Blur Beta Impressions - News

by Craig S , posted on 08 March 2010 / 3,901 Views

Mario Kart, Project Gotham Racing, Need for Speed and WipEout are all frequently name-dropped in relation to Blur, and with good reason. Blur is a combat/arcade racer which seems to take inspiration from all of these titles. The handling is a mix of arcade and kart racer, so it’s nothing if not accessible. The colour scheme is bold - it’s almost like a neon-lit Project Gotham or Need for Speed, with constant barrages of colour and activity, thanks in no small part to the weapon drops and other power-ups which would feel right at home in a WipEout game.

These are some of the most well regarded and critically acclaimed franchises in the racing genre, so melding their respective strengths into a single racer could be a recipe for success, if Blur manages to do exactly that; to pick out the good bits from each franchise, ditch the bad and add something special of its own. The operative word here is ‘if’, and after my time with game I’m not convinced that this is a must-have racer, although it does have its moments.

Blur is very much a kart racer, albeit one with pretensions to being an arcade racer. Even gamers who prefer the accessibility of the simplest arcade racers may find Blur a little too accessible and lacking in depth. There’s a good reason for this, and the explanation appears to lie in the combat side of the game (the weapons, power-ups etc.) and the need to ensure that races are balanced. These elements have been given primacy in order to make their use both enjoyable, and to maintain an intense feeling of action (and genuine competition) throughout a race.

The power-ups include both defensive and offensive items. The more original ones include ‘Shock’, which spawns a set of electric fields in front of the race leader to slow and damage them, ‘Barge’ blasts nearby vehicles away from you, ‘Shunt’ acts as a homing missile that flips enemy vehicles into the air, and ‘Bolt’ shoots three energy missiles. There are also familiar ‘Shield’, ‘Mine’, ‘Nitro’ and ‘Repair’ power-ups, which are all fairly self explanatory. Most can be fired both in front of you and behind, which comes in useful if you’re ahead of the pack or you want to throw that determined homing missile off your trail. You can hold three of these power-ups at any one time, and they all sit neatly on your car’s bumper.

As with any combat racer you’ll quickly discover your favourite power-ups, and quickly tire of the less useful ones, although the ability to hold three of them at any one time allows you to bide your time and save up the more event-specific ones like ‘Barge’, for example, which requires the enemy vehicle to be relatively close. While the power-ups all feel fairly balanced, making the vast majority of races competitive and hotly contested, I could have done with several more being in the game because as things stand you learn the ropes very quickly and thereafter the power-ups lose some of their lustre.

Blur boasts full 20 player races, although the most I ever managed to find in these very early stages of the beta was 9. Even so, based on what I was able to experience, lag is not an issue and the transition from one race to the next is smooth and well managed. This being an Activision game it’s perhaps no surprise that the online mode has borrowed elements from the Call of Duty series. You earn experience and level up based on various activities you perform during your races, and this in turn unlocks more cars and ‘mods’ (passive modifiers, similar to the perk system found in Call of Duty).

I find that a good litmus test for most game trials is whether, the next day, I feel the urge to go back to that trial or demo. I did get that with Blur, which may surprise you given that I have been quite critical in this preview. Blur doesn’t wow at all graphically, the racing elements are shallow and the power-ups limited, but it’s still good fun. Go figure.

16 Comments

MonstaMack (on 13 March 2010)

Really a great beta VGChartz, thanks for the code.

I am just looking foward to Splitt Second to see which game is going to get my money. Hopefully SS comes out with a demo.

Michael-5 (on 12 March 2010)

As a Beta code winner, I agree with Bornswavia and fastyxx, blur is a fun game. Howver I think a bit more positively about the game then fstyxx. It may not hold the Mario title, or be as posished and chaotic as Mario Kart, but this is the next step up. Kids who don't want a similator, but want a step up racer from Mario Kart iwll love this game.

It's not as polished as PGR, but for gamers looking to play a relaxing games for maybe an hour at a time, this is definatly the racer. Since 360 has no other racer like this (PS3 has Motorstorm), I'm betting you that this game will get sales somewhere from 3-4 million (both consoles combined). Thats more then PGR 3 or 4, just for the 360 version of blur.

I was very happy with the beta, it's simple, yet fun. My only grip would be that it needs more perks, more cars, a little better graphics, at least PGR 4 level, and a couple more power ups. As it stands now, it feels unfinished....and it is.

Bornswavia (on 10 March 2010)

Yea Fastyxx, I really agree with you quite a bit. I do believe the incorperate the crashes and hits really well into the game, and the game itself is very smooth and appealing as you said. I mean, I still rush home after work excited to play this demo..beta version, and I'm usually not a big racing fan. I usually buy one good racing game per console..but I think I might be tempted to get blur.

fastyxx (on 10 March 2010)

I'd buy this at $30 or 40 but not for $60. It's fun and I do have the insane level up/unlock urge I have with say, COD, but it's a little one-dimensional beyond that. It's not as chaotically fun as Mario Kart, not as destructive and speed-simulating as Burnout and not as competent an arcade racer as the best PGR games. But it's fun and does all these things pretty well. Good frame rate, nice graphics, appealing interface and flat out fun. But I do think it will get repetitive and will also be very dependent on a strong online community - it's not nearly as fun with 5 cars in a race vs. 10 or 15. a good game though not a great one.