Quick Shifting
It's not the deepest racing sim on the market and it's not the "fast and furious" style game that the most recent dozen NFS games have been, but SHIFT happily straddles the line between the two without ever going over the edge one way or the other.
I'm not a fane of "sim" racers in general and I ussualy can't stand racing from the cockpit but SHIFT does something quite remarkable. It makes me want to drive from the cockpit, and it makes me care about finding that perfect line around the track. Part of it is the outstanding cockpit view that attaches the camera to the drivers head instead of a blank spot in space. Hit a bump and the camera will rattle around inside the car. Hit something too hard and your vision blurs and fogs. Slam a wall and it goes haywire, rattling, fogging , and going black and white. It's the most emmersed i've ever felt inside a virtual car and by the end of one high speed run I was white knuckled.
The hardcore GT and Forza fans may not find much love for it but for me it comes as close to the sim racing edge as I want to go. And it does it with the NFS title on the cover. Crazy.
