Taste #5 - Shift 2: Unleashed (PC)

Shift 2: Unleashed

Developer: Slightly Mad Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: March 2011.
Time played: 1 hour

Preface: Thank goodness for the standardisation of the Xbox 360 controller for PC over the last few years. I couldn't even attempt a game like this without analogue control these days. I remember playing so much of the Domark F1 game on the Sega Master System back in the day. That game probably didn't need much subtlety in control though.

Observations:

• Awesome dude. You did really well. (thanks random racing man)


• Here's some XP. You'll earn it by (blah be blah be blah)


• Control felt detached and lagy. Tried reducing game resolution to bump up frame rate but nothing changed. Not sure if this is just a reflection of the handling model or whether there was something introducing extra lag into my setup. Using 360 controller which was natively detected and supported so that shouldn't be to blame.


• Although controller was supported, the on screen key mapping prompts don't reflect this choice. Even though they have nicely remapped menu navigation through the controller buttons you need to figure it all out by trial and error.


• The Shift series has advertised and emphasised the in car driver helmet perspective camera. In car views have been common in racing games for a few years now but the Shift series tried to stand out by introducing fancy effects to mimic the motion and forces on the driver's head as opposed to a fixed camera placed within a car. I stuck with the default in car view for this reason and could see some of these effects in play when hitting a wall etc, but it didn't do much for me. Responsive controls meant I was already a bit detached from the experience and so this sort of immersion wasn't adding anything.


• Overall it came across as a competent game, maybe a little generic. I dislike the dude bro presentation and prefer a more restrained/slick approach of the Forza or Project Gotham (RIP) series.


• Incidentally, I have the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel that Microsoft sold for the first 3 or 4 years after the 360 was released. I've used it quite a bit with the 360 and it works quite well. I mention this because it's a USB device that can easily plug into a PC and should really be supported by Windows - BUT - Microsoft abandoned the product and never implemented drivers for the wheel although they had previously publicly stated that work on Windows support for the device was underway. Logitech seems to rule the low/mid end of the PC wheel market now (the fool in me looks at G27 prices from time to time)