Why We Can’t Get To Grips With Shift 2

Peter Chapman 49 Comments

Update:

We think we’ve got to the bottom of this – check this new post.

Original post:

We discussed this earlier in the week, but the problem still persists – for us, at least, Shift 2 on PS3 suffers from fairly serious input lag.

The original article was written based on promo code, but we’ve tried final retail code and it’s the same.  Yes, you can attempt to dial it down via the advanced setting sliders, but there’s still a clearly perceptable lag between the controller and the on-screen action which makes driving difficult.

Not only that, it’s everything once you’re on the track – even looking behind takes a good half second to ‘work’.

And it’s not just us complaining, although we do stress this problem might not be there (or as obvious) for everyone.

Credit: megadarren.

Indeed, discussions abound on the official EA forums, too – here, here and here, for example.  There’s reports that the PC version suffers a similar fate (with user created mods built to try to fix the issues) but obviously the PS3 version will need an official patch.

Another report suggests that the game uses some kind of ‘dampening’ which can be fixed easily – again on the PC – just with a config file edit to remove most of the lag.

Let’s hope EA are working hard on this for us console gamers, because Shift 2 looks like being a brilliant game – that is, once the input lag is fixed.

Editor’s note: We’ve also briefly tested the 360 version and it seems to have the same problems. It’s probably just over-zealous control dampening, as the PC config evidence suggests. Still, without a patch for console versions it’s extremely difficult to control and we would be letting you down if we didn’t let you know the difficulties we’ve encountered.

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49 Comments

  1. Nightmare. My copy should arrive today. I’ll leave off playing till next week when hopefully a patch will be out. Just have to keep playing Motorstorm until then.

  2. I’ve been playing the game since yesterday (thanks Shopto ;) and have had to adapt driving styles a flange to be able to play the game properly.
    At first the handling seemed like nothing else I’ve tried before but I remembered nofi’s hands on article highlighting the settings that needed to be altered to get a decent lap in. Since then I have adapted to the game and things are going well…beat the Time Trial King and won his car lol. Got around 22% of the career completed with this set up and altered driving style, so I guess when they patch the game I’ll have to learn to control the cars all over again!
    Apart from the issue with the lag though the game is a tad ace so far :’)

    • Agreed. Shift 2 has the potential to be the best racing game this gen, it’s beautiful and (lag aside) drives brilliantly. I hope they can patch this one out.

  3. Oh. Thanks TSA. The only reason I was going to get this was to play a proper racing game with my new G27. Am going to hold off now, until a patch is released, or the price drops. Even then, I might be tempted to miss out on this completely. With L.A. Noire out in the middle of May, and a whole bunch of games later this year, I don’t think I’ll be able to justify cashing out for this. Cheers for saving my wallet!

    • So, you’ve just bought a £200+ steering wheel but you aren’t going to buy what is being described as possibly the best racing game this generation because you can’t afford it?

      Fair enough……

    • You’d be much better off with GT5 on PS3 or Forza on the 360 if you want to get the best out of that G27, in my opinion anyway :)

      • Depends if you’re interested in driving or racing I suppose. GT5 only manages to simulate the former, and where is the fun it that?

  4. From what I have read there is some input lag, however this test is the wrong one. As with GT5 the wheel does not correspond perfectly with 1 to 1 movement with the actual wheel, giving the impression the steering is behind when it is the actual animation that is behind, physics wise the car is turning.
    As far as I know, with Shift 2 there is a method that allows you to view telemetry like Forza and GT5 and it is with this that a proper impression of steering lag would be found.

    • Physics wise the car isn’t turning, trust me.

      You can view the car from outside, see the wheels, and then move the stick. The wheels turn much later than they should. On a straight, at speed, it’s very difficult to drive.

      • Hmm that is pretty crap then, physics lag mixed with 30fps is not a good mix.

      • I don’t think it’s physics lag, I honestly think it’s a true, consistent controller delay.

      • Your mates at GTP are having the same issues: http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=196807

      • Sorry thats what I meant by physics lag, as in they don’t respond to controller input, yeah been having a look on GTP.

        Am never sure what to think in there though, so much flaming and trolling nowadays. There are a few I would listen to but not got heard anything from them yet.

      • It felt to me like huge over-enthusiasm in the turn dampening that racing games have but then I tried the look behind button and there is a measurable delay between pressing that digital input and the game responding. That suggests controller lag to me.
        It does look to be a very decent game underneath it, if I could just get that game to respond to me.

      • My main concern with the first Shift is the aggressive return to centre steering that it had, even with the wheel, its something that Forza does to an extent also which annoys me. This mixed with the controller lag you are talking about would make it nigh on undrivable.

        The first game I really enjoyed at the start with the slower cars but once you got above 140mph or so it became horrible.

  5. Another thing that is important to note, but it won’t help lag, is that if it is anything like the first one the default control system is, umm, not very good. Have been looking at recommendations and for the DS3 and these seem popular:
    all deadzones at 0
    steering sensitivity 15
    throttle sensivity 70
    brake sensitivity 66
    speed sensitivity 90

    For the 900 degree wheels(the dfgt, G25/27, Fanatec GT3RS etc) these seem popular:
    FFB:100%

    Steering DZ:1%

    Steering SN:75%

    Throttle DZ:0%

    Throttle SN:40%

    Brake DZ:0%

    Brake SN:45%

    Clutch DZ:0%

    Clutch SN:60%

    Speed SN:0%

    Drift Speed SN:0%

    Steering Lock:900*

    Drift Steering Lock:900*

    Alternatively some are saying to set the Steering Lock to 450 degrees.

    Unfortunately haven’t got the game so can’t test these.

    • recommend above for DS3 – haven’t tried wheel yet cba to set it up

    • Cheers Jambo, I’ll have to try out those settings. I used to play Shift 1 with a wheel occasionally and found it fine but so far have only tried with a controller on Shift 2 mainly due to the strange handling of the cars that takes some getting used to.

  6. Picked this up and just started playing. I think GT5 has spoilt me.

    So far the graphics aren’t great – passable but not great. The car models seem exaggerated – almost like charactertures. The reflections seem much lower res than I’m used to (think GT4 not GT5). The surrounding buildings that I’ve got to look at quite a lot (due to the handling, which I’ll get to in a minute) are also quite poor.

    Tha handling is utterly unpredictable. Sometimes the car will turn in nicely – sometimes it understeers and sometimes it over steers. Don’t go near the curbs – it will spin you. The brakes don’t appear to be very progressive and it’s hard to pick braking points.

    The AI don’t seem all that intelligent – infact I just got blatently PIT’d by an Audi A3 in the first actual race (not the “race” that is designed to test your ability).

    Crashes are quite cool though – about as good as a codies game.

    The handling is nowhere near sim – It’s Race Driver : GRiD on a bad day.
    what drew me in was the car list and track list and the fact there’s a basic livery editor.

    I’m going to try these adjusted settings now and see if it improves anything – if not do I wait for a patch or do I get my money back?

    • Oh and who’s this tool who keeps talking to me? Why has a predominantly circuit game got so many Formula D drivers quoted?

    • PPS – why after changing anything do I have to press start to save? I wanted it changed ergo I changed it – why don’t you just do as your told and save it? Keep forgetting to hit start before quitting every menu!

      • I know I know 4 in a row – the settings above alleviate some of the issues from the woeful handling. Game is a little bit more enjoyable.

  7. Those are my thoughts exactly. I paid £40 for the limited edition and feel ripped off. They’ve shown amazing videos and generated a lot of hype surrounding this game and it’s unplayable. The graphics are sub par but you could forgive that if it was playable. I’ve spent an hour on the game and it’s bearable in the lower front wheel drive cars, but as soon as you get in a rear wheel drive car it’s terrible. You can’t correct oversteer. You try to, but you end up over compensating due to the lag. EA really need to sort this out, and pronto. I think I may be sending this back on Monday!

    • The game just crashed on me too. Never had this happen with Hot Pursuit. Shift 2 is going back!

  8. I would have thought something like this wouldn’t have got past the testing stage.
    I wonder who EA has as testers, the 3 blind mice?

    • Nascar the game has no problems like this :P

      • I had the last Nascar game on PS3 and the handling was fine so I don’t know why they managed to mess this one up.

      • I was meaning the new one from Eutechnyx, I did some of the testing for it, came out this week in America. I know what you mean though.

      • Right, Do you know if/when it’s released here? I did a search for it earlier in the week but couldn’t find any UK retailers with it listed.

      • Not happening :( No European release. Need to import from AMerica, it is definitely region free though. Weird I can’t buy it when it was made a few miles away…

      • Cheers Jambo, may get a copy somewhere down the line as I’ve got plenty to keep me busy for a while.
        Knock on their door and say ‘gimme a copy, please’ :P

      • You can get nascar 11 from amazon.co.uk but it’s £55, way too much.

  9. Hi all! this is my first venture into posting on TSA, I’ve been coming to this site forever just was to lazy to register until today. But anyway as for Shift 2’s controls…you guys are right they lag or just suck on default but this helped me and it feels alot better. Give these guys settings a shot and see how it feels. http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/604347-shift-2-unleashed/58623625

  10. That is so bad it’s insane, I thought about getting this game. Not anymore.

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