This year seems to be ready for a battle of the racing games, as quite a lot of videogames featuring fast cars, complex tracks and speed are set to be released in 2009. And in order to make it big, developers and publishers must offer not only great graphics and superb game mechanics but also a lot of trash talking of their rivals.

Electronic Arts seems to have gotten an early start with Patrick Soderlund, who is the senior vice president of EA Games Europe, slamming some of the most prominent rivals of his company's upcoming Split/Second.

Soderlund told VideoGamer that his company’s upcoming racing games would clearly be superior to those of the competition. He said that “I think Split/Second looks great. I'm going to have a good time playing that. Blur to me is completely underwhelming. I don't understand what's up with that game to be honest. That's an official statement.”

Of course, both Split/Second and Blur might go through some pretty big changes until they are finally released, so it’s hard to make a final judgment at this point.

He then proceeded to refer to Forza as being inferior when compared to Need for Speed: Shift. Soderlund quipped that “Talking to the press, looking at the nominations, that's clear. So, I'm glad that they're confident but I'm as confident as they are.” The Electronic Arts man has stopped short of saying anything nasty about Gran Turismo 5, which is set to arrive for the PlayStation 3 sometime during fall.

It's interesting to note that Electronic Arts, after the less than stellar performance of Need for Speed: Undercover, has decided to double down its bet on the franchise, with apparently five new games using the name set to arrive in late 2009 and 2010. The publisher is probably hoping that variety will mean that every type of player can pick something out of the line up to suit their needs.