NFS Shift 2 Unleashed - Details

  • Thread starter LittleLefty
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notsofast
European release date has been announced as March 10th.
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But wait a minute... That's not a five year development cycle. It looks like they are rushing it out. You'll probably find the game on release to have things missing, like say brake upgrades, online leaderboards, no Porsche, no customizable gear ratios etc. Without a long development, these things happen.

Who do EA think they are, taking less than half a decade to make a game.
 
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Wow.. just came across this large screenshot from Shift 2 unleashed. Excited :-)

http://cdn.totalvideogames.com/img/uploaded/www.totalvideogames.com_73512_SHIFT2_GT1_02.jpg

I'm actually a long term codemasters racing fan, from TOCA through to F1, and am also appreciating (some of) GT5s delights, but the original Shift had a lot of great elements which make me look forward to unleashed, & the developer interview makes it look to me that they are moving in the right direction.

Shifts weak points for me as a bit of a racing purist were:
A) Weak 'Arcadey' Physics with every assist off
B) 'Too much' with the motion blur - concept was great but the implementation was too extreme IMO. GT 5 does a geat job of portaying speed with the 'shake' you get in a fast car when viewing from cockipit view
C) Players awarded/encouraged in the game for crashing into opponents - A mentality which then which fed through to online play. After a couple of hours online I vowed never to return!

p.s If anyone has shift laying around (& the extra DLC) & hasn't played it in a while - try dusting it off on & racing the Alfa 8C around the faux monaco track - when that thing goes through the tunnel it's my favourite noise from any racing title - ever!
 
Shift's noises were one of its strongest points. I completely agree with the 8c Competizione sound! Eargasm!

GT5, I feel like I'm driving a Hoover around. The sound design team should be fired! Many cars have noticeable loops in the samples, the horns have terrible loop points, it's like a PS1 game how bad it is. And don't get me started on the sound when you have a collision. I want to feel like I hit a CAR, not the bass drum section of a marching band!

Oh, for the love of God, PLEASE, SMS..... just add a 'pro physics' mode as refined as GT5's onto Shift 2, and I'll sell my copy of GT5 back to the store 💡
 
machschnel
But wait a minute... That's not a five year development cycle. It looks like they are rushing it out. You'll probably find the game on release to have things missing, like say brake upgrades, online leaderboards, no Porsche, no customizable gear ratios etc. Without a long development, these things happen.

Who do EA think they are, taking less than half a decade to make a game.
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unusual_sarcasm_notice.jpg


👍👍
 
Shift's controls were the worst controls ever and spoiled all the fun. I'm curious what the demo of part 2 will bring...
 
If this is really actual gameplay wow..
To be honest I don't need the most realistic Physics engine. I want the feel of bein in a racing car. GT5 feels just too soft and steril. I rather have somehow bader physics but a way better experience to be what it's like to sit in a high perfomance racecar. :D
 
If they really want to attract the sim crowd, and enter this market, they'll drop the "Need for Speed" in the title and just call the game Shift 2. Need for Speed is synonymous with arcade racers... I've never played Shift 1, but I must admit this game has drawn a lot of interest from me...

I love GT5 but it's starting to lose its charm and it's forgotten what racing is... it's more of a driving game... the lack of roaring engine sounds, damage, crashes, intelligent AI, and immersion is just what kills it for me... and it seems Shift 2 is promising these things to avid racers... so I'm on board. While I don't think they'll dominate the sim market over GT and Forza with this game, if they deliver what they promise, they could expect to leapfrog these franchises in the future with Shift 3...

I'm very excited for this game, looks like it'll be a blast... but not an arcady one, which is very intriguing.
 
coreyvf
If they really want to attract the sim crowd, and enter this market, they'll drop the "Need for Speed" in the title and just call the game Shift 2. Need for Speed is synonymous with arcade racers... I've never played Shift 1, but I must admit this game has drawn a lot of interest from me...

I love GT5 but it's starting to lose its charm and it's forgotten what racing is... it's more of a driving game... the lack of roaring engine sounds, damage, crashes, intelligent AI, and immersion is just what kills it for me... and it seems Shift 2 is promising these things to avid racers... so I'm on board. While I don't think they'll dominate the sim market over GT and Forza with this game, if they deliver what they promise, they could expect to leapfrog these franchises in the future with Shift 3...

I'm very excited for this game, looks like it'll be a blast... but not an arcady one, which is very intriguing.
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Check the box art ;) Its been dropped already.
 
coreyvf
If they really want to attract the sim crowd, and enter this market, they'll drop the "Need for Speed" in the title and just call the game Shift 2. Need for Speed is synonymous with arcade racers... I've never played Shift 1, but I must admit this game has drawn a lot of interest from me...

I love GT5 but it's starting to lose its charm and it's forgotten what racing is... it's more of a driving game... the lack of roaring engine sounds, damage, crashes, intelligent AI, and immersion is just what kills it for me... and it seems Shift 2 is promising these things to avid racers... so I'm on board. While I don't think they'll dominate the sim market over GT and Forza with this game, if they deliver what they promise, they could expect to leapfrog these franchises in the future with Shift 3...

I'm very excited for this game, looks like it'll be a blast... but not an arcady one, which is very intriguing.
Click to expand...

Wut he said
 
As long as the cars don't have the weird straight-line twitchiness that the first game shipped with this should be pretty cool.
 
GT5 Sceptic
As long as the cars don't have the weird straight-line twitchiness that the first game shipped with this should be pretty cool.
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Yeah I don't know if that was supposed to give a sense of speed but it just felt like the wheels weren't balanced or something.

I tried the demo of the first and got about half way through the first lap before switching it off. Just didn't feel right to me coming from GT.

I really hope what they're saying about the sim nature of 2 is true because if it's good enough I'll probably get it for the PC.
 
GT5 Sceptic
As long as the cars don't have the weird straight-line twitchiness that the first game shipped with this should be pretty cool.
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+1

Definitely agree. Luckily there are mods available for the PC version.
 
I was really sure that after GT5 I wouldn't be buying any games for a long time, but this one just keeps looking better and better. Will probably get it. ;) I just hope they bring out the true power of the engine this time. 👍
 
kikie
I wonder if the "actual gameplay" is from a PC or console?
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It'll be from the biggest, most expensive PC they could find. That's just sort of expected. Hopefully they put a bit more effort into making the console versions look nice this time. The PS3 version of Shift 1 looked okay, but it could do with a bit of an upgrade.
 
coreyvf
If they really want to attract the sim crowd, and enter this market, they'll drop the "Need for Speed" in the title and just call the game Shift 2. Need for Speed is synonymous with arcade racers... I've never played Shift 1, but I must admit this game has drawn a lot of interest from me...

I love GT5 but it's starting to lose its charm and it's forgotten what racing is... it's more of a driving game... the lack of roaring engine sounds, damage, crashes, intelligent AI, and immersion is just what kills it for me... and it seems Shift 2 is promising these things to avid racers... so I'm on board. While I don't think they'll dominate the sim market over GT and Forza with this game, if they deliver what they promise, they could expect to leapfrog these franchises in the future with Shift 3...

I'm very excited for this game, looks like it'll be a blast... but not an arcady one, which is very intriguing.
Click to expand...

I suspect that if they nail the sim feel that between the reviews and a demo the sim fans won't care that it's NFS. But by calling it so it will bring in the more casual sales needed. This is EA we're talking about and there is no way they will drop a unit shifting franchise name from a title in the quest for credibility :)
 
BigYoSpeck
This is EA we're talking about and there is no way they will drop a unit shifting franchise name from a title in the quest for credibility :)
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True, but they openly target GT (they even said it themselves), so they know what that requires. They also know the complaints on Shift. Spinning the Shift license off from the NFS license may even yield more customers, because there are always people getting both the arcade (NFS) and the sim games (Shift). 👍 I think they realised Shift could have been much more if it didn't sit in the middle of arcade and sim. Then again, I'm always up for the positive scenario. ;) We'll just have to wait and see, they got our attention and vice versa, so that's good right?
 
No, it doesn´t. It looks like cars have a lot more weight to them plus 900 degree steering animation PLUS BATHURST
 
Anyone notice it seems to be showing the 'adaptive look' (or whatever you call the cockpit mode automatically looking towards the apex of a corner without you having to have a camera on your console to head track)? Pretty cool.

Cockpit's restricted view (you see MUCH less than you can in a real car) has kept me from using it, much, except for the odd replay, but this helps mitigate the problem somewhat...
 
Look-to-apex should be standard in any racing game with a cockpit view IMO. 👍 Gameplay video looks really nice BTW. :)
 
CoolColJ
Looks the same as the first one
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Bit hard to tell from a video like that IMO, as the major things holding it back from stuff like GT5P was the 30fps and 720p. You can't really evaluate those from a 360p handicam video.
 

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