NFS Shift vs other Racing Games(Handling)

bought Shift last night and well, I have gone around the test track about 10 times now with different tweaks/settings and well, this is nearly unplayable!

Now I'm not trying to discredit this game, but well, I'd like some advice on the tweaking of the handling I should do.

I am not a noob to racing games, I've been playing Grid for the last year and a half, and Dirt 2 for the last few months. I was able to throw cars nearly any which way I want and I was damn good at those games. I know I can't go from 1 racer to another and expect to be an ace automatically, but what tweaks would you recommend?

Thank you in advance.

What type of controller are you using? I found that turning the force feedback on my wheel down to about 50% helped a lot. I find the handling in Shift much easier than in Grid.

[mawgui]

EagleGolfer:

Same situation with me. Grid, Dirt, and Dirt 2 veteran as well. The back end of the cars fly all over the place. And no car seems to have any good grip. I am at the Tier 4 cars and still no change. Even the Tier 3 Corvette's handle like garbage.

[jim2006193]

Don't floor it around a corner?

Try lowering your tire pressures in NFSS. Also - I think FF setting of 6 is quite good as I have done well with that and it gives good ffedback whereas 7 makes me want to throw the fn computer against the wall. Nothing like driving feedback on the high settings.

BTW is it me or do BMW's suck?

Here's the problem, at least from playing GRID and DiRT (1 and 2) and a bunch of other racing games, the typical car in those games handles AMAZINGLY. Just perfectly. Even Forza III which is supposedly realistic is incredibly unrealistic when it comes to handling. What they tried to do in NFS:S was make handling more realistic. Its not that the game is poorly designed, just the opposite in fact. A AWD Mitsubishi Evo X, will handle better then a Corvette ZR1 in real life and likewise in the game, if you have a 600 HP rear wheel drive car and your power-sliding around a corner, and then you put it on full throttle around the corner as well, your going to get massive amounts of over steer and spin out, like in real life. If your going to fast into a corner you under steer.

The point is that this games handling is very realistic. It's not trying to be GRID, or any other unrealistic codemasters game, those games are really fun, but in a different way. DiRT and Grid are trying to be much more arcade style games, they don't really try to maintain a lot of realism other then their damage systems. They are great games but in the same way that a CS:S player or a CoD4 player would hate the realism of ARMA II. Or how a Star-craft player may hate company of heroes.

Even if you came into it loving handling from the codemasters racing games, I think you can adapt to the different handling. Also, try using different cars, the ZR1 is probably the worst handling car in that game. If you know about cars you can tune them yourself or you can go on forums to find prebuilt cars and tuning guides for those cars. The Nissan GTR vspec is a great car for handling, Suburu WRX STi, really look for AWD cars if you hate the bad handling. You can still play the game with a keyboard you just have to adapt to the handling style.

Originally Posted by EagleGolfer

bought Shift last night and well, I have gone around the test track about 10 times now with different tweaks/settings and well, this is nearly unplayable!

Now I'm not trying to discredit this game, but well, I'd like some advice on the tweaking of the handling I should do.

I am not a noob to racing games, I've been playing Grid for the last year and a half, and Dirt 2 for the last few months. I was able to throw cars nearly any which way I want and I was damn good at those games. I know I can't go from 1 racer to another and expect to be an ace automatically, but what tweaks would you recommend?

Thank you in advance.

I agree buddy, i have played a lot of racing games...ie LFS and this one seems to have a built in wobble effect going. I steer one way and the rebound the other way causes ridiculous handling. As for it being realistic, blah blah well thats just not true. I race on the track in a car on the weekends and this is nothing like real life.Disappointing, especially when you can adjust a lot of things but they dont act like they should, ie caster, camber, tyre pressures etc.

blah blah well thats just not true. I race on the track in a car on the weekends and this is nothing like real life.

Wow, never have I seen so much hilarious BS in one sentence. You're making a ton of crap up. The non discriminate of, "I race" (what type) on "the track", "IN A CAR", all of these things just screams, "I don't know what I'm talking about." But maybe I can Persuade the Internets to believe that "I race on the track in a car" (I guess as opposed to a tricycle?).

The response you want to give is, (and I'm playing devils advocate) "Sure, the handling is realistic but that doesn't mean that a game should be super realistic."

I fully accept that defense and I actually agree that the handling in Grid or Dirt is probably more fun because its arcade style.

If you did race you would understand that when your driving with 600 foot lbs of torque around a corner at 60 mph on a hairpin you don't expect it to be smooth, sure you can get around if you get it in third and handle the over steer, but if you actually understand how to handle over/under steer in real life you can use the exact same skills to just destroy people who don't understand it or they can't handle it.

Point is, that if a ton of other people can master the handling and go round Nuremberg in 6:30, the handling is not incomprehensible or bad its just different.

The one point you made that I fully agree with is some of the tuning aspects don't effect things as much as they should. I would argue some things actually affect the car, like having low ride height noticeably lowers the CoG, but at the same time caster angle, unless you put it all the way to one side or the other it doesn't affect the car as it should, and tyre pressure as well doesn't affect it to an insane degree, however the higher and lower ends of the scales will determine a lot about the traction as far as tyres go.

My point of contention is that unlike in DiRT and Grid, ESPECIALLY in DiRT 2, they have unrealistic handling that suggests you can make a 160 degree turn at 80 miles an hour. NFS makes you first get to a reasonable speed, then actually think about your approach angle and how you should be revving through the turn, if you rev too fast during the turn, you get wheel spin on exit and on RWD cars over steer. In DiRT and Grid you can and are often encouraged to put max rev's through the corners even when your in a powerslide. I've driven a rally tweaked skyline (granted it was on tarmac) and even with rally modifications which are all about traction if you angle a corner wrong or rev wrong through it you will get over steer.

However, if you know of a car that actually does handle like they do in GRID or DiRT, please tell me so I can buy it immediately and win WRC and WTCC. If cars handled like that I probably could. So long as other people didn't have these miracle cars.

Also I suggest racing in first person view, so you can see when the steering wheel is fighting back and when you need to ease up / turn harder.

[Tiger88]

I'm using a Thrustmaster Firestorm gamepad and was also having a lot of trouble controlling the cars. I changed the handling setting from Experienced to Normal, and the game became much better. Maybe not as realistic, but more like the other NFS games and way more fun. I just won the World Championship in my Toyota Supra :-).

Options > Gameplay > Driving > Handling Model > Normal

[forerodestim]

Originally Posted by mawgui

EagleGolfer:

Same situation with me. Grid, Dirt, and Dirt 2 veteran as well. The back end of the cars fly all over the place. And no car seems to have any good grip. I am at the Tier 4 cars and still no change. Even the Tier 3 Corvette's handle like garbage.

Thats what I call "ice-driving"
I can not put up with it. I can not bear it.

[Nuklear41]

Get down on some rFactor for a while and then come back. I jumped into NFSS and right away am doing fine. All driving assists off and no racing line....still doing great. rFactor will put some hair on your racing wheel.

[jimgnarkill]

Game is superb, handling is amazing.

It does take some patience and some tweaking to get it right, but its completely worth taking the time.

I think that part of the trouble is that the early cars, that are road cars actually, handle pretty badly maxed out on racetracks. Like they do in reality, floaty handling, swaying and rolling around.

The first car I got that I realised it was me and not the game that sucked at the time, was the Caterham, and it was all good from then on, once I knew what was required.

This game has a superb noob filter, as do most sim-like games, that require some time and effort to get the most out of. Its a difficult game, that punishes errors almost everytime, any contact, a wheel off the track, and thats P1 gone.

Not calling anyone a noob in particular, its just that the game is probably one of the best racers ever made.

I put it second only to Nascar Racing 2003 Season, which is still the best only because the FFB is so much better, a weak point in Shift 2 that I dont mind admitting.


If you prefer games like GRID and DIRT, just stick with them, and leave the sims alone, they will only aggravate you. They are totally differnt types of game, like the difference between Wings of Prey and Il2 Sturmovik 1946. One you can jump into and start roaring around, the other you must learn the ropes a lot before you even begin to compete.

I liked GRID too, cant stand DIRT because they made it more like a Tony Hawks game in atmosphere and it put me right off, all this 'yo dude' crap.
Codemasters F1 series is quite good too (barring bugs and lack of support from them) but they are all about the accessability and arcade handling too. More F-Zero than R-Factor.

Its a shame this game has such a bad reputation, its an absolutely stunning achievement.

[Edzha]

Well NFS Shift from all racing games have must closest to reality wehicle handling( i would say real-life coz in game it feels like in life , tho can say about bmw e36, haven't driven porshe in life) for wehicles.

I guess many would disagree, coz they like fantasy racing games like when driving with 120 km per hour you can drive through 90 percent sharp corner, which is so ridicilus all other racing games have such an unreal handling, they just bow down before shift.

NFS Shift is deffinatelly a masterpiece

[antiver]

Originally Posted by Edzha

Well NFS Shift from all racing games have must closest to reality wehicle handling( i would say real-life coz in game it feels like in life , tho can say about bmw e36, haven't driven porshe in life) for wehicles.

I guess many would disagree, coz they like fantasy racing games like when driving with 120 km per hour you can drive through 90 percent sharp corner, which is so ridicilus all other racing games have such an unreal handling, they just bow down before shift.

NFS Shift is deffinatelly a masterpiece

Preserving preposterous post for posterity.

[jsk68]

all you need to do is tweak your controller config, once you get it right you won't believe how good these cars handle.

(360 controller settings)
try these settings and go from there. (these are from the nfs forum already tested and confirmed)

CONTROL ADJUST
Steering Dead Zone: 5
Accelerator Dead Zone: 2
Brake Dead Zone: 2
Steering Sensitivity: 8
Acceleration Sensitivity: 40
Braking Sensitivity: 40
Speed Steering Sensitivity: 100
------------------------------------------------------------
GAMEPLAY/DRIVING
handling model=Normal (important using a pad imo)
ABS-on
TRACTION-low
STAB-off
damage-full (your choice)
gears-manual (your choice)
both assists off