For a few days, I was on a roll with Split/Second. I was really enjoying the progression through the career mode and I thought this wouldn’t end like my experiences with Burnout Paradise or Blur, where I hit a figurative brick wall. In both games, I hit a point where I needed “x” amount of points to move onto the next set of challenges, yet I couldn’t muster up the skills to make the necessary progress. At first, I was finishing second or third in my Split/Second races, which was enough to get me to the next episode. However, my lack of perfection eventually caught up.
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Thoughts on Blur’s Career Mode
I really like Blur’s Career Mode in concept. It’s designed in a way to make sure that you’re never stuck on one thing. You always have multiple races you can choose from and different goals to work towards in order to unlock the next series of races or the next rival race. Even when you lose races, you can still earn fans or new cars.
But what happens when you get stuck on every available option? This is what’s happened to me in Blur. I’m not very far into the career mode at all, but I’ve already hit the wall. Maybe more determined (or skilled) players would fight through it, but I’m going to have to disappoint Vin Diesel on this one.
Early Impressions of Blur
In a world where Gran Turismo 5 and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit have just come out, picking up Blur seems like an odd choice. This PGR/Mario Kart hybrid didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but the demo left enough of a positive impact on me to keep it on my ‘buy it eventually’ list, which I finally did over the weekend.
It’s a shame that this game did not get a foothold among gamers, cause it’s kind of awesome.
Pick-Up Post: Blur
Picking up Blur at this point in the game’s life-cycle seems like an odd choice. For one, it’s roughly 7 months old. Two, Gran Turismo 5 is out, which is a much higher-profile racing game. Three, despite its critical acclaim and heavy marketing push, it bombed at retail, which prompted Activision to drop Bizarre Creations.
None of that matters to me. I want to play this game.
In Third Person 