Blur Message Board

#blur Bizarre Creations—who made Project Gotham Racing and The Club—met an unfortunate end more than a year ago, after putting out combat-enhanced racer Blur. The Liverpool dev collective were working on another racing game when Activision pulled the plug on the studio. On his personal Tumblr, former art director Chris Davie (now at developer Lucid) shows an early, pre-alpha build from that last, stillborn game. It looks pretty damn cool. More »

The Internet is reporting that the lead designer on Bizzare Creations' Blur has created an independent game studio called Totem Games, but this is a lie. Parts of this story are true, and others are complete fabrication, most likely sewn together from the threads of space and time itself, as is often the case with online sourcing. Let us break it down for you:

Truth: Matt Cavanagh, a former Bizzare Creations employee, has created Totem Games Ltd., an independent game studio with a mission to help "make the world a happier place."

Truth: Matt Cavanagh was not the lead designer on Blur, nor did he work on any part of the game, as shown by Blur's credits and Cavanagh's tweet saying, "I did not actually work on blur. Cheers, Matt."

Truth: Matt Cavanagh worked on the city art in Project Gotham Racing and Project Gotham Racing 2.

Truth: This is the most publicity Matt Cavanagh has gotten in years.

There are no lies here, because we don't publish those. We leave that to the rest of the Internet and sleep well knowing it is one area that is completely over-covered.

Members of defunct developer Bizarre Creations recently provided Edge with more insight into what eventually led to the studio's shuttering. The general impression, beyond former design manager Gareth Wilson's reiteration of a "perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances," is that Bizarre's independent culture began to deteriorate following the Activision acquisition.

"We weren't an independent studio making 'our' games anymore," said former creative director Martyn Chudley. "We were making games to fill slots. Although we did all believe in them, they were more the products of committees and analysts. The culture we'd worked on for so long gradually eroded just enough so that it wasn't 'ours' anymore."

Chudley also claimed that the studio was given the opportunity to buy itself back, but as commercial manager Sarah Chudley explained it, the studio had grown considerably since the Activision takeover and "we just didn't have the skills, capability or finances to look after over 200 people." Without a third party coming in to assume control, it seemed wiser for everyone to walk away.

Less than a week after we said "goodbye" to Bizarre Creations, the Blur-ry details of what killed the developer are starting to come into focus. Eurogamer has an interview with Gareth Wilson, former design manager at the studio, who has since gone on to take a position at Sumo Digital. Wilson called Bizarre's death a "perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances."

Wilson explained that getting attention for Blur, a new IP, at this point in the console cycle, was difficult -- especially with high-quality breakouts and juggernaut competition on the field. He believes that the quality of the competition, along with the state of the global economy, meant that gamers weren't ready to "take a risk." He points out several other quality IPs like Enslaved, Alan Wake and Vanquish that also struggled in 2010.

Wilson now feels that the "middle ground," selling two to three million units is "getting hard to find," explaining "Games either 'break out' and sell four million plus, or really struggle to break even."

Activision has recommended Bizarre Creations for closure, saying it has exhausted other options. Speaking with Develop, Activision Worlwide Studios' COO Coddy Johnson said he wanted "to be clear" that the publisher tried to keep the group together by finding a buyer, but after exploring leads with "pretty much anyone you can imagine in the industry," they were left with the option of "last resort."

Activision made it known in early November that the Liverpool-based studio had entered a consultation period, a 90-day phase under UK law that warns of potential closure. On the same day as the announcement, Activision closed Iowa-based Budcat in the US. At the time, Activision said that, despite a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur did not find a commercial audience.

If you are an employee of the studio and have anything more to share, please feel free to contact us.

#bizarrecreations Three years after purchasing the developer behind Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars, Activision appears to be in the process of deciding how to ditch the studio. More »

I am about to become a legend.

No, really: In Blur, when you hit level 50 in the multiplayer system, you have opened up all the cars (oh, Koenigsegg CCX, how I love thee), activated all the mods (Mastermine – which fragments other people’s mines and gives you the points for it – is my favorite), unlocked all the game modes (including Motor Mash and the fan-driven Community Event playlist), and hopefully have a decent strategy for all the tracks, from the tight turns of Hackney to the one-way trip down Mount Haruna. And when you reach level 50, well, there’s nowhere else to go. Except around the track, of course. Preferably very quickly.

And then, much like Modern Warfare 2, you face a decision: Do you keep playing with all the big toys, or do you challenge yourself by hitting a Legend rank and building up your reputation and garage again, based on pure skill?

As I write this, I’m level 40 or so. I’m going to get some more racing time in this week. And this weekend, the Blur developers at Bizarre Creations are offering a little Halloween treat – double XP from Friday the 29th through Sunday the 31st. (These are the perks when your studio’s logo is a jack-o-lantern.) That means for every race, you get twice as many fans, which means ranking up twice as fast, filling your garage with gorgeous Corvettes and Elises and Vipers in record time.

My mind is made up. I’m not wasting a weekend of double XP to just sit on my level-50 throne – as soon as I can hit Legend status, I’m going for it. Of course, it does not hurt that, by doing so, I will also unlock an exclusive car as well as a Gold Trophy. Plus, I get to use all the cars I earned in the single-player career mode in my online races, too. Armed with that, I’m willing to put my rank on the line.

The double XP goodness flows all weekend, but if you race Saturday, October 30th from 11am to 2pm, you might find yourself trading paint with the Bizarre Creations developers themselves. And of course, look for me too – my PSN ID is OneOfSwords. With any luck, I’ll be at the front of the pack!

It's rare that playing a video game will actually bring you closer to performing those in-game activities in the real world. A successful Madden career won't earn you a spot on the Bengals' bench. Skills in Final Fantasy won't make hoisting comically large swords above your head any easier. However, Activision's offering folks who download and play the Blur demo from the European PlayStation Store a chance to drive a fast car for driving fast cars.

The fast car in question is a BMW 125i coupé, which Activision and Sony will reward to one random player who downloads the European demo and reaches the rank of level 5. Three runners-up will receive copies of Blur, which is ... roughly the same, right? Yeah, not much disparity there. For full rules and regulations for the contest, check out PlayStation Blog.

I love driving fast cars — and destroying them. Ever since the original Twisted Metal in 1995, I have always loved games that give me both wheels and weapons. I’ve never been much of a simulation guy, so while I can appreciate Gran Turismo’s beauty and stunning accuracy, I’m the type of gamer who can’t help but wonder why a rocket launcher doesn’t come standard.

Today, the PlayStation 3 demo of Blur became available in the PlayStation Store — and you know what comes standard? Pools of lightning bolts, explosive mines, bursts of nitro speed, and big glowing red balls of homing-missile danger. This is the kind of arcade-style combat racing that gets my motor running. Oh, and the mileage is excellent — I’ve been playing Blur for weeks now and I’m still not bored.

The Blur multiplayer demo gives you a pretty sizeable chunk of what the game has to offer. A dozen real-world cars, including I’ll-never-own-it-but-I-can-drool rides like the Lotus Exige Cup 260 and Ford GT; six tracks in two gameplay modes; seven mods that let you tweak the game mechanics to match your style of play; all eight of the chaotic power-ups; and the ability to boast about your skills to friends on the PlayStation Network with a single button press. (The full retail version also lets you brag on Facebook and Twitter.)

I’ve been pretty vocal about my love of this game over at oneofswords.com. I have hosted PS3 Blur gameplay nights on multiple continents, and have more in the works. I shared some of my personal Blur strategies for success (and people used them against me). I even had Gareth Wilson, lead designer from developer Bizarre Creations, on my podcast to explain some of the choices that went into the game and wound up getting him to reveal a key to success that I’ve been personally milking all the way to the finish line.

If you haven’t tried Blur yet, it’s understandable – heaven knows there are plenty of options when it comes to quality PS3 racing games. But the demo’s free for the taking as of today, so check it out and let me know if you feel what I feel when you play it – I’m @OneOfSwords on Twitter. And know that I’m serious when I say I will see you on the track…

Amazon's current Deal of the Day is on Bizarre Creations' grown-up kart racer, Blur, which is temporarily available for $29.99 on PS3 and 360, and $19.99 on PC. We suggest spending the extra $30 you save on this transaction on a few sessions with a grief counselor -- you'll need it after the tenth time you get Shunted one centimeter from the finish line.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Blur is a great proof of concept. Bizarre Creations set out to update Mario Kart's tried and true formula with real cars in a "mature" setting -- and for the most part, the developer succeeded. Racing has a great sense of speed, enemy AI isn't nearly as elastic (even in the harder levels) as in Nintendo's kart racer and the power-up mechanics offer a balanced selection of weapons, making gameplay more tactical than dependent on dumb luck.

However, between a poorly paced campaign, a small handful of available race modes and an uninspired sense of style (from the announcer to the menu layouts), I found myself wanting much more from the single-player campaign. The best part of the game is its plain-Jane racing but, unfortunately, Blur forces you to complete its two lesser modes (Destruction and Checkpoint) in order to get to all of it. Combine that with an exponentially increasing difficulty level in the game's later competitions and you've got Blur: a fun, interesting racing game with terrible structure.

#review Bizarre Creations combines the street racing thrills of its Project Gotham Racing series with the neon glow of its Geometry Wars games, throws in a little WipEout and Mario Kart and winds up with Blur. More »

You'll never see it coming.

Sure, there's a Blur demo on Xbox Live, but if you'd rather try out the Bizarre racer in a more public place -- or if you don't have an Xbox on which to test drive it -- select Best Buy stores will host in-store demos this Saturday and Sunday. You can check here to see if your local store is among the illustrious 200 to play host to these demos.

For your trouble, you'll get -- not only the chance to play the arcade-style racing game but also -- a Blur poster. You can tell your non-gamer friends that it's a poster for the band, who just happens to really like cars.

Reviews have begun to inch out for Bizarre's new arcadey racer Blur and, at the risk of spoiling the metareview in the first sentence, they're pretty darn good! Maybe not "change your life" good, but at least "put this in your game box and fun will come out" good. What? That's not specific enough for you? OK, fine, here:

• Telegraph (9/10): "Every inch of Blur feels like it's crafted with the player in mind, offering them a huge, slick and exciting racing package. While it can frustrate, with the balance of powerups occasionally off-kilter, it only serves to push you onto the next race, to undo the injustice, to mete out your revenge."
• GameInformer (8.5/10): "Blur is a game built on versatility. Power-ups aren't simply offensive or defensive; they are tools you can use in different ways depending on the situation. A Barge blast is always handy to disrupt any cars in your immediate vicinity, but it can also be deployed as a momentary shield. Likewise, most power-ups come with an alternate fire option. For instance, your garden-variety Nitro boost can alternately be used to slow you down - useful for those really tight corners."
• Eurogamer (8/10): "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."

#abuse For two decades, people have been paid to make fun of Nintendo. These professionals are hired by big companies that either hate Nintendo or consider Nintendo to be semi-ridiculous. (Irony: These pros never laugh last.) Here are their finest works. More »

Does it pull ahead of the competition?

Look, we're not experts in the way of marketing things to the French, but we're pretty sure the advertising for Blur is all kinds of wrong. Seemingly tapping the region's most beautiful women to represent in-game power-ups, arguing their superiority over their peers, each spot concludes with the ladies throwing down in a faux race -- which is more an excuse for them to show off skin than to show off the game. Have you ever had to hit so many buttons while playing a racing game before? Yeah, we didn't think so.

Head past the break to check out the two commercials. Bonus points if you can spot the exact moment where feminism has been set back 30 years.

[Via VG247 and UK:Resistance]

Bizarre Creations' powered-up racer allows players to connect with friends through Facebook straight from the game's unique 'Share' functionality.

#blur Blur is a racing car game. It is made by Bizarre Creations, the studio behind racer Project Gotham Racing. As a racing game fan, I should be excited, but there is something that I cannot get out of my head. More »

#clips The latest American ad we saw for racer Blur used cartoons. It was pretty good! Know what they're using in France? Sluts. More »

From what we've heard from folks who got in on the game's multiplayer beta, Bizarre Creations' Blur has some surprisingly potent addictive properties. That's why we find this Steam deal so unashamedly sinister: If you pre-order the PC version of the racing title on the popular digital distribution platform, you'll get an equally (if not more) addictive game for free: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.

Blur goes on sale this Tuesday, so if you're hoping to grab Bizarre's twin-stick time sink at no charge, you should probably pre-order the game ASAP.

[Via Big Download]

We understand the value of a good fan just as much as the next guy, whether said fan is reading our humble video game news site, or keeping us cool in the humid summer months. In Bizarre Creations' arcadey racer Blur, they're even more valuable, serving as the player's main form of character progression. In addition, fans will offer a few bonuses which will pop up in the middle of each race, including Fan Runs, Fan Demands and Fan Targets.

Bizarre Creations recently released video tutorials for all three of these bonuses, posted above and after the jump. We'd suggest checking them out if you're planning on picking up the game when it gets released next Tuesday.

#clips Blur, the latest racing game from the team behind the Xbox's Project Gotham series, has copped a little flak for being like Mario Kart, only with real cars. Instead of deflecting that argument, this ad just runs with it. More »

In the latest trailer for Blur, lead designer Gareth Wilson takes us for a lap around the upcoming racer's bevy of team events. First, Wilson breaks down some tactics in Team Race, your run-of-the-mill us-vs-them race mode, in which teams duke it out on the track. Here, players can swap mods and lend assistance in a variety of ways -- all in an effort to finish the race in the best position possible, thus earning more points than the enemy team.

The second portion of the trailer focuses on Team Motor Mash, another points-based team mode in which points aren't simply earned through pole position, but rather through the judicious application of power-ups. Players can also earn points by smashing into rival drivers, giving this mode a Destruction Derby-like feel.

Aside from the new trailer, we've also got some new screens for you to check out in the gallery below. Blur races to the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on May 25.

#bonus Blur comes out next week, and should you choose to pick the game up at Kmart or Sears for some strange reason, you'll find a chromed-out BMW waiting for you when you launch the game. More »

Now that Danica Patrick's up to speed on things like multiplayer and power-ups, she has the credibility to hold our attention through this tutorial on Blur's basics. Or maybe it's just the winks, shoulder-shimmys, and lip gloss. Definitely lip gloss. More »

Ladies and gentlemen ... turn off your engines. Take the keys out of the ignition, and place them calmly on your living room end table. The Blur multiplayer beta has come to a full stop in anticipation of the game's May 25 release. We know you're worried about your sharpened driving skills dulling within the 14-day interim. Might we suggest driving recklessly while shooting devastating power-ups at other cars ... in real life? Sure, that might be physically impossible (not to mention illegal), but that's the price you pay to stay on top of the leaderboard.

Its all about powered-up racing.

Activision must be in a celebratory mood, as it's just announced over a million drivers have downloaded the Blur multiplayer beta. Remember, you've only got until May 10th at 2am PT to take it for a spin yourself. Before the finished game launches on May 25, the beta will play host to some expanded playlist settings and other changes.

Starting now, you'll be able to play with A-Class cars in the standard playlists. The Supercar Racing Playlist also offers two new races, Tokyo and Amboy, and power-up placement has been shuffled to be different in each race. Finally, the amount of fans you can earn for each race has been doubled, placing the illustrious Rank 15 within reach.

If you have yet to sample the Blur beta's brand of multiplayer mayhem, check out the brief trailer above or read our impressions.