Need for Speed: SHIFT 
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EA delists five Need for Speed games ahead of August online shutdownJun 1, 2021 - EurogamerEA has pulled five Need for Speed games from sale ahead of an August shutdown of online services. On 31st May, EA announced the removal of Need for Speed Carbon (2006), Need for Speed Undercover (2008), Need for Speed Shift (2009), Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed (2011) and Need for Speed The Run (2011) from digital storefronts. In-game stores have also closed. EA said this move, which was announced and implemented on the same day, is in "preparation" for the "retirement" of the online services for these games, which is set for 31st August. Until then, you can still play and race your friends online. But from 1st September onwards, you can play offline only. Read more New Weeklong Deals, Monday March 3rdMar 3, 2014 - AnnouncementCheck back for new deals every Monday at 10AM Pacific. Midweek Madness - Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, 70% OffJul 9, 2013 - AnnouncementSave 70% on the Need For Speed Franchise during this week's Midweek Madness*! Need for Speed Hot Pursuit launches you into a new open-world landscape behind the wheel of the world's fastest and most beautiful cars. From Criterion, the award-winning studio behind the Burnout series, Hot Pursuit will redefine racing games for a whole new generation. *Offer ends Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time Shift 2: Unleashed reviewMar 29, 2011 - PC Gamer I am in favour of the RPG-ification of all things. I want points for successfully waking up in the morning, points for getting my legs through the right holes in my trousers, points for not falling over and voiding my bowels on the way to work. Shift 2 has the right idea: it gives me points for everything. I overtake another car and the invisible car god of the sky gives me 20 points. I stymie a rival’s progression through the pack by weaving my multi-thousand dollar machine in front of his, and he gifts me another ten. All points from my benevolent driving lord go toward Shift 2’s career mode, and fuel a healthy and compulsive unlock schedule that makes me want to swear undying fealty to my new car god and kill all unbelievers. Points spill forth from all Shift 2’s orifices. Winning races or getting the fastest lap on a time attack session will typically give the largest rewards, but they don’t satisfy quite like the mid-race prizes. On default settings, Shift 2’s tracks are lit up by a racing line of green chevrons: follow them perfectly and you’ll tot up XP. Each course has mini achievements – leading for a lap, or following the line through every corner – and the points-haul is chunky. Connecting solidly with the racing line and sticking to it adds an extra frisson to an already tense game, but the wayward handling model makes the process more complicated than it needs to be. Shift 2’s default camera mode is in the racer’s helmet. Slightly Mad studios have artfully recreated the sense of climbing into a turbocharged tin can and getting knocked about so hard your vision swims, but in doing so, it feels like they’ve tied Shift 2’s cars too closely to your on-screen hand movements. Let’s take turning left as an example. On a Xbox 360 pad (and for the love of new magic sky god, do not attempt to play with a keyboard - controller or wheel only), pushing the stick slowly to the left has one of two outcomes: a yank on the wheel that realigns your car at least ten degrees, or nothing at all. As an experience, the helmet cam is breathtaking – being close to the tarmac with the noise and speed feels properly dangerous. But to win races, I had to switch to the behind-the-car camera, or suffer as my guesses about the way my car was facing were proved wrong. Mastering a race from further out, Shift 2’s all-or-nothing handling can be studied, judged, and reasoned with. Car type and quality make a huge difference, necessitating some minor grinding. I was having problems finishing on the podium in one of the game’s early C-class races, using a cheapo front-wheel drive Nissan. Much swearing later, I hocked it and used some extra cash to pick up a four-wheel drive Impreza, adding a few technical-sounding tweaks from the garage along the way. Popping back into the same race, I slipped my competitors on the first corner and giggled all the way to the top spot. Shift 2’s sheer weight of stuff – from mud-ring circuits in a VW Golf to Bugatti duels at the Nurburg...Shift 2 dev slams Gran Turismo, ForzaNov 30, 2010 - EurogamerAs the battle of the simulation racers heats up, one developer has revealed exactly what he thinks of his rivals. That developer is Shift 2: Unleashed's lead designer Andy Tudor, who had some choice words for Sony's Gran Turismo 5 and Microsoft's Forza 3 when Eurogamer interviewed him to discuss his upcoming game. "Those two games are on pedestals at the moment," he said. "When we're thinking about what we want to do in this game, it's not a numbers game. We're not going to add a thousand irrelevant cars. "Both those games, to me, are almost like encyclopaedias. You've got a thousand cars, a thousand tracks, whatever, and basically the game is about earning cash to get another car, earning cash to get another car. "It's like a grind. It's almost like stamp collecting." Gran Turismo 5, released to sales success last week, features over 1000 cars. 1031 to be exact. Eurogamer listed all of GT5's cars earlier this month. And of course Forza 3, the latest in Turn 10's Xbox 360-exclusive series, doesn't shy away when it comes to the car count, either. For Tudor, though, cars, cars and more cars make for a boring racing simulation experience. "That's not where the fun is," he said. "The fun is behind the wheel, feeling you're on the edge, pushing it to the limit, putting in the cars that are relevant and cool to drive, allowing you to completely customise those from factory to the works level we had in Shift 1, and giving you the chance to then play against your friends in a social way. Developer Slightly Mad's approach is, in Tudor's own words, in opposition of "just adding five variations of the 1986 Toyota Corolla or something like that". Tudor reckons most of the cars in Polyphony Digital and Turn 10's efforts go unused. Instead, gamers collect between 10 and 15 cars. "They certainly don't fill their garage up with every single car there is in the game all 500 of them." Patrick Soderlund, the man in charge of EA's racing and driving games, has been clear in his intentions for the Shift series: he wants it to kill Gran Turismo and Forza. "We think we can compete and ultimately become market leading in the simulation authentic motorsport segment," he told Eurogamer. "One of the strongest points we have is, apart from the fact we have a very talented developer working with us and we now have an established brand underneath the NFS umbrella in that segment, we also have the advantage of being a multi-platform offering. "Forza can only be bought on Xbox and Gran Turismo is only available on PlayStation. We're the only one right now that is of a significant weight that can offer something up on all those platforms." Aggressive? For Tudor and Slightly Mad, Soderlund's goal is music to the ears. "It's a different way of thinking, basically. We want to take those guys on. We want to make a more authentic experience." Shift 2: UnleashedNov 30, 2010 - EurogamerYou're probably done with congratulating developers just for sticking an XP system in their game. And with good reason; applauding the insertion of statistical progression is like celebrating the creativity of whoever puts MSG in Pringles. That said, when it comes to the Shift series, having the persistent points meter ticking upwards throughout each squealing, tarcmac-buckling race has always felt interesting. It creates an elastic tension between the game's lunges at realism and the rambling series' arcade roots. An obvious choice, perhaps, but it works. The original Shift tried to be a crunchier, bashier kind of simulation racer offering the depth and handling of 'serious' car games like Forza, infused with a touch of Burnout's sideswiping chaos. The sequel takes things one step further, grabbing hold of the first outing's dynamic interior view and squeezing. The end result rams you right into the juddering crash helmet cam of a professional speedster tooling along at 200mph, in a mission to deliver what the developers are calling the "driver's battle". While you can still play Shift 2 outside of the car if that's what you're after, I suspect the design team would much rather have you indoors. You should certainly give it a try as it's astonishing what a tweak to the perspective has done. The helmet cam creates a sense that you're seated much higher in your chair. In some car models, your vision is now partially obscured by shiny white roll bars. The smart deployment of depth of field effects as you're knocked back and forth can also blur the windscreen or the dash at crucial moments if you want to get the most visceral Shift 2 experience, you'll be going by the in-car dials rather than a superimposed UI. At night, your functional visibility can be diminished to a fleeting scrap of road laying somewhere between the harsh bloom of headlights and the murky sodium gloom of an overcast sky. The team has designed nocturnal racing to be terrifying, and it really is. During the day, you've still got the glare from the sun to take into account, and the sheer detail of the trackside environments as the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps whizzes past on all sides. Are these visual limitations imposed by the more dynamic presentation annoying? No. Actually, they could just be brilliant. Shift 2 certainly marks a significant step up from the previous game when it comes to delivering an intense driving experience. The series' trademark throaty, rumbling audio blends perfectly with the jarring camera wobble as your head is bashed about by G-force. Sailing into a corner with five other cars, sending out sparks as metal grinds against metal, brings back all the wrong memories of going for Sunday drives with my dad before we'd finally cottoned on to the fact he wasn't just extremely short-sighted anymore. Speaking of nasty crashes, Shift 2's procedural damage is looking smarter than ever. Bonnets rupture, little cracks skid across glass. The sense of feedback du...Shift 2 Unleashed announcedNov 16, 2010 - EurogamerSlightly Mad Studios' Shift 2 Unleashed will be released during the spring of 2011 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, EA's announced. Shift is EA's Gran Turismo and Forza killer it's designed to offer an authentic simulation racing experience in contrast to the arcade racing found in Criterion's Hot Pursuit. The first Shift sold through close to five million copies worldwide, according to EA. Shift 2 brings an "all-new" rendering engine and a "massive" graphics overhaul. "With an innovative helmet camera view simulating the physical experience of driving at 200mph, the thrilling experience of night racing and authentic degradation of tracks and cars, this is tomorrow's sim for today's adrenaline fuelled racer," said EA. Hot Pursuit's Autolog feature, which connects friends and compares stats, returns. Shift 2 "is redefining immersive racing by blending the rush of tearing up the track at unbelievable speeds with the emotional experience of competitive battle" said executive producer Marcus Nilsson. "We are also working closely with real-world performance drivers to ensure that Shift 2 Unleashed captures their experience and becomes the benchmark in authentic racing action." The announcement comes as no surprise: Shift 2's been mentioned here and there for over a year. And only two weeks ago EA executive Patrick Soderlund told Eurogamer he hopes the Shift series will overtake Sony's Gran Turismo series and Microsoft's Forza franchise as gaming's leading simulation racer. "We think we can compete and ultimately become market leading in the simulation authentic motorsport segment," he said. "One of the strongest points we have is, apart from the fact we have a very talented developer working with us and we now have an established brand underneath the NFS umbrella in that segment, we also have the advantage of being a multi-platform offering. "Forza can only be bought on Xbox and Gran Turismo is only available on PlayStation. We're the only one right now that is of a significant weight that can offer something up on all those platforms." Announcement trailer is below. Video: Black Box behind Nov 2011 Need for SpeedNov 2, 2010 - EurogamerEA's vision for the Need for Speed franchise involves alternating the developers behind every November release in a similar way Infinity Ward and Treyarch alternate development of Call of Duty games. This November's game, Hot Pursuit, was created by Criterion. November 2011's game, unannounced at this stage but confirmed to be in EA's plan, will be created by Need for Speed: Undercover developer EA Black Box in Canada. EA also plans to make a franchise out of side series Need for Speed: Shift designed to compete with the likes of Forza and Gran Turismo in the authentic simulation racing genre. EA's new NFS strategy was revealed by executive Patrick Soderlund in a wide ranging new interview with Eurogamer. "We want to reach a mass-market audience, and Hot Pursuit is a more mass-market appealing product than Shift," Soderlund said. "We want to come back with an action adventure type of product on an annual basis, but from a developer that's been working on it for a couple of years. "Maybe there are two or three developers going at it every second year. Then, when the market permits and when we feel ready, we'll come up with Shift versions as well." Soderlund's new vision for the franchise was born out of a frustration at the quality of previous games in the series. Developers were only given eight to 10 months to create a NFS game. Under the new strategy multiple developers will each get two years development time, allowing EA to stick to its traditional annual release schedule without reducing quality. While November NFS games will differ on account of the studios behind them, Soderlund promised gamers they will all share core NFS tenets, and even game features. "We want Auto Log to be something that follows with the consumer to the next NFS product," he explained. "We want them to use their log in and their details they had from the previous game into the next. If they're a loyal consumer to us we would reward them for that." Despite the plan, Soderlund refused to confirm that Guildford developer Criterion is now a NFS exclusive studio. "What happens to Criterion in the future, we'll see," he offered. Soderlund also confirmed that the Burnout series, loved by so many of Criterion's fans, is not dead. "I hope to see more Burnout games in the future. But it's about prioritising what we want to do. At this point we haven't made a decision to whether Burnout does this or that, but it's not dead for sure, no." And on Shift, which debuted last year with Slightly Mad's effort, Soderlund outlined ambitious plans for EA to overtake Sony's Gran Turismo series and Microsoft's Forza franchise as gaming's leading simulation racer. "We think we can compete and ultimately become market leading in the simulation authentic motorsport segment," he said. "One of the strongest points we have is, apart from the fact we have a very talented developer working with us and we now have an established brand underneath the NFS umbrella in that segment, we also have the ad...Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit to start race warsOct 14, 2010 - PC Gamer The latest Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit video shows off some of the hyper-competitive networking features the game will game will have. Essentially, it's going to start a four-wheeled war with everyone on your friends list. Check out the video below. The new features will include a Facebook style 'wall' that will let you post comments, screenshots and race videos to your friends. The game will also track your race times and compare your performances with others on your friends list. If someone beats your best time on a certain track, the game's omniscient 'Autolog' service will send you an update so you can immediately respond and take back the number one spot. As the man says, "there's nothing more powerful than beating a friend." EA Week, Day Four: Save on EA Racing GamesJun 17, 2010 - AnnouncementVisit Steam every day this week for big savings on a different EA game. Today only, save 25% off Need for Speed Shift, 50% off Need for Speed Undercover and 75% off Burnout Paradise! Please visit www.steampowered.com for more information. A different offer starts at 10am Pacific time. The Ultimate iPad Launch Game Round-UpApr 3, 2010 - KotakuJoin Kotaku as we showcase some of the best and not-so-best games available for the shiny new iPad. Check out hands-on impressions for Mirror's Edge, Need for Speed: Shift, Geometry Wars, and more! Seeing as I am the only Kotaku editor with an iPad, the process of working my way through the twenty-five or so iPad games now in my possession is a long and arduous one. There's some really good stuff here, and then there's just stuff, and it's my job to separate the stuff from the stuff. Mind you these are quick impressions, which you probably could have figured out on your own, considering this is going live on the iPad's launch day. I'll be updating this post regularly over the next couple of hours, so stay tuned for more, including Scrabble, Plants vs. Zombies, Civilization Revolution, and more! Latest updates: Glyder 2, Parachute Panic HD, and Pocket Legends for iPad. And that's all for now! One man game-playing army needs a nap. CastleCraft Seller: Freeverse Inc. Price: Free Genre: Massively Multiplayer City-Building Strategy The Buzz: It's a fantasy-themed empire-building sim, where you can interactive with hundreds of other players online. Impressions: CastleCraft is a nifty-little city building conquest game that works quite well on the iPad. Since you need to log into a server to play and your game keeps running while you aren't playing, the device's lack of multi-tasking capability doesn't hinder it, and being able to wander off to do other things instead of staring at the screen while the timer counts down how long it takes to build a farm is a definite plus. I haven't had enough time to meet anyone else playing yet, so I couldn't test out CastleCraft's more social features, but if a strong community builds up around it, it could be a real winner for fans of this sort of strategy game. Civilization Revolution for iPad Seller: 2K Games Price: $12.99 Genre: Strategy The Buzz: It's the console version of Sid Meier's classic Civilization, redesigned for the iPad. It's essentially the same as the iPhone version, only with better graphics, better controls, a broader view, and a World/Scenario Creator exclusive to the iPad. Impressions: What an interesting way to play Civilization! Revolution was originally designed to be a quick and easy version of Civ for the console generation, but now it feels as if the game were made with the iPad in mind. It's like – yes, I am going to do this – looking through a magic window at your creation, touching things and making them do your bidding. The Scenario Creator is particularly impressive, with several pages' worth of options for you to tweak, from resource density to winning conditions. Just be warned that the game is a bit thick, and not too easy on the newcomer. Flick Fishing HD Seller: Freeverse Price: $2.99 Genre: Fishing The Buzz: The iPhone version of Flick Fishing sold more than 1.5 million copies, if that says anything. The HD version includes improved graphics, a Brag system, and two packs worth o...
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