Blur - Multiplayer Beta Impressions - Xbox 360

Alex McAnnally

March 10, 2010

Somehow I snagged a beta key for Blur. I've been playing for awhile. First off, what really grinds my gears, is trying to get in a match. Usually when I get on, 1000+ people are on, the servers shouldn't be that loaded, but it takes me awhile to get into a match, everything else seems to be pretty smooth thus far, some pop-in at the beginning every now and then. Now for the good, yes this is just like a grown up Mario Kart, and yes the power ups are pretty sweet. For your power ups you've got:

• Lightning - A merciful version of the blue shell, you just have to dodge lightning for awhile
• Some Energy Ball mine thing... - Pretty much like the upside down "?" in Mario Kart
• Energy Ball thingamabob in traveling form - Basically your standard Mario Kart shell but all grown up, it has more of the same characteristics as the
• Red Shell Shield - pretty self-explanatory, except for a small twist, you can absorb whatever other players fire at you and that makes it your weapon
• Repair - You have a number of health bars depending on your car, if you run out of health you are wrecked and knocked a little ways back, basically if you get wrecked kiss 1st place buh-bye. The repair fixes that
• Dart/Gun - You've only got three shots of these at a time, and if you get hit it'll slow you down a tad, think banana from Mario Kart but in gun form
• Nitrous Boost - Again self explanatory

I think that's pretty much your rundown of the power-ups. Depending on which race mode you pick, the game can go up to 20 players, which can get really hectic with all these power ups at your disposal. Races start off with an already rolling start, so you don't start from a dead stop.

The rank system is based on fans, you get x number of fans and you'll get to rank x, for any actions done during a race. New ranks unlock cars, mods, etc. There are four mod templates available, and each can be altered with different mods for a custom loadout. You can increase collision damage, change the radius of certain power-ups, the more you play, the more options you'll gain.

All-in-all I'm pretty impressed with it so far, hopefully this won't get stale as time goes on.