Working as Intended

Thankfully, not my thoughts on the game!

Power-Ups.
May as well get it out of the way. Yes, Blur has power-ups. Mario Kart also has power ups. COINCIDENCE?!

Well, I guess.

After having almost an entire generation's worth of stupid, overly-realistic racing games that wouldn't DARE amuse the notion of speed boosts or anything it's so damn refreshing to have to option to fire giant energy balls of death at your opponents. Better yet, the power-ups are actually balanced.

*gasp*

Every offensive power-up can be countered/dodged in multiple ways and the one power up that targets the leading player doesn't actually hit them so much as it places a few slow-down fields in their path. Everyone can be hit by them. When you are hit by a power-up (which will be very often online) you're never crippled or majorly hindered. The entire point of the powers in Blur is to level out the playing field, not let a few choice players dominate.


Track Variety.
There's about 30-ish courses in Blur, not counting the arena-like courses in Motor Mash. It's a pretty impressive amount, especially given how common split/alternate routes can be. They run the whole spread of racing game tracks (Not that Tracks, idiot!). Night, day, city, country, flat, hills-a-plenty. The works.


Online.
Online in Blur is the most bloody fun I've had with a racing game since Burnout 3: Takedown. The variety of modes and sheer levels of chaos that can, and will, errupt is very impressive. Seeing other players flip, spin, explode, crash into the seventh floor of a nearby office tower because someone hit them with a mine just as they were about to leap off a ramp, ect as you scream around track at absurd speeds can.. well.. get very addictive.

Very, very addictive.

Matchmaking is very streamlined and has never failed to find me a game in under a minute. The lobby system is equally as spiffy, and lag has never been an issue for me, even when racing people from the other side of the planet. The only thing that really does pop up is that power-ups can take a few seconds to kick in after you've apparently hit someone with one. Almost as if their car has just gone, "Oh shit, right, I was meant to explode, wasn't I? *BLAM*"

It doesn't hinder the match at all, it's just an amusing observation.

Progession in Single Player and Multiplayer are exclusive, so you can gain all the MP cars and play-types you want from multiplayer, and all the Single Player stuff in Single Player. Sounds a bit obvious, but after the strange "You have to unlock shit in Single Player for Multiplayer, bitches!" thing that Split/Second pulled, it's nice to see that isn't the case in Blur.

Also of note are the Abilities you can unlock/choose from. They're simple little things like, "Have the Shield power-up last longer and absorb one more hit" or, "Gain extra Fans (EXP) after a race." Simple, fun, and since you can only select a few to take with you into a race it creates a little bit of strategic thinking. Do you want the power-up that lets you absorb and use any power that hits your active Shield or do you want that extra bit of speed when you use a Boost? Oh, decisions!






"Huh."
That's about all you can say about Blur's Single Player. It's certainly not horrible by any means, but it's just... there. It's rather tame and formulatic, in comparison to the unpredictable and chaotic Multiplayer.

You're given races, you win them, you go on to fight in a One-on-One battle against another racers, you get their car, repeat about 10 times, The End. It's fun, and breaks you into the mechanics of the game really well, but there's just nothing special about it. If you've played any Need for Speed game in the past decade you know what to expect here.

Also there's no Quick Play option. What the hell?


Online is Fun, Bu-*GAME FREEZES*.
You can expect that to happen annoyingly often online. At least once every 1-2 hours, if not sooner.

It is, to me, the biggest problem in this game. You'll be racing down the road at several hundred miles an hour, or just about to boot up a match and then BAM! Console freezes and you're forced to reboot. Aside from being unhealthy for your console, it's also quite a huge buzz-kill.

Laaaaame!


Ghost Town.
For all the disturbingly high number of game-types (for a non-Halo game) its kinda counteracted by there being almost nobody online. 500-2,000 for the PS3 and 800-3,000 for the 360. They're not horrible numbers, and getting a game is still no problem, but it is a bit disheartening and worrisome. A game's that's heavily focused on multiplayer having no major playerbase is.. well.. bad.

Split/Second isn't doing much better either. Is this the start of some rather disturbing trend where Arcade Racers just can't exist in today's multiplayer environment, or is there some third racing game that's stealing all spotlight?

This is why Ridge Racer 7 is still such a good game online. If absolutely nothing else, you know the Japanese are going to be all over it. They absolutely adore it. Hell, there's still a very strong JPN community on Ridge (NOT THAT RIDGE, DIPSHIT) Racer 6.

Blur and Split/Second don't have that, sadly. And this, children, is why multi-console matchmaking should be frigging put in! Splitting one playerbase over two consoles for online is an incredibly stupid idea. You can make an argument why not for FPS gaming that includes the PC platform, but for consoles (especially racers)? There's no reason not to. Players host (NOT THAT HOST, RET-wait, what?) the game, not Microsoft/Sony, so they can't raise a huge stink over it.

And it's not like multi-platform gaming hasn't been done before. Just look at Final Fantasy XI or Phantasy Star Universe. Okay, maybe not so much as PSU, as it'll burn your eyes and brain, but my point remains valid!

The PS3/360 controllers aren't terribly different, so.. well, get the hell on it, developers!


Online Freezing.
Did I mention the game likes to freeze a lo-