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.

I also disagree with this review. NFS SHIFT provides more original features than Forza 3 or GT5:
- a great IMMERSIVE inside view: simply the best out there, if you already watched a video of a real TV incar view, it's really spot on: vibration, feeling every bumps, G-Force, fantastic sounds.... AMAZING.
- A REAL DIAMOND under the hood: the GTR2/RFACTOR Gmotor: even if severely under exploited for the "masses", GTR2 modders realizes prowess everyday to unleash its full potential.
- Graphics are on par with Gran turismo 5 Prologue which never seen before on a PC racing game: watch replay or screenshots of NFS-SHIFT: they blow up Forza 3 INGAME GAMEPLAY easily.
- With a wheel and more careful driving and tuning, you really get the most of SHIFT.
- MODS!!!! they revolutionize the gameplay in every parts: we already see mods to remove the cockpit blur, High resolution textures for the cars, mods to make a better AI, mods to tweak the physics engine and it's just the beginning.

In conclusion, SHIFT is much more in-depth than you think and I'm sure that in few weeks or month the game will fully give us it's real heart! and yes, to drive a 300-800 horsepowers on its limit is REALLY not the same as drive your everyday car...

To each their own. I drove it and was not impressed. I tried the Pro settings. Between the numbskull AI that brakes for no reason in straights, the really wonky physics, and that tuning seemed to do virtually nothing for me, there was no reliable way to aim the car and reach the driving line you needed to in order to be successful.

I don't concern myself too much about mods whenever I'm reviewing a product out-of-the-box. The fact is, if modders have to clean up your mistakes to make something more realistic, then you obviously didn't get it right the first time. I used a Logitech MOMO Force Feedback Racing Wheel for the review and the ability to control and aim the car was terrible compared to GTR2.

The force feedback is more believable in GTR2. I don't know how someone could come up with SHIFT's being better. It's limp compared to GTR2's, which is a function of having the force feedback being engineered for a console wheel like the MS Wireless Wheel, which is the most unresponsive piece of crap in existence. Yes, we can all agree that SHIFT is pretty and I made that point. It is. It's like nothing else you've seen.

However, based on what I've seen of Forza 3, there will be nothing like it, except on PC. It is every bit the hardcore racing sim on a console, just as its predecessors were. GT5 will continue to be a arcade piece of crap so long as they don't have a damage model.

It is a console port of an Xbox 360 game.

pfunk

Just to add a variation on the comments here -

I was looking forward to Shift, although didn't expect it to replace rFactor/GTR2/GTR-E for me. When I finally got Shift, I was disappointed, primarily because the cars seem to slide waaaaay too easily and the AI seems to not be subject to any of the same limitations that I am, making some races nearly impossible.

That being said, the modding community has done a great job of already fixing lots of these problems:

- One mod doubles all laps required in every race and halves the money you win, making progression slower

- Another mod removes the big "start" lights that fill the whole upper half of your screen at the beginning of a race

- Another mod removes most of the extraneous track-side objects that are not there in real life, and become distracting

- Another mod removes the over-done bloom effect

- Multiple mods attempt to make the car handling physics a little more GTR-like

- Just today a mod has added initial unofficial TrackIR support

So, slowly these things are being worked out. I'm going to stick with it for now.

WHAAAT? I've been waiting for two days for registration to clear so I can make this post, and since reading that I'm still spazzing out, throwing bottles and screaming at my monitor. WHAT?

ARE YOU DEAF? You got a pair of distortion pedals routed through your ear canals or what? Why does everybody keep saying that this game sounds great? Haven't you, of all people, heard the clean and simple recordings of material like Power and Glory to compare it to?

Do you understand that fidelity is clarity, and not overcompression, clipping, and resampling? Forget all my other complains with the title, which I generally agree with you on, but come on, please don't bother reviewing audio quality with your Bose PC speakers and rockist frame of reference.



yeah we get it, you're a middle aged white guy from Texas, but please stick to the subject of simulation in your articles rather than bringing up the banal suburbanite cliches that are generally associated with our little hobby, it's really embarassing, I don't want to be you, I don't want to know anything about you, I just respect your tastes on the subject of simulation and that's it

also to tie the two rants together, think of Shift's audio as the production equivalent of that backwards baseball cap-wearing Pop-Hop, overcompressed mud-bass that sounds "good" on your Bose PC Speakers just like a pair of subwoofers sound "good" rattling around in the trunk of a 1993 Toyota Tercel on spinners

'Kay. Welcome to the forums.

pfunk

You shouldn't let unpleasant people stick around, it's bad for the community. I just had to get that out so I can stop tearing my hair out and punching my keyboard. I'm a sound design major so I had to chimp out a little bit on this issue.

Plus it's not like I can name a better site for sim reviews. Anyway I'll get back to talking trash to Shift developers on VirtualR now.

Seriously, welcome to the forums. If I booted everyone that didn't like what I said or disagreed with me, we wouldn't have anyone left.

pfunk

I've been saying quality members over quantity... but no one listens... guess I'll never be left in charge, lol.

When did SimHQ decide to lift the ban on Derek Smart's posting privileges ? Derek, stay off the caffeine.



Nobody gives a sh.....

You know, the weirdest part about Shift is that it's actually a lot more fun in the Tier 1 cars. By the time you get to Tier 4 Supercars, the AI is overdriving them so aggressively that it is all you can do to keep from getting batted off the track by the second turn. Or ramming a pileup of Zondas as you come around the corner mid-pack.

Also, the "bounce" issue is incredibly annoying. I was trying to do a circuit race in Daytona with a Zonda R and there simply is no shock setting that will keep it from being hurled almost off the track by hitting a bump over a certain speed. Augh!

This is where I do envy you PC guys. The Realism 2.0 mod looks incredibly sweet. I wish there was a chance of convincing EA to push some of the changes in it out to us poor XBox/PS3 users...

My review would be: incredible graphics, sound, cockpit view in a generally fun racer spoiled by trying to jack the physics around to an arcade racer and making the AI much more aggressive in the higher levels then it should have been.

Bonus fail points for not including a simulation mode when they have a decent engine under the hood too. We even know what they did to mess the physics engine up thanks to the mod community! (It sounds like it wasn't too hard to patch it back to the way it should have been delivered.) So why wasn't it delivered with the potential to run that mode as well as a "Simulation" setting in the prefs?

EA FTL unfortunately.