Bizarre: Blur is about "s*** blowing up"

By Robert Purchese Published 14 August, 2009

People go "cross-eyed" at feature list.

Project Gotham Racing mastermind Bizarre Creations reckons people go "cross-eyed" when they hear about all the features going into new racing IP, Blur, which debuts in November on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

"Blur is about intense racing, s*** blowing up everywhere, and using power-ups in a strategic way," Ben Ward, studio chatterbox, wrote on the Bizarre website. "Blur is a HUGE game."

"Frankly, it's incredibly tough to talk about all of this stuff without people just going cross-eyed (trust me, it's happened... You should see Ami right now). With all these great aspects of the game, it became pretty obvious that we needed to distil all of this stuff down into something more manageable."

Blur supports 20 drivers online and four offline by splitting one screen into quarters. As mentioned, there's a progression-based segment to the online modes. Ward promises "waay" more detail on these at a later date, but said a Destruction Derby bowl arena will be one of the options available, as will a custom race mode, where you pick the rules.

There's also a full story campaign to race through, with cut-scenes, voice-overs and heroes and heroines. Tying on and offline together will be some kind of social network, apparently, and the Kudos system is being replaced by Fans.

On top of that are around 50 licensed cars with manufacturer-approved concepts specifically for Blur, plus 14 environments spanning cities, mountains and deserts - and there is a combined 40 different routes around them. Winning conditions vary from catching a rival to placing first, and there are all sorts of stabilisers to help newcomers get to grips with the simulation driving. Oh, and you can take photos.

Blur new making a new racing IP after PGR would be "tough" and so has been iterating on the new power-up ideas "like crazy" to get the right mix. One of the benefits of being acquired by Activision, reveals Ward, is that nearly everything can be focus tested at a moment's notice, which was something Bizarre only did "sparingly" in the past.

We'll be seeing Blur at gamescom next week, so expect our updated impressions soon.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • MaliceMajorE15 #1 3 years ago

    I guess the headline speaks for itself and leaves nothing more to be said

  • lasersrule #2 3 years ago

    Blur has always sounded like the ultimate shark-jump for the MSR/PGR template. As if adding bikes wasn't enough!

  • b00n #3 3 years ago

    it blew up alright!

  • regmund #4 3 years ago

    That's one heck of a feature list - I'm so dizzy that I can't see it.

  • Toothball #5 3 years ago

    The more they talk about cars blowing up the less interested I get in this game. I want to drive in style, without anything blowing up. Feature list in the headline is all I need to know.
    Edited by 1 at 14/08/09 @ 13:39

  • Nylz #6 3 years ago

    Normally I'm cautious what to believe from these articles, but this text speaks for itself...

  • beastmaster #7 3 years ago

    If it includes Geo Wars 3 in there somewhere, I'm having it.

  • peterfll #8 3 years ago

    I know I'm reading the article on crappy old IE6 (at work) but the only thing sending me cross-eyed is the amount of white space in this article....

  • geeza2020 #9 3 years ago

    "Blur new making a new racing IP after PGR would be "tough""

    - so i take it that should be "Blur knew......"

    ;-)

  • Normski #10 3 years ago

    It should be "Bizarre knew..." unless Damon Albarn and friends have suddenly gone into the Video Game Clairvoyance racket.

  • Anthony_UK #11 3 years ago

    Massive massive fan of the Gothm series, but I can't help but think this latest batch of PR with comments like the above headline, is some kind of response the Black Rock's Spilt Second! It really does look so much better at this point.

    But I really do hope i'm proved wrong!

  • ThreeOutsideDown #12 3 years ago

    sounds like it has a long was to go to beat "split/second" which seems to be having a similar theme - drive fast and blow shit up.

    split second e3 trailer where lots of shit is blown up!




  • mashk #13 3 years ago

    I think Blur's appeal is UNIVERSAL, for both Boys and Girls. Playing the game in their COUTRY HOUSE sitting on their BEETLEBUM's with COFFEE AND TV right TO THE END.

    : )

  • Calgon #14 3 years ago

    Lets be fair Bizarre never used to speak much without having something to show when they were partners with MGS, this seems like he was pushed to tell everyone its great and hype it up, probably because Activision have noticed the competition in the Racing genre this gen keeps ramping up even for none traditional racers... its hard to stand out(especially this year, how many are due? Racers seem to be the new FPS this year IMO).

    Even though I must admit it doesn't look or sound anywhere near as enticing as a new PGR to me so far, they have earned their credibility with the MSR/PGR series, so lets wait and see how it turns out before writing them off just yet.

  • wittynic #15 3 years ago

    It better have bots in the split screen mode - 2-4 people whizzing round a track alone is no fun.

  • Sycopat #16 3 years ago

    This game is starting to sound like a cross between forza and f-zero...

  • ademkermad #17 3 years ago

    If I'm being honest really don't see the appeal of this game. Real world Mario Kart in HD? I think Bizarre have really taken a step back here. Having said that, it may turn out to be ridiculously fun to play. I mean Geometry Wars doesn't look all that good in just a video right?

  • cianchristopher #18 3 years ago

    This game may well go largely ignored by the wider game-buying audience simply because its getting released in the November rush. Bad decision by Activision. If they released it next year during a drought it might fare better.

    Then again, Split/Second is out early next year, I think, and maybe Activision are afraid that if that game were to come out first then this game would suffer by comparison. They could have had their hand forced on this one.

    Let's hope Bizarre don't turn out like Rare did, following their acquisition by Microsoft.

  • MiniAmin #19 3 years ago

    The outlandish nature of this game reminds me of Pure. I'm glad Bizzare have included splitscreen multiplayer.

    Too many games lack this feature these days.

  • jonbwfc #20 3 years ago

    Frankly, it looks like an entire generation of racing games has been channelling Michael Bay.

    Jon

  • RobotRocker #21 3 years ago

    Racing gamers with Micheal Bay explosions?

    I can live with that.

  • BillyBrush #22 3 years ago

    Cross eyed from FURIOUS WANKING!!

    ...it sounds WIKID, AMAZING, and i need to TELL ALL MY FRIENDS, on FACEBOOK

    FUCK PROPER DRIVING GAMES, GIVE ME A SHOPPING TROLLEY AND SOME TNT, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

    OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYEAH!

  • CrunchinJelly #23 3 years ago

    I was going to say I'd pick it up in the bargain bin in the New Year, but I guess Split/Second will be out by then.

    Oh, well.

  • Les #24 3 years ago

    This game does absolutely nothing for me, like that other racing game in which you trigger explosives to take out opponents. It's just too far fetched. Guess Burnout 3 is as good as arcade racing gets...

  • db3 #25 3 years ago

    Sounds like desperation

  • EmiliasHorse #26 3 years ago

    I want to be interested, I love MSR/PGR ... I played the demo of MSR almost constantly for a month prior to the full release (Bless Official DC mag). My respect for Bizarre is huge.......But I cannot shake the feeling that I am going to hate it.

    Please don't be shit.

  • BillyBrush #27 3 years ago

    Yea, they've made the best 2 racing games this gen imo...

    but.....this...nah

  • Royal Fool #28 3 years ago

    The single fact that they're including powerups turns me off. Their previous racing games have all been about skillful driving and finesse, but now it seems they're throwing that out the window.

    Maybe they just got bored of making them, I don't know.

  • Kaspar #29 3 years ago

    Why do the community guys at dev studios often sound like they're about 15 years old?

  • agparrot #30 3 years ago

    I think in light of the fact that, depending on what formats you own, we'll have access to things like Forza 3, Gran Turismo 5 and NFS: Shift, that there is definitely room in the market for some of these less serious racers - Blur and Split Second being the most obvious.

    But then, I'm still playing Burnout Paradise online from time to time, largely due to the community aspect of the online challenges, and so things like Destruction Derby and online challenges in the Blur feature list sound like they could be fun to me. It does seem that Split/Second and Blur are aiming for the same audience though, so it will be interesting to see which is the better of the two.

  • DUFFKING #31 3 years ago

    I understand that this game doesn't do much for a lot of people, but it seems like half the people here want them to make PGR.

    AGAIN.

  • Baronen #32 3 years ago

    Ya I felt they did more or less everything they really could with the PGR series, it's nice to see them taking a new direction. Also big-ups for including 4 player split screen, echoing the bloke who said too many games lack that feature these days. If this turns out anywhere near decent I'm much more inclined to get it than say Forza 3, which looks incredibly boring.

  • DocTep #33 3 years ago

    Rumble Racing HD...?

  • JimmyT67 #34 3 years ago

    @ Royalfool

    "The single fact that they're including powerups turns me off."

    Powerups always turn me on ;)