Blur

It's eight o'clock in the morning and a thick layer of fog has descended upon Liverpool. I'm there to take a look at the next game from Project Gotham Racing makers Bizarre Creations.

We're ushered into a theatre and the presentation kicks off. Gareth Wilson, one of the lead designers, dims the lights and starts out with a little piece of gaming history. He begins to talk about how the racing genre used to be something everyone could enjoy. But since the first Playstation, technology has transformed it from something simple and accessible, to be something much more technical and demanding.

The audience got narrower, and it is Wilson's ambition that Blur may be a new way to interpret car racing, and a racing game that is not just aimed at enthusiasts.

Bizarre Creations has an impressive racing pedigree, Formula One games for PlayStation, Metropolis Street Racer for Dreamcast, where the foundation stone was laid for their biggest success the Project Gotham Racing (PGR) series.

PGR has gone on for four games and has alongside Forza Motorsport been the essential first party racing games on Microsoft's consoles.

Wilson leaves the stage and Ged Talbot, the second lead designer, begins to play Blur on the big cinema screen. From the first seconds of the short single-player race, it becomes clear why we were gathered in a cinema: The screen explodes with neon colours as 20 cars are smashing down a highway in Tokyo.

A deep bass thumps as an energy missile shot out of the front of the car and sparks are flying as Talbot is trying to escape the incoming purple projectiles. Full chaos is unfolding on screen.

After the frantic race he details the various power ups available, and stresses that Blur is a "powered-up racing game". A game that incorporates realism with its 60 licensed cars and 29 tracks based on real locations, but gives it a twist, with the over-the-top weapons on offer.

Later when I had the opportunity to ask about the idea behind the concept, Wilson explained that it was conceived as a Mario Kart of sorts for adults. It's starting to dawn on me, Blur is not a racing game with action elements thrown in, it is an action game with racing elements.

The online multiplayer portion of the game allows for up to 20 cars at the same time. A rather healthy figure compared to what we are used to. In this way, the intensity remains at a constant high level and instead of being a game where its only about being in front, it is just as much about sabotage and fighting other players with different weapons.

It works amazingly well. The balance between the six power-ups are very well done, and since you can hold three weapons stocks and switch between them, it gives the game an added strategic depth. There is no possibility of cheating, because it all depends on what weapons you have. If you want to experiment, you may discover ways to use secondary weapons. It lives up to the "easy to grasp, hard to master" motto.

When all 20 players are in engaged with missiles, mines and energy fields around the track it is very special. Your body tenses up and your reflexes must be up for it you hope to survive this four wheel war. Apart from the classic races, the full version will also have other modes, such as Destruction Derby.

One interesting thing about Blur is the obvious inspiration from a rather unexpected game: Modern Warfare 2. After each race one receives points, called Fans, which, after you have reached a certain number, allows you to rise in rank. Gaining rank will open new cars and mods. The game previews the stuff you get with the next rank, in order to keep the player glued to the controller.

Mods are similar to Perks in Modern Warfare 2. One is allowed to combine three that are either offensive or defensive in nature and tailor your online experience.

One element, which has been created from scratch by Bizarre Creations are the social-networking possibilities. Blur is connected to your Twitter account, and thus can issue messages about one's achievements or challenge your friends in multiplayer component. Whether this is something that will strike a chord with gamers or not remains to be seen, but it's certainly a first.

Blur offers up 60 licensed cars, some real world ones and others based concept cars, ranging from American muscle cars to hot rods, off-road and even a 1951 Beetle.

Handling varies from car to car and also determines the size of car the size of your Health bar (yes Blur has one of those). The cars are divided into classes and some tracks only allow certain classes such as off-road, hot rods, and so on.

To really appreciate the chaotic action movie-like atmosphere in Blur, it is important to have a sufficiently advanced sound system. The sound team has put much effort into getting the weapons to be a feast for the ears through the use of a subtle bass that sends a buzz through the room when the weapon is fired. The degree of detail is extremely high and each weapon sound effect appears three dimensional, meaning that the sound is different depending on where you are relative to the projectile.

Given the nature of the game it is nice to see it supports local four player split screen. The maximum number of cars is reduced to eight instead of twenty. Although there may be technical reasons for this it is also a nice design choice, since your weapons will hit your friends more often than in a twenty car metal mayhem.

First appearance isn't everything. Something that at first glance looks like a Burnout clone mixed with Mario Kart, has really managed to shape an identity of its own. Bizarre Creations have combined their incredible expertise in car racing with both old and new elements and in doing so created a unique online multiplayer experience.

If they want to attract people who normally do not play racing games, they should focus their marketing to explain that it is an action game at its core.