Stats:

• Car Rating: 18.20
• Tier: 4
• Region: Europe
• Year: 1996
• Drivetrain: RWD
• Horse Power: 720
• Torque: 521.99N.m
• Weight: 1,030Kg

Our Fastest Lap Time (Silverstone International): -- 1:22:231

The second fastest car in the Ferrari Racing Series lineup, the Ferrari F50 GT is a classic supercar. Based on the original F50, only three GTs were ever sold to the public, instead being produced predominantly for racing events. Incredible speed, power and tight handling fuse to create one of the most powerful cars in the Ferrari catalogue.

Gameplay Footage:

Stats:

• Car Rating: 21.00
• Tier: 4
• Region: Europe
• Year: 2005
• Drivetrain: RWD
• Horse Power: 780
• Torque: 686.04N.m
• Weight: 1,120Kg

Our Fastest Lap (Silverstone International): -- 1:18:054

The fastest car in Shift’s Ferrari Racing Series DLC, the Ferrari FXX is effectively an evolution of the more widely-known Ferrari Enzo, incorporating that car’s tech as well as some further neat additions from Ferrari. Referred to as a ‘hypercar’, the FXX will set you back a phenomenal $2.5m in the real world, and even then you aren’t allowed to drive it whenever you feel like it. According to Top Gear, purchasers “are only allowed to drive the car on special track days which are approved by Ferrari.” And even if you do have the cash, chances are you won’t be able to find one; only thirty have ever been built, including the one owned by Michael Schumacher. Best try it out in Shift, then.

Gameplay Footage:

The latest piece of DLC for Need For Speed: Shift welcomes the return of the illustrious Ferrari brand to NFS – but what exactly does it include? Here are the facts:

Format: Xbox 360
Price: 800 Microsoft Points (USD 10.00, GBP 6.80)
Size: 83.68MB
PEGI: 3+

Blurb: Need For Speed SHIFT Ferrari Racing Series sees the long awaited return of the legendary Ferrari marque into a Need For Speed game. Some of the most celebrated Ferraris of all time make an appearance, including the FXX, F50, F430 GTC and California. Players will be able to participate in new events designed exclusively for the Ferraris to participate in including hot laps, eliminators, endurance races and a world tour. Completing the perfect Ferrari package are an additional 125 gamerpoints as a reward for unlocking various exciting challenges.

Vehicles included:

• 1996 Ferrari F50 GT
• 2005 Ferrari F430 Spider
• 2005 Ferrari FXX
• 2005 Ferrari Superamerica
• 2006 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
• 2006 Ferrari F430 Challenge (Online/Quick event only)
• 2006 Ferrari F430 GTC (Online/Quick event only)
• 2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
• 2008 Ferrari California
• 2008 Ferrari 16M Scuderia Spider

New Ferrari Racing Competitions featuring 46 Race Events, including:

• Ferrari Race Exhibition
• Ferrari Time Challenge
• Ferrari Mixed Track Competition
• Ferrari Time Challenge
• Ferrari Series Competition
• Ferrari Eliminator Competition
• Ferrari Endurance Competition
• Ferrari World Tour

Achievements:

• Tifosi (20) - Complete an Online Race or Time attack in all the Ferrari vehicles
• Online Ferrari Master (20) - Achieve a Podium Finish in over 200 Online games using any Ferrari vehicle
• Challenge Star (25) - Achieve all Stars in the Ferrari Series Competition
• Nordschleife Endurance Champion (25) - Complete the Ferrari Nordschleife Endurance event in 1st place
• World Tour Star (35) - Achieve all Stars in the Ferrari World Tour

Over the course of the next few days we’ll be giving you an inside look at each of the 10 supercars as well as running you through some of the challenges you’ll face on the course to becoming a Ferrari master!

Exclusive preview, screens and interview for Need for Speed: Nitro

With Need for Speed: Shift settling in the charts nicely, EA has turned to the next Need for Speed game it has in the pits. Need for Speed: Nitro is the Wii and DS NFS game this year. It is not a conversion of Need for Speed: Shift – that’s strictly a next-gen experience. Instead they have opted for creating a NFS game from the ground up for the less powerful Wii, and have come up with a great arcade racer.

Issue 33 of PlayZine has a preview of Need for Speed: Nitro complete with exclusive screens and a developer interview. You can download the magazine for free now.

Issue 31 of P3Zine has our full review of Need for Speed: Shift in it. Download it for free!

The time is finally here; the embargo is lifted; the crowd is going wild. As long term readers will know, unlike some other quick reviews that have appeared online, we’ve been playing Need for Speed: Shift for months and had lots of time to get into it, get used to it, find out its quirks, and see what we like.

The first thing we might as well reveal is that we love it. It’s a return to form for the series, as you might have spotted from the Gold award in the image. Need for Speed: Shift is a very different game to earlier Need for Speed games, in a good way. We’re even prepared to say that this is best racer we’ve played so far this year.

Download Issue 31 of P3Zine now from the main website, and you can read the full 5 page review with all of our thoughts on the game. Enjoy. We did. We’ll be giving our verdict on the PC version next week in PCGZine.

… it gets a 9/10.

IGN US has run the world’s first review of Need For Speed: Shift, calling the game “a glorious return to greatness”, before plonking a big 9.0 down as the score. High praise indeed. Here’s a snippet:

“Slightly Mad Studios has delivered a driving experience that, while not completely accurate in terms of its simulation aspects, is practically dead-on in terms of what it’s like to race around some of the world’s best racing circuits.”

Check out the full review here.

IGN UK later followed it up with their own review, awarding the game an 8.7 and saying that “driving is an exceptionally visceral experience, with a sensation of sheer velocity that’s unparalleled in the genre.” Nice.

We’re still waiting for the general embargo to lift until we can post our five page review, but it will be featured in next month’s issue of P3Zine, out next Thursday, 17th September. You’ll probably want to give it a read…

Did you know that Need For Speed: Shift wasn’t always called Need For Speed: Shift? No? Well you do now. Instead, EA had initially planned to roll it out as a sequel to Need For Speed: ProStreet.

Shift’s Lead Designer, Andy Tudor explains:

“Yeah. It [Shift] actually started out as ProStreet 2.

“You’ll see the obvious references, like we’ve got the Tokyo track in there, albeit a bit more mature; there’s no balloons or anything like that. The thing with ProStreet was that they couldn’t go straight from street racing to a track racer – that would have annoyed a few people. So it was really the first stage of the transition, mixing courses with the street stuff, and this is where they [EA] always wanted it to go.”

We dare say the association with the ProStreet name wouldn’t have exactly been a big crowdpleaser either, Andy.

Check out the full article on the GamerZines website where Andy talks about EA’s suggestion that cop cars and nitrous should be included in Shift. Hint: he wasn’t a fan.

EA has released a lengthy Flash animation which straps you into the boots of a race driver as he does a lap of Brands Hatch.

The animation lets you upload a picture of yourself, which doesn’t appear to actually do anything other than have a lovely pitgirl ask you to sign your own photo (and if you don’t she’ll kiss you instead), while the name you enter appears on the side of your car. Get creative.

The last part of the video features Shift’s in-game graphics, but we’ve not quite figured out whether it’s controllable or not. We’re pretty sure it isn’t.

So it’s viral marketing, but it’s pretty neat nonetheless. And it’s managed to entertain us for the last half hour, which can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Check it out, here.

A few people have asked what visual differences are made to the cockpit after you upgrade your vehicle with the ‘Cockpit Upgrade’ option. So, rather than explain, we thought we’d show you.

Here are some before and after shots of the Ford Focus ST, Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 and Porsche Cayman S, showing the car’s factory cockpit and the custom upgrade. Each car has been fully upgraded to Cockpit Upgrade Level Three which, as you can see from the shots, provides a custom steering wheel, custom seats and additional gauges. If you want a closer look, just click the images.

It’s worth bearing in mind that this upgrade is purely cosmetic and has no effect on your vehicle’s performance. And if you don’t like the look of it afterwards, you can always sell the upgrade and revert back to the original factory design.

Ford Focus ST – Before

Ford Focus ST – After

Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 – Before

Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 – After

Porsche Cayman S – Before

Porsche Cayman S – After

Much has been made of Need For Speed: Shift’s ‘Driver Experience’, which attempts to make the player feel just like they’re behind the wheel of a real racing car.

One of the ways in which the game achieves this is through the use of motion blur to simulate the effects of G-Force. As you can see in the screen above, upon reaching the higher speeds much of your display blurs out, including the cockpit, rear view mirror, your peripheral vision and other cars near to you, leaving only a small window completely in focus. EA reckon that this allows you to concentrate your attention on the track ahead and the whereabouts of rivals in the distance.

And when you’re racing along at 200km/h, that’s ultimately all that matters. Click the screens for a closer look.