Blur Review
Blur, the most recent racer from studio Bizarre Creations (Geometry Wars, Project Gotham Racing) is out and available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Previously a Microsoft Games Studio, Bizarre was bought by Activision in 2007. This is the first racer the studio has created under new ownership. The game itself is really easy to nutshell. Its like Mario Kart with real cars. Yeah, describing it IS that simple. Does that make it a good game? We’ll see.
In true cart racer fashion, Blur has the player racing alongside others shooting power ups at one another. There’s a homing missile (Red Turtle Shell), a mine (Banana Peel), Lighting (Blue Turtle Shell), etc, so the normal trappings of cart racer are present. Most cart racers have the fatal flaw of not properly balancing the power ups and loading the last place players up with the most powerful ones. Even the granddaddy of the genre, Mario Kart, is guilty of the later. These flaws usually end up making the game excessively random and lead to “rubber banding”. This is when you play the entire race jumping from 1st to last and back, solely based on the quality of power ups received.
Blur seems to be aware of this problem and actively avoids this pitfall. None of the power-ups, bring the player to a complete stop (unless the have ran out of energy) and the power ups are not random. They are placed throughout the track in set static positions. You will know what power-up you are running over and if you know what you need to win you can actively seek it out. Having the ability to store 3 power-ups also adds to the strategy. This whole aspect of the racer is extremely well executed and strangely doesn’t feel out of place.
One would think that being able to shoot projectiles would cause massive Burnout style damage to cars involved. Well, not really. Yes, all the licensed cars get damaged, but its no more than broken windows, crooked bumpers, and bent trunk lids. The stylization of the powers allows the impact to look a lot worse than it actually is. I applaud Bizarre for effectively animating pretty fierce crash sequences given the little amount of damage they could work with.
Blur can be played both on and offline. However, the single player career mode is one of my only points of contention with the game. It is TOO damn hard. I consider myself pretty good at racing games, and am confident that when I set the difficulty to normal I will be able to play through the entire career with reasonable setbacks. With Blur, this was not the case. I beat 2 races on normal and then played the 3rd track 15 times before deciding easy was the way to go. Then on easy, some of the later tracks still got the best of me upwards of 6 times.
The AI in the single player campaign is brutal and leaves you literally no margin for error. Other than the difficulty Blur’s single player is fully fleshed out with multiple types of race events, and power-up specific challenges. Despite being a totally competent and well rounded single player game, Blur shines the most when played with friends.
Blur supports a pretty comprehensive set of multiplayer options. Between online support, 4 player split-screen and system link multiplayer, all bases are covered for gamers that want to blow each other up. Split-screen is a reminder that you system can use more than one controller and throws back to the old N64 racer experience. Xbox Live and PSN support cover the modern era, by offering a similar experience to that of modern racers like Burnout Paradise and Forza. System-link is for purists that want unhindered in-house destruction. I don’t see the audience for system link being very big, but those that already have a system link setup for other racers will find that Blur drops in seamlessly.
The play over Xbox live (which it the system I played it on) was nearly flawless. I had a few times where cars would shift, due to lag issues, but most to the gameplay was super smooth. I would definitely recommend Blur’s online play over Mario Kart Wii, any day. Never did I feel that the power ups in the hands of civilians were unfair, buggy or overly annoying and despite losing most of my races, I always felt like I had a chance to win.
Another feature that relies heavily on the internet is online stat racking. The player stats are meticulously tracked and can be accessed via the Blur website. This adds a layer of social interactivity that die hard racing fans love.
As stated above, the stylization of the power-ups lets Bizarre get away with a lot of great visual effects, but I found that most of the tracks, aside from a few, just blurred together (no pun intended). Most of them don’t stand out, and add little more than just a setting for the madness on the track. This is a bit disappointing after finding out Bizarre did some pretty intense scouting for these locations. Its not game breaking, just don’t expect to be blown away by the set pieces.
Blur a super solid kart racer that promises nearly endless quality playtime online. Its balanced where it needs to be and stretches the limits of licensed cars as far as it can. The single player mode can get a bit infuriating, but the multiplayer is so well executed, the single play through on easy will seem like a foot note. Its better than its predecessors in multiple ways and can be enjoyed by all ages. I would recommend it to any and everyone that enjoys the genre of Kart Racer.
Verdict: Plays best with Friends
