Blur

Wow, it feels like I just got done playing the beta. This game came out pretty quickly afterward. If you didn't read my preview of it, here's how it works: take a go-kart racer, tell the go-karts to go fuck themselves, and get real cars. Yep, it's another Mario Kart, except you feel like a grown man when you play it. This game is fun, and was meant for multiplayer, as all kart racers, but there's one big glaring problem....single player mode.

The driving is a bit more realistic than most racing games, let alone a kart racer clone. Driving a perfect line and knowing how to brake and powerslide is almost as important as shoving powerups up someone's ass for 2 laps. It takes some getting used to, but once you do.....the bitch is still hard, but more fun. You get 8 weapons to choose from:

Shunt - homing missile
Nitro -speed boost
Barge - a shockwave taking out anyone near you
Shield - take a guess
Bolt - 3 energy blasts that'll mess with drivers (like green shells)
Repair - ........
Shock - fires 3 EMP fields in front of the race leader
Mine - acts as a landmine; spins racers out

The thing I like about these weapons is that when you get hit, it doesn't feel like the end of the world. They do just enough damage to give the attacker the advantage needed without being too much of a hindrance to the victim. Take too much damage and you'll wreck, and that'll really set you back. You also can't get too happy with the attacks either. With the exception of nitro and repair, each weapon has defensive properties that'll help prevent you from getting hit. You really have to balance offense and defense with the items AND race a perfect line if you want to win. Another thing I like about item pickups is that they are labeled so you know what you are picking up as oppose to some random drawing decided by the game. Need a shunt? Grab that item box if it shows up. You can hold up to 3 items at once, and you can cycle between them. If you don't want an item or see something better, you can drop the item you're holding. Wherever you drop it though, other racers can pick it up. This can play into strategy a little bit. If you drop a good item, you can place a mine in front of it. Anybody going for that item, will have to avoid your mine. I've done it twice in the beta, but couldn't pull it off in the game; I'm sure it still works, though.


You have to play this game online because online is fuckin nuts! Having 20 people online beating the holy shit out of each other is probably the most fun you'll ever have in a car. You have your standard races, races with only 10 people, races with only high-end cars, etc. Like Call of Duty (of all games), there's a leveling up system that unlocks new cars and perks. Since both games are published by Activition, I guess it make sense to piggyback of each other's ideas. In the beta preview, I joked about it having a prestige mode, and to my surprise, there actually is one. Once you reach level 50, you can enter what is called Legend mode. Your rank is reset and you have to earn everything back. I'll ask you what I ask Call of Duty players all the time: why would you want to? If you buy this game, you're buying this for multiplayer.


The single player pisses me off to no end. It's hard for noooo fuckin reason. Even the very first set of races pissed me off. It's not that I don't like a challenge, but this way, way unfair. Many times you'll have the lead, only to be bombarded by attacks, and they come at the most fucked up times, like maybe right before crossing the mother fuckin finish line. In the later stages, they will always catch up and proceed to fuck with you some more. I'm not talking about 1 or 2 guys that the game let catch up for competition sake. I mean the whole fucking pack, and guess what: they're armed to the fuckin teeth. If you have enough items to stave off 3 attacks, get ready to eat attack number 4, 5, and 6, and if someone has bolt...7, 8, and 9. Now imagine that with 20 fuckin racers. It's one thing on multiplayer: it's every man for themselves and you're not expecting to win every race. On single player, it's every man after YOU and you pretty much NEED to win every race. Like I said earlier, if you buy this game, buy it for the multiplayer because single player aint fuckin worth the frustration. Besides, what you do there doesn't carry over on multiplayer so why bother?

Rating: Sweet

NOTE: I had a great vacation....which by vacation I mean I went to work more often. My vacations suck.