Good news for Project Gotham Racing fans: Bizarre Creations says Blur, its upcoming new racer, is still a hardcore sim at heart despite the addition of arcade-style power-ups.
When Blur was confirmed in May it received a mixed reaction from Bizarre’s fans. The addition of power-ups and story elements led some to fear the studio had ditched its roots in favour of a Mario Kart style game.
Last week studio communications manager Ben Ward was quoted as saying “Blur is like an adult Mario Kart”.
However, speaking to VideoGamer.com, executive producer Peter McCabe moved to reassure PGR fans that Blur, which will be published by Bizarre’s new owner, Activision, will still provide a hardcore racing experience.
McCabe said: “The hardcore sim is still there. It’s still in our game. If people want to create a simulation group, they can. It’s still fundamentally in our game.”
McCabe was referring to Blur’s social networking features. Players will be able to create Facebook-style groups with their own pre-set winning conditions and rules, for example no power-ups.
McCabe added: “Underneath, it’s PGR4. So we’ve still got the PGR4 handling model underneath there. We’ve still got the same kind of cars in there. But what we’ve done is we’ve widened it. We’ve got those cars there for the hardcore players, who want to play with those hardcore cars that are difficult to drive, but we’ve got the more accessible and casual cars as well, the ones which have a lot more grip but go at the same speed as the other cars.
“If you want the added complexity you can have it. And if you want the simple, easy to drive cars you can have those as well. But underneath it all it’s still the PGR4 handling model, it’s still just as complex, but there are the casual cars which make it a lot easier to drive.”
Blur is due out for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this autumn. For all the latest head over to our Blur game page.
What do you think? Are you reassured by McCabe’s comments? Did you need reassuring in the first place? Let us know in the comments section below.
User Comments
Wido
FantasyMeister@ Iain_McC
If Blur really wanted my attention they'd just need to slap on Forza's part customisation options, or if Forza 3 wanted my attention they'd have to make it radically different from the previous 2.
Iain_McC
Try taking an Enzo Ferrari around the Nurburgring on PGR 2 compared to the same car and track on Forza Motorsport and you'll see the difference between a hardcore racing simulation and a racing game like PGR.
That said though, PGR's strength is that it has a lovely balance between simulation and arcade handling. I'd actually quite welcome a shift towards a more arcade style, as sometimes it's just nice to thrash around a track and not worry about wheel cambers and suspension settings... And there's nothing wrong with properly balanced and well-implemented power-ups, either. Mario Kart is one of the most competitive and fun racing games ever made, so I don't know why people would see that as a negative comparison.
I think more developers should stop worrying about whining fanboys who can't stand the slightest change and just sit down and design the best game they can.
renegade