- #Need for speed shift 2 reviews drivers#
- #Need for speed shift 2 reviews driver#
- #Need for speed shift 2 reviews full#
While the addition of an Elite handling model certainly points Shift 2 Unleashed in the right direction there's still an uneasy lightness to the car's behaviour, and even once accustomed to their more sensitive ways they're still prone to providing some nasty shocks. What it isn't, however – and here's where the likes of Gran Turismo and Forza steal a march on it – is reliable or consistently satisfying in its action. Even better is the gory evisceration that waits at the end of a high-speed crash, with the cars shedding doors, bonnets and wheels with violent conviction.ĭrive by night and expect to be terrified. The excellent audio visual feeds into this the cars growl with purpose and they're finely modelled too. Thanks to the driver's eye view, Shift 2 Unleashed provides the most thrilling experience available in the genre. Shift 2 Unleashed, with its innovative new perspective, can lay claim to being the first game to actually let you be the driver, a feature that works for better and for worse.
Other games let you be the car, in much the same way that some first-person shooters let you play as a disembodied gun. Here the screen's lined by the helmet's lining, and the camera will actively tilt towards corner apexes. It's a first-person perspective that does more than put you in the driving seat it provides a genuine driver's eye view. Such thrills are aided by the added layer of immersion lent by the addition of the helmet cam, a small but welcome revolution within the racing genre.
#Need for speed shift 2 reviews full#
As it stands, most motor-racing nuts will be able to gloss over them, but those with a less all-consuming enthusiasm for all things on four wheels will find it provides more frustration than enjoyment.During the all-new night races tracks such as Spa Francorchamps are as packed full of scares as Dead Space's Ishimura Pouhon, a fast left kink that can be taken flat by the very brave, is as frightening as the most savage of necromorphs when it leaps out of the dark at the last possible moment. If Shift 2 Unleashed's flaws weren't so glaring, it would be a contender for the crown of best racing-sim ever. It has a great mix of races, hot-lap challenges and eliminators (where the last car is excluded at the end of each lap), and an even better version of the glorious Autolog, as seen in Hot Pursuit, lets you set and respond to vast amounts of challenges involving your online friends, providing endless opportunities to secure bragging rights.Ĭircuits like Brands Hatch, Monza, the Nordschleife, Suzuka and Donington have never looked better in a game, the car upgrading and especially tuning systems are vastly superior to those in Gran Turismo 5 and there is a proper damage model (although you can set it so that it is cosmetic and doesn't affect handling).
#Need for speed shift 2 reviews driver#
That said, if you're a serious driver who is prepared to tinker with car-tuning and ignore the drifting events, you'll love Shift 2 Unleashed. It was impossible to detect even a milligram of fun in the drifting element of the game. This kicks off with a tutorial which is not only impossible but unspeakably tedious – although I did discover that you can cheat by engaging reverse gear and slamming on full throttle and lock. An excellent, incredibly detailed tuning system lets you dial the understeer out, but that seems a ridiculous thing to have to do as a matter of course for any rear-wheel drive car.Īnother aspect of the game rankles: presumably to ensure that it sells well in Japan and the US, drifting has been included.
If you actually manage to get the thing turned in, oversteer is available mid-corner when you pile on the power, but all the rear-wheel drive road-cars in the game seem to be similarly afflicted. Barrel into the first high-speed left-hander and you'll find more understeer than the cheapest and nastiest supermini. The moment the learning curve goes ballistic occurs when you're invited to take part in an Invitational race over five laps at Suzuka, in a Lotus Exige.
Two aspects of the game contribute to this: AI opponents who delight in battering you off the track and will happily perform offences that would bring about black flags in real life on every corner and occasionally questionable car-handling, which is surprising given Shift 2 Unleashed's pedigree. It's fearsomely hard, with a learning curve which is admirably gentle for the first hour or so, then suddenly drives into a skyscraper.
#Need for speed shift 2 reviews drivers#
First, a big caveat: although you can turn on a host of driver-aids, Sunday drivers need not apply.