Blur, in the most basic sense, is the shiny modern version of Wipeout and Mario Kart’s illegitimate love-child. It combines the core game-play mechanics of the two classics, and gives it a nice coating of modern-generation gritty, realistic graphics. But would games like Mario Kart work without the charm, you ask? Well, yes, because it still has that exciting just-one-more-game “Oh, where has the last four hours gone?” feel. And that, in my opinion, is what made it so good.
So gone are the pixellated, bright-coloured karts, and in their place come fully licensed cars from Land Rovers to Mustangs. The driving is fast, and with up to twenty players online, it can become manic, with explosions and cars flipping out of control all around you. But once you give it some time, and learn the courses, the driving really comes into its own. After about 30 races I found myself drifting round what were once impossibly hard corners, no longer relying on the good old barrier grind.
As you rank up you unlock more cars, giving you a choice of fast and loose or slow and tough, even allowing you to modify your loadout – similar to Call of Duty, Battlefield, and well, every game these days. These ‘mods’ come in many different forms, allowing you to personalise your car to your favoured style. I went with an aggressive loadout allowing me to cause more damage in collisions, increased splash-damage from certain weapons, and most importantly, start the race with a random weapon. The other options are well-rounded (boring), defensive (negative) and show off (show off…).
The weapons themselves are eerily similar to Mario Kart, but with a Wipeout-like design. There is the equivalent of a green, red and blue shells, as well as mines, shield and repair. The weapons can be fired in the standard way or, like Mario Kart, be fired alternatively – mine’s getting thrown forward, shells getting thrown backwards and firing off multiple boosts at the same time. What’s really engaging is the combined effects of the weapons; using aggressive weapons for defence, to cancel out red shells or shoot down mines.
Doing all of this while driving at break-neck speeds does require some sharp reactions, especially when the levels are as fast paced as these. Gone are the fantastical worlds of Mario Kart and the futuristic fairground rides of Wipeout, yet in their place come some well designed worlds from real locations – L.A, Tokyo, Barcelona and Amboy (California) – each giving a different challenge. My personal favourites are L.A. and Amboy, both set in large open environments offering many different routes.
The levels look and sound fantastic, especially Amboy, as you can hear the rocks and dust rattle and bounce under your car as you’re flying down the straights. The sound as a whole is impressively loud with engines and explosions filling your senses. The entire game is very well polished, with the menus and HUD being especially sleek. The countdown at the beginning of a race is a really nice touch and helps add to the overall quality – there are a lot of simple design choices that add to this, like the ability to flick through the loading screen tips by pressing RT.
There are a couple of different game modes for you to unlock in the beta, Supercar Racing for the speed freaks and Motor Mash for the Destruction Derby fans. Motor Mash is a really good addition and I cannot wait to try out the other maps – at the moment there is a standard arena level and a more inventive figure-of-eight level. Having 20 players all smashing into each other is great, and the clever addition of rivals – giving one opponent a big red arrow above their head and the promise of double points per hit – makes the whole thing even better.
Points feature strongly in Blur, they’re awarded with each stunt, shot or drift in the game – similar to the PGR and NFS games. As well as this you unlock awards at the end of races for different things – I did get the “Punchbag” one a few too many times, though – and challenges, that are tallied up throughout your racing. All these stats and bars make me smile inside as I’m a hopeless addict; I love to unlock challenges and feel the fleeting reward of a level-up being hastily replaced with the sadness of an empty bar. In a way, Blur is very similar to shooters like MW2 and Bad Company 2, and may even steal some fans.
In my opinion the beta has been a success, I’ve had few problems and a great time playing it. The reason I enjoyed the game is relatively simple: Motorstorm. What I mean by that, is that Blur reminds me of the PS3 title and I have been dying for a game to come out that matches the unbridled fun that Motorstorm represents. Maybe, just maybe, Blur could be that game.
