Need for Speed: Shift Hands On

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:54 am

Hmm.. I may just stick with the PS3 version I have now then. Since I'll probably do mostly single player anyway I won't have to start over. Besides, I'm sure once Forza 3 comes out that will be my big online racing game. I remember playing the last one a lot online.

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:07 am

Wow, I've rarely had a game fall from grace as quickly as this one did for me. It went from feeling like our poker nights on the lower tiers to feeling like a room full of 10 year old randoms on xbox live on the higher tiers.

Maybe I just can't wrap my head around what they are trying to do, but when I'm forced to drive like a moron in order to place well in a race I'm just not getting it. I'm actually insulted when my aggression points are higher than my precision points! I'm trying to see it as just an arcade racer, but when the car physics are more realistic like this games are the two ideas just don't mesh for me. If I drive clean I get booted by the AI cars. If I drive like an arcade game, I can barely control the car because of the physics. And I really don't enjoy the drifting races at all.

Maybe I just need to lower the difficulty down so I can just drive, but if I'm going to race on the real world tracks I find myself reaching for Race Pro.

Most likely though this is going ot find it's way back to the store, I can use the money to finish paying off Operation Flashpoint and Forza 3.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:55 am

Gurantsu wrote:Hmm.. I may just stick with the PS3 version I have now then. Since I'll probably do mostly single player anyway I won't have to start over. Besides, I'm sure once Forza 3 comes out that will be my big online racing game. I remember playing the last one a lot online.

It will be.

I have an embargo until the 8th when the OS review posts, but it will be.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 12:41 pm

I have never had a harder time trying to guage a game by reading the responses here! Stupid Gamefly still hasn't sent me a copy and I want to try it and possibly buy it this week from BB while its still on sale.

So is this a buy or not???? Better than GrID? Remember, I prefer my driving games a mix between arcade and sim, but not too demanding.
Do you have to mess with setups or tweak settings to enjoy this game?
Can I just pick a difficulty and go? Teal......you still liking this one?

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 12:46 pm

Personally I liked Grid better, but this one's really fun.

As you get higher in the tiers, the cars get a lot twitchier. It's not like you get cars with more power and therefore they're harder to drive--it's like you get cars with completely different handling tendencies, so you have to relearn how to play the whole game.

Then the AI decide to absolutely rape you on the higher tiers, cutting down on you and cornholing you like randoms on XBL, and it's a pretty strange one.

Early on it's incredible fun, but I found myself getting frustrated by tier 4 and not really caring anymore.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:47 pm

TCrouch wrote:Personally I liked Grid better, but this one's really fun.

Early on it's incredible fun, but I found myself getting frustrated by tier 4 and not really caring anymore.

Yes and Yes....Though I havent given up on it entirely yet.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:58 pm

Yes, I'm still liking it very much, Jack. I've opened Tier 4, and haven't really had any real handling issues that were any different than 1-3. I don't play it online, and probably won't, other than the occasional 1 on 1 showdowns with friends.

DChaps · Post by **DChaps** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:13 pm

Has there been a DSP Poker night for Shift? I think I have it for rental one more night.

One small but annoying thing I noticed, is that it does show me who of my friends has the fastest time posted for each race I enter. For example, I think I see RageHawk on every screen.

However, when I go to the friends list, it only shows a summary of career for each friend, number of wins, losses, etc. There is nothing showing the actual times posted for each track, or in which car or difficulty setting. There does not seem to be any of this even in the Time Trial or Time Attack modes.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:34 pm

I noticed that, too. It's quite irritating to not know car or anything, or even something based on wins. I didn't even make heads or tails of what "events vs whatever else it was" meant.

Wilk5280 · Post by **Wilk5280** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:08 pm

Played the game for an hour or so and just do not like it. It's frustrating at best. Even with the control tweeks found here, I can't stand the handling. Everything is twitchy, the cars slide all over the place and when I am driving a nice line the AI cars are sure to bone me something fierce.

Even at 39.99 I wish I hadn't purchased this one.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:51 pm

This is the longest I had a game under wraps and I think I will trade it for Operation flashpoint and give it a rental instead.

Wilk5280 · Post by **Wilk5280** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:05 pm

Played another 30 minutes and i'm convinced that this is an absolute piece of s***. The handling tries to be a mix of sim and arcade and fails miserably at both.

The only thing more frustrating that fighting my car for an entire race is having an bunch of AI drivers that make the XBOX Live random crowd look like a bunch of pure gentlemen.

You cannot race these circuits correctly because the AI simply will not allow you to do so.

Game is getting deep-sixed tomorrow.

toonarmy · Post by **toonarmy** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:08 pm

Teal wrote:Yes, I'm still liking it very much, Jack. I've opened Tier 4, and haven't really had any real handling issues that were any different than 1-3. I don't play it online, and probably won't, other than the occasional 1 on 1 showdowns with friends.

I still like it a lot as well. With the steering settings adjusted the cars handle about as smooth as I have seen in a driving game, so I am baffled how people feel that the handling is not good. The thing that is keeping me interested in this game is the sheer challenge of Tier 4 and the NFS Live Tour events. You really have to be careful on some of those events and cannot just barrel past AI cars without worrying about them unleashing a fury on you, especially if you have traded paint with them earlier in the race. If you race clean then the AI will generally be clean, but if you race dirty then the AI will seek payback. Gotta love that.

J_Cauthen · Post by **J_Cauthen** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:21 pm

I'm liking it pretty well, but I would be disappointed if I'd paid more than $39.95 I paid for it on sale at Best Buy. I'm enjoying the Tier 1 and Tier 2 races, but as many have said, the AI gets unbelievably wreckless starting in Tier 3. I haven't made it to Tier 4, and I'm not sure I really want to based on the eccentric behavior I'm seeing in Tier 3.

I got my Microsoft Force Feedback wheel setup and working with it today and I'm much better with it than I was with the gamepad. I've learned to set my search preferences to car ratings of "6", or less. I find that you're less likely to find a room filled with drooling wreckers with the lower powered cars. I had some great races today using that approach.

OTOH, I was in a "14" rating race at Spa today and I got flat out cornholed twice, each time to the tune of sinister laughter of the perpetrator. What's sad is the game tends to reward the cornholer. They usually at least keep their direction pointed ahead, while the cornholee gets plastered into a wall, or spun around. I went from 3rd to last in less than a lap, and finished 20 seconds behind the last guy that cornholed me.

I'm enjoying to lower level racing in offline mode, but I can't see it holding up once Forza 3 hits. Too bad the online mode lacks any recognizable identity or structure. It has potential, but it seems unfinished and definitely disposed to the intentional wreckers.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:50 pm

toonarmy wrote:
Teal wrote:Yes, I'm still liking it very much, Jack. I've opened Tier 4, and haven't really had any real handling issues that were any different than 1-3. I don't play it online, and probably won't, other than the occasional 1 on 1 showdowns with friends.
I still like it a lot as well. With the steering settings adjusted the cars handle about as smooth as I have seen in a driving game, so I am baffled how people feel that the handling is not good. The thing that is keeping me interested in this game is the sheer challenge of Tier 4 and the NFS Live Tour events. You really have to be careful on some of those events and cannot just barrel past AI cars without worrying about them unleashing a fury on you, especially if you have traded paint with them earlier in the race. If you race clean then the AI will generally be clean, but if you race dirty then the AI will seek payback. Gotta love that.

Yeah, I don't get it either, toon. The game rocks, from where I sit. I try really hard to run clean races; I don't like running someone off the road to get ahead of them, and sometimes will reset the race if it gets too ugly. I've never, never been cornholed by an AI driver without pissing in their corn flakes first. When I get broadsided, I pretty much know why, and it's usually in retribution. I'm cool with that.

In fact, not too much has happened that I didn't understand why. I can tell when I've gone in to a corner too hot, I can see how the AI gets ahead of me in a turn because I went in too wide, and too fast, and they hit it right.

I just don't understand how two groups of people can have such a wide gap in their opinion of a game.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:02 pm

Cars are just way too sloppy at top-dead-center on the wheel, and it's magnified on the faster cars for me. I've tuned and tweaked the wheel settings as much as I can, but the control just isn't there.

Compared to Forza 3, the control is way off the mark with a wheel...controller I can't comment much on as I only tried it a handful of times in the slower cars.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:12 pm

TCrouch wrote:Cars are just way too sloppy at top-dead-center on the wheel, and it's magnified on the faster cars for me. I've tuned and tweaked the wheel settings as much as I can, but the control just isn't there.

Compared to Forza 3, the control is way off the mark with a wheel...controller I can't comment much on as I only tried it a handful of times in the slower cars.

I don't use a wheel-too much damn trouble to set up in my little abode. But I don't have any problems with the controller and the toon settings.

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:44 am

I don't mind an aggressive AI, but when I get slammed into repeatedly on the straight at Spa because of a little bump through Eau Rouge thats just stupid. I mean, I admire simulating Tony Stewart that way, but keep that crap in NASCAR. This game can't decide if its Forza or Flat Out.

And the handling for me is just not there in the faster cars; they don't react the way I think they should. When I try to save a car from a skid, I end up fishtailing down the track, even when I'm lifting off of the gas. You can't apply real world techniques to what they claim are realistic physics. And you can't apply arcade techniques because the AI will get pissed and send you off track at every opportunity. One bump and you can forget about setting up for a turn, you will get hammered by the AI as you start braking for the turn.

Now I certainly prefer a more sim-oriented game, so take that into account as you read this. It's just that in my opinion, this game isn't even a fun arcade game, as once you drive it as such the AI takes it out on you

Glad I waited for a pre-owned copy so I could get a full refund on it. At least Operation Flashpoint is paid off now!

DChaps · Post by **DChaps** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:08 am

It's too bad the Simbin and Slightly Mad Studios teams broke up. It seems that if you combined the best things about Race Pro and Shift together you could come up with a pretty darn good console racing sim.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:42 am

DChaps wrote:It's too bad the Simbin and Slightly Mad Studios teams broke up. It seems that if you combined the best things about Race Pro and Shift together you could come up with a pretty darn good console racing sim.

YES YES YES!!! That would be an awesome game.

toonarmy · Post by **toonarmy** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:14 pm

DChaps wrote:It's too bad the Simbin and Slightly Mad Studios teams broke up. It seems that if you combined the best things about Race Pro and Shift together you could come up with a pretty darn good console racing sim.

I could definitely live with such a game.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:29 pm

toonarmy wrote:
DChaps wrote:It's too bad the Simbin and Slightly Mad Studios teams broke up. It seems that if you combined the best things about Race Pro and Shift together you could come up with a pretty darn good console racing sim.
I could definitely live with such a game.

Isn't Slightly Mad Studios the former Blimey team? Also Blimey/Slightly Mad Studios sold the GTR rights and work to Simbin meaning the original team formed a new company called Blimey Games.

Simbin went on to produce WTCC and other games along the GTR theme.

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:01 am

I'm curious guys. Which one has the better overall fun factor, and can you see having more longevity....Shift or Dirt 2? I've got both in my GF que, but I'm awful tempted to get to BB today while they still have that $39.99 deal for Shift. So, if you could only choose 1, is it Shift or Dirt 2? Thanks in advance.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:45 am

Both are very good and both are different enough to warrant a purchase.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 9:45 am

Rodster wrote:Both are very good and both are different enough to warrant a purchase.

Ditto, but Shift has been spinning more than DiRT in my machine-take it for what it's worth...