Shift 2 Unleashed News Post

Shift 2: Unleashed Hands-Off Preview

12:06 PM - March 11, 2011 by RaychelSnr

Back in the early part of the '90s, going from Wolfenstein 3D or Doom to Marathon forced you to change the way you played a first-person shooter. While Doom only allowed you to look left and right, Marathon allowed you to look up and down as well. The ability to look up and down forced you to play Marathon in a different way, and its aiming scheme ultimately became the new standard in first-person shooters.

The folks behind Shift 2: Unleashed seem to want to push the racing genre forward in a similar fashion. With the �helmet cam� being introduced in Shift 2, the developers want the focus to be on the racing experience; the developers want the focus to be on the driver, not the car.

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Shift 2 Unleashed Videos

Member Comments

# 1 JMD @ 03/11/11 12:34 PM

Just curious, this game will still have the standard cockpit view, won't it?

# 2 Pete1210 @ 03/11/11 01:13 PM

It would be great if they could actually incorporate head tracking for the cockpit camera in racing games.

# 3 3nDAmornin @ 03/11/11 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flamehead


	I believe this may be the video referenced in the article regarding comparisons to Forza and GT5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP4kG...layer_embedded

Youtube has that video listed as private....

# 4 lnin0 @ 03/11/11 04:53 PM

This is why I like shift. They are as tired of car porn as I am.

# 5 Flamesfan102 @ 03/12/11 01:11 AM

Shift 2 is going to be a far improvement from the previous "Shift"

I bought Shift months ago, played it, but didn't really get the feel for it. But now with the helmet cam, it seems to add another dimension.

# 6 Flawless @ 03/12/11 07:40 AM

That comparison video from EA is moot, because it's comparing cockpit views to a helmet cam, and their trying to portray Shift 2 as being more realistic by showing live-action footage from a camera on top of a driver's helmet.

I must be the only person who doesn't like this helmet cam. I know you don't have to play from it, but it looks jarring and nauseating coupled with the excessive blurring of anything not directly in-front of the windscreen, and zooming in/out to try and simulate acceleration and braking. The devs were on to something, but the implementation needs to be way more subtle. GT5 is actually much more "true-to-life" in that video; a humans soft body and neck remove a lot of shaking and our brains sync our vision with the movements. All these effects to me are a cover up for weak tire and physics simulation. I do like reading about the focus being on actual racing, which is fairly lackluster in GT and Forza.

# 7 ChaseB @ 03/12/11 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flawless


	That comparison video from EA is moot, because it's comparing cockpit views to a helmet cam, and their trying to portray Shift 2 as being more realistic by showing live-action footage from a camera on top of a driver's helmet. I must be the only person who doesn't like this helmet cam. I know you don't have to play from it, but it looks jarring and nauseating coupled with the excessive blurring of anything not directly in-front of the windscreen, and zooming in/out to try and simulate acceleration and braking. The devs were on to something, but the implementation needs to be way more subtle. GT5 is actually much more "true-to-life" in that video; a humans soft body and neck remove a lot of shaking and our brains sync our vision with the movements. All these effects to me are a cover up for weak tire and physics simulation. I do like reading about the focus being on actual racing, which is fairly lackluster in GT and Forza.

I think Shift 2 will be really hard to watch as a spectator if someone is using the helmet cam (see: motion sickness potential). If you have the controller, it seems to feel much better.

# 8 lnin0 @ 03/13/11 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flamehead


	For those still interested, this link might work for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYOCl...layer_embedded

Thanks for the post. Where can I get that game "Live Action" that they showed first. It looked amazing.

Borza didn't look half bad for a hovercraft game. I also had a good chuckle about the inclusion of music in the GT video and the silly bumping that you are allowed to get away with.

Shift helmet cam looks like a great view but the AI still looks janky. I get the devs wanting to show one scrape with the AI but the fact the AI was dipping all over the place in every clip looked bad.

# 9 Flamesfan102 @ 03/13/11 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flawless


	That comparison video from EA is moot, because it's comparing cockpit views to a helmet cam, and their trying to portray Shift 2 as being more realistic by showing live-action footage from a camera on top of a driver's helmet. I must be the only person who doesn't like this helmet cam. I know you don't have to play from it, but it looks jarring and nauseating coupled with the excessive blurring of anything not directly in-front of the windscreen, and zooming in/out to try and simulate acceleration and braking. The devs were on to something, but the implementation needs to be way more subtle. GT5 is actually much more "true-to-life" in that video; a humans soft body and neck remove a lot of shaking and our brains sync our vision with the movements. All these effects to me are a cover up for weak tire and physics simulation. I do like reading about the focus being on actual racing, which is fairly lackluster in GT and Forza.

look up actual races in the drivers cam and it looks the exact same. That is why they are aiming for a more realistic approach.

# 10 Kruza @ 03/14/11 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lnin0


	Thanks for the post. Where can I get that game "Live Action" that they showed first. It looked amazing. Borza didn't look half bad for a hovercraft game. I also had a good chuckle about the inclusion of music in the GT video and the silly bumping that you are allowed to get away with. Shift helmet cam looks like a great view but the AI still looks janky. I get the devs wanting to show one scrape with the AI but the fact the AI was dipping all over the place in every clip looked bad.

From first glance, the live action segment looks to me like a Toyo Tires World Challenge race happening on the Long Beach Street Circuit. The World Challenge series of races were shown on Versus Network last year, but I'm not sure if they'll be shown there this year. I'll have to look it up.

Anyway, that camera view of Shift 2 shown in the YouTube video looks very good. I like how far the camera pans over as the driver is turning. This gives a unique perspective of what all the driver sees mid-corner while negotiating those long, sweeping bends.

Kruza

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Shift 2: Unleashed Hands-Off Preview