On the day that Need For Speed Hot Pursuit hits shelves in the US, Electronic Arts have seen fit to get the PR machine rolling for Shift 2 Unleashed, another title in the extremely popular racing franchise.

The original Shift was a barnstorming success with developer Slightly Mad Studios picking up numerous awards and critical acclaim, and the game selling in excess of 4 million copies, so we’re pretty chuffed that the team are back with a second installment, due for release in spring 2011 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

The trailer (below) is set at night. It shows off a brand new feature coming to the title, where racers can view all the action from a first person perspective, putting you right amongst the action, inside the driver’s helmet. In addition to this, Shift 2 Unleashed will also feature a new rendering engine as well as a major graphics overhaul, which should leave this iteration looking sharper then ever before.

Autolog, the rather excellent social feature that developer Criterion brought to Hot Pursuit will also have a major part to play in Shift 2, allowing racers to keep track of  statistics and challenge rivals to races, as well as post pictures and videos for friends to see. We assume this will be a feature included in all Need For Speed titles from now on.

Check out the Shift 2 Unleashed announcement trailer:

I’m pretty excited about this. Although Hot Pursuit has only just arrived (see our review here), Shift 2 will be a completely different game, more focused on winning championships, a more traditional racing game. I thoroughly enjoyed Shift, and thought up until Hot Pursuit arrived that it was the best Need For Speed title we had seen to date.

Lets hope that the team over at Slightly Mad Studios come back with another top title for Spring 2011. It could spark a developer battle between Slightly Mad and Criterion Games that will only have one winner, and that will be the fans.

What do you think of the Shift 2 Unleashed announcement? Is it too soon after the arrival of Hot pursuit? Comment and let us know.

Shift 2 Unleashed is due Spring 2011 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Source: Need for Speed