SHIFT demo impressions

On Sep 19, 10:27 am, "Jonah Falcon" wrote:
> Well, it's as close as PC gamers will get to Forza - SHIFT is almost a clone
> in a lot of respects.

I've never played Forza before, but if you've played GTR or RACE on PC
and then cross it with NFS' 'attitude' then you get NFS: Shift. I
don't think I've ever played a racing game that portrays the actual
role weight plays in handling more than Shift. Normally the weight is
only felt in acceleration but in Shift with the driving physics set to
pro you feel it in not only the lateral handling, but the actual body
roll itself.

I've seen demos of Forza and it seems weak-sauce to me. It doesn't
look any better that Test Drive Unlimited and even when the autobrake
and rewind features are used your lap time can still be submitted to
the online leader board? WTF?

jonahnynla.RemoveThis@mindspring.com (Jonah Falcon) wrote:

> Well, it's as close as PC gamers will get to Forza - SHIFT is
> almost a clone in a lot of respects.

As I've said in RAS, although I hate many aspects of the game, on the sim side of
things I find it pretty convincing (after extensive tweaking an upgrading to better
handling cars). Any weaknesses (and there are plenty) are more than made up for --
to me at least -- by the most amazing graphics and all-round racing experience I've
had on the PC.

Sure, iRacing is impossible to beat for car-on-track physics and driving
satisfaction. But all the gimmicks and graphical tricks in Shift really work for me,
against my expectations, dragging me headlong into a pretty solidly immersive
experience.

I am a bit of a Nordschleife geek though, I love racing there. So this amazing
representation of that track may be skewing my rational opinion and allowing me to
overlook the gamey annoyances. I am certainly in a minority so far.

Andrew McP

PS I've had no hardware issues at all. It just runs and runs well on XP32,
e6600@3GHz, 3.5Gb, 260GTX.

On 9/20/2009 4:17 AM PT, Waz Medano typed:

>> Does this game/demo have any chases? I always enjoy chasings from police
>> and stuff.
>
> Nope, none of that in this version of NFS. It is real world racing
> cars on tracks only as far as I know.

Thanks. I will pass then.
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"Jonah Falcon" wrote in message

> Well, it's as close as PC gamers will get to Forza - SHIFT is almost a
> clone in a lot of respects.

I was quite impressed - it feels like you have force feedback even playing
without it - with a combination of great sounds and visuals. Despite buying
quite a few racing games none have really equalled that for sheer excitement
and "realistic" physics.

How much life the game will have I'm not sure - I enjoy street racing the
most and the only racer to really grab me over the last few years has been
MTA:SA.

It (SHIFT) did take me back to Chequered Flag on the Spectrum - in hindsight
a ridiculously basic affair with graphics to make even a Wolfenstien artist
weep. However, we played the same lap again and again just to get a better
time and I could see this game giving that sort of replayability as the
driving is so darn good.

"Ant" wrote in message

> On 9/20/2009 4:17 AM PT, Waz Medano typed:
>
>>> Does this game/demo have any chases? I always enjoy chasings from police
>>> and stuff.
>>
>> Nope, none of that in this version of NFS. It is real world racing
>> cars on tracks only as far as I know.
>
> Thanks. I will pass then.

There's 2 other NFS games coming - one of them is Hot Pursuit style.

Then you'd love Forza 3. The guys at Forza 3 are insanely particular about
car physics.

You can also turn down the realism for an arcade racer experience if you
want to, too.