Need for Speed: Shift Like Gran Turismo? Nope: We Want Our Game to Be Fun

VG247: "Need for Speed: Shift is obviously gunning for realism. You'd kind of expect the Slightly Mad title, then, to have Gran Turismo in its sights. Apparently not. Shift is going to be about "fun," not "driving in a straight line," producer Jesse Abney told VG247 in London last week."

[Why dis]

This game is looking nice.
http://pc.ign.com/dor/objec...

http://pc.ign.com/dor/objec...

http://pc.ign.com/dor/objec...

http://pc.ign.com/dor/objec...

If the devs keep this up they'll catch to where the Ferrari Project should be right about now graphically.

[I_am_rushin]

nice job posting the PC screenshots.

[ShabzS]

finally someone said it.. all your super ralistic forzas and gts cant match up to GAMES like grid ..

[Hallucinate]

honestly there both fun it really just depends on the mood your in
also the headline qoute...isnt even in the article he said "GT fun is not the kinda fun were aiming for" or something like that

[SL1M DADDY]

Then why is it that they sold millions of copies? Sorry, but this is just a low shot by a company known for such cheap shots. In the end, the game will more than likely be good but with a reputation for frame rate drops and lousy acting, I fear that it will be lumped in with the rest of the NFS series. Good games, but not great games.

[Rock Bottom]

That's strange, 'cause I've been playing racing games since the SNES/Genisis days, and I can't remember a racing game I played as much as GT4(more than 200 h), now I could be an idiot who keeps playing a game he can't enjoy, or I can be just one of the 10 million+ people who enjoys playing GT and keeps buying it.

[PirateThom]

If I was to count how many hours I've put into Gran Turismo, it would probably be depressing, but it's probably bordering on the 1000hour mark for the series (4 main games, 5 Prologue)

License tests and endurance races... you people know what I'm talking about!

[LastDance]

Look. Can we all just admit that no devs are more into their sh!t than polyphony digital. I mean seriously. There is no game that even comes CLOSE to GT league and that is a clear cut fact.

Edit: the only reason these guys are saying this is because they dont WANT to be compared to GT in which case they will obviously lose. Remember the name of the last game that tried to compete with GT on 360 ...yeah that's right, I cant remember the name of it either.

[zodiac909]

it depends on your likes, i personally prefer simulators rather than arcade, but thats me...but you can't say ones better than the other cause they are more different than alike

[RumbleFish]

This NFS will be as much fun as any other NFS: zero!

There is ONE Simulator: GT and there's ONE arcade hyper fun racer: Burnout.

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

I'd take simulation over arcade racing any day. Can't wait for GT5.

[Majors]

It's not the simulation that lets them down because GT is nearly perfect and single player is amazing, but its the online and the "other players" who dont treat it like a simulation. They just ram you off the track and you get a penalty for it while there off down the track.
Hopefully Shift has the online sorted and it is fair for real players while imature drivers get penaltys or kicked.

[SL1M DADDY]

Come on, be realistic.. That issue has been the bane of racing games since online was introduced to them. They won't penalize those guys because too many times an accident could happen and then they are punishing legitimate drivers for taking chances that in any real day of driving might otherwise pay off. In the end, online driving is best done with those you know and trust to bring you a fair fight.

[iDystopia]

Need for Speed:Shift is sounding pretty good. This franchise needed a breath of fresh air.

[dj55555555]

I think this man confused the word fun with amateur

[DelbertGrady]

Way to twist the headline into flamebait.

“We don’t pretend to compete with Gran Turismo for technological achievement as well as what I would call a ‘driving simulator’,” said the developer. “That’s not the fun angle we’re going after.”

“We’re going after… what it means to be in a race, in a grid of hard competitors who will battle for position, and who will make the organic nature of the race more about performing at that level and less about the challenge of driving in a straight line.”

"Despite wanting to offer something different to GT, however, Abney said Shift is paying close attention to Polyphony’s work.

“For us we look at games like GT, Forza 2 and GRiD as the high water mark,” he added."

Humble indeed. Shift looks to be the game that revitalizes the series, judging by the trailer and the people involved in developing it.

[Information Minister]

Yeah I agree. They never said that their game would be more fun, just a different kind of fun. Like Ace Combat and Flight Simulator are different games but fun in their own way.

The author of the article applied a little spin on the title to make it more controversial and guarantee some hits.

[Why o why]

theres room for both. burnout and motostorm still do it for me on the fun part. Doesn't mean I cant have more IF this title does what it says on the box.

@Soda Popinsky

cheers and agreed but flaming titles is what draws crowds.

[Foxgod]

Indeed, Shift may be better looking then GT5, it doesnt play like GT5.
Shift will actually be fun since its more action oriented.

[ssipmraw]

OH PLEASE!

the term FUN is extremely subjective.

[nycredude]

Nice try trolling loser. Next time read the article first. This article was twisted up to get hits. The developers never said GT isn't fun, and actually gave gt and forza props.

I don't know how the hell you have so many bubbles.

If you really think a multiplay NFS game will look better than than gt5 then you are really dilusional.

[aaron5829]

I played Grid.. and to me, it was a disapointment...

If Shift is heading that direction, i guess i wont be buying...

Was really hoping Shift to be hardcore sim..

:(

[DelbertGrady]

I couldn't stand the controls of GRID. Imo they were even worse than Colin McRae's Dirt.

[REALgamer]

I never got into GT or Forza 2. Apart from the fact that I'm crap at sim racing games, I don't find them much fun compared to Burnout or NFS.

Realism isn't something I want in games...fun should be the main objective even if realism needs to be compromised to find that fun.

But hey, if any developer can get realism AND fun together good for them!

[Danieru sho]

Where as all u can do is drive a real car when it comes to gt, u cnt go hitting cars n gettng points. Simulatorz r fun...if u dnt knw hw to drive bt nthng beats unrealistic gear shifting.

[itani]

And so they are trying to convince me GT5 isn't fun?

[PirateThom]

Whoever wrote the article is.

The developer said they were approaching racing from a different perspective, a different type of "fun", not that Gran Turismo isn't fun.

[Shane Kim]

Big talk comig from a studio whose games has been below avarage the past 8 years.

[rekonizakilla]

That's what I was thinking.
So since when has gt been boring?

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

A 'Need for Speed' game hasn't been FUN since the one i played on PS1 all those years back!!!
(can't remember the full name of it, it was a long time ago) ;)

[Cryptech]

I think it was something like "Road and Track Magazine presents: Need for Speed" Something like that lol. I think the last fun one was NFS III Hot Pursuit?. These guys really have not produced good games for awhile. I remember in the original trying to get to 202mph in the lambo and it felt fast. Their games now feel very slow compared to a game like Burnout Paradise. I think the developers should play a little of that to get a sense of speed.

[paskowitz]

If this game end up playing like GRiD I will be greatly disappointed. GRiD seemed so cool but when you actually played it, it put me to sleep. It was just far too easy to control a 600hp le mans car. The fun of GT and Forza (to some extent but not as much as GT) is the challenge and the driving physics. So if they are not looking to mirror that then what are they doing? Step it up a level to PC sim, sure you loose the graphics but the cars are even more challenging to drive and as a result even more fun.

[HarukoHex]

you didn't try racing with all your settings of on extreme mode did you.
rofl I know you didn't otherwise you wouldn't be saying something like that.
-hex-

[Matpan]

I´m going to be hated... but I could never stand more thjan 5 minutes playing any GT game. It´s just not my cup of tea.

I find realistic simulators of any kind really dull. I do recon they can be entertaining to other people and even helpful at teaching some skill in other cases(not the console racers, of course)... But when playing videogames I just wan´t to smash my car against my opponents at 200mph without jeopardizing the stability or integrity of my car, I want to jump 200 metres and fall in a hollywood fashion to continue the race without interruption, or drift for an irrealistically long period of time with the ease of a pro. IDK when it comes to racers I really like an arcade feel much much more over realism.

Forza or gt... well just not MY games. Maybe this is a new angle I can enjoy better.

[phosphor112]

You might get a few disagrees though. I used to hate GT games..until I realized how great the games were. They presented challenges to me, in which I learned to tweak the settings of my car, and even transfer that love and knowledge to real world situations.

While I don't like the "bumper" car aspect of the game, it still has the best physics for a console racer. Some PC sims have so much better physics, but are severely hindered by the players who don't have a wheel, and thus, end up having to use they keyboard instead.

While plain non-sense and easy intense gameplay can be very fun, I like to turn on my games for a few, whether games like GT, or Red Orchestra, realistic games give me a rush, just because of how difficult they are.

[hotrider12]

3 - Hmm...
A 'Need for Speed' game hasn't been FUN since the one i played on PS1 all those years back!!!
(can't remember the full name of it, it was a long time ago) ;)

here's the low down
the need for speed road & track
need for speed 2
need for speed 3 :hotpursuit
need for speed porsche unleashed
need for speed v-rally
need for speed high stakes
need for speed hot pursuit 2 ps2
need for speed underground ps2
these are the last good NFS games
all the rest sucks
will NFS shift bring us back to those glory days??? who knows

[CobraKai]

That's funny cuz to me GT is to cars what Madden is to football. With sims, you have to be into what they are simulating for it to be fun. I find GT fun cuz I'm kind of a gear head while on the other hand, Madden is "Maddeningly" boring cuz I'm not that into football.

[free2game365]

No, Madden games actually release in a timely matter and those have improved in ways besides graphics over the years.

[Th3 Chr0nic]

I cant stand Gran turismo. Most Boring crap ever put on a disc. i tried part 1 and part 2. so boring

[menoyou]

these losers wish they could make a game as amazing as gran turismo

[mirroredderorrim]

Even the PC images do not tap the visual orgasm like GT did, like when they compared GT screen shots... TO REAL LIFE.

[DeadGirls]

I've played GT3 and GT4, they are boring as hell. A racing 'simulation' game without crashes is like watching a PG rated porno movie.
I could see how it might be fun to anyone under 16 who has never driven a car before, but I have had much more fun driving/racing/crashing cars in REAL life.
I'm all for realistic physics, controls, and graphics, but let me do something fun with them. Give me an experience I couldn't normally get driving my own car and/or jerking-off to a car-parts magazine.

[free2game365]

Realistic games can be fun, look at GTR and GTR2 by the same developer as this. More realistic physics, better sense of speed, more engaging AI, more fun, even with more realism.