When EA announced the direction for their next Need For Speed racing game, I’ll admit I was a little concerned with their aim to focus on the ‘racing experience’ and tilt the overall theme of the game towards more of a simulation approach, while still retaining the ‘jump in and race’ arcade feeling of previous entries to the long running series.
Amid a games market already saturated with quality racers occupying space within both genres - titles that know very well what they are and do what they do very well - this new approach to Need For Speed smacked of an attempt to appeal to both crowds of racing enthusiasts in equal measure, only doomed to dilute both the arcade and simulation aspects and end up appealing to neither set of fans.

Surprisingly, though, Need For Speed: Shift does an excellent job of providing a racing experience for everyone, from the motorheads who want to upgrade and tweak their engines just right, to the people who simply want to let the game take care of the technical stuff and just press accelerate, all wrapped up in a very arcadey points-based approach, with tons of challenges to complete.