Need for Speed Retrospective #13
A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. After a change in developers, this small British team somehow ended up assembling a much more realized version of what ProStreet was going for two years prior. Everything looks and feels so vibrant here. Shift was the first racing game to repeatedly make me drive in cockpit view, just because it felt so luscious and visceral to use.
Many other reviews have criticised the handling in this entry, and rightfully so. If we assume that they went for a technical or simulation approach here, it's clearly a failure. I haven't driven a real car in over twelve years now and even I know this is not how cars behave. Shift's rather unique handling model took me a while to learn, but at least (and quite unlike the previous entry in the series) it's consistent and predictable once you have picked it up. There are limits to everything, though. I don't think any human being on earth ever felt in control of the drift events in this game.
A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. After a change in developers, this small British team somehow ended up assembling a much more realized version of what ProStreet was going for two years prior. Everything looks and feels so vibrant here. Shift was the first racing game to repeatedly make me drive in cockpit view, just because it felt so luscious and visceral to use.
Many other reviews have criticised the handling in this entry, and rightfully so. If we assume that they went for a technical or simulation approach here, it's clearly a failure. I haven't driven a real car in over twelve years now and even I know this is not how cars behave. Shift's rather unique handling model took me a while to learn, but at least (and quite unlike the previous entry in the series) it's consistent and predictable once you have picked it up. There are limits to everything, though. I don't think any human being on earth ever felt in control of the drift events in this game.