As I announced a few weeks ago, Electronic Arts invited GTPlanet to a “community day” event for their latest driving game, Shift 2: Unleashed. I took them up on the offer, and I’m eager to share my impressions of the game. There’s a lot of eyes on Shift 2 after the series’ first title, billed as a realistic simulator, was highly criticized by “sim racers” for its too-friendly physics. According to EA’s marketing, these issues have been addressed, going so far as to call it “the most realistic racer ever”.
Where I’m Coming From
First, some perspective. I consider the most important thing about any driving game to be its physics model and how it communicates what the car is doing via force-feedback in the steering wheel. I spent my time with Shift 2 on a PC with a Logitech Driving Force GT, and my following impressions have all been derived from that experience. I played the game exclusively in “Elite” physics mode, all driving aids off (with the exception of ABS). Gameplay will be significantly different with a controller, so please take that into consideration before reading further.
What Shift 2 Is Really All About
Since the game was first announced, EA has claimed it wants Shift 2 to provide an “authentic driving experience”. This is best summed up in a quote by EA’s Colin Blackwood during an interview with MCV:
“With Shift 2 Unleashed, we aim to redefine sim racing so that fans get as close to the feeling of real racing as possible. [...] The game will still embody the core values of Need for Speed but we want to establish Shift as our clearly defined simulation racer.”
This sort of language is a source of confusion among sim-racing fans, because we all have such a wide range of expectations for what a “racing simulator” is. Many, for example, consider games such as Forza or Gran Turismo to be on the far end of the “simulation” scale. Others, who have played PC simulators such as rFactor, iRacing, and netKar PRO, expect a “simulator” to provide tire pressure settings, laser-scanned tracks, and extremely challenging physics that demand your full attention.
Shift 2‘s lead developer Andy Tudor touched on this while talking with us at this media event. On the scale of “racing games”, he placed Shift 2 somewhere between the more arcade Need for Speed titles and games such as Forza and GT. After spending a significant amount of time with the game, I think that’s a spot-on description. This game doesn’t match their driving physics, but it’s not really supposed to. Shift 2‘s “realism” instead focuses on the gritty, violent, rough experience that is driving a race car around a race track, and it does an amazing job of it.
Who This Game is For
I can already see the comments from smug “hard-core sim racers” on blogs and forums around the web: “So this game is just the same **** as before? **** that **** ******* *******”. If you’re expecting the game to “feel” like GT5 or your favorite PC sim of choice then, yes, you will be disappointed. If you’re looking for a fun, immersive racing game you can pick up and start playing, you’re in for a treat.
Dismissing this game for its physics is akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water – it introduces some very cool new features to the genre that other developers would be wise to take note of.
So Much to Love

You’ve got to hand it to Slightly Mad Studios’ for their selection of cars in Shift 2. Have a look over the complete list and you’ll find Caterham, Porsche, Alpina, Radical, classic M3′s, the new Pagani Huayra, and nearly every other contemporary sports car you’d expect (with the exception of Ferrari). All of them feature fully-modeled interiors and all can be upgraded to race-spec “Works” editions. The damage is extremely impressive, featuring cracked glass, crumpled, detachable body panels, and wheels torn off in violent shunts. The graphics – on the PC version at least – are among the best I’ve ever seen.
The track list is also well rounded, featuring classics such as the Nurburgring (the GP course and the Nordschleife), Laguna Seca, Suzuka, and Monza, and other popular real-world circuits such as Mount Panorama (Bathurst), Road America, Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Spa Francorchamps, Circuit de Catalunya, and many more.
The menus are fast and easy to navigate, and there’s a wide range of tuning options. Players coming from GT5 will particularly appreciate the ability to save multiple setups for each car, for each track. The game’s new “Autolog” functionality is also a slick implementation of the game’s social features, which allow you to directly compare your own progress and hot laps against friends. Better yet, EA is about to bring Autolog to your mobile phone via an iOS application that will alert you if a friend bests your lap time on a given track.
AI in Shift 2 is extremely impressive – they’re aggressive, but clean. The other driver’s performance is “dynamic”, and will adapt to your performance. If you’re struggling, your competition will also make more mistakes to keep the competition close, but they’ll pick up the pace as your skill improves.
The Driving Physics
There’s been a lot of discussion of the new “Elite” physics mode introduced in Shift 2. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it particularly challenging with a steering wheel. With a Logitech Driving Force GT, cars often felt “floaty”, as if it was difficult to keep the car pointed straight. I found this to be less of an issue with older, heavier cars, which provided a more rewarding driving experience.
Regardless, it was difficult to “feel” where the tires were at in terms of lateral grip. There was little communication through the wheel’s force feedback in corners, and the surprisingly unpleasant tire squeal sound was either “on” or “off” – as if it was activated only after the tires had exceeded their limit. These are two of the most important indicators of how hard you’re pushing a car in a video game, and they’re sorely missed in Shift 2.
I also found there to be a general lack of oversteer in the physics model, most noticeable in powerful, rear-wheel drive cars. I took a Shelby Cobra 427 to Road America with stock tires, for example, and found it difficult to create any power-induced oversteer. I experienced this same unnatural level of grip while testing the Corvette C6R and many other cars.
It’s Fun

Despite a physics engine which will leave sim-racers wanting more (ok, a lot more), this is a fun, exciting, and intense driving game. Without doubt, the Shift series is definitely headed in the right direction. I had an absolute blast racing with other members of the press during the many LAN races held in the EA offices, and that’s what really matters.
Head on over to our Shift forum for more discussion!
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AVOID THIS GAME AT ALL COSTS. I bought this for PS3 and graphics are grainy, steering sucks and vehicle selection is poor. I had this game for 10 mins and was going to sell it back to Gamestop but they would only give me 23 dollars for it. I sold it on ebay for $45. THIS GAME SUCKS! Its all about the GT5!!!!!!
The patch is out, you can DL even with the PSN down.
Shift 2 talk on GTPlanet, I feel like I’m in an episode of the Twilight Zone, a really really bad episode.
There is a post on the EA Forums saying the game acts like it does because they put something in called an autocounter to make drifting easier. Maybe the patch will address that.
Try drifting with a controller and then report back.
Play the game setup correctly? I play on Elite setting with no Aids other than ABS and On level Hard. I’ve fooled around with controller settings for nearly an Hour. Don’t tell me about playing on the right settings. I can care less what setting you use, there is no substitution for eliminating the floating feel. It’s either there in the game or it’s not. In Shift 2, cars are floaty…end of story.
Go look at the comments on all the Shift 2 videos if you think I and a couple of other people here are the only ones saying Shift 2′s physics suck. Lot of people are even saying it’s the same as Shift 1, but with better graphics and new cars. Even the games Led Developer doesn’t even place it in the realm of Forza and GT and here you are arguing that it’s got more Realism than GT5….LOL.
I’m done, that was my last transmission on this issue. It’s fun, but lets not kid ourselves on what this “Arcade Game” is about. It’s not physics.
@Dragonitti:I agree with you. I like Shift 2. But I hate how Streaker and EA say that it has the best driving physics. I guess streaker will always worship this game because he has nothing better to do in his life than be a fanboy. This is my last comment on this topic. I have a life, and am not like streaker who stays at home on his computer or game consol 24/7 playing shift 2. I guess it sucks to be streaker, no friends, no life.
BEST RACING EXPERIENCE, not BEST PHYSICS. And I’d take my life and friends over yours in a heartbeat the piston/pistonhead. Go back to your car that is 100 PP over all the other cars the AI drivers have and think you are racing, roflol. Some ‘life’ you got there.
Sorry man, the graphics are cartoonish at best. This is on the PS3 I’m talking about. Jordan’s review mentions that they are great on the PC. Very close to quality of Premium cars in GT5? LOL…my eyes aren’t the ones that need checking on that. GT5 runs at 60fps. Shift 2 runs at 30fps. PLEASE do tell how a less fps and less polygon per car game is going to be close to that of GT5? What is the Polygon count of Shift 2′s cars anyone? Sorry the setup online being real REAL racing can be looked at as having restrictions. GT5′s online gives you the ability to free roam. Not everyone go online to race. Some go to have a community gathering…that’s what the point of having room titles is about. Don’t go into a drift room and expect to do grip racing! That’s common sense. Don’t go in a “Free Roaming” titled room and complain why the Host hasn’t started the race yet. There are PLENTY of rooms that run back to back to back races without delay. The title of them say so. Spinning out in GT5 unrealistic? Slap on a set of slicks to your car (if you have one) and run them in the grass at 40+mph and tell me how much grip you have. The grip level in Shift 2 (as Jordan mentioned in the article above) is higher than it should be. It’s constant grip which is unrealistic. However, hit a rumble strip in Shift 2 and it’s instant loss of traction which is Unrealistic. Some rumble strips are a bit slippery at real tracks, but not EVERY SINGLE TRACK..lol. I have hit the Rumbles at Roebling Road and Nashville Super Speedway. Never lost an ounce of grip on my Kuhmo V710′s.
Poor selection of tracks in GT5? Compared to Shift 2, GT5′s tracks are vastly superior. Take Suzuka for example. Shift 2′s Suzuka is not even CLOSE to the real representation of the track. The corners are all wrong, the angles/camber/radius…are completely off in the 130R turn. Turns 8 and 9 are WAY OFF compared to the real life track. Don’t mention tracks unless the tracks are accurate. Even if GT5 had only 5 tracks to race on, I’d take that over 10 Falsely modeled tracks in another game. And just for the record on this Fanboy thing. I own NFS Shift 1, 2, Underground, GT3-5, GRID and I’ll be picking up Dirt3 when it comes out next month. I don’t just race in the GT series only thank you.
PS…Streaker, no need to change my name to try and insult me. I didn’t insult you during our conversation, I would like the same respect in return. I’m to old to play name calling.
You can’t say a thing about the game play in Shift 2 until you play the game set up correctly, which I seriously doubt you have. It totally changes the game play and feel of the game. And unlike GT5, where you feel like you are driving to the grocery store, and there are oil slicks in unexpected places on the track where you will lose control, it feels like real RACING, which ALL the reviews, even the bad ones point out, squealing tires, dirt being thrown around, oil on the windshield, even balls of rubber from tires littering the track. Even the reviewer here, Jason, says he enjoyed the game. I’m going back to enjoying a racing experience. You can go back to your relatively sterile milk run.
Lol, I like this game, and even i’d say streaker is full of crap. Heck, by now everyone here knows streaker is full of it. Even a fanboy wouldn’t try this hard.
From what some of his posts say, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t even have the game. Obvious bad trollin, nothing more…….
@Streaker:I said i like NFS and I love driving games, LOL learn how to read dumb ass. Good physics some of the time ? LOL I guess you don’t have GT5. I’d rather have real tracks that are precise than all shifts fake real tracks that were rendered in like 5 minutes. Just look at GT5′s Nurburgring, very accurate. Unlike NFS Shi*t 2′s tracks which EA call REAL TRACKS. Heck, look at you all you’re comment’s fail. Everyone here has proved you wrong. So if you didn’t start your bull sh*t in the first place, you wouldn’t be in this mess fanboy.LOL, I’m still laughing at your bull shi*t comment’s, your unrealistic wannabe SIMULATOR has failed you badly. And you said about oil slicks in unexpected places.LOL, that tells me that you have never drove a car in your life dumb ass. I guess you have no friends and you WORSHIP your Shi*t 2 in your spare time, what do you do with it? Have rituals. LOL who’s the fanboy now ?
All you have proved to me is that you are annoying, that is about all. I have not seen one factual thing out of you, just your biased opinions.
ROFLMBO! The irony of that last post borders on epic….XD
In real life, Getting more for a car than what you paid for? Ha…Not from a smart buyer you won’t. Unless it’s something like a Supra which are more expensive used than they were brand new a lot of the times. But that’s because it’s an Iconic vehicle.
Every car dealer in America sells cars for more then they gave on trade or paid for at auction.
He’s talking about secondary sales after a car leaves the dealer the first time and goes from new to used.
New car dealers buy used at a reduced price, not full original sticker, and they sell at market value (also in most cases well below org sticker) unless some sucker comes and gives them more without knowing what they’re doing. The orriginal owner certainly doesn’t get more than they payed new that way, and often, after pre resale maintenance and prep, dealers are lucky to break even. Purchasing someone’s trade in is how dealers get people into buying new, not how they necessarily make a profit.
Dealers that deal entirely in used cars genneraly cheat the buyer has much has possible, with as little investment has possible, and selling has many cars has they can to people who fall under the “not a smart buyer’ catagory. They particularly like to target “bad credit/no credit” buyers with “cheap” prices, knowing that those buyer will either default, letting the dealer to sell the car multiple times, or they can nail the buyer with interest over the long term, which can earn a profit over the initial investment, but it often just goes right back to covering dealer exspenses. The orriginal owner still doesn’t make a profit over the org price, and many dealers fail because they don’t make a profit over the resale of their inventory in the long term either.
Where both kinds of dealers, when successful, tend to make the profits, is in post sales maintenance as customers bring cars back for servicing, not on actual used sales. His overall point is sound has it pertains to the secondary car market.
@Dragonitti: I absolutely agree with your comments. Theres no point replying to streakers retarded comments. He will always be proved wrong. People like streaker are nothing but fanboys who don’t have a life. Streaker will always be proved wrong, no point wasting your time and energy on him.
You work for Sony don’t you? And I’d put my IQ test up against yours anytime. Fanboy? Look in the mirror, you and you buddy Dragonuts are the fanboys. And you haven’t proved anything except your blind love for GT5 and hatred of anything else. Get out of the basement sometime and learn something.
@Streaker:LOL your the real fanboy, but your too stubborn to admit it.LOL do I really care about IQ?And you’re calling me a fanboy, get your brain checked out,heck I love driving games and I love NFS but hate how EA said that this game has the ”Most advanced driving physics EVER”.And what you say about the physics and how real they are in NFS, that shows that you are a fanboy who knows nothing about cars or how they work or drive.LOL Me and people like Dragonitti have proved a lot of points like the fact that your a fanboy and that the driving physics of Shift 2 SUCKS. So I guess you need to get out and learn to grow up, I’m laughing my ass right now, I don’t even know but form the looks of your comments, I’d reckon that you should get a job interview to work for EA, I think you’d easily pass that considering how much of a fanboy you are.
I like GT5, Grid, TDU2, GT, etc.. You call every game but GT arcade, as if its perfect and all others aren’t worthy. And yet you probably have only played GT and have no clue about any other game, but they all suck in comparison anyway according to you. Now WHO is the fanboy? You feel like you are some kind of an expert on dissing everything not GT, only GT is great, all else sucks. And because another fanboy agrees with you, it proves you are right? ROFOL Dude, you are soooooo wrong on sooooo many levels. I’m going back to do more REALISTIC racing, hint, its not on GT5 with its little “thunk” when hit, unrealistic damage, unrealistic cockpit cam, unexplained spin outs and poor AI. Good physics some of the time and 1/5 of the cars looking great doesn’t cut it, especially when the game was in development for years and had $70 million poured into it. You are a fanboy who settled for an inferior racing experience in a game where 4/5 of the cars weren’t finished with a poor selection of real world tracks that all games released since beats. Deal with it.
@ Streaker
I’ve spent 3 days playing it to give it the benefit of the doubt. Who draws a conclusion on a game after only a couple of hours of playing…sorry didn’t see your point in my 3 days of playing.
If you think the floating of cars is gone because of these settings, then you have never driven a car. If you have, then you don’t know what it’s like to drive a car to the limits on a race track.
The selling of your car and reaping the money back from mods doesn’t happen in the real world, but it’s a nice touch to the game. The customization of cars…just like Forza….is the only thing these other games ever have over GT5. They drop the ball everywhere else. The race tracks are not accurate, the physics are so unrealistic, the graphics are lower than that of the Standard cars in GT5 (cartoon looking), over exaggerated steering, over exaggerated cars when they slide off track sideways. You can slide off the track at 10mph and STILL flip the car. That’s ridiculous, tuned performance suspension, tires..etc. cars in real life, go off track all the time. How many times do you see them doing 5 barrel rolls just because they went off sideways? I like the game for one reason, and thats to see how creative I can be with making my car look good. As soon as I start driving it though, I get pissed off at how sucky it really is. If you want a Car Show, then Shift 2 is a Great game. If you want a Race though…GT5 destroys this game. I haven’t been online (online) yet, but it makes me wonder the demographic it caters to…those boy racers who like to drive backwards on the race track rather than enjoying competition from precision driving, just might make my online play annoying. I heard there is no drifting mode online. I’ll verify that sometime today.
In GT5, many cars can’t be sold, also unreal. Since you only get a couple grand for winning a race, conserving money by allowing you to get all you can back was an alternative to say, not having B Spec mirroring the entire game as a method for grinding. And sometimes, in real life, you can get more for your car then you paid for it. Shift 2 shows many areas lacking in GT5, from what GT5 started, tuning, to what the inside of a car really looks like at 150 mph when you hit a wall. And if you think the graphics are bad, you need your eyes checked. Most reviews say the exact opposite. Granted, for some reason the graphics in the garage are not anywhere near on the track, and you can test that by taking photos in a race vs in the garage. In a race, they are very close in quality to premium GT5. And FYI, you can’t go backwards online, the game won’t let you, it corrects you in 10 seconds. Racing online is just that, RACING, it isn’t sitting around waiting for a host to make up their mind, its real REAL racing. Another thing, I don’t find myself spinning out all the time for no reason like I do in GT5. I was online in GT5 with a pro racing instructor who said that was one of the the things in GT5 that is so unrealistic, the sudden car instability. This guy races Porsche, American Iron, Mazda Cup, etc.. He said that the in cockpit was more realistic in Shift and unlike the 3 drivers in the Shift videos, isn’t paid to say that.
@Streaker,GT5 is a game that simulates driving not selling cars. Yah SURE, a race driver said that NFS Shift 2′s cockpit view is better. You know what, the cockpit view is more like an over exaggerated pile of crap. Turning a normal race into a Michael Bay action movie. You haven’t said anything about the driving physics of the game which sucks. Who is this GUY your talking about? You haven’t mentioned his name in your comment. The graphics are crap, the lighting effects look crap. The cars look like they are made from plastic. You are really sad waisting your time writing these retarded comments. LOL as I’ve said before get a life. It’s like this game is your Mum or something that you feel really offended over comments LOL you need to grow up.
@Piston
Yes in GT5 you can buy cars but dont sell, very logic, and the graphics are waay important, not the “whole feeling”.
It’s like this game is your Mum or something that you feel really offended over comments LOL you need to grow up. LOL LOL
@ Streaker
I’m playing with the DS3 not a wheel. And don’t write it off as “you need to buy a wheel then”, cause that’s a bandaid answer as I can “FEEL” the road with a DS3 while playing GT5. Wheel or No wheel, Shift 2′s road surface feel is that of driving on air or ice however you want to look at it. Cars are Extremely floaty. And the Drift mode…OMG…absolutely ridiculous. The word Physics and Shift 2 don’t belong in the same sentence. At first I thought little things like the dirt kicking up on the road and giving you sound when you run over it was cool at first. I thought it was a nice little touch. After a while though, I couldn’t help but to think it sounded like a Horse Trotting around the stock yard.
Well, I have to say, it was not as good as I thought it would be initially. Then I started adjusting the wheel settings, someone had put some up here and afterward it was much better, the floaty feeling was pretty much gone that everyone is complaining about, different cars handle differently and feel of each car is different. So much so that like in GT5, the Lotus MR are harder to drive, the 4wd like the GT-R are more stable, the Shelby 427 Cobra is touchy. All similar to GT5. Its better in cockpit mode, the Autolog is a blast, has all your friends on it and shows how they are doing on the same track. Lots of livery options, paint, decal, wheel and the tuning, a thousand times better then GT5 in what you can do as with the upgrades. You sell a car you get ALL the money back including for the upgrades. For a program that was in development 1/5 the time as GT5 its a lot closer to GT5 then an arcade game and in several areas surpasses GT5. I’m having fun as are all my friends, all who I met through GT5.
Don’t be blind that intent of a game is no near close as a substitute of GT5, it’s like sim for kids with very weird LOL
What do you think GT5 is? Thank you for letting me drive without a license. Notice she is playing GT5.
She’s not playing anything. Images are always added post production.
I guess it’s truly the Marketing/PR campaign that’s got me upset about Shift 2. I was expecting GT5 caliber physics due to the ads they were putting out. What I got was not even in the same dimension as GT5.
If I was not spun up to that level of expectation then I wouldn’t have fallen so far down the ladder of disappointment to be upset with what was delivered.
@Streaker
Dude, I got the game. I’ve been playing it for the past 3 days. First off, I’ve had to restart my PS3 3-4 times due to game Glitches and freezing. In GT5…People EXPLOIT game code, but the game itself does not glitch. Big difference between a Glitch and an Exploit. And the Cars in GT5 you actually FEEL them, you FEEL the rubber variations, you FEEL the surface changes in tracks, you FEEL when you dip into the dirt, you FEEL the difference between FWD, RWD and AWD cars, and cars have a unique FEEL between them. If you haven’t played Shift 2 yet, then I advice you to Rent it first and not buy it. If you make your game buying decisions solely from reviews then you are a follower rather than someone who thinks for themselves. Shift 2 is completely about the Visuals and that’s about it. And no you do NOT have a totaled car in Shift 2 after you hit something. You just have a VISUALLY ugly looking one now. The Mechanical damage is completely Watered down. You can flip a car several times (which flipping cars is over exaggerated to begin with) and yet not even so much as bend a tie rod. Your car still drives straight as soon as it’s reset on the track automatically by the game. Try flipping in GT5 and see how far you can finish the race after that (granted you play with Heavy damage like I do).
You need to adjust your wheel settings. If you can’t feel the difference in the road, the gator teeth, the areas on the London map, sand vs the track, ect.. you have either set you wheel up wrong or have a bad wheel. Try Jonesy’s settings, they are better then how it ships. And I had corrupt data in GT5. GT5 has been out 5 months and we are on version 1.09, I think? Obviously they didn’t ship a perfect game either. And if the game sucks so much, why have you spent 3 days playing? ROFLOL
For those that have the game and want a more GT Feel:
all deadzones at 0
steering sensitivity 15
throttle sensivity 70
brake sensitivity 66
speed sensitivity 90
I do not believe GT5 to be a driving simulator, it is a racing simulator. If it was a driving simulator you would be driving on streets with lights and signs. There is no open road in GT5. It is all race tracks and you are timed like you are racing hence it is a racing sim. That being said only 1.7 percent of the cars in the game can be upgraded to a race mode.
NFS Shift 2 is a racing sim as well, but it has better tracks and all the cars are worth playing with.
IN GT5 I have found myself in a low powered car rwd and having to monitor the back end all the time because it is stepping out (oversteer). This would almost never happen in real life on a track. I race a low powered car and I try to get the back end out come out to rotate the car.
Any way I will play both more and see how I feel a few weeks from now and which one stand on top and why.
You need to learn to tune your vehicles the proper way then. That or drive better. Shift 2 is not a Racing SIM. It is an Arcade Racer. I have the game. The physics are not worthy of the SIM title sorry…
And you are incorrect. If you apply to much throttle in a RWD car you will power over and the ass will step out on you. Enter a turn to fast even in a FWD car without downforce on the rear and it will step out on you. I race on the track on a monthly basis. I’ve done Time Attack as well as Drifting competitions.
Dear PD,
taking a look at NFS:Shift 2 the only thing i have to say about that game is…THEY KNOW HOW TO PICK RACING TRACKS!
Bathurst, Brands Hatch, Brno, Catalunya, Dijon, Donington, Dubai, Ebisu, Hockenheim (although its the ruined version), Road America, Silverstone, SPA!!!, Willow Springs & Zolder aswell as everything thats in GT5. How could you let NFS have better tracks? :cry’s whilst cutting himself:
EA NEED FIX CAR HANDLING ( THE CAR’S MOVEMENT
IS UNPREDICTABLE IN CORNER’S ) in their first patch !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Metacritic score of GT5, again, summing up all reviews, 84.
Metacritic score of rFactor, again, summing up all reviews, 78. LOL LOL
78 is about right for that game. Its a great game because some of the MODS are great, but the original is ok. Speaking of Mods, 2 were out for Shift 2 on PC the day it released.
The recent patch to 1.02 has it running somewhere physics wise between GT5 Prologue and GT5. Vast improvement. Its not just me, people even here are posting how great the game is after the patch.