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Shift 2 Unleashed - DLC Out Now: 13 New Cars and 6 Tracks
kyleh613
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
PSN List:
Kog667 - EST USA
Kyleh613 - PST USA
Xbox Live List:
Gridlnkd - EST USA
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
Kog667 - EST USA
Kyleh613 - PST USA
Xbox Live List:
Gridlnkd - EST USA
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
kyleh613 on
0
Posts
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.
There will also be a store front built into the game so I assume there is going to be a lot of DLC.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Now this I can get behind. Time for giant post!
WIP Car and Track List
Spoilered for longness
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.
Slightly Mad badly needs to create a "Porsche Unleashed" DLC pack.
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.
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/
:^:
Very informative and encouraging posts though, thanks!
Oh my Lord. This game is so bought.
There's just no authenticity in gaming these days.
Check out the BMW M3 E92 works conversion. DTM baby.
http://www.needforspeed.com/shift2unleashed/car/bmw-m3-e92
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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!!
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.?