Need For Speed: Shift Hands-On Impressions

After spending a few hours with the latest build of Need For Speed: Shift at the NYC media event, I can tell you a few things. First there has been big steps forward in the graphical department since we last saw the game at E3. Next take all your opinions of NFS: Pro Street, Undercover, and any of the last few NFS games that were subpar and throw them out. EA smartened up big time and went with a new developer, who built a nice new NFS experience, that looks amazing and plays just the same.

Gameplay
NFS: Shift can either be a simple arcade racer or a hardcore sim racer. its all up to the player. You have choices on what degree of the various assists you want, which really allows you to tailor the game to your liking. The game mixes the good parts of PGR and the good parts of Forza and sprinkles on some Grid. As you race you earn points either in “Precision” or “Aggressive” racing and overall diving points. Again the way you race effects the way the game will be played and the way the AI acts when your on the track. If your an aggressive driver be ready for getting hit from behind and cut off. As you rack up points and money you unlock new upgrades and new cars. All the cars in the game can be upgraded with various upgrade ranging from Aerodynamics to Engine improvements.
The controls are very tight and you can really feel the difference between the cars. Some will sway and pitch around turns while others will stick tight to the track. And as I said the assists can be tailored to your racing preference.

Graphics
The game looks amazing, car models are smooth detailed. Each car has a unique full 3d cockpit. And the more you play the game the more neat graphical features you find. Damage models are also very good. Cars can go from slight scuffs to missing parts. But the graphic engine shines when your in the cockpit hitting high speeds. Your view will blur and the feeling of the speed really kicks in, if your not careful and slam a wall be ready to get your vision to get a good swift knock. Crashes cause you to “blackout” and get blurred discolored vision. I can’t say enough about how great the graphics looked, sun glare was great, the ways the windshield and even side windows would damage looked great. If you slam the side of the car expect some marks in the side window. If you bang your car up to much expect a hard view out the windshield. Like I said there are so many little things that you will pick-up on everything you play that you’ll find yourself running into walls because you weren’t paying attention to the track.

Need For Speed: Shift is geared to really relaunch the NFS franchise. With solid graphics great gameplay its sure to be a hit for many race fans. Need For Speed: Shift will be racing into stores on September 15th.