![]() We were hoping that, with the awful Need for Speed: ProStreet, we might have seen the last of drift racing, but sadly it’s back, with a spectacularly dull tutorial and irritating guest appearances from champion Vaughn Gittin Junior. This is lucky, because the one major area where Shift 2 hits a false note is in its adoption of trendy, rather US-focused forms of racing. If you can’t get past a certain race, just skip it and try something new, or maybe come back to it later? There’s no need to get stuck bashing your head against a brick wall. Levelling up unlocks new tiers of events, while cash prizes will give you the wherewithal to buy the cars to compete in them.īecause each tier contains a range of events of different styles, ranging from straight races to elimination races, themed championships and hot-lap time trials, you always have a choice. As before, racing accurately and aggressively, winning events and achieving set objectives, will earn you RPG-style experience points, and when you get enough of these you level up. Plus, it’s a game with an intelligent single-player career structure. The car upgrade options are both comprehensive and well laid-out, making it easy to buy something relatively cheap and cheerful and boost it into a pocket-sized supercar. The easiest difficulty level is reasonably accommodating, and the optional driving aids give newbies a fighting chance without wrecking any feeling of control. Yet this isn’t just a racing game for the hardcore player. Not everyone will like this, but if you like your racing to deliver a decent challenge, you certainly will. While GT5 encourages you to splash out on new gear and coast your way to victory past a predictable, subservient grid, Shift 2 pushes you to go out there and grow a pair. Play it safe, and you don’t have a chance. The best thing we can say about Shift 2 is that it’s a game that leaves you feeling satisfied when you merely get a podium position, and delighted when you’re lucky enough to grab first place. The smaller D-class cars can be thrown around with impunity, but C and B class vehicles need to be treated with respect. The handling still isn’t quite as convincing as Gran Turismo, but it’s in the right area. Call it cheating if you like, but it’s just another way Shift 2 keeps you on your toes. Normally we’d moan about any game where some git can knock you flying in the crucial final lap, but the more you play and the better you get, the more skilful you become at avoiding this. The AI is manic and aggressive, arguably to a fault, with your CPU-controlled rivals taking risky racing lines, nudging you off the track and sticking close in your slipstream, ready to pounce when you make an error. The sense of speed is overwhelming, the various visual effects - the blurs, the jarring knock into monochrome when you hit something - are even more skilfully employed than they were in 2009. The secret is that Shift 2 realises that, no matter how many cars you have and no matter how accurately they’re rendered on the screen, or how many real-world tracks and how lushly detailed and realistic they are, it all means nothing if the racing itself isn’t gripping. And you know what? It comes pretty damn close to stealing Forza’s crown and making GT5 look tired. But now Shift is back, with the Need for Speed branding relegated to a sub-subtitle and even more attitude than before. Of course, since then we’ve had the incredible Forza 3 and the rather less incredible GT5, with the first setting a new benchmark for this kind of game. Sure, the handling was a bit iffy in places, but Shift was fast, good-looking, packed with brilliant, immersive visual effects and genuinely challenging in a way that Forza 2 and GT5 Prologue were not. ![]() ![]() (Pocket-lint) - With 2009’s Need for Speed: Shift, Electronic Arts did the unthinkable not just producing the first decent Need for Speed game in donkey’s years, but a sim-style racer that was a credible rival to Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo.
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