Good evening everyone. Today I'm gonna be talking about one of my favorite games. Blur. Blur was released by the now defunct Bizarre creations. Who are now team sumo.(sonic all star racing transformed) The game was up against Disney's split second. By back isle studios, who are also part of team sumo. Bizarre creations are known for games as Geometry Wars, and the club. Published by activision. . It was released to generally average reviews. I'm here to give my opinion. Now before you say that the review is in the wrong place. I own blur for the PC and there is no PC port shown on the site. If one does show up ill ask a mod to move the review

Graphics: These were pretty awesome for their time, and still look amazing today. From the modeling of the cars, to the sense of speed to the power ups. They were really well done. And the motion blur didn't make you want to throw up. Like a lot of other racing games. It looked clean and crisp while at the same time if your car got scuffed up or smacked it would show that as well. A lot of the car parts were separate entities, making the damage showing that much more amazing. There was also rain and lightning effects. But id have to say the best part about it was the sense of speed. it would look just amazing in the first boss fight, with fire works going on, passing a Ferris wheel, jumping over the boss, splashing into the water and having the water splash onto your screen. dirt and mud collecting on your car. there are some truly amazing moments. but there were better looking games. which is the reason i give the graphics a 9.

Sound: OK let me start out with this. Bizarre Creations. New what they were doing. The sound assets were amazing. The cars sounded meaty or sporty, The skids sounded right and power ups were beefy and powerful. it made u feel good when you hit someone with the shunt as you would hear the car fly into the air, glass shattering and metal bending and it all come down to a shock absorbing THUMP. When it came tot he sound track the tracks were perfect for this game. The game has a electronic futuristic feel. so they used high upbeat electro rock music. Also there is one other word i can use to describe the developers. FAN-SERVICE. A lot of people liked bizarre's previous titles. But they had to turn the music off or remix it. so what they added in the options menu is a toggle for licensed music. and they said that all the music under the unlicensed category may be monetized on videos. The unlicensed tracks were good but if your not recording. keep all the tracks on. For the sound. I give it a 10

Addictiveness: Straight up 10. this game is addictive in any setting. but its insainly addictive in the multi player. There were multiple modes to play in (which ill be getting into in the depth portion.). the main part of the addicitveness is getting fans. these unlock cars, and stickers for your profile all of which contain 4 challenges. the online had u leveling just like a call of duty game to unlock more badges. while getting fans was the ultimate bragging rights. the single player will keep bringing u back to redo challenges and 100% a chapter. u can go from playing a couple races and all of the sudden find yourself finishing a chapter with just the boss race to go.

Story: This is by far the weakest part of the game. The story is pretty much non-exsistant. It consists of so many chapters, each chapter gives u a small character bio and how the person races, and your goal is to get his car with his mod. I do not recommend playing the game for the story. if you do, you'll be dissapointed. i give the story a 2

Depth: This is where I'm gonna explain how the game is played. sit tight this is gonna be a little long. The game is a cart racer with licensed cars. So it has the basic formula, cars race around a track picking up power ups to slow, damage, or knock out the racer. but there are a few key changes. First off, balancing between the power ups. In kart racers, mainly Mario kart, i found that almost all the power ups are for the people in your immediate vicinity. well in blur there are power ups for all places. there are 8 power ups. which can be fired both forward and backwards. these are shunt, barge, bolt, shield, nitro, mines, and shocks and repairs. each power up does 2 different things if shot forward or backwards.
Shunt: Forwards: guided missile that flips the car in the air Backwards: unguided missile that spins out the car. may be used to cancel a shunt.
Barge: Pushes enemies out of the way from your car. may be used to cancel a shunt or mine.
Bolt: Both forward and back: shoots a dart straight forward or backward to knock a car off balance. all 3 shots to do maximum damage.
Shield: used to block power ups and damage by cars slamming into you.
Nitro: Forwards: provides a boost Backwards: stops you car on a dime for a half second allowing you to make a sharp corner and then give u half of a normal nitro.
Mines: Forward: small projectile that spins out the car(half the damage). Backwards: becomes a Mine (self explanatory)
Shocks: This power up can only be shot forward. it shoots 3 lighting domes to the person in first. hitting any of these domes acts like an emp and shuts down your car for a few seconds.
Repair: repairs your car.
Those are all the power ups. then there is the game modes. single player u have race, nitro race, time trials, and bolt run. Bolt run is where u ahve a certain amount of time to knockout so many cars. there is also disturction derby in multiplayer. When ur not triny to ear lights, ur trying to get fans. getting fans means more cars. to get fans u do a bunch of tricks. from simple stuff as drifting, to on track fan runs (going thru check points while racing) to mroe complex tricks, Drifing into a jump hitting someone in mid air with a power up. there is so much more to talk about in this area but it is already way to long. along with the power ups there was mods. mods game u a secial rulle change to the game. you unlocked these mods via the single player. u got them by getting light and fans and progressing thru the story to get to the boss. the boss would give you there car and there mod. u can equip these mods on the cars to get an edge. one of them was it gives u 4 bolts instead of 3. small but usefull. all the mods that were in this game gave a slight advantage but wouldn't make you over powered. As you keep going thru the game ull find yourself finding shotcuts, how to do certain tricks, and just become an awesome driver. then ull get into a new faster car and it will handle diffrently. tracks have car prefrences. if u got a track thats on the dirt, then you would want an off road car. it will be slower but u have a ton of metal between u and the others and u can grip nice and easy.The other thing that keeps the game fresh is that each map has multiple paths. as ur racing u can switch which path you take and see if it works better. dont like one turn, take the other next round.i give the depth a 7. reason its not rated higher is that yes there is problems mechanically. the drifting is alittle floaty and the warter driving (splashing thru puddles) can make the game a bit laggy.

Dificulty: It has just the right amount of challeng but can get ifuriating. but with the power ups and how they are played, the game is very skill base. its for the balls to kick you when your down just to bring you back up when you mastered the challenge. beating a boss is really rewarding. specially when u get his car and custimisable mod. its not only a trophy but a new car to race in. So if you got the paetence, blur is here to statisfy ur racing itch. i give the difficulty a 5. not to hard but enough to give u a challenge.

Overall: This is one of my favorite racing games by far, the creativity, the power ups, the cars, the mechanics, its all so good. Love it. Even the lack luster/ not really there story, it all came togeather as a solid racer. but got plauged by mediocre reviews, netplay failure for the first couple months, bad marketing, and DRM problems with its boxed copies. As of today the servers are shut down for PC and i belive PS3. Xbox is still up from last i heard. Bizarre creations went defunct and is now working for sega along with black isle studios who also went defunct under the dev team known as team sumo. in there lastest games u can see the love they had for their franchise in the sonic all stars as well as new ideas. but ill get to that when i review that game. This game was a labor of love and you can tell. by just how much heart was put into it. How much creativity there is with Blur, and how much peronality. This game deserved so much better. If you cant tell i recommend this game full heartly. On any platform. It was the first game to have races 20 players. one of the few games that supported split screen on the PC. Each power up had 2 diffrent uses. Overall i give this game a 8.8