Shift 2: Unleashed

I'm a bit confused a few minutes into the career mode in Shift 2: Unleashed I'm asked to buy my first car, and I get to choose between the Ford Focus, Golf GTD, Renault Megane, Seat Leon, Honda Civic, and Audi A3...cars built for driving to the supermarket.

Hardly what I expected from a game claiming to do away with the boring, mundane cars that plague the likes of Gran Turismo. Is it that different to drive a Ford Focus on Suzuka than a Polo? Is that a question I expected to be asking in Shift 2? No, not really and not after what I was told when I visited the developer late last year.

But I know the drill. I've done this many times before. I go with the Renault and skid my way through the corners of Monza, all the while willing myself as quickly as possible through the progression system.

Shift 2: Unleashed isn't a major update on the previous game. At times it feels like I'm playing the predecessor, but now with a strange narrator voice to keep me company. Slightly Mad Studios have taken inspiration from Codemasters arcade style racing games, and, with Formula D champion Vaughn Gittin Jr, I'm thrown around inexplicably cluttered menus.

Into the game proper and quick competitions are intermixed with cutscenes full of attitude, and you're going to have to deal with a bunch of gang-related gestures. It feels corny, tacky and tagged on to a game that is at its core, a simulator. I guess the idea is to attract new players, but what results is a mixed message, and a failure to commit to what Shift 2 is really about.

The career mode is structured much like the one in the original or for that matter in Forza Motorsport 3. There's different classes to complete and points to be gained in each race that combine to increase my total after each tournament or cup. Earn enough and its on to the next level with tougher competition sporting better cars. The menus within this mode feel overloaded, the amount of information in each screen make for a cluttered mess.

It's a good thing the racing is great. With your car on the course and with PC-version at max settings, I'm clocking in at 98 frames per second and I get to finely tune my Logitech G27. It feels good, but not perfect. No matter how I try I find the racing easier to with the controller rather than the steering wheel. The opposite of what I found with Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5. The tire physics is still a bit loose and the brakes don't measure up. The sense of speed has been tweaked down compared to the predecessor. I do get the same sense that the center of gravity is located higher up, same as in the predecessor, as if some cars levitate above the tarmac.

While games like Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5 try and simulate how a car behaves on tarmac mathematically, Shift 2: Unleashed takes a different path. In those games you get a smooth experience free from the loud, shaky experience that is real racing. Shift 2: Unleashed tosses the blackboard and its scribbles out the window.

Your tires screech and slide across the surface while dirt tosses onto your windows. The screen vibrates and shifts in and out of focus. It feels fresh, cocky and cool. The cockpit experience is chaotically hectic and shakes you up.

In order to pull this off, Slightly Mad Studios has tweaked the physics to create an distorted realism (or "immersion simulation" as the studio call it). Your car shakes and roars, and every twelfth second dirt is slashed on your windscreen.

"Immersion Simulation" was a big part of the first game. In Shift 2: Unleashed the priorities are a bit different. As stated, the cars have been stabilised somewhat and the sense of speed turned down. Combine this with the fact that there is more noise and shaking inside the cockpit and the experience can become a bit unfocused, stuck as you are between the behaviour of your car and the wild antics of the cockpit camera. It strays from simulation into irritation at times.

The biggest new addition is a camera view called Helmet Cam. Slightly Mad Studios called it a revolution and it aims to simulate the experience inside a racing helmet. The camera is mounted behing the eyes of your racing avatar and apart from seeing a shaky and often unfocused image of the road ahead you also see parts of the lining of the helmet.

As a massive racing fan I think it's an awesome idea, and I have no doubt it will be copied by the competition. Although the problem is that it doesn't add anything in the long run and that it only works as a gimmick for a few laps. If you want to register your best times you'll likely pick an exterior view, as the helmet cam makes both passing other cars and picking the correct line more difficult. This is due to the exaggerated movement of the helmet as you brake, accelerate or take corners.

Another, more solid addition is the Autolog feature that has been integrated into Shift 2: Unleashed. Autolog was the best part of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and it's easy to tell that EA have spent lots of time on adding even more functionality to it, letting you share lap times, replays, photos and show your rides to friends. Everything is a breeze thanks to the system's setup and I'm already looking forward to seeing what the best drivers can record with their lap times.

While the predecessor looked fantastic on its release, the sequel doesn't look quite as impressive when stacked against other recent racing titles.

However, it should be said that the tracks are beautifully crafted with great lighting and that the cars are beautifully produced. I was however disappointed to find that the console versions still clock in at 30 frames per second. I had really hoped that the developer had been able to fine-tune their game engine to allow me to race with the same silky smooth 60 frames per second as in Forza Motorsport 3 on console.

In the end it's a good racing game that offers a different type of simulation than your Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5. The racing is intense, often chaotic and the graphics are impressive - albeit with long load times. The drifting and the new narrative driven presentation feels a bit misplaced, and the tire physics can't compete with Forza Motorsport 3. Shift 2: Unleashed is a high quality racing game, but it lacks the improvements I would have hoped for.