Need for Speed Racing Games

first you must know, Modern Warfare 2 is a shooter Game and Nfs Shift is a Racing Game.
The other Game has nothing to do, with the another Game.
Maybe the Shooter Game have more of the best Dev´s Heads working there, as NFS Shift.

So...still no word on a release date.

If NFS Carbon still weren't so fresh in my mind, I'd call Shift EA's biggest balls-up endeavor ever. This game has now been sitting on my shelf for two months, gathering a fine (and thickening) layer of dust while I wait for this supreme cluster**** to get finished. Meanwhile, Turn 10 and Infinity Ward have more than earned the combined 140 bucks I've donated to their respective causes in the last few weeks.

Actually, now that I really think about it, I am going to dethrone Carbon and "crown" Shift EA's biggest balls-up ever. Because as royally screwed as Carbon was...it was still playable.

Yes, I'm bitter.

xbox.Clutch2009 wrote:So...still no word on a release date.

If NFS Carbon still weren't so fresh in my mind, I'd call Shift EA's biggest balls-up endeavor ever. This game has now been sitting on my shelf for two months, gathering a fine (and thickening) layer of dust while I wait for this supreme cluster**** to get finished. Meanwhile, Turn 10 and Infinity Ward have more than earned the combined 140 bucks I've donated to their respective causes in the last few weeks.

Actually, now that I really think about it, I am going to dethrone Carbon and "crown" Shift EA's biggest balls-up ever. Because as royally screwed as Carbon was...it was still playable.

Yes, I'm bitter.

I think that Carbon was fine, even in the stripped-down Wii version that I played it on.

BTW, what is a "balls-up" game? And yes, I know I'm a noob.

Could NFS make BMW m3 GT2 usable in career mode please? I will have to move on to GT5 if it don't

nfs.rednfs427 wrote:

xbox.Clutch2009 wrote:So...still no word on a release date.

If NFS Carbon still weren't so fresh in my mind, I'd call Shift EA's biggest balls-up endeavor ever. This game has now been sitting on my shelf for two months, gathering a fine (and thickening) layer of dust while I wait for this supreme cluster**** to get finished. Meanwhile, Turn 10 and Infinity Ward have more than earned the combined 140 bucks I've donated to their respective causes in the last few weeks.

Actually, now that I really think about it, I am going to dethrone Carbon and "crown" Shift EA's biggest balls-up ever. Because as royally screwed as Carbon was...it was still playable.

Yes, I'm bitter.

I think that Carbon was fine, even in the stripped-down Wii version that I played it on.

BTW, what is a "balls-up" game? And yes, I know I'm a noob.

Balls-up, at least as how I define it, is to set out to do something and screw it up in grand fashion.

Carbon was a spectacular balls-up because it did so remarkably little after Most Wanted. In fact, it actually took away a lot of things. Most Wanted, while not a lengthy game, was long and varied enough to keep interest alive, even through multiple playthroughs. Also, the physics system was as perfect as one could hope for from the kind of game it was - provided you didn't modify every car to outrageous levels with the Junkman parts, every car had its' own unique feel.

Carbon took that physics system, dropped a steaming load all over it, and replaced it with the crap "Muscle-Tuner-Exotic" shtick, in which certified supercars such as the Porsche Carrera GT and the Dodge Viper SRT-10 couldn't be modified, tuned, or driven to save their own skins, while a stock Nissan Skyline GT-R stuck to the road as if the tires were made of Superglue. Sadly, I wish I was making that last part up. I also wish I was making up the fact that I took said stock GT-R and easily cleared the final career races against the rivals, including the Le Mans Quattro concept (what we now know as the R8 4.2 FSI). In a little over a week, to boot. A second playthrough, this time focusing on winning and gathering every single thing in the game, was cleared in under a week. I'm fully convinced that if I abandoned any pretense of a life and focused on just the core game only, I could beat Carbon three times in a single, continuous 24-hour period.

But again, even with all of Carbon's mind-numbing and aggravating faults...the game remains quite playable. If I ever chose to (and frankly, I'd rather not), I could pop that in my PS2 and play, only having to deal with what I detailed previously.

SHIFT, on the other hand...Shift goes balls-up simply because the game was so badly rushed to market that any of its' good qualities are quickly and overwhelmingly bum-rushed by a large number of game-breaking glitches. The no-start cars, the homicidal AI, the lost game saves, the horrific tuning system...it's like bringing that shiny new car home, only to find out that the on-board computer on the frickin' thing is prone to spitting out random OBD codes and throwing your car into fail-safe mode once every few start-ups.

1 year later and another new NFS title(NFS UNDERCOVER PRO STREET SHIFT S--T.)

Yup, you know you have a winner when you define Carbon as being the worst game in the NFS library after Shift.

Surprise, surprize. EA just laid off 30% off their crew. Do you think they are worried about a game that has been released for two months? They got what they got out of it. They once again fooled alot of people with the "Slightly Mad Studios" thing. They lie. They alway's lie. What do you think they did with the game that Black Box had been working on for two years. Remember the team split. Two teams that would each release a game evey other year? This may have been a marketing sucess with the "Slightly Mad" twist, but this game is up to it's neck in Black Box. A couple of guy's from Simbin don't write a game. And you can bet they didn't throw out all that 2 year's Black Box spent. Or that the guy's at Black Box were not working with "Slightly Mad" om this project.

I see Black Box everywhere in this game. The AI- unchanged. Exact same moves as everything that has ever come out of Black Box. With no discernable improvments whatsoever. Even the physic's is basically the same. It's still circle and rubber band. Slightly Mad just tightened it up a bit. Guess they couldn't do much with the drifting. Without four wheel independant physic's you just can't make a car feel right when drifting. So much depends on the differences between the front and rear of the car. It also shows up in the FFB- oh wait there is no FFB. It's just vibration. FFB has to come from the car to make it feel right, not the track.

They have this idea that they are going to create this huge online community. Their dreaming out loud. This is a game that you play against the game by yourself whenever you want. In any case, you should be able to play by yourself if you want. But it's hard to enjoy when the AI are braking in front of you or trying to ram you. Play on hard and they are really ridiculous.

They should be fixing small glitches with the patches after a game is released. Not bsic gameplay components. And certainly not menu items being backwards and such. Just proves the game was totally untested.

I would like to have seen them fix the motion blur in the cockpit when you have motion blur turned off. And the holes in the roofs. But that will never happen because they have to fix all this other stuff. I'm getting real tired of dusting EA NFS games.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/20/2009 00:32:20

@Thingriz

What source do you have for 30%? 'Cause at PlaystationLifestyle.com they noted that they closed a development house which comprised about 200 people. The core group that will publish the final game from the Bioware/Pandemic offices. This closure is in keeping with the previous announcement that some games were going to be dropped and some development houses are going to be closed.

After all, despite many opinions, no one in the game development sector is doing very well. The video game industry sells software for a much lower price than many software developers and yet need to include some of the most intensive aspects of the industry. The artwork is extremely time intensive and cannot be reproduced by computer code or made redundant. Games push the boundaries of what can be done with computers, and consoles are continually asking for cleaner and more efficient code so that we get better results. All for the low price of $60 or $70. Windows Home isn't nearly as intensive to create and it has a much higher retail price.

As for building an online community? Well, EA is trying to build one. And from the traffic I've seen it is doing better than it was at this time last year. And we still have World Online to look forward to for the real push towards a larger online presence. Which has been pushed back to ensure quality...something that goes against what detractors have said previously.

The online push is also in many other veins of EA's product development. They have put more product on the Playstation Store than any other company bar Activision/Blizzard. And they have been moving towards a more online based movement for awhile. Including the purchase of a company that develops social games that are played in place like Myspace or Facebook. (The name of the company eludes me at this point.)

Now I'm sure that people are going suddenly declare me a Fanboy for doing this post. And heaven forbid knows it'll disturb me, but what's so wrong about educating myself about the business of a company who hosts a forum I spend time in? A company that has been a giant in the video game industry for over a decade and that can trace much of it's history to Canada? Some will call me a fanboy, I call it it well earned pride.

Anyways, if you're tired of dusting EA games. Then stop buying them.

thesims.Fasckira wrote:

nfs_web.dgc4rter wrote:Just one question I'd like to pose at this moment in time:

If Infinity Ward can release 4 patches for Modern Warfare 2 within the space of a week of the game's release, how come we're still waiting for the first patch for Shift?

Granted, EA have got one helluva lot to fix for this game but it's beginning to drag on a bit. As much as I really like this game, I'm back on Dirt 2 and GT5 Prologue because the whole experience is a lot less frustrating.

Er, a lot of patches doesnt mean its a good thing, it just means it wasn't tested properly. On top of that, I would rather EA take their time and release a solid patch which resolves the issues rather than release 4 updates that fix issues here there and everywhere!

I wasn't particularly implying that releasing 4 patches within a week was a good thing - of course it isn't. We have had, though, excuses about how long the release process takes with Sony, Microsoft, et al having to get involved but surely this process is similar to what IW are subject to. However, I'll just be glad if the upcoming patch fixes the most significant problems so I can get back to enjoying the higher tier races.

I wished that would help themselves mutually with it, it makes headway faster.

Where is the Teamwork.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/20/2009 08:51:11

Here you go UberSil- http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/09/losses-layoffs-in-eas-q2-earnings-report/
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/chops+jobs+layoffs+Burnaby+significant/2206654/story.html

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-ea-layoffs-20091109,0,2018814.story

Black Box is gone, Tiburon is laying off, 12 games have been cancelled. Google man! Not to worry. Someone will take up the slack. Computer Gaming is really still in it's infancy. I probably won't get to see much more of it- I'm 59, and came out of the roaring 60's. But I expect to see some real improvment's before I go. And at some point of my last day on this earth I will have either been playing a Racing game or Fishing. You can do that when your retired.

I'm not happy that EA is having a hard time. To the contrary. They make games I like to play. Looking at my game shelves I see approx. 200 games. I would say at least 40-50 of them are EA. What pi$$e$ me off is that the suit's at EA have so little regard for their customer's. This didn't happen out of a void. They have been alianating their cusomer's for a long time now. Talk to some gamer's at your local Best Buy. Just ask them what they think of EA? I do. EA Games are like poison to them, we've all been burned too many times. I can't help but buy Racing games. I just can't let one go by. But I havn't bought any other EA games for about three years now.

I'm a game dev who was previously in the IT field, game development is the hardest, most frustrating and most rewarding job I've ever had. We are passionate about there work we study and practice on our spare time, we read confusing white papers on new rendering tech. I have a degree and those who don't have spent the equivalent time studying and practicing on their own. ...

Then one must write always a new compiler when sometimes 1000 people are dismissed again.
I think thats because why the games from EA are so full of bugs and with cheaters.
On for a long time that will become nothing if they continue so. EA should consist with other like codemasters or also other companies negotiate, employees lend ideas exchange. Together work and not mutually!

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 11/20/2009 13:10:14

You will notice 2 interesting stories on the official NFS Shift blog.

1. Nomination for Best Driving Game at the VGAs. How can this game be in the running for that award, considering the core game STILL has major bugs such as bouncing and non-starting cars? Surely this must have been an oversight on the nominations. How could you award a team for an incomplete, poorly tested, rushed product? Don't get me wrong, I love the parts of the game that "work", and think that it could be the Best Driving Game of the year, but with bugs that ruin the core experience? I don't think so. And I think it's shameful that they encourage people to vote for them, the same people that are waiting for a working game. They have time to post stuff like this, but not the time to come on here and give those of us waiting for a patch the time of day.

2. DLC. Wow. Just wow. This shocks me. Granted, it is free DLC, but you'd think that re-allocating the resources used to develop the DLC towards the patch would have made for a more timely release. I, for one, would like the core game fixed before new stuff is added.

As I said, I do love this game. I have a wheel and it's a blast to play alone or with friends taking turns. But it's annoying when you pick a car and track combination that is so glitched out it's more frustrating than it is fun. Numerous times I've given up on guessing which cars/tracks are glitched out and just played GT5: Prologue instead to avoid the frustration. Even if it is just a demo, it also just works.

I've been reading this board for a few weeks now, trying to get some updated info on the patch, and I've been able to hold back posting anything until today, because those 2 blog posts just floored me.

On a slightly unrelated note, another article about NFS shift I found interesting was http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4185/a_case_for_virtual_game_.php

In it they describe how they developed the game in a virtual environment with different parts of the team working in different offices across the globe, sometimes in small offices together and sometimes on their own. Could this also be a reason why the game was so glitchy and the patch is so tardy? Perhaps they have a few independents working on the DLC and a few independents working on the patch? All speculation, I know.

ps3.chasosaur wrote:...
On a slightly unrelated note, another article about NFS shift I found interesting was http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4185/a_case_for_virtual_game_.php
... I know.

Ken Nakai wrote:
This sort of thing is always about whether or not it fits rather than being an all-in-one solution for everyone. I work with Russian developers and act as traffic cop and build engineer. Similar to the problems Simon had, I run into occasions where a bug was introduced by one of the remote developers and we either deal with it (if it's minor enough) or work around it.

This is very interesting. Remote Developer Controlling Department for EA to get a bugfree core code. Perfect

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