It just arrived from UPS... I'll let you guys know what I think in a little bit.

 

Looking forward to your impressions. I have heard nothing but great things about it (from fellow GT fans as well).

From what I gather, the sense of speed and engine sounds are bar none, making it one of the most immersive racers to date.

 

I've been thinking about going to Target and picking it up after work... It looks like it's good brainless fun, without any of the underbody lights and all that shit. Something you can get into for a night and play it weeks later. I am not a serious gamer, but I'll probably get into Forza3 and GT5.

 

There is a promotion to get a free ECA membership (which gets you 10% off all game software purchases at Amazon) for a year, plus it's only $57 there.

 

OK so here are my impressions:

1) The game is fun. That's the bottom line with video games, and this game is fun.

2) The graphics/realism are NOWHERE near Gran Turismo (I don't have enough experience w/Forza to comment). The graphics are good, but nothing close to the detail that GT5:P has.

3) The race leveling system is good - though it does throw you in the deep end early!

4) The cars for each tier are interesting. I started with a VW Scirocco, now I have a sick S4.

5) One of my favorite things: You get full value if you sell a car back. This includes all the mods. I checked on my S4 and I would get $105,000 towards my next car.

6) Some sick cars: CCR-X, Veyron, Zonda R, etc. Also, the "normal" cars are good. Finally, for us Porsche fans, there is the Cayman, GT3 RS, GT2, and Carrera GT.

Overall it's pretty good. If I didn't have to work tomorrow, I'd still be playing. The physics take a little while to get used to after GT5, but at least they are consistent. I do love the controllable drifts - nothing beats hanging the tail out through entire corners!

If you are a HARDCORE sim guy, you won't like this game. However, I'm a pretty big stickler for detail, and there's enough here to keep me entertained. Lots of good tracks ('Ring, Spa, etc.) to unlock later, so I'll be interested for a while.

Overall I give it 8 out of 10 (esp. when you consider previous NFS titles).

 

Good review Chris, sounds like I'll have to check it out... So the cars are tunable? Can you put turbos/superchargers on NA cars, or is it mostly bolt on upgrades? NOS?

 

Pretty good review by IGN, surprised it got a 9.0!!

YouTube - Need for Speed Shift Review

 

All the cars are tunable - including spring rates, anti-roll bars, etc. It's very technical. All the upgrades are staged, too. So far, it's pretty good. I would advise adjusting the steering input to slow, otherwise the cars are VERY twitchy.

Now I've got a matte black Cayman S with 553hp (turbo'ed). It's pretty sick.

One more pet peeve: load times are eternal. That's pretty lame when games have content d/l'ed to the HD first.

 

Haha, I think that's always been the case with the NFS series, never made any sense to me either... I remember the first one and second, the game would load for what seemed like 2 minutes.

Thanks again for the review, so you definitely think I'll enjoy it? I just like jumping into something and having fun to relieve stress, something I can't do with more serious games like Gran Turismo and Forza.

 

I think I just might have to get this...