Chuck "PFunk" Bellows drives the latest offering in the EA Need for Speed series.

http://www.simhq.com/_motorsports4/motorsports_129a.html

Thanks Chuck, well done.

Not that I was going to buy it anyway, unless I could figure out a way to drive my Steel Beasts Pro PE M1A1 over the tops of some of those purty cars.

Proof then, that it is the publishers that are responsible for overhyped and under-delivering games. Not that I think many would be in doubt anyhow.

Very fine article Chuck.

Good article, good review... not sure how the American's are responsible for the drift thing, thats Japan, lol... but go ahead blame us for everything, the rest of the world does...

I didn't have any of the tech issues or slow downs that you mentioned, of course I have a monster machine... but agree with you on the review substance... I just unlocked the final Tier 5 world tour... my experience is that the cars, tracks, and driving action...feel of the road is good... but I can't help to think they went to the local High School, and asked all the kids "who wants to be a race car driver?", then modeled them in the game, lol... half a million dollar race cars and they give you 2 laps to get from the back to the front meanwhile everyone is slamming into you, hitting you into the walls, cutting you off, brakeing on strait aways for no reason... maybe next time they can model the driving AI after real racers... ones that know if they dent their $500,000. 00 race car to many times they will be out of a ride for good. lol.

Multiplayer... ha... I haven't found any friends to race with so the 10 times or so I joined a MP race... every single time, everyone would race like hell to turn one, then everyone would crash, (I learned to stay back wait for the crash then drive through the smoke for the lead), Once up front i was safe... and half the races would exit after the first turn incident, we would start with 8 or 10, end up with 3 or 4. lol MP is a joke as usual... unless you have a closed server with friends.


Still.. it was fun, I rushed to finish it (PC version) before FM3 comes out... then hopefully I'll only need FM3 and DiRT2 for my racing needs for a long while.

I think he was referring to all the Fast and Furious movies Mag, but anyway hey it's pretty!!

I'm past the first race in this game that's it so far lol.

D/L'd the demo - couldn't believe that this was the 'sim' that had been promised!
Hope SMS were well paid, as they have blown their credibility...
Cheers,
Keith

Have the X Box demo and have to admit I liked it, I felt tense whilst driving and hey its fun!

A sim it isnt.

It's not a sim and it's never meant to be one. It's a fun, semi-realistic racing game, the cars are fun to drive around and the feeling of speed is great - something that GTR/Race lack due to a horribly outdated graphics engine.

Cockpit views are perfect, even better than what you can see in GranTurismo5:Prologue - even the little temperature gauges and mile/km meters work like they're supposed to.

I, too, wish for TrackIR support (read somwhere that it's -maybe- comming as a patch) and a bit longer races, maybe 5-10 laps would be enough for this kind of game.

As for performance issues - that game simply doesn't like ATI cards/drivers. Runs hell of a lot better on nvidia. I have a similar config, q6600@3.2 with gtx260-216 and it runs smooth as silk in 1920x1200 on highest settings with antialiasing regardless of what's going on on the screen.

IMHO it's a great step forward in the NFS series and I hope the next one is going to go in the same direction

One question though: why did you select the "Experienced" handling model instead of "Pro" in the settings?

PS. Hello everyone btw, since it's my first post here. I've been lurking on this site for far too long

Haven't read the review yet, but the front page image of cars banging wheels through Eau Rogue really says it all...

Do that in real life and you might wind up in the hospital, or worse.

Not like me to disagree with a SimHQ review, but here goes...

I really like the game. It is not a hardcore sim, but as said above somewhere between arcade and sim - in my mind tending more to sim. Compared to the abomination that was GRID, it is super hardcore.

It gives a great feeling of speed, indeed (to a person that drives a Ford Mondeo stationwagon)gives a a super impression of being in a race. Fantastic graphics and sound, and broadly realistic physics (at least to me).

Too much powersliding, but I lose too much time when that happens, and I only win races (pro level, hard etc)if I get through the corners cleanly without sliding. Some mods are out to reduce grip; I'll try one at the weekend.

Yes, if I crash there is not enough physical damage (though the shock effects are well done) but again, I will not win a race afterwards. Plus I try to avoid it happening. If I go full pelt into a wall, I feel like I'm out anyway.

No TrackIR - not so critical to me in a racing game (vs flying) but rumour has it is coming.

Console interface is an unmitigated horror. No redeeming features. Can I press "Enter" one more time please?

Points win prizes? I think getting points for ramming is a bad idea, but then I don't pay particular attention to the points anyway.

Cars locked? Bit of a bore, but was the case in GTR2 and fFactor as well, no? I assume(hope)a mod will come along as for them to unlock/provide infinite cash. If not, I'll just play and pick up the cars that way.

Short races? I play on "Quick race" and can race on any track for up to 20 laps.

Drifting? Don't do it. It is not compulsory.

I mention mods, but why should we have to rely on them? We shouldn't really, but the mass market got this game published. Most of my favourite racing games have been either greatly improved by mods (GTR2,EVO, RBR, GPL) or created something good (rFactor, P&G2)so mods needed for Shift is not exceptional.

No it will not replace GTR2/P&G2/EVO for me, but I don't think it is meant to. But it is lots of fun.

Now I'm probably not a true sim racer. But I must at least be a casual racer. And I would recommend it - if you appreciate it for it is.

But each to their own opinion.