Need for Speed Racing Games

The forums have some new bugs introduced after the forum update. It would be appreciated if you did not jump to conclusions.

Sarcross wrote:The forums have some new bugs introduced after the forum update. It would be appreciated if you did not jump to conclusions.

I therefore apologize. I see the post now and it probably was a forum glitch! However it would not be the first time SOMEONE's post has been removed because the content of the post was not liked by someone with the ability to remove it. That However was in the past and I hope that it does not happen again.

As I said in that Post. If There is going to be a Shift #3, Then This Thred/Topic is the very FIRST thing that needs to be looked at.

Mainly the Ability to Kick and KEEP(Personal Banlist) Unwanted Troublemakers(Intentional Crashers, Bashers and demolition derby drivers) Out of the rooms that we make intended for clean racers.

Until that happens (and it probably never will) Going online will just be another waste of time and exorcise in frustraition.

Also, Whatever Happened to out of the BOX LAN Support for NFS titles???? We will also probably never see THAT again either.

i would like to give some suggestions for the game on the speedhunters pack ... i been playing with a lot of people online and everyone complaints about the drag light... you guys should of done reaction times just like real life... i would like you guys to do that in a update please...the treelight just like in real life.... pleaseeeeeeeeeee

I would really love to see more classic muscle cars and muscle type rims added to this game. some suggestions: plymouth hemi cuda (my dream car), chevy nova, amc amx, chevy camaro, chevy belair, chevy chevelle, chevy impala, amc javeline, pontiac gto, plymouth road runner, plymouth gtx and even just a factory spec mustang instead of the shelby one (all 50s, 60s and 70s of coarse) i own a 65 mustang . also, give the option of having a blower instead of turbo.
also there needs to be some type of collision detection system in multi player like in the manufacturer showdown races from career mode. maybe have a restricted speed for a certain time like the cut track penalties work. its gotten to the point where i dont play online anymore because of people who spin you out to get in the lead.

I'm not sure if this was already meantioned or not but here goes.

Something I wish was in the game was the the ability to podwercoat wheels whatever color you want.

Another suggestion is the ability to adjust volume control of the Exhaust, turbo, transmission, tires, ect. When I have the factory exhaust on it sounds the same as when i'm running a race-spec exhaust. . . just doesn't make sense to me.

Other than those two issuses, I love the game, couldn't be any better!

-thank you!

I can't believe that anyone is even CONTEMPLATING buying a third Shift title. This one is banjaxxed even worse than the first. How controller code can actually get WORSE in a sequel is beyond me. How EA can't be bothered to pay the game developer to fix said controller lag and handling issues is beyond me. How they expect anyone to pony up more money for yet another sequel, once we all know that the game will NOT be patched to function acceptably even if it has fatal flaws is beyond me.

And I simply fail to understand why simple online filters are described as the kiss of death when the evidence of GT5's tremendous success proves them totally wrong... It is, in fact, the filters for online aids, and the ability for room hosts to kick disruptive drivers, that is at the very CORE of that game's success. It certainly isn't as a result of the AI's ability, that's for sure!

I am afraid that S2U is my last Shift. Unless EA do a total 180º, anyway. And I will be finding that out by renting the title (or borrowing some fool's!), not pre-ordering it.

Improvements? First get rid of the AI that runs into you on purpose, second make the cars Handle somewhat like real cars do, three maybe make it so you know what Level of car is needed for a certain series of races?

TL;DR: AI needs an easier easy mode. Turning off best line/assists for realism makes game impossibly hard even after hours of practice on easy difficulty. Do I really suck so much, or is the AI overtuned on easy? Try turning off all assists/best line and race at night to find out.

Disclaimer: I don't play racing/driving games very often, so I'm not a hardcore driving gamer, just a casual player. However, I have played several other driving games on consoles, namely the Gran Turismo and Forza series. Here's what I've noticed almost immediately upon playing NFS Shift 2 Unleashed.

First off, the in-game graphics are absolutely fantastic.
Second, the sounds are totally immersive and amazing.
Thirdly, the unskippable tutorial videos are irritating and long, especially if you've watched a friend play it before.

The first day I got the game, I played for 3 hours before realizing that it is impossible to play the game without all possible assists using a keyboard. Even with the assists, it's nearly impossible. I wound up raging at my computer several times before quitting the game for the evening in disgust. The end result of this is that I bought a $130 Logitech Driving Force GT wheel, which, I might add, is non-returnable.

The second day of playing NFS 2 Unleashed, I spent about an hour getting the wheel settings correct; playing time attack races just to test the settings...since it appears that there's no option to simply go out on a track for practice. For me, I felt it best to have all the sensitivity settings to 100% and all the thresholds at 0%. All the motions I made on the wheel were instantly and perfectly replicated by the driver in the cockpit view with zero latency. It was kind of creepy actually...it felt like I had four hands, two wearing gloves on a wheel just above the one directly in front of me.

After getting the wheel settings correct I went and tried some of the tuning settings, testing them on various tracks. The car I was driving handled remarkably realistically. I found that turning down the tire pressure from 55 to 45 or so made the tires much stickier around curves, and that setting the maximum turning angle from 20 to 35 makes the car much easier to maneuver around tight turns. Taking a turn too quickly and you lose traction very easily. It takes several dozen trips around a track before you get a feel for the sorts of speeds that you can safely achieve. Eventually I actually felt comfortable enough on several of them to turn off all the assists and the best line and all the HUD stuff and simply go driving. As far as driving simulation goes, I was EXTREMELY impressed at how realistic the game was up to this point. I did several time attack quick races and had an enormous amount of fun with the first car I got...Alfa Romeo Giuletta QV. At that point, I felt like I'd be up to the challenge of playing a bit of the actual campaign.

I went and bought a few upgrades for the car: best tires, suspension, brake upgrades, etc. Everything I could possibly put on it for better traction and handling. The class D races were a joke on normal difficulty. Left all the competition in the dust and kept them there the whole race. Once I felt like I'd had sufficient experience and money, I went and bought a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and got all the possible handling mods, then got turbo just for kicks. I barely managed to keep it out of B class after all the upgrades I got for it.

Class C races were...difficult. Even with a fully modded car that's got one of the fastest accelerations in the C class bracket AND all the possible mods, the cars ahead of me always managed to pace me in acceleration, and top end speed. After winding up last place several times, I set the difficulty to easy. Even on easy I almost never got past 5th place. I kept getting frustrated as hell at how easily the AI left me in the dust, and never made any mistakes themselves.

Many times the opposing cars would take the inside path of a curve going substantially faster than me while I was barely staying on the tarmac. Physics says that the tighter the curve and the greater the speed, the greater the centrifugal force. By all rights they should have spun out if I was barely managing to maintain traction with a car upgraded to near the maximum limit for that racing bracket, best tires, suspension, weight reductions, etc. going at a slower speed. After over 2 hours of racing, never managing to get higher than 5th, I got so angry I went and turned back on the "best line". So much for realism. I was extremely disappointed.

After turning on the "best line", I wound up in 1st place in several races. I've seen the AI take impossibly sharp turns at rediculous speeds if I'm not in the "best line", regardless of what car they're in. On the other hand, you can drive like a Sunday driver and as long as you're in the best line and doing decent speeds, they won't pass you, thought they'll ride your * and occasionally kiss your bumper if you're going too slow around a turn. Unfortunately, if they kiss your bumper, you spin out and they get right back on the track and keep going. If you kiss their bumper, you spin out and they get right back on track and keep going. I might be wrong, but that's my overall impression. With "best line" on, you simply follow the dotted green line to the finish line for a win.

Today's the third day. I've spent probably close to 8 hours driving today practicing on various tracks. The result is still the same: if I turn on the best line, I get an easy win. If I don't, I lose usually in 8th place. I'm starting to think that I really do suck at judging optimal cornering speeds...but then I keep seeing opponents go racing past me on the inside of a turn when I'm barely keeping traction...and I wonder...

Here's my recommendation for "Shift 2 Unleashed Improvements":

1) Have the opposing cars follow the same physics modelling that the player's car has, if they aren't already.

Reason: The AI was continually pulling some impossibly tight turns at high speeds. After I turned on the "best line" and started following it, they stopped doing this, so I figure either the AI is programmed to simply pass you if you're not following it, or the best line really is that much better and the AI knows exactly where it is at all times and can always follow it even on easy difficulty. Please, either fix the difficulty on easy so the AI doesn't always follow the best line, or make the opponent obey physics.

2) Have the opposing cars use noticeably different top speeds/accelerations on a per car basis rather than being relative to player's speed.

Reason: The opponents always felt completely uniform except the model. Unless something drastic occurred (collision), they always kept the same order. I'm not sure if this was a problem with not modelling the handling/acceleration/top speed stats individually for the cars, or because the AI controlling them was too set on following the "best line" and not passing other cars following it.

3) (The big one) Have the AI actually behave like a human on easy mode, such as not following the "best line", taking turns too quickly and spinning out, breaking before the last possible moment to decelerate, and driving more cautiously ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT.

Reason: If you play this game without the "best line" on, it's HARD, even on easy difficulty. It's nearly impossible at night unless you know the track extremely well. It literally feels like I'm driving against a bunch of robots that know exactly what the top speed is on any given stretch of track and can see in the dark.

Has it occurred to you to try to LEARN the 'best line' rather than turn it on as an unrealistic aid?

And then have you gone out in time trial mode, and then tried to best your 'best line' times? And then, having perhaps found a line that IS faster than the so-called 'best line', are the AI then beating you handily where they weren't when you were on the 'best line'?

I have a feeling that, if you go through those steps, you will find yourself less challenged by the AI.

You describe yourself as a 'casual' player. But you have to realize that, to shave a half a second off a lap takes time and practice. Yes, turning on and following slavishly the 'best line' might give you an edge over the AI, but there IS another level to which you can take it...

Mind you, don't forget, the AI are adaptive (so we are told!). Once you ramp down your lap times, they are going to get faster too. So the cycle begins again!

TBH, my advice to you is to only race humans. If you can't find a good room on S2U, find one in GT5 (plenty there). Nothing makes you work harder to improve your speed than the satisfaction of beating a REAL person rather than a piece of code.

So, I've spent the last week or so playing Shift 2. This weekend I played Forza 4 at a friends place for a few hours. I haven't changed my opinion.

Even after going around a track for a good 4 hours getting a feel for it, the AI can still beat you pretty easily on EASY difficulty in Shift 2, unless you're driving like a * and forcing them off the track around corners right off the starting line, then being aggressive about keeping them behind you. And the AI will still try to bump you out of the way especially around corners. Driving like that in real life will get you disqualified, banned, or worse. I don't like playing bumper cars cause the AI is TOO adaptive. It's just straight up not easy on EASY difficulty. That's my main complaint.

At least on easy difficulty in Forza you won't have the AI riding your * and trying to bump you out of the way around a corner (unless you do that to them). If you've gone around a track a few hours in Forza 4 and have a good feel for the track, the AI doesn't really stand a chance against you, and you don't need to drive like a douche to win.

Just not true at all IMO, esp the first half of the game. If you're having that much trouble, you either don't have the cars upgraded and tuned well, are off on your universal settings, or are using a car that doesn't fit your driving style well. That or you just aren't used to race games with SIM-like handling. I had to do a considerable amount of adapting to the new handling vs Shift 1, and employed steering assist because of it, but even on a mere KB I've been able to win all but the Drift events on Med AI, with no driving line enabled and full damage on.

The AI are considerably less aggressive than in Shift 1. Yes, they will at times try to bump you even if just driving close without contact, but it's not too hard once you pick the right car, dial it in well, get to know the tracks well, and be patient and pick wide berth passing spots, to get ahead, then stay ahead. I have found that even in some events where the AI are pretty fast compared to other events, there's typically a car, class and performance level that will make it easier to stay fast enough to beat them.

My main complaints with the game are inconsistency in events, AI, and cars. It's far more noticeable than the scant few times I notice steering assist feeling like it's fighting me or the occasional AI rage. I can deal with having to use steering assist, after all, I am just using KB. Where the inconsistencies come into play is my having to use select cars and upgrades to stay competitive without the AI being comparatively too fast. It makes the game more repetitive. I also, like many, don't like the default car settings, esp since you cannot tune loaner cars at all. Perhaps one of the most annoying things about the game.

I fully understand the game is geared toward SIM-like driving and benefits wheels though, so I do expect some tradeoffs on KB. It's just that Shift 2 was more adaptable to a wider range of devices. The inconsistency of AI in some ways is inexcusable though. They are pretty good at driving some of the harder tracks like Suzuka and Nords, yet incompetent at easy ones like Pergusa and too many others to list. It's actually their incompetency on quite a few tracks that bothers me more than the few they are good at. It means with any one AI difficulty setting you inevitably end up with many events being too easy, yet a few being pretty hard, esp if you don't select a specific car and performance rating that is more competitive to the AI.

That brings me to my last and one of my biggest complaints now that I know the game pretty well. While the choosing of a car and performance rating which is more competitive to the AI in a given event does help on harder races, it makes it all the more obvious the game lacks balance in some key areas. At one point though loving finding a way to finally win some of the tougher Nords races, I found myself calling the game NFS Nissan, because clearly some of the Nissan cars are comparatively more competitive speed wise with the AI than others are.

So while I've found ways to win races in this game, I've also developed a love/hate relationship with it due to the methods required to do so. I don't see this as being just a "because you use a KB" thing either. Clearly there are players with various skill levels on pads and wheels too, which have the same problems. The fact is, even if one plays this game on a nice wheel, those inconsistencies would still be there. Indeed the easier races would be even easier, and the car/performance crutch even more noticeable.

It's still a fun game, and IMO has even more potential than Shift 1. IMO the ideal Shift would be combining the best of both Shift 1 & 2. The wide range device/player adaptability of Shift 1, the tracks, night and endurance races of Shift 2, and even less AI aggression and an Elite mode for Shift 3 where the handling is like in Shift 2. It sounds like there won't be a Shift 3 since SMS pulled out though, and if there is, it probably won't even be as good as the first two.

ilovekasumin4sud wrote:The handling of SHIFT 2 is really better than SHIFT 1, but nothing like PC SIM RACER, and AI is good, but sometimes they also hit me for no reason.....

are u crazy the handling is worst i barely hit the gas on a stock car and its spinning around

ilovekasumin4sud wrote:The handling of SHIFT 2 is really better than SHIFT 1, but nothing like PC SIM RACER, and AI is good, but sometimes they also hit me for no reason.....

are you nuts i barely touch the gas in shift 2 and the car whips around and thats all stock

edit:opps didnt realized i already answered to thits earlier this month

BldAgl wrote:...are you nuts i barely touch the gas in shift 2 and the car whips around and thats all stock...

Have you even bothered tuning the cars? Most know that stock settings are far from ideal.

this game is AMAZZZINNNGGG. it has terrific graphics and its a gr8 game, the only thing that kinda irritates me is the lack of paint colors and stuff. otherwise, the game is FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 no other bad things in this game, xcept the irritating AL CARS! THEY MAKE ME SO MAD LOL