I love that you mentioned how Shift emphasized the _violence_ of motorsport. No simcade racer has come even close to the pair in terms of intensity imho.
it is the only game that explores such aspect, all racing games focus on the car and the environment where it races, Shift 1 and 2 focuses on what the driver experience on a race.
I love how a 'motorsport racing game' has a challenge for a star where you have to spin out half of the field... as you do in motorsport! Once again another great vid mans!
I see that some ridiculous goals was a thing before Project Cars 3, Slightly said "Thought having to spin half the field was crazy? Try going 170MPH at Laguna Seca in a GT4 car!"
@@garthhancock3373 Because fast paced and unrealistic arcade racers simply don't work with cockpit view. Out of all the NFS games, the only ones that could maybe pull it off are the Run and Pro Street.
I think what I love about the shift games compared to other motorsport games is that it captures the gritiness of motorsport especially in the cockpit and with the helmet cam in shift 2. Motorsport can be just as intense as racing on the streets
It's kinda funny how the Shift games are like a spiritual successor/evolution of ProStreet while Shift 1 on PSP is a different game but directly connects itself with ProStreet.
The reason many people hate this game, was never understood until now. The reason is that current racing games are either festival focused or sim racing. The fewstreet racing games of modern era are Night Runners( Tokyo Xtreme Racer) and Japanese Drift Master. Very few games like these get little to no recognition, all in favour of Terrible Forza and GT Rip-Offs. The game is amazing imo, especially the sense of speed. If racing game has no variety like ot had before with the likes of MCLA, Driver SF and NFS The Run, then what is left now? Shift had it all to be a simcade racer.
interesting perspective, I've always found it shameful how much people hated on these more experimental racing games, as it just further feeds into the homogenization of the genre
@@UltraViolet_Moseswell king of Experimental Stuff in Racing and Driving games belongs to Beamng Drive: An open-world sandbox with limitless potential with cars and realism Assetto Corsa: with mods only GTA V Online: Literally, I mean it offers so much Racing content Japanese Drift Master: A JDM Racing game based on Japanese cars and City with drifting physics Night Runners: The Tokyo Xtreme Racer Remastered.
The reason why people hated the Shift games is because when you think of NFS you’d expect an experience of illegal street racing. Pro Street came before the Shift games and suddenly people started thinking hold up wait a minute something ain’t right. You get to drive street cars legally, sanctioned racing. Saving grace of the Pro Street is it’s a damn good game. So people accepted it but was scared for the future of the NFS IP, what if NFS started focusing on Motorsport, where there are many Motorsport games you could play. And it’s not the NFS typical game, the illegal street racing. Then Shift games came and people hated it for that reason. EA just released this game at the height of when people are scared that it’s gonna go away from its spirit, the IP you go to for illegal street racing. TL:DR NFS and Illegal Street Racing goes hand in hand. Then suddenly you got 2 NFS games that is Motorsport focus. As stupid as it sounds, people hate changes.
I loved the two Shift games! My favourite part was driving the actual racecars, and oh boy, it was something! It was the Shift games that got me interested into Sim racing!
26:56 This is something I’ve been saying about the franchise for years now. NFS isn’t just the street racing series or the exotic racing series. They’re games that explore all kinds of car culture. Even within the wide brush strokes of street racing, exotics, motorsports etc, the games used to look and feel drastically different from one another. Just compare NFS 2 to Porsche Unleashed or Underground to Prostreet. As someone who was hyped to have NFS “return to it’s roots” back in 2015, in hindsight rebooting the franchise into a street racing franchise first and foremost was one of the worst decisions in the long run. At the end of the day I wouldn’t care if the next game was another Shift or Hot Pursuit styled game as long as long as it’s a good game.
when thinking about street racing, the old fans thinks about 1000hp riced out shitbox and the new fans thinks about sports/supercars tearing the streets. atleast they both can agree on wanting to run away from a competent police AI
@@De_kaid oh yeah always forgot the pre-F&F era. i guess it now loops back around to supercars again. might probably see a new gen of ricer generation in NFS to complete the cycle. still, seeing a miata battling it out with a pagani is weird even if it's engine swapped and peer competition
Honestly i was one of those guys who hated need for speed rivals for not having customization but thnks to you and some good folks at nfs community i realized that there is more to nfs than just customizing your car.thanks
Need for Speed Shift and Shift 2 Unleashed are the most over-the-top and unhinged racing "sims" I've ever played and I *love* them. I liken to them as being one half racing games, one half survival horror games. The handling makes you feel like you're barely in control, the crash damage is brutal even for a Need for Speed game, the way the camera and sense of speed makes you feel like you going to Plaid, the menu music is dark and ethereal like it's a horror flick and the way the screen grayscales with every collision are beautifully mental. Most Wanted may get all the love for being the peak of the franchise, but the Shift series is where my honest loyalties lie. I wish there are more games like them. Racing sims that put the fear of God into you every time you get behind the wheel.
Fun fact: Automobilista 2, which is a hardcore racing simulator, is by-fact the spiritual successor of the NFS:Shift series: After Shift 2, SMS was nearly scammed by EA Games (SMS's CEO words) by attempting to make them start the expenses for Shift 3, only for EA to pull the rug off their feet by suddenly taking away the promised funds. Luckily, they did not make yet expenses that would bankrupt them. SMS then decided to crowdfund to make Project CARS and some years later, its sequel. At the end of life of PC2, SMS was bought by Codemasters, which pushed them to make Project CARS 3, which turned out to be a bummer and becoming the last game of the series. At the same time, they licensed REIZA, a Brazilian studio, to use the Madness engine for their own game, AMS2. In the beginning the simulator still had the same "slidy" physics of Shift 2, but with time the devs have reworked the physics engine so much, most of the problems have been removed and the engine itself has been expanded in features. It is one of my favourite simulators to play with, its development still very active today. In the meantime, by pure irony, Codemasters got bought by EA and SMS ended up working for them again.
Kinda wish I played more of this when it came out. I was a big fan of the first GRID and I played a demo of NFS: Shift. Loved the cockpit view, the radio feedback from the team while driving, the violence when you get in a crash.
One best thing that NFS Shift series still has that no one else does is the camera work. To see the view and the UI elements move around, indicating the G-Force was such a simple solution to present the sense of speed in the best way possible. To this day, I'm still baffled that no other game incorporates this idea and just opt for Higher FoV, Motion Blur, Camera Shake, and such, you know, the techniques for faking the sense of speed.
Night-Runners does the same too. It pretty much has the same style of HUD from Shift games. All cars have unique gauge clusters (if they are unlocked via modding), hell, if you add aftermarket gauges they will appear on the HUD/replace stock gauges too.
I think Need for Speed Shift was my introduction to sim racing, even though it's not a simulator, no matter how hard they were trying sell those two games as such.
My favorite thing about Shift 2 was the helmet camera. My main gripe with some racing games (Forza) is that when I’m in cockpit (which I’m almost always in), the head movement is very unnatural. Look a bit too far to the left or right? Now you are viewing side door POV which is on the outside of the car. In Shift 1 and 2, I can look around the cockpit, look at my rear view and side mirrors. I love it. It’s something so minuscule but I like the feeling of actually using my mirrors instead of taking my eyes off the road to look behind.
Ultraviolet, your retrospective on Need For Speed Shift is an eye-opener! 🏁🚗 The Shift series was indeed a wild departure from the usual NFS formula, focusing on motorsports and bringing a whole new flavor to the franchise. Your deep dive into its legacy and how it has aged over 15 years is fascinating. It's great to see these unique installments getting the attention they deserve. Thanks for reminding us of this bold and ambitious spinoff! 🔥
Shift's details were crazy! Visible Engine Vibration shacking the entire car when reving, especially the hood, 1st person cam looking for the apex, camera shake and dirt, aswell as the damage model were all dope.
I really love Shift 2. Helmet cam is so sick. Driver always looking for the next move. If you are cornering the camera angle is moving to the road where you are going to, not just looking straight like other games. I feel like I'm driving the real car. This is the first time I enjoy playing racing game without 3rd person view and the last racing game I enjoy the first person view. No other racing games make me feel like to play on first person view like Shift 2.
To me, Shift's biggest hurdle was the fact that GRID and Juiced 2 existed at the same time. GRID had a far better motorsport career system (the best I've ever experienced) and Juiced took the arcade "custom road cars on circuits" idea to a much better level. Shift found itself somewhere in the middle and not able to outshine either of them. The only thing it had going for it from a marketing standpoint was the NFS name itself.
More details about this game: the tires deform when cornering, the aerodynamic effect makes the car lower the rear according to the speed and how much downforce it produces, the dashboard of all cars is 100% functional even the number of miles you have driven, the heat emanating from the hood corresponds to that said on the car dashboard and the list goes
Honestly the experience of driving in this game is incredible. Particularly if you turn all the driving aids off. When driving a powerful supercar in Shift with no ABS and no traction control it's less like a race and more like a fight: like your car is a wild animal that really does not want you there. It makes every corner, every braking zone, every overtake intense and frankly terrifying. Feathering the throttle out of a corner to get the best exit possible whilst knowing full well that over-extending it by just a tiny bit will cause your car to just straight up murder you on the nearest piece of concrete it can find is an amazing experience. Yeah it's hard, I think Shift might be the single least forgiving racing game I have played outside hardcore simulators, but that's one of the things that makes it so intense.
"The single best first person racing experience in gaming history" Yep, that's Shift/2u. It was a simulcade, but that investment in immersion made it feel so much better than any other game about driving that was at the time, and that has come out after.
I will say, Shift 2 capture the feeling of speed better than any other racing game I’ve experienced. Using the helmet cam in a supercar going flat out on the Nordschleife will get your palms sweating. I wish the big two sim-cade racers would be humble enough to take notes from that game.
NFS Shift is more like a racing simulator, than just a mere driving simulator. The terrifying sense of speed through the cockpit and overalls camera is what makes this games the most immersive over something like Forza, or GT
I have to disagree. Camera movements do not automatically make it more of a "racing sim". To me, the SHIFT games are still arcade games with them trying to look real. Think of COD hardcore mode or Insurgency. It's like that to me.
Great video man. One thing that wasn’t mentioned here was the soundtrack. The soundtracks from these games are severely underrated. Especially Shift 2’s soundtrack. The songs from Shift 2 are just overall epic and matches the chaotic atmosphere really well. The Gladiator Remixes are the best ones. Especially the “Night Of The Hunter” version. Song is so good it’s perfect for some background music of an IMAX movie trailer
This was my favorite racing game at the time. It was an arcade racer through and through, but man I have not had quite as much fun in any racing game since Shift.
I'm missing the mention of Shift 2s amazing Soundtrack. Yea, it were essentially about 8-10 Songs, with four diffrent Versions of each of them, but the Reality is that the "Gladiator Remix" of each Song, which played mainly in the menus and loading screens, fit the entire asthetic and feel of the game like a glove. To this day its still one of my favourite soundtracks in a racing game, and i wish it would of been more heavily utilised.
Im NGL you got me to try NFS Shift 2 again. I remember how much I loved the intense camera and screaming engine sounds. The graphics style is really nice even to this day. The handling is the only thing that throws me off but im adapting. Nice video!
I remember getting excited when I saw that there is an arcade-sim Need for Speed, I loved playing it on PS3 and I got Shift 2 when I switched to PC, since it's basically an improved Shift 1 - and I still play it from time to time! Great games. I think it's good when the developers of NfS try something new and different.
Man, I have to say this is the first time I've seen a video dedicated to shift! I was a huge fan of those 2 games! I also agree whit your stance on if you hate a game for trying to expand and show you a difference instead of giving you the same game over and over again.......
Top notch video as usual, i personally enjoyed the Shift spin off subset of games, yeah, they had issues, but man, for me Shift games were like rare exception where i wasn't using 3rd person camera since the cockpit camera was amazingly well made (the other would be F1 games), it also kinda resented a time period where i was sorely disappointed with Undercover, i was more than willing to give a more fresher ideas a go and track racers have been something i always wanted to go back to at the time (i used to play a lot TOCA Racer Driver and EA Sports F1 series games back in mid 2000's) and this alongside F1 2010 coming to PC and ofc, the great HP 2010 was like something i always looked for despite the NFS communities bit of a insistence of sticking to urban street racing theme.
y'know something i loved about the AE86 you get from the Retro championship racing is that its a pretty good drift car as well, that thing carried me through the drift series (when i went back to play the game again back in 2019, at least, because i was not good at the game at all when i first played it originally.)
One thing I think you should've mentioned is how shift 2 second dlc with the added old versions of silverstone amd monza made the game about motorsport even more dangerous. Monza without the chicanes and that left-right-left before the final stretch is a Death Rally. Nice video btw
Shift was a great title, despite the hardcore fans bashing on it not having underground elements or blacklists or cops. The game is a staple because its almost 15 years old. That's what makes old games gold. ❤
A few months ago I remembered how much I loved especially Shift 2, and was very glad to find out that SlightlyMad is still around and were the people behind Project CARS. As soon as I opened PC2 and heard the signature menu ambience and even sounds from Shift, it felt like it was just yesterday.
Idk what I can say, but man, 12 year old me absolutely binged the crap out of Shift 2. The style and theme of that game absolutely captivated me. While far from perfect, this short series always had something special.
Shift was the first PS3 game i ever played on my very own system as i got it with the system for christmas, it felt like my entire household jumped forward 10 years in time.
As someone who likes Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo a lot, Shift was a nice break from the car collection or proper racing to hardcore and aggressive style. I am yet to play Shift 2, but last year, I did play the first one and while it didn't Impress me initially, overtime I really liked it and it's one of my favourite NFS games of the generation alongside MW'05, Carbon, HP2010 and Rivals. The sense of speed on both cockpit and chase cam was done absolutely well and when you master a whole track in the first Shift, it feels satisfying.
NFS shift was the closest thing to a sim racing game in the 360, it was got me hooked to it. six years later, my daily is reiza's automobilista 2, I'd say, it's soulbrother
Thx for this video.I just installed Shift 2 , and I think this is not only the best Need for speed game , but also one of the best sim\arcade racing game ever made.The handling on gamepad is so satisfaying , and good.I wish there was a weather effects.I hope Assetto Corsa Evo will be the new king of sim\arcade racing game
Yes the weight shifting. It's the biggest reason why I adore Shift 2. This series is perfect playable on keyboard meanwhile still being as real as possible. I don't know there's other game can achieve this level.
Shift 1 was my first NFS/racing game, and it's sad that people have just forgotten about its existence. The cockpit view was amazing. The sense of speed and being on the edge of tire grip is still fresh in my memory after all these years. I have never experienced another racing game that brings me anything remotely similar. Maybe it's just me fantasizing about my childhood, but the game is like an old Miata. Never the latest, greatest, or fastest, but it always brings you joy.
I recently played shift 2 a few months ago it was certainly not what I expected and it was so much fun thanks for covering this underrated gem of a sub series in depth
YEAH! You finally got into one of my favorite NFS games in this series! Everything about the shift series always intrigue me as the years go by because now-a-days, there isn't anything like the "grittiness" of what I feel playing on the market now and everything is trying to play it safe to appeal to everyone... Which it did but it cost the games to be some of the most lifeless racing games that I have ever played in my life. *Missing in modern racing games:* - No risks if you damaged your car too much and having to repair the damages from your own allowance. - No progression of any kind to reach the end game making playing it somewhat obsolete. - Everything is handed to you by just breathing while some makes the grind a massive slog to get what you want. - Stagnation of two categories (Open word arcade or closed track sim) of racing game that have been milked dry for years and might not see a return to the 2000's era of racing games. - The trill of going fast have been very dull out to the point where going 320+ km/h feels like 140 km/h... Where is the insane shaky camera and blurry lines at high speeds?! The ONLY modern racing game that I can think of in my head that I played so far in the past 4 years is The Crew: Motorfest and Grid: Legends. And even if I enjoyed those two games, I noticed that something is missing from the piece that is 85% done overall. They are not horrible games, just that they are really different in Tone, Atmosphere and challenge for those games I played recently. It's a shame that we had all sorts of racing games back in the 90s/2000's that different in variety and terms of gameplay styles. *Long list of names for racing games I played in my life so far on the top of my head:* - Ridge Racer/Wave Racer/Rage Racer - R racing evolution - Enthusia professional racing - Choro-Q, - Auto Modellista - Midnight Club - initial D - Wangan Midnight - Tokyo Xtreme Racer - Hydro Thunder - Wave Racer - SF: Rush (And 2049) - Some of the mascot kart racers that isn't low quality - Dirt Dash - Ace Driver - Vitrual Racing - Daytona USA - Sega Rally - Sega GT - Outrun -Hard/Race Driven -F355 Challenge -Super GT 24h -Rad Mobile -Super Hang-on Those are the game that made a lasting impression on me and the best part about those games, I didn't even grew up with them. For most it was either emulation or playing on a home console that been ported on there. Yet they still hold up even today by game standards. Oh and if you made it this far, congrats! I was quite bored and wanted to ramble a bit. I went off on a tangent and I apologies for the bloat^^ Well... I am off. I guess I see ya later! Fantastic video btw! P.S. The need for speed fandom rings parallel to the sonic fandom in terms of games they have. It's baffling how many NFS fans and Sonic fans have the mentality of "New games bad, Old games good!" and belittle people for voicing there own on the reason why you like the game in the first place, even if it have some minor details that most people will glare over and look away. At this point, the close minded fans are the worst aspect of the series. It never fails to amaze me how some people will foam at the mouth because they criticize one part of their favorite game. Save your sanity!
19:58 "more downforce then the hand of god" ;D Men i loved Shift 1 and Shift 2. This really sparked my interest in more serious simulations. The online races and drift events where always so funny. Good old xbox 360 times when people raged over everything :D I remember completely destroying everyone in the 1000hp Scion time Attack car, or my fully custom works Nissan R35 with something over 1300hp, drifting around the Nordschleife and still winning. Later ive always missed the sense of speed and danger in other games. Luckely i found Assetto Corsa, where i run exactly the same settings for sense of speed, blurryness and neck fx. :D
The camera work is something that pretty much all games are sorely lacking. I hope to one day see a sim racing game feature the hyper-immersive first person camera. It just conveys the feeling of driving a car on its limits that nothing else does.
It's kinda weird hearing Guga talks about racing games. Jokes aside, I'm glad you made this vid, this era of Need For Speed was one of the needlessly hated era. I think Shift 1&2, The Run, and MW'12 were my most replayed NFS of all time
Shift didn’t have the greatest physics, but I remember at the time thinking how mad it was that it was one of the only games with legit, highly detailed cockpit view on all the cars.
The problem with retrospectives is that you can't experience how epic the multiplayer was, unfortunately. Also, it was an intentional, announced plan to have 3 branches of NFS back then (~2010-2011) - story based street racing (such as NFS The Run), arcade racing (NFS Hot Pursuit & MW2012) and professional racing (Shift). It fell apart pretty quickly, but it was a really interesting plan.
This game is why I started always using the cockpit cam. This game was the game that made me really try to learn tracks and go faster, instead of driving like an idiot, bumping into other cars. I absolutely loved Shift 2 Unleashed. At the time I didn't know it was so hated. A simpler life back then :P
Hired the first NFS Shift from Blockbuster for my 360 back in the day to race against my friend only to find it had no splitscreen mode 😔we took it in turns alternating each career event. Was a really good game. Got Shift 2 Unleashed on my PC, downloaded a physics handling mod and setup my racing wheel. There's a lot of mods you can get to add way more cars into the game, Shift 2 Unleashed is amazing.
My 1st contact with Shift was a version on the Android. From my memory it looked pretty much exactly like the PSP version so I am assuming it was just a conversion. I enjoyed driving 2 laps and then stopped. I never even knew the console games were so different.
Loved the shift games when they came out but I play iRacing now so proper track racing was what I craved. On a side note. The reason the shift series didn’t sustain (outside of SMS breaking away and taking over pCARS) was the lack of online.
the game does have an aggressive bias as you will inevitably trade paint with your rivals or simply accidentally bump into them, i attempted to stay clean but it was difficult but i did end up as a clean driver when i put the game down love the crash view, the black/white camera, camera blur and the heavy breathing really makes you feel the impact
You talking about the PSP port made me remember those Wii ports of The Run and Hot Pursuit, dont know if you've done it already, but would be a fun thing to cover
Thank you for calling out the NFS community I been playing NFS since NFS 3 Hot Pursuit and I've always considered NFS an anthology franchise that like you said tackles the latest trend in the racing genre during those times yet those that hate games like the Shifts, Hot Pursuit 2010, The Run, and Rivals have never played any of the games before Underground 1 and believe that's what the franchise should be just because Underground 1 was their first NFS game
I played NFS Shift and Prostreet and they were good NFS titles after MW and Carbon. They introduced damage and simulation mode which is suitable for teens and young adults as they are suitable for real-life driving experience. Shift 2 Unleashed installment was good in addition to Shift 1. I started using basic cars such as Honda and VW and my journey was long with realistic upgrades and proper skill building.
There has yet to be a better in car camera in a racing game. I will die on that hill!!! Imagine that view with current tech, graphics, FPS, hdr etc. sign me up!!!
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Ok👍👍👍
FINALLY A SHIFT REVIEW RAHHHHHHH I LOVE NFS SHIFT I STILL PLAY IT TODAY, WTF IS NO INPUT LAGGGGGGG
@@Ronin-en6hm Input lag is the Shift series charm hahaha
I love that you mentioned how Shift emphasized the _violence_ of motorsport. No simcade racer has come even close to the pair in terms of intensity imho.
Shift 2 in helmet cam was genuinely scary
Racedriver GRID was also pretty violent
it is the only game that explores such aspect, all racing games focus on the car and the environment where it races, Shift 1 and 2 focuses on what the driver experience on a race.
And people keep saying to play other games that are better than shift....
They don't understand
@@WatcherKoops4677that’s usually from the simracing elite crowd primarily because Shift isn’t a full on simulator
Man that first person view is really something. Mad how effective that heavy breathing is when you crash!
It made me feel a tiny bit bad about attempting to wreck in the most horrific ways possible💀. My poor driver went through a lot
And the blur was cool too
One small detail I always liked about the shift games was each car had a different hud when not in the cockpit view
That for me was one of the things that made it stand out for me at the time. I've never seen a game do that since and it's such a neat little detail.
Reminds me of the ridge racer games!
Bring back car specific guages (NFS Porsche, PGR, RR, TDU)
The driver model is also different depending on the era of the car, which is neat
I love how a 'motorsport racing game' has a challenge for a star where you have to spin out half of the field... as you do in motorsport!
Once again another great vid mans!
You could say that choice was, slightly mad
@@UltraViolet_Moses I got gotten oh no
I see that some ridiculous goals was a thing before Project Cars 3, Slightly said "Thought having to spin half the field was crazy? Try going 170MPH at Laguna Seca in a GT4 car!"
@@UltraViolet_Mosesbahaahah
based stocking enjoyer
It still perplexes me to this day, outside of the first five games of the NFS IP, only Shift and Shift 2 had a legit cockpit view.
Because SMS likes to put it in, EA & Black Box didn't care about it at all
@@0047sssss Clowns
@@garthhancock3373 Because fast paced and unrealistic arcade racers simply don't work with cockpit view. Out of all the NFS games, the only ones that could maybe pull it off are the Run and Pro Street.
On consoles only the first 2 had the cockpit camera
@@CAnAbrAvA2011 PC had it in all of the first five.
I personally wouldn't call Shift "Maddest" spinoff
Maybe just slightly mad
your profile pic just reignited crazy memories from school, those who know, know
😂😂 what a nice reference, project cars 3 is definitely the maddest spinoff
@@UltraViolet_Moses Oh shit I'm sorry 🙄
lol Slightly Mad Studios
@@UltraViolet_Moses Elaborate 👀
"NFS Shift tho, rolled up to the party in assless chaps" MAN I'M DEAD
i love comments that just repeat lines from the video
I think what I love about the shift games compared to other motorsport games is that it captures the gritiness of motorsport especially in the cockpit and with the helmet cam in shift 2. Motorsport can be just as intense as racing on the streets
It's kinda funny how the Shift games are like a spiritual successor/evolution of ProStreet while Shift 1 on PSP is a different game but directly connects itself with ProStreet.
It gave characters like nate denver and Ray kreiger a personality
Yeah but PSP pro street is way better in terms of gameplay
@@chhandobhihbhushan2742 but took an extra year to make
@@oli_gordon I feel like shift was much closer to older nds nfs games like underground. My favourites are Carbon and Pro Street on both PSP and NDS
The reason many people hate this game, was never understood until now. The reason is that current racing games are either festival focused or sim racing. The fewstreet racing games of modern era are Night Runners( Tokyo Xtreme Racer) and Japanese Drift Master. Very few games like these get little to no recognition, all in favour of Terrible Forza and GT Rip-Offs. The game is amazing imo, especially the sense of speed. If racing game has no variety like ot had before with the likes of MCLA, Driver SF and NFS The Run, then what is left now? Shift had it all to be a simcade racer.
interesting perspective, I've always found it shameful how much people hated on these more experimental racing games, as it just further feeds into the homogenization of the genre
@@UltraViolet_Moseswell king of Experimental Stuff in Racing and Driving games belongs to
Beamng Drive: An open-world sandbox with limitless potential with cars and realism
Assetto Corsa: with mods only
GTA V Online: Literally, I mean it offers so much Racing content
Japanese Drift Master: A JDM Racing game based on Japanese cars and City with drifting physics
Night Runners: The Tokyo Xtreme Racer Remastered.
The reason why people hated the Shift games is because when you think of NFS you’d expect an experience of illegal street racing. Pro Street came before the Shift games and suddenly people started thinking hold up wait a minute something ain’t right. You get to drive street cars legally, sanctioned racing. Saving grace of the Pro Street is it’s a damn good game. So people accepted it but was scared for the future of the NFS IP, what if NFS started focusing on Motorsport, where there are many Motorsport games you could play. And it’s not the NFS typical game, the illegal street racing. Then Shift games came and people hated it for that reason. EA just released this game at the height of when people are scared that it’s gonna go away from its spirit, the IP you go to for illegal street racing.
TL:DR NFS and Illegal Street Racing goes hand in hand. Then suddenly you got 2 NFS games that is Motorsport focus. As stupid as it sounds, people hate changes.
I loved the two Shift games! My favourite part was driving the actual racecars, and oh boy, it was something!
It was the Shift games that got me interested into Sim racing!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Same
waw, great interest
MARCH 7TH!!
26:56 This is something I’ve been saying about the franchise for years now. NFS isn’t just the street racing series or the exotic racing series. They’re games that explore all kinds of car culture. Even within the wide brush strokes of street racing, exotics, motorsports etc, the games used to look and feel drastically different from one another. Just compare NFS 2 to Porsche Unleashed or Underground to Prostreet. As someone who was hyped to have NFS “return to it’s roots” back in 2015, in hindsight rebooting the franchise into a street racing franchise first and foremost was one of the worst decisions in the long run. At the end of the day I wouldn’t care if the next game was another Shift or Hot Pursuit styled game as long as long as it’s a good game.
when thinking about street racing, the old fans thinks about 1000hp riced out shitbox and the new fans thinks about sports/supercars tearing the streets. atleast they both can agree on wanting to run away from a competent police AI
@@piscessoedroen "the old fans thinks about 1000hp riced out shitbox" nfs exists for more than 20 years you know...
@@De_kaid oh yeah always forgot the pre-F&F era. i guess it now loops back around to supercars again. might probably see a new gen of ricer generation in NFS to complete the cycle. still, seeing a miata battling it out with a pagani is weird even if it's engine swapped and peer competition
I’d honestly rather have NFS explore and experiment on what it can do as a racing franchise than pander to the Blackbox era crowd
Honestly i was one of those guys who hated need for speed rivals for not having customization but thnks to you and some good folks at nfs community i realized that there is more to nfs than just customizing your car.thanks
Need for Speed Shift and Shift 2 Unleashed are the most over-the-top and unhinged racing "sims" I've ever played and I *love* them. I liken to them as being one half racing games, one half survival horror games. The handling makes you feel like you're barely in control, the crash damage is brutal even for a Need for Speed game, the way the camera and sense of speed makes you feel like you going to Plaid, the menu music is dark and ethereal like it's a horror flick and the way the screen grayscales with every collision are beautifully mental. Most Wanted may get all the love for being the peak of the franchise, but the Shift series is where my honest loyalties lie. I wish there are more games like them. Racing sims that put the fear of God into you every time you get behind the wheel.
Fun fact: Automobilista 2, which is a hardcore racing simulator, is by-fact the spiritual successor of the NFS:Shift series:
After Shift 2, SMS was nearly scammed by EA Games (SMS's CEO words) by attempting to make them start the expenses for Shift 3, only for EA to pull the rug off their feet by suddenly taking away the promised funds. Luckily, they did not make yet expenses that would bankrupt them.
SMS then decided to crowdfund to make Project CARS and some years later, its sequel.
At the end of life of PC2, SMS was bought by Codemasters, which pushed them to make Project CARS 3, which turned out to be a bummer and becoming the last game of the series. At the same time, they licensed REIZA, a Brazilian studio, to use the Madness engine for their own game, AMS2. In the beginning the simulator still had the same "slidy" physics of Shift 2, but with time the devs have reworked the physics engine so much, most of the problems have been removed and the engine itself has been expanded in features.
It is one of my favourite simulators to play with, its development still very active today.
In the meantime, by pure irony, Codemasters got bought by EA and SMS ended up working for them again.
And for reply at the last sentence, EA got revenge on SMS for not making Shift 3 by killing the Project CARS franchise.
SMS is a dead shell, all the important people left. The next successor to Shift and Project cars will be Project Motor Racing.
Project cars 3 is a good racing game. And you need to jump off the gate project cars 3 band wagon.
damn EA really is gaming world's main antagonist
@@mintgoldheart6126 Didn't know about PMR, thanks for the heads up!
Kinda wish I played more of this when it came out. I was a big fan of the first GRID and I played a demo of NFS: Shift. Loved the cockpit view, the radio feedback from the team while driving, the violence when you get in a crash.
One best thing that NFS Shift series still has that no one else does is the camera work. To see the view and the UI elements move around, indicating the G-Force was such a simple solution to present the sense of speed in the best way possible. To this day, I'm still baffled that no other game incorporates this idea and just opt for Higher FoV, Motion Blur, Camera Shake, and such, you know, the techniques for faking the sense of speed.
"Cough" Project Cars "Cough"
@@samueljones3668 same devs too
Night-Runners does the same too. It pretty much has the same style of HUD from Shift games. All cars have unique gauge clusters (if they are unlocked via modding), hell, if you add aftermarket gauges they will appear on the HUD/replace stock gauges too.
@@samueljones3668project cars series dont have HUD shake, also, completely different from shift even with same game engine + devs.
Project Cars 2 definitely doesn't feel like any of the SHIFT games. Still a really good sim racer tho. 👍
I think Need for Speed Shift was my introduction to sim racing, even though it's not a simulator, no matter how hard they were trying sell those two games as such.
they definitely can be a fun pathway into sims, glad they ignited a new interest for you
The SHIFT games are like playing CoD's hardcore gamemode or Insurgency.
My favorite thing about Shift 2 was the helmet camera. My main gripe with some racing games (Forza) is that when I’m in cockpit (which I’m almost always in), the head movement is very unnatural. Look a bit too far to the left or right? Now you are viewing side door POV which is on the outside of the car. In Shift 1 and 2, I can look around the cockpit, look at my rear view and side mirrors. I love it. It’s something so minuscule but I like the feeling of actually using my mirrors instead of taking my eyes off the road to look behind.
Ultraviolet, your retrospective on Need For Speed Shift is an eye-opener! 🏁🚗 The Shift series was indeed a wild departure from the usual NFS formula, focusing on motorsports and bringing a whole new flavor to the franchise. Your deep dive into its legacy and how it has aged over 15 years is fascinating. It's great to see these unique installments getting the attention they deserve. Thanks for reminding us of this bold and ambitious spinoff! 🔥
Shift's details were crazy! Visible Engine Vibration shacking the entire car when reving, especially the hood, 1st person cam looking for the apex, camera shake and dirt, aswell as the damage model were all dope.
I really love Shift 2.
Helmet cam is so sick. Driver always looking for the next move. If you are cornering the camera angle is moving to the road where you are going to, not just looking straight like other games. I feel like I'm driving the real car.
This is the first time I enjoy playing racing game without 3rd person view and the last racing game I enjoy the first person view.
No other racing games make me feel like to play on first person view like Shift 2.
To me, Shift's biggest hurdle was the fact that GRID and Juiced 2 existed at the same time. GRID had a far better motorsport career system (the best I've ever experienced) and Juiced took the arcade "custom road cars on circuits" idea to a much better level. Shift found itself somewhere in the middle and not able to outshine either of them. The only thing it had going for it from a marketing standpoint was the NFS name itself.
More details about this game: the tires deform when cornering, the aerodynamic effect makes the car lower the rear according to the speed and how much downforce it produces, the dashboard of all cars is 100% functional even the number of miles you have driven, the heat emanating from the hood corresponds to that said on the car dashboard and the list goes
Honestly the experience of driving in this game is incredible. Particularly if you turn all the driving aids off. When driving a powerful supercar in Shift with no ABS and no traction control it's less like a race and more like a fight: like your car is a wild animal that really does not want you there. It makes every corner, every braking zone, every overtake intense and frankly terrifying. Feathering the throttle out of a corner to get the best exit possible whilst knowing full well that over-extending it by just a tiny bit will cause your car to just straight up murder you on the nearest piece of concrete it can find is an amazing experience.
Yeah it's hard, I think Shift might be the single least forgiving racing game I have played outside hardcore simulators, but that's one of the things that makes it so intense.
Definitly a game that looks easier than it actually is.
The irony being that it was actually developed by Slightly Mad Studios💀
I love shift 1 and never had problems with its handling at all and sound of cars is just amzing.❤
"The single best first person racing experience in gaming history" Yep, that's Shift/2u. It was a simulcade, but that investment in immersion made it feel so much better than any other game about driving that was at the time, and that has come out after.
I will say, Shift 2 capture the feeling of speed better than any other racing game I’ve experienced. Using the helmet cam in a supercar going flat out on the Nordschleife will get your palms sweating. I wish the big two sim-cade racers would be humble enough to take notes from that game.
NFS Shift is more like a racing simulator, than just a mere driving simulator. The terrifying sense of speed through the cockpit and overalls camera is what makes this games the most immersive over something like Forza, or GT
I have to disagree. Camera movements do not automatically make it more of a "racing sim". To me, the SHIFT games are still arcade games with them trying to look real.
Think of COD hardcore mode or Insurgency. It's like that to me.
Need for Speed in 2009:
"I'm going Slightly Mad"
Great video man. One thing that wasn’t mentioned here was the soundtrack. The soundtracks from these games are severely underrated. Especially Shift 2’s soundtrack. The songs from Shift 2 are just overall epic and matches the chaotic atmosphere really well. The Gladiator Remixes are the best ones. Especially the “Night Of The Hunter” version. Song is so good it’s perfect for some background music of an IMAX movie trailer
This was my favorite racing game at the time. It was an arcade racer through and through, but man I have not had quite as much fun in any racing game since Shift.
Bring back violent racing games, Motorsport or street racing. I want to feel the shaking camera and concussion effect
NFS Shift 2 was soo good. Im glad I got to play online for that one. People were actually racing. It was awesome.
Gosh I had so much fun with NFS shift, the game’s intro was illegal to skip. Man I miss playing this
Yay another Need For Speed Review video
Videos like this is why i dont watch TV or Netflix, Documentary level video, love this!
thank you, I appreciate it
I'm missing the mention of Shift 2s amazing Soundtrack. Yea, it were essentially about 8-10 Songs, with four diffrent Versions of each of them, but the Reality is that the "Gladiator Remix" of each Song, which played mainly in the menus and loading screens, fit the entire asthetic and feel of the game like a glove. To this day its still one of my favourite soundtracks in a racing game, and i wish it would of been more heavily utilised.
The review that the SHIFT series deserved!
what a masterpiece of a video it was the tone of your voice the explanation it was perfect
Thank you!
Im NGL you got me to try NFS Shift 2 again. I remember how much I loved the intense camera and screaming engine sounds. The graphics style is really nice even to this day. The handling is the only thing that throws me off but im adapting. Nice video!
Glad you enjoyed!
I remember getting excited when I saw that there is an arcade-sim Need for Speed, I loved playing it on PS3 and I got Shift 2 when I switched to PC, since it's basically an improved Shift 1 - and I still play it from time to time! Great games.
I think it's good when the developers of NfS try something new and different.
we need more games that make you realize how scary crashing actually is
Thrill drive? I think that might be up your alley
Man, I have to say this is the first time I've seen a video dedicated to shift! I was a huge fan of those 2 games! I also agree whit your stance on if you hate a game for trying to expand and show you a difference instead of giving you the same game over and over again.......
Top notch video as usual, i personally enjoyed the Shift spin off subset of games, yeah, they had issues, but man, for me Shift games were like rare exception where i wasn't using 3rd person camera since the cockpit camera was amazingly well made (the other would be F1 games), it also kinda resented a time period where i was sorely disappointed with Undercover, i was more than willing to give a more fresher ideas a go and track racers have been something i always wanted to go back to at the time (i used to play a lot TOCA Racer Driver and EA Sports F1 series games back in mid 2000's) and this alongside F1 2010 coming to PC and ofc, the great HP 2010 was like something i always looked for despite the NFS communities bit of a insistence of sticking to urban street racing theme.
y'know something i loved about the AE86 you get from the Retro championship racing is that its a pretty good drift car as well, that thing carried me through the drift series (when i went back to play the game again back in 2019, at least, because i was not good at the game at all when i first played it originally.)
Honestly, I'm replaying Shift 2 and it's a fucking fantastic game.
I'm not replaying it. Because I've never stopped playing it.
Unless when I am busy replaying Test Drive Ferrari Racing Legend.
Shift 1 better
@sonyx5332 Nah, Shift 2 is way better. More content is a bigger win.
@@Swattii Okay, I will pretend that it is. : D
One thing I think you should've mentioned is how shift 2 second dlc with the added old versions of silverstone amd monza made the game about motorsport even more dangerous. Monza without the chicanes and that left-right-left before the final stretch is a Death Rally.
Nice video btw
I will die on the hill that Shift was a good set of games! Really glad this came up on the home page.
Shift was a great title, despite the hardcore fans bashing on it not having underground elements or blacklists or cops. The game is a staple because its almost 15 years old. That's what makes old games gold. ❤
A few months ago I remembered how much I loved especially Shift 2, and was very glad to find out that SlightlyMad is still around and were the people behind Project CARS. As soon as I opened PC2 and heard the signature menu ambience and even sounds from Shift, it felt like it was just yesterday.
@UltraViolet I don't know if you have ever heard of touring car racing, but I think you'd have a blast researching the TOCA line of racing games.
think I have one of the games on PS1, it's been at least a decade since I played it though
Seeing an excellent review about a nfs spinoff with Persona Music gives me years of life.
Idk what I can say, but man, 12 year old me absolutely binged the crap out of Shift 2. The style and theme of that game absolutely captivated me. While far from perfect, this short series always had something special.
Shift was the first PS3 game i ever played on my very own system as i got it with the system for christmas, it felt like my entire household jumped forward 10 years in time.
I never played shift 2, but shift one is one of the NFS games that I will always think about from time to time. I loved shift 1
As someone who likes Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo a lot, Shift was a nice break from the car collection or proper racing to hardcore and aggressive style. I am yet to play Shift 2, but last year, I did play the first one and while it didn't Impress me initially, overtime I really liked it and it's one of my favourite NFS games of the generation alongside MW'05, Carbon, HP2010 and Rivals.
The sense of speed on both cockpit and chase cam was done absolutely well and when you master a whole track in the first Shift, it feels satisfying.
I don't know if im the only one, but this is by far my favorite need for speed games and one of the best simcades i've ever played.
It's one of my favourite racing games ever
Same
The sense of speed and art style in shift is unmatched to this day
NFS shift was the closest thing to a sim racing game in the 360, it was got me hooked to it. six years later, my daily is reiza's automobilista 2, I'd say, it's soulbrother
Thx for this video.I just installed Shift 2 , and I think this is not only the best Need for speed game , but also one of the best sim\arcade racing game ever made.The handling on gamepad is so satisfaying , and good.I wish there was a weather effects.I hope Assetto Corsa Evo will be the new king of sim\arcade racing game
Yes the weight shifting. It's the biggest reason why I adore Shift 2. This series is perfect playable on keyboard meanwhile still being as real as possible. I don't know there's other game can achieve this level.
Shift 1 was my first NFS/racing game, and it's sad that people have just forgotten about its existence. The cockpit view was amazing. The sense of speed and being on the edge of tire grip is still fresh in my memory after all these years. I have never experienced another racing game that brings me anything remotely similar. Maybe it's just me fantasizing about my childhood, but the game is like an old Miata. Never the latest, greatest, or fastest, but it always brings you joy.
I recently played shift 2 a few months ago it was certainly not what I expected and it was so much fun thanks for covering this underrated gem of a sub series in depth
YEAH! You finally got into one of my favorite NFS games in this series! Everything about the shift series always intrigue me as the years go by because now-a-days, there isn't anything like the "grittiness" of what I feel playing on the market now and everything is trying to play it safe to appeal to everyone... Which it did but it cost the games to be some of the most lifeless racing games that I have ever played in my life.
*Missing in modern racing games:*
- No risks if you damaged your car too much and having to repair the damages from your own allowance.
- No progression of any kind to reach the end game making playing it somewhat obsolete.
- Everything is handed to you by just breathing while some makes the grind a massive slog to get what you want.
- Stagnation of two categories (Open word arcade or closed track sim) of racing game that have been milked dry for years and might not see a return to the 2000's era of racing games.
- The trill of going fast have been very dull out to the point where going 320+ km/h feels like 140 km/h... Where is the insane shaky camera and blurry lines at high speeds?!
The ONLY modern racing game that I can think of in my head that I played so far in the past 4 years is The Crew: Motorfest and Grid: Legends. And even if I enjoyed those two games, I noticed that something is missing from the piece that is 85% done overall. They are not horrible games, just that they are really different in Tone, Atmosphere and challenge for those games I played recently. It's a shame that we had all sorts of racing games back in the 90s/2000's that different in variety and terms of gameplay styles.
*Long list of names for racing games I played in my life so far on the top of my head:*
- Ridge Racer/Wave Racer/Rage Racer
- R racing evolution
- Enthusia professional racing
- Choro-Q,
- Auto Modellista
- Midnight Club
- initial D
- Wangan Midnight
- Tokyo Xtreme Racer
- Hydro Thunder
- Wave Racer
- SF: Rush (And 2049)
- Some of the mascot kart racers that isn't low quality
- Dirt Dash
- Ace Driver
- Vitrual Racing
- Daytona USA
- Sega Rally
- Sega GT
- Outrun
-Hard/Race Driven
-F355 Challenge
-Super GT 24h
-Rad Mobile
-Super Hang-on
Those are the game that made a lasting impression on me and the best part about those games, I didn't even grew up with them. For most it was either emulation or playing on a home console that been ported on there. Yet they still hold up even today by game standards. Oh and if you made it this far, congrats! I was quite bored and wanted to ramble a bit. I went off on a tangent and I apologies for the bloat^^ Well... I am off. I guess I see ya later! Fantastic video btw!
P.S. The need for speed fandom rings parallel to the sonic fandom in terms of games they have. It's baffling how many NFS fans and Sonic fans have the mentality of "New games bad, Old games good!" and belittle people for voicing there own on the reason why you like the game in the first place, even if it have some minor details that most people will glare over and look away. At this point, the close minded fans are the worst aspect of the series. It never fails to amaze me how some people will foam at the mouth because they criticize one part of their favorite game. Save your sanity!
19:58 "more downforce then the hand of god"
;D
Men i loved Shift 1 and Shift 2. This really sparked my interest in more serious simulations.
The online races and drift events where always so funny. Good old xbox 360 times when people raged over everything :D
I remember completely destroying everyone in the 1000hp Scion time Attack car, or my fully custom works Nissan R35 with something over 1300hp, drifting around the Nordschleife and still winning.
Later ive always missed the sense of speed and danger in other games.
Luckely i found Assetto Corsa, where i run exactly the same settings for sense of speed, blurryness and neck fx. :D
this game still has the best interior camera of any racing game ever imo
The camera work is something that pretty much all games are sorely lacking. I hope to one day see a sim racing game feature the hyper-immersive first person camera. It just conveys the feeling of driving a car on its limits that nothing else does.
This game is why I always play with first person in every game I can
I loved this game so much when I was younger unlocking the Bugatti was fire
While on top of the arcade track racers, I would love to see you review the GRID series
Shift 1 is so extremely underrated! 😭
It's kinda weird hearing Guga talks about racing games.
Jokes aside, I'm glad you made this vid, this era of Need For Speed was one of the needlessly hated era. I think Shift 1&2, The Run, and MW'12 were my most replayed NFS of all time
The main screen menu in the Shift 2 was the greatest I ever experienced.
Shift didn’t have the greatest physics, but I remember at the time thinking how mad it was that it was one of the only games with legit, highly detailed cockpit view on all the cars.
The problem with retrospectives is that you can't experience how epic the multiplayer was, unfortunately.
Also, it was an intentional, announced plan to have 3 branches of NFS back then (~2010-2011) - story based street racing (such as NFS The Run), arcade racing (NFS Hot Pursuit & MW2012) and professional racing (Shift). It fell apart pretty quickly, but it was a really interesting plan.
This game is why I started always using the cockpit cam. This game was the game that made me really try to learn tracks and go faster, instead of driving like an idiot, bumping into other cars. I absolutely loved Shift 2 Unleashed. At the time I didn't know it was so hated. A simpler life back then :P
Shift 2 is still, gameplay wise, the best racing game ever. The sound desing is to this day unmatched
Hired the first NFS Shift from Blockbuster for my 360 back in the day to race against my friend only to find it had no splitscreen mode 😔we took it in turns alternating each career event. Was a really good game. Got Shift 2 Unleashed on my PC, downloaded a physics handling mod and setup my racing wheel. There's a lot of mods you can get to add way more cars into the game, Shift 2 Unleashed is amazing.
I wish i could remember the review, but i remember sesing one thay described shift 2 as the best survival horror of the year
Shift has a crazy sense of speed
My 1st contact with Shift was a version on the Android. From my memory it looked pretty much exactly like the PSP version so I am assuming it was just a conversion. I enjoyed driving 2 laps and then stopped. I never even knew the console games were so different.
I bought this game for 10 bucks on eBay while in the middle of watching this video
Project Cars series next PLEASE! 🤩🙏🏼💝
Loved the shift games when they came out but I play iRacing now so proper track racing was what I craved.
On a side note. The reason the shift series didn’t sustain (outside of SMS breaking away and taking over pCARS) was the lack of online.
the game does have an aggressive bias as you will inevitably trade paint with your rivals or simply accidentally bump into them, i attempted to stay clean but it was difficult but i did end up as a clean driver when i put the game down
love the crash view, the black/white camera, camera blur and the heavy breathing really makes you feel the impact
I like how the shifter in cockpit view actually goes into gear. The LP640 with the gated shifter looks dope in first person.
You talking about the PSP port made me remember those Wii ports of The Run and Hot Pursuit, dont know if you've done it already, but would be a fun thing to cover
Thank you for calling out the NFS community I been playing NFS since NFS 3 Hot Pursuit and I've always considered NFS an anthology franchise that like you said tackles the latest trend in the racing genre during those times yet those that hate games like the Shifts, Hot Pursuit 2010, The Run, and Rivals have never played any of the games before Underground 1 and believe that's what the franchise should be just because Underground 1 was their first NFS game
Shift 2 has a BANGER OST as well.
Shift 2 is either my 5th or 6th favorite NFS game ngl
You keep improving by the day
I unapologetically love Shift and Shift 2.
I highly recommend playing Shift 2 with PTMu mod. It fixes game's strange "floaty" physics.
Can we loan cars in shift 2 like shift 1?
The SHIFT series rates top 5 in my NFS games list.
I played NFS Shift and Prostreet and they were good NFS titles after MW and Carbon. They introduced damage and simulation mode which is suitable for teens and young adults as they are suitable for real-life driving experience. Shift 2 Unleashed installment was good in addition to Shift 1. I started using basic cars such as Honda and VW and my journey was long with realistic upgrades and proper skill building.
THIS is what I want from sims. Sense of speed and *actual* danger.
There has yet to be a better in car camera in a racing game. I will die on that hill!!! Imagine that view with current tech, graphics, FPS, hdr etc. sign me up!!!