14 DAY TRIAL // Racing games are practically a dime a dozen these days, with many companies realizing that a lot of people want to drive virtual cars and do whatever they want with them, without thinking for a second that anything serious can happen to them.
But combat racing game Blur from Bizarre Creations, which are the developers of the famous Project Gotham Racing franchise, wants to change the genre by introducing fighting between cars. However, Blur won't be just any ordinary crash simulator like the Burnout series from Criterion, as it will feature a variety of powers and additions in order to make the races that much more interesting.
Another special feature is the fact that there will be licensed cars in it, differentiating it from the Burnout series, which had virtual vehicles. According to Bizarre Creations' Gareth Wilson, the strategy adopted by the team was a key factor in securing the rights to the cars, as they didn't want Ferraris or Lamborghinis in the game.
“The type of manufacturers has helped and also the attitude that we've taken has helped. If someone doesn't want to do what we want to do then we just won't put it in the game. There have been a couple of big manufacturers, can't tell you who, that have gone you can't set the cars on fire, and we've gone, OK we won't use your cars then. Because the cars are not the star of the game, the gameplay is the star of the game.”
He then adds that, thanks to titles like GRID or DiRT, talking with some of those manufacturers has been much easier: “Also other games have kicked the door down for us as well, like GRID and DiRT. They were doing all sorts of stuff. We had one thing with a manufacturer where they didn't want smoke coming out of the car, and we just said yeah but you're in GRID, and GRID does smoke. And they went, oh yeah.”
Look forward to Blur this fall when it will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Until then though, we need to have our thirst for speed quenched somewhere else.