Warez Farsi - Need For Speed Shift

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Need For Speed Shift

September 10, 2009 - EA's Need for Speed franchise has had its up and downs. Unfortunately, the past few years has been one of those "down" bits, with the last couple games doing nothing to advance the series in any way that you would call good. So, something had to be done, and EA decided to hand off the reins to Slightly Mad Studios, the folks behind the PC racing series GTR, to create Need for Speed Shift. So did the changing of the guard pay off?

Oh, yes it did, and in a huge way.

There are so many things done right in terms of design that this feels like the freshest take on the "simulation" racing genre in many, many years. I put the word "simulation" in quotes because while Need for Speed Shift is undoubtedly closer to that end of the racing spectrum than, say, Burnout, Slightly Mad made some very smart choices in deciding what would be realistic and what wouldn't. The result is that the team is essentially giving you a racing experience that is extremely close to the real thing in terms of presentation, while keeping the controls just arcadey enough to allow relative newcomers a much easier entryway into the game than the likes of Gran Turismo.

Let me step back a little bit before delving into the racing experience. NFS Shift returns to the track-based racing of old (and ProStreet) rather than the open-world stuff seen in most of the modern titles. You'll find mainstays like Laguna Seca, Willow Springs and Nurbergring as the backdrops to your tire burning, and each of these are brought to life excellently. They're not 100% accurate compared to their real-world counterparts however as Slightly Mad has tweaked the scenery to provide more compelling views in spots that were a little drab, but the course layouts are indeed intact, which is what's important. Given the course selection in the game (totalling somewhere around the 20 track mark), it's of little surprise that practically every meter of road in the game is fun to drive.

Unlike pretty much every modern day Need for Speed title, there's zero story involved, and I'm very happy about that. The closest thing you're going to get to some sort of tale is the voiceover that you'll hear at the start of the game, telling you that you've been given a chance to prove yourself in a BMW M3 around Brands Hatch before winning some cash and choosing your own ride. After that, the voice only returns to explain new events and the like, but never to tell you that the cops are on your tail or that your love interest can introduce you to some jackass in a garage. Nope, this pretty much as pure of a racing game as you can find, and I for one am very thankful for that.

That's not to say that the experience is drab. On the contrary, there's fantastic and somewhat atmospheric music in the menus, a generally slick interface all around and some stylistically edited videos to introduce new events. It's the sort of stuff that will keep your blood pumping between events without getting in the way.

All of that is great, but pales in comparison to what happens when you get behind the wheel of a car. And let me just say that you should get behind the wheel and not race from a third-person camera because the cockpit view is what makes NFS Shift stand out from the extremely competitive racing genre and come into its own. Slightly Mad has created an extraordinarily good cockpit view for the game, one that makes you feel like you're actually in the seat of a horsepower-bleeding supercar.

Rather than remaining static, the view shifts and undulates slightly when the gas or brakes are applied. Sitting at the starting line and revving the engine can rock the vehicle back and forth, and slamming on the brakes to take a tight corner will throw your view forward towards the dashboard. It's a dynamic camera that moves to impart the inertia and g-forces that you'd feel while racing. Fortunately, it's not overdone to the point where it'll make you sick; it's subtle enough that you know that it's happening, but may forget about it after a while. But, go into the same view in most any other racer and you'll realize what you're missing.

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