Shift 2 User reviews
Posted: 02 Apr 2011, 19:28
Here is my review on the latest games in NFS series - Shift 2 (PC)
First of, I don't think it should carry the NFS prefix any more, since it is an intentional attempt to make a game that could be said in the same sentence as the Gran Turismo of Forza.
Sadly, this is the only sentence it could be mentioned in.
I have been playing it for... good 10 hours I guess, but only got to about 25% of career. That is due to spectacularly unoptimized game engine for PC. Few days ago I was amazed by Crysis2, and the guys at CRYTEK who made the game run brilliantly on what now may seem like an mid-low rig. (E5300, 2GB 80mhz, HD4850 1GB). I got constant over 30fps on 2048x1152px and Advanced gfx settings. And it looked amazing, and ran better than the original Crysis.
So you can imagine how cross was I when I found out that on default settings it was running at under 20fps. After that I spent about an hour testing various settings, and it was an nightmare since it want you to restart the game every time you change the resolution, and you cant skip the opening cutscenes!
So in the end, I was running at about 30fps at 1460x900 (or something like that) and all set to low, and the game still felt... numb. for one race - tier3 when you race the ExigeS on Suzuka, it was so horrid, it had to go all the way down. 800x600, absolute minimum - and still it had some freezes!
As for the driving, at first, I just couldnt get the hang of the handling, it was numb, with a bit of a lag. Sometimes it wouldnt react at all to the controls, sometimes it would just spear you off the course into the wall, when you just wanted to correct the line a bit. Honestly playing it one the kayboard or gamepad was a bit of a "oooooh, what's going to happen next!"
But, after a couple of hours when you get the hang of it, buy an AWD car, and spend some more cash on it, it gets really exciting.
I found the helmet cam quite disorientating since driving a car in a desired direction is a handful, it gets even worse when you realise that helmet slightly tilts towards the apex, so you do lose that sense of what is the car pointing at.
Thus I was driving with "far, see whole car, outside" camera (yeees, call me a wuss!). And the sense of speed is just terrifying! The cars really pull - HARD! Every gear change is a slight nod forward, everything blurs except for the other equally storming opponents, and you really get the feel like its a warp drive. Couple that with the fact that you have to dance the Scottish Highland dance with your fingers over the keyboard, and you do get those moments when you just hold your breath and pray for the best.
But it seems that the God doesn't seem to listen to those prays because very often it all gets very very wrong! And that breath you held up just becomes a loud F***** %#$"\@ Mother***@$# beep! beep beep!!!
Yes, frustration. Its in the very soul of this game (PC version). All the way from "please restart the game and once more watch the opening scene to change the resolution", over the unoptimized game engine, over the fact that the keyboard layout for the menus looks to be set by someone who has no human shape (keys are: R,F,U,I), than over the fact that the racing line starts to blink, disappears over the some parts of the track until its all gone which reminds you again how sloppy the game made for PC platform, all the way to those moments when you crash.
And while crashes can be quite spectacular, they are often so it gets a bit washed out later to watch your car roll around crashing into other cars that start to roll around with the bits flying around and the sound of metal being smashed and torn. Sounds nice, but trust me... after a while, you just want to hit that ESC button and restart the race. And when you do that you will be frustrated again when you find out that you cant skip the race cutscene. Especially frustrated if you are racing lets say - Nordschleife, at night, with a +1000hp car, starting in the middle of the pack, and are put against ferociously fast opponents. Trust me, couple all that and and you end up with a million reasons why to restart right after the first or second corner.
Oh, just to mention - there are endurance races. 20 laps, A class cars only (eg. Lambo Gallardo with around 750hp is a bare minimum). Driving carefully and doing only clean overtakes for a couple of first laps just to get to lap 12 (25mins in the race), opponents are half a lap behind, all you can do is try to set a lap record - and guess what. My engine blew up! On a dead straight, driving with an automatic shifting. I was DSQ, all the corners I mastered on that track were erased (mastering a corner with a keyboard is a near triumph) and all the XP I got from driving nearly perfectly was lost. And you need those to advance to next level - which then unlocks new races. Hey thanx EA
But still. Its a good game!
When you win you do feel victorious. Makes you wanna watch that reply and bow at your own performance. When you win, all is forgotten, you just smile and get emotionally involved with that piece of virtual metal - which is nice!
I love my Lambo. It does get dirty and changes shape as the race progresses, it does spear of into the wall and does a little pirouette when I just wanted to correct it a bit, and it always pulls out the shorter end whenever it hits a super heavy Veron; but it screams so nice, so raw, looks sexy, and goes like hell! Its so fast I had to tune it all the way down to a required minimum just to get to the end of a race. Its Brilliant!
Also to mention - some have complained about the music. But really, in this game the music is as important as in porn movie. Just the raw sound (sound is A+) of screaming engines and tortured tires is more than enough to get you all excited. So music, which is in menus only is just to be there. Nothing to be concerned about.
Now... i did say that the game engine is unoptimized (several times, I know), but graphics are very very nice; If you could get them going. Night races are especially spectacular, exhaust flames lighting the track up, headlights blinding you if you look back at the opponents, taillights glowing in the dark far up front , and a slight glow haze on the trees as a 15.000hp pack roars through the forest at 300km/h. Oh what a romance.
Also there are some nice details and touches, At night, your rear view mirrors glimpse and blitz the lights from the opponent lights from behind, and as you drive along, all kinds of sh*t is splattered over your screen. Dirt, oil, insects..., which reminds me of and olf NFS4, and how driving over sand could send some stone chips back at you and damage your screen. That makes it feel like the game was really polished, and extensively beta tested before putting it on Xbox and PS3 shells, and was then just included with and emulator to "run" on PC.
As for the content - many tracks, some real some not, very detailed - there are even bumps on some parts which is, I guess, authentic, and deserves a thumb up. Cars - over a 100 to satisfy your need, from Golf1 GTI, to unbelievably ugly Pagani Huyara. And cars have real world value, so Mclaren F1 is the most expensive, and super ugly Huyara, is super expensive too, more than Zonda R. Witch makes the Golf1 GTI at 4500$ the cheapest.
Sadly no Ferrari. Now as you know, Ferrari is essential to racing as meat is to barbecue, and knowing that there was Ferrari DLC for Shift1, and knowing that many cars from Shift1 are simply included in Shift2 it really begs the question: Have they intentionally forgotten to include Ferraris just so that they could later offer you them for some more $$$? Knowing that its EA... Yep, they have!
So - good: gfx, terrifying sense of speed, winning, sound, content, my lambo.
bad: game engine, port itself, somewhat unpredictable handling, losing, frustrating.
Oh, and another bad thing is VAUGHN GITTIN JR. Chubby guy with a ginger beard who acts all subzero cool because he can drift, whose dictionary contains words like dude and aaaaight and does those gangsta gestures with his hands to emphasize those same words. He just makes you feel like you are 12 again and you dig those things (Which is when you are 13 or older quite embarrassing even to watch ). Now that dude gives you a little motivating speech before every race (that can be muted in the options - YAY) and gives you video instructions on how to drift (That cant be skipped - FUUU******) when you want to try your luck with drifting.
Now, I am sorry, but Polyphony has Sebastian Vettel, who is a F1 World Champion to give you instructions on how to drive, and EA, at its attempt to make a simulation racing game introduces you to a guy that can be taken as seriously as a McDonalds clown.
All in all, i think i like it. If only I had a console and a steering wheel, it would be joyous! Like this, its a 7/10
Thats my humble oppinion. THX for reading, and I would surely like to know what you think about the game...
First of, I don't think it should carry the NFS prefix any more, since it is an intentional attempt to make a game that could be said in the same sentence as the Gran Turismo of Forza.
Sadly, this is the only sentence it could be mentioned in.
I have been playing it for... good 10 hours I guess, but only got to about 25% of career. That is due to spectacularly unoptimized game engine for PC. Few days ago I was amazed by Crysis2, and the guys at CRYTEK who made the game run brilliantly on what now may seem like an mid-low rig. (E5300, 2GB 80mhz, HD4850 1GB). I got constant over 30fps on 2048x1152px and Advanced gfx settings. And it looked amazing, and ran better than the original Crysis.
So you can imagine how cross was I when I found out that on default settings it was running at under 20fps. After that I spent about an hour testing various settings, and it was an nightmare since it want you to restart the game every time you change the resolution, and you cant skip the opening cutscenes!
So in the end, I was running at about 30fps at 1460x900 (or something like that) and all set to low, and the game still felt... numb. for one race - tier3 when you race the ExigeS on Suzuka, it was so horrid, it had to go all the way down. 800x600, absolute minimum - and still it had some freezes!
As for the driving, at first, I just couldnt get the hang of the handling, it was numb, with a bit of a lag. Sometimes it wouldnt react at all to the controls, sometimes it would just spear you off the course into the wall, when you just wanted to correct the line a bit. Honestly playing it one the kayboard or gamepad was a bit of a "oooooh, what's going to happen next!"
But, after a couple of hours when you get the hang of it, buy an AWD car, and spend some more cash on it, it gets really exciting.
I found the helmet cam quite disorientating since driving a car in a desired direction is a handful, it gets even worse when you realise that helmet slightly tilts towards the apex, so you do lose that sense of what is the car pointing at.
Thus I was driving with "far, see whole car, outside" camera (yeees, call me a wuss!). And the sense of speed is just terrifying! The cars really pull - HARD! Every gear change is a slight nod forward, everything blurs except for the other equally storming opponents, and you really get the feel like its a warp drive. Couple that with the fact that you have to dance the Scottish Highland dance with your fingers over the keyboard, and you do get those moments when you just hold your breath and pray for the best.
But it seems that the God doesn't seem to listen to those prays because very often it all gets very very wrong! And that breath you held up just becomes a loud F***** %#$"\@ Mother***@$# beep! beep beep!!!
Yes, frustration. Its in the very soul of this game (PC version). All the way from "please restart the game and once more watch the opening scene to change the resolution", over the unoptimized game engine, over the fact that the keyboard layout for the menus looks to be set by someone who has no human shape (keys are: R,F,U,I), than over the fact that the racing line starts to blink, disappears over the some parts of the track until its all gone which reminds you again how sloppy the game made for PC platform, all the way to those moments when you crash.
And while crashes can be quite spectacular, they are often so it gets a bit washed out later to watch your car roll around crashing into other cars that start to roll around with the bits flying around and the sound of metal being smashed and torn. Sounds nice, but trust me... after a while, you just want to hit that ESC button and restart the race. And when you do that you will be frustrated again when you find out that you cant skip the race cutscene. Especially frustrated if you are racing lets say - Nordschleife, at night, with a +1000hp car, starting in the middle of the pack, and are put against ferociously fast opponents. Trust me, couple all that and and you end up with a million reasons why to restart right after the first or second corner.
Oh, just to mention - there are endurance races. 20 laps, A class cars only (eg. Lambo Gallardo with around 750hp is a bare minimum). Driving carefully and doing only clean overtakes for a couple of first laps just to get to lap 12 (25mins in the race), opponents are half a lap behind, all you can do is try to set a lap record - and guess what. My engine blew up! On a dead straight, driving with an automatic shifting. I was DSQ, all the corners I mastered on that track were erased (mastering a corner with a keyboard is a near triumph) and all the XP I got from driving nearly perfectly was lost. And you need those to advance to next level - which then unlocks new races. Hey thanx EA
But still. Its a good game!
When you win you do feel victorious. Makes you wanna watch that reply and bow at your own performance. When you win, all is forgotten, you just smile and get emotionally involved with that piece of virtual metal - which is nice!
I love my Lambo. It does get dirty and changes shape as the race progresses, it does spear of into the wall and does a little pirouette when I just wanted to correct it a bit, and it always pulls out the shorter end whenever it hits a super heavy Veron; but it screams so nice, so raw, looks sexy, and goes like hell! Its so fast I had to tune it all the way down to a required minimum just to get to the end of a race. Its Brilliant!
Also to mention - some have complained about the music. But really, in this game the music is as important as in porn movie. Just the raw sound (sound is A+) of screaming engines and tortured tires is more than enough to get you all excited. So music, which is in menus only is just to be there. Nothing to be concerned about.
Now... i did say that the game engine is unoptimized (several times, I know), but graphics are very very nice; If you could get them going. Night races are especially spectacular, exhaust flames lighting the track up, headlights blinding you if you look back at the opponents, taillights glowing in the dark far up front , and a slight glow haze on the trees as a 15.000hp pack roars through the forest at 300km/h. Oh what a romance.
Also there are some nice details and touches, At night, your rear view mirrors glimpse and blitz the lights from the opponent lights from behind, and as you drive along, all kinds of sh*t is splattered over your screen. Dirt, oil, insects..., which reminds me of and olf NFS4, and how driving over sand could send some stone chips back at you and damage your screen. That makes it feel like the game was really polished, and extensively beta tested before putting it on Xbox and PS3 shells, and was then just included with and emulator to "run" on PC.
As for the content - many tracks, some real some not, very detailed - there are even bumps on some parts which is, I guess, authentic, and deserves a thumb up. Cars - over a 100 to satisfy your need, from Golf1 GTI, to unbelievably ugly Pagani Huyara. And cars have real world value, so Mclaren F1 is the most expensive, and super ugly Huyara, is super expensive too, more than Zonda R. Witch makes the Golf1 GTI at 4500$ the cheapest.
Sadly no Ferrari. Now as you know, Ferrari is essential to racing as meat is to barbecue, and knowing that there was Ferrari DLC for Shift1, and knowing that many cars from Shift1 are simply included in Shift2 it really begs the question: Have they intentionally forgotten to include Ferraris just so that they could later offer you them for some more $$$? Knowing that its EA... Yep, they have!
So - good: gfx, terrifying sense of speed, winning, sound, content, my lambo.
bad: game engine, port itself, somewhat unpredictable handling, losing, frustrating.
Oh, and another bad thing is VAUGHN GITTIN JR. Chubby guy with a ginger beard who acts all subzero cool because he can drift, whose dictionary contains words like dude and aaaaight and does those gangsta gestures with his hands to emphasize those same words. He just makes you feel like you are 12 again and you dig those things (Which is when you are 13 or older quite embarrassing even to watch ). Now that dude gives you a little motivating speech before every race (that can be muted in the options - YAY) and gives you video instructions on how to drift (That cant be skipped - FUUU******) when you want to try your luck with drifting.
Now, I am sorry, but Polyphony has Sebastian Vettel, who is a F1 World Champion to give you instructions on how to drive, and EA, at its attempt to make a simulation racing game introduces you to a guy that can be taken as seriously as a McDonalds clown.
All in all, i think i like it. If only I had a console and a steering wheel, it would be joyous! Like this, its a 7/10
Thats my humble oppinion. THX for reading, and I would surely like to know what you think about the game...