Blur is the result of Bizarre's mission to "bring the fun back" to the racing genre. It's a faster, less reality-obsessed racer than PGR; 20 licensed cars tear around the track at once, with their headlights painting neon trails through the air and Wipeout-style power-ups shaking the foundations of the Los Angeles storm drain.
After looking closely at the dwindling interest in other realistic racing sims (GRiD is given as one example of an excellent sim "doing nothing" at market), the PGR house decided to swap the technical side of the genre for just the "excitement and emotion" of getting behind the wheel.
Bizarre describes Blur as a game no longer held back by reality. The locations, though set in real-world cities, aren't handcuffed by authenticity.
Blur
Official trailer
0:36Teaser trailer
Blur
Official trailer
0:36Teaser trailer
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One track for example, based on London's Hackney (we're not joking) contains pubs, bridges and estates (one journalist even found his girlfriend's flat) but crucially roads have been flipped and roundabouts moved for a more gameplay-friendly course.
It's a small change on paper but the results are instantly obvious; tearing through Hackney in a Mitsubishi Evo is a swift, 100mph experience compared to the constant 'stop-start' or PGR's tight corners and racing lines.
The new speed and mayhem is emphasised even more in the wide, dusty valleys of a California desert track, which shows off new types of terrain (dirt, mud, water) best suited for bigger vehicles like SUVs and vans.
The neon pack kicks dust in the air like a rabid sandstorm as cars dart through barnyards and watermills, smashing wood and scenery in their wake.
It's almost like a scene from FlatOut, but fans of PGR needn't be too worried as vehicle handling definitely lies very much in Bizarre's traditional arcade territory, and carving perfect racing lines, though not as crucial as in PGR, is an effective method of beating the pack.
The hardcore is also likely to be wooed by the 70 licensed cars on offer, including Evos, Mustangs, SUVs and Bizarre-made concept cars approved especially for the game by manufactures - a first, the studio claims.
With the motors on the track bumped up to 20, Blur is a frantic, collision-filled scramble for the finish. Another crucial change is the removal of PGR's trademark roadside barriers.
Drive off the track and instead of a race-ruining crash you're hampered by the odd collision with a bench or bollard. Bizarre compares this to the "grey areas" in F-Zero, but truth be told it also adds a ton of personality to the courses themselves.
It could've done Westminster, it could've done Big Ben, but instead the Blur team decided to go with less obvious choices like Brighton and Hackney for its real-world locations, as well as more obvious choices in Barcelona and San Francisco.
"In PGR we used to hate the gamer," Bizarre boss Martyn Chudley told us during out visit to the studio. "'You've completed this on silver... that's a bit shit isn't it? You should be doing it on gold' We never gave gamers enough reward. Less than 1% of players finished any PGR on platinum. So we thought, why are we focusing on those 1%? Why don't we focus the game on the other 99%?"
And that's where the Mario Kart bit comes in - the power-ups. "The hardcore are going to go 'weapons in a racing game? No'," says designer Gareth Wilson. "It took us three or four months to break out of that 'this is what racing games do' mindset. You're not allowed to have fun in racing games, it's not allowed!"
Blur's "perks" currently consist of Shock, Shunt, Barge, Nitro, Mines and Repair and take the form of simple, distinctive neon icons floating on the track. Players begin with just a single slot to store their power-ups but eventually the number will grow to five, allowing you to switch them around - and potentially create combos.
Most of the perks you'll be able to work out from their names; Mines drops a glowing yellow payload onto the road, Nitro gives you a boost and Barge shoots other racers up the rear like a crackling, electric green shell.
Our favourite though is Shunt; a burst of electrical energy that shoots from both sides of your vehicle and sends opponents skidding into the roadside. Sparking visual flair combined with a new, damage system means it looks powerful and feels satisfying.
After playing it Blur's perks definitely require skill and timing to use effectively. Fire an engine-disabling Shock on a straight for example and targeted cars will simply carry on rolling forward anyway.
Shunt and Barge are also totally dynamic, which means if you skillfully target a rival on the rear in the middle of a turn he'll spin-out wildly into the scenery - which is also where drift-heavy muscle cars come in handy.
One aspect of Mario Kart thankfully not making it over to Blur though is the feeling of being cheated by the power-ups.
Every time a competitor locks a rocket or energy-fuelled shove onto your motor, you're given the chance to counter. A quick warning sign flashes onto your HUD when you're in danger, and if you press the X button quick enough you'll activate a shield that deflects the projectile.
This is a crucial addition and even if you're totally annihilated, your car quickly respawns on the track.
But the most interesting piece of Blur's makeup is the social network, at this stage cleverly called 'Blurb' (other suggestions included 'MyRace' and 'Racebook - but the lawyers turned up for those), which powers the entire offline and online functionality of the game.
When you turn on Blur you're asked to create a profile. From there you can make friends, post photos and messages, customize your motors and even create Facebook-style "groups" to shape the style of racer you want to play.
When creating an online group in Blur players will be able to define a wide set of rule sets, from the way points are scored (coming first, taking out another racer - even the number of yards you're ahead of the car behind), a group 'badge', environments and cars used... or you can just turn off the power-ups and play straight PGR-style.
The potential for creativity, at concept stage at least, is big. With this mock social network Bizarre hopes to bring a human element to the racing genre, and yes - put some of the fun back in as well.
At this point in development Blur is still a good few weeks of balancing away from being quite near what we'll see on the shelves at the end of the year.
But the solid handling is encouraging and with more than five excellent racing games under its belt, you'd be silly not to expect Bizarre Creations to come at least close to bringing the party back to the genre.
I'm not convinced. And as an aside, to call Grid a "sim" or Project Gotham "realistic" is laughable. PGR is fun, but the car handling has no basis in real physics :)
Anyway, this sounds like Bizarre do Midnight Club, but without the customisation. I don't like racing games where driving skill is unrelated to how well you do. Mario Kart on the SNES rewarded you (or hampered you) with power ups, but it still ultimately came down to who was better on the track.
Later MK games spoiled it by punishing the faster drivers, which is just stupid. If they do the power-ups right, Blur might just work. But if they don't, it'll be a complete laughing stock.
Sensible of them to abandon the PGR name for this title in case it falls on it's face.
I'm a little surprised that they paid to have real life cars in it if it's not going to be a sim in any way. Like Dajmin said I'm not convinced, I was hoping it would be like PGR but this doesn't sound too promising to me.
I'm looking forward to trying this i'm a huge fan of racing games with my fave being Grid at the moment. It will be refreshing to have the novelty of powers ups in a pgr ish style game, How long the novelty lasts who knows? :?
I'm going to respectfully disagree...to an extent. I agree that PGR does not have the realism of physics of Forza or GT, certainly. But if you compare it against more "traditional" arcade-type racers such as NFS, Burnout etc. then there is a considerable amount of realism - for an arcade game, anyway.
This is especially noticable when you compare the handling of different car classes, with some a lot more easily disjointed from the tarmac!
That's why I love PGR. It's amazing fun, but it's not completely removed from reality. When playing PGR I feel I could "possibly" pull off some of the slides in real life (I know I couldn't really, but just at that moment...). That's something I don't get with any other arcade racer.
PGR 4 is still an excellent game, provides tons of challenge, and hasn't aged in appearance either imo. So my question is why does everyone seem to turn their nose up at the prospect of something different and new?
We already have PGR and we're always bemoaning developers not trying anything new, so I applaude Bizzare, for knowingly creating a game that goes against the grain.
Also, I'd say its unfair to lump this in with other arcade racers so early on because Bizzares' output has generally been far superior to the likes of Midnight Club and NFS.
To even begin to call what goes on in racing games on consoles a "sim" is beyond insulting. I own both PS3 and X360, and I've tried Forza, GT4, etc - and none of them come even remotely close to what is available on the PC.
Regardless, it's good to see someone taking the arcade-element seriously. There's lots of fun to be had, just like there's a market for Tom Clancy's HAWX, without it being even remotely "realistic" in the sim-sense of the word.
I'll be passing on this one. I can still sit down with a few friends, and spend an entire weekend playing Nascar 2003 from Papyrus. The true great racing games never "die" - people indeed still play Grand Prix Legends. Because they're well made, and offer wins to the skilled drivers. Most of the "arcadey" racers fade quickly. Dirt was fun, in the same way Colin McRae 2 was, but they're both history now.
I'm happy that developers who can't do sims right, stay away from trying. The genre is under enough pressure as it is - I'd rather live with a few good releases now and then, instead of a lot of crappy ones, that help convince the industry that sims are "dead". They're most certainly not. But a lot of the crap that is labelled a sim might be.
I have an open mind with this...if it's fun it will sell....you can't be serious all the time. The problem i have with a lot of racing games lately is their "americanisation". Oval tracks = boring Test tracks with relentless turns = boring Having to drive around New York = boring Their are plenty of real world locales that can offer a diverse and interesting racing experience. The other thing i would like developers to do is for us to be able to have the option to drive on "our" side of the road and not be forced into driving on the "wrong" side all the time.
GRID a sim? Ahahahahaha, Ahahahahaha, funniest thing I've heard in ages :lol:
Anyway, I am not convinced either, the "perks" are ripped straight from Midnight Club LA, which incidentaly was a very good, and very fun, if a little frustrating at times.
Can't quite see where Blur sees itself in the marketplace.
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