Need For Speed Shift

[newconroer]

So despite the whole ATI performance contraversy, it's safe to say that for the most part, EA has redeemed themselves for all of the trashy NFS titles that came after the Porsche Unleashed game.

However overall the game itself is like GRID 2.0

The benefits are :

-Slightly better visuals than Grid
-More car selection
-More in-depth campaign
-More online options
-More tuning and control adjustments

The cons are :

-Bit dated visuals in comparison to the gaming market
-No pit stops (and subsequently no tire wear, damage control, car maintenance)
-No qualifying
-No mechanical/electrical failures
-No country/sceneric cruises - no open ended courses
-No dragrace strip
-Terrible AI


The downsides of Ai is particularly glaring. The game attempts to offer both arcade playstyle, as well as simulation, but while the simulation makes a very valiant attempt to create difficulty and realism, it fails in one major aspect - something that most other car games even so called 'simulators' have done so for years - and that is computer AI.

For so long I've been wanting a game where the opponents are actually smart. "Smart" could mean tactical, aggressive, conservative - not just on a whole, meaning driver style/personality - but adaptive as well.

The common examples are that if you get loose in a turn, or go slightly off your racing line, there's a chance in real life that you might give up or have to give up a position. Key word there was 'have.' You can't just barrel back on the road wrecklessly and expect every car to slam on their brakes for you; however, there are situations where a mistake is made and the best course of action is for the driver(s) behind you, to take evasive action - whether that's slowing down, or darting around you. Yet in this game, and many others, the cars just plow into the back of you, or they get do slam on their brakes, but then get some sudden burst of speed and blow right by you. I'm very good at judging the action in front of me, so I can sometimes avoid things, however the AI behind me just blitz on, slamming into me, and turning any of my evasive maneuvers into a full blown crash. If it happens now and again, hey that's racing, but everytime... I hate the feeling of having to be not careful but EXTRA careful if I'm anywhere except in the lead - not because of the cars in front (although they do tend to drive like they are controlled by a person on a keyboard, with digital ON or OFF speed control and steering) but because of the cars behind.

I could spend a whole page giving examples and citing racing situations, but the bottom line is that you can't ever get that 'hug and tuck' racing in these games, because the AI is just too dumb. You can't get that formula one, or touring car championship slipstream feeling, because you're afraid the car in front is going to just up and brake at the most ridiculous times, or the car in the rear won't brake at all, and use you as a bumper.

And that's what I really really long for, is to be able to run lap after lap, tucked up behind someone like it was Senna vs Prost, just ticking off the laps, inching ever so close until the window to pass opens up.

Even Nascar games - where a lot of Nascar is literally bumper to bumper - can't seem to get it right.

So on that merit alone, the game gets a 7 from me. It lacks NFS heritage, and it tries to be something it's not.

I still say Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix II was the best we've ever had.

 

[eidairaman1]

TBH I think NFSU and U2 were Great, MW was Ok. Carbon- eh i guess was ok but wasnt that great, Prostreet and Shift I haven't played.

 

[Wile E]

U2 was my favorite NFS. I dearly miss the mod system and dyno.

 

[Steevo]

Underground was good. Mods and pimp out a car, aggressive driver AI.

 

[eidairaman1]

U2 was my favorite NFS. I dearly miss the mod system and dyno.

I liked the Paint Schemes I could Implement in U and U2, later Iterations became too complicated, like the Windows Color Palate System (so many color shades that when you switch you dont notice a difference) I think only way that would work is if there are numbers implemented into it.

 

[OnBoard]

Anyone got so magical fix on the latency issues? (yeah I have ports open) Today I had my first race where everyone is under 200ms (like it should be). Most of the time others are 300ms+ or even 400ms+.

Peeps are getting angry for no reason blaming others for ramming and what not, when it's all just down to high ping and lag it causes. Last race I did a moment ago, there was one with 1500ms

Sure hope they make the net code better on 1.2 or at least give the option nt o see everyones ping on the lobby and especially your own.

 

[eidairaman1]

Anyone got so magical fix on the latency issues? (yeah I have ports open) Today I had my first race where everyone is under 200ms (like it should be). Most of the time others are 300ms+ or even 400ms+.

Peeps are getting angry for no reason blaming others for ramming and what not, when it's all just down to high ping and lag it causes. Last race I did a moment ago, there was one with 1500ms

Sure hope they make the net code better on 1.2 or at least give the option nt o see everyones ping on the lobby and especially your own.

Either the Servers are not ready for full load, Your ISP amongst others is having problems, or there is a Cache space with in the Games Directory that needs clearing or even a Log File.

 

[OnBoard]

Either the Servers are not ready for full load, Your ISP amongst others is having problems, or there is a Cache space with in the Games Directory that needs clearing or even a Log File.

Well it's P2P, so EA servers are used just for data recording and match making. ISP issues could be a day or a week, but not constantly and pings were just fine in BF2142.

Rest of that sounds weird, wouldn't HDD issues reflect in SP too, not just MP?

So far I've just joined games, haven't hosted any. Don't like to do that because my keyboard is under my table when using a wheel and choosing tracks/options/chatting gets hard.

24/1 Mbps connection. Maybe Shift does a simple bandwidth test, thinks my connection is great and routs most data through me killing upload? Though I asked one host what pings he saw and it was the same 350ms, so it's more general.

Anyhow, I've raced people in US with pings in 250ms range in FlatOut, higher latency to Europe is silly. However there is no thread in the official forums of any ping issues and no replies here with anything similar, so maybe it's just me

 

[eidairaman1]

Ya i just noticed High Ping for a few days with my machine in DFX2, well low and behold it was my Housemates Computer Running Micro Torrent which was seeding the files, Im thinking of implementing a bandwidth limiter each time he uses that program so it doesn't hog all of it, any settings I could use in a Linksys Router for such reason?

 

[OnBoard]

You can limit BW straight from utorrent. For routers, there is QoS settings that could be used for that.

edit (everything below):
For the latency issues. Had a under 200ms host today and 5 other people under 200ms in the race. Everyting was great and smooth even with one ~250ms dude. So it's not me or my connection, seems shift just needs lots of bandwith for the host/good connection peeps.

Then a player with 4500ms-700ms joined and the game started to lag for everyone. It still showed under 200ms for us most, but cars were driving on top of each other and it was just a deastruction derby with hits left and right. Everyone there was a clean driver, but the race went bad so easily with lag.

So, seems like it would be pretty easy to fix. Needs just some tweak on the net code, so that one bad connection doesn't cause lag for all. A lobby where you can see what is hosted and with what ping, so people generally select hosts close to them. Would be a much nicer MP experience and more happy people.

One host left pissed of with people "driving on the grass" and quit before I could tell him it's just lag. I saw the host driving on grass and hitting walls and same for him for us. Generally cars don't jump around when they lag, like they have on other games, so it looks like peple are cutting corners, when in fact they are not.

Well hopefully at least enyone in TPU with Shift knows that most of the people drive on the road and don't crash. If it looks like they cut and crash you off the road without anything happening to them, it's just lag. Higher the opponents ping is the more room you should leave, not to cause an accident.

under 200ms get to the bumber
250-300ms: leave at least half car lenght
over 300ms: leave a car lenght
over 400ms: stay away