Need for Speed: SHIFT 2 Unleashed. A week before…

Need for Speed: SHIFT 2 Unleashed. A week before…

Prologue.

Good day to everyone! The new installment of one of the most popular racing games of our time – Need for Speed: SHIFT 2 Unleashed – is about to be released. In this overview, you will find everything the developers have treated us to in a more detailed description. I will talk about the significant cars, the new Autolog and many other various "goodies" of the game. Well then, let's begin!

Cars and the best racers.

What's the main thing in racing? Right, cars. But SHIFT 2 Unleashed isn't limited to executive-class cars such as Bentley, Jaguar, BMW – it goes much further, first and foremost for its own sake. You'll be treated to a wide variety of supercars, from Aston Martin to Pagani. The game's car roster has expanded considerably (compared to SHIFT); now the game has more than 110 cars! Some models have appeared in the Need for Speed series for the first time. For example, Alpina, Caterham, Radikal (and according to some sources, MINI will appear in SHIFT 2 Unleashed). There's also a game exclusive. Pagani has allowed its Pagani Huayra model to be used in SHIFT 2 Unleashed! What game can boast of that at the moment? Let's say a word about the "slightly third-party exclusive": only owners of the Limited Edition version will have access to 3 cars: Nissan Silvia S15 Spec.R, Jaguar XKR and Lamborgini Murcielago LP640. Now let's talk about the significant in-game cars. They'll be driven by the big shots of track racing, such as Vaugh Gittin Jr. in his Falken Tire Ford Mustang, Tommy Milner in the BMW M3 GT ALMS, Jamie Campbell-Walter and SUMO POWER Nissan GT-R, Darren "D-MAC" McNamara in the Toyota Corolla AE86, Chris Rado in the Time Attack Scion 'tC, and finally Mad Mike Whiddet in the Nissan 300ZX Fairlady. All these people are part of Team Need for Speed, which means you'll have to beat each of them and prove that you're better than this team (:D, author's note.). Each racer's car is quite well known; team members have repeatedly taken podium places in world championships (for example, the 24 Hours of Dubai).

New Autolog. I’m back.

"Social networks – soon they'll drive us out of this world" – +1 to the person who said those words. However, Autolog will make you think and say to yourself, "Nah, I'll stick around here for a while yet." Autolog, familiar to us from Hot Pursuit 2010, returns in SHIFT 2 Unleashed, but only in a new, more advanced shell. Let's take a look at it.

As is already known, "Recommendations" is the main feature of Autolog. The first section is exactly that. As before, we're told about your friends' records and invited to the race where your friend set the record, so that you can beat it.

The next section is the "Wall". The "Wall" seems to perform half the functions of the "Recommendations" section. It also tells you the story of your friends' records and all that sort of thing, but unlike "Recommendations", the "Wall" adds a feature for monitoring the latest messages or comments in the gallery.

Next comes the friends list. (I skipped the "Records" tab; I think everything is clear there anyway, even from the first two previews). So what will they tell us in the friends tab? On the left is the friends list, on the right is information about you? Uh, I'm confused here, since both "Friends" and "Profile" tell you practically the same thing. That's all I have on Autolog.

Tracks. Dangerous and very dangerous.

Like cars, tracks play a significant role in track racing. In Need for Speed: SHIFT 2 Unleashed, you'll be presented with 36 tracks in various variations (we'll talk about that a bit later). Each track is quite famous; some, of course, are connected to Team Need for Speed, for example Dubai Autodrome. Tracks can become a real danger if you accidentally smash your headlights in a race held at night. That's when the real "fun" begins. Also, on most tracks there won't be 10-12 cars as before, but around 19-20! Just imagine the mayhem you can cause by smashing your headlights and imagining that you're the king of the road. Also in SHIFT 2 Unleashed, Slightly Mad Studios introduced such an innovation as deteriorating road surface. If a serious accident occurs on the road, a crack may form on the road or a shredded tire may be left behind, and if you drive over, say, a crack, your tire will wear down more, which means handling will worsen. You might skid, the tire might blow, which is fraught with another accident. Not bad, right?

Competitions, as a way to show yourself from the best side.

The first, most spectacular discipline is Drift. Where else can you see so much smoke and ruined tires? Only in this type of competition. This time, the developers decided to meet keyboard owners halfway and made the controls, in their words, more or less acceptable. Also, you'll get a chance to battle in Drift against Vaughn Gittin Jr. and try to take his Falken Tire Ford Mustang! Leave Gittin without wheels!

Endurance – an endurance race, something like Le Mans. This is where caution will come in handy! These are long, truly long races. To feel as calm as possible, it's advisable to have a steering wheel at hand and something from Vivaldi's repertoire, so you can sit, listen to the violin and leisurely turn the wheel, enjoying how furiously your rivals try to overtake you while you stay calm. Perhaps calmness is the key to victory in this type of competition. You'll have to battle Tommy Milner on one track.

FIA GT1 and FIA GT3 – for the first time on the Need for Speed stage! Now the game features fully licensed competitions. Hooray! This means that along with the licensed championship, cars with the same licensed body kits will appear in the game! Isn't that a fairy tale? No, it's a new type of competition, as well as a new stage in the evolution of Need for Speed! In this type of competition, you'll have to battle Jamie Campbell-Walter and Patrick Soderlund.

Muscle – so, we have a new discipline once again! Competitions in the "granddads" whose muscles are on display! To be admitted to this type of competition, you need a powerful car with at least 400 hp and an engine displacement of no less than 5 liters. Basically, it's ordinary racing in the coolest cars! Standing against you in the final, once again, will be Von Gittin Jr.

Retro – one of the varieties of drifting. The difference is that you'll have to drift in legendary cars, for example a Toyota Corolla AE86. In this type of competition, you'll come under attack from Darren "D-MAC" McNamara. And about drifting, I've already said everything.

Time Attack – much less is known about this type of competition than about the previous ones. I think it needs no explanation, since we're all already familiar with "Time Trials". Competing against you will be Chris Rado.

Works – forgive me, dear readers, but I never did figure out what this type of competition is about. I think the game will explain everything to us, and its release is only a little way off. I can say only one thing: in the final race, Mad Mike Whiddett will ride with you.

So, we've come to the final stage of my review. Lastly, I want to please those who bought games in the Need for Speed series in a licensed edition earlier. If someone previously bought Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed: SHIFT, Need for Speed: World and Need for Speed: Undercover – they will receive bonuses in Need for Speed: SHIFT 2 Unleashed. These bonuses will look like XP (Experience) and/or money, according to EA, for buying your dream car. Buyers of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit will receive a special bonus: in addition to XP and $, they will get an exclusive Lamborghini Reventon Cop Car and Pagani Zonda Cinque Hot Pursuit Edition. The most joyful news is that this bonus extends to Playstation 3, XBOX360 and (HURRAY!) PC! You could say that this time EA left no one out. That's where I'd like to end my review. I hope you found it interesting to read and that your anticipation has now been heightened. Thank you for your attention, always yours, MrEverest.