Video Game Vintage Title: Blur

Blur

Blur is an arcade racing video game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision in North America and Europe. It features a racing style that incorporates real world cars and locales with arcade style handling and vehicular combat.

Blur 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. There are also some heavily altered versions of familiar urban environments, such as the Los Angeles river halfpipe and several parts of London. These areas were altered to make the races more enjoyable instead of the developers having to strictly abide by each twist and turn. 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, cars and will be a part of certain fictional servers. 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. find a secret nitro power-up) will reward the player with a fan points boost.

Players can send a racing challenge to a 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 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 The outdated rave-vibe, including the music and menus, don�t do the presentation any favors either.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.

InsideGamingDaily nominated the Blur multiplayer for best of 2010.