I'm not great at them, but I still like a good simulation racer. They attempt to provide an experience no other game genre even grabs at: total realism through total immersion.

I brake for no reason whatsoever.

Last year, Forza Motorsport 3 and Need for Speed: Shift upped that immersion by putting us right in the hyper-detailed cockpit of a 900-horsepower monster. Well, I recently took Shift's sequel for a spin, and they've got an all-new view mode that sweetened that deal considerably.

You've been behind the wheel. Shift 2: Unleashed puts you inside the helmet.

Literally, Shift 2's helmet cam sets your view behind the Plexiglas face shield of a professional racer. Small touches convey the distinction, from lens flares to small reflections on the mask. A significant bump in graphics -- and the first game already looked pretty damn good -- carries the view off seamlessly. As much as you might think there couldn't be much difference between cockpit and helmet perspectives, you'll never mistake the two.

Trust me...this pic does not do it justice.

But the real magic comes from the camera and how it behaves to complete the illusion. It reflects every minute change in acceleration or direction, from fast forward/back jerks when shifting gears or breaking to hard tilts to counter the g-forces you pull around corners and jittery rumbles as your machine protests. Impacts kick your head around something fierce, and it takes a moment to center again.

Despite all this motion, it never feels disorienting -- the periphery rumbles, but the center holds steady. So you'll notice these touches, but they don't distract from actually playing the game. Quite the reverse: They draw you further into the experience.

Sometimes they even help you out. The camera turns to look at the exact spot you want to go just like any driver would, providing a subtle clue on how to tackle each corner. Piloting the BMW M1 Procar around the track, I always knew exactly where to steer...even if I still tried to take every corner at twice the recommended speed.

Chicks dig the car.

For hardcore simulation racer fans, this will be a new standard. Gran Turismo 5 might put you on the storied Top Gear test track, but Shift 2 makes you feel like the Stig.

And that's a simulation racer's job: Immerse a player, make them feel like a professional driver, then let them pilot the world's most powerful cars. It feels somehow insane to say a Need for Speed game could possibly knock the crown off Gran Turismo -- and perhaps that's another reason EA dropped the brand from the sequel's title -- but the door's been left wide open. Everybody offers a cockpit view now. Shift 2 does that and then goes one better. A lot better.