Gamescom 2011

Blur comes into focus Nov. 3

Tom Magrino
By Tom Magrino

Activision and Bizarre Creations' arcade racer arrives on Xbox 360, PS3, PC later this year; Europe gets green light November 6.

Activision Blizzard led the month with news of its mostly stellar first-quarter earnings, reporting a $195 million profit on $1.04 billion in sales for the April-June quarter. As part of that announcement, Activision Publishing president Michael Griffith mentioned during a post-earnings conference call that Bizarre Creations' all-new arcade racer Blur would pull out onto the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in November.

It's electric!

It's electric!

Today, Activision made Blur's track date a bit more official, announcing the game will be available in North America on November 3, with the European launch following on November 6. Blur is the first project from Bizarre Creations since the Project Gotham Racing developer was purchased by Activision in September 2007.

With Blur, Bizarre Creations has attempted to meld the party-style racing of Mario Kart with the more realistic racers, such as the Project Gotham Racing franchise. The game features more than 50 licensed cars, as well as a variety of real-world locales, such as Barcelona, Spain, and San Francisco, California. These tracks are made all the more interesting by a variety of power-ups that gamers can acquire during the course of the race to give them a competitive edge.

For more information, check out GameSpot's new hands-on preview of Blur from this year's GamesCom in Cologne, Germany.

Tom Magrino
By Tom Magrino

Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.

64 Comments

  • Warlord_Irochi

    Posted Aug 25, 2009 1:31 am GMT

    You need to compete with EA, right Activision? that means making a Burnout Paradise "inspired" game.

    So far looks OK anyway... we'll see how it ends.

  • pwn123

    Posted Aug 24, 2009 6:31 pm GMT

    nah stick to gt5 and nfs shift

  • krisalid

    Posted Aug 24, 2009 1:13 pm GMT

    allmost but not quite )

  • Tombackman_5

    Posted Aug 23, 2009 9:35 pm GMT

    BC=Great developer. This looks good.

  • IbnLaAhad

    Posted Aug 23, 2009 6:35 pm GMT

    I seems to share quite a few elements with Burnout.
    I don't like that.

  • BladeTrinity114

    Posted Aug 23, 2009 12:57 pm GMT

    Looking good. I love my race sims but sometimes it is cool to play a racing game that is just plain fun.

  • thenephariouson

    Posted Aug 23, 2009 12:04 pm GMT

    Burnout on Acid. Looks great, not to mention really good fun.

  • st0ner0

    Posted Aug 23, 2009 9:45 am GMT

    always thot that parklife was a good album. the game looks good too.

  • RuffRyder101

    Posted Aug 22, 2009 7:35 pm GMT

    Looks good

  • y2kern

    Posted Aug 22, 2009 7:26 am GMT

    looks cool actually looking foward to it, i hope it dosent turn out as lame as full auto

  • 6HomerSimpson23

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 2:50 pm GMT

    I'm looking forward to this, I can't wait to get it!

  • Korrupt_Soul

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 12:41 pm GMT

    I've been waiting a long time for a racer like this.

  • ztg360

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 10:51 am GMT

    shako first of all they aren't even close to the same genre and second of all im sick of hearing about forza its just another racing sim.

  • littlestreakier

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 10:51 am GMT

    this game looks very promising. i'm gonna have to check it out.

  • blackfray

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 10:45 am GMT

    you know, what i like about Activision is that it never forgets PC

  • shakoshako14

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 9:45 am GMT

    forza 3 is better

  • hendarmins

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 9:16 am GMT

    I hope compatible with logitech G25 (PS3)

  • Valkirye22

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 9:12 am GMT

    damage is cool, cars looks fun...
    although the surroundings could be a bit more realistic...

  • PixelAddict

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 9:04 am GMT

    My first reaction was "if it's not Burnout, I'm not interested..."

    But after watching the video, I'm interested. I want to see more. Gimme a demo, stat!