Blur (video game)

Gameplay

In Blur's career mode, the player will encounter numerous characters and many licensed cars ranging from Dodge Vipers to Lotus Exiges to Ford Transit vans fitted with F1 engines, all of which have full damage modeling and separate traits such as Acceleration, Speed, Drift, Grip and Stability. Some special car models have been designed by Bizarre Creations themselves. Albeit simplified, the tracks are also based on real-world environments, such as the Los Angeles river canals and several parts of London. Depending on the character(s) the player races against or tags along with in team races, they will have their own racing styles, power-up set ups, match types, locales and cars. As the player races well, performs stunts and uses power-ups in certain ways during races, the player will gain 'fan points'. These points help the player progress through the career, purchase more cars and parts and earn more fans for the user base. During the career, challenges will take place midrace when the player drives through a fan icon. Completing these short challenges (e.g. shoot another car with a certain weapon, or perform a long drift) will reward the player with a fan points boost. During the career mode, each challenge features a final boss, which, once defeated will yield access to their specific mods(Mods are specialized abilities that grant users better use of original powerups e.g. Khan's titanium shield.), as well as customized cars. At the final boss challenge, all the bosses meet together for a final race. However each boss has a unique stage in players must attain a certain number of stars before moving on to the next boss.

Multiplayer

The game can be played with up to 4 players via splitscreen, and the game can be taken online for a maximum of 20 players over the internet, or over LAN in the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 versions. In a custom game, options can be set before each match that determine the layout of power-ups, car classes, amount of laps, and the track to race. A match type called "World Tour" is essentially a quick play option for players who want to jump into a match. Here, every player is given a random car and thrown into a random series of courses with a standard ruleset. Multiplayer also offers "Team Racing" mode. Two teams (Alpha & Omega) can put themselves head to head either publicly or private. During races, each player accumulates points for their finishing position. While in team racing, powerups will not affect the player's own team members with the exception of Shock. Players can send a racing challenge to an online friend. If the second player beats the time, they can send the updated challenge back. These challenges go back and forth until one person concedes. Players can also use the Share button, and post their achievements to Twitter or Facebook.

Reception

The game was generally well received by critics, with a Metacritic score of 83/100 on the Xbox 360 and an 82/100 on the PlayStation 3 and PC. GameZone's Brian Rowe gave the game a 7.5/10. "On single-player, Blur is an average racing game with a powered-up twist. Repeating races and receiving beautiful cars that remain untouched due to the lack of customization gets old fast. The outdated rave-vibe, including the music and menus, don’t do the presentation any favors either. As a multiplayer title, Blur is absolutely exhilarating. I cheered in victory, yelled in anger, was called names I’ve never heard, and I loved every moment of it." The Australian video game talk show Good Game's two reviewers gave the game a 7/10 and 8/10.

Sales

In the US, Blur sold 31,000 copies in its first five days of release according to the NPD.

Despite disappointing sales, Nick Davies of Bizarre Creations had announced in July 2010 that the studio intended to create more games in the series, and wanted to make it the biggest racing franchise. He attributed the sales performance of Blur, to the fact that the game was released at "a very busy time for racing games", and that it "came out at the same time as ModNation Racers and Split/Second." However, he believed "that the strong multiplayer component would give the game staying power", and "it's going to be a slow-burner".

On November 16, 2010, Activision announced that it was closing Bizarre Creations, stating:

Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations, the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly. Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience. Bizarre is a very talented team of developers, however, because of the broader economic factors impacting the market, we are exploring our options regarding the future of the studio, including a potential sale of the business.

Sequels

A sequel was planned for Blur, and work had started on it using an all-new engine, but it was cancelled when Bizarre Creations was shut down by Activision. Work-in-progress videos of the intended sequel were released post-mortem, one of which show a race in Blur's Brighton track, adding a rainstorm, and another that shows an Audi R8 racing in a track set in Dubai, showcasing the ability to temporarily run sideways on the side of a curved building.

On October 25, 2013 a free-to-play spin-off mobile game called Blur Overdrive was released on Android, developed by Nottingham based App Crowd, and distributed by Marmalade, who licensed the Blur brand from Activision. An iOS version was released on November 1, 2013. Blur: Overdrive uses a top-down perspective and features eight different power-ups and six cars, which can be upgraded individually in ten steps. Touchscreen controls allow to choose from a floating steering wheel, a slide bar or a virtual pad. Player mods and Power Up mods are not connected to the car upgrading system and change how power-ups influence the combat.