Comments on: Looking Less Shifty: Need For Speed

By: r4

r4 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:00:28 +0000

Gaming is my passion. When it comes to acing games, I am mad about it all. My most favorite game in racing is Need For Speed Most Wanted. It is an awesome game. It’s graphics and music, all the things going with plan. Really a good one in racing.

I like to drift my car every where. Not only in drift race, I am doing drifting in race events also. I like to do this. Good videos to see, it gave me some more idea about drift.

By: ascagnel

ascagnel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:37:02 +0000

This will never fly as a serious sim – there was no damage modelling. I watched the HD version a number of times and noticed that, even though all the collisions were hard enough and fast enough to justify at least a cracked windshield, none of the cars had even a scratch.

GT5 finally got into the damage modelling game, GRID/DiRT, Forza, GTR/GT Legends, RACE have always been in it, and NFS:Shift is giving it a pass.

Having no damage modelling now, especially on something that high-budget, is foolish. I would expect a “cosmetic” damage only mode from something like this, probably even as a default. But no damage modelling makes me sad.

By: Blather Blob

Blather Blob — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:38:25 +0000

@vasagi, @pepper: I don’t think EA are viewing this as “the next NFS game”. It’s more of an attempt at something different that can break out into its own series if it doesn’t die in the market, and the NFS name is already pretty tarnished from ProStreet if it does die. There’s an NFS MMO coming out next year, but then a “proper” NFS game is due in another year or two from the Burnout devs, which can be sold as a reboot of the franchise if all this experimentation fails horribly.

@Howard: As RogB says, Ian Bell & co worked for SimBin making GTR 1, started on GT Legends, left and formed Blimey!, finished up GT Legends for SimBin as contractors, and then also made GTR 2 for SimBin. They then started on a Ferrari sim game, went bankrupt, and started a “new” company called Slightly Mad Studios (that seems to be a renamed Blimey! without the debt). Oh, and I think they made that free BMW game in there somewhere.

I think the GTR series all used (modified) physics engines from ISI, but I’m sure they’re counting them as engines it is meant to be compared against. However, their physics programmer on NFS: Shift is Eero Piitulainen. I don’t think he worked on the GTRs, but he did do the physics of Richard Burns Rally, and a few people consider that to have been rather decent :).

Here’s another interview with Ian Bell that’s equal parts encouraging and worrying. He talks about expanding the sim market by “educating the consumer,” and “working to convert casual players to more serious players by rewarding their efforts to increase their skills” but what does “blurring the line between arcade and sim, utilizing the best of both worlds to create a game which is the most immersive, but more importantly the most exciting and the most fun, because in the end, it’s all about how fun and rewarding the game is” mean for people who find realistic physics fun and rewarding?

I really have no idea what it’s going to be like. I’m also expecting it to end up in that annoying middle area of GRID, where it’s not very fun as a pure arcade game but is also just frustrating if you try to drive it properly. Which is too bad, since I liked the standard NFSes, and would welcome a AAA-production-values sim racer. Still, it has enough uncertainty surrounding it that I’m still looking forward to finding out. But I liked the drifting in the first NFS Underground, it seemed really easy when you used the keyboard. It was the drag racing I hated, with its slotted lane changes.

Anyway, there’s a pre-release demo promised, before the end of summer they’ve said. Which should mean very soon, especially with the game now coming out in NA on September 15.

By: megaman

megaman — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:57:27 +0000

This makes me want to dig out my MOMO racing wheel (which I safely tugged away after NFS:Most Wanted). The engine sound alone might be worth it. :)

By: vasagi

vasagi — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:37:45 +0000

PLEASE add a ponitless FMV crime/murder whodunit subplot!

By: pepper

pepper — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:22:34 +0000

Someone send these developers a copy of NFS 2 and Hot pursuit/road challenge. With a letter telling them to bring back the fun. I miss those days.

By: RogB

RogB — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:07:05 +0000

Howard:
SM are PART of the old Simbin. The 2 bosses (Henrik Roos, Ian bell) had a big falling out, Ian Bell set up his own studio (blimey games) and basically poached most of the staff.
Blimey have since went under and are reformed under a new name (Slightly mad – another atrocious title). And they are still squabbling with whats left of Simbin.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:03:51 +0000

Ah crap. I’m fine with everything else mentioned, but I’m never buying another racing game that makes me waste time playing “drift” challenges. That trend really, REALLY needs to die.

By: Howard

Howard — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:36:43 +0000

Yea gods! I’ve just noticed on Slightly Mad Studios website that they have announced a Drift mode for Shift.

Yeah, we’re done here…

By: Howard

Howard — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:32:28 +0000

Actualyl, I’ve just read that link you posted again, Hi!!. Does that mean that Slightly Mad Studios ARE SimBin?

By: Howard

Howard — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:28:42 +0000

@Hi!!
Fair enough but it still means that they used the core engine provided by SimBin, though GTR2′s engine was more advanced I grant.

Still, this game is looking increasingly like a waste of time. When the devs and the publishers are spinning so much BS and gearing their pitch so markedly at the audience they are addressing it starts to smell of the level of lies that Codemasters and Ubisoft have become renowned for. As I’ve said before, I’ve no issue with arcade racers as long as they KNOW they are arcade racers and stop trying to pitch themselves as anything else. If only the people who make software would take their heads out of their arses and realise that lying to your potential buyers is ALWAYS, ALWAYS a bad idea.

By: Hi!!

Hi!! — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:23:11 +0000

Howard: They did a lot more than that. They worked very closely with SimBin for a while. Look here:

http://www.slightlymadstudios.com/about/