slightly-mad-studios posts

Last year Electronic Arts elected not to release a demo for their racing action game Need For Speed Undercover. It was the first time that EA did not release a demo for a game in the long running series in some time. Thankfully that won't be the case for Need For Speed Shift, although EA is electing to release the demo after the game ships to stores this week.

The demo is currently due for release sometime before the end of September or the beginning of October, according to what an EA rep told Big Download today. The rep also told us the demo will have two tracks (London River and Spa Francrorchamps) and four cars (Viper, Lotus, BMW M3 and Nissan R35). If you happen to collect all ten of the game's driver badges you will gain access to a fifth car, the Zonda, to drive in the demo.

With the fall/holiday gaming season only a few weeks away, we have seen a rise in pre-order offers for a ton of upcoming titles. The latest game to have such a special offer is Need For Speed Shift, the upcoming and latest revamp of the long running racing series from developer Slightly Mad Studios and publisher Electronic Arts.

Gamestop's entry for the game indicated that if you put up your hard earned money for Need For Speed Shift you can gain access to an extra car, the BMW E92 M3 GT2. You will be able to drive this sweet ride alongside the other real world vehicles when the game is released on September 15.

Electronic Arts is aiming to revive their Need For Speed franchise this fall with the release of their more racing sim oriented game Need For Speed Shift. Today EA put out a press release taking about one of the game's more interesting features, the driver profile.

Basically EA claims the driver profile will give each player a unique experience based on how he or she drives in the game. The profile is generated while playing with several factors including their success on the track, profile points earns while accomplishing specific things (passing other cars, taking out opponants, etc) receiving badges (the game's version of achievements) and their personality (whether a driver is aggressive or precise). With all of this info the game creates specific challenges and even unlocks cars and custom options for their driver. We are all for making a game feel different every time we play so hopefully this new feature will deliver on that promise.

Electronic Arts released a Edsel of a game last fall with the release of Need For Speed Undercover. However the publisher is switching from arcade racing to a sim-style game for its next release Need For Speed Shift. Today EA revealed that the game is due for release on Sept. 22 in the US. Europeans get the game a few days earlier on Sept. 17.

Developed by the newly launched UK-based Slightly Mad Studios, Need For Speed Shift is said to concentrate on a first person percepetive for the driver and will feature some of the more well known real life racing tracks in the world. Cars like the Pagani Zonda F, Porsche 911 GT2 and Lotus Elise will be featured.

EA's efforts to relaunch the Need For Speed racing-action franchise this year has three prongs of attack and one of them is Need For Speed Shift, a more pure racing series that's under development at UK based Slightly Mad Studios. Today EA released new screenshots from Need For Speed Shift showing off more of what they have planned for the title.

Planned for both PC and console release this fall Need For Speed Shift will have features such as "a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic." You can check out a brief preview of the game at our sister site Joystiq. US PC gamers will also get to check out the free-to-play online game Need For Speed World Online this fall as well.

Remember those rumors earlier this year that EA might shut down the Need For Speed franchise? Yeah, those were way off the mark. In a bit of a surprise, Electronic Arts has announced their plans to release not one but three upcoming games in their Need For Speed driving series for 2009, including two for the PC. The last entry in the series, Need For Speed Undercover, got slammed by critics and was not a sales success when it was released last fall. This fall EA will release Need For Speed: Shift for the PC and other platforms and the PC-only game Need For Speed World Online.

Need For Speed: Shift is being developed by a new UK company called Slightly Mad Studios (with help from EA Black Box) Its team helped to develop the racing sim games GTR and GTR 2 for SimBin. With that background you can expect Need For Speed: Shift to be more of a simulation game than an arcade racer. According to EA's press release, "Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic, providing an unrivaled sensation of the speed and feeling of racing a car on the extreme edge of control." The above early screenshot gives you an idea of the visual style they are trying to create.