Two weeks ago, VirtualR readers had the chance to submit their Need for Speed Shift questions to Slightly Mad Studio’s Ian Bell, Doug Arnao and Erro Pitulainen.
Hundreds of questions have been submitted and while the guys haven’t had the chance to answer them yet, Ian Bell has been kind enough to engage in a discussion with many VirtualR readers in the comment section.
Since many readers will probably not spot his very interesting answers buried in the mass of comments, you can find the questions and all his answers below (you might have to click “Read More” to see the rest of this article.
Ian Bell used the ridiculous, hyperbolic term “data treasures” to mask the fact that Shift didn’t have laser-scanned tracks. He also tried to explain that Shift used car telemetry to re-create the surfaces of tracks.
I’ve never used the term.
We didn’t lasar scan the tracks. I’m not attempting to mask that.
‘Bell is the same guy who tried to sell us pre-release that Shift was a pure sim. That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.’
I didn’t. I did though say I felt that in pro mode it simulates the experience of racing a real car better than anything out there. I stand by that.
Quick word of thanks to the overwelmingly positive response we’ve gotten from the community, especially all of the emails. It’s really appreciated and I hope we came some way to matching your passion with our first offering as SMS.
Reading pre-release-interviews I always felt like: This guy is just trying to make a fool of us simracers. And you still can’t stop doing so.
And finally: How can a game with a maximum of 8 players online (promised was a max of 16 players by you) ’simulate[...] the experience of racing a real car better than anything out there’? 
I do understand the point that Ian’s statements are part of a marketing strategy. But the massive use of exaggerations is highly visible and that’s a bit too much.
I maintain that this is by far the best racer of this generation to convey how racing really feels. The physics are built on the base engine we used in GTR2, with a completely new tyre model, input model, tyre to ground contact system (Physx). I was at the Nordschliefe just this weekend with some of the team and we all agree this is as close as it gets to modelling the whole experience. I don’t see any massive exaggerations, apart from the accusation of such :)
While I disagree with the marketing hyperbole, I understand that it’s all part of the PR/marketing game. Their job is to get people pumped up for the upcoming release. I also have found other games to be more realistic feeling than Shift, but I’m glad SMS is taking Shift closer to a true sim experience. EA needs a game like that in its portfolio.
You and your team at Blimey have provided me hours of fun with GTR 2, and for that I’m very grateful.
No worries Paul, it comes with the territory and if you don’t ‘know’ someone it’s easy to scorn the marketing blurb.
What I try to do is state the reality as it is at that moment. Things often change during the course of a development for many reasons, some out of our control, but we as a team (most of the GTR2 devs) always felt that the grip, slip, scrub, regrip behaviour of pretty much any car wasn’t there in the competition, thus the new tyre model among other things. With the exception of some of the physics, the engine is all new though.
Handling feel is always going to be very subjective though. I’m happy with what we achieved, but then I’m biased :)
We do care as you say and in fact we’re listening to and collating the feedback on the forums to see where we can improve. It’s been a long haul for us as a team without a product on the market and we’re lucky to have survived and gotten this far. Shift is (thankfully) a huge success which helps us no end for the future.
Glad you enjoyed GTR2 and maybe with some mods you’ll grow to enjoy this one as much.
I’d like to know, what he thinks about the modding of Shift and the Real Mod itself.
I personally think it’s great, especially as we didn’t go out of our way to make it easy. I haven’t tried any of them as yet as it’s been very busy lately.
Ian, Are you including Live For Speed, NetKar and iRacing when you say that shift has the most realistic handling out there? Or are you conveniently leaving those games out of your comparison?
Everyone has their own impression of what is realistic handling. It’s always been a very subjective thing. I feel we simulate the experience of being behind the wheel of a race car better than any of the competition, but this might not be what you mean by ‘realistic handling’ . We’ve built upon a realistic physics core and added more realistic modules where we thought they were needed. We worked very hard with physics, sound and graphics to ’simulate’ the experience.
Many of the team race often and feel we’ve gotten closer than anyone else. I maintain that GTR2 was too difficult. I’ve yet to have a car break away on track as suddenly as we had it in GTR2. The reality is that a road and race tuned car is fairly easy to drive to the edge and slightly beyond. They tend to scrub off speed if understeering or oversteering and with the right inputs for oversteer, are generally easily righted. We don’t have fudged ‘aids’ in pro mode. What is in the game is a direct result of what we feel are authentic physics.
We do have some input filters applied when using a pad (of course) but the underlying physics are the same.
I agree that the majority of current sims are way more difficult to drive than reality, but I dont think thats due to inaccurate physics in general but rather the lack of physical forces.
But surely theres some issue with stock physics in Shift because while easy to control, a lot of the cars seem to feel unresponsive and “floaty” (might be my controls, default wheel and FFB settings are SHOCKING out of the box, FFB decent after some tweaking of the xml file). Also they seem to have an alarming tendency to oversteer in situations where you just wouldnt expect it. Anyway, just wanted to know whether you guys were satisfied with this side of the physics because it feels quite dodgy to me.
Apart from the bugs (some UI garage issues and the bouncing) yes, we are happy with it. Most of these bugs are fixed and a patch is in testing now.
Is there any possibility that SMS in the future might release a game/sim that resembles more what most PC sim racers are used to, in terms of gameplay features such as full race weekends with practice/quality/race, pit stops, total damage and so on? I can see why things like these are excluded from a NFS game, even though I wish these things would have been included.
I think I know what you mean in terms of people getting what they are used to and it’s a possibility, we certainly love that sort of detail.
The reality is that the vast majority of buyers (across all platforms) don’t care for the fully simulated race weekend, or damage that ends their race etc. It comes down to a decision of what we can do in the allocated time to improve the game for the majority and what a publisher feels are big wins. Being able to achieve that without delivering something generic or ‘common denominator’ is the trick.
Hi Ian.Thanks for Shift, I like it a lot. Do you find it weird competing with your previous products like this? The most surreal part of the reaction to Shift, to me, is seeing people whose only previous experience with racing is in GTR2 decry Shift as unrealistic. As funny as that is to watch from outside, I can’t help but feel that something went wrong managing expectations for Shift – either in terms of the pre publicity or the default control settings or the garage setups (which seem awfully slide/oversteer happy). Are some better “track setups” along the lines of the ones you can load in GTR Evolution on the cars for a patch?
I’m happy we finally have a product out we can compare to our previous work. I use ‘our’ to mean us as a team of people because of course, we made GTR2 as Blimey and Shift as SMS.
I agree we could have been a bit better out of the box with controllers although we did allocate time to it, we could have set the defaults differently.
About the expectations, again I’m biased, but I do feel we’ve delivered a really fun authentic driving experience that works well also on consoles and that’s crucial for survival. We had a team of 85 people that relied on us succeeding to get paid.
There are a few bugs in the GUI for garage. Understeer and oversteer were reversed among a few other issues we’ve since rectified. The patch should be out soon.
Classics are rather thin on the gound in Shift compared to “rivals” like Forza and GT. I’m probably venturing into NDA territory here but what are the chances of some DLC 60s and 70s cars to join the lonely Nissan? The tyre model does sliding beautifully and I really think these older cars would suit SHIFT perfectly.
We’re committed to supporting Shift long term with new content and patches. I can’t go in to what we have planned but I agree we do sliding well :)
We’ve worked hard to add additional optimisations for ATI cards with success. This will be coming in a future patch. In the mean time, using a profile from other games helps. I’ve heard that renaming the exe to grid.exe helps a fair bit on ATI cards.
Considering that all of us usually drives from the cockpit, will we see after the patch the steering wheel turn according to what we are doing, instead of just few degrees? Do you plan to improve AI too, as they were used to almost stop in tight turns even in the demo?
There are some limitations on what we can do here based around the driving and shifting animations for one thing. It’s something we’ve only had a few complaints on so I’m not sure it’s scheduled for a patch. I will check.
On the AI, we’ve actually done a lot with the AI that is new, one being that the AI names are persistent and each has a distinct personality (based on 12 types I believe off-hand). They recall how you raced against them in the past and act accordingly in the future. They have been tuned for a fairly quick action filled experience.
Sommergemüse
October 7th, 2009 at 04:16
Montoya, you Posted it 2x ;)
The other Post is full of coments :) .. I’ll post my Questions to SMS here…
Ian Bell (or the other SMS Guys) I want you to ask some Questions :)
Can you please explain us, why we need Mods like Real Cars Mod 2.0B to have really nice driving? (Before the Sliding/Oversteer was too much!) – What’s gone wrong there? Time Limit?
And why 120% Grip Level in Pro Mode? Drives 1000x Times better with 100%
And the Damage why not full Damage in Pro mode? It’s possible, see the mods…
But on the opposite I played GTR Evolution last half hour and it feels really bad, boring, unrealistic … Shift has the better Physics! (With Real Cars Mod 2.0B) and it looks like stone age (EVO)…
You plan DLC (I hope for PC too and not only XBON 360 Exclusive or some s* like that).. What I really want: Fuel consumption, Tire Wear, Pit Stops, Training, Real Template/Skin Support like GTR 2, more Tracks like Nurburgring GP, Monza, Valencia.. and some new rides like Ferraris, older Cars (like GT Legends)…
.. What I could need to: Real Racing Series like VLN (Okay Joke *g*), ALMS
And I hope modding tools coming soon too ;) (You know my mail and so on … *G*)
azrink
October 7th, 2009 at 04:25
thanks ian. this would certainly lights up some of our doubt. thanks again
UncleChuckle
October 7th, 2009 at 05:09
I love it. He gets called on the PR hyperbole and stands by it. Can’t admit you snowed the community…
What is with the pathetic damage model in the game? Full damage and the car can survive multiple 100+mph shunts.
paskowitz
October 7th, 2009 at 05:42
What I do not get is that with the Real Mod 2.0 its proven that Shift can have sim-esk physics and with Shifts normal physics + aids its possible to have arcade physics for the casual consumer… so why did Shift ship the way it did, with truly flawed sim physics? It just makes no sense. I mean I agree, Shift has a really good “drivers experience”… audio/visually but everything else falls flat. What makes its worse is that I know SMS could have made Shift have THE OPTION to be a full on sim from the get go.
I like Shift and I will continue to play it but as of now rFactor’s F1 mods, LFS, and GT5p (yeah yeah shut up) are my go to sims.
orubasarot
October 7th, 2009 at 05:55
Whatever Ian, just give us the mod tools.
This stagnant niche has little competition and a community supported title can bring in sales for years to come. While the console gamers will drop you the moment GT5/Forza come out, the Sim guys may sit on this title for a long time with just a bit of your eye candy and underlying foundation, you know that better than I do. Sure we’re probably like 5% of the overall sales, but we’ll stick around.
And if it was never intended to be a sim then why did all the press end up here? It says “100% Sim Racing News” at the top of this page, which is why I bookmarked it, is EA’s marketing at fault here or is it the fault of this site for having covered this title in the first place? Shift, as the casual gaming title in release form does not belong on this site.
These complaints would be out of line on Gamespot or IGN or wherever, but not here, this here’s nerd country son, and I reckon you ain’t ready to see what some of these fellas can do with a hex editor and a cracked copy of 3ds Max.
kill4f00d
October 7th, 2009 at 05:58
When I’m driving over 90 mph, my vision doesn’t blur. I would probably get dizzy and rear end other cars, just like in the Shift trailers.
captain_underpants
October 7th, 2009 at 06:19
“The reality is that the vast majority of buyers (across all platforms) don’t care for the fully simulated race weekend, or damage that ends their race etc”
Surely it’s only a few GUI pages, and a small amount of additional code to add a race weekend as an option? Everything else has already been built. Make it a race type in the Quick Race menu. A modder with a modicum of skill could probably code it up in an afternoon.
traind
October 7th, 2009 at 06:40
Where did some of these guys ever read that this was advertised as a sim? Over and over Shift representatives said this was not, I repeat not, going to be a full on simulation title. In one interview Ian said it was the most realistic driving model and everyone jumped on that, ignored a dozen other interviews and expected a sim title. Amazing. He even said that his former titles were too hard and thus not as realistic–that got ignored too. People see what they want to see. If you don’t believe it, head over to GTPLanet and read the forums there for a bit
Hopefully this new thread will have a little more balance to it. I personally feel that Shift is a great title in many ways that was let out the gate with a few frustrating control issues that should have been caught before release. The game has fantastic graphics and sound, a different handling feel but one that is highly entertaining (once you sweat over the wheel settings) and is a great move toward simulation for a big, mainstream publisher to release. Yes, I too would like to see the Ferrari Project title released with a few of the simulation features mentioned above included but in the meantime Shift is a fun title with great cars and tracks. Patches and DLC will be welcomed heartily.
carbonfibre
October 7th, 2009 at 06:53
I like the organised fashion in the way this interview came about.
I forgot about the earlier QnA announcement that was here on VirtualR a while ago that obviously hasn’t materialized until now.
This seems to be the new generation (slowly emerging) now where developers are stopping by in fan-forums not just to read messages but actually interacting with the community, and particularly here out of all places; notorious for the harshest criticism, but also I think for the conversations on a more adult level.
So I’m just taking out some time to congratulate Montoya for hosting some distinct guests and hopefully many more to come.
It’s a privilege to have you among us Ian.
Uff
October 7th, 2009 at 09:22
If a proper steering wheel is not possible, it would not be bad to have it fixed (I used it that way everytime it’s possible).
triskele10
October 7th, 2009 at 10:09
You have a nice action racegame, strip every thing out of it than you try to give it GTR2 and Evo physics and after that you say Evo is boring? You compare 2 different games, Shift is a fictional action race game and Evo simulates race series.
I have the Shift with 3 installs (original,mod 2.0b and simulation sk mod v2.7) and the original makes the most fun. I also have Rfaktor, GTR2, Evo and sone Race on.
Ian
October 7th, 2009 at 11:13
Hi again :)
We would contend that what we shipped has really nice driving. :) There was a bug in the GUI causing some oversteer issues if you enter and exit the garage. This is fixed and coming soon in a patch.
There isn’t 120% grip level. The data input file shows 1.2 for pro but there’s a lot of multipliers going on in the underlying code making this equivilent to ‘reality’. 115-120 was the level our ex pro race chaps agreed best mirrored reality.
But some prefer it more slidey and I’m fine with that. Interestingly the majority who expressed an opinion on the grip levels felt it was too slippery.
On damage, the vast majority don’t want their race to end when they crash.
Ian
October 7th, 2009 at 11:20
Hi Uncle.
On the ’snowed’ comment, I respectfully disagree :)
On damage, the modelling under the surface is actually very detailed. We have dynamic per point mesh deformation and region specific cumulative paint scratching. We have detatchable wheels, engine, drivetrain and suspension damage among other things.
The decision to detune the default damage was to make the game less frustrating for the majority (it keeps coming back to that).
free2game365
October 7th, 2009 at 11:31
I remember asking something before along the lines of “will we get another proper fully licensed race series game like GTR2 from the company ever again” and I believe the full answer was no
“The reality is that the vast majority of buyers (across all platforms) don’t care for the fully simulated race weekend, or damage that ends their race etc. It comes down to a decision of what we can do in the allocated time to improve the game for the majority and what a publisher feels are big wins. Being able to achieve that without delivering something generic or ‘common denominator’ is the trick.”
Everything is converging to this whole Call Of Duty style of gaming. Back in the late 90s and early 00s games were usually fairly different. You had out of this world fast paced sci-fi FPS and such like Serious Sam, Half Life, or Wolfenstein. That didn’t try to be realistic, then on the otherside you had very realism geared shooters like Operation Flashpoint, Rainbow Six, and Hidden & Dangerous. Now everyone wants to make a Call Of Duty style game that’s a bit more slowly paced but not anywhere near as realistic as the ones mentioned above. We have the same thing happening with racing games, before you had what were clearly sims, and what were clearly arcade style. Now you’ve got things blurring those lines like GRID and shift. I’m just tired of it. I’ve barely played any games this year because of it. The only games I’ve really enjoyed this year were Burnout Paradise, ArmA 2, and Empire Total War. None of those really fall in that camp. The big problem I have with Mr. Bell’s logic is that has the company ever actually had a spectacular failure in the sim genre? Their last proper was GTR2 which was a success for them. Why is it that developers abandon niche genres, because they aren’t super popular. Did they ever thing they’ve be selling 5 million copies with GTR2? No one in their sane mind would. Neither GT Legends, Elite, GTR, or GTR2 were meant to be those kind of games. They were smaller, quality focused, developed by what I’m guessing is a tight team. You’re a legendary game developer Ian, but you’ve got to remember what the most talented people do. The best film makers aren’t the ones who get 100 million dollars to do a film. That’s actually what some of the least creative do. Remember what happened to your friend David Braben, he turned out to just be making shit mainstream games, least I heard he headed the development of a bad licensed platformer in between hyping Elite 4. That and about the difficultly. It’s not there, Shift seems much more unbalanced and the cars seem much more difficult to handle than their real life counterparts (well I’ve only driven the Porsche and a Civic Si).
Shelly
October 7th, 2009 at 11:52
Hello Ian!
First of all I have to say that I love Shift.
But beside some flaws, I really wonder what are you think about the fact that in Shift drifting is rewarded with the best lap time. At least this should not be in the race GT2 cars. I think the street cars are ok with their behaviour. But the race cars should stick more to the road but when they start to slide or drift they have to much grip imho.
Have you ever seen GT2 cars sliding and drifting around a track and still doing great laptimes?
Talking about the pro mode without assists and G25
SpikeyMarcoD
October 7th, 2009 at 12:05
Well all godd and well but i would expect PRO mode tro incorporate it.
f0xx
October 7th, 2009 at 12:20
Im loving Shift so far but theres something we Sim fans weren’t expecting.
Ian some thoughts here:
In the first place you talked about different difficulties etc, and we were expecting to see a clear line of difficulty between pro and the rest of the difficulty modes, and we don’t see that…you could at least turn ON all the damage in Pro mode… if ppl dont want to get knocked off just because they hit a wall; well dont play in pro mode :)
I understand that the majority of NFS players are arcade fans and dont like to lose and so on, but ppl learn with the mistakes…look at Pro Street for instance the sprint modes give us an adrenaline rush because we have to be fast and stay on the road at the same time. (well probably not a good example since it didn’t sell well but you got the point).
Nevertheless I think this next patch will do wonders, cant wait for it!
cheers.
_____________
@free2games
Don’ forget that despite of being made by SMS, this is Need for Speed and not GTR 3. If they were to make a GTR3 NFS would lose all their legion of fans, and others that were starting to lose faith in the NFS genre.
GTR2 for instance, is not just a game its a simulator and many ppl tend to forget that, including a big number of people that try GTR2 and quit playing just because its too difficult. So Shift probably is the best way; kind of a mixture between Sim feeling (or close to it) and bling bling arcady style :P
Cenotaph
October 7th, 2009 at 12:55
Gotta agree with free2game365. Sim racing is sim racing. I mean, there’s a reason why sites like this one exist. We can all understand easily that any developer will like to create a game that appeals to more ppl, but there is market for both genres: arcade and sim, so it doesnt mean we just have to accept it.
Looking at GTR Evo its already dissapointing that there is no night racing, no 24h racing, no real liveries, etc.. but at least you can clearly see it is a much better compromise in appealing to sim racers, in its core its still about simulation. Shift comes with an arcade packaging so all there was to appeal to the sim community was the actual driving and did it deliver in that department? hardly…
I think lines need to be drawn somewhere, or else we might be invaded by codemasters’ titles next
I mean no disrespect and i love the work Blimey did on GTR2, which was the game that really got me into this genre and i still think its the best out-of-the-box experience with a sim, but i think shift doesn’t quite belong here.
Shift is a very fun game, but is the sim community the place to discuss fun games or simulators?
Alamasy
October 7th, 2009 at 13:19
NFS, arcade for ever.
Der_KHAN
October 7th, 2009 at 13:22
wow, just wow. what an unbelievable load of marketing BS!
Sensekhmet
October 7th, 2009 at 13:43
I’m sorry, but it seems like judging a movie after watching a minute of it.
drowsy
October 7th, 2009 at 14:12
So no answer to why the cars (and I’m talking racing tuned GT cars here) go into a fucking slide on A STRAIGHT if you turn just slightly. It’s not just me either, because in every single video that people have shown as “proof that the game is realistic”, the cars slide like they’re on ice.
That’s something that not even mods have managed to fix, and it probably will never be fixed, and that’s a huge shame because it completely kills the “realistic racing experience” Bell seems to believe the game portrays.
Ian
October 7th, 2009 at 14:15
Thanks Carbon, it’s a privilage to be here.
I can understand that some of the readers here feel we don’t fit into the the hardcore sim category (as evidenced by some of the posts) but the fact is that racing a car close to or on the edge is huge fun, and a little frightening. You can make mistakes and get away with it, within reason. All of our choices during development were focused on recreating this whole experience in an authentic way which works on both consoles and PC. I feel we’ve achieved our goal.
Ian
October 7th, 2009 at 14:20
Hello Shelly.
Great question.
We have tested back to back and while scrubbing or gentle drifting gives you the fastest times, full out sliding doesn’t. This is how we wanted it.
I agree that in enhancing the feeling of being on the edge we did some things that make you feel the car is skidding a touch more than it probably is. Things like the scrub sound and tyre smoke. We did this (among other things) to give the player adequate warning that the tyres were losing grip. It comes some small way to compensating for the lack of g-force or proprioceptive feedback.
redi
October 7th, 2009 at 14:41
The whole issue this discussion keeps revolving around is that most of the self-declared hardcore simracers believe that GTR2 and the like are actually realistic w.r.t. physics and car behaviour, or at least more realistic than Shift. They are not. They may behave more believably to non-real-life racers, yes, but real-life race cars aren’t as unforgiving as shown in GTR2 and the like.
So, if you are discussing Shift vs GTR2/rFactor/GTR Evo, please state it like that: you want cars to behave like they do in GTR2/rFactor/GTR Evo because you like it better and not because car behaviour is more realistic in those games.
donbobo
October 7th, 2009 at 14:49
Hi Ian,
Thanks for posting and congratulations for producing NFS Shift.
Some questions…
Will the excessive oversteer on turn in and pivot effect be addressed in an upcoming patch? Maybe this is related to bugged Garage GUI/ defualt car setup.
Plus, will the AI aggressiveness be lowered at all? because currently the AI is just annoying rather then challenging more akin to banger racing rather than track racing.
I’m currently using the Real Mod to overcome some of these issues which does improve the experience for me.
Also please fix the low frame rate issues for ATI users, I have tried all the claimed fixes but with no success, it seems related to the number of AI cars that are in close view ahead.
Ian
October 7th, 2009 at 14:53
Hi there.
Yes, it’s now fixed and was related to a garage UI bug.
On the AI, we have them tuned for short bursts of action but one tip is to look for those drivers (AI personas) that tend to behave in a certain way and react accordingly. They have a base personality that is sustained with some tweaks when you scrape, nudge or spin them off.
We have been working on further ATI optimisations that will be released ina future patch. We’ve seen some substantial gains.
Sensekhmet
October 7th, 2009 at 14:53
Exactly. A tire (any tire) gives the best grip while actually sliding a little. The percentage of slip and the angle itself varies, but this is how it works.
redi
October 7th, 2009 at 14:54
I have found that the excessive oversteer can be solved by dialing the Steering Quick-Setup parameter to give more understeer (=sliding it to Oversteer, until the patch is released
).
What pivot effect are you talking about? There is no pivot physics in Shift like there was in the early days of Codemasters race games?
proudmatt
October 7th, 2009 at 14:55
Hi Ian,
Can you please comment on the extremely poor performance issue that almost all ATI users on the EA forum have been experiencing?
I like most people commenting – http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/450/304149 – will see my frame rate drop to 20-25 when I have a full grid of cars in front of me. This is also the case when cornering in a pack. We see the same results with all settings on low and the resolution turned right down.
I’m running an Intel Q9400, 4GB ram and an ATI 3870. We’ve tried muliple fixes but nothing seems to work.
Also Nvidia users are saying that this game does not allow GPU accelerated PhysX. Can you comment on this too?
Thanks,
Matt
creatorex
October 7th, 2009 at 15:00
HI IAN,
Thanks for your answers and time. I love the game but I belong to those who needs to modify it in order to make it fit to my expectations. I would like to ask you that why don’t attend and satisfy both audiences? Arcade and Pro??? Yu have the right sim engine, good graphics and etc. And game is modular so it’s easy yo create both scenarios via two different menus and options. So you can reach everyone with some simple solutions via menus and etc.
So it will be something new to have a racing game to be for arcade gamers and sim drivers, don’t you think so? Just add a main menu with a casual and a pro mode. Everyone will be ok and you’ll have satisfied customers. Of how to do a pro mode you have a lot of examples already in the market (Simbin, Iracing, netkar, rfactor, etc).
Regards,
B.
Cenotaph
October 7th, 2009 at 15:23
But that’s not it at all. Shift isnt more unforgiving than what GTR2 is, its actually more forgiving. I believe Ian said it himself he thought their previous games were more difficult and I actually have no problem with that. I think ppl grew to realise the behavior Simbin games evolved to is actually more accurate, and its not just non-real-life racers saying it like you claim, quite the opposite.
The problem with shift is that while the cars are easy to maintain on the tarmac,
they have an incomprehensible instability to them, not only under braking, which is acceptable, but specially when turning. The cars slide all over the place making it hard to keep a clean line no matter how smooth you try to drive the car.
I firmly believe that a driver’s skill is shown by pushing the car to its limits, while in Shift it seems that the philosophy is that its up to the cars to push the drivers to their limits. This probably creates a more physically challenging experience to the gamer but doesnt reflect the accurate behavior of the cars. Grid and Dirt can also be challenging games and they don’t get any attention here for a reason.
So there you have it, this is what i think of shift. Of course, my opinion, someone who doesnt really have as much experience in the genre as most here, im sure of that. I understand that every game has a different approach to racing and every game has its strong and weak points (rfactor, iracing, LFS they are all different and still sims), shift has some obvious strong points too, but i just dont think it is a correct approach simulation-wise, its not just wanting it to be like any other game, i’d like to make that clear. I already have those games (GTR2, Evo, rFactor), i don’t need another to drive exactly like them.
ForzaBarca88
October 7th, 2009 at 15:36
Actually rfactor is capable of realistic physics if the parameters are set up correctly, just try some of the cars Niels has done. Although Shift does feel like it has a better tyre model is comparison. But Gmotor2 aside, even comparing Shift to iRacing or NKPro will show a noticable difference in physics. I really like Shift for what it is but I just cant see the hyper realistic physics that some people are claiming at the moment.
Pelle79
October 7th, 2009 at 15:38
Hi Ian!
So far I like Shift, especially with Real Mod 2.0 (physics related), but this is only my taste. :)
I remember that you announced full clutch support (for G25), like in Live For Speed (cant change gears without pressing the clutch), and there is only basic support for clutch, you can still shift without pressing it, like in rFactor or GTR2. So, if I drive the car with standard clutch and manual H shifter, I’ll really loved to drive with full clutch support (braking with right leg), it will be an ULTIMATE racing experience. I hope that you agree. :)
I know that you can’t add this option “during the night” but I will be very very gratefull to see it in future patch.
Thanks in advance on answering.
cheers
redi
October 7th, 2009 at 15:38
I think that’s what I said
Shift is less unforgiving than GTR2, and it seems that many HC simracers have a problem with that. They seem to think hard = realistic.
Anyways, I do agree with you that cars in Shift seem to be hard to drive smoothly/cleanly, i.e. without sliding and/or having the back side step out although the latter can be adjusted pretty well with the Oversteer/Understeer slider.
I think this has partly to do with the in-game fixation to 270 degrees wheel rotation? I find small steering corrections hard to make with my wheel at 540 degrees without the car getting into sliding.
Cenotaph
October 7th, 2009 at 15:50
You’re right on that hard/realism thing, didn’t read that one properly
my bad, we agree on that one.
I’ve spent some time with the game having to adjust wheel settings and setup and now there’s a Real Mod, it seems there is just too much effort than it should be needed to get a good feel from the game, it’s a shame really. I really love the sense of speed of the game, but it doesnt quite appeal as that kind of game in which you just want to pick a car and drive a few laps around a track just for the pleasure of it.
Crazy Bored
October 7th, 2009 at 16:02
How can I solve my G25 steering lag so I can properly drive the game?
Howie47
October 7th, 2009 at 16:17
I almost feel like I need to apologize for the Sim community here. But your obviously no social noob.
I tried most of the (mods) and keep going back to the original physics. To many times the armatures like to pat themselves on the back, believing they can do better then the pros.
“Infogrames” once did a game called. “LeMans 24 Hours”. A racing series that had all the different classes of cars and greatest tracks that lead up to the 24 hrs of Le Mans. Please Make that your next project. Ha. Never hurts to ask.
Howie47
October 7th, 2009 at 16:18
Don’t you have any kids? They can fix it.
Shelly
October 7th, 2009 at 17:01
Thanks for your reply Ian!
I can really agree with you to a curtain point.
Well, for the scrub sound, ok.
But the tyre smoke? It would make sense if I could see my own tyre smoke in my mirrors. But unfortunately the mirrors dont show the smoke. And during the replays it looks often very arcadey when the GT2 cars produce smoke in almost every corner.
Maybe that’s the reason why the replays are not saveable. ;-)
sediol
October 7th, 2009 at 17:32
Ian, I’m really impressed by Shift and I like the excitement I’m getting with it, especially at Nordschleife!
1) Would you seriously consider an additional gamemode called “Simulation”? (If so, could this be expected as Add-On or rather in the next NFS/other game?
2) Which approx. amount (%) of CPU power goes into AI/physics? (in other words, hoch much is left over for graphics/sound)
3) Users with non-16:10 monitors (5:4) can’t see the mirrors entirely in cockpit-view. Can you please fix this with a plain virtual mirror?
)
(Otherwise ‘your’ AI drivers going to kill me any time soon…
-Thanks a lot for your time!
triple_a
October 7th, 2009 at 17:42
Shift is the best racing game for me at the moment. Driving in Nordschleife has never been as immersive.
My gripes with the game currently are:
- controls with wheel are bad out of the box (but with a tweaked xml file the controls & FF are working beautifully)
- too short races (most only 2 laps)
- too aggressive AI (can be modded)
- performance with ATI cards (patch coming)
HRose
October 7th, 2009 at 18:15
Since the discussion seem to have moved here I repaste what I wrote there:
I’m not a driving expert but I followed around the discussions. A LOT of the harsh criticism on SHIFT depended on UI issues.
This means that you could curb a big chunks of complaints very quickly and without working too hard. Lots of those problems can be fixed or adjusted with access to the inner xml files.
For example:
- Lots of players complain about the AI being in general too aggressive. It would take little time to put an UI slider in the options to adjust the overall aggressiveness of AI. We can do this already with the xml but you would surely make many players happy (especially on consoles) if you let them adjust overall aggressiveness.
- Lots of complaints because you can only tune a car by exiting a race and then go through a reload. Letting players access the garage and restart quickly the race WITHOUT reloading the whole thing would make the tuning part a lot less like a chore.
- The same for arbitrary effects for things like (1) the cockpit blur at high speed, and (2) the head shaking. Just let the players disable or adjust both these effects in the Options.
Finally about the “handling”. What most players are saying is that even in “Pro” mode EITHER the physics system is programmed to be forgiving of oversteer and sliding, OR the cars are set up in their default, non-tuned profile toward oversteering. What players say is that the physics system doesn’t reward clean driving. You don’t go faster if you turn clean and you don’t lose enough speed by drifting the curve.
People think this was done as a compromise between the “sim” aspect and the fun/arcade aspect that people expect from NFS. This is why we have 2 advancement systems and “forgiving oversteer” may be a way to keep both those experience advancements as viable (but at the expense of realism).
Especially we noticed how there’s a physicstweaker.xml file that is used to “rig” some parameters and that may explain that.
So what could you say on this?
rj3005
October 7th, 2009 at 19:35
Hi Ian,
First of all, thank you for this game.
I think it’s very possible please “sim” drivers and arcade drivers with little effort (=low cost / high return of investment) by either patch the pro mode to sim settings (full damage, tire temp, grip curves ect) or creating a separate patch with said settings released to the sim community.
My biggest complains at this moment are regarding online play I hope it’s being considered to enhance this area a bit.
- I would really like to be able to see a list of available (including the in progress) online games to choose from instead of just being thrown into the first available room.
- if I am put in a room which i don’t like, disconnect from the session and search again, why on earth i’m put in the same room again?
- change the “prefered” filters to “mandatory”, if i search for max 6 rated cars I don’t want to be thrown in an unrestricted race
- add filters for driving assists. i want to race pro mode, assists off, manual gears using my h-shifter but then i don’t stand a change against casual drivers with all assists on and auto gears, at least let the session owner decide if and which assists are allowed.
- Hunt for cheaters, ban them or redirect them to a separate cheater server. I have seen players with less then 20 races driven (on+offline) but with level 50 and millions of cash. It should be a piece of cake to catch these loosers by a simple SQL statement on the profile database.
EmptyBox
October 7th, 2009 at 20:15
First of all, let me just state that Shift didn’t do it for me. It has to many issues for me to bother with it right now. It just wasn’t what I want in a either a race sim, or a racing game. I will say there is potential, but it isn’t there in Shift as it stands out of the box.
I just find it hard to believe. Ian has said frequently that GTR2 was too hard due to the tires. When, IMO that had to have been the easiest game to drive (Not counting the full arcade stuff) of any game to date. And now it’s gone a step further. When will it stop?
I just find it hard to believe we have gone from GPL being realistic, to F1C being Realistic, to GTR1 being realistic, then GTL/GTR2 being realistic, and now Shift is (supposedly) the most realistic. GTR1 and GTR2 were both hyped up like none other (I do vaguely recall the term Revolution once or twice), yet once again it’s regarded as horribly wrong all of a sudden. Let me send up a red flag here…..
Personally, I find the Papy / iRacing sims much more detailed and realistic once you come to grips with them. They do from time to time lack some definition (There are a few bugs, as with any game). With current FFB on all but the most high end some fancy things just don’t warrant the need IMO. But, here’s my kicker. Those sims have had a somewhat linear progression in terms of physics. They all (IMO) had a feeling that was quite similar through out the years (Once hardware was there, so lets start with GPL). While the cars may be radically different through the years, they still seem to obey the same laws of physics. Evolution, not revolution.
Wheras with the ISI/SMS (I guess? Some have noted the ISI values, but it’s a new engine, so which catagory is it in?) based sims it has always been “Flavor of the year” when it comes to physics.
I’m just interested to know what you think about this. I really don’t know how this is a question, but I just don’t understand it. It seems like every car in the different Sims, while they on paper should behave quite similarly, are miles different. Why do we continually get a flavor of the times sim rather than what should be a natural evolution?
It’s as if the laws of physics get changed with every new ISI/SMS based sim, which doesn’t make sense, UNLESS the engine was SO flawed that it warrants that, but then everything that we’ve known as sim on this side has been flawed since the EA F1 series.
ECH
October 7th, 2009 at 20:28
Hello Ian,
I ask that you allow us to adjust our control settings while racing. This will allow us to fine tune our input device while driving. Thanks
f0xx
October 7th, 2009 at 20:36
Emptybox don’t confuse things. I agree with what redi said….our definition of realism is GTR2/rFactor/iRacing, etc but none of us can tell since the majority never raced in real life! Your/our definition of realism could be distorted..
GTR2 is one game and Shift is another, if I want to have some fun I play Shift if I want a more serious race I play GTR2. They complement eachother in some way ;) Which one is more realistic…I cant tell.
Personally I’m surprised in a positive way to finally see a more realistic side to the NFS genre, and seeing it be compared with hardcore sims is all great news, because it means progress.
EmptyBox
October 7th, 2009 at 20:59
Tis true. BUT, when speaking to a majority of people who DO race and race regularly, one does form an idea. Quite clearly if the guys who actually drive the cars think it’s right, then it’s probably a pretty darn good representation. PROVIDING they are a competent simracer. Being a good racer and sim racer aren’t nearly the same. Depends on who you trust I guess, personally I trust the guys I know in person who race, and they all say that iRacing is by far the closest thing on a PC yet. Yet, something like Shift is a POLAR SHIFT (No pun!) away from that, and GTR2, which was once Realistic. Personally from what I’ve experienced driving myself I would say that iRacing just feels more correct. But again, I don’t drive a 600+ HP C6R unfortunately.
You see the pattern here? Like I said, if it was realistic I don’t believe we would see these polar shifts from one side. Something doesn’t add up.
DW
October 7th, 2009 at 21:23
Shift is a major step forward from GTR2 – as you would expect from 3 years development and a new tyre model – but its main improvement is that the tyres feel like tyres. You don’t realise just how much they’ve improved until you go back to GTR2. That used to feel realistic but it doesn’t after you’ve driven Shift for a couple of weeks.
Are you saying iRacing isn’t a similar major step forward from NR2003?
eiwfihaaa
October 7th, 2009 at 21:34
absolute LOL at these interview.
GTR 2 was too hard???????????????? IS HE JOKING. GTR2 was a huge step backwards compared to GTR1, where the cars were stupidly grippy.
Clearly he is talking absolute BS – i doubt they have raced proper race cars, and even if they have, clearly, they haven’t raced them very fast.
Yes, race cars are easy to drive…at low speed.
If he actually maintains that nfs shift is the most realistic simulation out there, he must be on drugs.
i lol at this.
EmptyBox
October 7th, 2009 at 21:39
No, I’m not. But if you reread what I said it’s still a logical progression. It’s as if they actually are from the same planet, just everything is more detailed as you move to the modern era. Wheras over on this side it’s as if every new game that comes out completely re-writes the laws of physics. Driving in one game to another is completely different, even from say rF to GTR2.
I didn’t say Shift as IMO it’s not even in the same catagory as rF or GTR2, but the same applies. Once again, another massive shift as to what is correct. Everytime something new comes out it’s hailed as the next great thing when it just, well, isn’t. Honestly, I’ve never thought the ISI games were super realistic, but it doesn’t change what I’m saying, as the majority of the community does/did at one point.
I do think that Shift does have potential, just not utilized for what we all want. It does bring some things to the table that are ahead of everyone else at this time, such as tires. But for all the drawbacks of it, it just isn’t worth it.
ACTUALLY!
I’d be interested to see some telemetry data from the cars in Shift vs. Real life counterparts. Could that be done?
yakshemash
October 7th, 2009 at 21:45
eiwfihaaa, you don’t have to be sad. It’s not your fault that you are retard
redi
October 7th, 2009 at 21:49
Yeah, SMS physics director Doug Arnao, three-times SCCA champion, doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Race cars ARE very grippy, they’re built for that.
Sensekhmet
October 7th, 2009 at 22:17
Get well soon.
Competition tires have so much grip they can actually destroy a stock car when driven on long enough. The suspension and even body simply gets torn to shreds. I won’t even mention some top heavy cars rolling over because they had slicks on but the suspension was still stock.
DW
October 7th, 2009 at 22:18
The other factor is most of the cars in Shift are production sports cars not racing cars. While some of them seem to have rather oversteery default setups for production cars (which I like I must admit) you only have to watch Top Gear to realise most production sports cars can be driven with the tail out.
Cenotaph
October 7th, 2009 at 22:24
I took into consideration the fact that shift mostly has production cars. My initial impression was of dissapointment, but eventually i realised: “well, let’s drive the maserati mc12 around spa, it should be better” but the truth is the problems were still there.
DW
October 7th, 2009 at 23:30
You have to give it time. My initial impression of the physics was this is OK but is it actually better? But after a week of racing nothing but Shift and progressing to more powerful cars, I then tried GTR2 and it was only then that SHIFTS advance in physics and FFB hit me.
Of course I’m not saying Shift is perfect – far from it. The manic AI, the lack of qualifying, the lack of access to setups, and the short races do limit its appeal as a traditional sim.
I must try the MC12 – I didn’t realise it was there.
Hanzaleski
October 7th, 2009 at 23:45
About steering degrees in cockpit – “There are some limitations on what we can do here based around the driving and shifting animations for one thing” – Give us then oportunity to disable wheel in cockpit at all
carbonfibre
October 8th, 2009 at 00:05
Instead of just keeping my various tests to myself I decided to actually fraps this quickly and make a little vid, no point or purpose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlnxBddQC4g
I’ve got some drifting test footage too but nether of these experiments seem to be working that well sync wise.
Hanzaleski
October 8th, 2009 at 00:13
I must say that truth is something there ;o) Shift compared after first launch and right now are two very different things. Btw. I noticed that sometime throttle axis are not mapped correctly while I remapped it several times and drove then. Thats why it felt close like on/off for first time and whole smooth driving was not posssible even in a dream. This little stuff can harm first impressions
I propertly played with settings and now using Real Mod 2.0, carefully choosed customized XML from NoGrip forum, and it something way else, closer to rFactor, GTR. Still like was wrote above, physics in Shift is really more readable, but in same way more action-like. Thats why there is possible make unrealistic times with Zonda-R like 6:10 at Nord (compared to real 7:24) while with rFactor f.e. you will get very close times to real one. Still Shift is great for me as a fine step between action driving and simulation which produce more fun while lapping Nord. There is possible tweak physics a lot to individual preferences too. Simulation vs Reality is something for big topic. I prefer more challenging physics in rF, NkPro, LFS, GTR, but enjoying more friendly physic as well. There is only one big red point about that I am forced to play from hood, until someone remove wheel from cockpit. PS: Of course my heart still belongs to rFactor 
Howie47
October 8th, 2009 at 01:30
You can probably hack off 45 seconds from the Nord in a Sim driving in hood view. You can take allot more risk in a Sim, and hood view gives to perfect view of the road ahead. IF rFactor can’t deliver faster times then the real. It must mean it’s tire physics are wrong. That is the general consensus of it’s tires, and Why they’re changing it in rFactor2. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if a minute or more can be taken off. You can wreck you car all you want and just keep trying until you get it right.
f0xx
October 8th, 2009 at 01:34
Great video carbon… that Shift is looking damn good :D
traind
October 8th, 2009 at 02:32
traind
October 8th, 2009 at 02:38
Ian,
Thanks for your time in this thread and the excellent work of your team on both Shift and GTR2. A few questions:
Can you comment on your Ferrari Project status? Many of us are enjoying Shift a lot and hope to see more SMS work soon!
Is SMS big enough to work on multiple games at once?
Can you see SMS ever focusing on simulating a real life race series for a game in the future?
Have you tried iRacing? What do you think of their physics/handling model?
HeliosDoubleSix
October 8th, 2009 at 02:56
Hi Ian, Thanks so much for answering questions and being involved, and thanks to the whole team for making an amazing game.
I really hope you can release the tools for the game. And I hope you can continue work on updating this version and working on version 2 of the game.
Please bug fix issues with default wheel settings, FFB and steering lag from steering wheel devices, the in game HUD wheel does not match the input wheel with a delay and not animating to full 900 degrees, there is a bit of a lag in controlling the car too I feel.
Replays are messed up if you try to watch one half way through a race, and often after a race the replay has my car missing parts like the bonnet even as the race begins!
Id like game rewind like Forza/Grid/Dirt. I find it an invaluable tool for learning to drive fast as I can retake the same corner over and over and see what works and what doesn’t. Forza handle it in a nice way; I thought it would remove the thrill and tension of trying to win a race without error but it doesn’t do this if you record times differently when you rewind or skip parts of the track, in Forza you get ‘certified’ times when you race without rewinding or cheating on the track.
Please add the same level of immersion and wow to the damage system, it’s really weak and limp compared to games like Grid and Dirt. It’s a crucial part of the immersion missing, to feel real emotion you need real consequence to actions and a visceral authentic looking wreck of a car to sit back and go holy shit look what I did, that’s the consequence of my actions thank god it wasn’t real.. wow.
I’m sure you guys know you’ve done an great job, and I hope you know that if people are giving you such a hard time about the physics being 100% life like well it’s because we see such huge potential in the game and want it to go that extra mile.
I look forward to seeing night-time races, all weather snow and rain and other goodies I see lurking in the code for Shift.
I hope you can perfect and improve on the Sim aspects (qualifying, pit stops) without sacrifice and at the same time supply easier modes for newcomers and people playing with controllers. A tricky balance but it can be done if it’s exposed through a good interface. Theres no reason to leave out the more hardcore elements other than dedicating dev time elsewhere, you can put them in there and have a mass market appeal game at the same time as long as the interface/UI hides them away from casual gamers till they get more ‘pro’
I hope you can use your mass market appeal to fund and provide a realistic sim that immerses and is fun all round for a change.
I never thought Id’ ever be legitimately comparing a NFS branded game to PC sims, well done!
Please keep in touch with the community even if some people are wildly rude.
ForzaBarca88
October 8th, 2009 at 04:09
Thats rubbish, on a long track like Nordschleife you can probably shave off 12-20 secs in a sim due to the risk factor or lack of but thats it. I dont see how hoodview should dramatically change your laptimes if the driver knows the track well already. In any case a 45 sec difference is too big to pin on anything other than physics.
pez2k
October 8th, 2009 at 05:48
Unrelated to this driving realism discussion (because if it’s fun and I can tweak things I’m satisfied!):
I’ve been trying out custom gearbox files in Shift, partly for tinkering’s sake, and I’ve noticed that the setup menu seems to create new ratios between the ones in the file. Is this an intended behaviour to increase the range of adjustments available, or one of the aforementioned GUI bugs?
Andrew McP
October 8th, 2009 at 07:59
Agreed. I have found the level of debate here, and elsewhere, regarding Shift to be pretty depressing. We seem to be such a tribal bunch, always eager to start a fight.
All I know is that I’ve been enjoying racing games (and they’re all games at the end of the day) since the BBC Micro, all the way up to iRacing. And when I’m in Shift belting around The Ring in my Lotus or the Veyron, I’m having the time of my virtual life.
Shift is not perfect, and I hope more options (damage etc.) can be added either officially or unofficially. But then neither is any other racing game. I fully expected to hate Shift based on what I saw in preview vids, and nearly cancelled my pre-order. But I am so glad I didn’t, because I haven’t had this much fun on a virtual track in years. Mainly the Nordschleife, admittedly. :-)
Thanks to everyone on the team. I think you’ve done a remarkable job given the difficult task of trying to please both hard and softcore audiences. It was inevitable many people would be disappointed, but I for one am looking forward to seeing what else can be done with this engine.
Andrew McP
PS
captain_underpants
October 8th, 2009 at 09:30
I’d like to post a question to Ian.
I’m pretty happy with the physics, but it’s the AI that is giving me problems. They can’t seem to last past ten laps, especially in tight circuits. They drive like they’re not actually aware of other cars. eg. not looking ahead and ploughing at top speed into a pileup of cars, moving into the ‘race line’ on a straight, whether there’s another car there or not, rear-ending you when you’re braking for a turn, etc. And this is after installing the ‘Real 2.0b’ mod, which toned down the worst of their behaviour. I ended up putting damage onto ‘visual only’ just to give the AI a fighting chance to survive a full race.
OK, so my question is; are you aware of these problems, and are you likely to fix them? I’d just like an AI that can drive a consistent lap, especially if we’re after a ‘real racing experience’.
free2game365
October 8th, 2009 at 10:50
you do realize these times were all completed by drivers probably much more experienced than most of the people who post here right?
Crazy Bored
October 8th, 2009 at 13:22
Why is it that I can drive F1 in rF in cockpit or the tv camera view and run laps within tenths of each other? Sure you can see more around you but that doesn’t make your car accelerate faster and grip more.
The hood view may make learning a little bit better but if you actually know the track you gain nothing when it comes to speed.
That is the most insane conclusion I’ve ever seen about rF physics and it makes no sense at all. The reason the tire physics are being updated is because they lack key features that are needed to properly simulate tires. For example as far as I know there rFactor does not take into account the affects on the slip curve of having lontitudinal and lateral slip at the same time.
There are also issues with the load sensitivity of the tires, and the way that rF applies the effects of load on the slip curve is not perfectly accurate. It was described to me as horizontally stretching the whole curve, and then stretching the part of the curve past the peak again.
It’s also impossible as far as I know to set the tires so that you get a realistic 0-60 acceleration time and a 60-0 braking time at the same time. One of them must be compromised. If you get the 0-60 time perfect, you will have about 30% too short of a braking distance.
None of this has anything to do with going faster than real life. If those things and others are changed the result could be higher lap times… the result could be lower lap times if you simply increase the grip as much as you want. Lap times are almost useless to compare to real life anyway, with hundreds of flaws in the physics engine and the huge inaccuracies in tracks. In the F1 mod I race the best race lap at Suzuka (a pretty nice track in rF) was 1:33.4 and real life was 1:32.5. At singapore in rF, we ran 1:35 laps versus 1:48 in real life. The track was obviously way off, both in terms of grip as well as layout.
JAGUAR1977
October 8th, 2009 at 22:11
The R35 Nissan GT-R lapped the Nordschleife in 7.26, that’s one of the few production cars pushed to the absolute limit, in NFS Shift I did 7.14 with the more powerful and lighter R35 Nissan GT-R V-Spec.
The Pagani Zonda R is effectively a GT1 car, it should be much, much quicker than the R35 Nissan GT-R.
Recently a road legal Radical SR8LM lapped the Nordschleife in 6.48, this is region the Pagani Zonda R should be lapping in if pushed to the limit.
Gulyo
October 11th, 2009 at 18:55
Hi Ian,
First of all I love this game, this is my favourite now ( I have played and play now every important game ) almost perfect to me … but I would like you to improve the following things :
- DRIFT !!!!!!! … practically unusable … please reconsider it … good exsample could be a Grid
- online system … too poor and too simply … we need a “KICK” button against idiots :)
- more tracks … 18 tracks are nice but very few comparing to the competitors … more city tracks please and famous tracks like Le Mans, Suzuka, A1-Ring, Hungaroring :) ( I’m Hungarian :)) and so on … would be nice to convert from older NFS tracks … lot of folks like them …
- cars are OK but lot of people could accept Ferraris as an add-on …
Thanks for your patient,
Regards : Gulyo
rcgldr
October 12th, 2009 at 03:16
bug fix request – the advanced tuning only shows 6 gears, but the Veyron has 7 gears. I don’t see a way to adjust 7th gear on the Veyron.
car bouncing – system or controller sensitive? – looking at various videos, the amount of bouncing (with the same car) seems to vary. I’m wondering if the PC system, or the presence or absence of PhysX hardware, or the gaming controller, or …, is affecting the car bouncing issue.
Gulyo
October 18th, 2009 at 15:24
If you’d put only one track to the game should be this one : Stelvio Pass … it’s incredible … at least one part of it, please …
Gulyo
October 19th, 2009 at 11:06
This forum is dead
what a pity 
NVIDIAGeek
October 19th, 2009 at 19:19
^Yeah! Please answer us Ian
sediol
October 19th, 2009 at 23:57
Yep
Gulyo
October 20th, 2009 at 14:19
… and we would like to have rainy and night races …
f0xx
November 4th, 2009 at 17:17
PATCH news guys!!
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/333357.page
Next patch will fix ALOT of things :D