The headline feature in the original SHIFT was shaping your own driving personality. When it comes to simulation driving, we’re now in a position to gain some ground on our rivals with new game modes and innovations to things like night racing, which is a common feature that has never been done properly. Just look at what we have had recently – everything from Hollywood action games like Split/Second and Blur, MotorStorm Apocalypse and DiRT 3 both looking great, Test Drive: Unlimited is out there, there’s Hot Pursuit of course…the variety is wide and each game satisfies a different itch. How healthy is the racing genre right now? We’ve expanded the ability to share replays, as well as photos, and we’re bringing in real-world data from and to keep players up to date with the world of cars and motorsport.Īutolog, as a social network in its own right, is a real game changer. The first change we’ve made is the access point – in Hot Pursuit Autolog is accessed from the main menu but, in SHIFT 2, we’ve mapped it permanently to a button that is often overlooked: Select. I personally feel that we’ve improved on the Autolog system, which in itself is a perfect fit for SHIFT, which is all about shaving hundredths of a second off your lap times. We collaborate on many things, the obvious thing being the Autolog, and there are some other crossovers that I won’t spoil for you, but if you’ve played Hot Pursuit then you might find some nice surprises when you play SHIFT 2. We’re both competent at what we do and eager for success but we approach the racing genre from totally different angles. Is it a friendly relationship or more like the Red Bull F1 team at times last season? Hot Pursuit isn’t your game but you do share the Need for Speed umbrella with Criterion. I recently caught up with the Lead Game Designer at Slightly Mad Studios, Andy Tudor, to talk about friendly rivalry with Criterion and how the game has been influenced by such unlikely titles like Silent Hill. Think of it as Forza 3‘s levelling up system on steroids.This week, the latest game from the Need for Speed garage, SHIFT 2 Unleashed is launching on PlayStation 3. Garnering enough of them unlocks cars, vinyls and races. Every positive action, from overtaking a competitor to sliding cleanly from a corner, nets you experience points. To further add to the list of changes, the game’s experience system borrows heavily from role-playing games such as Dragon Age. There’re a smaller number of cars available this time around too with just 145 to choose from. The cars handle as wildly as they did in the earlier game, resulting in a harsh learning curve where you will be spending a fair portion taming your ride of choice before you can proceed to winning races. Fast forward to 2011, and there have been a few changes most obvious being that of the game’s title lacking the Need For Speed moniker. While Shift was a great first attempt, there were more than a few places for the folks at EA to build upon such controls that were dodgy and driver progression that felt lazy at best. 2009’s NFS: Shift on the other hand represented their first proper foray into simulation racing (no NFS: Prostreet does not count) along the lines of current favourites like Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5. The Need For Speed franchise is known for its balls-to-the-wall racing and adrenaline fuelled spectacles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |