Anyone else interested in Shift 2 Unleashed?

[mwmorph]

I do remember playing the first one and it did have its various issues,
* overly nervous, twitchy handling
* way too little tire grip (corners had to be taken way too slowly, a race car taking corners more slowly than most road cars?)
* incorrect and way too soft suspension settings (on works cars IIRC spring rates only went up to ~300lb/in instead of real GT settings in the 1-2k range so a Works C6 Vette would bottom out and drag the car undertray on the track above 170mph unless ride height and spring rates were put to maximum)
* odd sound design, probably a side effect of the incorrect physics and low traction (tire squeal drowned out even what would be a straight cut hewland gearbox all the time in every corner)

But, I saw some previews of Shift 2 and maybe it's EA's marketing machine but it looks really good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=929UZ6Nq-hk

I don't think it's worthy of a pre order but I do hope it is a return to form of SMS's previous life as Blimey! games of GTR/GTR2 fame.

 

[Elcs]

Haven't really enjoyed an NFS game since Most Wanted. I stopped caring after Carbon.

Rather sad

 

[Skurge]

I am kinda, but dammit, I don't trust those guys. They things they did to shift 1 were so obviously bad ideas I don't know why they did it.

The input lag with the steering, cars feeling like they sliding around.

I loved Simbin games, I have most of them, but after shift one, I'm keeping my expectations in check.

PS: I also hated the sound.

 

[mwmorph]

Well the NFS:Shift series is supposed to be more of a Forza competitor than an arcade racing experience like Most Wanted or Hot Pursuit, but TBH, Shift 1 was unplayable and extremely disappointing since the physics issues were major and obvious to anyone that's ever driven even a regular car before, much less a race car. Though from what I heard, those physics problems got ironed out in later patches, there is no excuse that those guys even programmed it like that at all in initial testing since it was so absolutely unrealistic and alien feeling.

For example at Road America, the only track in Shift1 I've driven IRL certain high speed sections in real life feel absolutely different from Shift. Turn 1 to turn 3 is a downhill run followed by a flattening out turning into 3. After exiting the kink know as turn 2 and going full throttle, turn 3 actually gives you quite a bit of additional down-force ( you can actually feel the car hunker down a bit and the your shoulders feel like the world is pressing down on it) from leveling off in the braking zone and thus allows an oddly late braking and apex point and fast entry speeds with little to no tire squeal to set up for the best speed in the long straight ahead.

Compare that to shift where you brake way too early for every corner and have the tires struggling to break loose and send you on a 4 wheel slide everywhere. It's almost like downforce and the road level are not accounted for at all once you get into a turn and forget about getting on the power again until you've almost completely cleared a corner.

The issue is there is no news at all on GRID 2 so SHIFT 2 seems like the only option for anyone interested in polished road racing on the PC. Hopefully it's good but with no previews on the handling model and no demo, I am hesitant to go in on it even though Slightly Mad has put out outstanding products in the past with GTR and GT legends.

 

[notty22]

I'm a fan of NFS Shift, its one of my favorite games. Its fully patched and I made a couple tweaks to the controller options for more realistic steering with the xbox controller. With everything maxed and forced IQ through NV panel think it looks as nice as anything.
I'm praying the sequel is based on the first and just better, and nothing like Hot Pursuit. HP is fun, but its a arcade racer only.
There is going to be over 120 cars , helmet racing and night racing in Shift 2.
For the original Shift if you search there are racing mods/ details out there in plenty. Have not even had time to do that though myself.

 

[Farmer]

I can't wait for Shift 2, will probably get it on PC over 360. For those comparing Shift to NFSHP or any other NFS, they're different animals. I agree, Most Wanted was probably the best NFS in recent memory (other than Shift), but for different reasons. As for NFSs, Shift reminds me most of NFS: Porsche Unleashed. PU was more car focused, while Shift is more race/drive experience focused.

I'm not a hardcore car simmer, I haven't invested in a nice wheel setup (mostly because the options are so limited on 360) but I have played Forza avidly and it's a great game. I like the subtlety required in the analog controls, smooth throttle, smooth brakes, smooth turning, which is something Forza does very well. It communicates to you how much grip your car has in a very obvious way, so you know when you can give it a bit more throttle, or need to back off, and its easy to kick the back end out without losing control, if you want to. Shift 1 is pretty good at the controls. It probably isn't the better car sim, in terms of the physics logic and driving feel, but it does do a better job at being a racing game.

80% of the cars in Forza 3 had limited, low poly or no cockpit view. The cockpit view in Shift was excellent. I liked the "sense of speed" you get in Shift 1, and all the noises and clunks and clanks that you can feel and hear as your stripped down racer goes over a rumble strip, for instance. In all cases, Forza 2/Forza 3 just feels a lot more sterile.

My favorite recent sim-arcade racer is F1 2010. The cars are awesome and to have race components like practice, qualifying, weather, day/night is great, but F1 2010 was a bit numb at the controls, definitely not as good as Forza.

Hopefully Shift 2 can better perfect that blend.

 

[NYHoustonman]

The cockpit view in Shift was excellent. I liked the "sense of speed" you get in Shift 1, and all the noises and clunks and clanks that you can feel and hear as your stripped down racer goes over a rumble strip, for instance. In all cases, Forza 2/Forza 3 just feels a lot more sterile.

I think this is my favorite aspect of Shift. I, too, usually stick to Simbin-type games (Test Drive: Unlimited being a notable exception), but if the reviews for this are any good I'll definitely be picking it up. GTR:Evolution is really starting to show its age, and I don't have enough time to justify paying for iRacing.

 

[ixelion]

I do remember playing the first one and it did have its various issues,
* overly nervous, twitchy handling
* way too little tire grip (corners had to be taken way too slowly, a race car taking corners more slowly than most road cars?)
* incorrect and way too soft suspension settings (on works cars IIRC spring rates only went up to ~300lb/in instead of real GT settings in the 1-2k range so a Works C6 Vette would bottom out and drag the car undertray on the track above 170mph unless ride height and spring rates were put to maximum)
* odd sound design, probably a side effect of the incorrect physics and low traction (tire squeal drowned out even what would be a straight cut hewland gearbox all the time in every corner)

I agree with this, which is why I didn't like the first one. I doubt they will try to make it more realistic, they will probably put a lot of emphasis on how "cool" it cockpit cam looks and how exaggerated and stylistic it is.

But I am so hard up on a decent racing game with good graphics that I will probably want to play it anyway.

 

[reallyscrued]

If they get rid of the pivot-point turning physics, I'll be all over it. I have to play Shift 1 in cockpit view, HAVE TO, because you can see from third person view very plainly that the car turns like its propped up in the middle with a stick and it annoys me. Too bad, the game is damn good in other aspects too.

People complaining about tire-grip don't seem to realize that flooring a RWD car around a turn will cause it to spin out in real life, and a lot of lap times in Shift 1 *do* correspond with real-life counterparts.

I think the actual limitation is the analog trigger on the 360 controller and its short travel, making it hard to actuate the throttle like you would on a real car. I would love to try it with a wheel one day but I can't see myself throwing down $150 for one.

 

[Skurge]

If they get rid of the pivot-point turning physics, I'll be all over it. I have to play Shift 1 in cockpit view, HAVE TO, because you can see from third person view very plainly that the car turns like its propped up in the middle with a stick and it annoys me. Too bad, the game is damn good in other aspects too.

People complaining about tire-grip don't seem to realize that flooring a RWD car around a turn will cause it to spin out in real life, and a lot of lap times in Shift 1 *do* correspond with real-life counterparts.

I think the actual limitation is the analog trigger on the 360 controller and its short travel, making it hard to actuate the throttle like you would on a real car. I would love to try it with a wheel one day but I can't see myself throwing down $150 for one.

I couldn't get the cars in SHIFT to spin, they would just 4 wheel drift, even cars like the zonda R. The trigger on the 360 controller is not too bad, I play GTR evo against guys with G25/27s and Im right up there with them, even had a few podiums.

 

[reallyscrued]

I couldn't get the cars in SHIFT to spin, they would just 4 wheel drift, even cars like the zonda R. The trigger on the 360 controller is not too bad, I play GTR evo against guys with G25/27s and Im right up there with them, even had a few podiums.

You are the only one...

You must the settings for casual drivers or something.

Set controls to Pro (which multiplies the global tire grip to 1.2, casual and normal are much higher), stability and traction control off. I leave anti-lock brakes on, I can't "pump" the brakes that fast using a controller. If you can't get the cars to spin unrealistically using these settings, I want your version of the game.

 

[Skurge]

You are the only one...

You must the settings for casual drivers or something.

Set controls to Pro (which multiplies the global tire grip to 1.2, casual and normal are much higher), stability and traction control off. I leave anti-lock brakes on, I can't "pump" the brakes that fast using a controller. If you can't get the cars to spin unrealistically using these settings, I want your version of the game.

I turned everything off the moment I got the game. Set it to pro, even though that wasn't what the game recommended. I could do donuts yes, but coming out of a corner where I was too eager on the throttle, the rear wouldn't violently snap out, the car would just slide wide. I didn't have to be careful on the throttle out of slow corners either. Most of the time I could floor it, I would hear the wheels losing traction, but It wouldn't spin the car (Similar to GT4). After I modded the game, it was a lot easier to spin the car.

I didn't like the mods though, The cars had even less grip. It felt like you had a lot more mechanical grip than aerodynamic grip.

 

[Skurge]

I hope the fixed the AI, whenever I want to play online and there are too few people, I like to add AI cars, but the AI is shift was psychotic. The was a moment of brilliance though when I was on the nordschleife and the the AI car ahead of me was blocking me realisticly. Was a lot of fun until he slowed down on a full throttle section and I drove right under his car.

 

[destrekor]

Oh, oh... awesomeness. Shift 2 has the GT1-spec GTR.

That is going to be pure winning.
I'm actually really looking forward to this now, against better judgment. And not just because of that car - I've been following all of the coverage in recent weeks, and it sounds amazing. I've confident the handling model is going to be great, but I'm still a little fearful I might have to wait for some mods to tweak certain issues. Well, I should say that I am hoping to be able to enjoy the driving and racing experience without mods, but I'm confident that, regardless of how sim-like it ships, modders will make it even better. I just want it to be good enough at release, and while I'm a little worried, I'm also very hopefuly and earnestly expecting a lot of improvement, because the team behind it, imho, is incredibly talented and capable of greatness, and they've learned a lot of lessons over the years.

Here's the hoping the official "sim" gameplay mode (I read about supposedly official word that there is such a mode to select, so... maybe?) shows SMS has reached a level of brilliant talent. The AI might muck up the experience; word is, the AI has been improved a lot... but is it enough?

No ability to filter multiplayer racers to force a certain handling mode for the entire lobby is a bummer, but hopefully finding serious racing is easy.

 

[Barfo]

I liked the first one quite a bit, but I'm not finished playing it through so I'll get the sequel later, probably next year cause my back log of unplayed games is huge

 

[destrekor]

Well dammit, it's not going to be on Steam, or at least it's not on there at the moment.

The last one was not on Steam either. Kind of bummed, would rather have most of my games through Steam.

And dammit, without resorting to alternative methods, that's one more game that requires a physical disc to play. Sigh.

 

[Barfo]

Well dammit, it's not going to be on Steam, or at least it's not on there at the moment.

The last one was not on Steam either. Kind of bummed, would rather have most of my games through Steam.

And dammit, without resorting to alternative methods, that's one more game that requires a physical disc to play. Sigh.

I see the first one at the store...don't know if it was at launch though. I bet the second one will land there eventually.

 

[notty22]

nice video here.
Looking very good !
http://www.gamerlive.tv/article/big...arts-retains-its-need-speed-shift-2-unleashed

http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/03/21/shift-2-unleashed-cars-include-corvette-c6-r-gt1-video/

 

[El Guaraguao]

I'm a fan of NFS Shift, its one of my favorite games. Its fully patched and I made a couple tweaks to the controller options for more realistic steering with the xbox controller. With everything maxed and forced IQ through NV panel think it looks as nice as anything.
I'm praying the sequel is based on the first and just better, and nothing like Hot Pursuit. HP is fun, but its a arcade racer only.
There is going to be over 120 cars , helmet racing and night racing in Shift 2.
For the original Shift if you search there are racing mods/ details out there in plenty. Have not even had time to do that though myself.

this is what i pretty much did myself. Over at nogripracing, theres some tutorials on how to add cars from forza3,believe it or not.