Nearly a dozen racing games are expected to drive on to store shelves before the end of the year, competing for the attention of gamers at a time when sales have tapped the brakes.

Forza MotorSport 3, Dirt 2, Blur, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge and Gran Turismo for the PlayStation Portable are among the titles plotting a course for release this year.

Electronic Arts has revved up new Need for Speed titles as part of its strategy to diversify the 15-year-old racing franchise for different platforms. EA Black Box, the Canadian developer that created the previous Need for Speed games, has taken a back seat while other developers have crafted three games aimed at three different audiences.

The first, developer Slightly Mad Studios' hard-core racing simulator Need for Speed Shift, was released a couple of weeks ago for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PC, iPhone and iPod Touch. Shift abandons the series' slick street style in favour of photorealistic action similar to the Forza MotorSport franchise. The focus is on recreating the sensation of being pulled by G-forces during high-speed cornering inside the game's 72 realer-than-real racing cars.

true driver's experience

"It's something we euphemistically refer to as first-person driving," said Shift producer Jesse Abney. "First-person shooter games have done a great job over the last few years of creating an environment where players are really immersed in the action. What we've done with Need for Speed Shift is create that true driver's experience of being in the cockpit."

EA will venture down a different path with Need for Speed Nitro, the arcade-style racing game developed by EA Montreal for the Wii and Nintendo DS set for release November 17. Unlike Shift, this Need for Speed edition will feature speedy police pursuits and the ability for racers to trick out their rides and tracks with customisable decals and colours.

"When I first came to EA, I thought it was a really interesting challenge to make a Need for Speed game on the Wii that can attract gamers and a general mass audience because the Wii is not a platform that's about graphics," said Nitro producer Gadi Pollack, who worked on Prince of Persia at Ubisoft. "It's about the gameplay and the handling."

The third Need for Speed title, Need for Speed World Online, is a massively multiplayer online game being developed by EA Singapore. The free-to-play action-driving game, which will be released in Asia before coming to the US, will feature fully customisable cars and a matchmaking system that pits players against each other in multiple game modes.