First impressions are... absolutely amazing game.
The sense of speed is the best I've ever seen. Everything from highway and autocross speed all the way to 150+ feels just right. I never had to look at the speedo to know exactly how fast I was going.
I used to say Grid got the closest to the excitement during a race, but that was pretty superficial. The feeling you get in Shift is 85% of the right stuff in terms of adrenaline and nerves and such. You're really only missing the rivalries and the pressure from the crowd.
The physics, so far with tier 1/lower tier 2 cars, are really on the Forza level to me. It does things differently than Forza 2, but I would say the simulation is about the same level. People don't give this game enough credit IMO. No, it's no LFS, but I'd say it's between Forza 2 and Race Pro, just ever so slightly above Forza 2 (the only reason I say so is Shift feels more alive and Forza 2 seems too stiff and binary). In terms of what they set out to do I'd say they succeeded, bringing Need for Speed into the console sim world right up there with Forza and Race Pro (haven't played GT5).
The only truly odd thing I've noticed is the brakes. It's best to brake without making any tire noise at all, because any more than that and the car will try to swap ends with the smallest upset (including steering). It's like every car, including the stock cars, have way too much rear brake bias.
The AI... that's a tough one, because they do show a high level of adaption and improvisation. However, they do 2 really annoying things:
1. They sometimes straight up don't brake for corners and slam into the back of you.
2. They swerve on the straights.
Other than that they do seem to think about things and try new things. Also, I noticed that they adapt to the driver skill. I started out on "hard" and they were too slow. Now they're right on my pace, maybe a little bit faster than me. I've switched to Medium and they seem like a good enough challenge without being aggravating (except for the weaving and the not-braking).
Not a disappointment at all! So far this is the most fun racing game on the Xbox.
) Why can't they put in a 3 rotor for the works RX8??
