By wanting to be a sim, it failed being an arcade or a sim racing game.

User Rating: 6.5 | Need for Speed: Shift PC
By serge99100100 | Review Date:
EA has put a lot of marketing on Shift, praising that it was a competitor to Gran Turismo and Forza. However, it is not. By doing this, they put the arcade style aside and now it just seems to be neither of the 2 types.

They now added a lot of real tracks in the game, as Laguna Seca, Road America, Nurburgring, etc... They are mostly well represented, except for some few curves that look different from Forza and GT. At least, this will not be seen by a lot of people.

The graphics now look dated, for sure, but it is still playable. The sound is simply horrible. You always seem to hear tire squeaking in every turns. That is absolutely terrible. The cars all seem to have the same sound, no matter you drive a Ferrari or a Camaro.

The controls. Do not think playing with a keyboard or a controller. I have an XBOX 360 controller and it is really though to race with it. The cars always seem to go sideways. Apparently, there are some mods to improve them, but I have not tried them yet.

You gain experience in every races. You can gain experience by driving aggressive or with precision. So basically, whatever you do, you get XPs. You hit someone, you get points, you take a turn perfectly, you get points. This has the impact that everyone wants to spin out everyone. The AI is so dumb that they will hit you in the door in a straight line. Sometimes, they will be stopped completely in the middle of the road, for you do not know which reason.

There are 4 categories of cars + drifting cars. Drift in NFS Shift are the worst drift races I have ever played. The cars cannot be controlled except on an oval. You will spin out or go left and right every seconds even on a straight line.

I find that there is not many cars, but NFS does not have a reputation to contain hundreds of cars, so I cannot blame them. You can buy modifications for them, but it is very generic. The description can be, Muffler: Adds a 3.5 inches exhaust. You raise level so fast that after only 2 types of races out of 4, you can race in the highest class of the game and have a lot of money.

NFS Shift does not worth playing, unless you are a fan of the NFS franchise, and even then...you probably have a favorite which is not this one.

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