Blur, the new arcade racing game from Bizarre Creations and Activision. What have the PGR Developers been up to? Let’s find out
Bizarre Creations are famous for their racing games and the Project Gotham Racing series proves this. This time though, they have gone for a Mario Kart style of racing. Not many companies do the change from Simulation to Arcade Racer but Bizarre have done it and let’s hope it puts some adrenaline in Genre over-run by Simulation racers.
When I first jumped into Blur, the menu was very simple and easy to get straight into the online. It even suggested linking my twitter to the game. I did so, and I could then tweet directly from in-game. I can tweet about my Multiplayer rank, (which I will talk about later) or how many fans I have. You can add a personal message to each tweet which is nice. I was disappointed you couldn’t actually see your twitter feed in game or just write a personal message without bragging about how good you are at Blur. Then again, it’s a beta. Things can change.
I then had the choice of doing skirmish racing and extreme racing. Skirmish had up to 10 people in race and extreme you could have up to 20. Both seemed to work well, the tracks can accommodate the 20 with ease but the tracks themselves were boring. There were no real surprises on the tracks, no side streets or shortcuts. Nothing to change the result of the race.
Blur has incorporated another Mario Kart trait with power ups which are on the track and you have to drive through to pick up and use. There are 8 power ups and the ones which I used the most were Shunt which sends a homing missile type thing towards the car in front or behind, depending where you shoot it. The other one I used was Barge which sends a shockwave out from your car knocking the cars around you into the walls and other vehicles. Other power ups consist of, repair, shield, bolt (3 shots), nitro, mine and shock. Shock is great one, it’s make electric barriers appear on the road and you have to try and dodge them, this mixes up the race dramatically.
To keep the multiplayer alive, Blur has taken what many FPS games have and incorporated a Ranking System, in the beta you can go up to Rank 10. What’s the highest rank? I have no idea. You get your ranking up by getting more Fans. Fans are gained by how you race on the track. More destruction and havoc you cause the more fans. You also get fan bonus for finishing certain positions. 1st giving you the highest bonus. Another nice little thing in the game are mods. These works like the Perk System on Call of Duty. You get different mods which can benefit you. For example, one is called Bribe. You start with a power up at the start of the race or after you wrecked. These are all great additions to multiplayer which is hella fun anyway.
Bizarre has surprised me with Blur, it’s a game which will be hard to beat in the arcade racing style. I would recommend Blur to anyone, it’s easy to jump in and play. A great social game and just overall fun. I am impressed.
Game Attic 