Blur Review

Lets go Racing!!!!

Blur is the ultimate Powered-up racing experience, dropping you into electrified action with a mass of cars targeting the finish line and battling each other as they trade paint. Travel the globe from L.A. and San Francisco to Spain, the UK and more to take on the best the streets have to offer. Utilize an arsenal of Power-ups like nitro speed boosts, shock attacks, defensive shields, and landmines to beat your rivals across the finish line. You choose how and when to use your armory of Power-ups for ultimate impact in a race where the outcome is never certain. Blur's story unfolds through a unique community-based social network interface that includes 4 player split-screen multiplayer and online multiplayer.

• Power-ups: Collect a variety of addictive dynamic Power-ups and use them independently or combo them strategically to take out your opponents.
• Real Racing: Dramatic collisions, realistic damage, stunning racing environments, real world locations and more than 55 licensed photo-realistic cars from the top manufacturers around the world.
• Social Network: Unique story-driving social network interface evolves as you compete in different races, make new friends, rivals and fans, and connect with other racers both in game and in real life.
• Multi-player: Features online multiplayer supporting competitive and cooperative game play for up to 20 racers and 4 player split-screen

It's not just four tyres and an engine. In Blur, your car is your racing machine. But it's also a key part of your Power-up arsenal. Do you trade acceleration for stability? Or take more grip in exchange for less health? And which cars are best for which track? The best Blur racers will be able to balance these variables and make the right choice for their driving style...

An Inside Look Into
Blur Friend Challenges

You build Friend Challenges by first completing any race in the Single Player portion of Blur. If you complete the objective you are given the option to create a Friend Challenge from your race result. Blur will automatically fill in the blanks of your challenge. For example, if the aim was to complete the circuit in less than two minutes but you did it in 1:56 then your new challenge will read “Complete the circuit in less than 1:56”.

However, that’s not the whole story. You can tweak the challenges based on other variables too. For instance, why not make it a little tougher by saying “Complete the circuit in less than 1:56, BUT only use 3 Nitro power-ups to do so”. Or “Complete the circuit in less than 1:56, AND collect 1,500 fan points”. We’ve built a large number of possibilities into the Friend Challenge system, allowing you to customise and tweak the game to your heart’s content.

We really enjoy the play-by-mail style of the Friend Challenges, and we hope you will too. It allows you to race with your friends without being online at the same time, so if you live in different time zones or work the night shift then this feature lets you remain competitive against your buddies! Another great feature is that you don’t need an Xbox Live Gold account to send and receive Friend Challenges – Silver is more than good enough to take part!

So what if your friend hasn’t unlocked the specific event or vehicle yet? It doesn’t matter! When they accept your challenge, they’ll get a taste of that same track and vehicle that they themselves may not have unlocked yet. And all those Fan Points earned in that challenge, you get to bank towards increasing your Fan Status, which in turn will unlock more cars

Going Western

with

Red Dead Redemption

The American West has made actors famous and writers rich. It has inspired children on the playground and grizzled country singers alike. Its stories of heroes and bandits, gold rushes and simple homesteaders have been fictionalized and romanticized to the point that they're known the world over. And yet, videogame makers have either ignored the setting or attempted to squeeze it into existing game conventions with limited success. That has all changed now that Rockstar, the group made famous for its Grand Theft Auto series, turned its eye towards the Wild West. No game maker has approached the period with as much passion and power as Red Dead Redemption. This is the new bar that all Westerns must strive to reach.

It's tempting to say that Red Dead Redemption is ahead of its time, but the reality is that this is a game of and for the times. Rockstar shows an uncanny ability to hold a mirror up to society and remind us that present day hot button issues like racism, immigration, federal government power and personal freedoms are not only nothing new, they are deeply ingrained in American society. They are forces that helped to shape America into what it is, and their inclusion in Red Dead Redemption gives it a sense of authenticity that videogames in general lack.

But rather than preaching politics at you, Red Dead Redemption puts you in the shoes of the relatively neutral John Marston. This former outlaw gone straight has found that history has a way of catching up with you. Those who were once his friends have now become enemies, leaving Marston alone and fighting for his future in a lawless land. It's a setup that is almost cliche, but this is only the beginning of your adventure.

The storyline of Red Dead Redemption will take you all over a vast swath of countryside that straddles the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Along the way you'll meet, assist, and spill blood with a fantastic cast of supporting characters as Marston attempts to set things straight. The characters are wonderful with top notch dialogue and voice acting -- all good enough to make you feel a part of the world.

If there is any criticism I could level at the story, it's that Marston occasionally feels divorced from the action, his motivations muddled as he is all too willing to help anybody that asks for it despite his own pressing matters. A simple, "I'm being made to do this," from Marston is all you'll get out of the protagonist for much of the game while secondary characters drive the tale along, which was a bit of a disappointment for me. This all changes towards the end, however, as Red Dead Redemption builds towards a shattering climax that is amongst the best I've ever seen in a videogame.

Following that main story will take you roughly 20 hours from start to finish, though most will find that there is so much to do that it is difficult to focus on one thing. This is made by Rockstar, after all, and their heritage as masters of the open world sandbox game is not lost.

Herding cattle and breaking mustangs? Check. Tracking down outlaws for bounty? You can take them dead or alive. Treasure hunting and sharpshooting challenges? There are dozens of them. The side missions and quests range from the little things like playing horse shoes or poker to big shootouts at bandit hideouts. There are even some that are fleshed out enough to be a part of the main storyline. You could spend hours just riding around trying to track down all of the components of a new outfit for Marston, or hunting wild game and picking herbs and desert flowers. The Rockstar Social Club, a free online community that connects to the game, offers additional challenges and leaderboards to encourage even more replay. If you're looking for one game to occupy you for months, this is it.

The dwindling loyalty to Gears of War 2 maybe sparked by a huge title update (the 6th and counting). It goes to show that the game has not been ignored while Gears of War 3 has been announced and in heavy production for its release April 2011. The title update will do what most updates aim to accomplish - it will fix a lot of bugs, exploits (ha! to the cheaters), a new public multiplayer feature similar to Gears of War 1, and switching up how players leave and join matches.

Also a little gem - if you're still two-piecing on the original maps, all DLC will be available for under the 1600 MSP asking price.

The update details are below.

Improvements

Title Update 6 makes these new improvements:

• Adds a new public multiplayer match option called Social Xbox LIVE (aka player matches), open to anyone who owns all downloadable maps (that is, All Fronts Collection). We'll be having a promotion that will dramatically reduce the cost of the All Fronts Collection.
• You can join Social Matches in progress and can quit any time without penalty, although players who quit a match early don't receive earned experience (XP) from that match.
• Social matchmaking lets your party join a match in progress. If a match is not found, your party hosts a new match, filling any empty player slots with bots.
• Social Matches automatically cycle to the next map without further matchmaking.
• Teams are rebalanced between matches based on XP level without splitting parties.
• If you quit, your spot is taken by a bot until a new player joins the match. That new player can join while the match is in progress.
• If you join a match in progress, you are assigned a team based on XP level and party size.
• If you join a match in progress, you replace a bot at the earliest opportunity: at the first bot's death for respawning game types (for example, Annex) and at round completion for Warzone, Execution, and Wingman.
• Social leaderboards become part of the War Journal.
• Renames Public Matches to Ranked Xbox LIVE Matches to differentiate these from Social Xbox LIVE Matches, and adds some improvements to these matches.
• Improved host selection using bandwidth testing and previous hosting data has been added.
• Before the match begins, teams are balanced based on XP without splitting parties.
• Renames Private Matches to Custom Xbox LIVE Matches and makes these matches invite-only.
• Adds the ability to join Horde sessions that are in progress.
• In Social Horde, you can join a session in progress through matchmaking and you are able to continue your session from the last wave you failed without starting over.
• In Ranked Horde, you can join a session in progress only through invites.
• If you join a session in progress, at the end of the session you receive the score you achieved during the time you spent in the session.
• Improves the precision of weapon selection using the D-pad.
• Improves client-side hit detection for ballistic weapons.

Exploit Fixes

Title Update 6 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

• Execution rules could be ignored when using certain weapon types.
• On the Subway map, you could get outside of the playable environment by sliding into cover and rolling between a train car and the side of tracks.
• On the Blood Drive map, you could get outside of the playable environment in various locations.
• Players could grief other players on Submission, Annex, King of the Hill, and Guardian games by preventing the objective from being completed while racking up experience. Title Update 6 adds match time limits to each of these game types to prevent this practice.

General Fixes

Title Update 6 fixes these other issues as well:

• An issue that could cause your profile to be overwritten, erasing XP level, and achievement progress.
• An issue that could cause a campaign save slot to be overwritten if you previously chose to continue without saving and then signed in.

Balancing

Title Update 6 makes these balancing changes:

• Changes the Gnasher Shotgun pellet pattern to increase hit consistency.
• Changes the Guardian game type to select the leader based upon XP level (highest to lowest).

TU6 Release Notes 5/17/2010 [Epic Forums via CVG]