Do you know what it feels like revving your engine waiting for that green light to ping, as you shift into first then second while putting your foot so deep on the pedal while all your adrenaline pumps you up? If not then that’s why they made video game consoles to give you that simulated feeling! New to the consoles this week is Need for Speed Shift and I for one and very impressed with this new installment to the series. All right racers of all ages buckle up and get ready for this review of Need for Speed Shift, get ready to burn some rubber baby!
More after the jump…
What is the first thing you always have to do before any race? You gotta qaulify to determine what kind of driver you are and of course you start off with the BMW, which is your starter introduction to the racing world. Your goal is to defeat other racers and of course get to the World Tour race. Once you finish and qualify earning some cash and mind you depending on which place you end up in will determine how deep your pockets will be. If you are as hungry as I am you would always want to hit that number 1 spot to get that nice $40,000 prize flow. Either way if you end up in 10th you will get $23,000; so technically you won’t feel bad if you lose or not, because you will still be holding cash. So of course they brought back rivals during each race which will lead you up to the king and that brings more personality to this arcade simulator.
Knowing the ropes of racing 101. You will get to pick your driver profile depending on the style which you race. So if you are the type to drive with respect; trying to match the corners and drive clean then you will get great points for that. Now if you are the type to be aggressive just like that fool that bumped my car and made me slam INTO A FREAKING WALL AT 125mph!!! Then you will also get points for being very aggressive during races. Too get more indepth with aggressive driving, you will get graded for dirty overtakes, sharing paint, and drafting to name a few. Precision drivers will get points for clean cornering, clean overtakes and not trading paint. So all in all you will get points for being you and that is fine by me….until you hit me in a race, then I am out for blood!
Picking your ride is very essential because it will be an extension of you and how you take on the races. My first pick of course is the Nissan 240SSX, because it drifts like a dream and can take on corners with ease. With the added bonus of your own tuner knowledge, you will make any car drive like a streamline butterfly. However for those of you that know nothing about tuning it is all good, because there is a learning curve especially when driving. New drivers can turn on driver assistance which will show you perfect lines to follow while on the track and you can switch it off during the race not having to stop and quit out which is a nice touch. In a good way this game is made for all comers, good job.
Speaking of nice touches ,let us go into the graphics of the game. One thing I like about racing games is the fact you can damge your car and figure out how to win the race. Oh yes there is crash damage in need for speed and you can set how badly you want to see the damage in the options menu. Another added feature is damage to the driver and I don’t mean you will seen broken bodies or anything. What I mean is disorientation when slamming into a wall or crashing. You will hear the driver grunt and you yourself will see the effects of what it is like to crash. The screen will get blurry with all the color gone leaving you with a black and white screen; depending on how hard the impact will determine how long until you can get back into the race. You will also get a nice first person view mode of the driver seat, seeing all the glory of shifting and the nice details of your dashboard with all working gauges. The detail does say a lot about how the developers took care about how each car functioned and how well the detail of all the cars are different. You get an A++ for that EA!
You see I have said a lot of great stuff but where are the dark areas of the game? Well the load time is very long between races or modes. I am not totally surprised by the load times since the game is very huge with graphics and details. Some gamers will not forgive the loading time, however I say learn some patience and enjoy the game when it starts!
Final analysis of Need For Speed Shift are as followed. You have a nice flow of racing modes, great deal of a learning curve for new drivers, great advance mode for veteran drivers, nice amount of cars, great customization and unlockables. The load times are a bit dragging in a fast paced game but that can be passed by. It was a nice combination to bring action paced arcade racing with simulation style. each car drives differently and the interior is a great touch to see inside the cockpit of your car. The final grade I give NFS: Shift is 5 drift turns out of 5. This is the console review of Need for Speed Shift available now for the Xbox360, PS3, and PC as always stay frosty!