In this week’s entry, mortifiedpenguin buys his first Need for Speed game for the Xbox 360 and wonders why there is no LAN support.

( Read the rest of the blog entry after the jump! )

I’m a Need for Speed fan who’s had all his games on the PC.

2 reasons for this – one, I’m too used to the arcadey steering and handling of NFS cars so powerslides were much easier to perform on the arrow keys than the thumbstick on a gamepad.

Two, the recent NFS titles received such negative reviews that they didn’t warrant a purchase. I was very disappointed in how Undercover fared considering how it was meant to be a spiritual successor to the successful Most Wanted.

So when EA announced a new NFS game in the works last year, I had my doubts like everyone else. However the videos released were quite promising, and IGN’s 9.0 review became the turning point. It had been a while since a NFS game was rated so highly.

While I was won over, I didn’t really set out to buy the game immediately because with expenditure running high and a new gaming rig being planned for purchase in Oct-Nov, I wasn’t ready to shell out another 65 bucks.

But everything changed in a snap when I stepped into the GCA expo at Suntec on Saturday. ( An entry on GCA was supposed to be up by Monday but it seems that I’ve had some issues with dilligence. Hopefully it will be up by the next weekend )

I tried my hand at the Time Attack competition where if I managed to beat the best lap time of 1min 20s in a Pagani Zonda R, I’d win a 47″ LCD TV. However things already didn’t start off smoothly at the first corner and when webmaster03 called me on my phone while I was trying to set my best time on the last lap I knew that was it.

But that’s beside the point. For the first time in a long time I enjoyed playing a NFS game.

And webmaster03’s purpose of calling was to ask if I was getting the game because he too had been quite impressed with the reviews.

Suddenly the whole plan of saving money became non-existent.

I’m pretty sure I was supposed to get a T-shirt with the game’s purchase.

I didn’t. Instead what I got was only a Sims 3 mug from the sure-win lucky dip, where I thought I would win the graphics card – how in the world do you have a fair chance of winning one out of 10 prizes when there were only three balls left in the box?

They had given away all their shirts, I was told. So instead of having another shirt which I could wear, I was left with a lame mug which I’d never use. In other words, I felt scammed.

Never mind, but the bigger issue was before I had my ATM card swiped.

webmaster03 and I had agreed to buy the game and play over system-link at his house on Monday. Being on the cautious side, I decided to confirm there was such an option in the game because the back of the box only indicated Live.

>> mortifiedpenguin: Does this game support system-link?

>> Cashier: There is Xbox Live where you can play with other players online.

Dude you aren’t answering my question.

>> Cashier: Let me check for you.

He asked another woman, and she nodded enthusiastically and gave the thumbs-up. Woah, okay, maybe they forgot to include on the box that’s all.

So I confidently purchased the game, won myself the damn mug, and disappointed myself with no T-shirt.

Later that night, I loaded the game.

The main menu had all the typical sub-menus except one.

Multiplayer.

Normally most games, if not all, hide all available multiplayer options under one heading, be it Live or split-screen or system-link.

In Need for Speed: Shift however, there is only one option available.

Xbox Live.

The option was so big in the menu it was like a tight slap to the face.

Why isn’t there an option to link consoles together? Wait, why did the people I bought the game from lie to me?

A quick google search revealed PC gamers couldn’t play LAN either. Now that’s something totally ridiculous – the only way you can play multiplayer is through the internet. LAN is something which defined PC gaming and now that it’s not available, why should PC gamers even bother?

It’s like buying a cheeseburger without the cheese – it just doesn’t taste the same.

Now EA that is one major screw up I cannot accept.

Although to be fair you guys have done a good job so far with Shift, as I was very impressed with the first race I had.

I can understand the importance of Live. It’s Microsoft’s money juicer.

But the problem is not everyone who owns an Xbox has an Xbox Live Gold subscription, yours truly included. You see, there’re gamers who spend 2 hours sleeping, an hour eating and the rest of the 24 hours playing games. A Gold subscription is definitely value for money.

For us people who aren’t at home most of the day, and when we do we are actually busy with other things, paying $88 for a year’s subscription may seem not very well spent, though I would agree it’s still not too expensive.

So being forced to pay for Live just to be able to join multiplayer would be the same as being compelled to pay for that missing slice of cheese.

Some things aren’t supposed to be omitted.

I’m already visibly displeased with game developers leaving out the option for split-screen racing on consoles. It’s what used to make racing games fun at parties where friends could play together. Now racing games have become more of an anti-social software which the host would not want to introduce at his party because a group of six or seven watching one person race for about 5 minutes is not interactive at all.

I would have gone to the arcade and watch people play Maximum Tune 3 or Initial D.

Hey even then, they’re most probably competing among themselves!

So EA could you please release a patch which includes a LAN option ASAP? It’s not that hard really.