Just tried shift 2.
After reading alot of info on how they wanted to compete with forza and granturismo because of better physics compared to Shift 1, i had to try it out.
Shift 1 was a total mess imo, it had very bad handling and physics. Even after alot of mods it still was in no way a simulation.
Launched the game and from the start before even racing i had some issues. You can’t exit those irritating movies with the peeps all talking like 16 year olds (man, dude, bro… that was sick… aaargh) and imo the menu’s are again to flashy and induce a miggrain because of all the flashing.
I play with a xbox 360 controller because in Rfactor, LFS and Forza 3 the cars are fairly controllable with all assists off. I have a Logitech G25 but my desk is not very compatible for it 
Set all assists off but left the guiding line on.
So the first race started where you are in a pre modified car.
First corner… i went all over the place… that is some controller lag, it’s even worse than Shift 1. Tried to finish the race (with alot of cursing) so i could tweak some controller settings.
Playing with the settings did do some good, but it still had lag and i couldn’t get it to be accurate enough. I looked on the internet and alot of people have this issue so i got a Shift 1 mod that modified the controller setting files. This helped a little, but it was playable now.
Also that darn Helmet cam isn’t working because it constantly looks like your missing a turn, so i set it to standard dashboard cam which again helped.
After some races i got more used to the lag and i could enjoy it a little bit more, night races look great and overall the graphics are good. The car models look a little bit worse compared to Shift 1 but there are more this time. Also the Skyline R32 is in now among some other cars i like.
The sounds are again good, turbo sounds are one of the best i heard in a racing game and engine sounds are good but not great.
The upgrades you can do are also more varied.
You can install better intakes, exhaust, cams, headwork and even some engine swaps (though Forza 3 has alot more swaps and upgrades). The handling upgrades are almost the same as shift 1 tho.
And i like the how alot of them show up on the car.
Overall alot more is upgradable now. The rim collection is also more varied with a better selection of old school rims.
Then i tried the drifting… this was the last thing i did, i again was all over the place. I don’t know what they did to the controller input’s but it realy needs a patch. The lag is a killer with drifting because you need to feather the throttle and steering and it all felt like you where driving on water 
Steering left and the car kept on steering left and felt like tipping over like a truck, then counter steering but because of the lag it steered hard right and kept steering there…
Pressed escape and quit the game.
I hope they fix the controller settings because the physics did feel alot better compared to Shift 1 but it is in no way close to Forza imo .
If they do this i will try again, but till then i don’t want to constantly tweak the settings.
. Also gt5 and a playstation3 are to expensive and i’m not realy impressed by the features of gt5 compared to gt4 which i do own.
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