Need for Speed Racing Games

Is the oversteer/sliding issue being looked into?

is there any drift tips you guys can suggest for nfs shift for psp? im having a hard time with the drifting events, help!!!

First of all I'd like to say that I stumbled across this thread by accident as I've been posting in the technical discussion thread which is surely where this should be anyway?

Secondly, I'd like to report that the game works perfectly for me on Windows 7 RC 64-bit which I dual-boot with Windows Vista SP2 64-bit but doesn't work on the other operating system at all. It will load to the main menu fine and show the car background and options too but as soon as I start a race the game crashes back to the desktop with a faulting application shift.exe error. I've tried everything to resolve this error including updating the drivers, reinstalling the game, deleting the save folder, minimising the number of background tasks from 75 to 40, I've even tried a NoDVD hack but nothing will get the game working under Vista for me.

I have 46 other games that work under Vista and only one that doesn't, SHIFT, necessitating me booting into an incomplete operating system in order to play it. I'm using pretty much the same drivers in both operating systems - 190.62 WHQL graphics drivers, 9.09.0914 PhysX drivers, 9.1.1.1020 WHQL chipset drivers, DirectX (August 2009) redistributable, same sound drivers, etc. but it works in one but not the other.

Considering the number of complaints about the game not working properly, particularly those people with ATI graphics cards, I'd like to know why the game was released in this state? Seems to me that the PC version should have been delayed for further testing, especially on 64-bit hardware and/or ATI graphics cards.

I would like to thank the team for their response so far, but we have noticed many other problems. After a quick search I couldn't find mention of them so seeing as a representative is reading this thread I will list them here:

(all relate to PS3 but maybe apply to other platforms too)

1) In online multiplayer, cannot connect more than 2 PS3's from the same broadband connection to race together without connections consistently dropping out or additional players not being able to join the lobby (happens in both private and public lobbies).

We used to do this all the time with other games (e.g. Grid) and have up to 6 PS3s all connecting for some multiplayer action but Shift seems to not allow more than 4 at once from the same IP address and even then it will rarely start the race without someone being dropped from the lobby before the race starts. Other times, invites will be sent to people but the last person to sign into EA and Playstation Network will not be able to join the lobby (error message: room no longer available). Seeing as an offline LAN multiplayer mode is not included, this is a total pain and means we can't play with friends anymore unless we are in seperate houses.

2) I think this one has been mentioned but Lobby Locking is frustrating. There is not much time to send invites and people to join the game, decide on a car which we should all use and select the car before the lobby locks. Then you can't even leave the lobby so you could end up in a race with a totally inferior car just because you didn't have time. This affects your stats (wins/losses). What benefit or purpose does the lobby locking have? I can't think of one.

3) Why when you search for a custom game does it just throw you into whichever one it chooses? I want to see a list and find the game that my friends are in, or one with settings that sound interesting. I don't want to just race in whatever lobby the game chooses for me after supplying VERY limited search criteria!

4) Loading a race into multiplayer and the game just crashes for everyone. Have to go into Playstation XMB and quit the game to reset.

5) Changing an online lobby from race to time attack or vice versa - this needs to be an option without having to quit the lobby and create a new one.

6) Once you have voted to start a race, can you take away your vote? You should be able to in case you need to change your mind for any reason but I haven't tested this properly.

7) You should be able to change the time before a race starts otherwise there is not enough time for people to join and choose cars (similar to point 2 above)

We love this game but it is just not an option for us to play at the moment due to some poor design decisions/flaws. When you eventually get into a race with some friends I think it is better than any other racing game out there. Please fix these issues and let us play it properly!

Just a thought but with the oversteering sliding issue, could it be that the actual traction control isnt working??
There appears to be no difference in handling.

MAIN.VancouverBlade wrote:So as some advance warning: any fix or update won't be released immediately; not because we don't want but because these things take time. We have to investigate the issues, figure out what's causing them and then create the patch. Once this has been created it has to go to Sony/Microsoft for testing. This process normally takes a week to ten days and then once they've approved the fix is pushed live.

As soon as I get more news I'll make sure to update this thread.

This is why NFS:SHIFT should have been a holiday release instead of a late summer release. When devs don't properly take the time to debug their software, this is what happens.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/needforspeedshift

85% on metacritic from professional reviewers
51% on metacritic from users who actually played the game on the PC

You can say that the game's intention is to be an arcade type racer, but the entire format of the game screams sim. The physics are terrible and feels like some illegitimate love-child of arcade and sim with some Initial D thrown in due to the constant oversteer! I can compare this game to the Dallas Cowboys, it has a lot of fancy things going on that catches your attention, but doesn't deliver in the end. The game just isn't cohesive. It doesn't flow.

The AI is also terrible. The lower difficulties have them making weird moves such as completely stopping in a corner, or not braking for a corner at all and driving straight into a wall. On the harder difficulty, you are punished if you even so much as slide the back-end for a millisecond, losing the race. I love racing games, but this just doesn't sing to me. It has no personality of its own. The game is mooching off of everyone else's mojo and it shows in the final product.

I think you need to take your dev team and have a field trip to Codemasters, Polyphony Digital and Turn10. Be sure to take plenty of notes.

Take it from this racing die-hard, you folks need to go back to the drawing board.

VancouverBlade,
Could you make sure that the development team (or whomever it may concern) read and follow up with a solution regarding the use of CPU physx in Shift and how it impacts performance on none nvidia hardware? I posted this additional information while you were online but didn't get a reply back from you like I did regarding the letter said to have been sent to your team from AMD. I think we can agree that we all want a solution to these problems and do hope that the next patch release clearly shows that Shift is optimize to work on AMD hardware. If that means that physx is removed from Shift I hope that decision is made swiftly so that it doesn't delay an eta for this patch.

cem_ea_id.SneakyGunman wrote:VancouverBlade,

Could you also forward this information I found about CPU physx? The link is found at the bottom of this post. The information found within that link is the last paragraph at the bottom of that page. The link below is regarding a review of another game. However, since Shift also uses physx I like the development team to offer a response to what a reviewer found about Physx and none nvidia hardware.
-Is this the case in Shift?
-If there are any problems with Physx and none nvidia hardware will it be fixed in the next patch?




http://techreport.com/articles.x/17618/13

p4l1ndr0m3 ... unfortunately, your spot on

another problem ive been having is when playing a online game and the host maybe dosent have the game loaded properly, maybe have a system made so people can get out of the loading screen rather than having to do ctrl, alt delete all the time cause im finding thats damn annoying when it happens

cem_ea_id.YodaStar wrote:

MAIN.VancouverBlade wrote:So as some advance warning: any fix or update won't be released immediately; not because we don't want but because these things take time. We have to investigate the issues, figure out what's causing them and then create the patch. Once this has been created it has to go to Sony/Microsoft for testing. This process normally takes a week to ten days and then once they've approved the fix is pushed live.

As soon as I get more news I'll make sure to update this thread.

This people THIS. Read it carefully to understand the complexity behind game development and bug testing before whining.

People ar'nt whining their saying what should be said, Fact is this game should not of been released with all the faults. It needs thiskind of responce to make games better.

Very true. This isn't a budget $15 game. I payed $50 (pc) for this game and expect it to play as it should. How half these issues got past beta testing is a wonder. I won't be purchasing any more EA games on any platform anytime soon.

Being a huge fan of GT Legends and GTR2 I can't believe SMS would even allow the game in this state.

xbox.Doug7777 wrote:People ar'nt whining their saying what should be said, Fact is this game should not of been released with all the faults.

Agree, but it is just the way things are ATM, bought Anno 1404 3months ago and is unplayable due to memory leaks & still no patch in sight...
but here one already got a mouse & lanpatch for PC & where do you find active Dev's support in fora nowady's ???

How about problem of TimeAttack on Nordschleife ?

To further add that physx should be removed from this game the modding community believes that Shift is similar physics as GMotor2 which does not use physx. You can read the post below:
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=849670&postcount=4


As a matter of fact, one modder was able to use Shift's physic (without physx) and use it in GTR2 using the Aston DB9 with Pzero tires. You can read the post below:
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=850659&postcount=223


The modder further believes that SHIFT is GMotor2 based. The physics can be inserted into GTR2 with very minor tweaking again without the use of Physx. You can read the post below:
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=852174&postcount=10


For those wondering what GMotor2 engine is can click on the link below for a general idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDT_Racing_Simulations


Another modder believes that the engined used is called "gecko" and does have a full physic engine. And says he found controller lag defined in every car configuration file. You can read everything he has to say about it in the link below:
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=849552&postcount=42


So again, Physx should be removed from the game.

cem_ea_id.SneakyGunman wrote:VancouverBlade,
Could you make sure that the development team (or whomever it may concern) read and follow up with a solution regarding the use of CPU physx in Shift and how it impacts performance on none nvidia hardware? I posted this additional information while you were online but didn't get a reply back from you like I did regarding the letter said to have been sent to your team from AMD. I think we can agree that we all want a solution to these problems and do hope that the next patch release clearly shows that Shift is optimize to work on AMD hardware. If that means that physx is removed from Shift I hope that decision is made swiftly so that it doesn't delay an eta for this patch.

cem_ea_id.SneakyGunman wrote:VancouverBlade,

Could you also forward this information I found about CPU physx? The link is found at the bottom of this post. The information found within that link is the last paragraph at the bottom of that page. The link below is regarding a review of another game. However, since Shift also uses physx I like the development team to offer a response to what a reviewer found about Physx and none nvidia hardware.
-Is this the case in Shift?
-If there are any problems with Physx and none nvidia hardware will it be fixed in the next patch?




http://techreport.com/articles.x/17618/13

It's nice to see the developers and publisher have recognised what needs to be done. On the other hand, it should never have got to this in the first place.

The tuning fix doesn't work for me. My once fast Murcialago is now a dog to drive. I made the mistake of tuning it all wrong and now I can not get the default settings back. It shows as the default settings, but trust me, they are not. It's got an uber slow top end, my Focus can go faster. It's screwed for good. I've tried everything. I spent 3 hours designing the vinyls, so selling it and re-buying doesn't appeal to me.

I've noticed another bug, dunno whether this one has been mentioned; when taking part in the endurance race at Spa or Nordschleife, it's like driving in slow motion. The frame rate is fine and the speedo reads the correct speed but it looks like you are driving through custard... Really sloooooowly....

Still, the most imperetive of all fixes has got to be the awful handling (bouncing) in some events and some cars and the fact that cars go flying when touched by another car. So frustrating online... First corner, get touched from behind (oo-er) take off and fly into a barrier, race over. OOOO IT MAKES ME MAD!

Ta.