Intensive driving feel and intense frustration

Ultimately, one can not recommend the game without hesitation nor dissuade them categorically. You have to choose for yourself the positive and negative factors easily.

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Gameplay
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Driving experience
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Shift 2 Unleashed manages like no game before it, one to convey an absolutely intense racing experience. At high speeds, the virtual camera begins to shake, the environment will be blurred, and even on-screen displays are (apparently by the physical forces) shifted slightly.

If you so with more than 300 Km / h, the long herunterbrettert Especially the Nordschleife can be quite a beads of sweat on his forehead. Madness.

Only the person view can not as intense convey this feeling.

In Crashes the image spun around, is black and white and blurred. This will probably convey how the driver shaken in the accident and is briefly disoriented. Sharpness and color return after a few seconds back slowly. That's well done, but a bit overdone in my opinion.

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Opponents / KI
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The game is not for beginners. AI presents a hellish pace. Lonely them go (as in GT 5 usual) you can as a player here almost never. So the race often remain interesting to the finish line.
Opponents block the player, but avoid collisions at all costs and therefore quite soft ever from the grass.
With all due speed the AI ​​is not infallible and places sometimes even without the help of the player spins and spectacular accidents down. That is very good in itself, but can cost a stupidly self the race if an AI car flies into the windshield of the player.

Correct annoying: cars that were driven by the AI ​​to scrap remain standing on the track in the middle! That can cost a race. This is particularly problematic in Monaco or in other tight tracks, which are surrounded by guard rails, and where one hardly has to accordingly no place to dodge.

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Collision behavior
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The point of Shift 2 Unleashed for me almost ruined and becomes the absolute tilt factor is the collision behavior. Contact with opponents rarely go out so that you can continue with a chance of winning.
If you touch an enemy, and no matter how slightly, usually happens one of the following scenarios:

- Your own car is brought out of the track in an exaggerated extent. This ends either the guardrail or the grass or the gravel. Run race.
- Your own car and the opponents stick downright together. My steering movements bring _nichts_ more. At high speeds, the opponent loses then like to take control of his vehicle - through the adhesive behavior oneself is entrained and usually ends up in the guardrail or the grass or the gravel. Run race.

Individual races I have, and that's no exaggeration to start more than 30 times again. That can not be the intention for the life!

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Damage model
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The damage model has succeeded. From scratches, bumps and engine damage to hoods and projection of small-ending tire's all there. Violent Crashes also have an effect on driving behavior. (The car then pulls z. B. for the remainder of the race permanently to the left)

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Drift
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Drifting is a tiny bit become easier, but still not too easy. The points requirements that you must meet are sometimes outrageous. This is particularly true for the last Drift event.

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Control
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Oddly enough, I'll go with the gamepad efficiently than the wheel (Logitech Driving Force GT).

With the wheel the car reacts delayed on my steering movements, so I'm not at all clear. You also have to give in quite far in my opinion. (Both make other racing games such as. F1 2010 much better) Thus, the steering feels overall quite spongy.

Also, I am regarding ForceFeedback before a quandary.:
- Point I, there Force Feedback to 0% _gar keinen_ steering resistance. So it is not navigable for me.
- I go with Force Feedback, I do not fight with the opponents or the track but with my steering wheel. This is not just the Force Feedback in itself, but primarily on the fact that the car itself escalates on a straight line, so you lurches when driving straight ahead back and forth. This makes the braking for the next corner to challenge. Furthermore, the steering wheel jerks when (automatic) upshift slightly to the left.

The gamepad control is also used to and still rather vague, but in my opinion a little bit better as a whole with the steering wheel.

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Technology
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The graphics has become very good overall. In particular, the rides at dusk and at night look great.

Graphically there is only one serious weakness, and that is quasi non-existent anti-aliasing. This results not only podium effects and ugly thin surrounding objects as start markers and power cables, secretes also that object edges flicker at race pace leads.

The charging times are as its predecessor still bad. Furthermore, one must take into account when option changes in car upgrades, and after each race again mehrsekündige memory breaks. Annoying.

Large technology shortcoming:
Shift 2 Unleashed crashes when loading screen sometimes before starting or locks up and then pulls all the same console, so that not even the PS3 the XMB menu is called up. That's a No.

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Others
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- As in previous the experience point system is back again with. For each overtaking, high speed, for "masters" of curves and some other maneuvers, there experience points again bring the bonuses as cash, varnishes and additional cars. The motivated because you will be rewarded for good constant driving.
Unlike Shift 1 but will no longer distinguished by clean and dirty maneuvers. In addition, it's all up to Level 20 (the predecessor 50), and I had reached after not even 50% of the career. Whether that's just because I own the Limited Edition, which includes more yes some events, or whether that should be so simple, I can not say.

- Synchronization of the videos contained in the game moves unfortunately at the level of American infomercials. It would have been better if you keep the original sound and the video had just subtitled.

- The scope of the game is very good. It contained plenty of well-modeled cars and virtually no case, are completely superfluous. The tuning options are extensive. On routes there are again diverse fantasy courses as well as real race tracks. The number of races to go to be proud of.

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Conclusion
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Positives:
+ Intense ride
+ Good AI (blocks, avoiding accidents, builds own mistake)
+ Always exciting racing
+ Constant reward
+ Twilight and night races
+ Good scope

Mediocre:
o (sometimes over) challenging Difficulty
o Drift Events
o hardly innovations compared to its predecessor

Negatives:
- Spongy control
- Cheeky collision behavior
- Crashes / hanger (not even XMB works more)
- Lousy antialiasing
- Remain unusual by crashes cars are on the track