Under the Bonnet: SHIFT 2 Unleashed - 2

Immediately after launch we played with the community and heard their feedback on this issue, yes. After investigating it further - on a combination of platforms and input devices - we managed to isolate the cause and issued a fix for it in the console update/PC patch.

New input devices like Kinect or PlayStation Move aim to break down the barrier between the player and the game by making the interface to controlling them as natural as possible.

Racing games have had their most natural interface for years now though - the same input device that's used in real-life cars: the steering wheel. Although we recognise that a majority of our players will be playing via a gamepad (same as most StreetFighter players will not own a Hori stick), the steering wheel/pedals/gearstick input method is one of our top priorities and so we test extensively on the major products out there currently.

In terms of the 360 specifically, the official wheel is a good starting recommendation and can be picked up at a reasonable price but we'd love to see a more durable 'Pro' version with detachable gearstick and a clutch pedal!

The initial contact point for Need for Speed: SHIFT was Patrick Soderlund at DICE. He's a massive racing fan and a successful Team Need for Speed driver in GT3 and winner of the Dubai 24H race.

He was a huge supporter of our approach on that title; to make the first game that really captures the emotions of racing a car at high speed. During that transitionary first title we collaborated with the original BlackBox team that had worked on the previous NFS titles and they aided us in a number of areas including user interface and online support.

Going forward with the sequel we took control of those areas internally but then made new contacts at EA Vancouver in order to push our own ideas out across the franchise such as the Need for Speed VIP program and ensure consistency of the branding across the various NFS titles (Hot Pursuit, The Run etc).

As a key part of the initial SHIFT 2 Unleashed brainstorming we wanted to include a suite of features that allowed players to talk to each other, compete, compare times and see what the community was doing on a larger scale. We called that 'The Driver Network'. We were then put in contact with Criterion who, ironically, were developing a similar system called 'Autolog' for their upcoming Hot Pursuit title. Realising that we both had the same idea we then collaborated in order to meld the two together - the initial version being available in Hot Pursuit and then SHIFT 2 Unleashed building upon those with our additional features ('access anywhere' navigation method, video sharing, Records tab, additional recommendations, rewards list, automated messaging etc).

To a certain extent... I think you have to pick and choose what's right for your game and how your players are playing it. We considered the replay feature ourselves for example but chose not to include it since it's a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card. If you mess up on a corner then you idly hit that button and retry. Sure, it can save your bacon occasionally if you made an accidental mistake but having a handy 'reset' button does nothing to enhance your apprehension of crashing; there's no consequence if you can just undo it as if it never happened.

We would rather let you fully experience the visceral crashes we have in the game - the full damage model, the g-forces and stylistic disorientation effects etc - and then provide a gameplay balance to still allow you to get back on the track and claw back that lost position. Both methods basically aim to avoid the player hitting restart but it didn't feel appropriate for our game focusing on the driver and their battle with opponents on the track. Its unavailability in online modes anyway sealed the deal for us.