Reader Submission #18 – Turning Shift 2 Unleashed into Gran Turismo for the PC

Another fantastic reader submission has come in from Joel all the way over in Portugal, detailing how to turn Shift 2 Unleashed into a PC version of Gran Turismo with several extensive mods found on NoGripRacing.com.


Thank you for your work and honest, fun to read posts on your site. It’s been my reading source for all sim/racing related games for some time now.

“What’s the closest you can have to a Gran Turismo or Forza on PC?” 

This question bugged my mind since back in the days (1999/2000) when I would go to my friend’s house just to play GT1 and GT2 on an old Sony PlayStation. I had only a PC, and thankfully my parents never gave me a console. The downside was, there was nothing like Gran Turismo for the PC. And when I say “Gran Turismo for the PC”, I’m looking for a game that has all of these features under one roof:

  • Career Mode
  • Buying and Selling Cars
  • Upgrading Cars
  • Tuning Options
  • Large list of cars and tracks
  • Good sound, graphics, physics, and car damage
  • Cockpit View

Now there are a reasonable list of games including some of the listed features above, but never all at once. For example:

  • Sega GT
  • Evolution GT (which was total crap)
  • TOCA Race Driver
  • Grid
  • Need for Speed Underground, High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed
  • Both NFS Shift titles

The closest I got to building a GT for PC was with Shift 2, heavily modded of course. For those who played it, you’ll remember the boats on ice handling mode, with suicidal AI, input lag, bugs, and overall inconsistency. Luckily, the modding community saw potential in the title and ended up fixing most of the problems, overhauling the game completely.

SHIFT2_Unleashed_Mercedes-Benz_SLR_McLaren_Stirling_Moss_01And here was the list of steps I took to turn Shift 2 into Gran Turismo for the PC. It’s a really easy process, although be warned it takes some time and a LOT of hard drive space):

  1. Obtain a copy of Shift 2, preferably through Origin as it contains all DLC packs
  2. Sign up for NoGripRacing.com because this is where you’ll be getting all your mods
  3. Install the Unofficial Community Patch
  4. Install the Career Mod
  5. Instal v1.79 of the the Polish Tyre Mod

shift-2-unleashed-06I think I had my Shift 2 Unleashed install set up like this, without the Career mod though because I just want to explore what the game has to offer without being restricted as to what I can drive, and where I can drive it.  I have mixed opinions on Shift 2. The game itself was horrible, but the list of content was second to none, featured every major manufacturer, and one of the most complete track rosters in any title that called itself a racing sim up to that point. I think they were trying to mix GTR 2 with Gran Turismo, but as Slightly Mad Studios were the ones in charge, it instead resulted in a game with quality assurance issues.

It’s good to see there’s still a community around it and the mods I’m familiar with have been updated since the last time I’ve tried it, might have to give it another shot.

41 thoughts on “Reader Submission #18 – Turning Shift 2 Unleashed into Gran Turismo for the PC

  1. I might have to try this myself. I have a copy sitting around that I’ve never gotten very far with. Goodwill find.

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  2. Thanks I was looking for this… Shift was a decent game, can’t believe that the same studio made the Project Farts…

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  3. Why loosing time with SHIFT when we have the amazing Project Cars now?

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    1. Although they were developed by the same team, they are two very different games that aim at different things:

      pCARS structure is kind of the same as the old TOCA Series, not Gran Turismo’s.

      You neither can’t buy or sell cars, nor upgrade cars. There isn’t even a currency system, and there are very few road cars.

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      1. Since you clearly don’t have any idea about shift 2 (nor pcars)…. No one had source access, so they did hex edits and other difficult workarounds that no one would need do if SMS didn’t produced some of the sloppiest code known to man. Proofread for basic sanity even? Nah, obfuscate!

        ‘most of the mods don’t even touch physics’ What mods? What games? Properly working ones? Skins? Yeah, no shit.

        PTM is clearly a physics modification, and many cars had to be manually fixed, such as the Porsche (gt3?) which, as far as the physics engine was concerned, had the gas tank outside of the body of the car. Those guys really uncovered some astoundingly ridiculous errors that cannot be explained through ‘lack of time’. Part of it was simply ‘our ‘simulation’ is so wildly off in terms of realistic values, just do whatever you have to do to make driveable.’

        Nothing accelerates accurately, nothing brakes accurately, no accurate laptimes times… Yes, I would say their physics work was definitely in order. Note, everyone involved did a great job, but some things they simply cannot fix.

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    2. Because the same people who fixed shift 2 for SMS need to fix pcars, too. Will take time, especially since pcars is just as intentionally obfuscated as shift 2 was.

      SMS really doesn’t like people seeing their code or messing with the careful balance of ‘just make it so the car doesn’t feel completely terrible and at least drives like a car sometimes, that’ll do/good enough’.

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      1. Fixed what? Only the dev can fix the code.. the modders can only mod (most of the mods doesn’t even touch the physics, but the models only).

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      1. Disaster? This just come out: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/the-witcher-3-uk-console-downloads-hit-144-000-in-may/0152386

        With Project CARS set 3rd for number of digital copies and 5th for revenues in May.

        That is being added to the several success pcars is having month by month (the first racing title after 12 years to top the gamins sales charts).

        Shift and Shift2 have been great successful titles, and they had the (money) power of EA behind them, Project CARS is even better, and it reached its success with the sole effort of the dev team and the WMD members.

        Do you call this a “disaster”… you must be blind then, or you must be one of those guys who call a “disaster” someone else success. For it I have a different word, it’s: jealousy. ;)

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      2. It being a disaster has nothing to with its sales. Also, I’m pretty sure Shift 2 was actually a colossal flop and that’s why there were no more Shift games.

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      3. The name of this game should be Project Money, SMS doesn’t give a fuck about their customers and their issues, just about how much you can donate. Fuck that shit and go play some real game like rFactor2, R3E, GSC

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      4. Sales and score is directly related to the game quality someway.
        If you go on Steam in example, you see that 8/10 users likes it (it’s 80% VS 20%) … unless you consider your opinion more important than hundred thousands people out there, then you can’t negate a fact.

        “I’m right, it’s the other 1,000,000 people out there to be wrong…” is rarely true. ;)

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      5. “If you go on Steam in example, you see that 8/10 users likes it (it’s 80% VS 20%) … unless you consider your opinion more important than hundred thousands people out there, then you can’t negate a fact.”

        Mmm, false. Try that math again. Also, I have watched as the ratio steady changes. I don’t know when valves labels actually change with regards to ratio, but it started at Overwhelmingly positive, then to very, now we are at mostly. Just a rough estimate of how many WMD backers are part of the positives… Well, I’m sure it’s significant.

        Metascore user score seems about accurate, though also clearly infected with WMD dishonest reviews. I would bet a large sum that in the real world, only about 60% of SMS’s non-WMD customers are actually honestly satisfied, at best.

        If any of the reviews do not contain any mention of bugs, then you know exactly where it comes from.

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      6. In the moment I’m typing 77.2% of review are positive, and 22.8% are negative. So right it’s not 8 persons of 10, it’s 7.7 persons of 10, that translated means that more than 3/4 of people likes the game. This are facts, not fanboy/haters brainstorming. ;)

        Ironically there was someone claiming that PCARS would have been forgotten because of the F1 2015 release… let’s see how it is performing… oops! :)

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      7. The majority of people, for more than half of the 20th century, believed in racial segregation. So by your logic, the anti-segregation argument was automatically wrong because it was a minority opinion.

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      8. Why don’t you simply calculate percentages correctly?

        Also, little tip…You can mouse hover over the review count to get an accurate percentage, rather than using false base metrics to reach a pre-determined conclusion.

        24% negative and steadily gaining on the initial spurt of ~1000 positive shill reviews, plus the steady trickle still arriving, courtesy of WMD.

        Stop being dishonest, you know damned well what happened with the steam reviews, because you almost certainly played a direct part in gaming those metrics.

        You people should be ashamed of yourselves.

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      9. Hold on…. I apologize for questioning your numbers. I think steam is doing some regional filtering, so we could easily be seeing slightly different stats.

        No use splitting hairs over 2 percentage points and I don’t think you would just outright lie about the numbers.

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      10. Even if you see different numbers, it still 3/4 of the people. So what i wrote above won’t change at all. If you don’t consider a success a new brand game that is liked by 3/4 of the customers who purchased it, then you’re not giving an unbiased opinion. You can continue to call it a disaster, but the rest of the players (77% them of them) are telling you a different story. Again: it’s not me, I could have my own opinion (even if the game was really that bad), i’m talking about all the others.

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      11. You still don’t understand…

        There are a vast number of pcars shill reviews. Again, we are both seeing < 4k total reviews. Remind me of the number of WMD members?

        Yeah yeah, we have all heard how there aren't actually 80k unique accounts…. Great!

        That doesn't change anything. You still have thousands and thousands of people with a direct incentive to leave a positive review.

        Stop trying to bullshit and weasel your way out of basic logic. Critically (even with the clearly bought reviews), the game has been no better received than shift 2 was.

        That tells any owners of shift 2 a damned sight more than your highly tainted source of select metrics.

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  4. I got it installed (all 3 parts) but each time when I click race, crash to desktop. Any ideas?

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    1. By 3 parts you mean the Community Patch + Career Mod + Polish Tyre mod?

      The text is a little misleading, as you can’t have both Career Mod and Polish Tyre mod installed at the same time. You have to choose one or another. They both change the overall behaviour of the car in a good way, so it’s a matter of taste.

      Hope it helped.

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  5. the name is Project Cash, and it sells, which does not imply it is any good, only implies the marketing works. It will not sustain the test of time, ho! but wait, it will not have to, Pcash 2 is on its way already.

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  6. Already ppl here cover me anonymous. Sales speak for money, not the quality or the lies that SMS and WMD said…

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      1. When will you learn that the user score is worthless as it pertains to the actual quality of the game?

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      2. Of course:

        – The sales cannot speak for the quality of the game.. coz you know it could be hyped!
        – The magazine reviews cannot speak for the quality of the game.. coz you know they can paid!
        – The users cannot speak for the quality of the game.. coz you know they could be fanboys!

        Who should speak for the quality of a game then? A single random on a internet blog like this?
        I can tell you one thing, when a game is a fail, it will be recognized by the gamers, they are not dumb, while you’re the only smart one, and we have an example right today: F1 2015 by Codemaster is a fail.. and you can clearly see it by the general users response, you don’t need to surf a ghetto blog to recognize a fact.

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      3. ^^ 1) thats because theres no WMD influence for F1 2015 to shield its flaws

        2) ghetto blog? Really? ^^

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      4. Sure, 29,000 wmd members (less than 3% of total players) can influence the opinion of 400,000 customers (PC) and 600,000+ customers (consoles). You funny man. :)

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      5. ^^ what’s funny is your probably going to donate a shit tin
        of money to project cars 2 even though they don’t need it ^^

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      6. @the same anon that can’t produce a single logical argument besides ‘sales’.

        So you’ve moved the goalposts around again and landed back on steam reviews… Which don’t include console customers.

        Can 29,000 WMD members that have been actively prompted to spread positive information about pcars influence a base of 3,332 votes?

        What the fuck do you think?

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      7. Before release: “This is going to be the best sim EVER!”
        After release “At least it has better reviews than F1 2015!”
        Talk about moving goalposts.

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    1. Project CARS shown how a good game is perceived by the final users.
      F1 2015 shown how a bad game is perceived by the final users.

      To show you that the numbers and the reviews have a meaning.

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      1. You’ve officially become a parody of the WMD shill. Congratulations 🎉💥🎆

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  7. Also, explain to us why negative reviews have been selected as ‘most helpful’?

    You should edit your personal steam shill review so it just says ‘The game sold great!’.

    I bet 100% of potential customers will find that very helpful.

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    1. The votes can be given by anyone, while the review can be written only by the owners. So you shouldn’t look at all at the review votes, you should instead look at the review itself: positive or negative. That’s all you need to determine if a game is good or not.

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      1. So the actual content of the review is irrelevant then? Thank you so very much for confirming you’re a SMS cocksucking shill.

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      2. Unbelievable. What the fuck.

        Because WMD members don’t own the game, and the good games on steam don’t have positive reviews selected as most helpful?

        It’s a broken, mediocre game that was dishonestly advertised.
        I’m not a potential customer here, I’m an ex-customer. You keep responding as if I’m unsure of reality.
        Either that or you are truly delusional.

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