Blur? More like Bleurgh!

Project Gotham 2 and 4 are two of my favourite racing games ever and even though it’s difficult to argue against Forza 3 being the best console racing game money can buy, I still love going back to PGR 4 for the odd race. I love the driving model (straddling the line perfectly between Arcade Racer and Simulation) and I think the Kudos system is fucking genius.

So when I heard that the creators of PGR Bizarre Creations wouldn’t be doing another PGR game I was a bit sad. When I heard they were doing an arcade-style ‘combat’ racing game I was a bit worried. And after playing the closed Beta a month ago I wanted to vomit.

Okay, maybe vomit is perhaps a bit too strong so let`s just say I was really, really, really disappointed. It`s basically a more combat-intensive version of Mario Kart mixed with Modern Warfare and disguised under the semblance of the genuine racing game. Now if you’re a hardcore fan of Mario Kart then this game is definitely worth checking out. I don’t dislike Mario Kart but one of the things that always pissed me off was that you could have raced your ass off, be meters away from the finishing line and then “BOOM!” someone nails you with a (insert color) shell, you lose the race, and are suddenly reminded that you’re not actually playing a racing game. Regrettably for Blur (at least for me), is that this seems to happen ALL THE FUCKING TIME!!!

When I first started the Multiplayer Beta I was frequently racing against players who were at a higher experience level and had unlocked better cars (again, think Call of Duty’s unlock system) and yet I would race the pants off their faster cars only to be shot, shocked and rammed at the finish line. This literally happened my first three races and by the third time I was ready to throw the controller out the window. It`s not like I don`t like Arcade racers – I adore Burnout Paradise but even with the aggressive nature of the shunting it`s the actual driving that matters. Sure you can wreck my car, but you have to use your skill to actually catch up to me – not get me in your crosshairs from 400 meters away.

I then decided to change my focus, think of Blur not as a racing game but as a shooting game – it’s not about finishing on the race podium but about shooting people. That’s all fine and dandy but the problem is that if I wanted to shoot people I would just play Bad Company 2 or a whole host of other legitimate shooters.

Clearly, I’m not the target audience for Blur but what upsets me is that there is one thing that Blur does better than any racing game I’ve played – 20 car fields with little to no lag! Yes, twenty car fields. In those rare quiet moments of actual racing Blur is fantastic when you’re racing against 19 other players and my biggest disappointment is that Bizarre Creations couldn`t make a PGR game using this tech.

Again, if your idea of a racing game is Mario Kart and if you don’t understand the big deal about vehicle damage in simulation racing games then Blur is probably right up your alley. For me, I`ll be staying far, far away in Forza 3-land. And hey, you never know, maybe Blur will be the racing game equivalent of an electric fly zapper – drawing cornhole-happy, no skill douche bags away from legitimate racing games and keeping them there. Yeah, I`m not a fan.

The Blur multiplayer beta is now open to everyone on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Lavan

PS In case you were wondering.