[PSP] Need for Speed Shift Review

Knowing that NFS “shifted” to realistic simulation of professional racing, this upcoming title should be impressive and worth waiting. aaand I think it is, though not for the PSP. This title is the greatest proof, so far, that NFS is starting to fail in the PSP platform [together with PSP itself].

There are a lot of expectations due to their change of style. However in the PSP platform, that style did not take effect. When they said that the game would be a simulation of professional racing, the original NFS identity of arcade racing remained in the PSP. Let me get straight to the point: There’s no tuning whatsoever. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PRESS THE ACCELERATOR AND STEER. and that’s it.

Intro….

There are two modes of playing: Quick Race and World Tour. World Tour is basically your “Career mode” and you’ll have to go through a series of races defeating “Race Kings” and along with it, you’ll be able to unlock more cars. Different challenges mean different types of cars to use. That’s why the cars are analyzed for Speed, Drifting and Grip.

Speed, Grip, Drift….. So the GT-R doesn’t grip very well? Come on….

For tuning part, there isn’t any. What’s in the game is the Loyalty Pointing system. This compensates to the removed tuning system. Loyalty Points are gained by using the same car in the races and gives you points for every win with that car. With these points you can unlock special parts such as Tires, additional NOS Shots, Tuned Engine and Bodykit. After each race, the game would show your improvements in grip, drift and speed style and your aim is to get your overall performance to 100% to obtain the best car in the game: the BMW M3 GT2

The only thing you can modify in your car is it’s livery design. You can select from a preset of livery designs or unlock signature liveries from defeated race kings or unlock the loyalty reward of livery. You can also change the colors from the livery presets or, if you are simple, you can select no livery at all. 😀

Downside….

Again, NFS mentioned a simulation but I mentioned that this is simply an arcade racing game. What makes me say so?

1. Where’s the “Shift”?

The biggest downside of this game is this: They failed to simulate. They actually removed the shifting system of the cars, leaving the game in full automatic acceleration. Is that simulation? Although the car sounds like it shifts gears but, like what Jeremy Clarkson mentioned while reviewing Aston Martin Vanquish S’s transmission, it is the driver that knows the shifting points well, not the car itself. The worse is that while you are busy stepping at the accelerator, sometimes the shifting of the gears doesn’t go well and you’ll notice this when the car runs awfully at low revs.

2. Driving physics.

Um, they also failed here as well. The driving physics isn’t as good as before. I’d prefer the driving physics used in NFS ProStreet rather than this. The drifting is easily initiated by handbrake tap. The nitrous are now in shots rather than user indicated use… And, oh, the brake lights turn on when you use the handbrake. Again, they really did not simulate realistic racing… this might be an arcade racing game after all…

Good sides (helps a bit)

This is really a disappointing title but a bit of this game helps it to be playable for a few moments. 😀

1. The Graphics

It may not be a gigantic leap from their usual graphics style but compared to the last title, the graphics are better and as good as the ProStreet graphics. The reflections of the car are better now, the rims designs have better look and more realistic. The environment is not barren anymore and they reflect well.

Looks realistic with the light reflection and detail. Watta Jump from the older titles

Mountain Passes are one of my favorite tracks as they really look nice.

Smoking from Tires looks better.

2. The cars’ brake lights

Though in other courses where the setting is late afternoon or nearly evening, the cars don’t have lighting. But at least their brake lights are better than the previous titles. Just take a look at this one:

Evil. Imagine Iron Man with eyes the same color as that…

Not only that, I’ve noticed that when you reverse, the reverse lights also turn on, which is realistic… only on that part… 😀 Though sometimes, it also fails… Take for instance the Nissan GT-R’s reversing:

Um… I believe the reverse lights should be in the inner center lamps….

3. The Crash Factor!

Though there’s a damage modelling, they only demonstrate how you car would look like when it crashes, then resumes your car back to its original state as well as its assumed speed after crashing with no damage.. 😀 Nice. But I don’t care much about the car recovering, I care when they display the car being damaged!

Crashing a BMW M3 GT2 in real life will really crush your heart. Just do it here~!!

Yes, I know. Good thing I don’t own one in real life.

They also gave a good attention to detail to crashes. For instance, there are wheels that still spin or at serious crashes, your hood flies off, your wheels roll away from the car.. But they will still go back altogether after the crash. 😀

Look, the front wheel’s still spinning~!

Look, the wheel went off! Say hello to the audience with a wrecked Lamborghini!

You don’t see this everyday…. so play the game to see it everyday.

Crash, crash to another car, preferably a Veyron… and you don’t have to pay for the price.

Verdict:

Overall, I am again disappointed with EA despite the several shift of studios to develop a game, a decent NFS for the PlayStation Platform. They did this before, why can’t they perform better than last time? No wonder the first NFS in PSP which was the Underground received the greatest score.

Again, the simulation isn’t there, it’s just a pure arcade racing game. Honestly, I only liked the game because I can crash the cars and see how they look like. If I were to give a score out of 10, it’ll be a 5.0. Sorry, but it deserves that score, and I hope it wakes EA up. I mean, come on, the game receives good rating in the major consoles, why not do the same thing to get the same rating?

Driving TIPS:

1. SHIFTING DILEMMA – Once you hear the low-rev engine, release then step on the accelerator quickly.

2. DRIFTING ERROR – When the car has high drift rating, it actually means it slides easy but doesn’t maintain well. The long drifters are the ones with less drift rating. Just an observation.

3. CORNERING – The theory of the fastest way through a corner is through drifting is a lie. But it’s actually a truth in this game. Use handbrake drift to go fast through corners

4. UNLOCK BMW M3 GT2 QUICK – It’s in the line: quick. Do quick races as in increases your profile rates, leading you to unlock the M3 quick.

5. BMW M3 GT2 DOES IT ALL – It’s an all-around car in the game so if you’re lucky to unlock it early, you can use it at any race since there are no requirements in races. It may be down in the top speed category but it smokes high speed cars through it’s monstrous grip and acceleration. Afterall, it’s a Touring Car Specification.

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