The career mode is sizeable and split into 9 sections made up from several events each, featuring vehicles grouped into 10 classes (Modern D, C, B, A, Retro, Muscle, Drift, GT3, Works and GT1) with vehicles usually capable of being tuned and converted into multiple classes. This vast amount of XP-gathering capability means a lot of people have capped themselves out at the max level of 20 in a couple of sessions of play, and we can only presume this will be raised at some point with an update, and hopefully not a premium DLC pack. The problem with this is that you get used to the hefty cash bonus that you get every time you ‘level up’ and when you reach the cap vehicles seem a lot more expensive as the prize money for winning races and drift events is significantly smaller.

The extent and believability of the collision damage modelling makes nonsense of certain other racing games and their pitiful efforts; in Shift 2 you can start off a race with a shiny, showroom model only to have it reduced to a smoking pile of twisted junk by the first corner of a race. All the body panels, the roof, windows and lights show damage, and it’s even possible to lose a wheel (or four) if you’re involved in a violent enough crash (see Gumpert Apollo damage screen sequence). At times Shift 2’s physics truly look realistic; especially when a car hits a wall leaving visible damage on the concrete or Armco, or slithers into a gravel trap sideways, a wheel digs in and the car flips over—ouch!

The ‘Autolog’—that was a popular feature of Need For Speed Hot Pursuit—now encompasses all of Shift 2’s online features and acts like a server/hub. Autolog saves every Shift 2 player’s times on every track and allows you to compare yours with the best in the world or just your friends; you can spur friends on to better performances by beating their times the same way they can you. It’s a shame some tedious arseholes have seemingly hacked or “glitched” the game already (posting impossible lap times of literally less than a second!) You can of course ignore all this online interaction completely, but if you’re not signed in to Autolog then you can’t race online, and the good news is we haven’t come across anyone visibly cheating when racing online.

As far as I’m concerned, some racing games make driving a high-powered vehicle near the limit too easy. All 3 Forzas would have me believe I could jump in anything, regardless of the horsepower or setup, and master a track within 2 laps with no problem. Not Shift 2 though. It feels, like I’ve heard from real racing drivers and experienced myself, that you control a race car as much with the throttle as you do with the steering, as much with the rear wheels as the front wheels (particularly if you use a manual gearbox), and the fact is that gamers brought upon tamer driving models that pass themselves off as simulations won’t be able to handle it. In order to nurse yourself gently into the game you can lower the difficulty and have assists on like ABS, traction & stability control and even automatic brakes that limit your speed as you approach a bend, but to be honest emasculating a game like this that way is a crime.

Shift 2 Unleashed seems to be much more solid than the 2009 Shift and relatively bug-free, but it's the way the game viscerally depicts motorsport that I find so engaging, we had Forza 3 and Shift 2 running side by side (Corvettes racing around Laguna Seca) and frankly it made Forza look and feel tame and fake. As for looks, the car models don’t possess quite the same photo-reality of GT5's, but the tracks are vastly superior and the cars themselves manage to look much ummm… cooler thanks to some smart modelling and individual body kits (that must have taken a great deal of time to model and consist of a lot more than generic rear spoilers ala GT5.) Intelligent use of aftermarket parts and tuning make a noticeable difference too (because of the different performance classes that have to be stringently adhered to), and fiddling with your cars makes much more sense than in both Forza 3 and GT5 (both of which were full of anomalies, contradictions and loopholes). You can even save individual setups for each track or groups of tracks, and these setups load automatically when you compete at that track-how cool is that? GT5 has none of this. Tuning options are also explained and you can use either ‘Quick’ or ‘Advanced’ modes (in which every single facet of adjustment is explained in language that we can all understand) so you no longer have excuses for not bothering to have a quick twiddle to get the best out of your car. Slightly Mad even thought to include a “Live Tuning” option that allows you to take a car straight out of your garage, go to any track and tune the setup on track, without the need for any of the soul-destroying too-ing and fro-ing from menu to menu that other, lesser games expect you to tolerate (I’m looking at you again, GT5). Much kudos and many thanks to Slightly Mad for that.

The opposition AI is a lot more active than most racing games too. On ‘Medium’ they’ll push but give you room to race, and make mistakes of their own; and on ‘Hard’ I’ve seen a leading car spin on the last lap! On one occasion a car even span out at the start in one race implying that the AI has as many problems balancing grip levels and powerful rear wheel drive cars as anyone does.

Shift 2’s presentation is of a typically high EA standard. The intro depicts a GT race at Spa with a crash occurring at the spectacular Eau Rouge bend, and this crash sequence becomes a stunning 3D backdrop for the game’s main selection screen. The game’s sound is also amazing, with raucous engine samples and everything sounding right, from chattering turbo gates to squealing tyres and crunching metal when cars collide.

Plus Limited Edition specials & some of the prize cars we unlocked while reviewing Shift 2:
• Nissan Silvia spec.R AERO (S15)
• Alfa Romeo Giulietta QV
• Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
• Monster Energy/ Falken Tire Ford Mustang GT
• Need For Speed SHELBY Terlingua Ford Mustang
• Lotus Exige S
• McLaren MP4-12C
• Team Need For Speed AWD SCION tC
• Team Need For Speed Toyota Corolla GTS (AE86)
• SUMO POWER Nissan GT-R GT1

There are also Legends Pack DLC cars and rather cool but daft loyalty bonuses of a Pagani Zonda Cinque (a topless Zonda) and a Lamborghini Reventon Cop car if you use the same EA account as you did for Hot Pursuit (there’s also bonus cash and XP available for Shift and Undercover veterans).

One problem I can see arising comes from Shift 2’s almost relentless intensity, and that’s the fact that a lot of gamers have to play games in a family/living room—with a game that requires as much focus and concentration as this, you don’t want distractions – any distractions, and a wife/girlfriend/daughter/little sister/brother walking between you and the TV screen while you’re fighting for control of a race car really won’t help your blood pressure.

Shift 2 isn’t all about speed, shiny paint and sexy engine noises either, Simply Mad have been extremely careful to include a host of incidental effects that add immeasurably to the game’s overall look and feel. For the first time that I can recall in a racing game on the edges of corners you’ll notice marbles (bits of rubber that roll off the edge of racing tyres and gather off the racing line) and other debris like leaves and bits of hose and trim from collisions, and when tailing another car, its wheels will actually throw crap at your windscreen! You’ll also soon recognize that the quality of the lighting effects in the night time racing are something special; if you're being followed closely and get dazzled you can actually see the silhouette of your car being cast by the headlights of the car behind! (You also really don't want to smash your headlights in on some tracks as you won't be able to pick out the upcoming apex.) Then there are the less noticeable but just as vital peripheral details like helicopters, hot air balloons and stunt planes in the sky, spectators that wave flags and photographers that lean over the barriers to get a snap of you, seemingly trying to get their telephoto lenses knocked off. The tyre smoke and dust hangs around for a realistic length of time (unlike other racing games), cars dirty-up during a race, and then there’s the way that rear view mirrors and wiper blades oscillate in the airflow, the dash gets reflected in the windscreen, and look down when using the in-car views and you’ll notice that the entire driver’s body has been modeled in and animated accurately so that when you change gear, he depresses the clutch and shifts the gear lever. Or there’s the varied lighting (races can be held at in the daytime, at dusk, when the sunsets are amazing or as I mentioned earlier at night), but the skies, the clouds, the trees that sway in the wind, the cars….. Oh yes, the back to the cars.

The cars are not only extremely customizable in terms of performance but appearance–wise too. There’s a paint job & vinyl editor with several preset sponsor-covered setups for each car, which is just as well as doing your own is extremely fiddly thanks to a set of basic tools that lack finesse. If there’s one department that Forza 3 beats Shift 2 hands down in then it’s this. We’ve also had the game lock up solid a couple of times when simply changing wheel rims but that could be down to our overused 360 Elite I suppose.