Blur Review

Blur Review

Review by IGN 7.0/10 Decent

Generally I’m one of the best gamers I know. I don’t say that to brag — I say it to provide some context when I say that Blur, the new racer from developer Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing), can be damn hard.

The single-player Career mode in Blur features some brutal A.I. While I was desperately trying to master my drifting skills and just maneuver the game’s treacherous tracks, the A.I. was busy launching attack after attack on me at the most inopportune moments. You see, in the world of Blur, despite all its real-world trappings, cars can’t just race and see who drives the fastest — they have to launch weapons at one another as well.


This isn’t that big of a problem in the smaller races of up to 10 cars, but in the larger races with 20 opponents, chaos will ensue, making racing frustratingly difficult on the Normal skill level. It’s one thing to be a great driver who can pull off awesome turns amidst a swarm of opponents, but it’s quite another thing to do so while explosions are going off every few seconds as well. Sometimes the A.I.’s ability to take me from first to 20th place with a barrage of shots just felt downright cheap.

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Review by Eurogamer 8/10

Project Gotham Racing may have long since disappeared into Bizarre Creations’ rear-view mirror, but from Blur’s first brooding, synth-infused stabs of keyboard – played out as an ice-cool, predatory Audi R8 sits motionless among pulsing light beams – it’s clear that while it’s gone, it’s far from forgotten. Good.

It’s a feeling that grows as you learn how Blur works. Event victories earn “lights”, with bonus lights handed out for special accomplishments. You earn “fans” for doing cool stuff on the track. Lights unlock new events; fans unlock new cars. You are Bizarre Creations and I claim my five pounds!

Handling is rich and dramatic. Acceleration and drifting are sympathetic enough to correct the rear if you’re showing your inexperience, but the relationship between gas, brake, traction and apex remains complex. And it’s fast.

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Review by Games Radar 8/10 Great

Who exactly do developers Bizarre Creations see as the perfect audience for Blur? If you consider yourself a car nerd then most likely you’ll want one of the many, many games which features licensed vehicles to have at least some handling and performance similarities with their real-life counterparts.

If you’re a fan of kart games or weapon-based arcade racers then chances are you’re expecting hoverships or balloon-headed monkey drivers. Ideally, hoverships driven by balloon-headed monkeys. Blur has combined Mario Kart and Wipeout’s gameplay with Project Gotham’s eclectic taste in cars and (seeing Land Rovers racing competi-tively with rusted VW Beetles and Nissan 350Zs), and has you firing plasma balls and triggering energy waves. It leaves a peculiar taste.

Are we making too much of a snap judgement here? Are we getting all intolerant in our old age? After all, Project Gotham was hardly a simulator and Blur harks back (somewhat unfashionably) to the likes of Need for Speed: Underground and Midnight Club 2 – two titles that embraced reality only lightly. The Midnight Club series especially has long mixed real cars with power-ups and online play.


Full Blur Review

Blur Video Review