Need For Speed Shift Vs. Forza 3: A Retrospective

Back in the fall I bought Need for Speed Shift the day it was released. I’ll be honest, I loved the game, butsaw it as something to hold me over until Forza 3 came out about a month after. Shift is the 13th game in what has been a long running EA series. I remember having great fun with the first NFS Hot Pursuit on my Playstation One back in the day. The game has gone through many reboots that I felt after the last iteration of the series, it was time to kill the series all together

NFS: Shift is really the first game in the series to use a simulation style gameplay. The game used real world tracks and cars, along with physics to match. When I first played the game I thought it was awesome, but when Forza came out, I quickly moved on to what I thought was a better game. I recently got the ability to play Shift again, and man was I wrong. Shift is a better game that is far more fun for me to play, and more worthy of my time.

There comes a time in Forza, as in every sim racer, where the game just gets ultra easy. A point where you can afford the best cars or mods that stomp the competition, and you’re gone. Within the first lap of any race you’re out front and never to be caught again. At this point the “race” becomes a time trial to the finish line, where you win by half a lap or more. This tipping point happens very early in Forza where the game just becomes a stalk for better lap times. In NFS Shift the transition never happens. The 60+ cars are tiered in such a way that this tipping point does not take place. There is always healthy competition on every difficulty setting. You can get out front, but the 2nd  place car is almost always there. Its stalking you, waiting for you to make a mistake, or even goading you into one. This brings me to my next point: the physics.

In Forza you always feel in control of the car, that’s great, but that’s not white knuckle racing, far from it. (I autocross, so I have some notion of what that feels like). In NFS shift you always feel like you’re on the edge of losing control, and sometimes you do. The acceleration, braking, and steering all feel right though. They feel as they should, with each car feeling discernibly different than the other. For example, a rear engine, rear drive Porsche will feel distinctly different than a GTR does, and that's how it should be. It's sort hard to explain, but spot on physics lend to the games realistic feel. You don't want any of the cars to feel like they're riding on rails.

The tracks in both Forza and Shift are accurately modeled. Forza may have Shift beat in shear volume of tracks, but they all feel stagnant and sanitized. The track surface feels flat and smooth with slight grip. Tracks are not like that, tracks have bumps, divots, and drastic elevation changes. NFS Shift models all of this very well, to great d If there is a bump in the braking zone at a particular track, this will unbalance the car in real life,Shift simulates this perfectly. Amazing. Even the AI avoids the bumps.

Do me a favor, if you have Forza, put it in, start a race, and ride around at the back of the pack. What do you see? You see a car ahead of you following the racing lines while doing parade laps waiting to get passed by you. Very rarely does the A.I.deviate from this assigned path. Okay, do the same thing with Shift now, and you will see cars actually racing. What a concept. The AI cars in Shift will jockey for position, blocking you, blocking each other, and passing you. The AI in Shift will make it hard for you to get by, if it’s the last lap of the race and you’re in 2nd, the car ahead will guard the inside line. They will force you out just like an actual driver would. Shift is just plain better; better sound, graphics, and in car camera. All of this makes for a visceral experience. There I said it, NFS Shift is a better game than Forza 3.