Hi ladies and gentlemen, the reason I skipped 'Hot Pursuit (2010') is because I want to review the 90s NFS titles first since it's based off those games, and the Burnout series because it's developed by Criterion, those games also feel similar to 'Hot Pursuit (2010)'. It's about making predecessor comparisons on this channel to see how a follow-up improves from its predecessors. Also, I'm reviewing Forza Motorsport 4 next, and that and Shift 2: Unleashed both came out the same year directly competing between each other in 2011...
ColourShedProductions - Need for Speed: Shift Unleashed 2 and Need for Speed: Shift 2?? I own Shift Unleashed 2, but I had no idea there was a Shift 2.
I actually adore Hot Pursuit. It's what happened when Burnout's developer create a racing game based on pre-Underground NFS and it's top speed based gameplay is very refreshing. And the graphics, damn still beautiful even until now. Definently the Crysis for racing genre
And the sense of speed was always something else that has yet to be replicated in modern titles. It felt like dangling on an edge of a knife when cornering or driving over at speeds of 200 km/h and any crashes or g-forces had impact on your driver.
I agree, and the people below are right about the other games. Also, who loves a racing game where, when using the interior view, and looking behind you, it's show out the interior rear window of the car (provided it has one)? So few games do that, but it's a nice touch.
Shift 2's drifting was vastly improved. I actually loved this game but yeah, I remember how annoying it was with the constant adjustment during a straight line.
Shift 2 had it's own special charm. The sense of speed, the music, I loved it! Winning races felt like I actually acomplished something and it didn't feel like "yeah, whatever..." This game will always have it's place in my heart
The Nurburgring levels on this game WILL make your heart beat faster than anything because they are the hardest and most demanding races i've ever had. Still i really enjoyed it
i'am guessing you mean late 90's early 2000's................some where later in 2000's is where all the NFS games just started to feel & look the same. i think underground started off that style i liked: Need for Speed: High Stakes (1999) Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2000) Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (2002) Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) & the shift games
This game had each song on the ost remixed 4 times by the composers to make variants with 4 different auras that were used in different parts of the game. It was just an amazing idea that never came back unfortunately
When that game plays "Bravery" after I won a race, god damn I feel like I won the entire game! Too bad we don't get those anymore with modern racing games, kinda boring even though I do play racing games with a wheel (Mainly a G29) for hours on end.
@@victorleon67 IKR? Help is on the way just gives you goosebumps. The menus had a dark murky vibe that speaks to you. If you get in this car you could die. There's nothing like it...
Yeah man. They take the music and the athmosphere so serious and dramatic, i love it. Too bad i dont have a steering wheel, so driving the faster sports cars (Even the Gumpert Apollo whichs imo pretty forgiving and fast sports car) is near impossible. :(
I've spent a lot of my free time doing physics mod for this game. The main reason cars handled badly was tire stiffness. It was around 4 times less than it should be. As a result cars handling was delayed in feeling, erratic at times and generally not that great. Imagine just driving on gummy bears. However when stiffness was bumped up other issues surfaced, like very sudden weight transfer on the limit (which is still present in pCars 1 and 2, expecially on drift cars). All in all it's a real shame SMS decided to develop their own tire model instead of using older, proven one from GTR2 or just buying an upgrade to rFactor1. As rest of the physics engine is basically GTR/early pMotor anyway. Apart from driving Shift2 did a lot of things right. It's a shame that most important piece was missing.
Slightly Mad gonna get tires handling/physics recreation as their permanent pendant subject. One way or another. There's no need to dig deeper as Project C.A.R.S. III took a polemic turn into gameplay compared to the already criticized II because, again, tires handling/physics recreation.
Shift 2 still offers one of the immersive experiences to be found in a racing game. It just has that emotional/adrenaline factor that is simply lacking in other simulators. Ultimately its flaws and lack of refinement kept it from being truly great, but I think games like Forza, GT and the others could learn a lot from this gem, starting with Helmet Cam.
lacking? more like they don't need silly gimmicks at all. Simracing focuses more on how tracks and cars feel (and Shift 2 fails to simulate both), your head is your cam, the screen does the cockpit. The whole point is that you are supposed to feel like you're inside the car, not inside someone's head, your rig (seat, wheel, shifter) is where your seat is positioned in the car's perspective. games like rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione, RaceRoom Racing Experience, iRacing and the likes are better left off as is.
Well, Shift 1&3 are not Sim Racer. They don't simulate the driving Physic like in RL, Assetto Corsa, RFactor, RaceRoom and a handful more SimRacer out there are real SimRacing Games. Shift 2 simulat not enough to be categorized as SimRacers. And no, Project Cars 1&2 are not SimRacing games.
@@JohnPaul-sh7hh you don't have to own a rig just to enjoy simracing, but you do need an extra level of patience to learn with controller. But that's not what we're talking about. I need to put the first and foremost point here; Shift's helmet cam is the worst you'd ever wish for, even for a simracing as the OP stated. And let me say this again, a sim does not require such gimmick because as I said, your screen needs to focus on the cockpit to simulate that you're driving, not you being in a swaying camera. It doesn't make sense as of why you need such feature, even if you simrace without a decent rig (heck, I play simracing with a controller). And the main thing about simracing is that it's a simulation, a rig is not a "must have" and it's more to a "best recommended to play with". And here's the thing: your screen is locked on the cockpit with your rig set so that you feel more like you're inside the car. There's no way in a sane mind any simracer would want such gimmick. And yes, I'm talking about "It just has that emotional/adrenaline factor that is simply lacking in other simulators" (we finally came to the so-called topic you're trying to tell and... of course, my nitpick) which is the whole point of this topic, hence I'll just say that your "HURRDURR NOT EVERYONE OWNS A RIG" doesn't make much sense. It'd be a different story if he's simply saying racing game like he stated in the first sentence which what I'm saying is arguable as arcade racing tends to add any gimmicks they can to shove into the game, but no, he had to add simulator in his paragraph.
@@Avalische Hey,I'm talking from my experience. I love the helmet cam from Shift 2 and I never considered it to be a simulator. Maybe that's why I like the game. The only things I find wrong with the game are the ridiculous crash and contact physics,the fact that there is no rain and the poor optimization. So what I'm saying is...there are people who love the game exactly because it's an over the top wannabe simulator. I play with a keyboard and believe me when I say it's stressful. But it's fun.
The menu music in this game was amazing. Actually helped get me into orchestral scores. I'm kind of sad no one else has really done anything like that, mixing popular songs with ambience.
they went with pure rock bands for the soundtrack, and the Gladiator remixes made them much better, that's how i got introduced to Hollywood Undead lol
the cinematic aspect was added by Ramin Djawadi, also known as the "Gladiator" in the remixes, Mick gordon and troels folsman did the "Dirty", and the "Cinematic" remixes, bit the cinematic versions were more euphoric than cinematic, also there was some bootflows tracks which were a mix of the three categories or similar, the best part of the soundtrack were the Ambiences in Shift 1, those were like the traumas of a racing driver in an attemp of being music as a call for help, shit was intense.
even after all those years, that fucking tracklist was stuck in my head, and i had the chance of finding them like a year ago, and thanks to that guy who uploaded the ambiences from Shift 1 here in youtube
You practice driving it. That's because you're driving on a raxe track that was designed for racing cars with slick tires installed. Slidy because your car isn't tuned to race yet, if you tuned a race car & drive it on race track, then you'll either smoke your opponents or you'll get smoked😅🤣 anyway, once you get your attention to the car & performance, you'll know what to do & adjust your driving style based on the car's performance.
The controls in Shift 2 were optimized for Logitech wheels, so you can select the G27 profile in options menu and remap it with the gamepad buttons. It will fix most of the issues with driving, decreasing the input lag and floaty feeling.
I loved the first Shift game, and was hyped for Shift 2 to come out. Then when I played it, the input lag completely ruined the game. They made it hard to drive in a straight line!
I don't understand how they could have messed it up that badly. Completely unplayable - I returned it after only a few "races" due to the delay and the really annoying race engineer guy.
I would love to see the Motorstorm series reviewed.. It's one of the most chaotic racers in existence. I know you have a lot of games in a list for you to review. Maybe keep this game in the back of your mind... 0_0
I actually had bought a controller specifically to play the drift on my pc. I actually liked this game because this was the first semi sim racing game back in the day. I actually now have a wheel and it still is fun to play with the wheel.
I remember that in Shift 2, the difficulty decreased with the weight of your car. In a light car (relative to the other cars in the starting field), it was very hard to overtake anyone because every collision made you spin out so you had to be extremely careful around the other cars.
I remember when I bought shift 2, my mom had given me extra money for the dlc and I mistakenly bought the timesaver and wondered why all the cars were free. After that me and a close friend raced all of the cars in one night
My favorite NFS of all time. One thing you didn't talk about is the soundtrack. The "Gladiator" tracks(the ones in the main menu) on their own was great. The "Cinematic" tracks had crowd cheers mixed in, sounds fantastic when you are watching the replay after you've just won.
15:19 I think that this combination is actually quite interesting. I really like Shift 2, especially it’s sense of speed. Although I like to play sims like Assetto Corsa or iRacing, Shift 2 is a nice change of pace from time to time.
Huh, never knew that Project Cars was developed by the same studio as Shift 2, pretty neat. Great review, I never got the chance to play this as a kid but now I'm definitely gonna check it out!
Shift 2 on PC with proper calibration of the controller or wheel is very nice driving-wise. Installing some physics overhauling mods brings out the full potential of the game. It will always have a special place in my heart.
I absolutely love this game and I exclusively played with the helmet cam on, which is one of my favorite thigs about this game. I never really played any other racing sim, so I always assumed the handling was supposed to be like that and ended up getting used to it.
Shift 2 and Hot Pursuit 2010 are still my fave 'recent' NFS games. If Shift 2 had more cars, less of the PTSD handling model and lowered the volume when Vaughn Gittens interjected at the end of a race it would have been perfect. The PC port is still a very good looking game.
I started this game again just a week back after playing a lot of Gran Turismo and as a professional motorcycle racer I can say the game has done a lot of things right,and I couldn't appreciate it back then when I played it for the first time! In the hardest difficulty with all assists off,this game has a better sense of weight,traction and throttle control than Forza and GT and is right up there with Project Cars! And the choice of cars were the best in any racing game,most of the cars there belong to the track and the tuning was so ahead of its time it baffles me now when i look at it.
I loved shift 2 night racing. Fun fact: if you start playing Project Cars 1 after this, it feels like Shift 2.5. Almost all sounds are the same, similar graphics and almost same physics. Just one step towards simulation again.
The driving in this game is good when the car is smooth but when the car decides to lose control its handling is really horrible, the cars are unpredictable.Assetto corsa a simulator made for a wheel is easier on a controller then a arcade game thats made for a controller, thats saying something
I stuck with only a few cars, cause it was so hard to get used to so many different cars. Which, was fine, because that's how realism works. My ford escort was usually my go to. Loved that game though.
Really like your reviews for every genre of game's you've done so far. But when it comes to the racing Genre, you're the best at reviewing these in my opinion, they are also nostalgic too, especially with the classic racing games you've been reviewing. They have a great attention to detail that most of the popular reviewers reviewing a racing game would miss out on.
Hey, doubt you’ll see this but I really genuinely enjoy your reviews. They’re just so well made. You clearly research the development of a game and consider the intentions of the developers when judging a game’s merits, yet you don’t pretend that you know 100% why certain aspects of the game are designed how they are. You strike a perfect balance between including research, a retroactive perspective, and your own opinion that just makes your videos so much more interesting and enjoyable to watch. Thanks for the content man : )
I actually loved that game and the helmet camera. This and the first Grid were my kind of racers. I guess this game got it right for one kind of players, those who want more gameplay like a sim without being too hard to play.
The one thing this game had that made it a standout was the soundtrack, the so called "Gladiator Remixes" for the main menu are truly some of the most epic sounding remix's of rock songs I have ever heard.
Someone posted these settings online somewhere to offset floaty boat like handling. Tire pressure - Set to around 30 (stock is 0!!) Purchase a suspension to adjust spring rate. At least 3 for normal cars and higher for race cars. Every car has to be fixed in this way, which can be annoying to some. After they are fixed you will find that Shift 2 has extremely good physics and car dynamics.
I can recommend you to play the game from the cockpit view. That's making it easier to handle the car. It is like Project Cars, which is made by Slightly Mad Studios too.
Returning to Shift 2 after all these years just me realize how unappreciated it is. All fans see it as one of the black sheeps in the series. I on the other hand think it was a brave approach. Even if they went a bit overkill with the handling and tuning system(i 100% the first Shift not tuning the performance once). It's just a simple case of: get used to it.
I loved the first shift and that really fruatrated me because even in the trailer it shows agression driving but when I purchased the game it felt more of a simulator control wise and more precision based and when I tried to use aggression I would always spin out I felt robbed I already own plenty of simulators like GT, Forza, and Project Cars other than that the game was still decent
I would say the handling works fine. Its simcade after all. Its simcade but is more arcade than sim. One weird thing about this game is that the steering doesnt fade (lower sensitivity) whenever you're at high speed, so a small tug of the joystick will make the car lose control. It is very much possible to play this game without TCS and at hard difficulty, just know that you need to have more careful inputs like in most sims.
My only real complaint about the game is the fact that when you do a singleplayer race, there are often times where almost everyone is driving the exact same car
You can still see and feel residues from Shift 2 in both Project Cars and Project Cars 2. One of the few NFS games I own on disc, and quite different from most other games in the series - except for maybe the org Shift, of course, and it really stands out compared to arcade racers in general. Good review.
Need for Speed Shift and Shift 2's biggest problem - The GRID series. I remember it at the time and thinking "what does this offer that Grid 1 didn't?", and I still do to this day. Interesting that some of the flaws of SMS back then carry over into the Project CARS series - namely the dodgy handling, overly aggressive AI, and the fact you can't fight back or you'll spin. For what they're worth, they're great for bridging the gap between Forza/Gran Turismo and the hardcore sim racing stuff - but the game and engine takes an absolute battering in sim racing stuff - a phenomenon best experienced by Automobilista 2 at the moment by those who see it as just a Project CARS 2 clone as it runs on the same engine - despite Reiza being one of the best in the business when it comes to car handling.
On PC there are mods that help with some problems. The lag in input can be fixed by editing a file in notepad ("game directory -> Controller Defaults -> PC", select the file corresponding to the preset you will use, and change "DampeningEnabled" from "1" to "0"), and there's a handling mod that adds more grip to the tires (minimod). This is 100% guaranteed to work. There are also mods that add new cars, including unlocking the collectors edition bonus cars (that you can't even get anymore even if you DO have the collector's edition version of the game), and improve the lighting on night tracks, amongst other thing. But I had some problems with these. I never got to see the new cars appear, and the rest worked once, but then after formating my PC it didn't want to work anymore.
This game was great and no one appreciated it back on it's day, it might not have realistic physics but it definetly has the best inmersive experience of any sim out there, it truly makes you feel like you're driving a racecar
the most tragic thing is that after Shift 2 EA cancelled their next game and Patrick Soderlund (ea guy) told the heads of Slightly Mad Studios that when they laid off their devs they would hire them. Some of the best devs left and Slightly Mad almost went under only for them to make Project Cars and save the company. Some of the devs that left for EA even back back since EA is trash. This all came from a podcast from the head of Slightly Mad, that guy dislikes EA. thing is that Codemasters bought Slightly Mad Studios and like one year later EA bought Codemasters...
@@channe3049 of course they approved they will get a ton of money. sadly the games will eventually be ruined and the studio will be milked and eventually closed.
@@reallybigmistake It's unlikely for Codemasters to get shut down by EA, they'll get expand outside of UK and gained more budgets for making their games. Not to mention that SMS has history with EA and NFS, which can help Criterion Games since both studios are in UK. Respawn Entertainment has second studio after bought by EA as well.
I really struggled with shift 2 when it came out, especially since I enjoyed the first one. I agree that the cars tend to want to understeer too much, so I eventually gave up. I'm wondering if it is to do with the tunnel vision camera lens- I think it makes it to hard to judge your speed going into a corner.
i still play this and this is by far still the best feeling and sensation of driving a high speed car in any game to this day the hemet cam is sensational lighting and that blur effect when reaching crazy speeds cant be beat.i love gran turesmo but man it has a stiff in car view that is lifeless.this is where its at even little details like little rocks flying up and hitting your window are present and the crazy high beam lights blindly shining through your car in a race at night while the other car is near.this game was made i 2011 folks and still is as beautiful as the day it was released
Can we all agree that this game is extremely underrated for how actually good and ambitious it was? Just makes me wanna show two middle fingers to the NFS gaming community made of unappreciative casuals, which preferred some arcade trash over a better, more complex game.
The funny thing is project cars is shift 2 with some fan made patches for the tire physics and other fixes then they made some new tracks, slightly upgraded the visuals and there you go. They also banned people who backed them for asking questions that were critical.
Awesome review, one request is that if you're going to show footage from other titles for comparison, an on-screen indication of what game is being shown would be great. I haven't played any of the titles mentioned and can't easily differentiate between them based on visual style alone.
NFS shift was the second ever NFS I played after underground, but it was the one NFS I played the most ever in my life. I have feelings for this game. Other NFS titles focus on Street racing. Even Pro Street had a street racing background for the protagonist. However, Shift was the first attempt by NFS at organized Motorsport, and I absolutely love it. The best graphics of all time, the cars look so real in it! Wish it was actually on mobile (not that crappy IOS version), the closest is real racing 3, but it doesn't have car customisation (only liveries and not body kits). Haven't played shift 2 yet but really want to. PS: The music for these NFS titles: undercover, shift, shift 2, world and the run were all created by none other than the creator of argent metal, Mick Gordon!🔥🔥
Shift 1 & especially 2's cockpit views are the reasons why I can't play a sim racing game in 3rd person view. They knocked it out of the park and I still haven't found anything close to it yet.
@@lawofgravity1979 And this is why many NFS fans hated Hot Pursuit...it played too much like Burnout Paradise. I'm not a fan of Burnout and as soon as I started Hot Pursuit, I was turned off. Hot Pursuit and this Shift series were so off putting.
@@DV-ou1yu I enjoyed hot pursuit(2010) but I wouldn't put it very high in my list. It to me didn't feel like nfs mainly cause i grew up with black box but HP(2010) does good at what it's meant to be and plays ok.
I bought this in December 2021 via the PS Store out of curiosity. As of lately, all I've been doing is racing at Miyatomi and the Riviera Momentum Loop since I happen to have an oval racing addiction.
I just dusted off my Need For Speed Shift 1, rewatched your review on that and was wondering if you would do one on this cause I was looking at prices to maybe buy it! This is great timing lol Kind of scary actually 😂😂
One issue that affects the gameplay experience of any of the older NFS or Shift games is there are best | dominant cars for each class | tier | race type (drift, drag, grip, ...), and unless a player searches for a guide | walkthrough that includes recommended cars, the games are not as enjoyable if the wrong cars are chosen.
I think i already said it on the first Shift review, the game mechanics it's more flowey, more like a feel, idk, and really i don't feel like going faster and faster and smash on my opponent's bumper just because yes. It's a nice match between realistic, with the over and understeering and the emotions of the arcade, the crashes and the sense of speed. I just really love it and still play it, sometimes to chill, sometimes to race and sometimes to really get into it
Like you said, the handling model was a turn off for me, but I feel like it could be like a "Takumi learning experience" with more precision oriented style. Because I tend to be very aggressive in other games of this type
Well they nailed the vibes on this one, for a game that focused more on the thrill than the simulation, they did manage to make the game feel serious but not to the point of feeling corporate and portrayed motorsport as something even more dangerous than street racing. Something that Drive To Survive and Gran Turismo (the movie) would explore years later
The only problem I had from Shift 2 is the Porsche 911 GT3 Falken when gifted when leveled up, which supposed to be slotted into GT3 class but ended up being eligible Works championship
The Shift 2 platinum is one of my most satisfying to have earned. Mainly because of the King of the Hill online racing tournament. I was a dedicated player back in 2011. Took many attempts to reach the top and win it all. I enjoyed it more than Shift 1
