XBox 360 (Also available on PlayStation 3 and PC)
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Bizarre Creations
$59.99
Score: 8.0

Growing up, we all loved Mario Kart. There was something about getting four friends together and surrounding a TV, playing split screen and systematically screwing over your best friend at the last second with a well timed red shell to capture first place. The series continued to shine as it moved from Super Nintendo all the way to the Wii but at the same time, it didn’t feel like that different of a game. Instead, it was more of a wash, rinse, repeat formula with updated graphics. And we all grew up along the way as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the fat plumber who seems to be stuck in platonic-friend-land with Princess Peach even though he has saved her life a million times. But eventually, go carts don’t do it for me anymore. When I think of a racing game I could walk out of a store purchasing, it has real cars in it. I still want the insane chaos of blowing my friends off along the way though. Enter Blur.

Gameplay:

Blur is everything described above and then some in terms of gameplay. Instead of just mirroring what Mario Kart did well, Blur improves upon it. Instead of straight up races with weapons, Blur features multiple game modes. While it does feature the traditional combat racing, I’ll get back to that in a second. Also included are Checkpoint and Destruction modes.

Checkpoint is pure speed. Players need to cut corners perfectly, time speed boost power-ups to the millisecond and collect stopwatches to add more time as they try to not just finish a race within its time frame, but to have as much time left as possible on their leaderboard score. There is no true opponent in this mode as players are only racing against themselves. For people who love time trial modes, this is where they will find themselves most.

I’m normally more of a first person shooter kind of a guy so when Activison and Bizarre Creations first announced their Blur racing game, I really wasn’t all that interested. However, after seeing all the inventive trailers, screenshots and having a chance to check out the game, I’ve changed my mind because this game looks, and is, pretty kick-ass and I hope it does well.

With that in mind, our friends at Activision have sent us another trailer for the game and, as always, we can’t wait to share it with you. Like last time, this one is another trailer showcasing the game’s multiplayer features. These features, and many more, have been able to be used during the game’s online miltiplayer beta which has been going on for some time.

The online beta, one of the most successful in Activision’s history with over one million downloads, will now add even more features including the following: the ability to play A-Class cars in standard playlists, an expanded Supercar Racing Playlist that include races in Tokyo and Amboy, Power-Ups that now shuffle so each race has different Power-Up placement and the ability for Players to earn double the amount of fans for each race.

These features, not coincidentally, are the ones highlighted in the trailer today. So, to check them out click through to watch it. Blur hits the streets in North America on May 25 and Europe on May 28.

We have some downtime around The Flickcast offices every once in awhile (especially when we’re having server issues). When these times do happen, we’ve got to find something else to occupy our time until we can get back to posting.

One of the ways we like to fill that downtime is by playing some cool video games. Sometimes, we even get to play ones not available to everyone. We also get sneak peeks at new games as well — and that’s the case now. This time, we’re pretty excited about a new racing game called Blur recently announced by creator Bizarre Creations and published by Activision.

In a nutshell, Blur is a high-octane racing game where you, you know, race . . . and try not to get killed in the process. Check out these brand new screens from the game to see what I mean. It looks pretty cool to me and I can’t wait to see more.

Check out the big pics after the jump.