PLAY: All-out racing

2009/10/23

FAIZUL AZIM SAIFUL

Need for Speed: Shift trades its arcade-like past for an authentic driving experience, writes FAIZUL AZIM SAIFUL. Need for Speed: Shift (PS3, XBox 360, PC)

NEED For Speed: Shift almost drove me mad in the first couple of minutes of playing, as it is raced on tracks rather than the streets.

However, a few minutes into the game, my anger diminished. The thrill of being in the cockpit of a pumped up BMW took over.

Purists would have a lot of nasty things to say about taking the Need For Speed franchise out of the street racing genre as they did with Prostreet, but this time, Electronics Art (EA) has a strong retort. Maybe EA has been warned against glamourising illegal racing, but by taking this direction the franchise has shifted into the racing-sim genre quite well. One thing which stands out is that Shift has switched lanes from its arcade-like past to deliver an authentic and immersion driving experience.

This is a game which feels like it is built by racers for racers with its loud, intense and numbingly fast action, especially when experienced from the driver’s seat.

There is no story, no police chases, no pink slips, no punk stealing your car, no beauty helping you out and then double-crossing you, no doughnuts to bring down, no fuel stations to blow up, just all-out racing.

Much like Most Wanted, you start off with a souped-up BMW on a test-drive around a track so the game can determine your settings depending on your driving skills.

Once this is done, you’ll be thrust into a race in the same car and once you win it, you’ll have a sense of deja vu as the BMW is taken away from you (remember Most Wanted?).

So, with the winnings, you are asked to look for a slow, underpowered and boring car which is the only thing you can afford at the time. Yes, you can still shop for cars and customise them (upgrade, colour, rims, vinyl) but the only difference is that you can’t take them out to the streets and show them off.

And with the car, you will have to move up the tiers and through your winnings, buy better cars and ultimately race in the Need For Speed World Championships.

To move up the tiers, there are Profile Points which you need to collect depending on how you drive.

Unlike other racing-sims where clean driving hails more rewards, you can collect points either for precision or aggressive driving.

At the end of each race, points are gathered for following racing lines, precise cornering and clean laps as well as trading paint, blocking and pushing rivals off the track.

This might sound peculiar at first but there are two classes of driving styles which you can aspire to — Precision or Aggressive — and whichever you score in most will eventually show on your Style Icon.

The Style Icon shows which driving style you prefer and, through time, a crest will slowly be complete.

One warning, though, for aggressive drivers. If you want to take out a rival, make sure you do so or he’ll come back and take his revenge. That’s how real this game tries to be.

Talking about reality, the cockpit view in this game is just amazing with true-to-life interiors, and the dynamic camera) which pitches around depending on how roughly you handle the car) and G-force effects (which cause the screen to blur).

Going full throttle on straights makes the screen blurry and really gives the feeling of speed, but lose control and you’ll experience some of the most realistic crashes in video games.

As soon as you hit something (a stack of tires, a rival car, a wall), the screen shakes violently, and turns black and white leaving you disoriented and then slowly returns to normal.

Of course, if you love breaking things, EA did an excellent job with the damage modelling. Cars trade paint, get crunched and even fly into the air.

Visually, Shift is easily the best-looking racing-sim yet, with car models intricately modelled from the inside-out, and the interiors looking just as beautiful as the exteriors. The interior of your car also changes as you modify it — so if you change a normal street car into a finely-tuned racing machine, it’ll go from having an everyday interior to one with safety equipment. The audio in Shift is just amazing with crashes making you cringe when you hear them. The difference between a low-end car and a high-end one in their varying engine roars is well-defined. There is even a noticeable absence in music during races which allows for the roar of the engines and cars around you to pull you more into the experience.

Need For Speed: Shift is just what racers need to fill the void after Grid and practise their skills for the highly anticipated Gran Turismo 5. Pedal to the metal.

The game can be bought at Playtime Electronics in Bangsar Shopping Centre, Kuala Lumpur.