14 DAY TRIAL // The latest Need for Speed to be added to the all-too-popular series is Shift. Electronic Arts seems to take a bit of a reverse-mentality with this one, in more ways than one. First, the demo that just became available is the PC version, not the console one, as opposite to most of the recent, multiplatform releases. So, while the PC users can muster all the horse power locked away inside this demo, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait until October.
The other thing that strikes as being odd is the time the company decided to release the demo. Considering the console version is to be released next month, you would think something in the company's department got mixed up, and the right hand didn't know that the left hand already made the full game available in stores. Yeah, that's right, first we buy the full game and then we get the free demo to see if it was worth buying the game. Sounds like something the Mad Hatter would come up with.
Anyway, the demo offers NFS addicts two tracks and five cars to prove they're race drivers, not Sunday drivers. The BMW M3 (E46), the 2006 Lotus Elise 111R, the 2008 Nissan GT-Rand and the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 are available from the start, while the cherry on top, the 2006 Pagani Zonda F, will only become available only to the skilled-enough players that can unlock it. The tarmac on which they can burn rubber is the one on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and on Shift's London River tracks.
The game tries to be more of a driving simulator than the more arcade-type previous installments, but promises to not give away fun in face of the frustration authentic simulators bring. In line with the rest of the Need for Speed games, it will still offer a fast-paced action through urban areas, with a cinematic feel and top-of-the-line graphics.