The first Need for Speed game developed by Slightly Mad Studios. "Shift" is an attempt at the simulation sub-genre of racing games, promising a sense of speed with new realistic effects and a new crash mechanic.
It's no huge secret that the Need for Speed series needs a bit of a kick in the pants. For my money, the last worthwhile game in the series was Need for Speed Most Wanted, and my love for that game is evenly split between the great police chases and the presence of Razor Callahan, the tough-talking slimeball that serves as your nemesis. The most recent game tried to take things back into the cop chase realm, but it fell flat. I'd place the blame on NFS Undercover's unstable frame rate and a weak performance from Maggie Q.
But enough about the past. Need for Speed is prepping for the future this morning, with announcement that EA is hard at work on at least three new games that will bear the Need for Speed badge. While EA's Black Box team appears to be touching most of the new games in some way, it looks like primary development for these games are being handled by other teams.
Need for Speed Shift will be a "first-person racing simulation" for PS3, 360, PSP, and PC. Development is being handled by Slightly Mad Studios, a new group that contains members who worked on games like GT Legends and GTR 2. Here's what the release has to say about the game itself:
Need for Speed SHIFT replicates the true feeling of racing high-end performance cars like never before. Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic, providing an unrivaled sensation of the speed and feeling of racing a car on the extreme edge of control.
Shift (make that SHIFT) will be released this Fall.
Need for Speed Nitro is currently just a working title for EA Montreal's driving game for the Wii and DS. This one sounds like it's the closest thing to the previous games in the series, with an arcade-like focus and police chases. Again, here's what's up:
Gamers can build up their boost as they drift and drag behind their opponents and use it strategically to change the course of the race, but watch out for the cops! Offering a fresh and unique visual style, the game features a variety of licensed cars which can be fully customized to let the game reflect the player’s taste and personality. This evolutionary take on arcade racing, bringing back the best features found in Need for Speed games, comes exclusively to the Nintendo platforms this fall.
WATCH OUT FOR THE COPS!!!!
Need for Speed World Online is listed as being co-developed by Black Box and EA Singapore. It's a "Play 4 Free" style of online, open-world driving. It'll hit Asia this Summer and North America in the Winter. Take it away, press release!
Co-developed by Black Box and EA Singapore, Need for Speed World Online takes the race into the largest open world in the history of Need for Speed - designed exclusively for the PC. Beginning in Asia, this Play 4 Free action racing game will give Need for Speed fans access to licensed cars, parts and multiple game modes. Players will prove their racing supremacy through the sophisticated online matchmaking features and fully customize their profile and their ride.
Is it wrong for me to want to immediately say "Motor City Online" when I hear that EA's doing some kind of online-focused NFS game?
The AP weighed in on this story, and it claims that Black Box is also working on "a new action driving game." EA's VP of marketing, Keith Munro, is quoted as saying that the move to other developers gives the Black Box team "time to retrench." This is the part where I wildly speculate about a direct sequel to Most Wanted where Razor and Cross team up against you after performing some kind of demonic street racing blood pact.
It's no huge secret that the Need for Speed series needs a bit of a kick in the pants. For my money, the last worthwhile game in the series was Need for Speed Most Wanted, and my love for that game is evenly split between the great police chases and the presence of Razor Callahan, the tough-talking slimeball that serves as your nemesis. The most recent game tried to take things back into the cop chase realm, but it fell flat. I'd place the blame on NFS Undercover's unstable frame rate and a weak performance from Maggie Q.
But enough about the past. Need for Speed is prepping for the future this morning, with announcement that EA is hard at work on at least three new games that will bear the Need for Speed badge. While EA's Black Box team appears to be touching most of the new games in some way, it looks like primary development for these games are being handled by other teams.
Need for Speed Shift will be a "first-person racing simulation" for PS3, 360, PSP, and PC. Development is being handled by Slightly Mad Studios, a new group that contains members who worked on games like GT Legends and GTR 2. Here's what the release has to say about the game itself:
Need for Speed SHIFT replicates the true feeling of racing high-end performance cars like never before. Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic, providing an unrivaled sensation of the speed and feeling of racing a car on the extreme edge of control.
Shift (make that SHIFT) will be released this Fall.
Need for Speed Nitro is currently just a working title for EA Montreal's driving game for the Wii and DS. This one sounds like it's the closest thing to the previous games in the series, with an arcade-like focus and police chases. Again, here's what's up:
Gamers can build up their boost as they drift and drag behind their opponents and use it strategically to change the course of the race, but watch out for the cops! Offering a fresh and unique visual style, the game features a variety of licensed cars which can be fully customized to let the game reflect the player’s taste and personality. This evolutionary take on arcade racing, bringing back the best features found in Need for Speed games, comes exclusively to the Nintendo platforms this fall.
WATCH OUT FOR THE COPS!!!!
Need for Speed World Online is listed as being co-developed by Black Box and EA Singapore. It's a "Play 4 Free" style of online, open-world driving. It'll hit Asia this Summer and North America in the Winter. Take it away, press release!
Co-developed by Black Box and EA Singapore, Need for Speed World Online takes the race into the largest open world in the history of Need for Speed - designed exclusively for the PC. Beginning in Asia, this Play 4 Free action racing game will give Need for Speed fans access to licensed cars, parts and multiple game modes. Players will prove their racing supremacy through the sophisticated online matchmaking features and fully customize their profile and their ride.
Is it wrong for me to want to immediately say "Motor City Online" when I hear that EA's doing some kind of online-focused NFS game?
The AP weighed in on this story, and it claims that Black Box is also working on "a new action driving game." EA's VP of marketing, Keith Munro, is quoted as saying that the move to other developers gives the Black Box team "time to retrench." This is the part where I wildly speculate about a direct sequel to Most Wanted where Razor and Cross team up against you after performing some kind of demonic street racing blood pact.
Can't they just stick to the formula that worked so well in Most Wanted? People aren't going to be scrambling for a simulation NFS game...that's just backwards.
I want more enormously cheesey characters and story lines! More safari, less track!
I'm glad that Criterion isn't taking it over. The big hook of Burnout is the really painful crashes, and I doubt that any major automaker would let Criterion do that with their real-life cars.
Won't this dilute the franchise even more? The concept behind the online racer might be sound but I don't think it needed a NFS name except for, maybe, brand recognition. But it does nothing for the Need for Speed brand because its never been a MMO racer.
Apparently EA's idea of fixing a franchise is to throw more games at it. Shift sounds interesting but I'm sure EA will be ruin it with typical live action cutscenes and fast and the furious bullshit. The problem with the racing genre is that the gameplay model is stale, being in last place is never fun, replaying the same race 50 times is the anti-fun. Burnout Paradise is one of the few games that has manged to break the mold.
Sounds like EA is taking a cue from codemasters and adopting an alternate naming system. Instead of using 4 letters (GRiD, DiRT) they're using 5!
@Bagmanforhire: First person driving cameras have been pretty popular actually. The Colin McRae series usually has a difficulty level that locks the camera angle to cockpit. Then there has been PGR, Forza, DiRT, and GRiD...
I'm confused by EA. They've told us that they're scaling back on releases this year, yet this year they've already announced 3 games that are completely unexpected. We all expected 1 NFS game, 3 is a surprise, and considering how boom blox underperformed, it's a surprise to see a sequel to that announced for that. Weird.
Here's hoping that Shift goes as far in the sim direction as humanly possible. That's the only way I can take it seriously. You're either sim or arcade. You can't be both.
I think if they hit the sim market correctly, this could outsell either of those titles. Maybe they could bring back respect to the Need for Speed name, who knows?
Ugh, went *way* off the reservation on this one. NFS:MW was king, I just rebought it recently and still love it.
This is the problem with sequelisation, instead of just making things better, they're just bolting on more crap and making it needlessly complicated. Less is more!
So really, with NFS Shift, the one big massive point-of-difference on this one is a cockpit view? Ugh.
EA seems to be really testing the fully online, basic features free, editions of popular franchises. I'm curious what genre they're doing this with next. I'm still not sure how I feel about Play 4 Free.
Still looking forward to BF Heroes, although I will not pay a penny for the features.
Black Box is busy, but then again they have 150+ employees. Shift looks interesting, looks kinda like GRiD. I thought that EA was not trying to release so many games this year, I thought they're plan was to bring out less games and promote those games more.
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