The Need for Speed franchise (currently owned by EA) has a notorious history of being crammed full or tuner cars, custom upgrading and arcade-style police chases. No longer, which is why I'm posting it here. With the series being dead for the past three years after a precision driving and togue title, for better or worse they're going in a completely opposite direction.

This year, the offering is substantially different-- it's advertising itself as a Simulation game. ...It's worth noting that they don't say it's a true sim in the style of Forza or Gran Tourismo, but that they want to balance 75% of the sim experience with a "little" arcade feel so that people can pick it up and enjoy it in any settings and that they won't kill themselves every time they enter Eau Rouge a bit off. Their "gimmick" is visual 'enhancements' depending on what's going on in your driving-- if you brake heavily the view shift forward with the Gs, sides of the screen get a little blurry at high speed, etc..

Cars include commuter-sport such as the MX-5 or Cobalt SS... entry level sports cars like the RX-7, LanEVO, Z370, BMW 1-series, etc... before entering supercar range of 500hp+ machines with R35 GT-R, R8, 'Vette, etc... cars you'd see in DTM... and finally a selection of "ridiculous" cars like Zondas or the Bugatti. The total car list is in the 60-80 range, I believe... but all performance cars.

Tracks offered include Spa(!), Silverstone, Road America, Laguna Seca, and a lot of other fairly well-known tracks that haven't been available in other games, such as Brands Hatch and Ebisu. All the tracks have been faithfully simulated. The pre-release known track list is around 20 GP circuits.

If you'd like a collection of publication reviews and averages, visit the following:
http://www.gamerankings.com/ps3/957700-need-for-speed-shift/index.html

If you have questions about the game, feel free to post and hopefully someone will be able to answer...
...or discuss! GO!

I won't be able to play this game for a while but I've got really high hopes for this.

This game looks awesome. I'll try to get the PS3 and PSP versions.

I believe this game also has THE Nurburgring and Donington.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/driving/needforspeedshift/video/6227671?om_act=convert&om_clk=gsupdates&tag=updates;title;1

The game isnt a sim its more of a cross between Grid and Forza 2 IMHO.

IT looks fantastic and has a excellent cockpit view.

I tired the demo of this game and didn't like it at all. The handling of the cars is absolute crap. It's almost impossible to keep the car straight coming off a corner, even with full traction control. I'm glad I didn't buy this game.

Anyone interested in racing games should check out the new Speed Game Garage in our new mySpeed community. Join up and let me know what you think.

http://my.speedtv.com/game-garage