POSTED 10/4/11


SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED

EA
PS3 (also on Xbox 360, PC)

What’s the last thing that goes through a bug’s mind when hitting a windscreen? Its arsehole. BAM! We’re here all week – and please don’t forget to try the chicken.

There’s lots new in EA’s Shift 2. There are flies on the windscreen, for a start. Hey, who let Dave in? Not now Dave, we’re busy...

More seriously, there’s night driving with decent headlights for a change, so you can actually see ahead-type stuff – lovin’ those xenons - as well as what we call ‘Lars Von Trier cam’ but instead is boringly referred to as ‘helmet cam’ – we’ll let you work that one out. Then there’s the super-fabby, friend-skiting AutoLog from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Not that it’s NFS anymore, mind, for this is serious mum.

Everything you expect from a sober car racer’s here, but with a perfect spattering of arcadiness. More tracks than a gunzel’s wet dream, more cars than Jay Leno’s garage, a reasonable blatting-along-really-fricking-fast facsimile, more challenges than peak-hour traffic in Melbourne and more customisations than when trying to order a MINI. The best thing, unlike certain other po-faced racing sims, is that menus are logical enough for an amoeba to navigate – should said amoeba possess opposable thumbs, natch. They’re clear, concise and painless. If you were of an animated, beagle-esque bent they could possibly even inspire a Snoopy dance.

You can have assists galore, or turn everything off – including the HUD - and go as realistic as it gets when you’re not potentially dead if you fuck up the next corner.

Presentation means nothing if the game sucks harder than a hooker desperate to knock off in time to get home for Top Gear. Mercifully, Shift 2 doesn’t suck in any major way, save perhaps for some naff FX.

But don’t call us “man”...

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