Need for Speed: SHIFT Review

If your car's this spotless two laps in, you're either very, very good or very, very bad.

Easily the favourite is Duel, which pits two pre-selected vehicles of comparable power against one another in a best-of-three, taking turns to start in the lead. You must put a few seconds between yourself and your rival to win. By contrast, the single-car drifting challenges err towards perfectionism in a manner some may find offputting.

While most events see you rolling up to the starting line in your own tricked-out motor, carefully selected (or so one would hope) from the 72 licensed cars available, some are manufacturer or model-specific. In a sensible sop to the more impatient breed of fender bender, the latter events generally feature super-cars well beyond the player’s means or skill level.

"Make a legal U-turn..."

The game’s 18 real-life courses oscillate between the long and the short, the symmetrical and the twisty-turny, the wide and the narrow in a manner guaranteed to keep you guessing. AI drivers tend to favour precision over aggression, making it a little too easy to barge past them in open tournaments, but the differences between car models are palpable. If you’re having too easy a time of it, there are online races for up to 16 players.

SHIFT is to the Need for Speeds of old what a custom-built racer is to the bling-soaked purple stretch-Humvees that tend to congregate round traffic lights in Oxford Circus. Slightly Mad has thrown away the novelty numberplate, lowered the chassis and tightened the wheel nuts, among other such intelligent-sounding automotive expressions. Forza and GRID still have the edge in terms of raw playability, but EA’s old roadster is closing the distance.