Need For Speed: SHIFT

Need for Speed SHIFT is Slightly Mad Studios and EA’s latest addition to the long running racing series. This latest instalment has in essences shifted away from the previous arcade like game play and is now offering a more simulated racing experience and it looks great

Presentation
The physics are accurate, the graphics are nice and the cars look great. Although this is now considered the standard for any next gen racing simulation, NFSS delivers these features in a pretty slick kind of way and adds a few bells and whistles. The presentation really stands out adding to a fun and challenging gaming experience. Slamming into walls will initiate a black and white fuzzy sense of distortion and disorientation that provides a very intense sense of what the driver would feel after such a tremendous crash. (props go out to my girlfriend for inadvertently testing out this feature extensively for two laps....”I’m awesome at driving games!” “sure ya are honey”....) There are close to 70 licensed cars and over 15 authentic tracks to race on and they’re very accurate. I noticed this while racing on Laguna Seca. I had a very odd feeling of déjà vu then thankfully realized to myself “oh yeah! I raced on this course countless times trying to meet some stupid criteria years ago with Gran Turismo 2!” I was getting pretty tripped out about how I knew in advance what was coming up....

Sound
The music during menu navigation and load times is eerily creepy. Imagine Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails getting his hand on a bunch of race car samples. These don’t exactly mesh with the poppy or techno dance type tracks you hear during replays after finishing up a race but they’re still kind of cool. The overall racing effects are great as well. Everything you’d come to expect from a newly released racing simulation. Cars whizzing by, tires squealing, engines revving, NFSS has it all.

Gameplay
You race to primarily earn money to buy new cars and purchase upgrades in order to compete in a progressively more challenging tier based system. The point of all this is of course is to get the chance to participate in the Need for Speed SHIFT Tournament. You are assigned a score based on podium standing, aggressive/precision driving and given an overall point total and performance evaluation. You are then given stars based on these criteria. The more stars you obtain, you unlock higher tiers. The higher the tier, the harder the challenge...you get my drift. Speaking of Drift, this is one of the gameplay types you’ll encounter in Need for Speed SHIFT. There are races and speed trials, manufacturer competitions and one-on-one challenges throughout the game. Pretty straight forward stuff but the added points for how you end up on the podium certainly add a fun element to the game. As you get better and better, you gamer profile icon will change so you can flaunt your racing style all over your preferred online circles. You can earn money as much as you’d like by replaying any event as much as you’d like. You could in essence find a high payout, low difficulty track/event and rake in cash for upgrades to give yourself a slight early advantage.

Final Impressions
Need for Speed SHIFT is a great racing simulation that really puts you in the driver seat. The attention to how a driver would react and feel to every pump of the course or while grinding up on an opponent is pretty intense. There are over 70 cars and 4 tiers of difficulty to cruise your way through the ranks so you’ll be busy for a while. There are all sorts of badges to collect based on you overall skills and online multiplayer is challenging and loads of fun. I Highly recommend Need for Speed SHIFT.