All Games You Need: Need for Speed Shift - DVD

After a long stint as an arcade racer, Need for Speed is heading into simulation territory with Need for Speed: Shift. Announced in January as part of a three-game announcement that includes Need for Speed: Nitro and Need for Speed World Online, Shift takes a new, more realistic approach to racing and will be going head-to-head against seasoned pros Gran Turismo and Forza for the attention of serious racing fans.

Thankfully it looks like the franchise is in good hands, with London-based Slightly Mad Studios (formerly Blimey Games) heading up development duties. According to Shift's producer, Suzy Wallace, Slightly Mad is SimBin--the team behind the high-scoring GTR FIA Racing, GTR 2, and GT Legends games--in everything but name after most of the original team left to form their new studio, and the team is working closely with EA Black Box executive producer Michael Mann and EA Games Europe senior vice president Patrick Soderlund (cofounder of DICE) to ensure that Shift, currently in a pre-alpha build, meets the franchise's standards.

One of the immediately obvious innovations in Shift is the way it tries to simulate crashes; the development team is trying to re-create the jarring, often fear-filled experience. In addition to motion blur, you'll experience some violent camera shake--not too dissimilar to an onboard camera during crash replays--and you'll also experience temporary vision blur after crashes. This is accompanied by the typical audio effects involved in a high-speed collision, but also additional sound effects from your driver, such as a stress-induced spike in heart rate and even a sharp gasp of breath before impact. Lots of other small effects have gone into making Shift feel as realistic as possible, including tunnel vision at high speeds, subtle reflections coming off the windshield, and heat haze emitted from engines.

Minimum Need for Speed Shift System Requirements (New):
OS - Windows XP (Service Pack 3) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 1) / Windows 7
Processor – Intel Core™2 Duo 1.6 GHz or faster
Memory – XP: 1 GB RAM; Vista/Windows 7: 1.5 GB RAM
Hard Drive – 6 GB
DVD Drive - 8 SPEED
Video Card – 256 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 3.0
Supported Video Cards: ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB or greater; NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256MB or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.
Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX - DirectX 9.0c compatible
Online Multiplayer – 512 Kbps or faster; 2-12 Players
Input - Keyboard, Mouse
Optional – USB Steering Wheel / Dual Analogue Gamepad
Required – Internet Connection