Blur (from Bizarre/Activision) - Does anyone still play?

[AG-wolf]

This game has absorbed the better portion of my last 2.5 years of gaming. I was in the private beta on Xbox Live back in Dec '09 or maybe just after new year's... A friend of mine was the one who got me the invite and introduced me to the game. He knew I loved Wipeout and said I'd probably like it. I fell in love with it immediately, and I was surprised that he actually enjoyed it as well, because he SUCKS at Wipeout and never liked the series

The beta eventually went open to the public, tons of people played, Bizarre put finishing touches and tweaks on the game (and broke some other stuff, but it's way too late now), and it launched in May 2010, up against a number of high-profile titles. Activision released it at a really bad time, they barely advertised or marketed it at all, and the game basically flopped.

BUT, it was still an AMAZING game. Far more complex, challenging, and rewarding than it's immediate launch competition (Split/Second), it looked and played BEAUTIFULLY, and every single race is almost literally a 160mph chess game.

I have logged nearly 40 days worth of play time on the Xbox 360 version, and just recently picked up the PS3 version for the hell of it. This game is the most addicting, consistently satisfying gaming experience I have ever encountered.. It's a shame that Activision will probably pull the plug on the servers sometime within the next year or two, so I've just kept on playing. No other game gives me the same sense of excitement EVERY time I play.

There are many different tactics for every course, mode, and vehicle... tons of things you can equip to give yourself an edge... there's an indescribable amount of meticulous planning that you have to do WHILE you're driving, so that you can be prepared for whatever might happen (defend against what the person behind you might be carrying, watch what the people in front of you pick up, decide if you want the shield on the left side of the 4th row of items that you'll hit in 2/3rds of a lap, position yourself on the track so you can weave through lightning if it spawns when you don't have a shield...). I actually wanted to write up a huge, detailed explanation of the game, because I feel like a lot of the people here could appreciate it. It's much more rewarding than Wipeout, at least compared to the newer WO games... the weapons and equips are definitely an integral part of the experience, but the game really forces you to drive well, too. It puts more of a precedent on driving than WO Pulse, HD, or 2048 do on proper piloting.

Here are a couple videos of me unabashedly abusing the Drifter mod... it gives you a nitro for every successful Super Drift you perform:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UCtOgVtIwg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyasCaonm8Y
but Drifter has gotten very cheap, as a lot of people have been chain-drifting down straightaways and through chicanes. Smearing their car against walls, and just disregarding the challenge of actually driving. I don't drift anymore unless I'm just messing around, it's much more fun to win when I've actually been very careful to keep my speed and avoid things... I like the technical aspect of having to fight with weapons WHILE driving, rather than just sitting half a lap in front of everyone else by spamming drifter.

At any rate, if anyone here plays this game, don't hesitate to shoot me a message. The game is a better experience on the 360, due to the nature of its interface and social architecture (plus the graphics are a lot clearer), but it's still the same thing on either machine. I've been on PSN more often recently, just for sake of leveling my profile, but I'll regularly be switching back and forth between the two.

PSN: AG-Wolf
XBL: AG Wolf 2097XL

There's also a small dedicated group of fans on Facebook, the remaining players have become their own sort of small community at around 200 people:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/202775333089676/

AG racing is all well and good, but let's see what some of you can do when you're grounded

[ Stable-Frame | Shielding Efficiency | Master-Mine ]

[dreadofmondays]

I really do like this game. The release time was very disappointing and I don't think this game got the coverage it deserved. A perfect example of bad business.
But the game is fun, looks good, and I haven't yet had a chance to play multiplayer properly. You should hear from me soon

[AG-wolf]

Multiplayer is the only reason to play the game; the single-player is pretty worthless outside of getting acquainted with tracks, cars, and power-ups. Hardly a good representation of how fantastic the online half is.

[Temet]

This game didn't deserve the poor success he had... it's a great game.
Unlike you, I liked the single player, it's challenging in high difficulty.

The drift trick is somehow a bit breaking the game to me.

I don't know if you played against Wotan (tones of vids of Blur on his youtube profile) but he truly is a fantastic player. I think he did the 20 (?) victories with all cars to have the best stats on all cars.
He's crazy ^^

[Colonel]

I bought Blur at launch, but didn't really get into it. I played a bit for a week or so (offline mostly I must say) but it just didn't grab me, so I lent it to andyf53. Since then however I've really fancied trying it again, and the bugger's lost it.

I had no idea it didn't do well commercially, I always assumed it was huge, so that's a surprise.

[Hellfire_WZ]

The actual racing side of things I actually quite liked, but it was the other things like the fan system that felt too distracting. I was more of a fan of Split/Second to be honest. I don't know, I may give it another go further down the line.

[AG-wolf]

well the "fan system" was actually adopted from Bizarre's other series, Project Gotham Racing, a very well-known and successful racing series on the Xbox and 360. I believe the old system referred to points as "Kudos" instead of "Fans," and it would reward you for different maneuvers and skillful driving. It seems like a nuisance at first, but when you're playing online, it adds an extra layer of fun to the game because you find yourself always pushing for a higher score... chaining your driving and attacks/defense, keeping your combo multiplier going, etc etc.

But really, the single player is nowhere near as enticing as the online half of the game. Its complexity really shines when you're pitted against 10-20 other people who are all living, breathing, thinking human beings, trying to gauge what they're going to do and adapt to their driving personality. Head games, risks, foresight, surprise.... When you get into a lobby with people who really know the game well, it becomes one of the most intense experiences you'll have with a game.

the scene on PS3 is a little different than the 360 side of things, actually. On 360, most of the remaining players are more methodical and, on the surface, more "civil," but they know when to hold back and when to make a break for things. On the PS3, it seems like everyone is always about to burst, attacking and ramming without reason, so you have to be a lot more focused on your immediate threats rather than planning ahead. I think the PS3 has connectivity with the PC version, too, and the PC version has a fair amount of cheaters... so I don't know how much that factors into things, but since I've been on the PS3 version I've been able to tell people where to go and how to get there, so even if anyone I've raced has been cheating, it apparently hasn't helped them much lol

[ExaltedR3V3NG3]

It's a shame that Activision will probably pull the plug on the servers sometime within the next year or two, so I've just kept on playing. No other game gives me the same sense of excitement EVERY time I play.

Don't worry if the servers are shut down, fortunately Bizarre has the LAN mode so maybe people would be able to play it using Xlink Kai or something similar

I played it quite a lot during 2010 (from the March beta) until a d*****bag ruined the experience (He was a loser at this game though), but I'd like to get to Blur again. In my case I've seen lots of people on SuperGrip vehicles (Astra, Megane, Scirocco) as they could go around corners too fast, but the car that brought me most wins was the Mustang GT-R Concept: unbelievable handling for a drift car! Actually it's the only car I have with candy paint xD

Also this was one of my achievements done in that Destruction Derby mode: 17000 fans in a single race http://i45.tinypic.com/105vbxt.jpg

Damn Activision, why they had to close Bizarre and more studios just to focus in a money-printing shooter...

[vincoof]

I didn't buy the game because I didn't have an XBOX when the game launched but I played it a couple of times and it's probably the best non-WipEout yet WipEout-like game I've played for years.

The multiplayer mode is very fun and I even had the chance to play it old-school multiplayer (split-screen - everyone in the same room to yell at us!) with 4 players on a ~80" screen which left 40" for every player which is more than enough. Lots of good memories from this game but definitely not enough considering we will probably never see a sequel.

[chalovak]

Love this game. I even call it WipEout with wheels.
Unfortunately haven't played it for awhile (became a "handheld" gamer, somehow). Anyway, wishing it to be released on Vita, though I realize the chance is very slim.

[AG-wolf]

Blur has about as much hope of seeing a sequel as Quantum Redshift :I Of course, if I won the lottery, I don't know which project I would fund lol Mr. Burcombe needs to come back to the forefront of this genre of gaming XD

at any rate, I just hope people here give the game an opportunity before it fades away into obscurity. I honestly think it's a better execution of the "driving & fighting" concept of gameplay than ANY Wipeout game in the last 10 years, at least as far as multiplayer goes... when you're in a room with 8-18 other human beings, all of whom you need to constantly be paying attention to and adapting to, it's the most exciting gaming experience available. And, aside from people abusing the drifter mod, every part of the game is completely balanced, so even if you're in last or the middle of the pack for 3/4ths of a race, you can still take first if you focus and pull your head out of your @ss.

so much fun.

[stin]

Blur????? huh!, seriously I do love this game, used to play for hours on end. I was hoping they will make another game and I just can`t see it`s happening.

That`s how, I picked MotorStorm Pacific Rift and MotorStorm Apocalypse to keep me going.

stevie

[Rapier Racer]

Blur is an awesome game I play from time to time. Sadly I would say there is almost definately no chance at all of a sequal seeing as Activision shut down Bizarre Creations because the game didn't sell 12 million copies...or it didn't find a commercial audience one of the two.

[Colonel]

Well I'm pleased to say andyf53 kindly bought me a new copy of Blur, so I'll try and get online this weekend for a bash. Might need a bit of practice first though, I imagine I'll get my arse kicked anyway.

[AG-wolf]

Understatement... the game's easy enough to just pick up and play, but there are so many little intricacies about the way cars handle, the way mods effect your vehicle or powerups... tracks take a long time to memorize for the best driving lines, best offensive and/or defensive strategies (what corners to anticipate incoming attacks or a strategically placed mine, where to trap people, the next two or three rows of powerups).

The single-player mode isn't really representative of the chaos and intensity of a good online race... it's fun in a relative sense, and can kind of get you familiar with cars, tracks, and powerups, as well as the points (read: Fans) system for leveling-up, but once you're done with the offline half of the game (if you bother completing it at all), there's little to keep you going back to it.

Good luck online, watch your rear view and pay close attention to all of the game's sound-effects... it's actually better to race without any music.

[AG-wolf]

Some good races with Wotan today; disappointed to see he's a bit of a shameless drifter, but at least he wasn't doing it EVERY SINGLE RACE like some people lol

He and I were clearly the two best drivers in the lobby we were in.

[Lithium007]

Last time I played this there were barely 20 names in the rooms. Shame as it was a great game. It's going for a fiver or less most everywhere just now so I thought it would've lasted longer

[Wotan]

Some good races with Wotan today; disappointed to see he's a bit of a shameless drifter, but at least he wasn't doing it EVERY SINGLE RACE like some people lol

He and I were clearly the two best drivers in the lobby we were in.

Yeah , i remember those races . In my mind drifter isn't shameless but i can use front runner as well . If you are on blur mania's facebook page , we schedule some front runner lobbies sometimes . Usually i drift everywhere on main lobbies (everybody drifting these days) . But if i haven't the mood , i like putting my drifter off .
Well see you on tracks (without drifter ^^)

[UB3R~JKP]

This game was fantastic. Do kinda miss it.

[AG-wolf]

In my mind drifter isn't shameless but i can use front runner as well . If you are on blur mania's facebook page , we schedule some front runner lobbies sometimes . Usually i drift everywhere on main lobbies (everybody drifting these days) . But if i haven't the mood , i like putting my drifter off .

The problem is Drifter will always be faster than anything else, if the person knows how to exploit it. It takes skill, but it's cheap when everyone else actually has to drive properly and pay attention to their racing lines, their throttle, their braking, etc etc. I'd say Front-Runner is lame, too, because you're getting extra Boosts, but it doesn't offer any other benefit. I use Stable-Frame 90% of the time because it gives you more road presence, protects you from battering-ram, you don't lose as much speed when you drive over rough terrain in an unsuited car (dirt/grass/etc), and you maintain an overall higher average top-speed... I think it's better than Front-Runner in the long run (or maybe I just never remember to keep an open slot for my power-ups at the end of each lap lol)

Once someone hits rank 50, regardless of legend (some people sit at Legend 0, Rank 50), you shouldn't need to rely on Drifter to win. It's fun every now and then, but the people who do it chronically are just cheap. I'd like to see them win without 20 extra Boosts each race.



This game has also ruined Wipeout HD online for me... WOHD literally can't hold my interest for more than ten minutes, it feels cheap, broken, and completely unbalanced. I try to go back to it every once in a while to justify owning a PS3, but it's mediocre and disappointing every time. Some of my complaints are things I haven't liked since the game came out, other things have simply come to light after seeing how much better Blur executes stuff or the type of challenge it offers in comparison to WOHD's brief, twitchy, over-before-you-know-it clusterf***. In contrast to WOHD, I can spend consecutive hours with Blur and not even realize it.