Latest NFS News

For the first time since NFS Hot Pursuit 2 (8 YEARS ago!), you can play Need For Speed with Officially Licensed Ferrari's. Assuming you have an Xbox, of course:


February 8, 2010 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that, after a seven year hiatus, the venerable automaker and elite racing brand Ferrari is returning to Need for Speed. On February 16th, players of Need for Speed™ SHIFT will be able to download a content pack that delivers 10 extraordinary Ferrari cars including the 430 Scuderia and the ultra-rare FXX and F50 GT. Now, Need for Speed SHIFT players will feel the rush of being in the driver’s seat, realizing the true driver’s experience of being behind the wheel of a Ferrari car.

The Ferrari Racing pack is the latest downloadable content for Need for Speed SHIFT and will be available worldwide today exclusively on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system for $10.00 or 800 Microsoft Points (Need for Speed SHIFT and Xbox LIVE® account required).

In addition to 10 new cars, the Ferrari Racing Series will also extend SHIFT’s career mode with 46 new Ferrari specific challenges designed for the Ferrari cars to participate in including hot laps, eliminators, endurance races and a world tour. Completing the perfect Ferrari package are an additional 125 gamerpoints as a reward for undertaking various exciting challenges. All Ferrari cars can also be taken online where players can prove who has the skills to master these high-performance Italian racing machines.

The Ferraris available include:
1. 1996 Ferrari F50 GT
2. 2005 Ferrari F430 Spider
3. 2005 Ferrari FXX
4. 2005 Ferrari Superamerica
5. 2006 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
6. 2006 Ferrari F430 Challenge (Online/Quick event only)
7. 2006 Ferrari F430 GTC (Online/Quick event only)
8. 2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
9. 2008 Ferrari California
10. 2008 Ferrari 16M Scuderia Spider



See all 6 Screenshots

(Un)Fortunately, the day has finally come when users can rice out and modify their own imported cars for Underground 2 using NFSU360's Modtools available at NFSCars (until it is uploaded here).

NFS SHIFT has been nominated for Best Driving game of the Year in the Spike Video Game Awards, up against rivals Forza 3, Gran Turismo PSP and Dirt2.

A large part of the result is based on user votes, so head on over to vote for your favourite!

EA sent over the following list of fixes in the upcoming SHIFT patch. It is currently in the testing process, and there is no release date set, yet.

NEW CONTENT/FUNCTIONALITY:

• Increased the maximum number of online players from 8 to 12

• General game stability and performance improvements


• Improved car handling


• Fix for issue where some cars would bounce on their suspension during high load situations


• Fix for grass sometimes being displayed out of position


• Fix for intermittent incorrect driver duel results


• Fix for inverted balance slider operation


• Fix for online wins and losses occasionally being calculated incorrectly for drift races


• Fixed issue where loaned career car would inherit the player's career car tuning settings


• Fixed various usability issues with the advanced tuning screens


• Fixed lap timing for first lap of rolling start events


• Fixed car tuning settings sometimes not taking effect


• Fix to prevent rewinding past the start of instant replays


• Fixed car livery occasionally appearing all white during driver duel events


• Fixed incorrect screens being shown when player is disqualified


• Fix for occasional invisible opponents appearing during online drift events


• Fix for intermittent hang when skipping quickly through post-race screens


• Fix for intermittent hang when pressing X repeatedly in My Cars screen


• Fix for missing race groove on point-to-point tracks


• Prevented car livery resetting to default after an online race


• Fix for advanced tuning not staying unlocked on reload


• Fixed invitational event cars getting their setups corrupted and becoming undrivable (e.g. Veryon and Carrera GT)


• Fix for Lamborghini's having a low top speed when upgraded


• Fix for Corvette Z06 and Dodge Viper not able to move at the start of some events


• Fix for some upgraded AI cars bottoming out causing some instability over bumps


• Fix upgrade menu bug


• Fix for a force feedback strength settings save bug


• Fix multi-player settings for AI opponents and drift mode


• Fix for vinyls being incorrectly applied on rear wing


• Fix for a hang in lobby when accessing friend's list from car select


• Fix for profile load bug which skips save select menu when holding down Enter key


• Fix for jumping body parts when car resets

• Improved ATi graphics card support


• Improved dynamic vertex buffer usage (performance optimization on all PCs)


• Fixed crashes on certain PC configurations when changing shadow settings


• Fixed intermittent crash during first lap of races on certain PC configurations


• Disabled forced dampening for custom wheel presets on PC


• Optimized multi-GPU PC operation


• Fix for intermittent missing surface sounds on certain PC configurations


• Fix for intermittent black skies


• Fix for LAN menu hang for client when host quickly returns to main menu

Just a heads up, the XBOX360 and PS3 versions of the NFS Shift demos should finally be available tomorrow for your downloading pleasure. The Xbox demo will likely be out first, early in the morning, and the PS3 demo will be out later in the day at around 5pm (your local time. Sony's rules, nothing EA can do about the time discrepancy)

Enjoy!

With the release of NFS Shift tomorrow, I just wanted to take a quick poll to see who plans on buying it? I got the chance to play it last week and will have a full review up within the next few days. And if my opinion matters at all, I am definitely planning on playing a lot of Shift.

With only a day before Need for Speed SHIFT hits the stores, we thought we would share the Xbox 360 Achievements / PlayStation 3 Trophy list.

Remember that this is the last day to pre-order Shift.  Don't miss out on all the cool pre-order rewards.  If you're interested in pro-ording NFS Shift, visit Shift.NeedforSpeed.com/preorder.

Without anymore ado, here is the achievements / trophy list for SHIFT:


Trial By Fire
Complete the NFS Live Pre-Race Event (10 pts)


One Small Step
Win your first event (20 pts)


Road to Success
Reach Tier 2 (100 pts)


Chance of a Lifetime
Reach Tier 3 (100 pts)


The Final Countdown
Reach Tier 4 (100 pts)


NFS Live World Champion
Win the NFS Live World Championship (150 pts)


Driving Rookie
Reach Driver Level 2 (10 pts)


Driving Amateur
Reach Driver Level 5 (20 pts)


Driving Semi-Pro
Reach Driver Level 10 (50 pts)


Driving Pro
Reach Driver Level 20 (50 pts)


Driving Veteran
Reach Driver Level 30 (50 pts)


Driving Hero
Reach Driver Level 40 (50 pts)


Driving Legend
Reach Driver Level 50 (50 pts)


Bronze Earner
Earn 5 Bronze Badges (5 pts)


Bronze Hunter
Earn 10 Bronze Badges (10 pts)


Bronze Collector
Earn 15 Bronze Badges (20 pts)


Bronze Master
Earn 20 Bronze Badges (25 pts)


Silver Earner
Earn 5 Silver Badges (5 pts)


Silver Hunter
Earn 10 Silver Badges (10 pts)


Silver Collector
Earn 15 Silver Badges (20 pts)


Silver Master
Earn 20 Silver Badges (25 pts)


Gold Earner
Earn 5 Gold Badges (5 pts)


Gold Hunter
Earn 10 Gold Badges (10 pts)


Gold Collector
Earn 15 Gold Badges (20 pts)


Gold Master
Earn 20 Gold Badges (25 pts)


Platinum Earner
Earn 5 Gold Badges (5 pts)


Platinum Hunter
Earn 10 Gold Badges (10 pts)


Platinum Collector
Earn 15 Gold Badges (20 pts)


Platinum Master
Earn 20 Gold Badges (25 pts)

As you may have noticed, the navigation bar on NFSAddons has changed slightly. It no longer lists each version of NFS, but rather lists the current selected game version, and allows you to change version by clicking on the blue tab. I tried to make it as intuitive as possible, while allowing for more game versions in the future. (The previous navigation was designed to last a few years, but EA went and decided to release 3 NFS verisons this year... screwing that up for me :)

Let me know if you run into any issues using it.

Also, if you have ANY other suggestions for the site, post them here in the comments or send me an email: mike[AT]nfsaddons.com

After a few weeks of quiet since E3 we're pleased to reveal a new game mode for Need for Speed SHIFT: Drifting. In the last few years the sport has rocketed in popularity to point where there are large, successful tournaments around the world. When it came time to add it to SHIFT we wanted to ensure the mode was treated with the same degree of accuracy as the rest of the game so we worked closely with Team Falken driver and World Champion Vaughn Gittin JR. Initially the plan was for Vaughn to play the game a few times and give some feedback but he ended up spending more than 100 hours with the team to make sure the Drift experience was as close to real-life as possible.

The team have worked exceptionally hard to ensure the mode replicated the true driving sensation of Drifting and created the same immersive experience as the rest of the racing in SHIFT - just check out the detail inside Vaughn's Mustang if you want more detail of this. While you could already expect the physics to be as realistic as possible, particular praise should go to the car team who've managed to re-create some classic Drift cars into the game.

Designing and coding a drift mode has always been a very tricky experience particularly when trying to make it accessible for new gamers and hardcore gamers alike so the design team spent a lot of time working to make sure the mode is as hard (or as easy) as you want it to be. For new gamers an Amateur setting teaches the basic of Drifting and then slowly ups the skill level until they can complete against the best.

EA has released the full carlist and tracklist for Need For Speed: Shift.

There are 67 cars and 18 tracks. The BMW M3 GT2 will be gracing the cover this year.

Cars:
2006 Aston Martin DBR9
2009 Audi R8 LMS
2008 Audi R8
2008 Audi RS 4
2007 Audi S3
2007 Audi TT 3.2 quattro
2006 Audi S4
BMW M3 E36
BMW M3 E46
BMW M3 E92
2008 BMW 135i Coupé
2009 BMW M3 GT2
2007 BMW Z4 M Coupé
2008 Bugatti Veyron 16.4
2006 Dodge Challenger Concept
2008 Dodge Viper SRT10
Falken Tire 2010 Ford Mustang GT
2010 Ford Shelby GT500
2007 Ford Focus ST
2006 Ford GT
2006 Need For Speed Shelby Terlingua
1996 Ford Escort RS Cosworth
2009 Chevrolet Camaro SS
2006 Chevrolet Cobalt SS
2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
2006 Honda Civic Si
2000 Honda S2000
2006 Koenigsegg CCX
2008 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4
2007 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640
2007 Lamborghini Reventón
2006 Lotus Elise 111R
2007 Lotus Exige S
2005 Maserati MC12 GT1
2008 Mazda MX-5
2006 Mazda RX-8
1995 Mazda RX-7
1994 McLaren F1
2007 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition
2007 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG
2008 Mitsubishi Lancer EVOLUTION
2006 Mitsubishi Lancer EVOLUTION IX MR-edition
2003 Infiniti G35 (V35)
1997 Nissan 200SX (S14)
2009 Nissan 370Z (Z34)
2006 Nissan 350Z (Z33)
2009 Nissan GT-R SpecV (R35)
2008 Nissan GT-R (R35)
2000 Nissan Silvia (S15) spec.R AERO
1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)
1972 Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R
1992 Nissan 240SX (S13)
2006 Pagani Zonda F
2010 Pagani Zonda R
2008 Porsche 911 GT2
2009 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
2006 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
2004 Porsche Carrera GT
2007 Porsche Cayman S
2008 Renault Mégane RS
2007 SEAT Leon CUPRA
2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi
2007 Lexus LF-A Concept
2008 SCION tC
1986 Toyota Corolla GTS (A86)
2008 Volkswagen Scirocco
2006 Volkswagen Golf GTI

Tracks:
Alpental
Autopolis International Racing Course
Ambush Canyon
Brands Hatch
Dakota
Ebisu Circuit
Glendale
Hazyview
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
London
Miytomi
Nordschleife
Road America
Rustle Creek
Silverstone
Circuit de Spa Francorchamps
Tokyo
Willow Springs