First, the background:

There are two things in my life that should have created a happy conflation of circumstances a long time ago, but strangely, haven’t, until recently:

• I have a friend who’s worked on a top racing video game for well over a decade
• I’m a huge fan of racing simulation games

To be accurate, although I’ve been a fan of racing sims since the mid 1990s – when I spent far too much time playing Race Drivin’ when I should have been in the library – I haven’t played them much since I finished school and was no longer conveniently close to the arcade in UBC’s student union building. (Sadly, the arcade closed in 2006.)

Despite the long hiatus, racing sims still easily top my list of favorite game genres – so much so that I’ve even considered finding and restoring a Race Drivin’ console and setting it up in my condo’s storage room. Perhaps fortunately, they’re not that easy to find and probably harder to ship.

Last year, I came to a compromise that satisfied both nostalgia and common sense. I didn’t find a Race Drivin’ console – or even get an emulated version. Instead, I did pick up three things that together were nearly close enough:

• A PlayStation 3 bundled with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
• A Logitech G25 racing wheel
• A Rinoseat G25 Edition racing chair

The PS3/GT5 bundle was easy enough to find at a local electronics store. The G25 wheel was a little more work – I had to call several stores before finding one in a suburb, since it was very much in demand and was sold out nearly everywhere. The chair was the most difficult – both because it was hardest to choose one online without seeing it in real life, and because I had to order the chair I settled on from Zagreb (and pay by direct bank transfer!).

While I was waiting for the chair to arrive, I don’t think I had so looked forward to opening a package since Christmas as a child. When it arrived a couple of weeks later, I set it up immediately – not surprisingly, it took a couple of hours to get all the nuts and bolts in place – and then spent the next month and a half playing probably an hour and a half every night. Even after my initial flurry of gaming fizzled out, the red chair remained the focal point of my living room for a good part of 2009, smack dab between my couch and TV.

Together, the game, the chair, and the wheel met my expectations: The physics of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue were as fluid and realistic as I’d hoped, and the graphics obviously had a bit of a leg up on the 1990-era Race Drivin’ title. The Rinoseat chair was pleasant enough, except for the wheel tray being set a little too close for comfort. The leather and steel workmanship of the G25 wheel itself also provided a satisfying touch, although I was disappointed that I couldn’t get the clutch to work with GT5.

[Side note: Although the setup was acceptable, the biggest compromise in relation to Race Drivin’ was the lack of a stunt track or jumps in Gran Turismo, but that’s a topic for a future post.]

Anyhow, fast-forward a year or so, to September 2009:

It had been many months since I’d played Gran Turismo or even had the red chair out in front of my TV. I heard from my friend Ed (a.k.a. Rey Mysterio) at Electronic Arts that NFS Shift was releasing, and got him to pick up a copy for me at the company store. (BTW…am I allowed to say that you did that? Oh well.)

On the weekend following the September 15 release, I dragged the red chair out of storage, dusted off the pedals, and even picked up a new plasma TV for the occasion. Long story short, here are the notes that I took the first time I tried it:

Positive things:

• Miles better than any other NFS game I’ve tried, although I haven’t tried one in years. The physics are realistic, and the graphics are top notch.
• I like the damage settings.
• I really like the fact that the clutch works, although it seems awfully forgiving. I can easily shift without depressing it – and it doesn’t feel like there’s any penalty for doing so. But the important thing is that I can put it into neutral by stepping on the clutch.

Annoying things:

• Took me several races to figure out how to get my HUD and controls correct; I guess that’s fair enough.
• I get the feeling that even though I’ve set it to the hardest setting, the game is still being easy on me – I’m not spinning out when it feels like I’ve made a mistake and I should lose control.
• A little disappointing that it’s not in full 1080p (but not sure if any PS3 driving games are).
• I don’t like how it put me directly into career mode, without letting me try a few races for fun – there didn’t seem to be any other options when I first loaded the game – although I’ve since found out how to have one-off races.
• I didn’t like how it chose my driving settings based on a test run – I’d rather at least have the option of setting my own options right away.
• I don’t like how the dashboard kept on popping up (randomly – sometimes it didn’t) in each race, and I had to switch it off each time, distracting me.
• When choosing a vehicle, the cars keep spinning automatically, which means that to see a full side view, I have to wait.
• Annoying that I can’t see the actual top speed or at least compare two cars to see which is numerically faster. Instead, I have to guess, using a bar graph.
• In career mode, when encountering a new track, I’d like to practice a few times first to get a hang of where the corners are before being thrown in to the real race.
• I’m still not sure if I have the force feedback on full, which is how I’d like it – I seem to have lost where to set that. I saw it once, and then haven’t found it since.

Although I’ve listed more annoyances than positive things, my overall impression of the game is definitely positive. It compares very favorably to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue – particularly since it shows damage and the G25 clutch works.

Reflecting on why I do like it – and why it’s taken so long for me to get interested in NFS: It’s clearly because Shift seems to be the first version of NFS that provides a real simulation experience. The previous titles I tried always felt “arcadey” even on their toughest settings. This time, notwithstanding my suspicion that the game is still going slightly easy on me, the handling seems much more realistic. And no doubt it’ll get even more realistic as I work my way up to more powerful cars and the oversteer that usually accompanies them.