As Cape Town-based Stephen Viljoen of Slightly Mad Studios mutters some self-deprecation about the assembled press needing to excuse his poor driving techniques, the auditorium we’re seated in quite literally erupts with the rich, throbbing tone of a race-bred incarnation of Audi’s superlative 4.2-litre V8 engine, nestled beneath the bonnet of an RS4 in this case.
It’s our first taste of the upcoming Need for Speed – Shift, and from just this early sample let me tell you it’s one hardcore game. Viljoen was just telling us about how the audio sampled directly from the engines of the real cars being simulated came out too clean for their vision of realistic sound, and therefore were artificially “dirtied” to enhance the immersion. This is just one element of the fastidious attention to minute detail being poured into this game by his team, most of whom come from the infamous SimBin, creators of some of the most hardcore and accurate racing simulators ever made.
Subsequent lapping of the famous Spa Francorchamps GP circuit leaves the audience more than a little deaf, but similarly awestruck by how good this title is going to be come launch date, September this year. The interior detailing of the cars, for instance, all signed-off by the real-world manufacturers for their outright realism, feature a full complement of working gauges, dials, and toggle switches.
The driver is even highly realistically modelled – take your eyes off the road and cast them down into the footwell as you brake for a turn, and you see “your” feet doing the heel-and-toe dance to blip the throttle for the downshift, right hand moving the accurately-realised H-pattern shifter into the correct slot for the chosen gear, the shifting of your view as your neck takes up the strain of the cornering g….
Both visually and aurally every single element has been honed, polished, and perfected to create an overall impression which is just perfect. And not for the first time in the NFS lineage, but for the first time for several incarnations, the physics model supporting these aesthetic elements is if anything even more perfectly detailed in Shift.
There are only a few of the 80-odd modern-day supercars ready for this demo, which reflects a code-base snapshot taken sometime towards the beginning of this year. The “slower” cars are represented by greats such as this RS4 and a lightweight Lotus Exige S, while heavier-hitters include the glorious carbonfibre Pagani Zonda S (it’s 7.2-litre AMG V12 emits a wail which will keep petrolheads smiling for hours), Porsche 911 GT2 (997), and Corvette’s Z06.
“We’re taking the NFS franchise back to its simulation roots with Shift – away from the arcade racer it had become in recent years. NFS Shift will immerse the player in the finer details of racing real cars like never before, unashamedly next-gen in its approach and execution as the premiere modern NFS title,” states Viljoen.
What remains to be seen of course is whether or not the brand is strong enough to buck the sales chart trend of more accessible, arcade racers moving a significantly higher number of units than focussed, realistic alternatives. Simulators, while often appreciated and lauded by the small percentage of hardcore gamers, often find less favour in the broader market. But perhaps with the idolised NFS logo adorning the title, Shift could become among the first of the true-blue simulators to achieve the more mainstream sales numbers.
Judging from the demo, it absolutely deserves to be nothing short of a runaway success. Kudos must go to EA for having the courage to test this established sales trend, and for selecting such a talented team as the developers at Slightly Mad Studios to realise the final product for them.
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