Racing games have not been very impressive or promising on the PC platform nowadays. The PC ports of the recent racing games have been heavily criticized for not living up to their console counterparts. Moreover, recent PC racing games are not as fun to play as the older ones like Need For Speed: Most Wanted, because they only bring a highly detailed world and environment, no other factor which they can boast about, after all the game can only be made enjoyable by improving gameplay and control, and not just by improving object detail and adding loads of career and race modes. Some dirt racing games like Pure, DiRT have impressed us, but that is not the case of arcade racing games.

This new game, Blur looks to change that. But can it succeed and make a name for itself, or will it be just another PC racing game which will soon be forgotten?

Blur comes from the Bizzare Creations, the developer of the Project Gotham Racing series. The game’s most important aspect is the Mario Kart type power-ups present on the racing track, which you can use to boost your car’s speed, shield your car, and shoot opponent cars with various power-ups, and slow them down. Although all races do not have power-ups, these are the unique things you can find in this game when compared to similar racing games.

Graphics:

If you have played recent PC racing games like DiRT 2, you will not be surprised by the detail of the cars and environments.

Blur scores quite high on graphics, although it could have done better in some areas in the background.

(Cars are well detailed but the background environment does not feel very realistic as it does in some other games)

At times when your health is too low, the effects shown are good but can make it difficult to see the road ahead clearly.

Menus are not very pleasing to look at or use, but they are not unusable.

(This menu won’t have too many fans)

Powerful graphic cards such as the ATI Radeon HD5870 can handle this game at maximum possible graphics settings, highest resolution and 8xAA, giving good framerates.

Gameplay and controls:

Blur provides most of the customization and gameplay features you will have heard of. I found drifting a bit hard, maybe a bit stiff at some places.

Now coming to the main unique part, the power-ups.

This game is not just about perfecting those corner turns and accelerating at the right moment and overtaking. It is also about what power-ups you pick up and how well you use them. Taking nitro-boost power-ups when you are far behind, escaping from the shock holes, using the shooting bolts or shock waves when aiming towards an enemy car, shield yourself, keeping mines while closely being trailed an enemy can make the difference in the game.

(Power-ups play a crucial part in the game,the collisions and power-up hits have good detail)

The nine bosses in the game are quite challenging to defeat but fun nonetheless. Controls in the game are not too many in number, not using unnecessary complicated ones, quite sufficient taking into account the features and moves used in the game.

You earn points and fans on doing various moves, like a clean drift or taking an opponent down by power-up or a nice overtake, and obviously by the final position you finish the race in, too. These can be used to unlock newer cars and other customization features.

(Combos give a lot of extra fans as compared to individual moves and hits)

Multiplayer supports upto 20 players, so playing with your friends online becomes a really enjoyable experience. Level cap is raised to 50 in multiplayer as opposed to 25 in single player mode.

The cars are many in number and the unlocked ones have increasingly better grip, power and health.

Conclusion:

Blur is a welcome change for PC users, bringing the fun power-ups from Mario Kart and the much loved gameplay and engine of Project Gotham Racing, a game which PC gamers could not experience due to availability of the game only on XBOX(PGR) and XBOX360(PGR 2,3 and 4).

It provides the user with a thoroughly enjoyable gaming experience in both, single and multi player modes.

But it does not come without flaws. The level cap of 25 in single player is too low and visuals, though impressive could have been better, considering the fact that it is Q4 of 2010 the game came out in. Handling does not feel best even in cars having higher grip rating, and avoiding obstacles and power-ups from enemies may become a pain at times, taking out the pure pleasure of a racing-overtaking-winning game.

But if you play a good mix of the tracks, and modes with and without power-ups, you can make most of the game.

Overall, a satisfying experience but dont expect to spend too much time playing single player, multiplayer is the more addicting mode.

TechGoo Rating : 8.0 – Very Good