I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to this game!!! OMG
http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1154510p2.html
http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1154510p2.html
The Passion of Shift 2 Unleashed
Can this racer really go wheel to wheel with Forza and Gran Turismo?
'm holding a titanium bolt in my hand so light that it feels like cheap plastic. Hardly the sort of sentence you'd expect to open a racing game preview, perhaps, but then this is no ordinary bolt: immaculately inscribed around its head is the word 'Pagani'. It will reside in a future Huyara, Pagani's new 700bhp ultratech supercar, assuming I'm unable to sneak it into my pocket – in which case it will live in the glass-and-tungsten-and-music-and-light living room shrine I've already constructed in my head.
Alas, the latter is likely to remain imaginary because there's no question the Pagani representative will want her bolt back – and at €60 each, you can't blame her. The Huyara (that's 'who-ai-rah', incidentally) is held together by 300 of these babies and you don't need to be a mathematician to work out that when you multiply those two sets of figures together you end up with a remarkably high number. But when you realise the Huayra will set you back the best part of a million, the fact that you could trade its bolts for a Clio Renault Sport 200 (with the Cup chassis option and a pair of Recaro seats) becomes less surprising.
Equally expected is the level of dedication and attention to detail Pagani's workforce displays as they jostle past the group of motoring and videogame journos cramming their small workspace to put the finishing touches to a couple of Huyaras (one of which will be off to Milan the next day for the official unveiling at the Pirelli headquarters). That devotion is perfectly exemplified when Mr Pagani himself shows up and spends a considerable amount of time fussing over the tiniest piece of moulded carbon fibre with one of his engineers.
If I tell you all this it's because an hour later, as we're sat in Lamborghini's predictably swish reception lobby where EA has set up a couple of demo pods showcasing the latest Shift 2 Unleashed code, that passion for detail and all things car-related is again all too evident in Slightly Mad Studios' work.
The original Shift was an intriguing and captivating mix of typical Need For Speed excess and convincing handling model – a worrying juxtaposition on paper that mostly worked in practice – but the sequel (which, you'll note, has lost its Need for Speed tag) aims at sharpening its focus onto recreating the authentic racing experience.
Sure, the car roster has almost doubled (now at 130-odd), as have the tracks (which again feature real driver's circuits such as Bathurst, Monza, Brno, Road America, Spa… you get the idea), but by far the most interesting new inclusion is what Slightly Mad calls the 'helmet cam'. By hooking up the in-car view to a physics system (a traditional fixed alternative is still offered), this new perspective aims to reflect the g-forces at work on the driver. So slight changes in camera position convey a more authentic recreation of what it's like to be at the wheel of a racing car, but the dev team has pushed this element further so that you'll find the camera honing in on the apex as you get to a corner, or shifting the depth of field under braking to keep what's important in focus. It's a delicate mix that's taken Slightly Mad countless iterations to finesse and a move that could have worked out disastrously.
But, brilliantly, it works. It's disconcerting at first, true, but a few laps in you find yourself using it instinctively because the camera pans to where you would naturally want to be looking as you're turning in, for instance. The resulting effect is one of the most organic racing experiences on console.
Part of the reason the helmet cam is so convincing is due to other factors, of course. Improvements such as volumetric grass, 3D trackside trees, those rubber marbles that accumulate off the racing line (and which in Shift 2 react realistically to cars running through them), authentic physics modelling of safety barriers or even a simple touch like dirt accumulation on cars and smudges on the windscreen may seem like trivial inclusions, but it's the little details that make all the difference when attempting to suck a player into a game world.
Then there's the AI. Your opponents in the first Shift were so focussed on finishing ahead of you that at times the experience was more Burnout than Button (an example of a racing driver that will always fight you hard but fairly) – indeed, you were encouraged to get aggressive yourself, with the game rewarding you with XP for trading paint on track. That's thankfully no longer the case. Reflecting the wish to recreate a more authentic racing experience, Slightly Mad promises the AI is now more balanced and respectful of your position on track while also being aware of consequences of their actions, particularly when playing in full damage mode. A lot more track time will be needed to assess it properly but on first impression they do seem a better behaved bunch, with the 'bumper car' ethos of the first game pleasingly absent.
Throw in excellently detailed sound effects that communicate all key elements of a car's behaviour on-track (or off it), an enhanced damage system (aptly demonstrated when I run wide into a Nürburgring GP gravel trap, the car digs in and all hell – and bonnet, doors, boot and wheels – break loose), terrifying – and terrific – night racing and you have what promises to be one of the rawest, most intense virtual racing experiences yet.
But not one of the easiest. Yes, with all the assists turned on even a mobility scooter enthusiast would get round the track without getting intimate with an Armco, but start switching aids off and you better hope you have pre-2007 Schumacher DNA in your genetic make up. Frustratingly EA's courier failed to turn up with a D-Box and force feedback wheel set-up as expected, meaning play time was confined to the use of a joypad – hardly ideal when trying to fully experience a handling model as intricate as Shift 2's.
Still, even on the Elite setting (full damage, full handling) things remain playable on a controller. Certainly, the nuances of convincing race car behaviour are properly conveyed and even though you're unlikely to post competitive lap times without social recluse-levels of practice, it's enough to come away confident the dev team has got the dynamics right. With prolonged use you can argue the details, of course – Gran Turismo 5 probably feels better under braking, for instance – but on initial impressions everything handles the way you would hope it to.
So that leaves the structure. No major diversion here from the first Shift in that progression in the Career mode is entirely locked around the acquisition of XP. So as you race you're rewarded for success and driving precision, and as you level-up you open up new cars and new branches of motorsport (production cars, drifting, FIA GT races, and so on). What is new is the inclusion of Autolog, which as in Hot Pursuit tracks the progress of your friends and lets you challenge them (or vice versa) for increased multiplayer experience – and every time you beat a chum's autolog record, you're obviously rewarded in XP.
The multiplayer aspect is of particular interest because Slightly Mad has used its past experience in PC simracing to boost the features so that you can now tailor events to personal preferences in order to maintain level playing fields. Related to this, although the game no longer rewards you for shunting AI opponents out of way it does keep a record of your on-track behaviour for match-making. The plan is to ensure that the right set of racers meet online, hopefully removing those aggravating instances when you get an idiot deliberately causing crashes or racing round the wrong way.
As with all of Shift 2 Unleashed's other very promising elements, time will tell. What is obvious at this stage is that this sequel veers further towards realism and away from traditional NFS territory (wisely leaving the absurd excesses for the Hot Pursuit brand) but focuses on increasing the intensity and exhilaration of the on-track racing experience. There's no doubting Slightly Mad Studios' devotion to its project – why else would the team obsess with getting the look of the carbon fibre texture of a Zonda's bodywork right, enduring endless internal discussions and attempts? – and if it delivers, it should have one of the most rewarding console racing game simulations of recent times on its hands – something that can stand wheel-to-wheel with Forza and Gran Turismo. That's the kind of creation Mr Pagani would happily put his name to.
That's important.