| Author | Review |
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Ahbooya61
161,582
TA Score for this game: 1,947
Posted on 09 June 10 at 16:42, Edited on 09 June 10 at 16:45 |
This review has 37 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
When I first got Blur, I wasn't 100% sure what I was gonna get when i played it. Needless to say, it's passed all of my expectations. Just think of a more real version of Mario Kart, that's what this game is all about.
STORY:
The single player campaign is pretty straightforward. There are 6 events and a boss battle (a one on one battle with the area rival) for each section. There are four (4) demands to be completed to unlock the One on One. These include earning lights, hitting enemies with bolts, etc., and they're pretty easy to complete. The only time it may feel like a grind to get through is if you're a completionist and want to do everything on hard.
There are three (3) different types of events. Races, which the goal is to finish first. Checkpoints, where you go through the bridges before time expires. And Demolition, where cars spawn ahead of you and you destroy them to gain points.
8/10
GRAPHICS:
Pretty solid graphics in this game but then again most games seem to be that way these days. But the cars are really great looking in my opinion so it's a plus.
9/10
POWERUPS:
Eight (8) different powerups with variable results. Shunts are the big one, shoot them forward and they have a homing device so it will catch up to whoever is ahead of you, but they can be shot backwards as well, though without the homing device. Everyone knows what Nitro is, but it can be shot backwards as an airbrake. This is best in corners so you can turn your car and then get a nice acceleration boost. Barges are for when you got someone a bit too close, bang them out of the way. Bolts are pretty solid, it will knock the enemy off course a bit and slow down as they try to straighten up again, these can also be shot backwards. Shocks are three (3) lightning areas always shot ahead of the leader, it's meant to slow down the field. Shields can be used to protect against enemy attacks for a short period. Repair powerups restore all your health, and finally you can drop mines which will pretty much stop the car for a moment - these can also be shot backwards.
Powerups really make it feel like Mario Kart.
10/10
TRACKS:
Pretty basic to be honest, nothing really special here. A few tracks shaped like an 8 with a few extra turns, a few ovals, a race down a mountain. At least the detail is good on them.
7/10
MULTIPLAYER:
It's so addictive! The races are nice and short which is good and everyone is shooting powerups so the action is intense. There's also a demolition mode as well which is a powerup version of a demolition derby. There's a rank system in the game that is similar to the Modern Warfare games. You can complete various challenges to gain extra fans (Fans are the XP in this game) which are used to increase your rank. Only the daily challenges reset (obviously daily) until you hit legend mode. Legend Mode is unlocked at Rank 50.
There is also Facebook and Twitter interaction with this game, and for the first time you choose either, you get 10G for it, a small bonus. Also, there isn't any lag from what I've played and it makes it really enjoyable.
10/10
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Pretty solid, beat the one on ones, master the powerups - most of the gamerscore in this can be gathered in a few days. However, there are some achievements that will take a fair bit and it evens the challenge out a bit in collecting them all. The current TA ratios are high, but they'll drop with some more gaming action. There's also a nice balance of offline and online achievements for everyone to collect.
9/10
If you liked Mario Kart back in the N64 days, you will definitely enjoy playing this game. If you're not so sure on it, just give it a rent to try it, you won't be disappointed.
OVERALL: 9/10
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DivTemplar
77,224
TA Score for this game: 1,638
Posted on 30 June 10 at 04:18, Edited on 01 July 10 at 06:34 |
This review has 19 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
Single-player
Blur’s single-player is quite entertaining for an offline racing mode. Due to the Mario-Kart nature of the game, you won’t mind playing the races even against AI opponents. There are only three event-types however, and you will find that the most entertaining of the three is the normal races. The time-trial events are boring and destruction events get old quick. The most action-packed event is the race, which can have between 10-20 racers and offers the best experience. The single-player career mode is decently long, but can be frustrating on medium or hard for more casual racer game players, so they might want to stick to the easy mode. The only bad side is that easy is too easy, and medium can get very frustrating later-on. There are only 25 “levels” in career, and you will find that you reach it by the end of 1 play-through depending on your skill. Also, the career has leaderboards where you can compare scores on each event with your friends, and challenge them to do better. If you have friends who play it and are competitive in nature, this will be a big bonus to you. Overall, it is a good single-player experience, but once you finish it you probably won’t be back.
20/25
Multiplayer
Online multiplayer in Blur is extremely frustrating, and from my experience, has a lot of lag. First of all, the only playlist that keeps you in the same level bracket is the first one which is for only levels 1-10. But for some stupid reason, if the host of the “party” of gamers is in this category, he can bring his friends who may already be dozens of levels into the game. This will guarantee they come in the top places as they will have much faster cars than any low-levels. The other playlists are more or less the same; the low levels end up at the bottom and the high levels at the top. After a couple races, you will hate the fact that you always come in the bottom group of racers because the top group is dominated by players who are much higher levels than you. The best thing for low levels is to play the team race mode when it unlocks, as in that mode, you can beat other racers your level and still contribute to your team’s success. This way, you feel that you are actually doing something in an online race, other than filling in slots while high level racers dominate the game.
Other than the stupid levelling system, which guarantees high levels always come out on top, multiplayer has some good aspects. It brings in a challenge-system very similar to CoD that helps peddle you along to higher levels. Also, when you win with a car, you unlock different paint styles for that car such as Pearlescent, Candy Stripes and Metallic.
Also, I often find that when I launch power-ups, they will disappear and then seconds later they will perform their effect on your target. Some other racers even “teleport” due to bad connection.
15/25
Replay-ability
This game has a fun single-player but you will probably not play it more than once completely, and then mop up some races for all the “lights” in the events. Also, if you have friends that play, the friends leaderboard in Career and friend challenges provides opportunity for coming back to show your friends that you are better. In the end, single-player has a decent replay-ability factor.
Multi-player is extremely frustrating, but the team modes are fun. Personally, I am not a big fan of this multi-player but it has the potential to get you coming back for more. Overall, the multi-player experience has the potential for great replay-ability.
16/20
Graphics
The visuals for this game are extremely well-done. The cars look fantastic, and the energy-like power-ups look superb. The spectator’s animations look kind of awkward, but most of the time you are so focused on the race it doesn’t matter. Everything looks fluid, and the game has little to no visual hiccups. This gets a high rating, because it definitely is not the best graphics in a racing game but they look good and don’t take away from the game experience.
10/10
Audio
The audio tracks are electronic and fit well with the game. Most often, you won’t hear or notice the audio as you will be focused on the game and the sounds of the cars and power-ups will be louder. On that note, the cars sound great and the power-ups have very good sound effects. It all sounds like something of a Mario-Kart game. Again, the audio doesn’t take anything away from the entertainment value which is all that really matters, so I’m giving it a high mark.
10/10
Achievements
If you enjoy collecting achievements, Blur is a great game to do so. The achievements are fun to get, and most you collect while just playing the racing modes. There are only a few that might be a grind in single-player, which includes earning 5 “lights” in all races on hard difficulty or reaching level 50 online. Only one is really an affair of luck, which is finish 0.1 seconds ahead of an opponent online. The multi-player achievements are all possible, which is a bonus considering some games make them ridiculous. All achievements are possible, most are fun to get, some are a grind and since you will get most of them naturally through playing the game, anyone could expect between 500-800 score easily, and 800-1000 with dedication and patience. This gets a 9 due to the one multiplayer achievement based solely on luck.
9/10
Overall = 80/100
Edit: This review is also available on my IGN account: TechyGopher.
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Bonzojoe
257,526
TA Score for this game: 2,499
Posted on 09 June 10 at 17:52 |
This review has 22 positive votes and 8 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Blur – By Joseph Waddell.
Blur is the latest game that comes under the category of arcade racer. Many of these crop up during the year, however only a few shine. And Blur is one of these. But before I start, some people may be surprised at me liking this, as I’m mainly a racing sim guy.
Blur’s main focus and selling point are power ups, I’ll say it now and probably often through the review, blur is Mario cart, but without the gay Nintendo characters and meant for real players. There’s over 50 real cars and around 15 tracks set in locations around the world.
The game treats both the single player and multiplayer aspects of the game equally. The single player works on a basis of different areas which each have a boss race, which to unlock you have to complete certain tasks, gradually getting harder as the game goes on. There are 4 types of races in single player, races, destruction, checkpoint and 1 on 1’s, as well as each event having a fan target and gate run to do. The single player also has a fan level up feature where the more fans you earn, the more cars you unlock This is all designed well, however even on hard it is quite easy resulting in it getting boring by the end of the game,
The multiplayer however is a different story, due to the games design and modes, each race is always different and it’s rare to see one person dominate the race. There are various game modes, such as simple races for between 2-10 people, powered up racing, which allows for up to 20 players. As well as other modes such as motor mash where you earn points for damaging other cars, and team versions of some of the modes. My only complaint so far from the multiplayer is there is only a small player base, which I suspect is because (at the time of writing this) of the multiplayer beta still being active. You can also have 4 player split screen, however only one person on a console can race online.
The multiplayer has a ranking system, with fans working as experience. As well many challenges that reward you with extra fans when completed. One nice part of these is that one set of challenges reset each day which lets you get an extra 20-40k fans just for playing the game for a while each day. As you level up extra cars and mods unlock. Some cars and some mods you will never use, but some such as the shunt avoid mod can become very valuable.
The gameplay works as you’d expect most racers too. Its face paced with simple controls, as it’s an arcade racer there's no messing about editing your cars it’s just simply get in and drive. There are 4 classes to the cars, A, B, C & D with A being the fastest, and D the slowest. Then you just use a combination of driving skill (ok that’s not needed) and the power ups to cruise to victory. There are seven power ups, Nitro (green) for a speed boost, shunt (red) for a homing missile attack, lightning (blue) to place bolts in front of 1st, barge (purple) to push other cars away, bolt (pink) for three bullets to fire, mine (orange) do I need to say what a mine is? And finally shield (white) to block yourself from attacks. All of the power ups can be fired forwards or backwards for different effects and you can hold 3 at a time, allowing you to choose which wants to save for a better moment.
The games sounds work but aren’t the best, all of the cars do sound nice, and sound how they should do, but the sounds of them revving up on the menu when selecting you car gets old and annoying fast. The games sound track is also initially turned off, which is rather strange as it may be techno but it fits in with the game well.
The graphics in the game are beautiful. All of the cars look perfect, from the rusty off road cars in D class, to the exotic sports cars in A class. But its not just the cars, the tracks and scenery fit the game well, and in my opinion help the feel and fun factor of the game. Smaller features in the game such as the power ups effects and the spectators look great as well, all of the power ups have vibrant looks to them and even look dangerous and the spectators add to the feel of it being a racer, plus it feels special at the start of one of the tracks where you can see camera flashes from the fans to the right. Another nice but small and probably not needed graphical feature is the fireworks on the brighton track, they make you want to stop and watch them they look so good.
The achievement list is a mix of easy and time consuming, annoying ones like complete all races in single player on hard can be tedious as well as getting 100%, but the multiplayer ones are fun to go for, and includes reaching lv50 (800k xp) as most of the achievements have multiple criteria to unlock, you can view progress on the stickers section of the menus. I’ve not worked out how long it would take to 1k/1k, but would expect 40+ hours.
Graphics: 8/10
they work well for the game and shouldn’t be knocked, but some racers out there do look better
Audio: 5/10
not the best, poor soundtrack even though it does fit in, only the races sound right to me
Single player: 6/10
easy to complete, gets boring quickly, probably to repeat races if you want 100%
Multiplayer: 8.5/10
very fun and very enjoyable, only looses marks because it’s down to luck sometimes, not skill
Replayability value:6.5/10
only has replay value in the mp experience, and that’s if you like it, gets 6.5 due to having to play for achievements
Achievements: 7/10
not too easy not too hard. It’s a fresh list, but it does repeat itself quite often, I like the master ones.
Overall: 68/100
a fun and enjoyable game that I recommend, the multiplayer is the main selling point of the game. If it’s still available try the demo first as it may not be the sort of game for everyone.
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CheneyHeadshot
168,212
TA Score for this game: 1,239
Posted on 31 December 11 at 18:13, Edited on 31 December 11 at 18:22 |
This review has 9 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
It would be far too easy to dismiss Blur as Wipeout Kart except with real cars in real world locations. Indeed on the basis of the multiplayer beta many will have written it off and maybe bought Split/Second around the same time instead.
This was the first racing game from the sadly departed premier British developer since the Microsoft deal that gave us the PGR series expired.
Bizarre made a conscious effort to get away from the comparative realism of the Project Gotham series. As you may have seen from the beta, the racing is with normal cars in a variety of locations (UK, US, Spain, Japan) with the added fillip of Wipeout style power-ups.
Some are mundane (Shield, Repair), some are amusing (Mines, Barge) while others are downright game-breaking. The worst culprit being the three lightning fields you can conjure up ahead of the main field. All well and good if you’re not in the lead, but if you are then the trouble starts. I’ve had races where I’ve been romping ahead and before you know it I round a corner and lose most if not all of my lead as I hit ten+ lightning patches and end up feeling like an extra in a fucking Highlander sequel.
The game itself is very much one of two parts with a single player career mode and a ranked multiplayer mode. Single player career mode has a feel not unlike the (bugged) Dreamcast classic Metropolis Street Racer. Admittedly this has more to do with the fact you can unlock forthcoming race series well before you’re ready to attempt them than anything else, but still the feeling remains.
Each race series has a number of set tasks that range from the humdrum to borderline chore that you need to carry out before you’re allowed to confront each boss character (and by beating them getting a lovely achievement). The item-related achievements are designed in a similar way, for example two of the criteria for the Medic achievement require that you heal 500 blocks of cumulative health & win a race on critical damage while holding a repair power-up. In effect the essence of achievements personified in that it makes you play the game a certain way. When you beat a boss (one of whom looks uncannily like Scroobius Pip), you unlock their car as well as a unique perk such as an extra energy bolt or improved shields.
The race venues themselves are the fairly typical Barcelona, San Francisco, New York affairs with the notable exception of the UK based tracks. Hackney in South London & Brighton seafront. The latter location being pretty realistic as Marine Drive is (was?) a popular boy racer cruise spot. Sadly there’s no Vauxhall Novas on the car roster so you don’t get to drive just like some of these angry young men often do.
In a genre dominated by games with terrible licensed soundtracks, Blur is a welcome departure. No Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party or pop punk dross here. Just fairly subtle dance tunes that fit the mood of the game, pretty non-intrusive stuff. In fact the soundtrack is disabled by default which is another welcome departure.
The kudos system that’s been around since MSR and the four subsequent PGR games appears to have disappeared, only it hasn’t really. It’s been reinvented as a fan-gathering exercise, where flashy moves that would previously have garnered kudos get you fans instead, a nice touch and a bit less abstract than kudos was.
The multiplayer is the real meat in the sandwich with persistent ranking in the manner of the Modern Warfare games, only rather than getting shot from across the map with a Barrett .50 cal, you get opponents with imbalanced perk load-outs that you won’t have unlocked yet. Or in my case probably never will. There’s a variety of different playlists (lowbie up to level 10, standard racing with or without powerups), demolition derby style etc) so you’ll be sure to find a game type that suits how you play the game. Regarding the perks, they come in three flavours: defensive, offensive and showy and you’ll find yourself modifying your settings every time you unlock a new one.
A real problem with racing games is there’s often so much to do, you can feel overwhelmed after a break from the game. Forza is particularly guilty in that respect. Blur addresses this issue succinctly by providing a ‘Previously on Blur‘ recap, not unlike the start of a 24 episode. Only without Jack Bauer and the threat of random violence.
In summary then, a mildly diverting singleplayer game with a few niggles, utterly compelling multiplayer that’s ultimately the hook that’ll get you coming back time and again. Hence the score below. Without the multiplayer it’d be a point less.
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themegamancave
125,286
TA Score for this game: 1,478
Posted on 08 February 12 at 20:03, Edited on 09 April 13 at 22:15 |
This review has 8 positive votes and 0 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Blur is, without a doubt, one of the most interesting racing games I have played in a long time. Even though it was released in what seemed like the year for xbox racers (Split Second/Sonic and Sega's All Star Racing/Hydro Thunder/Hot Pursuit), Blur had something unique that really kept me playing for hours on end.
GRAPHICS/VISUALS: 8.0/10
Quite a bit can be said for the graphics in Blur. The cars look brilliant, the racing environments are accurate and believable, and even though there's no one thing that makes it leap forward in visual prowess, there aren't many things that hold it back either. The entire time I played this game, I can count only twice that the graphics got jumbled up (road disappearing and power up disappearing). The frame rate is great, and the flashy powerups look cartoonish but authentic. Even the crashes look great. As your car's health deteriorates from being pummeled by numerous bolts and mines, your engine smokes, windshield cracks, all adding to the overall experience of the game.
GAMEPLAY: 8.0/10
Fast-paced racing has always been my thing, stemming back to the days of Extreme G and F Zero-X on the Nintendo 64. What I can say for Blur is that I always felt like I was IN the game. Cars zooming around you left and right, powerups flying around like fireworks, and 1v1 racing like you've never seen before. Blur offers a standard "career mode" where one must complete certain races, events and demands to unlock the coveted one on one deathrace with that category's rival. There are three types of events in the story mode; races, destruction events and checkpoint events. In each event, you must strive to gain 5 lights which are awarded based on what place you finish in, how many cars you wreck or your time left over after hitting the last checkpoint, depending on the event. There are two additional lights in each event, one for obtaining a set number of "fans" which are obtained for performing fan demands for special maneuvers, blasting your opponents in a creative way, drifting and the list goes on. The other extra light is for completing that event's "fan run", a checkpoint style run of 12 goals you must drive through before the fan timer runs out.
Once you obtain the desired amount of lights, a new rival's category will open up. After you complete that rival's demands, you can challenge him/her to a one on one race, winner takes all, including 8 lights! I found myself wanting to finish everything I could in Blur. The game mechanics are believable, right down to the powerup physics. The game has 8 different powerups available to use at will against your opponents: Nitro (boost), Shield, Repair, Mine, Shunt (homing weapon), Bolts, Barge (large blast that knocks away enemies) and Shocks (Lightning type fields that target car's electrical systems, slowing them down). Each one is unique in it's own way, and some even allow you to fire them behind you/in front of you Mario Kart style!
The multiplayer in Blur is great too. Even as I write this in 2012, the community still has hundreds of avid players, making it easy to find a match. There are numerous playlists to choose from, normal racing, team racing and hardcore racing (a unique game type where you race without powerups o_0). I won't lie to you though, most people who still play have mastered the game, and you may find yourself cursing the tv as you continuously finish in the bottom half of the placement. The only complaint I have with the online is the race timer. Since there are such hardcore fans out there, I often found myself struggling to cross the finish line before the racing timer ticked to zero, resulting in a discouraging DNF or "did not finish". Some people are just that good. As your level increases, you unlock custom mods to use in your future races, making powerups stronger, and giving you that extra edge to win the race. Wait, maybe that's why I kept losing... ?
AUDIO: 7.0/10
The music in Blur isn't bad, but I often found myself forgetting that it was even there. It's an upbeat techno/electronica style you would expect from a game like this. The sound effects in-game are memorable though, realistic crashes, tire squealing and all sorts of powerup chirping fill the air while racing towards the finish line. The narrative voice acting, while minimal, is pretty sexy too. 
REPLAYABILITY: 9.0/10
Come on now, what were you expecting? It's a racing game with multiplayer. Like I stated previously, I found myself trying to go for every fan run, meeting the goals for all the achievements, becoming a glutton for punishment getting left in the dust online. You could easily get lost in an experience like this for 50+ hours. 34 and counting for me according to Raptr.
ACHIEVEMENTS: 8.0/10
THANK GOD THEY HAVE A TRACKER. With the amount of cumulative cheevos in this one, I would've cried if they didn't. Some of the achievements in this one are creative indeed. Perform certain tasks in rival races, watch some fireworks on the beach in your hummer, or hit every single target in a destruction event and earn 5 lights....yeah that one was a bitch. There's no secret here, these achievements are difficult at best, and one could easily sink 60-70 hours in trying to get them all. But, at least most all the achievements are rewarding, the kind that raise you up on your feet when they pop on the bottom of the screen. One game that you can proudly display in your trophy case for 1 K'ing.
OVERALL: 8.0/10
Blur is a great new-age take on powerup racing. I would gladly recommend this as one of my favorites in the genre right up with Fatal Inertia (KIDDING!). The unique gameplay and replayability are it's most redeeming qualities, and the multiplayer is just a bonus. I hope you all enjoyed the review, and HAPPY GAMING!
Expected time to complete: 50+ hours
Hardest Achievement: "Somebody Stop Me!"
Favorite Achievement: "He's a Wrecking Machine"
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Big sama
Posted on 04 May 11 at 23:07
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This review has 7 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Blur is a different take on the mario kart style racing. There is a lot of fun to be had if you play with friends in the multiplayer and the single player is challenging to get all the lights.
Story: This game took about 8 hours to finish with all the lights done. Which you have to do twice to get all of the achievements. It's not too hard if you've played any kind of racing game before.
Multiplayer: This has a bit of call of duty in it, having challenges and leveling up system that gives you new cars. Some of the modes are expected and some are just not played at all. There are still some people playing this game, but it's mostly foreigners or people who love the game.
Graphics: The games on par with other racing games like Burnout or Midnight Club but in terms of Forza or Grand Turismo it's mediocre.
Replayability: The game is easy to pick up and play once you've set it down for a long while. The learning curve makes that easy to do, like riding a bike.
Overall: It's maybe not worth $60 when it first came out, but at it's current price it's a steal, With a high TA ratio and fun achievements I would recommend it as a buy since it'll be really hard to beat in a rental. |
DaBlackAlbino
173,323
TA Score for this game: 644
Posted on 23 February 13 at 18:19, Edited on 19 March 13 at 00:14 |
This review has 4 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
Synopsis:
Blur is a high octane, nitrous fuelled, adrenaline filled, explosively fun driving experience; the developers were clearly influenced in their design decision by the classic Mario Kart and gave it the Need for Speed Underground look to produce a hybrid which is essentially an amalgamation of both the aforementioned titles, deriving the wacky unpredictability of chaotic power-ups that Mario Kart was the first to introduce all those years ago mixed with the good ole’ Need For Speed street racing aesthetic style, or more simplistically if all that went over your head – these are not just cars, they’re cars with weapons.
The simplest and quickest way to describe Blur is to say essentially that it’s Super Mario Kart for adults (or teenage boys who wish they could own and drive highly expensive road vehicles), it has the fast super cars, the glossy paint work, the urban environments and the repetitive drum & bass music that you’d typically associate with a stereotypical street racing title, except this time there’s something different - a fundamental change - power-ups are in the mix – this means shields, missiles, nitrous, lightning shocks and other surprises that’ll be sure to fuck up your opponents. There are a range of different abilities on offer when picked up in their glorious power-up form and each alters the gameplay drastically. 3 power-ups can be held simultaneously so effectively you can store power-ups and plan when you wish to use the corresponding power-up accordingly. Essentially being good at Blur is as much as a test of which power-ups to grab and when to use them as it is a test of the driving ability required to successfully navigate around turns and overtake other drivers.
The game has a variety of power-ups and 3 different game modes: Destruction, Race and Checkpoint. Destruction sees you driving in to power-ups for weapons and attempting to destroy dummy cars with pink crystal-type bullets from a distance. Checkpoint, rather self-explanatively sees you attempt to race between certain gates within an allotted time limit. Race mode, also self-describing – sees the player go up against a host of computer controlled players to compete for the pole position.
Play or avoid?
Blur is a fresh gaming brand and has made a success of offering gamers something different on the Xbox 360; the opportunity to street race and blow your rivals to smithereens whilst antithetically trying not to get blown up yourself. The premise sounds simple because it is, the game lacks any real meaningful story – but this game doesn't try to over-complicate thing or create an intricate plot – if you take the game for what it is it’s exceedingly delightful to get to grips with, and for the mere price of an 800 microsoft point xbla game you really cannot go wrong when giving Blur a whirl, in fact it's so cheap - you're better off just flat-out buying it, rather than attempting to rent it first.
If you loved the destructive madness of Burnout or the way power-ups affected gameplay in Super Mario Kart then you should also really enjoy the “destruction” game type Blur has on offer as well as the vast arsenal of power-ups available in each of the game’s modes. Blur still has an active multiplayer community (so you will not need to boost to get online achievements done unless you’re absolutely terrible at the game) and there are a range of different playlists to choose from with differing rules and gameplay options. The multiplayer uses a level 1 to 50 EXP based system (almost identical to that of the one Happy Wars uses), and the multiplayer mode makes use of in-game challenges and daily challenges to the same tune that Halo Reach did. If you’re looking to play "something fresh" and not something that feels generic and re-hashed or you’re simply a lover of a good street racing title – you will enjoy what Blur has on offer.
Run-down:
Visuals: 8/10
Graphically the game is aesthetically pleasing, the cars have good body work, the environments are well sketched and frame distance is more than adequate. However it appears shadows do not appear in the game, the water effects are poor and the explosions from weapons or car wreckages do very little to seem authentic, this would be fine in a game with a cartoon art style, but in a title that clearly does it’s hardest to seem realistic, this lack of authenticity is not acceptable and thus the game loses a couple of points for these shortcomings.
Sound: 5/10
The games sound track is repetitive and mundane, offering a rather limited mixture of generic dance and drum & bass tracks to accompany your racing experience. There is nothing particularly stand-out in regards to the game’s auditory mechanics, acceleration sounds generic rather than animalistic and the game’s car crashes sound dull too. Both the game’s soundtrack and audio effects lack a certain vibrancy that would do well to compliment such a chaotic and fast-paced title. Simply put: the auditory aesthetics are sub-par.
Gameplay: 10/10
This is essentially where the game shines: Blur’s chaotic action. Blur is a street-racing title at its finest and the host of power-ups in the game are all very well-thought out and balanced versus each other. The power-ups really do lend to add a whole other dimension to the game and introduce strategic elements that require the player think and plot the usage of their power-up effectively rather than just put the pedal to the metal and fixate on the finish-line.
For example, weapons can be fired forwards (by pressing A and holding UP on the LS) or backwards (by pressing A and holding DOWN on the LS) this means even a player in first place is able to defend themselves from players giving chase. The inclusion of an always on rear view camera is a complimentary feature which facilitates the success of this gameplay mechanic. Of course repair power-ups are wasted if you use them when your car is near full health and using a barge (a shockwave type power-up which emanates from around your car) to negate an enemy’s shunt power-up (a locked on missile) which is about to hit you is very satisfying. Essentially this means the game is not just about who can drive the fastest and handle corners the most efficiently, but also whose the smartest with their power-ups – using them at the correct times and in the correct places.
Originality: 7/10
To my knowledge, Blur is the only title on the Xbox 360 that can say “I offer street racing and power-ups to blast your opponents in to tiny remnants of shit with simultaneously” however the game is a hybrid of two genres, now although that’s not exactly the apex of originality, we’ll take it. It also has a pun for a name, “Blur” suggesting the game is so fast that all you’ll see is a blur – lame but kind of clever too, we’ll take it! However the story is practically non-existent, you’re racing around blowing crap up but essentially you have no idea why you’re doing that – you’re just doing it for the sake of doing it. As in most racing games, story is less important than gameplay but the lack of any story whatsoever essentially overlooks the chance the title had to present a fundamental reason to be playing, now obviously we all play games for fun – but giving no reasons at all offers no immersion factor or reason to return to the game once it’s initial novelty wears off. To be fair, this is an element in which most games of this particular genre seem to overlook, but that’s no excuse – a new IP is a chance for characters to be created and plotlines to emerge.
Overall Score: 30/40 – Pretty Damn Good
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V1si0nary
97,281
TA Score for this game: 746
Posted on 06 July 10 at 19:19 |
This review has 3 positive votes and 7 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
this game was made quite well, to me it resembles an old game for the PS2. Rumble Racing. it reminds me a lot of that, minus that you could perform tricks in rumble racing,
The single player for this game was alright, nothing too incredibly special seemed very repetitive. The online however is another story entirely, exciting fun and never the same. Even if you play with the same people all day long. The multiplayer probably has more choices then then entire single player in my opinion. However the online is fun enough that they could have probably released it online only and it wouldve still sold well. Overall a good buy.
Single Player 3/5
Online 4.5/5
Overall 4/5
Go buy this game if only for the Multiplayer!!!!
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