Need for Speed: Shift

Shift is Leaning Towards More Realism
Need for Speed generally doesn't disappoint for a fun racing game. The games never generally establish a real driving simulator like Forza or Gran Turismo, but I think that is more of the appeal for me. I like the arcade style, while still keeping it real enough to give the player the feeling of being in a genuine race.  Although, this game still proved to be a great getaway from homework for the average college student like me.

N4S Always Has Surprises
This game really scores good ranks among me, but disappoints in ways too even though I bought it. The Need for Speed games are always fun because I never know what features the new game has. The older games leaned towards a bit of a story, maybe even an open world, and street racing. Whereas these newer titles are going more the track racing route. I liked a lot about this game because it kept it simpler than the others because it was more about the racing. However, I think that because it was so simple, it took away more of the arcade element that makes this game so fun. It lacked a lot of the different racing modes the old games had and strictly had battle races (which was stupid because you didn't win the rivals car), drift, and strictly racing. They took out the speed attack, hot pursuit, street tracks and jumps, and drag racing.

Need for Nostalgia
I personally kind of missed the open world, the build up your persona and knock out racer story, and the customization on the vehicles. They really limited what a person could upgrade on the cars, and that was a real downer for me. I could spend half an hour just customizing one car in the old game feeling like a designer. Now, they really just let you pick from 2 things, and a paint color or a default racing design. I really didn't like that feature because I like having a car of my own. I also thought selecting items on your car such as rims or paint was rather annoying because it did not show what it looked like on your car through the menu unless you apply it. This was not so in previous games.

Online Play is Awesome
The game is redeemed however because it has an excellent and fun online playability for Xbox Live. It was fun to compare races I had done with friends and how some achievements on the track or race I didn't have a friend had or vice versa. Or the online racing battles really added more to the competition and I liked it a lot. I still just wish that my car could be a little more unique instead of looking so similar to everyone else's. I also wish there were a few more cars to choose from instead of 12 or so from only about 4 classes.

Rating
On a scale of 1-10 I would give this...
Visuals: 9.5
Animations& racing AI: 9.5
Story: 0
Game-play: 9
Overall Fun: 9
Pros: Great competition and tournaments, fun AI and visuals, fun to try for track achievements and compete online in different modes.
Cons: Strays from their arcade fun and took a too simple racing track route, no story, got rid of too many good things like racing modes and car customization.