Computer Game Review: Need For Speed Shift 2

Since 2009, EA tries to regain field in the niche of auto simulations, trying to recreate real driving with Need For Speed Shift 2. As one of the leading providers of PC games, EA Games puts all its hopes in this title. The company is losing fans on all the computer games niches, with a disappointing Fifa 11 and a Fifa Manager 11 that is considered worse than any other release of EA Sports.

Shift 2: Unleashed takes the same line imposed by EA in this area of games, but bringing an innovation also. For the first time, “Need For Speed” was eliminated from the title, but the print of the series remains, as well as the gameplay and the usage of Auto-log. This component is responsible for managing the multiplayer in the Facebook manner, component that was introduced with the recent Hot Pursuit. However, the most important question remains: will Shift 2 manage to be what it proposes itself to be: an auto simulation?

The answer is: so and so. It has several options that are characteristic for the auto computer games simulations, but it has some arcade elements also. Theoretically, he is developed for the beginners of those types of games, although we can’t think about any computer games passionate that never played an auto simulation. The problem is that neither the arcade nor the simulation sides were emphasized, resulting in a great horse with two broken legs when it comes to control.

Completing The Career

The beginnings of the career are pretty modest, with a few rounds in a Nissan. Those rounds are something rare in this gaming niche, as the game needs to appreciate your skills. This way, the game can decide if you are a novice and you must be helped with changing the shifts, the ABS, or you can do them by yourself like a real computer games expert that you are. Most of those options can be activated and de-activated anyway, even during the races, and this is an option that you will surely appreciate if you feel challenged by an aggressive AI and by the abnormal behavior of the car.

In fact, even from the first minutes, it is clearly that Shift 2 is not a simulator in the real meaning of the word, as the cars have the tendency to let you down while taking some rapid curves and to be too sensitive for the slow ones. This could be interesting for the computer games passionate, but it can also be really annoying for others that are not so familiar with the PC gaming industry. However, you will never be able to foresee the behavior of the car. In GT5, this won’t happen if you are taking a curve in the wrong manner. For this game, you can’t really master those curves because of the lag of the control system. The times obtained are not so consistent, especially for the fast cars; therefore, you will need some modifications in the in-game options, but also for the wheel and the controller to obtain a decent response time.

The career begins classically, and this is another innovation in the auto gaming niche. You will start with the slowest cars of 1900 to the last generation Bugattis, and your goal is to win money and experience to unlock the championships FIA BT3 and GT1. Winning the first place, aspiring for the great, keeping your opponents behind, and keeping the first position for a long time are methods to gain experience to the maximum level of 20. Unfortunately, you will get there very fast, which mean it is a waste of time to try finishing the career 100 %.

On the other hand, you will be able to do many things that aren’t possible in other computer games of this kind. This aspect will keep you unlocking better cars and obtaining better tuning options. However, it seems to me like it is really simple to have access to any car just by throwing money at it, without any other condition. It lacks the challenge from other computer games of the series, where you were eager to run another race to unlock another car. Nursing tops might be a cool idea. If you have the patience to get to the real championships, you will be a little disappointed: not all the circuits are presented, not all the cars, and you won’t have the possibility of a pit stop. However, as this is the innovation in this gaming business, we are sure that EA will keep it for the future computer games of this series, and it will also be improved. There is a huge difference between different types of races (simple races, drifts, best lap, winning in a certain time and so). The first challenges are presented by champions. This means that the game benefits from the advices of those drivers that really know what is a drift, how to drive efficiently or how to exploit the circuit to get the best times.

Unlocking new races is made by winning the available ones. Another boring feature of those kinds of auto games, but it will pass some time before an innovation could be found for those computer games. You must also bring more cars in your garage, but you can also use the available ones. For example, a class D car with an aerodynamic body is allowed to compete with the cars from the C class. Some mechanical and aerodynamic parts can be improved or completely replaced to ease the car, but for the beginners of the NFS series, is a little harder. It is still unclear how the impact of the changes would help the vehicle. Form here, the newbie could have even more problems about controlling the car.
I have my car, I am a pilot

And you won’t have only cars. You will have a wide array of options to choose, from the models that were the kings of the roads in the 80’s to the carbon fiber cars that you can only see in Top Gear. BMW, Mercedes, Aston Martin or Bentley are exploited in all the computer games of this kind, but you ca also use some charming but unknown cars such as Alpha B6 or Pagani Huayra. Surprisingly, we also have the option of “full damage” that will transform a Lamborghini Murcielago in a pile of torn iron if the driver has no license. However, this is the reason for Ferrari to miss from Shift 2, as it is commonly known that the Italian producer is not so happy about seeing its car crushed, even if we are talking about virtual computer games. You will be able to drive 140 exclusive cars, including all the popular models from the last 20 years.
The circuits are well known for the passionate of the auto PC games or by the fans of the race cars; Suzuka, Barcelona, Monza, or Spa are only a few of them, but there are also purely fictional courses. However, those circuits are inspired by real ventures, so you will be able to drive on the Riviera that is only a replica of Monaco. 41 circuits await you, 5 of them being only a part of history at this moment.

The textures of the circuits are perfect, and you will begin to cherish the possibility to activate/deactivate the traction, the ABS, and the green arrows pointing to the ideal road. Maybe this is one of the options that made NFS one of the best auto computer games ever made, and the reason for EA being the leader of this gaming area.
Unfortunately, the career mode is completely ruined by the AI. It is aggressive like in other computer games but sometimes it completely ignores you or hits you just because it doesn’t like the color of your Porsche. Kicking the AI from behind to get passed it is not the smartest method, as one single touch will surely make the virtual opponent mad. Fortunately, the AI’s are also behaving the same one with the other, so you could sometimes come on the first place just because you have no Ai remained to compete with. It is simply surprising how EA is still not able to create a smart AI, especially with their experience when it comes to those types of simulations.

The multiplayer is surely the main attraction for many computer games fans, especially after unlocking some greater cars. The single player is surely helpful, and the modes are assimilated to the ones from the career. Unfortunately, you can’t drift in multiplayer. I know, bad news for the fans as they are surely expecting this kind of multiplayer race from a PC game for some time now.

The new Catch-up could compensate for this lack. The player starts with a slower car, while the opponents will try to catch him. If one of those faster cars would win, the driver will be placed in the slower car for the next round. It might sound familiar if you played the first Shift, or other computer games of this kind.

Of course, we must not forget the Auto-Log, this unique component for the organized races and the fast skirmish, and anything else connected with positions, statistics and the regional place. You can see the best times anytime, as well as the records and the best times of your friends. Compared with Hot Pursuit, the Shift 2 Autolog is better, but you won’t have all the facilities requested by the auto PC games fans.

The same control problems for the single player are also present for the multiplayer version, but at least you will forget about the useless aggressive behavior of the AI. We won’t say that the human players are perfect, but at least you will have somebody to talk with. You will also have the review mirror (first time in an auto simulation for multiplayer), although it might be useless for the weaker computers. In fact, many of the control problems would appear because of the graphic, as there is an obvious lag between placing the command and executing it.

Moreover, Shift 2 is almost impossible to play on the keyboard, and this is surely disappointing for the fans of this device. However, you won’t be able to lose the lag even if you are using the controller, so we might need to wait for the next title of the series to see it EA is still the best developer of this fascinating PC game niche.

Recently a research team from the Department of Psychology at McGill University has developed and tested computer games that can help people improve their self-esteem. This is a product innovator and a world first. Here are some details on the games that will be studied in the scientific journals Psychological Science and Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

WHAM! Can you really improve your self-esteem by playing a computer game called Wham? Surprising as it may be, the doctoral student in psychology at McGill, Jodene Baccus, affirms and establishes evidence in a highly scientific study, to appear in the July issue of the journal Psychological Science. Jodene Baccus is part of a research team on self-esteem, led by Associate Professor of Psychology Mark W. Baldwin and also includes Dominic Packer, a graduate of McGill, who is currently pursuing graduate studies at the University of Toronto.

The study involved 139 people, whose self-esteem was firstly measured. Formed into two groups, participants played a part in Wham! and, secondly, a variation. The players of Wham! Input their personal information such as their name and date of birth. During the game whenever these identifiers appeared on the screen, the players had to point and click (hence the name of the game), and when done correctly a smiley face would appear.

Jodene Baccus noted that the repeated pairing of personal information and rewards of the game had the effect of improving self-esteem. “After 10 minutes, we measured the thoughts and unconscious reflexes of players of Wham! and we realized that these players showed self-esteem than that of players from the other game.”

Why Computer Gaming?

One of the most popular technological inventions of the century is the computer, the ability of the computer to help in a professional, educational or entertainment capacity makes it one of the all round machines that one can acquire. Better than inkjet paper games. Gaming is one of the most popular hobbies in the world with lots of games having being produced to meet the desires of different people, though gaming is mostly associated with gaming consoles, a lot of people engage in computer gaming since there are lots of versions of games that can be played on computers since it relies on software which constitute of games.

There are a number of ways in which games can be played on computers and in most cases it depends on the type and configuration of the game. Games can be played of removable media such as discs and flash drives, but they can also be installed in the computers such that they can be run from the computer programs. With the use of the internet in computer gaming, it is also possible to play the games online or on networks but it also depends on the game type for some of them require installation for them to be played over networks.

One of the reasons why the computer gaming field is quite popular is the fact that the gaming device is easy to transport. Usually with gaming consoles there are a lot of connections between audio and visual equipment that must be done for game play. The gaming console has to be connected to the power source, screen or television set and then the sound output devices, but with the PC all the connections are not required for game play. The computers are usually a complete package when it comes to playing PC games since the system is always connected in a given way to operate.

The multifunction ability of the PC also makes the computer a much reasonable choice for people looking to conduct several functions as well as play games. Using different software in the computer allows people to conduct several tasks that cannot be accomplished if one buys a gaming console, though some manufacturers are trying to make the consoles multifunctional. Computer gaming can be done through several methods but in all the cases the ability of one to conduct other tasks with the PC are not hindered in any way, the computer takes on the PC game just as another program that has to be run.

Computer gaming also has advantages such as versatility that make playing through the computers a much enjoyable activity. When one has installed games in the computer, one is not only able to save their progress without having to use external media but one is also able to make changes in game play by including mods (modifications) from other sources that may change the game’s environment making it much enjoyable. With gaming consoles, this might be quite hard to achieve unless one is playing the game from a platform similar to a hard disk drive.

Since in most cases gaming on consoles is done from discs that can be either CDs or DVDs, there are a lot of risks that are associated with the gaming media. The CDs and DVDs are easily damaged by a number of factors with the most common being a scratch. Loss of the gaming discs is also another factor that might be difficult to deal with. Trying to make backup discs of the gaming discs is also another challenge since some of the discs have protection from copying and that would mean that one will have to go back to the store to get another disc to be able to enjoy gaming. A great website design company. Computer gaming is advantageous since running the game from the hard disk makes it much safer since the only hazard comes in the form of either formatting the hard disk or removing the program. It is also quite easy to make copies of the computer game to rely on when the other source has been damaged.

The construct of the computers also encourage computer gaming since one can easily upgrade their computer to meet the minimum specifications of the computer game, an action that is hard to achieve with gaming consoles. It’s easy to increase the capability of the computer by changing the hard disk capacity, the random access memory and the processor speed among others but with the gaming consoles it’s much harder.

Computer gaming also creates employment opportunities for a number of experts in the gaming world and thus it is a career for a good number of people. Since most games are developed via the computers, it is only logical that a good number of games that can be played on different gaming platforms such as phones and video gaming consoles have a similar PC game.

So Why Is Computer Gaming So Popular?

There are so many games that people can take part in. However you just wonder why people just love the computer games such that they are being played by the young and old. Some even believe that these games are the most popular form of entertainment these days. When it comes to teenagers especially, the very first choice of entertainment is computer games. It is therefore good to take a look at some of the reasons why people are continually playing these games and leaving the others.

One of the sure reasons for this is the challenge that is involved in the computer games. Teenagers are always on the lookout for ways to engage others in great battles or challenges. It is not only a challenge for the body that they are interested in but also a challenge of the minds. Thus the computer games can go a long way to help them enhance their mental abilities. It also makes it possible to practically analyze certain situations so that they can win kind of battle computer game.

Apart from this computer games are mostly played as a form of past time or hobby. A lot of people who get addicted to computer gaming would make this their hobby or even as a past time. Moreover as they grow to become experts in the game, they would then influence other people to play this kind of game too. A lot of people who see the computer games as their hobby are those who just love to have challenges. They would therefore want to measure their ability to think and also to analyze some of the situations so that they can win the battle.

Moreover a number of people engage in computer games in order to keep relationships. Some of the gamers are usually influenced by their friends to play some online games, and due to peer pressure especially for teens they tend to follow what the majority is saying. Therefore as time goes by they will play this specific computer games together with the people who influences them and later on they will get used to playing. As a result, they would get attached to playing this game with their friends. Playing computer games will be their bonding time with each other.

Some also play the computer games as a form of escape from reality. This is one of the most common reasons why people play the games. Normally those who engage themselves in this kind of games are people facing problems and issues in life. Therefore playing the computer game would help them to get relieved of the pressure and stress. Also it helps them to express what they actually feel and for them to escape from the real situations facing them.
Another category of folks play computer games just for fun or pleasure. They find great excitement in playing a game and winning in the process and also getting recognized as the best players.