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Need For Speed Shift Review

Posted By Ruben Gonzalez on Oct 25, 2009

Summary : Need for speed shift is the newest installment in the need for speed series with some nice added features and improvements but others left behind.

Need For Speed Shift [PS3]

Need for speed shift is the newest installment in the need for speed series with  some nice added features and improvements but others left behind.

The game is still as addicting as other Need for speed titles, but the game doesn’t live up to the hype about it. The game play is still fun but can get very annoying sometimes. The handling of cars  also feels too unrealistic at times. The graphics are good, but they could have been better. Some scenery looks spectacular while more detail things (like the grass) are missed.

GAMEPLAY:
The game play is extremely fun still; racing fast cars through some of the world’s most famous circuits is tons of fun. The game play isn’t all good; yes it is fun but after some getting used to. The handling of cars is so insanely difficult to control they feel impossible at times to control. Trying to get back on the road after going off seems impossible as you come back on the road trying the car to go straight and the car will just swerve left to right which makes it so hard to gain control again if you aren’t experienced or used to it. The first few races will most likely annoy you as you get used the handling physics of the game, but after you are used to the handling physics the game will quickly get fun. The crash engine needs a major overhaul. The crashes don’t react correctly to how you actually crashed. For example crashing into a wall with the right front of your car will instantly flatten the entire front end instead of where you actually hit. On a positive note though, crashing heavily into a wall makes your screen blurry and shake which adds a bit of realism to the game.
The tuning feature doesn’t miss a beat like always from visual upgrades to performance to the fine tuning anything you want you can probably find. Drifting will take a lot of practice it isn’t something you can just do by full throttling and turning. It takes a decent amount of getting used to and a good amount of skill to accomplish wonderful looking drifts.

Some game modes the game has:

Race - This is as simple as it gets. Beat all your opponents in a multi lap circuit race.

Eliminator - A modified mode of a straight race where the cars in last slowly start getting eliminated and the only way to win is to be in first.

Drift - Self explanatory, score the most points by drifting corners.

Driver Duel - One of the more fun events, this race is a best of three battle of rival cars (Subaru WRX vs. Evo IX… etc). These types of races highly depend on your skill level as the cars are very closely matched.

Endurance - Better get your stamina up this race might take a while. This race event tests a player’s skill and endurance.

Time Attack - The task is to get the best lap in the time allowed.

Hot Lap - Race to beat the target times.

There is a wonderful selection of cars to pick from, including exotics, tuners, and american cars. Some of the cars include, Nissan Skyline R34, Nissan 240sx, Pagani Zonda, BMW M3 E46, Audi R8, Ford Focus, Ford Mustang, Mitsubishi EVO IX, Chevrolet Corvette, and Bugatti Veyron. This is only a small selection of cars there are many more.

There is a wide variety of world renowned tracks and circuits. Some being, Laguna seca, SPA, Willow Springs, Silverstone and many more. You will start off on less known tracks and move on to more well known ones.

GRAPHICS:
The graphics are good, but they can still be improved a bit. Reflections on the cars could use some more detail at times. The Tracks can use some work on the tiny details, like the grass or the road itself being a bit more detailed. The scenery can look stunning while at other times it misses the attention to the little details. The cars look stunning and otherwise amazing.

The cock pit views are absolutely amazing. If you like driving in cock pit you will love the details on the inside of all the cars. No missing detail here at all, the gauges look wonderfully done. Everything from the steering wheel all the way to the stitching on the driving gloves looks stunning in cock pit. The shadowing has been perfected along with the reflections inside the car.

AI:
The ai in this game is a touchy subject, the ai for the most part gives you a race for your money, making some races really difficult and challenging. With some races the ai seems to lose its touch and you can fly by as if  all were left standing. At other times there is no competition and your left scratching your head as to how  you're suppose to keep up  when they are flying around the track.  
For the most part the ai gives you a fight all the way to the end.  You will have opportunities to pass at times whilst being blocked from passing at others. It is very realistic and making crucial mistakes like flying off the course or not stopping fast enough before a turn and hitting the guard rail that could definitely cost you a race.

CONTROLS:
The controls for the most part are excellent. The learning curve probably being for a new player to racing 15 minutes for more experienced racing gamers less than 5 minutes. The game uses the trigger buttons, which is becoming the standard for most racing games and is understandable why. They give you absolute control over both the gas and brake pedals. The steering can be a bit difficult as the cars sometimes are so sensitive that if you do a bit of movement expecting to just move in a little bit can lead to swerving around the track trying to gain control back, which can sometimes result in hitting a wall.

SOUND:
Hear that engine roar! The sounds are amazing, the engine revving really gets your blood pumping just before the race starts. The cars engine sound great in cock pit as well as in any other camera angle. Each car has its unique sound making them more identifiable when it’s stalking you. This might be a problem for some and not others, the default settings if your sound system is up can blow your ears, it’s extremely loud. The volume had to be turned down so our ears would be safe. This isn’t  really a flaw though. However, it did lose points where some cars sound like they have some huge V8 engines when they in reality have a small inline 4. This isn’t for all cars just 2 or 3. The music could do with some updating, although you never really listen to it unless you set it up to hear it while racing which can be a bit distracting from the awesome sounding cars.

ONLINE:
The online mode is broken up primarily into 2 sections. One is versus and the other being driver duel. In versus you get to pick 2 types of races one is ranked and the other unranked. Ranked races will be saved to your profile so if you lose it will be saved while unranked races will not. In versus category you race with a group of people in one of the following, circuit race, drift, or time attack. The options to create your own match are very wide.  You get to choose the track as well as how high of a car rating cars can have as well as how many laps and what time of the day. As an addition you can also choose whether to allow mixed cars or a single car. In driver duel it’s a head to head race between you and another player. It’s exactly like driver duel in single player, it is a best of 3 race head to head first to 2 wins will win the race. Gameplay wise online is good there isn’t any noticeable lag or freezing even on wireless everything seems smooth. Though it was observed, that some players seemed to have issues staying connected at times.

The Good:
Awesome sounding cars. Good graphics for the most part but absolutely stunning in cock pit view. Very wide selection of cars as well as tracks. Some very fun race modes, including drift and versus battles.

The Bad:
Handling. The games handling needs a bit of an improvement, if it were a bit better it would have closer to a 9. Graphics in the tiny details, like the track, crowd. No split screen multiplayer, although this is becoming a common thing it is still negative.

The Ugly:
Crash engine needs a lot of work. Clipping your front bumper is not the same as smashing head on with a wall.

Note: There will most likely be updates, we can only hope these fix some of the flaws in the game.

Final Thought:
Even with the minor flaws the game has, it can be extremely fun.  Handling is difficult to get used to but once mastered you can really enjoy this game.

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