The Need For Speed franchise has been going for  a fair while now, even though I am not much of a racing gamer myself (besides Burnout Paradise), I was once bitten by the Need For Speed bug back on the original XBox, with the first game which was Need For Speed: Underground. Believe it or not I actually enjoyed a game where you drove Kev cars with dust bins for exhaust pipes and with so many lights blinking around the bodywork they would make a christmas tree envious.

Since then though Need For Speed has gone through seven other titles, and its eighth is just one drag race away from release, so best to check your Nitro canisters are full and your paint job is nice and shiny, because Need For Speed: Shift is coming.

As this is the eighth game of the series, what does this game have that the other seven didn’t? Well it seems that Shift has gone a slightly different route from the other Need For Speed games. This time around instead of racing the back streets of some night time urban metropolis, you are going to be racing on proper racing tracks. Some of these tracks you will be familiar with if you’re a bit of a racing nut, because they are proper American and European racing circuits. Those plus a couple of tracks the guys at Slightly Mad Studios have made up and thrown in for fun. But all you loyal Need For Speed fans out there, don’t fret, because there will be some city circuits thrown in as well.

This game boasts that its built by racers, for racers. That statement says to me that, this title is going down the more driver simulated road, than its arcade racer predecessors. Looking further into this idea of mine, I have actually found out that I am not far wrong at all. The game physics model is based on that of the Ferrari Project, Eero Piitulainen of Richard Burns Rally has gone and developed a new tire physics model, and to top it all of a lot has gone into handling development to make it even easier to control your desired racer with the game controller.

The key selling point of every Need For Speed game has defiantly not been missed out, and thats the cars. In Shift the cars will be separated into classes, ranging from your bog standard normal chug along, such as the Golf GTI, to big time track racers like the Aston Martin DBR9.

That is cool and all but will you be able to customise them Need For Speed style? The answer to that my gaming friends is a big resounding yes. I mean common, would it really be Need For Speed without the customisation? The customisation this time round promises to be more in-depth than ever. It’s all down to the performance mods, of corse the aesthetic side of things will still be there but it all comes down to modding the mechanics of your four wheeled racing beast, each thing you mod or tweak will affect aspects such as alignment, aerodynamics, tires, brakes, differential, and gears. But what about the all important nitrous? It will be able to be tuned but somewhat differently to the previous games. How? well you’re going to have to find ot when the game’s released next week.

So with classic Need For Speed customisation, coupled with the more simulated car racing, this looks to me quite an interesting game. This may actually be the first time I am tempted by a Need For Speed game since Underground.

Need For Speed: Shift comes out the 18th of September for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.