed."

Also this is a little weird: "Elite mode is basically just all assists off, including abs, traction control and driving line". I thought that it was basically more realistic physics, not just "assists off" mode, but I guess it makes sense - less work for SMS if they have only 1 single physics model used throughout the game.

Anyway, overall the game looks pretty promising and I'm excited to see how the final product will end up in a little more than a week now.

**** 'em! I'm getting the game for PC for the awesome graphics. And if they don't wanna give DLC for me to buy, that's fine by me. It's just less money for them.
 
I'm getting the game for PS3 because I enjoyed the first Shift game. 👍 :dopey: Its a fun alternative to GT and for us guys who can't afford the XBox 360... its as close to a Forza like deal as we get. ;) --- Randy
 
Also this is a little weird: "Elite mode is basically just all assists off, including abs, traction control and driving line". I thought that it was basically more realistic physics, not just "assists off" mode, but I guess it makes sense - less work for SMS if they have only 1 single physics model used throughout the game.

Anyway, overall the game looks pretty promising and I'm excited to see how the final product will end up in a little more than a week now.

That makes me happy. I like that everyone is on the same physics, just with varying levels of assists. It means that there's no possibility of someone being able to go round a corner faster with assists on. They might be able to go round a corner at speed more easily and more consistently, but that's what assists are for, making life easier for less skilled players.
 
I was pretty pumped up about the Nov 24th release date for GT5. I think I am just as excited for this one. The only difference is that this looks more promising and complete.

Competitive A.I., the road is actually lit in the dark by headlights, great damage modeling, decent track selection, all premium cars, fully customizable car, great graphics, supported G25,G27 support(assuming), decent career mode, separate racing categories, and no b-spec (I am not buying to watch a computer race). Only thing to be determined is the physics.

I am glad I have a vacation day lined up for these release. The videos posted yesterday are a great motivator. I hope this tops GT5 to make PD step it up. I am not a Forza fan or player but I am sure they will step it up. PD, you can stay behind if you want to. Those that get left behind, struggle to catch up.
 
Hopefully, this ends up having great physics and being very successful. That might convince Codemasters to make Grid 2 in the same vein, Grid being another game that was promising but was crippled by substandard physics and a few other things. Then we would have Forza, Shift, Grid, and GT as substantial ongoing racing series, plus the specialist games like Dirt and F1 201x. Racing gamer's dream.
 
Some pictures that I took in the event (March 17 and 18):

Start the event:
img0174mg.jpg


Replays can save and share in Autolog (pictures, too)
img0206e.jpg


I take this picture after finish race in Catalunya (Z06). Display sectors.
During race lap after lap shows sector times
img0203x.jpg


Can mapping controls:
img0190og.jpg


Crash and damage. Seat Leon in Riviera track (Monte Grande)
img0181z.jpg



Next days I will upload a short night gameplay - Nordschleife - Elite mode
 
@FuriousDemon

Physics don't change do they? I mean in real life...

Assists like ABS or TCS do change and affect driving experience and these are just variables that must "interact" somehow inside the physics engine to reflect the changes in the handling

At least I hope so...
 
I love the shadows in the game, feels so much real.
With the damagemodels it will be fun to take photos after a accident.
 
Some pictures that I took in the event (March 17 and 18):


Next days I will upload a short night gameplay - Nordschleife - Elite mode


Dennis - would love to hear your impressions as to which console version is better and if you noted any differences + how well is the FFB implemented (and is T500RS wheel going to be supported on PS3 version?)

I'm trying to decide which platform to pre-order for........

Thanks!
 
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