Rate need for speed shift

[ANFD]

I 'm surprised that so many GTP members are on EA's payroll

ONLY KIDDING !!!

When I got the game on launch day and started racing the Ring, Road America, Silverstone and Laguna I would have given it an 8.5. Love real tracks ! The tight little go-kart tracks where you're forced to drive around in 1st and 2nd gear in a Tier 4 car are just ridiculous ... what could they have been thinking ?

Then as I progressed thru the game and began to discover personally (at last count) 16 bugs and glitches it began to lose some of it's luster. Fully half of my offline and online race losses have come simply from the car not leaving the starting line. The bugs and glitches finally got to me, as well as the encouragement of punters and course cutters in online mode.

By the time I reached Level 50, the only highlight of this game to me is the private room online play. I strongly disagree with those who find the handling physics comparable or better than the GT series. No car in real life pivots and turns on a centerpoint in the chassis ! No car in real life, flys 30 feet high thru the air and lands, continuing on without losing a second !

Therefore after reaching level 50 (days ago) and current point level well over 600,000, I'm inclined to give this historically flawed game a score of 5. In fact, it is so bad, I may just never purchase another EA product again

 

[Moglet]

Quick question; When did every car in this game get wonky wheels? They drive like they're on wheels shaped by a toddler.

 

[Ram-Rod]

I gave it a 9, all though if I could use decimals I'd give it a 8.8 (I round up). There's a lot of good, but it's not without its faults. It's definitely a step in the right direction for NFS though. Certainly better than recent games in the series.

 

[Moglet]

I just tried the drifting. My score goes down to a 2. The drifting is actually so bad I cannot do it. It doesn't have a single relation to real life drifting or car control in any way! It's absolutely shocking that they even released it in this state!

 

[Groundking]

I'm giving it a 5 becuase it doesn't allow me online, and the manual gives no help (and nobody else anywhere have helped me at all :'(), the annoying bumps and the friken curbs that ALLWAYS make me spin out (i.e. I hit a curb and spin out . However it's far better than the previous nfs titels, and i believe the latter two problems will be fixed.

-GK

 

[ANFD]

I'm giving it a 5 becuase it doesn't allow me online, and the manual gives no help (and nobody else anywhere have helped me at all :'(), the annoying bumps and the friken curbs that ALLWAYS make me spin out (i.e. I hit a curb and spin out . However it's far better than the previous nfs titels, and i believe the latter two problems will be fixed.

-GK

I'm reminded of the EA "Nascar Sim Racing" game I had on my PC. Nearing the end of racing a full length Nascar race (devoting a couple hours at least) I would pull into the pits for my final pit stop only to find that my pit crew took the rest of the day off and left the track. No one there, lights off and consequently, no fuel nor tires to be had. Kinda ruins a long day ! I spent 1/2 day in difficult communication with EA's Help Desk where I finally found someone who knew anything about the racing sim (the help desk people deal with several hundreds of EA's library and may or may not know, or have ever played the game in question). He kindly sent me an email with a link to a patch to fix this known glitch. After downloading the "patch", the pit stop glitch was not only still evident, but now in every race, there were a total of 3 pace cars who participated in the entire race with you

My point here is that you shouldn't place too much faith in EA's desire or ability to fix anything

 

[evilfoxhound]

I picked this up today after hearing about the GT5 delay.

I'm impressed so far. Much better than I imagined and the damage modelling is impressive (Especially after playing that Forza 3 demo).

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

360 version.

I gave it a 3. Physics were so strange and the drifting physics are absolutely horrible. Just like the Pro Street drifting physics.

 

[Moglet]

360 version.

I gave it a 3. Physics were so strange and the drifting physics are absolutely horrible. Just like the Pro Street drifting physics.

I completely agree, except I'd say the drift physics are even worse than those on Pro Street.

 

[LR-PR-ProtoX]

I rate 8/10, very good game despite its flaws!

 

[opendriver]

7.5, but rate 7. Only drawback is the physics/hopping glitches. minus that, good stuff:tup:


Also liked the figure 8 enduro!

 

[Biggles]

I still don't know how to rate this game. There are things about it that are absolutely the best out there. The first score is for Shift, the second score is for GT5P (just as a comparison).


Cockpit view - 9 / 8.5

Sound - 9 / 7.5

Online (functionality & lag) - 9 / 7.5

Track selection - 8.5 / 4.5

Car selection - 8 / 7

General graphics - 8 / 9

FFB - 8 / 7

AI - 7 / 6.5

Offline Gameplay - 6.5 / 7

Physics (considered as a "sim") - 6.5 / 8.5

Glitches - 5 / 9

The hardest thing is to evaluate the AI & gameplay. On the one hand, the whole Aggression/Precision thing is totally daft. It makes no sense within the game, & the behaviour of the AI, which is tied in to that Aggression/Precision structure, makes actual offline racing almost impossible a lot of the time. 👎 On the other hand, there are a wide variety of events, & the AI is certainly not "predictable". 👍

Overall, I would give GT5P a 7 (a significant part of that is due to the limited content - yes, I know "it's only a demo"!), & Shift a 7.5, which could rise as high as 8.5 if they fix the most serious glitches, & if the online racing proves to be as deep & interesting as it might be.

 

[Zembla]

I voted a 6, and that's judging by the PC version, and using a G25.

I must say, apart from my G25 acting up because of a faulty calibration in the beginning, I have had a relatively bug/glitch free experience so far. Then again, maybe I'm not really paying that much attention to what's going wrong. I usually focus on what's ahead etc.

The graphics are nice, but the engine tends to slow down at point, framerates will drop, basically because of a bad level of detail drawing distance (I think). In any case, the cockpits look splendid. Too bad though that the game does not support TrackIR, at least that way we'd get to enjoy more of that cockpit beauty.

As far as driving goes I was a bit letdown. The game does convey a sense of speed, and the dashboard blurring up once you hit higher speeds is a nice feature, in general, it's one of those nice shadered effects I've come to expect from an EA game. The handling though is a bit... bizarre. Tires seem very eager to lose grip this time around, mainly when you're on the gas. I was driving a tuned up Cayman S, and I had difficulty keeping it in a straight line. Corners ironically were not an issue. So, I guess it may have had something to do with the steering.

I stopped trying with that Cayman though, I figured I couldn't be bothered to do something that in the end would frustrate me, so once I could, I swapped cars for a Lamborghini Murcielago. Haven't had issues like that since.

Generally, the time attack races are easy, or have been so far (got up to tier 3). The other races can be a pain though. As others have mentioned before me, the AI is a bit ram happy, and this is no small frustration in those longer races, or those races on a newer track that you've only just gotten to know for a tiny bit.

Something that does have me puzzled though is how the steering somehow lacks precision. A lot of small corrections are needed to keep a rear wheel driven vehicle on the road, less so with AWD or FWD, but in general, you'll be correcting a lot. Executing the corrections is not that difficult, but recovering your car to a precise position on the road is. More than once have my wheels hit the sandtrap to the side of the road to leave me spinning out and "losing" (not finishing first) a race.

It's quite frustrating, I'd almost compare the steering to trying to stretch a rubber band. Somehow the controls will always come back. A huge load of dynamic instability too. When I let go of my steering wheel in a straight line, the car just crashed into the nearest barrier after the wheel started to swing from left to right more and more violently.

Ah well, I don't know entirely what to think of it. It's a fun game, and it's nice to see NFS take this direction for a change, but I'm not fully convinced of the effort. A lot of detail has gone into a lot of areas, but the driving of the cars itself, that which in the end is the essence of the game, feels a bit off.

-Z

 

[Road Rash]

I gave it a 4. I wish I could have given it more, I really do. It was great in Tier 1 and2, but once in the higher Tiers the cars get do hard to control. I have spent hours tweaking the tuning, and setting for my DFP, but it comes down to the cars just get too much under steer, braking is all wrong. Then once your off the track the car bounces like its on a trampoline. I am tempted to put it up for sale on Fleabay and using the proceeds to buy Dirt2. I was waiting so anxiously for this game, and really wish I could give it better. I don't know, I could keep it and mess around more but, I just want to be able to enjoy racing and this game is making it hard to do that...