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It seems there is little to no ‘floating’ or ‘hovercraft effect’ that plagues games with inferior physics model, I think the way the car breaks away on Brand’s elevation changes is interesting in particular. Also, it’s clear you have to use brakes in this game! The high speed blur… I’m not sure if I like it, but maybe it can make concentrating on looking far ahead easier.
Now the bad stuff.
1. JESUS CHRIST, can’t the game be presented by someone with even the most basic driving skills?
2. The second track is recycled from NFS Pro Street. I’m already annoyed by the fact EA recycles some things (Camaro SS model for example) from games made YEARS ago (NFS Most Wanted). I swear, if I see the same Camaro (just give us the Z28, RS, or a Yenko) in Shift, I’ll start to scream.

Looks pretty cool, not so sure about physics…..
Looking forward to it though, looks like fun and the special effects are looking nice.

“1. JESUS CHRIST, can’t the game be presented by someone with even the most basic driving skills?”

That made me laugh out loud big time. However, I did notice that the guy in the Porsche was wrenching the car in a manner that did demonstrate the physics a little better than if someone had been s5taying within the limits of adhesion. I really think that if this was indeed with all assists on, that this game might not be half bad with them turned off.

I know, I know, I’ve been talkin MAD sht about this game lately, I’m a pretty vocal soap box kinda guy. But it was only because I knew Ian Bell was lying and making bogus promises. However, as in the last shift update, I admit that I stand slightly corrected about my original opinion on this game. It looks like it will be decent, BUT, not “the most realistic sim ever made”, as Ian put it.

Looks and sounds (other than the annoying transmission whine) impressive so far. The physics look decent enough if I’m right in guessing that’s the arcade difficulty. The Zonda did seem a tad floaty at times, although again that’s probably down to the assists. Brands looked great, but I’m not liking the look of the Tokyo track at all.

All in all, I’m looking foward to trying out the demo when it’s released and seeing how Shift handles for myself. Seeing Brands though got me thinking about this phantom Ferrari title, and I’d be willing to bet that a good number of Shift’s tracks are shared between the games. Even if EA ends up publishing the Ferrari title too I can’t see them being very happy about GTL/GTR2-style shared assets. And they’d be even less happy if another publisher picked it up instead.

xilix – Ian Bell and pure hype BS go hand in hand I’m afraid. It’s always been that way. Doesn’t stop that fact that he’s been responsible for some damn good games though.

From these videos it’s definitely much more sim than arcade. The car dynamics, G-force simulation, understeer-oversteer, and the overall behavior of the car, are very realistic.
Let’s see what additional sim features they’ll add to the game, as tyre degradation, pitstops, day/night, etc.

Overall I am pleased with what I see – the physics seem decent, the gameplay is good, the graphics are awesome. It could be a very nice sim, or at least a fun racing game.

Dunno, how i see the car “driving” because imo it looks like it’s floating on the track…
Looks like it’s the handling of GRID…

My hopes aren’t that high anymore.

And i hear no difference between exterior and interior sounds, well at least not at the porsche movie…

In fact it looked quite good. Definetly better than I expected. It might be cool if it have decent physics – even if the rest of the game is arcade.

Good videos: it’s good to see that you do need to use brakes. I also like the sound when Porsche passes under the tunnel in the second video. Motion blur is also less than expected, at least for me: it seems that it may become a fun game!

The Porsche video was the more interesting, I think the guy actually did a good job (do these people realise they are the initial demonstrators for the masses on the internets?)
He showed us acceleration from standing on two occasions – both which are horribly wrong in GRID but look much better in SHIFT. The only comments I can give to the Zonda video is about the blatant use of GTR2 transwhine, but I still cant gather enough about the physics.

The thing you’ve got to look out for is the difference between real physics and manufactured effects which look good on video, both are difficult to tell unless you have control.

E.g. We saw things like the RWD Zonda stepping out under throttle all the time. – Looks a bit manufactured to me, like the dev’s watched a episode of TopGear and said our Zonda needs to mimic this cars ‘spoken of’ behaviour in faith that the general public will agree that it’s realistic because it was stated so by other sources. So the physical effect would exist, but in some sort of scripted form so it would be easy to control/recover from (if you were an arcade racer not used to such things)

Just my two cents, looking forward to the demo!
The real great thing about EA is there’s always lots of news coverage to talk about.

P.S. I don’t think they have recorded/completed outside engine sounds yet, so no worries.

It looks closer to GTR2 than Grid, and these guys were obviously using the full compliment of driving aids as they even used the driving line, yet were still all over the place, oversteering, understeering and missing their braking points.

Why the complaints about transmission whine? All competition transmissions (sequental, dog-box and/or with straight cut gears) are loud as hell.

Well personally after 2 and a bit years now, you’d think we would have moved on. New recordings, better more unpredictable integration methods perhaps. I’m a huge fan of transmission whine as part of my ultimate sound experience but when the same sound is in every car in every sim, the brain becomes extremely accustomed and it’s very irritating. There’s been a few alterations over time but it’s still programmed exactly the same at a constant volume, looping over and over no matter what.

I dunno, maybe I’m just one of those mental audiophiles, and I thought EA would do better with their crazy good library of sounds, rather than just porting over.

I think it apears these videos are showing someone using a controller and not a wheel which would explain the very jerky steering, acceleration and braking.

overall i thinkt he game looks not bad… not sure if it is just me… but i’m not relaly enjoying the 2nd track… it feels… very arcade to me… all fast turns… not much variations… but that’s just me i guess…

i am not sure if i’m enjoying the blurring effects… especially when it also blurs the mirrors… so when u’re going fast… u don’t seem to be able to look at behind u that well…

still looking forward to it tho~

These videos lay to rest the question about this being Sim or strictly Arcade. They definitely drive Sim like. I’d say those were in full Sim mode. But only when we get the Demo will we know for sure. Is this the only new Sim we have to look forward too this year? Well at least one with the latest game engine abilities. Might just tie us over until Rfactor2. But I probably won’t buy untill the price comes down to at least 40USD. Heads up EA!

The Porsche video definately shows the game in a better light. Especially as the Ai is obviously set to a higher level than the Zonda Vid. Physics look decent, but no video can give a proper impression without actually driving it for ourselves.

I’ll be looking forward to trying the Demo when it’s out.

Looks better than I’ve expected! The graphics are just way beyond any of the current sim and it really gives the immersion of speed!

With that said it doesn’t mean I´m an arcad racer it’s just that with for example RACE or GTR tha cars feels a bit slower compared to those vids. I acctually timed the zonda and got the tim 1:32.xx. Don’t know if that´s either good or bad for the zonda but it seems a little bit too fast if you campare to the track record 1:09 by Nigel Mansell. If you drive that car properly you would probably come down to 1:15 so it’s probably faster than in reality.It might not be the best sim but to me it looks fair enough!

And oh boy have I’ve been waiting for a good looking sim!

anyhow i was wondering if there is any word out yet when the demo will be released?

/Regards Fredik

well graphics/sound wise it shits on anything simwise we can play now off course.

physics seems pretty accurate too as far as I can tell.

now the only thing this game is need to be is moddable!

Hehe, funny how everyone has different, positive things to say about it now
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hmm… wonder if this game has flag rules… coz the car crashed liek that but i see no yellow…

I think they exaggerated the speed sensation.

Jos:
well graphics/sound wise it shits on anything simwise we can play now off course.
physics seems pretty accurate too as far as I can tell.
now the only thing this game is need to be is moddable!

I consider SimBin models much better in terms of rendering. The difference is made in effects. So, does blur turn you on? I prefer better physics then racing with impressions of sensation.
So now its a Sim for you guys ? Looks like ProStreet all over again, with some changes.
Strip down the effects and you get Need For Speed:Hot Pursuit

Im not a fan of blur and certainly not a fan blooming :P

however I do like real-time shadows on the track and sun reflecting on it and some nice trees that are not cutout board.

t’s hard to tell anything about graphics yet beyond those trees and sun reflecting. The color gamma and overall visual sensation are very unnatural on those videos captured most probably from strongly wrong colored and over-contrasted typical modern display. I do hope it would looks much better if would be captured directly from a cable and seen on a color calibrated monitor. Still images look better at least. Demonstrating those hand captured videos does rather negative advertisement imo. Looking forward for a real gameplay video and hope it will be no blur option in the game.
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Here’s an excerpt of Gamespot’s NFS: Shift “Hands On” from EA recent press event in San Francisco:

“Compare that to the other station running the game, which featured a race full of 1970s-model Nissan Skylines running a street race in Tokyo. In contrast to the McLaren race at Willow Springs, nearly every assist seemed to be toggled off in this version of the game, resulting in a Need for Speed game that felt completely unlike any other, save maybe for the classic Porsche Unleashed. Here was a car that was slow off the line, loose in the corners, prone to drift at the drop of a hat, and completely uninterested in making up for your driving mistakes should you lose momentum through a turn. Here, too, were unforgiving and demanding race opponents, not at all afraid of bullying you in corners or ashamed of leaving you in the dust if you couldn’t keep up. This was about as far from traditional rubber-band Need for Speed-style racing as can be imagined, and it felt very good, even if we did get our proverbial butts handed to us.”

A link to the full preview: http://www.gamespot.com/events/ea2009/story.html?sid=6208604

A video interview with Jesse Abney, where he confirms the damage will have impact on the performance of the cars: http://www.gamespot.com/events/ea2009/video.html?sid=6208580