SHIFT 2 Authenticity and Realism

[Bojan]

http://www.youtube.com/v/929UZ6Nq-hk&re ... &version=3[/embed]

Racing is exhausting. Racing is violent. Racing is fluid. Racing is not muted, static or uninspiring. When you take to the track SHIFT 2 Unleashed for the first time, you’ll feel a rush you’ve never felt before in another racing game.

Top racecar drivers, including Tommy Milner, Edward Sandstrom and drift champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. all spent a great deal of time with the team at Slightly Mad Studios, helping make SHIFT 2 Unleashed the most realistic racing game you’ll ever play.

If you wanted an authentic racing experience, look no further than SHIFT 2 Unleashed. The new ‘helmet cam’ view puts you inside the heads of the best racecar drivers, who are always plotting their next move on the track, and drifters, who need to avoid walls at all costs.

As you’ll see in the accompanying video, no detail was too minute, nothing was left to chance and every possible element of real racing was covered during the development of SHIFT 2 Unleashed. Take the most realistic racing game on the planet for a spin on March 29 and you’ll see what we mean. SHIFT 2 Unleashed is real racing.

[kimd41]

Looks great and all, and seems that they worked physics better this time although I still feel that car sliding when steering is back again. Maybe it's just me.

[Hydro_PT]

LOL! SHIFT 2 is "authenticity and realism"?

This is enough to take all realism down: "The title does not simulate tyre wear or fuel consumption, there will be no qualifying either."

A game that does not simulate tyre wear and fuel consumption, which is the very basic of any simulator, cannot be called realistic at all. Forgive me but EA is just saying a pile of shiznit about SHIFT 2. The game might look good, sound even better, have better physics and better handling (which does), but it is not a simulator at all. This is an arcade game, period. And all that telemetry data is pretty much useless, why do I want to know the temperature of the tyres if they do not wear out?

This article explains everything very well: http://www.virtualr.net/need-for-speed- ... pressions/

Some quotes from it:

The handling in Shift 2 feels very similar to Shift 1. In fact, if you imagine Shift 1’s handling without the feeling of constantly sliding and you are pretty much there (as I said, I raced mostly with the all-assists off Elite handling model). It’s still involving though, and it doesn’t take much for you to lose traction and spin (or half spin like I did most of the time). It actually made me think about how much better Shift 1 would have been, if it had just been for a little bit of tweaking of the handling and how good the underlying physics actual were.

Crash damage is also much improved and you can lose bumpers, bonnets, crumple body panels and smash windscreens. Not quite up to Grid standards, but better than FM3 and GT5 by quite a bit.

To sum up, Shift 2 rights a lot of the original Shift’s wrongs, it looks great, is fun and exciting and (as with Shift 1) also sounds wonderful too. However, those expecting a revolution will be disappointed.”

[[T][U][N][3][R]]

I lol'd.

[shinjeon9]

I have to remind you all...

"The Most Realistic Racer Ever" (seen it on one trailer, correct me if I'm wrong) -> SMS had done it's job, "realistic racer" only.

[Lin0_5r]

Ok.. @ Hydro_PT, I always read your post because they are usually informative and interesting. But lets get to the point here. There are 2 types of realism that I am going to mention. "Simulation realism" and "Feel realism" When EA talk about realism, they are referring to the "feel" of what it is like to be behind a car going 300 km/h (yes I'm South African). There is a huge difference, and no, I'm not defending EA, I'm looking at the facts and putting it into an objective point of view. If they ever do mention its a pure simulator then they would be highly mistaken- but personally I'd rather have the "feel realism" than the "Simulation realism". If you really want simulation, go for GT5, my opinion is that its DRY- #my2cents

[Hydro_PT]

@Lin0_5r: Well I see your point there, but "simulation realism" already includes "feel realism". You can't take one from another and make a game that only feels realistic through the visuals and sounds, while forgetting the handling of the cars, the physics, the AI, etc. To feel authentic and realistic you must feel that through your wheel too, not only through your monitor and speakers.

You cannot just say things like "[...] all spent a great deal of time with the team at Slightly Mad Studios, helping make SHIFT 2 Unleashed the most realistic racing game you’ll ever play" or "[...] nothing was left to chance and every possible element of real racing was covered during the development of SHIFT 2 Unleashed".

Of course this is pure marketing, but it's also big lie, honestly. They are saying this game is the most authentic racing game out there, so I must assume they are calling it a true simulator. And then I see things like "no tyre wear", "no fuel consumption" and "no qualifying". After all this, where's the real racing? I bet there aren't racing flags or pit stops either. So you're are left with an arcade-like handling (better than SHIFT 1 at least), great visuals, great sounds and that's it. You feel that you're inside a racing car but only because you have a shaky cockpit and a helmet cam. However the feeling through your wheel is that you are playing an arcade game.

I'm not saying SHIFT 2 will suck because it is not a simulator. I can't wait to try it out and see if they fixed the problems of SHIFT 1, and they seem to have done it. So I pretty much think we will have a fun and entertaining racing game, but the way EA is marketing the game, you would think it is a simulator and well, it is not. I'm just trying to keep people informed, it's not good when this kind of marketing happens.

As for realism, I have enough with Race 07 / GTR 2, I already played GT5 and oh well... looks good and all, but it's more of a "simulator".

[[T][U][N][3][R]]

Hmm no demo... NFS Undercover anyone?

[Lin0_5r]

back @ Hydro_PT : When you race, not saying I do, but when you are going fast (180mp/h) its immersive because of the g-force and the feel of things/objects flying past you If when you play GT5 ( sorry I am speaking from a bit of inexperience as I only played GT4) In GT4 you get none of that, infact it doesn't even feel like you're going very fast at all. You're just going around a track to improve track times ect. With Shift-it it makes going fast seem "real" and shows you on a screen what happens when you go that fast, I hope you getting my point mate .. hence you can separate feel and simulator realism. And the contrast between the two are illustrated between these two games. And also when you brake ect. your head movements are synchronized with accer/brake steering control. Thats what Shift/2 is exaggerating. For example, In the video Vaugn (i think thats his name) is drifting, when he was drifting he turned his head so he was looking over his left shoulder-concentrating on the road ahead. Now the whole feel of that he will explain to SMS, and SMS will take that and implement it. I hope this makes sense