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| Blur |
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| Racing |
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| Bizarre Creations |
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| Activision |
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Bizarre Creations have cemented themselves as the true racing enthusiasts for the Xbox 360 with their Project Gotham series. Offering gamers the chance to drive in beautifully recreated cities around the world in equally beautiful cars and bikes has meant gamers have had the best of both worlds when it comes to arcade racing with style.Not so much the simulation of racing but more a definitive arcade experience. So how does a developer build from that and make something new? In the case of Bizarre Creations, the answer is simple, create a new arcade racing franchise, using the experience they have from their past games and building upon that to offer gamers an even greater slice of fast paced thrills and spills. Cue Blur, developed by the team at Bizarre and published by Activision instead of Microsoft, and therefore a multi-platform release.
Blur offers an ultimate powered-up racing experience, by thrusting players behind the wheel of cars which are less strict on the tarmac and more akin to a fantasy style scenario. It's still firmly in the arcade realm but going that bit further away from realism by offering real world race tracks alongside adrenaline fuelled power-ups, making for a distinct change of pace from their previous offerings. If we would liken the game to any other then we'd most certainly have to mention the Wipeout series of games or even go as far as mentioning the good old classic that is Mario Kart.
GamesCom'09 gave us the opportunity to experience the game in the flesh so to speak, and whilst it might have been easy to make so many comparisons to the aforementioned games, there is a layer of originality to proceedings and familiarity for those used to the Project Gotham games.
So before we give our impressions let's do some number crunching and overview of what's on offer in the game. To begin and obviously just as important as the 45 tracks that will feature, are the cars themselves. With some 50 cars on offer (up to 20 cars on track at once) ranging from simple hatchbacks to extremely sporty pickups that come complete with F1 engines and can reach high speeds in an instant. You'll be able to customize your vehicles with new colours and abilities to add a personal touch and make you stand out from your peers if you're heading online to play. A new 'fans' system is used which is similar to the Kudos system seen in the PGR games. The tracks will feature in prime locales from L.A. and San Francisco, Japan, Barcelona to the sunny streets of Hackney, UK, yes that's right Hackney in London of all places, maybe not as glamorous as San Francisco but featured nevertheless.
What separates the game from its peers and forebears are the power=ups which like Wipeout change the course of the race to something less rigid. The game is designed around having fun rather than a single racer in a souped up car heading off into the sunset leaving the stragglers behind, so you'll always be in the heart of the race 'duking' it out with the other vehicles.
Each car will have 2 power-up slots where you'll be able to gain up to 5 slots the more you race through the game's modes (including the story mode). You'll enter racers and pick up the power-ups on the fly, the choice being to use them right away or try and match the slots so that you can combo your power-ups for even greater effect. One power up we were shown was a shockwave type effect which nudges nearby cars out of the way. Doubling up this power-up meant creating total havoc on those cars around you giving you a much better chance of pipping your opponents at the post.
The game uses a rewards system, so that no matter what you do, win or lose you'll find that you're making progression with the game and not punished for taking part and doing badly. There's always another race to partake in and with the slant on arcade style racing means you should get your just rewards after some practice.
The game offers online play for up to 20 racers, 4 player split screen for those of you wanting to huddle around a single TV and enough modes and events to keep the most ardent of racer fan occupied. You'll also be able to set your own player rules for races, tailoring the options to suit how you want to play with friends and rivals and then shared via the game's social network.
We found blur to look great,play equally as impressive and offer something different to what you might expect for Xbox 360 as many games opt to provide an ultra realistic experience for gamers. It's good that Bizarre are after putting the 'fun' back into racing where the taking part is what counts and the competitive spirit is raised without going totally overboard. Blur looks like being a fun game and one that any racing gamers should keep a close eye on. The team have tons of experience and we came away suitably impressed from what we were shown. Blur is planned for release in the coming months, so make sure you keep your eyes well and truly peeled for looks like another smash hit for the team at Bizarre.
Preview By: Robert Cram
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