NFS Shift 2 Unleashed - Details

  • Thread starter LittleLefty
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I'm sorry, but if we don't TALK about things like this, what on earth is EA/SMS's incentive to fix them? Remember, this thread is about Shift2. I don't expect a patch to Shift1. You want things to remain the same forever, best way to go about that is excuse the behavior and pillory those that CAN be bothered to even talk about it.

There are several ways that lurkers could be booted automatically. A minimum speed, for instance. I am sure, if anyone (especially the game developers) were even the SLIGHTEST bit bothered, they could come up with something that works. Anyway, lurkers are the LEAST of our problems. You don't want to mention anything about flagrant track cutting (easily cured) you don't mention flagrant ramming (a tad harder, but I can think of several ways it can be penalized, and I'm sure you do too). For starters, a simple change to how easy it is to get to Level 50 and beat the World Tour would allow level as a filter. One thing that is apparent in GT5. Some of the challenges are VERY hard to beat.

A simple filter based on what Challenges you've beaten would easily preclude 90% of the idiots. A filter that precludes players who have never got a 'Clean Race' award would have done it in Shift. Some VERY simple stuff in Shift would have made forming Clean Racer clubs unnecessary. And your choice of racing partners would increase dramatically without ANY effort on your behalf. I don't always play online at the same time, same day, same schedule. Like MANY players, I race only when I can. When that doesn't coincide with when a clean racer community wants to organize something, well, I'm out of luck, or can maybe get two or three people online that I trust, tops...

The whole POINT of online matchmaking is that ANYONE should be able to race with his peers at any time he chooses. I simply don't get it. I understand that I'm at the website of a community that DOES organize clean racing, but you have to understand, I don't believe you are in the majority. I am sure there are MANY, many players that gave up on the game simply because they couldn't stand the piñata-fest that online became. I came close many times. Basically, if you aren't FAR out ahead of the pack, you might as well quit. And finding a clean club that races at the time YOU want to race, with the cars YOU want to race, on the courses YOU want to race is an exercise in frustration.

Guys, I'm sorry, but I don't much care one way or the other whether you agree with me or not. There's the slim chance that someone from SMS lurks here occasionally. And it's to THEM that I'm primarily addressing. After all is said and done, ONLY they can make a difference. But, bottom line, if you DON'T agree that some clean racing filters as an option would improve the game, I'm afraid I have to ask....

WHY NOT..?

Clean driving clubs are not part of the solution. They are part of the problem. They distract players from making their wishes for clean participation loud and clear. I mean, if they DIDN'T want to race clean, they wouldn't form them and join them. From that, it's obvious that's what those players REALLY want. I simply feel that, rather than join a 'dirty' game and self police (it doesn't work well), the GAME should police it.

There are stewards in real racing. They don't leave it to the drivers, for the same reason. Drivers don't see dispassionately once the 'red mist' comes down, and have a VERY limited view of the action from inside their cockpit. The smaller clubs that can't afford stewards, at least the COST of damage repair makes everyone drive clean(ish!). Shift has neither.

I'm sorry, guys, but GT5's online system allows the Lobby former to set rules, set conditions, and boot those that disobey those that the game itself doesn't preclude (try driving off track on GT5 - you hit an invisible barrier, a solution I suggested AGES ago to EA). Either you are right, and PD/Sony (and me) are completely wrong, or it's time to hold EA/SMS to the same high standards that make the GT community the strongest in the business.

You want ANOTHER arcade game that you are going to have to organize yourself into tiny little groups just to mitigate the idiotic holes in the rules of racing left in (either deliberately or through no-one asking them to do something about it), well, I'm sorry, but you are doing the EXACT thing to accomplish it.

Hold EA's feet to the fire (you now at least have a valid alternative which you didn't at Shift1's launch) and the loopholes MIGHT get fixed. Excuse them, shrug your shoulders and say that there's nothing that CAN be done (despite all the evidence of your eyes), and attack those that DO care enough about the game to bring it up at places like this and Shift's own forum, and I GUARANTEE that nothing will be done about it.

But hey! - maybe you DO like playing chess with all queens... :crazy:
 
Just hope EA won't screw things up this time, just leave SMS alone and let them do their jobs.

I played Shift (PC) with lots of mods installed after a few minutes of "stock" version play. The mods fixed driving physics (stop cars from floating around), graphics (delete the stupid bloom effects), AI behaviors (less aggressive), replay camera positions (TV camera style), etc.
 
Few bits of info dropping from SMS's account on virtualr:

"The race and drift physics use the same system now. We have made changes to the input system and we bump the power a little in drift to make it possibly in lower powered cars, but apart from that, they now use the same code all the way."


"30 FPS is console specific. I'm running a nice steady 60 on PC here. We have though completely rewritten the render to be deferred. This allows us multiple lights among other things but the ability of the engine to allow multiple shadows casting and cascading from all objects is where we're really pushing the limits with it. It will need a better PC than Shift but in exchange you get the best looking racer on PC (in our humble opinion) plus a physics engine running at 360Hz."


"Yup, lots of tuning. All cars can be upgraded all the way to Works level.

The handling is more challenging, and more fun IMO."


"We'd love to do a crazy sim with crazy sim features down to the fluid dynamic level. The problem is publishers don't want to pay for them right now. We're aiming to beat GT5 in the sim stakes on the consoles though this time."


"We've reworked the FFB so it transmits the effects directly from the steering column in a different way than before. It's a big improvement. "


"[...]The problem is that top line games (ie those that compete with the competition) cost 10-25 million dollars. It's hard to get that together to own your own IP. We have some cool concepts though and all being well you'll be hearing of some new stuff from us starting soon."


"We've made huge strides in the physics for Shift 2. The elite mode is the best racing I've ever had. "


"We read every forum pretty much. Initially it would get to us but we've learned that even those cursing us are at least giving us attention, showing some passion and have a desire for something that fills their niche so we take the rough with the smooth now.

We do try to please the community as much as we can within the remit's we're set. When you work for a publisher they do call the shots but EA are giving us more rope this time around and I think things have moved in the direction the community wants."


"The AI is all new. We've worked very hard on it and the general feeling is it rocks."

"As well as the helmet cam there is a more forward positioned cockpit cam. The head physics on the latter a bit less dynamic for us pipe and rocking chair guys."

"This area has all been transformed. We use real time reflections (at runtime fps) blended with an IBL sphere as well as dynamic AO and other trickery. We're pushing the limits of the consoles. The expectation is we'll use more than 95% of all the SPU power of the PS3 as well a maxing out the GPU and PPU."
 
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SMS should start developing race games independently from any publisher that calls the shots.
 
WOW, the inside guy on VirtualR gives a lot of interresting feedback, hope it will shows in the final game and all this won't just another viral PR crap operation.
 
The one thing I enjoyed with shift over gt5 is the sound one the cars when in the cockpit, with the gear box squealing away and heavy engine noise really added to the realism to it. Always been a huge GT fan since day one and never thought id say this but if shift 2 is better than one with a better physics engine and car handling it would be better than GT5. Dont get me wrong GT5 is #$%^ing sweet in most areas just lacking in the areas little area that shift made up in. Plus if Shift 2 has Barthurst and V8 supercars id be sold.
 
The new stuff sounds great to me too, but the thing I was most stoked about was getting some confirmation that at least someone at sms has at some point looked at the major fixpacks (brake bias, collision stutter, unofficial community patch) and is hopefully aware that those bugs exist :)
 
boxox
The new stuff sounds great to me too, but the thing I was most stoked about was getting some confirmation that at least someone at sms has at some point looked at the major fixpacks (brake bias, collision stutter, unofficial community patch) and is hopefully aware that those bugs exist :)
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How do you know so much about shift 2?

Everytime I see that you posted in this thread, I come to read it because I value your posts.
 
In the case of the above post it's because I posted those at the SMS account and got a response out of them :)

I don't have any connection to SMS or EA. Some stuff is just educated guesses based on what they've said - eg talking about "making night tracks rather than day tracks at night" automatically implies that they are using deferred shading, then the SMS account pops up and says the night tracks are using deferred shading. That's pretty obvious stuff. For other things you can get a fair idea of where they were headed by picking apart the .exe and data structure of Shift 1, if I see them talk about making the game more as they want it than what EA wanted last time, there are some very clear signposts to deleted features that you can see them wanting to pick back up this time around.
 
From hearing them talk about their relationship with EA, I think it's more to do with physics bullet-point features than math. EA will not take Shift to a point where it is significantly neckbeard-ier than GT5 or Forza 3. If GT5 does car damage and sells a lot of copies, they can petition EA that this is not a pointless feature that puts people off and only harms sales.
 
Someone at SMS needs to sit down for an entire DAY, and ONLY play random online games on Shift1 (and play with an uncompetitive car, so they can't mitigate the problem by being so far ahead, they never even SEE the problems).

Perhaps THEN, the frustration of being used as a piñata by 12 year olds might FINALLY get them to see reason about some basic RULES that the game (not some Friends club) enforces. Oh, and being beaten at Silverstone by several seconds a lap by a driver willing to debase themselves and flagrantly cut the track chicanes, or plowing into a blue box left on the track by some idiot from the first lap (they remove track obstacles in real racing - ever notice that? :rolleyes: ), or seeing someone go into the kitty litter and hardly lose any speed at all, or watching someone mass round the outside using the Aramco as a help MIGHT get them to see what needs working on a BLOODY sight more than getting the nuances of what night racing looks JUST like. After all, if the little kiddies can't drive well in the daytime (or don't want to), what on earth makes you think they are going to get any better driving at night?:dopey:
 
boxox
From hearing them talk about their relationship with EA, I think it's more to do with physics bullet-point features than math. EA will not take Shift to a point where it is significantly neckbeard-ier than GT5 or Forza 3. If GT5 does car damage and sells a lot of copies, they can petition EA that this is not a pointless feature that puts people off and only harms sales.
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Still not getting it, are you, boxox..? Even in GT5, damage is OPTIONAL, online.

No game company on the planet is going to cut their throats by making a game so hard, no-one except utter hard-core racers will play it. But the WISE game companies allow OPTIONAL rules that make the game hard enough to filter out noobs.

You want to make a profit across the board, you let BOTH the noobs and neckbeards play happily without too much interaction. Remember, a sizable chunk of the kids that LOVED bashing cars in Shift are now doing it in Seacrest County. And they AREN'T COMING BACK. If the neckbeards don't pick up the slack, where are the sales going to come from? One of the MAIN gripes I heard continually over at the EA Shift forum was... 'Where are the cops? Where are the chases? Where are the shortcuts?'. Those players aren't coming back for more of the same...

But now Shift actually HAS a 'real' racing game to compete with it, it had BETTER get a damn sight more neckbeardier, at least at the OPTIONAL level. The bar HAS been set. Shift2 has some great things going for it. But SMS are going to be making a big mistake making an arcade track racing game, when arcade players prefer HP. If they want a PIECE of the GT5 pie, they are going to HAVE to put a little GT5 neckbeardness in there, too!
 
There's actually a quite limited timeframe where I'm going to put up with being the target of rants like that, thanks. I'm not sure you're quite coping here, do you understand the difference between a post explaining things that are likely to happen and things I would personally like to happen? I'm not sure you understand much about anything once that red mist descends.
 
looking foward to this and to do some online championships with the guys I usually race with and have great fun.

great posts boxox after reading them Im even more eager to play the game ;)
 
Really enjoyed racing in the first SHIFT and how immersive it was. The helmet cam is drawing most of my attention.
 
Oh - I get it.... YOUR points are reasoned, mine are rants..? :rolleyes:

Reasonable men can agree to disagree. The rest just slander their fellow posters.

The problem is, your points were based on a FALLACY. There is no mandatory damage in GT5. There should be none in Shift. But, just like GT5, it should be an OPTION in the online game, set by the Lobby creator.
 
Off topic


Destinkeys and boxox can you please stop this ridiculous discussion. I'm asking nicely!

It's not interesting anymore to see the both of you insulting each other all the time. Or even better, use the PM system ;)

Everytime I see a post posted in this thread I get somewhat exicted to see what news there is on Shift 2 unleashed. Every time I'm disappointed to see that it is the both of you discussing a stupid point.
 
I HATE EA and these stupid limited edition policies... so, No Murcielago for NORMAL edition??? It would be really cruel to not have one of these landmark car in the NORMAL edition (I don't want to spend a dime more for these EA Money suckers)... What next? still the awful "ghettoisation" of the other media for the privilege of the Ferraris? like in S1?
 
Dude27
I HATE EA and these stupid limited edition policies... so, No Murcielago for NORMAL edition??? It would be really cruel to not have one of these landmark car in the NORMAL edition (I don't want to spend a dime more for these EA Money suckers)... What next? still the awful "ghettoisation" of the other media for the privilege of the Ferraris? like in S1?
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Where did you read that? no murcielado for normal Shift edition?
 
No it sounds like they just don't need to be 'unlocked' by progressing through the career. What I'm more interested in are the new races.

"We are extremely excited to announce the SHIFT 2 Unleashed™ Limited Edition available only through preorder. The Limited Edition includes instant access to three exclusive cars plus an additional 40 career race events. The cars are:

Nissan Silvia spec.R Aero (S15)
Alfa Romeo Giulietta QV
Lamborghini Murciélago LP640

The 40 exclusive career race events are designed to push your skills to the limit as you'll have to compete in Single-Type races with the same make of car; Old vs. New challenge events where classic cars go head-to-head against their modern counterparts; and Manufacturer Showdown events that relive some of the most iconic car rivalries in an all-out-battle to prove which car is the best.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to get access to this exclusive content, pre-order the SHIFT 2 Unleashed Limited Edition today from the EA Store or any local retailer where video games are sold."
 
Cat Hider
plus an additional 40 career race events.
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This is sick. 40 events is like half of NFS Shift career, are you telling me that standard 60$ game will be like extended demo?

If true, I'm buying Shift 2 used for fair price of 30$
 
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otago
This is sick. 40 events is like half of NFS Shift career, are you telling me that standard 60$ game will be like extended demo?

If true, I'm buying Shift 2 used for fair price of 30$
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It isn't saying Shift 2 has 40 career events, it is saying the Limited Edition of Shift 2 has 40 additional events over the regular version. So say Shift 2 has 100 events, the LE would have 140 events.
 
peobryant
So say Shift 2 has 100 events, the LE would have 140 events.
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Exactly. I perfectly understand key chains, USB stick, chrome cars and whatever, but here 40% of game just cut off from release.

So far I never bought a book with third of pages missing, and never seen a movie which ends 30 minutes before the end unless you pay extra money. Why the games are different?

If EA guys can't make full single player game for 60$ - I suggest they'll go to the nearest McDonald's to sell hamburgers instead.
 
^ you should probably read the article better. Nowhere does it say it's 40%, and it doesn't cost any more than standard price, it's just a pre-order bonus. By that logic I'm sure all the events/cars are still in the game, just not unlocked immediately...
 

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