Customer Ratings & Reviews

This game is ok as a racing game that is just average.

I am a long time Grand Turismo fan. Been one since GT1. With its newest title GT5 I was so displeased with it that I ventured out and took a chance with Shift 2. Glad I did. I missed out on the buzz for Shift 1 so I don't know exactly what improvements they made. But I do however know that the fun factor is definitely in vs GT5. The problem with this title is 1) Shift 1 left a bad taste in some people with its gameplay. Physics, A.I. and glitches primarily. People also expected the Need for Speed type action. The title is Shift, not Need for Speed. 2)That everyone that doesn't like Shift, expects the physics to be what GT is. Guess what, its a different game. For what its worth, this game is awesome in my opinion. The fun factor and longevity is there. I stopped playing GT5 after a month of its release do to its lack of content. GT4 is still the better game if you ask me. I don't know what the guy below me is hating on the menus for but the Menus are great. They are straight to the point without excess button pressing. This game in no such form competes with GT3. It will compete with GT5 and Forza 4 when it comes out. Its not the best and its far from the worst. Just like GT5, they can patch and add DLC. Depending on what platform your getting this, the graphics here are decent and on par for the most part. Running at 720p looks good on my LCD. With everything that goes on in the races 720p is the best option because it does not sacrifice the gameplay as much. Run at 1080 and you get screen tearing and other compromises that the game can not do because of higher resolution. The only complaint I see over in the car forums for this game that is valid IMHO, are the physics. I play with a G27 and with most wheels they feel a bit loose when you loose traction in the corners. No biggie really. You can compensate for this by changing your driving style. I approached this game with a GT driving approach. You can not do this. It has its own physics system in which either you like or you don't. Practice it, give it a chance and if you Master it, the game only gets better. The fun factor goes up. Autolog is great. Its a competition in itself with your friends and the rest of the world. Bottom line, this is a better racing experience than GT5 currently IMO. If you want a race, a challenge to push your skill and an A.I. that actually competes with you, this is a title to give a go. If you want to hot lap or just drive tracks with little to no competition then this game isn't for you. There are difficulty setting as well controller level setting to aid/challenge you. Overall, I am having a blast with this than GT5.

I think this a pretty good follow up to the original. I think they have improved on just about every aspect of the original. There seems to be plenty of racing action in this game. I thought the night races would have been more difficult, but it seems the AI is dumbed down a bit for these races. The menu's take a little getting used too. I kinda miss the "stars" system used in Shift. Now you just have Check marks for clean lap, lead lap racing line. I actually have to say the steering and handling is much improved. I have mastered more corners and had more clean laps in one day, then I did in a week with the old Shift. Maybe they are just more forgiving this time around. Either way, It's good. When you hit a wall or another car, you hit hard. Remember the first Shift when it went black and white for a second? It's a little more of a harder hit now. It's like they doubled the blurriness and the recovery time. It makes you not want to crash! lol Also you can't just plow through a field of cars anymore. Which in my eyes is good. Makes the game about racing, not demolish derby. If I want to wreck cars, I will pop in my burn out paradise disc :) Please keep in mind, this not like an arcade style racer. I love need for speed: Hot Pursuit. I love Burnout Paradise. Heck, I even like Split/Second. But with Shift unleashed, you have to have a bit of precision in steering. Knowing this, you have to sometimes go at 50% or even 75% throttle. YEs, your gas button has different degrees of pressure! You can't just hold the gas down and pray it will work like an arcade style racer! I hate calling games a "sim" because to me, there is no such thing. Nothing will ever be close to real life. I call this game a more refined, more precise polished racer.

I wanted to like this game. So badly. I still play NFS Shift and though that game's physics take some getting used to, it was really a great game to keep me busy between GT4 and GT5. I had high hopes that Shift 2 would be like NFS Shift but better. And in almost every aspect, it seemed to be - the few but great cars in the game are done really well, the visuals and audio are spectacular, and new cars and circuits have been added. NFS overall is a much more combative, gritty, potentially more exciting series than GT and its polished look, problematic audio and dim AI, and I'm sure if I had played longer I could have commented that Shift 2's racing was more competitive. The element where Shift 2 falls apart is the driving physics - all the unaddressed problems of NFS Shift but much worse. The steering is vague and numb, the braking and throttle lack any subtlety that is absolutely vital to racing a car at its limit, and both are so astonishingly laggy that your inputs are always half a second late to affect the car's attitude - so it refuses to hit its marks (or drive in a straight line for that matter). I cannot endure a racing game with poor handling response - that defeats the whole purpose of racing (which is so much about the thrill of developing your accuracy, timing and reflexes). And no amount of tweaking to the otherwise impressive array of game options made the driving experience acceptable (options shouldn't be the difference between a game that is playable or unplayable - they should merely fine tune for your personal style). You know it's bad when you rage-quit a race *while you are winning*. Playing Shift 2 felt like an incessant argument with the car and temporarily trained my muscle memory with all kinds of bad habits. So close to being amazing. Disappointing miss.

I'm really dissatisfied with this game. It has a good concept but wow did it fall short of being a good experience! Every car drives like it's a mid 90s station wagon and steering controls feel like they're either on or off. Seems to be a bug with vehicle sounds turning off after a bit of gameplay, restart the game and it works correctly. Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to like this game but unfortunately it's pretty good competition for Gran Turismo 3, yes 3. Graphics are good, upgrading has depth but I didn't like the menus or actually racing the cars. I give it a 2 for gameplay but it got a 3 for customization and graphics are nice.

Great game for those that like a realistic driving simulator. Needs a little polishing as far as the overall game play, but a solid 8.5 out of 10. Good times, and easy to lose track of time with this one.

My Son Loves It. Plays it all the time. The graphics are overall very good. Also, you can customize your car, an absolute requirement for my son,

Out of all the racing franchises: Midnight Club, Gran Turismo, Forza, and TDU2 this is just another racing game though I must give it thumbs up for graphics but theres nothing different from other racing games.

Excellent game that seasoned gamers and beginners can enjoy thanks to the difficulty and simulation settings.