everybody says that Blur has great gameplay and graphics. but what about the soundtrack? Blur has one of the best soundtracks in a videogame.
Blur dev's unfinished game surfaces
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Ex-Bizarre Creations developer reveals company was working on new racing game with "intense" visuals before being shut down last year.
Video footage of now-defunct Blur developer Bizarre Creations' final project has emerged. Former developer Chris Davies posted a pair of videos to his blog this weekend, providing a look into an untitled and unfinished racing game that is not likely to ever exist in reality.
The first video represents a 2010 prototype that used assets from Blur as a means to "try out some new ideas." One of these new ideas was more "intense" visual effects that would affect a player's experience by having them drive through a storm or dodge weapons.
A second video, which showed off a level set in Dubai, depicts the same project, but in a more advanced, near-alpha state.
Davies also revealed that Bizarre was working with an entirely new and internally developed game engine at this point, though the company would be shut down before ever getting to ship a title with the new technology.
"It’s a shame this thing will never be played," Davies wrote. "But at least it still lives on in some way in these videos."
Bizarre Creations closed during February 2011 after more than two decades of continuous operation. The shop came to prominence in 1996 with the release of its Formula One game for the original PlayStation, and would later become best known for its work on the popular Project Gotham Racing series. The studio was also behind the popular retro-arcade game Geometry Wars, which was released for the PC and Xbox 360, with a spin-off hitting the DS and Wii.
In 2007, Bizarre Creations was bought by Activision, for whom it developed two games: Blur and James Bond 007: Blood Stone. Neither title was a breakout hit, so as part of a round of cost-cutting in late 2011, Activision made the decision to close the studio--which, at its peak, employed around 200 people.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
50 comments
Blur was such a fun game, the multiplayer is still fun but kind of ruined do to people abusing the drift mod.
Blur was one of the most fun racing games ive played in a long time, and Bloodstone really surpised me and was one of my top games of that year. Sad to hear they went downhll, especially with so much crap out there that still sold better than blur/bloodstone
1 Like Bizarre Creations were pretty mediocre overall. MSR, PGR 1 and 2, and Geometry Wars were good, but that's about it. The Club was a giant letdown, and Blur wasn't nearly as good as Split Second.
They claimed Blur was so new and innovative when there have been a TON of games like it over a decade before. Road Wars, Impact Racing, and Carmageddon come to mind.
1 Like @DrKill09 I don't remember anyone saying it was new and innovative. I remember people claiming it was different, and it was if you compared it to many racers before it. Think about how you worded your comment. It has been over a decade since we had seen a game like it. What was most memorable about that game to me was the marketing and the visual style of the game. It was some hot stuff.
Darn right. And the 10 year old games he mentioned sucked. Carmageddon was nothing compared to twisted metal imo, and there are still people playing blur online. Its not dead like some peole claimed
3 Like I really liked Blur. It was a Kart racing game and a serious racing game at the same time and its visuals were SWEET! Very sad news to hear.
3 Like Blur was an extremely underplayed game with a massively dwindling and fun multiplayer. it was disappointing to see it fall the way it did
what there was a game called blur or that why I never heard of it they are part of Activision and all they make is CRAP and I DON'T PLAY CRAP
@shadowhunter0 You really need to work on your... well, everything. If reincarnation is real, maybe there's a chance you could come back as something better.
I think the videos were taken down.
Blur was really fun. I really wish I could see these videos.
@CUDGEdave (sound of crickets)
Ha fucking ha. No, both sucked. It was like grunge without the anger or any real message, just "Woo Hoo" How fucking enlightening.
@DrKill09 @CUDGEdave Do you ever say anything positive. If you didnt rate BC or there games, then why are you even here? TRRRROOOLLLLL
Think acrade racers have been damaged beyond repair with the demise of Bizzare and Black Rock!
4 Like Bizarre was a nice studio and its last titles were seriously underrated. Blur was a tonne of fun as the great visually stunning arcade racer with weapons it was, one of the few racing games that actually made me enjoy it so much I finished it in fact. Blood Stone was a fun third person shooter with nice visuals too, not Goldeneye but hey, definitely not a bad game. Sad to see the studio go, especially seeing they had a potentially great followup to Blur in the works. Ah well, hopefully the employees that were let go get a chance to create more awesomeness in the years to come!
1 Like The thing that sucks is there is no company willing to fill the void with an arcade-style simulation racing game. All we get now are hardcore sims and stuff like Mario Kart. Need for Speed hasn't been fun in years, excluding Criterion's Hot Pursuit, which is not what I am looking for.
Blur was quite under rated in my opinion, and because EA have made a serious f***in' mess of the latest 'Need for Speed' games, I'd love it if the blur developer made an Underground 3... just an idea =)
This comment has been deleted
Project CARS is also due out towards the end of 2013. There are a whole ton of PC-exclusive racers coming out this year too, from Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 to Formula Truck and RaceRoom.
@sanechupp I agree. I don't play driving games too much but that screenshot looks so nice! LOL
Too bad it won't come out...
Bizarre Creations, another one bites the digital dust. The good thing about game companies shutting down is that they can get resurrected (Flagship Studios becoming Runic Games) or the employees can find new jobs.
2 Like So Activision canceled what could have been a fun racing game and churned out the usual military FPS rehash nonsense for the twitch generation?
Typical. Blur wasn't too bad, it would have been interesting to see what other racing games the developers could make after that.
@Smokescreened84 Well, you're right about one thing, but from what I've seen the video just shows Blur with some (nice) additions, like storm, lightning and an increases sense of graphical realism. That's not much and I agree that Blur is a great game, but if Bizarre came to me with this stuff/presentation as a new project, I would've done the same as Activision. It's not fair to close a good developer after one failure, but I'm not impressed with this thing either.
@xsonicchaos I kind of like it myself, it shows potential. Such a shame that the potential won't have a chance of being realised.
Bizarre didn't deserve to be shut down like they were.
1 Like The only reason I didn't go for Blur was because it was published by Activision, I really don't like what they do and I refuse to support them, sorry if that puts good developers out of work but I'm not feeding the devil, the devil to me is 2 beasts, Activision and EA.
1 Like Glad you updated the photo Eddie, always enjoy your interesting articles of under the radar content.
Relelase game with Under new name i don't think that Whole game Was Deleted after project stopped, damn it it looked awesome and cool gameplay also. As for Blur and james bond they were awesome just they did not sold good enough.
"As for Blur and james bond they were awesome just they did not sold good enough."
Blur didn't sell well by "Activision" standards. There was always people playing. That was the biggest mistake they could have ever made, was selling to Activision. They really are the grim reaper of the development industry.
The problem, as I see it, is Blur was released at the tail end of May following big games like Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake & Super Mario Galaxy 2. Most people just simply over looked it or made the conscious decision not to purchase since most people probably bought both RDR & AW that month.
Hopefully they can make another Metropolis Street Racer since MS has the right to Project Gotham Racing. I'd love to play another Bizarre Creations racer (under a different dev name of course).
@SnakeEyesX80 @wexorian PGR4 was great, I loved the weather feature. I definitely would like to see Microsoft have someone make a new one.
I only wanted the racer which had Pinky in it. Him and that Toad knock-off had a future in kart racing.
3 Like Exact same thing happened to Studio Liverpool last year.
they also had a next gen Wipeout game in developmenet + a new IP on the go.
Weird how nukes get dropped on these great studios from nowhere.
5 Like That looked great. The Audi R8 and the Dubai scenery were very impressive. Too bad it got canned.
9 Like F'ing Activision, i will always hate them for buying and then closing down Bizarre. I wondering what these guys are up to now.
the guys from Bizarre Creations are now working at Sumo Digital. Their latest game is Sonic and Allstars Transformed.
The closest we're going to get to PGR5 is Forza Horizon, IMHO. That being said, seeing this makes me sad for what could have been.
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Related Game
Blur
- Publisher(s): Activision Blizzard
- Developer(s): Bizarre Creations
- Genre: Driving
- Release:
- Classification Board: PG
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