Review: Blur

eGamer Rating:

Addictive: Yes
Worth The Time: Yes — for a while, if you win
Reasoning: Blur is seriously addictive. It’s not like any other racer. Speed doesn’t get you anywhere. However, if you don’t win enough it starts to become slightly annoying and perhaps a bit boring. Give it a break and you’ll definitely play again in a few hours.

Things Loved: The cars. Cool cars, all tuned to perfection. The detail and tuning firms used to create the cars are all original. Loved the addition of the Ford Focus RS in it’s green paint job. Game dynamics are really good. Multiplayer is seriously fun–and time consuming. Chaotic. Very, very chaotic.
Things Hated: Difficultly level increases a bit too much in the single player campaign. Becomes tiresome after you lose too much. Slightly repetitive and sometimes frustrating.

Reasons To Buy/Not Buy: Recommended for purchase, even if you’re not a die-hard racing fan. But remember, if you like beating your friends at everything you play — this is for you.

Final Conclusion: Turbo-boost is always thrilling. Then again, so is winning. Blur offers opportunity for a winning thrill ride.

Driving on the N1 in the Cape Town area you’ll see a sign that says “If you speed — You’re a killer.” I beg to differ, though. See, in Blur if you speed you’re only going to get killed. Blur isn’t your normal run-of-the-mill racer, in fact it’s very opposite because.

At first I was skeptical about the game as I prefer a pure driving experience. The engine roaring, wheel-spin and the thrill of being number one where you’ll only lose the position to better driving and not some stupid power-up. But then, I played a multiplayer game of Blur. And I soon realised it’s not meant to be a pure experience. However it does offer everything you’d want from a pure driving experience. And, better yet, it’s something you’d call fun.

On the highway it says that you’re a killer if you speed, but in Blur when you speed you’ll be targeted. Usually if you’re in front, position 1, you can expect a truck-load of power-ups coming your way to knock you off the track. This means that Blur isn’t real-life-like, it means it’s fun. It’s not bound by physics or real life situations. Which is a good thing when racing an Audi R8 in a 20 player race.

Now, when it comes to a pure driving experience you’d be glad to know that Blur does feature a bit of reality. Racing lines count, braking around corners is required and more importantly traffic is chaotic–similar to mini-bus taxi’s on our local roads. The sounds are very realistic too. Barred taxi hooting.

Name: Blur
Genre: Racing
Players: 1+
Multiplayer: Hell Yeah!
Developers: Bizarre Creations
Publishers: Activision

Bizarre Creations, the creators of Project Gotham Racing, are back with a new racer called Blur. It’s cool, really cool–if I do say so myself. The game uses real-life cars which are modified and tuned by real tuning firms all around the world.

I personally thought that the use of real-life tuners and vehicles was a fantastic addition to a game which steers slightly left on realism as the developers added power-ups and various attacks to the game.

Following the car-realism, the sound effects are amazing. Hell, I was also pretty impressed at how the Japanese-specification racers are modded as if they are in Japan — fat exhaust pipes, flames and speed.

Overall, Blur is a simulation and arcade styled racer. Multiplayer is a must and Career mode is increasingly tough.

Chaotic races are imminent. With 20 cars on the track you’re bound to be hurt by fireballs (Shunts), Mines and Electric Fields. Turbo boost is a good addition for moving into Position 1, however don’t expect to say there for long. In Blur, if you don’t watch your back you’ll get hurt. Badly.

The racer from Bizarre Creations takes a page out of Mario Kart’s book as they have added power-ups. The power-ups, or projectiles, can be fired backwards or forwards. Therefore if you’re in front you’ll fire backwards whereas if you’re at the back, or second, you’ll fire forwards.

At first you might struggle with your dodge technique for power-ups, don’t worry–you’ll soon get the hang of moving through Electric Fields and curving around corners with turbo-boost.

Similar to your childhood dream–or mine at least, you wanted to be a famous racing driver. Blur lets this happen. Earn fans by destroying cars on the track. Use power-ups such as Shunt, Mines and Electric Fields to eliminate your enemy. The more racers you hurt/or eliminate — the more people like you.

The more fans you gain, the more things you unlock. Therefore, it’s a win-win.

Following this, Blur offers many achievements, trophies and challenges for you to feel better about yourself.

Blur offers Boss-matches. At the end of a ‘class’ or ‘campaign’ you’ll be able to race the big-boss-man for his ve-he-cle. This is the tough race. It becomes increasingly difficult throughout the game as, naturally, the boss will have a few extra ponies under the bonnet, leaving you struggling to find second gear.

Never fear though, because you don’t really need to play the boss. The boss is simply for unlockables. But then again, most of us are unlockable junkies and we’d land up playing the boss anyway.

And this leads me onto the next part of the game. Lights.

Lights will see you revisiting many tracks in an attempt to pass ‘classes’ or ‘campaigns’. See, the aim of Blur is to collect Lights, and the more Lights your collect the quicker you’ll be able to pass through Career mode.

Usually you will earn 5 Lights for a win, one extra light for reaching your fan quota–this means you destroy enough vehicles–and a final Light for passing Fan Tunnels which, funny-enough, give you more fans. Therefore it’s safe to say you can earn bonus Lights plus Fans for completing in-race quests.

So, in a nutshell: Lights unlock the Career mode Classes while Fans unlock new vehicles. And make you feel cool.

The AI is tough, they really know how to nail you with power-ups. In fact, don’t expect to stay in front for too long as they will hit you with something or other, like their front bumper or a power-up.

But who cares about the AI, right?

It’s way cooler in multiplayer, and let’s keep it that way.

So, multiplayer is the way it’s meant to be played. 10 players online works best, and this is usually the most fun. It’s not so chaotic, rather more challenging. Know that if you’re leading and not controlling the front of the grid by hurting racers with reverse-power-up’s — you’ll lose the position.

In-house multiplayer allows for four-player split-screen which is a nice addition. Actually, it’s pretty darn amazing–beating three friends at a time.. Doesn’t get better than that.

It’s a damn multiplayer game, you don’t need scores for this. Furthermore, it’s a simple game. There’s not much too it really — except a lot of fun, that is.

Go to the shop and buy it.

Get a few friends over and play.

You won’t regret it.

Remember, winner keeps remote.
Loser pours drinks.