Blur is very much what Project Gotham Racing isn’t. Bizarre Creations‘ latest racer attempts to address many of the issues they have seen with the racing genre. Primarily, inaccessibility via driver assistance, a feature nicknamed, “The hand of God.” This allows a crashed driver to be whisked back into the race among the pack of racers. Race sizes can be as large as 20 competitors.
Any good arcade racer would not be worth the tread on the tires if it did not feature power-ups. And Blur doesn’t disappoint, with its own arsenal of mayhem such as shock, barge, shunt and nitro. Fire blasts are built to disrupt other drivers, and provide an unwanted additional shove into a nearby wall. Nitro can give you a much needed push to the finish line.
Damage is a large part of this title. Make sure that you drive over the repair spots or your car will be totaled and the race will quickly come to an end. To counter this effect, it’s important to take advantage of the shield to minimize any impacts.
Bizarre has integrated a social networking platform into the game. There will be a corresponding website that supports this social network. Racers will be able to gain fans and recieve messages from opponents in the game, with more features to be announced shortly. Bizarre did state that this website is central to the progression of the story. Blur looks amazing so far, with brisk gameplay that captures the essence of speed and intense road battles.
Blur is scheduled to be released sometime in 2009 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
