Rather than hijack Magnum's thread, I'm moving this here.

Keep in mind these aren't highest settings, but the same as with the first game.

Brands hatch

Shift 1, early shot, suffered in downsizing:




Shift 2:





Putting together some Nordschliefe comparisons too, unless this storm knocks me out for the night. LOL

Shift 1:




Shift 2:

Shift 1:













Shift 2:

They somehow screwed up the color palette...

Very nice comparison. Very useful.

Thanks for those comparison shots.

Yeah while I like the new gfx additions in Shift2 (especially the particles off track and off other cars) I am definitely looking forward to see the improvements that modders will make.

The cars themselves still look pretty good, it's just that the environment has had to be scaled back so much. In replays, sometimes it looks like the car is a clear photo of a car placed on an environment painted in water color. It just doesn't blend in. In the first game, it was as close to perfect as I've seen and much more detailed. The trees detract from the racing since they don't come into "focus" until you're almost passed them, they stay blurred and pop in constantly. The original had the same kind of thing, but the trees/environment came into focus far away so it wasn't noticeable.

Graphics aren't everything, but a step backwards is just odd. I'm happier with the handling than I was on the original the first time I played it. Very nice car selection, and I went up quickly to level 5 in not a lot of gameplay yesterday. You build up money slower though, the independent races don't pay very well like they did before.

FOV:

Shift 1:


Shift 2:

So, is it just me or is #%&*$# 1, er, I mean... Shift 1 better than Shift 2 at least in the graphics department? I mean, the screenies of 1 there looks almost photo-real, while Shift 2 is clearly a game...

Both are games, but Shift 1 fakes being a sim very well with mods. Shift 2 will one day too, mods are already coming out, but 1 looks far better, higher fps and better FFB.
2 has a nice set up for the game structure and features, but for now the racing just isn't as fun. Great game just turning some laps even if not full on racing.