Given budgetary woes and climate change angst, Need for Speed: SHIFT is probably the closest I’ll ever get to piloting a real car, and for that the pedestrian world should breathe a heartfelt sigh of relief. If anything, Slightly Mad’s sleek, supple reinvention of the clapped-out franchise has tipped me even further the other way.

Beware, the drifting events require an anal degree of exactitude.

Why? Because the idea of real driving scares me to death, and SHIFT is painfully true to life. Make a hard turn and your head-mounted camera will bounce off the door frame; spin out and the car will convulse over the gravel like a three-legged hippo. Long straights offer little respite from the developer’s audio-visual tomfoolery: the speedometer blurs and elongates as you accelerate, the (optional) HUD sinks back under the G-forces and colours fuse into one, dizzyingly kaleidoscopic jet stream. After a few hours of this, I was actually looking forward to my next trip on London Underground.

That’s the “terrorist” angle on SHIFT’s faithfulness to subject matter, anyway; the “freedom fighter” view is that this is one fine-looking, ferociously immersive simulation, and any wussy tree-huggers should ponder their essential worthlessness before sticking their recycled plastic oars in.

The car models are luxurious, but watch out for some nasty load times.

SHIFT is quite a good pick for wussy tree-huggers, actually, despite its punishing level of cockpit realism. The handling model, though a little fretful, comes easily enough if you heed the colour-coded racing guide which stretches before your car, and the game courteously profiles your performance at the campaign’s outset and toggles settings like automatic gear changing to suit.

As brutal a roadster as it can be, it’s also fairly scraping sparks under the weight of its own reward systems, jotting down every scratch of the paint and turn of the wheel mid-race and ladling a proportionate amount of cash, experience points, gold stars and badges into your driver profile. Cash is for new cars, points and stars equal progress to the next “Tier” of racing events, badges are for bragging rights, and all four are of service in making you feel like a champion despite considerable contrary evidence.

Event types are numerous and reasonably diverse. Open tournaments, speed laps and time trials are the bread and butter, but funkier invitation-only showdowns crop up as your successes multiply.

Don't scratch the paint!

Bronze Collector (15) Earn 15 Bronze Badges
Bronze Earner (5) Earn 5 Bronze Badges
Bronze Hunter (10) Earn 10 Bronze Badges
Bronze Master (20) Earn 20 Bronze Badges
Chance of a Lifetime (100) Reach Tier 3
Driving Amateur (25) Reach Driver Level 5
Driving Hero (50) Reach Driver Level 40
Driving Legend (50) Reach Driver Level 50
Driving Pro (50) Reach Driver Level 20
Driving Rookie (10) Reach Driver Level 2
Driving Semi-Pro (50) Reach Driver Level 10
Driving Veteran (50) Reach Driver Level 30
Epic Collector (20) Earn 15 Epic Badges
Epic Earner (10) Earn 5 Epic Badges
Epic Hunter (15) Earn 10 Epic Badges
Epic Master (25) Earn 20 Epic Badges
Gold Collector (20) Earn 15 Gold Badges
Gold Earner (5) Earn 5 Gold Badges
Gold Hunter (10) Earn 10 Gold Badges
Gold Master (25) Earn 20 Gold Badges
NFS Live World Champion (150) Win the NFS Live World Championship
One Small Step (25) Win your first event
Road to Success (100) Reach Tier 2
Silver Collector (15) Earn 15 Silver Badges
Silver Earner (5) Earn 5 Silver Badges
Silver Hunter (10) Earn 10 Silver Badges
Silver Master (20) Earn 20 Silver Badges
The Final Countdown (100) Reach Tier 4
Trial By Fire (10) Complete the NFS Live Pre-Race Event