Shift 2 aka...

[stuart thompson]

I bought the legends pack last night. It has turned a good game into a fantastic game, silverstone being a particular highlight.

[JAG]

Bought it too, that pack will be what makes Shift 2 a permanent addition to my games collection.

[stuart thompson]

Same here, deffo not trading it in now.

[Steven Humphrey]

Finally got this last week & am really enjoying it.....apart from the handling when using my old Logitech driving force wheel. I know the wheel is a bit long in the tooth now but still works great with GT5 & F1 2010. But with Shift 2 it is so 'floaty', I struggle to keep the car in a straight line sometimes. I've adjusted all the settings to recommendations for a newer Logitech wheel, which have improved things a lot but it still isn't great. Shame really as everything else about the game is great-I'm loving the Retro series!

[chunder]

Bought this on the cheap the other day for a few quid.

Pretty much exactly the same as Shift really, physics are wooly and wooden, very little analogue control with the throttle, it feels like there are three stages yknow, off, half on and on!

Very pretty as the other game was, and a few nice details in being able to spruce up the cars with is something GT5 really does miss out, but then the Japanese are really not like that, well Polyphony certainly arent!

I do find the other cars a little random though, they do this daft blocking thing where they block you into a bend, fair enough, but then they sort of glue themselves to your car if you get too close which is a little annoying and just leads to countless restart races.

But my biggest issue is the online mode. You can't play it at all. Not unless you bankroll EA to the tune of 8 quid! I bought the game second hand and you get the common redeem code token in the booklet. I didn't expect that to work and unlock money and stuff, but not only that, it also means you cant play online AT ALL.

Now this is a first for me, in that EA are basically trying to also make money out of the second hand market after a game is sold to the first buyer.

Obviously I would not even dream of doing this as the game is a 4 out of 10 game anyway, but still, a little steep and greedy from EA.

Have to say I will bat ona dn try and finish it, but it is not that enjoyable as I would expect for a basically heavily patched version of the Shift really.

[nickyf1]

All the major game companies are doing that now. I bought F1 2011 second hand, and only realised that I couldn't go online till I got home.. 800msp to get online!

It's the same with Dirt 3 I gather.

[chunder]

Not with Dirt 3, I bought that the otehr week and you can play online fine.

You cant necessarily get the car packs cheap and may miss out on a few things,. but if this is the way it is rolling, then they are going to have to make the online contetn a damn sight better than it is right now.

Seriously would you pay for the privilege of playing a PS game online? Its a damn cheek if you ask me.

But I guess Xbox have been doing it for years so Sony might as well try and make even more money out of mindless cretins that pay it.

Ask yourself this, imagine if they did it with CoD! And there you have it, its greed pure and simple, Gran Turismo dont do it, so why sould anyone else?

[Spudgun]

I hadn't realised they'd started doing this, but I can't say I'm surprised. Reading the gaming/technology press the past couple of years it's clear that game developers/publishers really don't like the second-hand games market since they see it as lost revenue.

The game retailers love it of course since they get to bag all the margin they make on top of the trade-in price without having to pay the publishers like they do with a new game.

As far as I know there hasn't been a court case for games yet, but there has been one or two regarding the selling-on of business software (AutoCAD is one example) where the developer won. Interestingly, EA state in their EULAs that the software is licensed rather than sold á la Microsoft.

[chunder]

Well the only way it will work a is if people buy into it. If they dont buy after initial sale online passes then EA wont offer them, but then they are by far the most aggressive developers anyway.

For me Shift games aren't worth playing online, as they are only marginally a sim.

Shift 2 in particular though pretty to look at and with some worthy custom features was a truly woeful experience to play.

Why would anyone with sane mind play it online?

As I said before, it will NEVER happen with things like CoD or FIFA, it is because they see sim gamers as a soft market and they dont make much money out of it with game sales. COD guys will always buy new maps etc, sim guys rarely will buy aftermarket stuff. Hence this approach. Just dont do it its simple.

It's the same on PC, nearly every new sim out (apart from GTR3 maybe?) is a pay to play of some kind, as the business model works as proved by Iracing. So RF2, simraceway (which is crap btw) CARS (built by same team that do Shift hence me leaving it fo a bit) and Auto Culb are all pay to play in some way or beta.