Until Electronic Arts releases the demo to Need for Speed Shift, guessing games whether or not Shift will be as realistic as Slighly Mad Studios promise will go on. Since only very few people had the chance to try the game yet, we have to rely on the opinion of those that have first-hand experience.
German PC Games Hardware magazine had the chance to test Shift on the GamesCom Expo, using a D-Box motion system and a TripleHead2Go monitor setup. Desipite the impressive hardware setup, the writers of one of Germany’s biggest gaming mags did not seem to be very much impressed with Shift juding by the following statement:
The racing seat did give you the feeling of sitting in a real car as the forces are pulling you in different directions depending on if you??re breaking or accelerating. Combine that with the great sounds and Shift does indeed feel very real. On the other hand, the graphics and the arcadish gameplay were kind of a let down. The TripleHead2Go system did offer a good optical presentation, the graphics never met the quality that could be seen in the trailers though. The Xbox 360 version was even worse, sporting blurry textures without AF and lots of Aliasing.
Even though we did turn off all driving aids, even the powerful cars handled tame, making it very hard to get them to spin out. On the other hand, Need for Speed was never a simulation and that’s a good thing – Shift sure is fun and that’s what’s most important.
