Need for Speed Shift Impressions

[davidan]

I bought Need for Speed Shift for the PC, and I have to admit it's a lot of fun guys. Here is a screen shot I took today of a time attack I was doing in a Mazda.



Here are a few impressions.

1. It's not a sim, but a fun arcade game. Although it is moddable and some nice stuff is coming out for it already . I downloaded a Realism mod for physics which makes it like a really good arcade title, but dont' want to falsely set expectations I wouldn't compare it with any sim. But it does feel fun and driveable after this mod and some wheel tweaks (see below)

2. The Graphics are very nice!!! And it supports Triple Screen Gaming just fine at 5040x1050 Rez! So that's a bonus. My System is running it well with pretty much everything maxed. It uses some nice special effects for Dirt, Blur, etc. It's certainly nice in the eye candy department.

3. You need to tweak your wheel settings quite a bit to make it feel good. Why the devs didnt do this out of the box very well beats me. It is setup for some generica profiles that feel crappy with a wheel. I think it's geared for the console type racer to begin that probably uses a game pad.

Here are the settings I am using for my ECCI and they work well

Deadzone Settings
1% Steering
0% Gas
3% Brake
3% Clutch

Sensitivity Settings
20% Steering
50% Accel
40% brake
100% Clutch
0% Speed Steering
FFB 9 or 10
Turning Lock 40%

So your mileage may vary depending on wheel you have, etc ... But give it a shot would be my suggestion.

4. The game has a very rich and very deep career mode. So much like what you get on a good console game like Forza. This is nice on a PC game. It is fun to progress through the career. I definitely think this adds a lot to the fun factor.

5. It supports 8 racing multiplayer. I logged on and did a couple of pick up races. Of course they were wreck fests, but it seemed to work fine as far as no lag, etc ...

6. Most importantly it's fun. I definitely dont feel like I wasted my money on it. It was a bit tough to get the wheel dialed in which took some patience, and I also had a graphics glitch with a black screen issue at first. But I did a search and found this was a known issue and I had to delete my profile in the game and let a new one get generated. There is already a patch out for it.

7. The game was developed by Blimey Games, former SimBin Guys for EA ...
it's certainly a step in the right direction for them.

8. The sounds in the game are very cool -- loud and fun. Definitely has that in your face feel which is cool for this type of game.

DA

[Devin]

I agree, its a fun diversion and the career mode is something missing from the good PC sims. At first I was getting bored rather quickly with the arcade physics and crappy FFB. But then I found the "simulation mod" and G25 tweak at NoGrip.com and I have to say, it made all the difference in the world.

I have to say the physics feel pretty sweet after the mod. And after the AI tweaks recommended with that mod, the racing is challenging and a blast. The sounds are awesome and the visual presentation includes some neat new ideas (after you turn down the head movement a bit). Overall fun racing not far outside of the realm of the physical world (after tweaking).

I wonder if we could do LAN races with the physics mod?

[davidan]

I agree, its a fun diversion and the career mode is something missing from the good PC sims. At first I was getting bored rather quickly with the arcade physics and crappy FFB. But then I found the "simulation mod" and G25 tweak at NoGrip.com and I have to say, it made all the difference in the world.

I have to say the physics feel pretty sweet after the mod. And after the AI tweaks recommended with that mod, the racing is challenging and a blast. The sounds are awesome and the visual presentation includes some neat new ideas (after you turn down the head movement a bit). Overall fun racing not far outside of the realm of the physical world (after tweaking).

I wonder if we could do LAN races with the physics mod?

Is this the mod you downloaded?

http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=167251

[vendsale]

I've really been wanting to play this but it is not cooperating with my system at all. It won't start up half the time unless I put it in compatibility mode which disables all but one of my cores. Then when I do get it to run my controllers are all messed up. A huge dead zone with my G25 and CST's. I've tried a lot of the fixes and gotten it to run decent but not without going through an elaborate calibration process every time I start it up, it's just not worth my time. I'm going to give it another go when I get Windows 7 installed.

There have been several realism mods that have come out that look really cool! I'm looking forward to trying some of them out.

[Devin]

Is this the mod you downloaded?

http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=167251

Yes.

Have you tried any others?

[davidan]

There was one I got from VirtualR.net called the Real Mod and it helped, but I want to try this one that you posted as it seems more detailed. I am going to download and install it tonight to check it out ... the one I downloaded can be found at this link
http://forum.racedepartment.com/down...mod-2-0b-1736/

[DaveS]

I just ordered NFS Shift from eBay Canada for $24.00 US. The place I ordered from is in India (?) had great ratings 98% with over 1,000 people buying from them so I'll have to wait and see if the product is a valid product, they claim all software to be 100% original.

DaveS

[Mike Tribble]

they claim all software to be 100% original.

DaveS

and I CLAIM my right big toe to be 4 feet long.

[DaveS]

Will let ya know once I receive it.

DaveS

[DaveS]

I got the game in the mail a few days ago and installed it tonight and it's working fine. Great deal for the price. Now to unpack the game and try out some of these mods.

EDIT: It worked fine that one time, now it loads but I've got the same problem as thousand's of others with this game, it will load but will CTD when it tries to load the track. I've tried all the suggestions, and installed the patch, I've unpacked it and added -loose to the shortcut, I've un-installed and re-installed it about a dozen times and still am unable to get it to work. Oh well, juar another quality product by EA Sports.

DaveS