EA's Need for Speed: Shift from developer Slightly Mad won't be following in Gran Turismo's tyre marks, they're not making a NFS driving simulator.
The studio wants to tap into "what it means to be in a race," up against hard foes who'll "battle for position" and much less about "driving in a straight line" as the challenge.
"We don’t pretend to compete with Gran Turismo for technological achievement as well as what I would call a ‘driving simulator’," Slightly Mad's Jesse Abney told VG247. "That’s not the fun angle we’re going after."
"We’re going after... what it means to be in a race, in a grid of hard competitors who will battle for position, and who will make the organic nature of the race more about performing at that level and less about the challenge of driving in a straight line."
They'd really be slightly mad if they didn't at least pay attention to what the GT guys over at Polyphony are doing. "For us we look at games like GT, Forza 2 and GRiD as the high water mark," added the producer.
Need for Speed: Shift is being released on Xbox 360, PS3, PC and PSP this autumn.