Bought this game along with 2 friends yesterday - none of us were massive fans of Shift 1 due to the extreme difficulty and wild handling... so none of us knew what to expect, but we love it.
The handling is definitely improved. It's still wild, still makes RWD cars incredibly twitchy when smashing the throttle, and returning the car to stability after a turn is sketchy without an indepth tune - however it's alot more fun and doesn't make RWD cars completely useless like in Shift 1.
Autolog and online features are a great addition - there's not much to say. I love trying to best friends times, and testing new cars/setups to beat track records.
Graphics are fantastic. I'm not sure where the complaints are directed - but it looks better than Shift 1 to me. The trees remain a disappointment, but otherwise the lens flare/bloom, lighting (particularly night stages) and on track detail is all extremely well done. It's a shame that the cars look so hideous in the Garage, because I haven't noticed the same lack of detail or polish when racing... the cars look gorgeous during a race (or even stopped with the camera moving around them/friends).
Sound design is hit and miss. Numerous cars that sound amazing and ferocious, and just as many that sound ridiculously bad. The S15 has an embarassing exhaust/engine note when in cockpit view that I have never heard in any S15 I have driven in real life. Music is great, collision noises are great, tire screeching is reduced considerably... overall an improvement.
The difficulty is reduced which is something I am extremely happy with. The AI makes mistakes, can be spun/hit without sending you flying off the track and are not as mind numbingly 'perfect' as the Shift 1 AI drivers could often be. I'm not very far in the game, so I'm not sure if this will change - but so far, it's not nearly as punishing as the first game was.
A few things I'm disappointed in however. Online play is strange. I understand lag etc, but there have been multiple incidents where I will perfectly overtake a friend in an online race, and then he starts raging about me flipping him over. There was no indication on my screen (or rear view mirror) that he was tagged, so how am I supposed to race clean if I can overtake seemingly flawlessly while a friend gets smashed into a barrier. I have had the same shit happen to me - where I was tagged down a straight from what I assumed was a careless weave from a friend, only to cop shit from said friend, about how I can't drive in a straight line - he had no indication of a bump, and I was sent flying.
Car modification/garage is fucking horrible. The paint editor is all kinds of terrible and I am scratching my head at why they removed a colour wheel or something similar and instead went with 3 slider bars. It's not difficult to find your colour - but its cumbersome at best. Additionally, it's impossible (at least as far as I know) to tint your car windows a darker shade of black. It's either clear, or a colour - despite being treated as a paint job, when changing the sliders to a traditional black colour, the windows just return to clear again. Finally, there are confusing elements that make no sense from a design perspective. When changing the Rims, I have to apply a particular design to the front, then to the rear wheels - I appreciate customisation, but it's tiresome and unnecessary. More importantly, when I change rims, return to the performance upgrades, try bodykits/tires/suspension and want to see what the car looks like - the camera stays locked on whatever set of front/rear wheels I just changed. To see the whole car, I have to return the "visuals", select 'Paint' wait for the whole car to come back into view, then return to the performance category. Again, cumbersome.
Overall, a fantastic game. I was hoping that it would scratch my itch for Forza 4, but the low car count (140 sounds great, but it feels like 30-40 in game for some reason) and obvious design issues make it a sound distraction for the time being. Hopefully they iron out a few issues, get the DLC/cars into the game ASAP and possibly work on a way to make Helmet cam something other than a complete clusterfuck on tight tracks.
