While Underground, its sequel, Most Wanted, and Carbon were praised and fairly well received, the two most recent Need for Speed titles left a lot to be desired. ProStreet’s attempt at realistic racing and Undercover’s weak story didn’t satisfy fans of the series. With those two titles leaving a sour taste in many players’ mouths, EA has a lot of work to repair the damage done. Enter Shift, EA’s next iteration of the Need for Speed franchise.

Need for Speed: Shift steps away from the amateur, illegal street racing of the recent NFS titles (except ProStreet) and instead presents professional, track-based racing. Slightly Mad Studios promises a driving simulator that is centered on the driving experience rather than the collection of cars of other simulators, such as Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport. This realistic focus extends not only to the tracks and cars, but the physics and customization as well.

Every NFS title since Underground has featured a drifting mode, but the arcade like physics prevented it from ever feeling accurate and gratifying. In their effort to keep the realistic experience consistent, Slightly Mad is working hard on the drifting gameplay of Shift. They brought on Team Falken driver Vaughn Gittin, Jr., who has now spent over one hundred hours on the game, to help guide them with making the drifting mode as realistic and accurate as possible.

Just like real life drifting, Need for Speed: Shift requires players to constantly switch between the throttle and brakes and monitor the steering to keep drifts around corners and bends. Slightly Mad Studios claims it to be the “most realistic drift experience ever in a video game.”

A problem with drifting in the previous NFS games is that the public has a misconception about what drifting actually is. To rectify that, Shift will offer different difficulties for Drift and begin teaching the basics of drifting. The difficulty will gradually rise as the player improves, making the mode a much more rewarding and engaging experience.

Need for Speed: Shift features a driver profile system that will adjust the single-player and online progression of the player based on his or her racing style. Depending on moves performed during races, two types of points are awarded - aggressive or precise - which will be the determinant in your game progression. This driver profile system extends to the Drift mode, which means points will be awarded during drift gameplay.

Here’s a video featuring Vaughn Gittin, Jr. and his experiences of working on Shift:

Need for Speed: Shift is slated for release on September 15, 2025 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, iPhone OS, PlayStation Portable, and mobile platforms.

       

Tags: Electronic Arts, Need for Speed: Shift, News, Preview

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 7:21 am and is filed under Mobile, News, PC, PSP, PlayStation 3, Previews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.