Blur is a racing game built around the premise that racing can be more about not crashing into things. In Blur you can race around a treacherous tack and tactfully dispense of your rivals with fancy power ups, earning awards, fans  and possibly a bit of notoriety amongst the online gaming community while you are at it.

The game has two parts, single player and multiplayer modes, while the latter far surpasses the former in fun there are are a few points worth covering in the single player mode. Bizarre have set the single player mode in a dark, atmospheric environment which has pretty much the same feel as Need For Speed: Underground. The single player AI does not show much love to the player, blasting and battering you before you’ve even realized your left from right. This is not an entirely bad thing because it jams you into a corner, forcing you to gather your wits and drive like Cole Trickle from “Days of Thunder” (pouting your lips like Tom Cruise does indeed improve your driving).

The game implores your skills not only as a driver but as a car weapon wielding, James Bond wanna be. You collect destructive pickups that you use to dispense of your fellow racers as you see fit and as you can imagine, high speeds mashed with colorful explosions is nothing shot of spectacular. It gets especially crazy when racing a full online game of up to 20 players, as the chaos ensues it remains to be the prettiest racing game I’ve played in a long time.

Career mode touts a variety of game plays, Destruction levels award you points and time for shooting other racers and in the Checkpoint levels you race against the clock in the good old racing tradition of trying to beat it. While both are fun, it’s nice to be able to do them both at once which is how the majority of Career mode is played out.

The reward system in the game is generous, you get rewarded for almost everything which is something I enjoy. The fact that Bizzare took the time to break down race occurrences into so many parts is a feat on its own, never mind the thrill of seeing them pop up all over the place. Fans are earned by driving well and while racking them up is fun but it’s still not as much fun as getting those shiny awards.

The multiplayer bit of the game is great. It’s easy to simply jump onto a game with friends and enjoy a good few hours blasting them off the road. Being in South Africa lag is always an issue but Blur does an excellent job of masking it during international games. Local games are seamless and preform perfectly. Cars are awarded as you rank up and boosts can be customized and tweaked as you go to suit your style.

Blur is the kind of game that you probably wont ever sit down and play for hours, however, it’s the perfect filler for those times when you just want a quick gaming fix or when you feel like showering your eyes with colorful explosions and the rush of the gloat as you best 19 other drivers. One thing is for sure, when you are ready to remove the disk from you console, you will definitely be brimming with satisfaction after a gaming session playing Blur.

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