Blur Review

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Posted by Chris Stewart on 06-11-2010

Posted in Reviews

Blur is a complete thrill ride. Bizarre Creations took the combat of Mario Kart, the insanity of Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer, and turned out one exciting action racing title.

In single player, the goal of Blur is to place in the top 3 of each event and acquire as many “fans” as possible. Fans are the games notion of experience points. As you progress through the game, you are doing so by acquiring fans. You can do a number of things to gain fans including winning races, disrupting your opponents, and completing mini goals during actual races.

The game looks great and plays exceedingly smooth. Blur has a very helpful and timely tutorial system that will provide cut scenes as you encounter new gameplay mechanics. The menu presentation gives off a very futuristic look and really provides a nice interface to the game. I found everything about the graphics, sound, and overall presentation to be really solid.

Blur has a very tight integration with Twitter, Facebook, and Xbox LIVE. Viewing a car in the showroom and want to tell your friends? You can. Just put up a crazy number of fans in the demolition event? Let your friends know instantly. It may seem like a novelty but for something that’s available but not in your face, I think it was implemented well.

A specific feature that I really enjoyed was the ability to see how your friends did on specific events. After a race, you can see how many fans your friends acquired, and challenge them to beat your new high score. It really gave me a feeling of competition with my friends — in the single-player mode. Trust me, I kept track of what scores Kevin had and worked to beat every one I could. That feature, while small, provided a lot of fun for me.

The central gameplay mechanic in Blur is to use power ups to destroy your opponents, or maintain your lead. Your car is equipped to hold up to 3 weapons at any one time. You can cycle through them and use them in any order you’d like. The decision to let you hold on to 3 weapons really created a feeling of strategy. When I’m towards the front of the pack, I’ll seek out the shield, repair, and mine power ups to be more defensive in my approach. Likewise, when I’m working my way up to the front, I’ll find missiles, lightning strikes, and other offensive weapons. I think Bizarre Creations did a wonderful job with the power ups.

The career mode is broken down into groups of races that culminate with a one-on-one battle. At specific fan counts, you will unlock more events with new challenges and “bosses” that need to be beaten. As I progressed, I chose to finish every race in each group before moving on to the next level of races.

Blur’s career mode is a deep journey that contains many hours of content to unlock and conquer. Throughout your journey up the ranks you’ll find various race types, much like what is presented in DiRT 2. I found the variety of race-types to be quite good and a nice balance for the game. I never felt bored with a specific type of event. Instead, it was refreshing to see the variety it felt well paced. In addition to gaining cars, tracks, upgraded tiers of cars (i.e., Forza 3), and event types, you’ll also unlock mods that will help you wreak more havoc.

Multiplayer is where the game shines the most. It’s a crazy experience to find yourself in a room of 20 racers. Things are happening so fast and you’re so focused on destroying everyone around you, that sometimes the driving aspect takes a backseat to the action around you. While you may balk at that last statement, it’s really not a bad thing. Think about old school games like Twisted Metal. Granted, Twisted Metal was not a racing title, but it provided such an immersive experience and Blur captures this really well I think. Especially in multiplayer. A traditional racing title loses a lot of appeal online because generally only the hardcore fans stick around. Blur provides a lot of depth that your average gamer will enjoy and find fulfilling.

As with the career mode, the multiplayer experience provides a number of treats to unlock for the dedicated few. Much like your average first-person shooter, Blur provides a rich leveling system that rewards your hours of play time. There are also mods available in multiplayer and you’ll unlock new cars as you progress through the 50 levels. If you stick with the game, it will reward you with many reasons to keep pushing forward.

Blur is a solid action racing title worthy of a purchase by anyone interested in combat or action racing titles. I’ve really enjoyed the game to this point and plan to continue playing it moving forward. If you’re not traditionally into racing games, or think it may not quite be for you, I would say give it a rent or check it out at a friend’s house. You might be really surprised by what you find in Blur.

Rating: 8

This review is based on an Xbox 360 retail version of the game which Skeptical Gamer received as a review copy.

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Dirt 2 Review

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Posted by Chris Stewart on 02-04-2010

Posted in Reviews

Colin McRae: Dirt was an unexpected thrill ride for me. From the beautiful menu system to the exceptional feel of rally racing on the edge, I couldn’t get enough of Dirt. I had not experienced a rally game prior to Dirt and I really just soaked everything up about that game. When I heard a sequel was on the way, I was very excited, and I was extremely surprised by the result.

Dirt 2 has been one of my most cherished experiences for as long as I’ve been playing video games. I absolutely love this game. It’s not perfect but as a fan of racing, in any style or capacity, you’ll be hard pressed to find another title that exceeds the racing experience you get in Dirt 2.

Career Mode employs a progression experience through the single player campaign that takes you to various locations across the globe to compete. As you complete events, you gain experience points that unlock more events and locations as you level up. There are a variety of event modes to compete in along the way, from traditional rally racing to buggies and trophy trucks to lap-based races around short circuits. Unfortunately, there’s not as much traditional rally racing as I would have liked. I certainly appreciate the variety, and a game of only rally racing events would not have had the replay value Dirt 2 does, but giving it a more prominent focus would have been more interesting to me.

Throughout the campaign you’ll travel from location to location in your RV, which is where the navigation takes place. In one corner you’ll find the events you can participate in, in another you’ll find access to multiplayer. Step outside of your RV and you’ll see the sights of the country you happen to be in at the moment. Codemasters provided another innovative menu system with Dirt 2 and this one really gives you a sense of traveling the world while racing for the win.

As you progress through the ranks, you’ll be constantly rewarded with bonus money and liveries. Dirt 2 does a good job of rewarding you early and often. I didn’t feel the rewards were all that interesting. Sure, the bonus money was great as it afforded me the opportunity to buy new cars and outfit them with the required upgrades to compete in higher level events. The rest felt like novelty items that were there just to be there, not really to effect the racing or give you purpose to work to collect them.

The visual appeal of this title is nearly perfect. The environments are as detailed as anything you’ve seen. It’s hard to appreciate the detail put into the game as you fly by it, but if you take a moment to look at the stadiums and towns you race through you’ll see the stunning detail put into each one. The lighting and shadows in the game really add a nice touch of realism, as does the motion of the puddles of water along the trails.

Dirt 2 provides a progression system for the multiplayer experience as well. What you do in each the single player and multiplayer modes are exclusive. That feeling of starting over in terms of experience points really put me off. I’ve put in some significant time in single player where I’m currently a level 46. I’ve raced a few times in multiplayer, but only enough to be in the single digits for my level. While the multiplayer mode offers a great experience, practically seamless from the single player experience, I’ll probably reserve putting any real time into it unless a friend or CRR reader wants to jump into a game.

Dirt 2 is a great racing experience, regardless of the style of racing you’re primarily interested in. I was never much of a rally fan until Dirt, and Dirt 2 only further strengthened that stance. The Career Mode will provide many hours of fast paced, wheel to wheel, racing excitement and is easily worth the purchase. Couple that with a deep and finely tuned multiplayer experience and you’ve got a racing title sure to provide countless hours of fun.

Rating: 9.2

This review is based on the Xbox 360 retail version of the game purchased by Skeptical Gamer.

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Forza 3 Review

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Posted by Chris Stewart on 01-27-2010

Posted in Reviews

Forza 3 was one of my most anticipated games of 2009. I’ve always been a fan of simulation racing experiences, such as the previous titles and the Gran Turismo series. I was looking forward to a refresh of the Forza series and this game didn’t disappoint.

Forza 3 is what you expect it to be. It comes with over 400 cars, all recreated in stunning detail. It is packed with over 100 track variations of all styles. It offers an exceptional career mode of progression and a multiplayer experience matched by few others.

Stepping into career mode will offer you dozens of hours of gameplay. Each season is measured by the length of a weekend series that is associated with the current season. Between each weekend race, which is often every other weekend, you choose shorter series to compete in. As you progress through these races you earn experience points as a driver and in each specific car, which entitles you to discounted upgrades in the upgrade shop. Along with the experience points, you earn credits which allow you to purchase and upgrade your cars for competition.

I’ve enjoyed my experience through the career mode to this point. There is a lot of variety in the cars you acquire and race with. At each driver level, you are given a car by a manufacturer. Unlike past titles to incorporate a similar feature, you’re not being given something from the mid ‘70s. For example, as you progress through the mid to upper 20s, you’ll receive a Ferrari or two and a very nice Lamborghini. I was pleasantly surprised that you’re often given cars that you can immediately jump into and use in your next race. Again, unlike other titles that have had a similar mechanic.

A complaint I have with the career mode is that sometimes it feels tedious. The weekend series are where the action is, without question. Sometimes the races in-between those events feels like an unnecessary filler. I’m not sure what you do to combat this and Forza 3 is certainly not the first racing title to have this problem, but it’s worth mentioning.

At face value, Forza 3 is what you would expect from a triple-A racing title on a modern console. Where the game truly shines is in the details. Turn 10 Studios has done an exceptional job in creating a true driving experience. Too often, racing titles lack variety in the way the various cars feel while driving them to their limits. You’ll really feel the difference between driving the Audi R8 and Corvette Z06. Forza 3 brings that experience to life.

Another major advancement Forza 3 brings to the table is the accessibility of playing with the standard controller. While I have used the Microsoft Wheel, I more often opt for the controller. I was really impressed by the default settings for how the controller input translates to how your car acts on the track. I’ve played a lot of racers and sometimes the default settings for the standard controller just simply don’t work (I’m looking at you Need for Speed: SHIFT). It feels like Turn 10 Studios put some serious effort into making the standard controller a viable input device for enjoying the game.

Accessibility seems to have been a focal point with Forza 3. There are a number of features available that will give even the most novice of racers an enjoyable experience. You have the standard assists, such as braking, traction control, and so forth. The racing line, colored specifically to whether you should be accelerating, maintaining speed, or braking, makes an appearance. All of these options can be disabled if you’d like.

The biggest assist that aides in accessibility would be the rewind feature. The feature itself has been in other games, with a similar implementation in DiRT 2. However, in Forza 3 the feature is prominently available throughout your driving experience, not just when you’ve completely destroyed your car. Hit a car in front of you? Rewind. Took a ride in the grass coming out of a turn? Rewind. I think you get the picture. While I agree the feature is useful, as I’ve used it a number of times myself, I think there should be some form of penalty or limitation with using it. I do think it can help a driver learn the track and become effective in that case. However, I can easily see it becoming a crutch for many novice drivers out there. I’d like to see the feature disappear as your progression moves forward.

The multiplayer experience in Forza 3 is solid. It’s not game changing, which is something I want to see in a racing title, but it does provide extended enjoyment once you’ve mastered the single player experience. A gripe I have with Forza 3’s multiplayer, among many other titles, is that the game caters to those who want to run time trials in order to find themselves on a leaderboard. I want to reward racing times, wins, and other metrics that involve more than one car on the track. That’s an absolute need in my opinion, and Forza 3 doesn’t deliver in that regard.

Overall, I’m really enjoying this game. I’ve already put in dozens of hours and will likely put in hundreds over time. I’m roughly half way through the single player career, with only a few hundred XP until driver level 30. With some minor quirks I hope get addressed in a future title, Forza 3 is easily the best racing experience available today. If you enjoy simulation racing, you’ve already got this game. Even if you’re not a huge fan of simulation racing, you owe it to yourself to give it a spin.

Rating: 9.5

This review is based on the Xbox 360 retail version of the game purchased by Skeptical Gamer.

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