Shift 2 Unleashed - DLC Out Now: 13 New Cars and 6 Tracks

kyleh613

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Developer: Slightly Mad Studios
Publisher: EA Games
Release Date: March 29th, 2011
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac OSX

Links worth keeping an eye on: http://www.needforspeed.com/shift2unleashed/blog They are updating this weekly, around Thursdays I think with new tracks, cars and announcements of new features.

Shift 2 Unleashed is the sequel to the 2009 racing sim that was the new kid, Need for Speed Shift. Slightly Mad Studio's dropped the Need for Speed title from the name and have decided to take the game into a more sim like direction with large improvements on the damage model, car handling physics and creating a more immersive gameplay experience. One of the things Slightly Mad Studio's wanted to with Shift 1 was a mix of arcade and simulation, this time around though Slightly Mad has decided go completely in the direction of simulation based on user feedback.

What's new?
- Over 130 of the most well known modern and classic cars

- 30 unique tracks making up over 70 variations spread out across real world and city courses, one of the new courses is Bathurst.

- An improved version of Autolog from Hot Pursuit

- 12 player online races

- Night Time Racing and an improved lighting system overall makes the game look much more realistic. Judging from the screenshots this is better look then both Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5.

- Improved damage model, now cars can crash out of races by losing body parts including tires.

- Damage to the track - crashes can destroy sections of the track wall or the track itself and create hazards for other drivers.

- Helmet cam is a new immersive gameplay feature that gives you an idea of what it is like to race while wearing a racing helmet. One of the coolest features of this camera view is that you will look in the direction you are turning. This is a lot more realistic compared to other racing sims where you are just look straight ahead the entire time. This gives you a better more accurate view of what is going on.

- Shift 2 features the FIA GT1 World Championship and GT3 European Championship.

- Improved customization - Larger vinyl editor and car upgrades. You can swap out engines and put on a lot of different aerodynamic parts now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGgkQBAgThs&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aDjfRlNOmI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TEoet04cY8&feature=player_embedded

Mmmm... Cocks...

I was loosely following this, but I was unaware they were going to go in a more sim direction.
This pleases me greatly.
I really loved the sense of speed the first game gave, but am just not an arcade style racer.

Lets hope this one is actually finished at launch.
I was really really frustrated I got half a game last time.

This is still getting a PC release yes? I had seen it posted before, but these things change quite a bit.. especially PC games these days.

kyleh613

Yes, PC and I believe even Mac OSX this time too, at least according to Amazon. The nice thing is that Slightly Mad is just building ontop of what they already had in Shift. So development time isn't that long for Shift 2 but they are able to put in a lot of new features and improve upon what they already had, so the game should feel a lot more complete.

There will also be a store front built into the game so I assume there is going to be a lot of DLC.

Gaslight

Man, I am so tempted by this but I know I shouldn't. I went through a period a few years ago where I was heavily into sim racers like GT Legends and GTR2 (both products of Slightly Mad's earlier incarnation, Simbin) but I quit because I didn't have the time and patience to get good at them.

I tried the Shift 1 demo but it never gave me a good feeling. The physics seemed to be adjusted so that every car slid around like it was set up for drifting or something in a way that was totally alien to every realistic racing simulation I had ever played, and the AI left a lot to be desired. I understand the game's been heavily modded since its release and a lot of this has probably been corrected.

Playing these things is just so much hassle for the reward, though, have to dig out my wheel and pedals and move stuff around on my desk to set them up and bleah. As it is I have F1 2010 and hardly ever have the gumption to start it up.

TeeMan

I'm really looking forward to this I'm a little saddened/confused that it looks like they're not going to have a Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon in it that you can max-out to a V8 Supercar that is famous for going around Bathurst, but it's not a big sticking point.

I'm very disillusioned to the prospect of what constitutes an "improved" damage model these days. GT5 has an improved damage model and look how embarrassing that is. I'm not hoping for a Burnout Paradise level of complete destruction, but at least make my car look like it's written off if I can no longer complete the race. I remember taking the second-to-last corner in Spa while driving a Porsche GT3 in Shift 1 just a little too wide, sliding the rear over the grass, slamming it into tyres (immoveable object), being spun and flipped around from the crash and then... driving away? I was doing >150km/h at the engine is sitting right at the point of impact! I really hope things like that imrpove.

Gaslight

I dearly hope that they have a PC demo like they did with Shift 1. If I can try a demo and it doesn't feel like the game physics have been disastrously compromised in a token effort to appeal to the Fast and Furious-watching ricer/drifter crowd I don't know if I'll be able to resist.

In defense of less-than-fully-realistic damage modeling...the more spectacularly you can destroy the car, the more people will wreck the car on purpose just to giggle at the destruction. I remember back when I was a Microsoft Flight Simulator enthusiast some people occasionally complained that MSFS has basically no damage modeling at all: if you crashed the plane, it would basically clip through the terrain, the game would freeze, and then the flight would reset. Personally, I was fine with the fact that the developers had not invested time and effort in making fancy crash effects because it would have only encouraged people to intentionally fly their aircraft into buildings. Now if people want to play the game they spent their money on that way, fine, but it's not the way the game was intended to be played and I don't see why developers should have to cater to it. I agree that if you ram a wall at 150mph you shouldn't be able to drive away from it, but I'm far less concerned about seeing car shrapnel flying through the air.

marty_0001

No more NFS games for me. I play on the PC and I barely managed to install Shift, and recently got Hot Pursuit which crashes repeatedly even after patching. I don't know if it's the DRM beams or what but I'm sick of screwing around trying to just play the game. These are the only games which give me issues and they always give me issues.

It's a shame because I really enjoyed Shift, and the hour I've managed to get out of Hot Pursuit was really fun.

kyleh613

marty_0001 wrote: »

No more NFS games for me. I play on the PC and I barely managed to install Shift, and recently got Hot Pursuit which crashes repeatedly even after patching. I don't know if it's the DRM beams or what but I'm sick of screwing around trying to just play the game. These are the only games which give me issues and they always give me issues.

It's a shame because I really enjoyed Shift, and the hour I've managed to get out of Hot Pursuit was really fun.

Yeah EA Games efforts with porting their games to the PC has been pretty lackluster over the last few years. Crazy DRM and just not being very optimized at all. I do wanna give them credit though for Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2 however but the NFS games have been far superior on the consoles.

As for TeeMan's concerns, from what's been said in interviews you will be able to knock yourself out of races if you turn the realism settings up enough. You can lose tires and other body parts and do enough damage where you can't continue any further. Not the same developer but Dirt 1 and 2 had the same sort of damage model and Dirt 3 is going to be similar.

Jamesways

I was waiting for a thread to pop up.

Now this I can get behind. Time for giant post!

WIP Car and Track List
Spoilered for longness

Acura
2005 NSX

Alfa Romeo
2007 8C Competizione
2010 Giulietta QV [Limited Edition Exclusive]

Alpina
2010 B6 GT3 (Team S-Berg Racing)

Aston Martin
2006 DB9 Coupe
2010 DBRS9 (Hexis AMR)
2010 DBR9 (Hexis AMR; Young Driver AMR)
2010 DBS Volante
2007 V8 Vantage N400

Audi
2010 R8 LMS (Black Falcon; Saintloc-Phoenix Racing; Team Rosberg; United Autosports)
2008 RS4
2007 S3
2006 S4

Bentley
2010 Continental Supersports

BMW
2008 135i Coupé
1979 M1 Procar
1990 M3 Sport Evolution (E30)
1996 M3 (E36)
2003 M3 (E46)
2008 M3 (E92)
2010 M3 (E92) GT2 (RLR/BMW Motorsport)
2008 M6 Coupe
2010 Z4 GT3 (Team Need For Speed/Schubert Motosport)
2007 Z4 M Coupé
2010 Z4 sDrive35is

Bugatti
2006 Veyron 16.4

Caterham
2010 Superlight R500

Chevrolet
2010 Camaro SS
2006 Cobalt SS
2010 Corvette C6.R (Mad-Croc Racing; Phoenix Racing/Carsport)
1967 Corvette Sting Ray 427
2010 Corvette Z06.R GT3 (Callaway Competition; Graff Racing; Toni Seiler Racing)
2008 Corvette Z06

Dodge
1971 Challenger R/T
2009 Challenger SRT8
1969 Dodge Charger R/T
1997 Twins Turbo Motorsports Viper GTS
2008 Viper SRT10 Coupe

Ford
1996 Escort RS Cosworth
2006 Focus ST
2010 Focus RS
2010 Ford GT1 (Marc VDS Racing Team; Matech Competition)
2010 Ford GT3 (Fischer Racing; Marc VDS Racing Team)
2005 Ford GT
2010 Shelby GT500
2010 Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s Falken Tire/Monster Mustang GT
1969 Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s RTR-X Mustang

Gumpert
2009 Apollo S

Honda
2006 Civic Si
2000 S2000

Jaguar
2010 XKR

Koenigsegg
2010 Agera
2006 CCX

Lamborghini
2008 Gallardo LP560-4
2010 Gallardo LP560 GT3 (Argo Racing)
2010 Murciélago LP670 R-SV (All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport; Reiter Engineering)
2007 Murciélago LP640 [Limited Edition Exclusive]
2007 Reventón

Lancia
1992 Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione

Lexus
2010 LFA

Lotus
2006 Elise 111R
2007 Exige S

Maserati
2010 MC12 GT1 (Triple H Team Hegersport; Vitaphone Racing Team)
2010 GranTurismo S

Mazda
2008 MX-5
1991 RX-7 (FC)
2008 RX-8

McLaren
1994 F1
2011 MP4-12C

Mercedes-Benz
2007 SL65 AMG
2010 SLR McLaren Stirling Moss
2010 SLS AMG

MINI

Mitsubishi
2006 Lancer Evolution IX MR-Edition
2008 Lancer Evolution X GSR

Nissan
1997 200SX (S14)
1992 240SX (S13)
2005 350Z (Z33)
2010 370Z (Z34)
2008 GT-R (R35)
2009 GT-R SpecV (R35)
2010 GT-R GT1 (Sumo Power GT; Swiss Racing Team)
1999 Silvia spec.R Aero (S15) [Limited Edition Exclusive]
1971 Skyline 2000 GT-R (KPGC-10)
1999 Skyline GT-R (R34)

Pagani
2010 Zonda Cinque Roadster
2007 Zonda F
2010 Zonda R

Porsche
2008 911 GT2 (997)
2010 911 GT3 R (Mühlner Motorsport; Prospeed Competition; Trackspeed
2006 911 GT3 RS (997)
2008 911 GT3 RSR (997)
2010 918 Spyder
2005 Carrera GT
2010 Cayman S

Radical

Renault
2008 Mégane R.S.

Scion
2010 Team Need For Speed AWD Scion tC

SEAT
2007 Leon Cupra

Shelby
1967 GT500

Subaru
2006 Impreza WRX STi

Toyota
1986 Corolla GT-S (AE86) (Team Need for Speed D-Mac 86)
1998 Supra

Volkswagen
2006 Golf GTI (MKV)
2008 Scirocco

---

TRACKS (35 locations with more then 100 layouts in total)

Real Circuit Locations
Automotodrom Brno (GP)
Autodromo Di Pergusa (GP)
Autodromo Nazionale di Monza (GP+Junior)
Autopolis International Racing Course (GP+Lakeside)
Brands Hatch (GP+Indy)
Circuit de Catalunya (GP+National+School)
Circuit Spa-Francorchamps (GP)
Circuit Zolder (GP)
Donington Park (GP+National)
Dubai Autodrome (GP+International+National+Club)
Ebisu Circuit (West+South+Togue)
HockenheimRing (GP+Short+TBA)
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (GP)
Motorsport Arena Oschersleben (GP+A+B)
Mount Panorama Circuit Bathurst (GP)
Nürburgring (GP+Sprint+Nordschleife+TBA)
Oschersleben (GP)
Road America (GP)
Silverstone Circuit (GP+National+International)
Suzuka Circuit (GP+East+West)
Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Speedway+TBA)
Willow Springs Raceway (GP+Horse Thief Mile)

Fantasy & City Circuit Locations
Alpental (Full)
Ambush Canyon (Full)
Dakota (GP+National+Club)
Glendale (Club+East+West)
Hazyview (Eight+Oval)
London (Club Drive+Embankment Loop+River+Royal Mile+Whitehall Drive)
Miami (Bayfront Park+Bayside Run+Bicentennial+Biscayne Boulevard+Drift)
Miyatomi (Oval)
Riviera (Casino+Monte Grande+Monument Loop+Porte Boucle)
Rustle Creek (Oval)
Shanghai (TBA)
Tokyo (Full+Club+TBA)

Still missing a few tracks, probably FIA GT circuits.




Great article about the improved physics model from Speedhunters.com
Sounds very promising.
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/02/02/shift2-unleashed-gt-gt-on-the-subject-of-physics.aspx

And another regarding two toyotas and a pile of rims (about customization)
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/01/26/shift2-unleashed-two-toyotas-and-a-pile-of-rims.aspx

Some videos-

Career Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmiC7spFEm8

Lighting and Damage Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAu0y8e3HM

SimRacingTonight's Interview with Developer Jessy Abney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TEoet04cY8

Hopefully all this marketing PR and hype pans out, and Slightly Mad Studios gets to finally show off their GTR Engine on consoles.

I'm very hopeful about this game personally, and can't wait to get in some FIA GT1 and GT3 racing. The Helmet Cam sounds great, and driving at night on the Ring will be intense.

Peter Soderlund is the Senior VP of EA EU and heads up all the racing titles. He's been very involved in this game development.
He also was a driver for the FIA GT3 Championship last year in the Team NFS BMW Z4M GT3. They came in 3rd in the Team Championship and won a race at Zolder and Jarama. Not too shabby for a new team and new car. Team NFS recently won the 24hr of Dubai with the #76 BMW (same car Patrick drove). That's another reason Dubai is now an added track.

All of the Team NFS racing, drift, and time attack cars and drivers are in this game.

kyleh613

Ooh man, awesome post Jamesways! That is some fantastic information.

Slightly Mad badly needs to create a "Porsche Unleashed" DLC pack.

Satsumomo

I hope this severely dent's Gran Turismo's reputation in a way that GT6 will actually be awesome.

Jamesways

I still really enjoy hoplapping in the first game, wonkiness and all. After the two patches and some serious settings and tuning adjustments, some cars actually handle pretty decent, and the cockpits and lighting effects are great.

Don't know if you guys know that back story as to why the final build of Shift was so screwy. EA had SMS do a sim build for them. They had many jounalists try it out pre-release, and the feedback was great, although many thought it was too hard.
Right before release however, EA decided to put in coding tweaks to essentially dumb it down a bit for the masses. Hence the crazy twitchy sideways drift feel.

As you probably know, there's a large PC mod community that found the coding changes and removed them, as well as other stuff, like all the billboards and trackside additions EA added to make the tracks more lively. Modders have also started real liveries like the 24hr Nurb Manthey porsche for example. There's even F1 mod. So some PC folks have a nice little sim to enjoy afterall.

Patrick Soderlund at EA came right out and admitted this dumbing down was a mistake, and the team vowed to focus more on sim this go around, and is letting SMS do their thing.

So we'll see. I'm guessing it won't be an iRacing or rFactor type sim in terms of physics, but it should quite a difference from the first one. Who knows though, maybe the Elite Handling model will be GTR2 wrapped in pretty graphics. Fans would love that.


Kyleh, they'll be some good GT2 and GT3 Porsches right out of the box.
Rumor is that Ferrari might be a DLC package like the first, they're absent from the release list like Shift 1.

kyleh613

Yep! There are some good Porsches from the start but I was hoping for a few classics too. Forza 3 right now has the best list of Porsches in any racing sim. EA holds the main license to Porsche and so thats why i've been hoping they would go all out with it, they can easily put every porsche in the game without having to ask permission to do so.

Gaslight

Jamesways wrote: »

I still really enjoy hoplapping in the first game, wonkiness and all. After the two patches and some serious settings and tuning adjustments, some cars actually handle pretty decent, and the cockpits and lighting effects are great.

Don't know if you guys know that back story as to why the final build of Shift was so screwy. EA had SMS do a sim build for them. They had many jounalists try it out pre-release, and the feedback was great, although many thought it was too hard.
Right before release however, EA decided to put in coding tweaks to essentially dumb it down a bit for the masses. Hence the crazy twitchy sideways drift feel.

As you probably know, there's a large PC mod community that found the coding changes and removed them, as well as other stuff, like all the billboards and trackside additions EA added to make the tracks more lively. Modders have also started real liveries like the 24hr Nurb Manthey porsche for example. There's even F1 mod. So some PC folks have a nice little sim to enjoy afterall.

Out of curiosity, could you recommend the best mod out there to correct the absurd floaty slip-sliding?

Jamesways

Gaslight wrote: »

Out of curiosity, could you recommend the best mod out there to correct the absurd floaty slip-sliding?

Honestly, I've only got it on the 360, good lord I wish I had a nice PC to mod it.

But check out the REAL MOD2.0b, that seems to be one people enjoy. There's a slew of others out there for graphic tweaks, liveries, AI, tire and grip adjustments, etc.

And this site is great for good advice on mods (and other sim games too).
Link to mods page.
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads.php?do=cat&id=68&page=4

and the forum for links and discussion on these.
http://www.racedepartment.com/need-for-speed-shift/

:^:

Gaslight

Yeah, I've looked at those sites before, I was just hoping somebody had some firsthand experience to say which one was the best and simplest choice for ironing the handling out. As it is I'll probably just wait for Shift 2 to come out instead of bothering with finally acquiring and modding the first game at this late date.

Very informative and encouraging posts though, thanks!

Jamesways

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyuYxkawt_4

Zxerol

The cockpit view still looks boss, which was probably the best thing about Shift 1.

kyleh613

Gaslight

kyleh613 wrote: »

Oh my Lord. This game is so bought.

Basil

Why don't I see any pictures of smashed and crumpled cars with little gooey bits oozing out?

There's just no authenticity in gaming these days.

Jamesways

Indeed! New mfg pics on the site up.

Check out the BMW M3 E92 works conversion. DTM baby.
http://www.needforspeed.com/shift2unleashed/car/bmw-m3-e92

kyleh613

I wonder what the chances are that all of these screenshots are just heavily modified in Photoshop and these cars don't really look this great. This game is better looking than Gran Turismo 5 assuming these are accurate screenshots.

Satsumomo

It's probable due to the fact that they have a low number of cars, and probably much better programing techniques. GT5 really showed me how outdated the Polyphony team is.

Jamesways

kyleh613 wrote: »

I wonder what the chances are that all of these screenshots are just heavily modified in Photoshop and these cars don't really look this great. This game is better looking than Gran Turismo 5 assuming these are accurate screenshots.

SMS have confirmed on VirtualR that these are in game, no photoshop touchups.

it's got great looking tracks and lighting, that's for sure.

Gaslight

Now see, this is gorgeous but unless there are enough vintage cars in the game to have their own events and have a little GT Legends revival I'm not sure what the point of it is.

Jamesways

From the WIP car list on the previous page, there's 7 vintage cars so far.

Not sure about vintage only invitationals yet.

But I do know they'll have several New vs. Classic events.

L Ron Howard

Jamesways wrote: »

From the WIP car list on the previous page, there's 7 vintage cars so far.

Not sure about vintage only invitationals yet.

But I do know they'll have several New vs. Classic events.

That sounds horrible. I mean, how well can you really expect an older Corvette to handle or drive or whatever-have-you compared to a modern one? I mean, we have modern cars now with less than half the displacement and half the cylinders that are faster than Corvettes made until 20 years ago or more.

And I'm keeping my eye on this one. I was sorely disappointed by the first one, and I can only hope they've learned and improved upon it. The serious-but-arcadey thing they had going on really made it drive awkward. Add in the horrible AI by computer drivers and I left with nothing but playing it for like two or three hours due to a sour taste in my mouth.

Jamesways

Hey, sometimes the oldies can surprise you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4qocLLmijY

I know what you mean though, they're probably modifying the old ones to get them in the same class. In Shift 1, you can soup up the oldies quite a bit.


And yes, the AI was brutal.


But all I have to say is fuck yeah!








Edit- Thess two look incredible! They had me fooled at first glance.

Gaslight

I only ever played the Shift 1 demo, but I remember in that that your choice was to turn the AI up and have a demolition derby on your hands or turn it down and have the AI drive like complete grannies and practically park in chicanes.

This was a big part of the reason I only ever played the demo.

Getting my anticipation for this ramped up now, though, especially since Test Drive Unlimited 2 has thus far proved to be an utter abortion. No word on a Shift 2 demo yet, I expect?

kyleh613

Shift 2 demo I imagine will be out a week or two before the game launches. EA Games is pretty good when it comes to demo's at least for consoles. We'll have one for sure.

Gaslight

kyleh613 wrote: »

Shift 2 demo I imagine will be out a week or two before the game launches. EA Games is pretty good when it comes to demo's at least for consoles.

Uh, yeah, for consoles. They screwed us PC users with no demo for the last NFS game.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit if there's no PC demo for this either, really.

Zxerol

Considering their track record with some recent games (Bulletstorm, Dead Space 2), that would be a good bet.

Jamesways

No word on a demo yet. Hopefully we'll get one before release.

Some journalists have had a go already, it does seem tightened up.
We'll see.

Alan from VVV said the last build he tried wasn't quite as good as the original code from the first game before EA messed it up, but it is better than what we got at release of 1.
He'll have a full hands on soon.

Peter from Race Sim Central said it felt pretty good in a hands on late Jan.
http://www.racesimcentral.com/news/2011/01/hands-on-with-need-for-speed-shift-2-unleashed/#comments

kyleh613

The only real question I have is how good the vinyl editor is suppose to be. I am hoping it's on the same level as Forza 3's, that would be a dream come true. Even better though would be the ability to create images on your computer and then upload them to your console and export them into the game.

Gaslight

Really, playing the Shift 1 demo again just for kicks, the handling isn't that bad once you fiddle with the wheel settings (the default ones are ridiculous) and with assists on, assuming you're aware of the funky tires and drive a little conservatively. Or at least, not as bad as I remembered. And at this point in my virtual racing career, such as it is, I don't really have the time or energy to to devote to getting good in hardcore mode anyhow. If Shift 2 is a significant improvement like the reports above seem to indicate it is, if not "just right," then I'll probably be happy.

The AI is just about as as bad as I remembered, though. It doesn't help that the the races in the demo are so short, of course, but the AI cars bunch up so badly and chicanes are pretty much parking lots. But I guess that mods for Shift 1 did a lot to improve that anyway so I'm optimistic about this aspect of Shift 2.

Jamesways

Well, they did patch the game in regards to handling... twice.
Not the demo though. At least on consoles.

They're talking about improved AI, I sure hope so. By Tier 4, they decided they hate you and will go out of their way off the racing line to knock you into next week.


Kyleh, even if we could mirror sides or decals to get them the same size, it'd be an improvement.

Hank_Scorpio

Call me crazy but I think this game is going to destroy GT5.

TeeMan

Shift 1 is just about unplayable in the higher Tiers not only because of the loony AI but it was so difficult to tune-in a highly modified car to steer in the direction you point it. It felt like the car was generating an enormous amount of front-end lift at high speeds so you had to nurse the thing around just to keep it on the track while AI cars buzzed past you.

The game is really fun up to that point, but as soon as you start modifying Lamborghinis, yeah. The wheels fall off.

Holyyyy moley this game is pretty, by the way!!

Satsumomo

I'm pretty sure it will destroy GT5 for me. I waited so long for GT5 and was really really disappointed.

kyleh613

Hank_Scorpio wrote: »

Call me crazy but I think this game is going to destroy GT5.

That's pretty much a given. The real question will be how it stacks up against Forza 4. Obviously Forza 4 is going to smoke it in the car list but how will the two games compare in other areas like the career mode, multiplayer, customization, etc.?