need-for-speed-shift posts

The PC game download sites are starting up the post-Labor Day sales a little early this week with Direct2Drive, Steam and GamersGate all holding mid-week sales:

• Direct2Drive has two titles on sale until Wednesday. CitiesXL is on sale for $19.95 while Tropico 3 Absolute Power has a price cut today to just $9.95.
• Steam has put Puzzle Quest 2 on sale from now until Thursday $13.39, which is 33 percent off its normal price.
• GamersGate has put three Electronic Arts games on sale until Wednesday. Both Mirror's Edge and Dead Space are priced at just $7.98 while Need For Speed Shift is on sale for $14.97.

Electronic Arts clearly loves the Need For Speed driving-racing game franchise. The publisher recently launched the online-only PC racing game Need For Speed World and in November developer Criterion Games will take the franchise back to its cop-driver roots with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Today as part of its financial press release, Electronic Arts revealed a new release schedule for its upcoming games and one of its titles due for release in the first calendar quarter of 2011 is Need For Speed Shift 2. This would be the sequel to the more racing sim-style of game that was first released for the PC in the fall of 2009. UK-based developer Slightly Mad Studios was the primary team behind the first Shift game (shown in the above screenshot) but there's no official word if it will be involved in the making of the sequel.

With the driving-themed MMO Need For Speed World scheduled for its official launch next week, the folks at Stardock have put several of the previous Need For Speed PC games from publisher Electronic Arts on sale via its Impulse PC game download service this weekend.

The most recent game in the series, Need For Speed Shift, is now on sale for just $14.99. Two more games, Need for Speed Undercover and Need For Speed ProStreet, are on sale this weekend on Impulse for just $4.99 each. Other games on sale via Impulse this weekend include Timeshift for $9.99 and Age of Booty for $4.99.

Electronic Arts is having a love affair with the Need For Speed franchise these days. Later this month the publisher will launch the racing MMO Need For Speed World and in November developer Criterion releases the arcade-themed open world driving game Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. But even more future projects in the franchise could be deep in development.

A LinkedIn profile for a former programmer at developer Slightly Mad Studios, Chris McClure, indicates he word on Need For Speed Shift 2 before leaving the developer earlier this year. Slightly Mad developed the first Shift game which was a more sim-like racing title that was released to solid reviews last fall. Another LinkedIn profile from writer Rees Savidis stated he "helped to develop the fiction and characters for the 2011 instalment in the AAA "Need For Speed" franchise." It's unknown of this is for Shift 2 or yet another future game in the Need For Speed series.

[Via superannuation]

Thursday must be a day for gearheads at Steam. The PC game download service continues its EA week of sales with a trio of racing games that have had their prices cut for today only. From now until 1 pm Eastern time on Friday you can get two of the Need For Speed titles plus a Burnout game at low prices.

The most recent game, Need For Speed Shift, gets a 25 percent price cut today to $22.49 while the previous game, Need For Speed Undercover, is on sale for 50 percent off at $4.99. Burnout Paradise is also on sale for 75 percent off at $7.49.

On the evening of March 26th, NVIDIA's GeForce General Manager Drew Henry officially announced the launch of the cutting edge GeForce GTX 470 and 480 video cards in front of packed crowd at PAX East in Boston. The 400 series ushers in the next generation of PC gaming as the company's most powerful graphics cards to date. The GPU includes 3 billion transistors, which equals four Intel Quad Core i7 processors, which gives a clear indication of the kind of might this card packs. What it comes down to for gamers is a chance, in Drew Henry's words, to "blow some sh#t up." When summed up, gamers can expect the GTX 480 to double the performance output of the GTX 285, NVIDIA's previous top-of-the line GPU, for many games. According to the chart shown at the presentation, there will be at least a 50% boost in performance for most games, including recent ones like Battlefield Bad Company 2. In any case, players will be free to dial up to detail levels to their most extreme levels without worrying about a single particle effect or lighting and shadow feature to hinder performance. In addition to blowing stuff up, the 400 series motto invites you to "Crank that sh#t up!"

It's awards season in Hollywood and even games are not immune to be caught up in the glitter. This week the Visual Effects Society announced their nominees for their 2010 awards. As shown by The Hollywood Reporter, they include two game categories. One is for Real-Time Visuals which include two PC games; Modern Warfare 2's Gulag Extraction and Need For Speed Shift's World Sequence.

The other game related category is Visual Effects in an video game trailer. Again two PC games were nominated and both were from BioWare titles; Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. The winners will be named on February 28.

Just because 2010 has started that doesn't mean that all of the holiday sales have disappeared. Publisher Electronic Arts has launched a New Year's sale on their online store that will give gamers a chance to take 30 percent off several EA titles until January 10.

Among the games on sale are Need For Speed Shift for $34.96, Ultima Online for $27.99, The Sims 3 for $34.96 and Dragon Age: Origins for $34.96. Keep in mind that Steam's holiday sale ends on January 3 and GoG.com's own holiday sale also ends on January 3 so there's still some time to use up that spare Christmas money.

Steam's big holiday sales event is ongoing with a ton of games and game bundle collections with slashed prices. Today they have gone even further with one day sales on five titles. The prices are only valid until 12 noon Eastern time on Christmas Day.

The biggest deal is with the id Software Super Pack. You can now purchase and download over 20 games either developed by or based on id games for a mere $23.79. Also Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter can be yours for just $9.99 for one day. Left 4 Dead 2 is on sale for $33.49 while Need For Speed Shift has a price cut of $37.49. Finally Football Manager 2010 can be yours for just $29.99.

Today was a fairly slow day in terms of new PC game sales:

• Direct2Drive posted up their latest one day sale today. From now until 1 pm Eastern time on Friday you can download and purchase Resident Evil 5 for just $24.95, a 50 percent price cut from its normal price. They have also discounted Borderlands for one day only; you can grab it for just $32.95.
• GameTap has put three recent EA games (Dragon Age: Origins, Need For Speed Shift and The Sims 3) on sale for $39.99 each, a 20 percent cut from their normal price. They have also added the RTS game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade to its list of games available via its paid subscription service.