NFS at its best, and in a new form!
Need for Speed Shift is definitely a step in the right direction for the series that people claim has been losing its thrill in recent years. Although fans of Underground and etc may feel like a foreigner to the series when playing this game; Shift stands to appeal to fans of simulation racing. In this game you can buy a myriad of cars, unlock them in greater tiers of races, or mod them to your hearts content. The game has about over 50 different cars that are equivalent to their real world counterparts (with extremely detailed cockpit views). There are also over 20 different tracks that all have a variety of race types on them. You can take part in Drifting competitions (like the real world Drift events), car battles, races, timed laps. A player will go through all of these events in the career mode as they work to earn money, and reach the Need for Speed World Cup.
Shift excels in the presentation department. The cockpit view is the best racing perspective in this game (there are the usual options here) for it adds an extra element of personality to it when you are in this view and the screen blurs if you crash, or if you crash quite hard your in car driver will grunt. You are also able to see them shift gears too. The game has damage so in this cockpit view your cars screen will crack, or you will see your hood fly off. The tracks look amazing and one would be fooled into thinking it is an actual real life representation of the track. For example, one wouldnt believe how much the Laguna Seca corkscrew mimics the actual real life track. The track themselves, you will see spectators waving their flags, the blurring effects look great as you pass them by as well as others. The thrill of speed is accurately felt in this game too. Other minor details are noticiable such as the Ferris Wheel spinning in one track too.
Soundwise, the games soundtrack for in race music is set to be off by default but one can turn it on for the usual variety of picks from Electronic Arts and licensed music. Sound effects are accurately represented and vary for each car. If it is a low powered car then the engine will sound low powered and vice versa. The English narrator is quite excellent in explaining various items and for items where his explanation is off, you can press L1 to hear it, such as on the customization screen when you need to upgrade the car (helpful if you dont know why you would pay $12,000 to upgrade your engine, etc).
Mechanics wise, the game will start you off by having you race one practice lap to determine your settings. These settings can range from having the racing line turned on, auto steering/auto braking turned on, and whether or not it will have your damage set to "visual only" or full damage in which your driving will be affected. After doing this it will determine a difficulty setting and move you on to the career mode. In this mode there are several tears and more tiers can be unlocked by gaining stars. Stars are earned on each race by winning, meeting the points requirement, or meeting a speed threshold. You earn points by performing "Precision" actions or "Aggressive" actions. Which this ensures is that while everyone may not be able to achieve first place, each race will net you points for your driver profile (which is an ingame achievement system which gives you a driver level which nets you access to more money, events, and upgrades). Precision actions are those in which you overtake an opponent without touching their car, following the race line, mastering a corner, while aggressive actions are those in which you try to ram cars off the road, spin them out of control, etc. The AI will cater to your style as well. You can also use the profile to search for races with other players just like you.
Ultimately there is much more to Need For Speed Shift than I can put into writing, however, this game is a pretty amazing offering from EA and is a nice new direction for the Need for Speed Shift series to take. Apart from only offering the 50+ cars, there is nothing that negative about the game. It could even be comparable to that of GT5 Prologue, GRID, and Forza. For the first of its kind from this developer, I would say this was an amazing undertaking that doesnt fail to please racing fans.
*Controls: I play the game using the control pad. The control setting that is set by default may not be pleasing to most players however, in car customization and such you can undertake advance settings to change extremely meticulous settings to allow for more changes that will cause you to drive less "jeeringly" and more smoothly. Try it out. A wheel would be nice to have too!
Pros
-Nice, new, fresh direction for Need for Speed Series
-Detailed SIM racer
-Detailed Car Customization
-High production values
-Decent DualShock 3 Controls
-Love the trophies
-Driver Profile is addicting
-Tracks from around the world
-Upgrading Tier 1 cars is rewarding in later tiers and events.
Cons
-People who expect police chases, traps, an "arcadey nitrous rush" will be disappointed
-Controls take getting used to
-Would have been nice to have over 100+ cars