EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: blur
Bizarre Creations, creator of classic franchises like Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars, as well as the excellent Blur, is shutting down today.
The company was acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2007, and after sales of Blur and James Bond 007: Blood Stone failed to meet projections, and with no new properties in the pipeline, the publisher decided to close the studio after a number of other options were explored, including selling the Liverpool-based developer.
In mid-November last year, news emerged that Activision was ‘considering its options’ as far as the future of internal Bizarre Creations was concerned, following the release of a pair of poorly-performing titles created at the studio, namely Blur and James Bond 007: Blood Stone.
At the time, Activision was looking to either sell the developer, consolidate the talent within the studio, or close the company outright.
Now, over two months later and with no serious potential buyers, Activision may be forced to close Bizarre.
Severe rumours have begun blustering around the tubes that veteran videogame developer Bizarre Creations (Geometry Wars, Project Gotham Racing, Blur) faces closure following a string of poorly performing titles, while the last game developed at the studio, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, received anything but stellar critical and commercial success.
Now Activision Publishing, the owners of Bizarre for over three years, is considering what it can do to make use of the obvious talent within the studio, while the option to either sell or close the developer is also on the cards.
Speaking to Kotaku, an Activision spokesperson commented:
Three incredible games are getting multiplayer experience boosts this weekend to celebrate Halloween, which means that if you play the respective games, you’ll be able to earn much more in-game XP than you would usually be able to do.
Let’s first take a look at Activision Blizzard and Bizarre Creation’s excellent Blur weekend event, which will offer double XP from now until the end of Sunday.
Did you know that Ron Gilbert and Hothead Games’ action RPG, DeathSpank, is due to release on the European PlayStation Store in only a few hours? You didn’t?! You need to get up to speed!
First, watch the newly released launch trailer for DeathSpank to see what you’ll be getting up to (Dispensing Justice) and then pore over El33tonline’s previous coverage of the game to fill in the blanks.
You don’t want any unfilled blanks, do you?
Other highlights of the soon-to-be-updated European PlayStation Store includes a ton of special price offers on games, content and ‘PSP Essentials,’ a Blur multiplayer demo, extensive add-on content, and the usual range of Avatars, videos and Rock Band and Guitar Hero downloadable tracks.
Head on down below to see the full list of content set to hit the European PlayStation Store in just a few hours:
Activision has popped a multiplayer demo for their recently released arcade racing game, Blur, on the PlayStation Network.
And according to Dan Amrich, Social Media Manager at Activision, ‘Pools of lightning bolts, explosive mines, bursts of nitro speed, and big glowing red balls of homing-missile danger” come standard. Yes!
What’s available on the US PlayStation Store today?
Well, when Ron Gilbert and Hothead Games’ action RPG, DeathSpank, makes an appearance, nothing else matters… and that’s the truth!
Available today as both a full game download for $14.99, as well as a free demo, be sure to check out the hilarious fantasy-themed adventures of DeathSpank, as he delivers justice straight to your PS3!
But seriously, what else is on the Store today? Let’s see… a Blur multiplayer demo, a “3D helicopter adventure game” called Landit Bandit, a ton of downloadable content for NCAA Football 11, some PlayStation Plus offers, some new Guitar Hero and Rock Band tracks, and the usual assortment of videos, wallpapers and themes…
… but most of all, DeathSpank!
Have a look through the full list of new content now available on the US PlayStation Store below:
I find May’s sales figures for Alan Wake, Blur and Split/Second in the US very concerning.
You may very well say “I find your lack of faith disturbing,” but looking at the numbers presented by sales tracking group NPD, one can’t help but feel a little irked. Three seemingly triple-A games all failing to scrape together over 150 000 units sold each, and less than 300 000 sales between them… that’s concerning.
The fact that each game released in the same month doesn’t help. The fact that two of these games (Blur and Split/Second) were pitched to the mass market as ‘similar’ helps even less. And the fact that all three games were up against a titan of a title in the form of Red Dead Redemption, all jostling for gamers’ hard-earned cash within 7 days of one another… well, that’s just plain hard luck.
The Mario Kart and WipEout series of racing games are both terrific fun, and one of the many reasons these games offer a consistently enjoyable experience is because of the way each game handles and balances the complex question of minute-to-minute and second-to-second player choice. Not only do both games feature (generally) enjoyable track design, but they also feature competitive racing, with an array of power-ups on the track to pick up and use to gain an advantage during a race.
While in the heat of battle, dozens of decisions are constantly flowing through a player’s mind depending on their position on the track, their position in the race, and their currently held power-up. Through these decisions, a continually changing racing strategy is unfolding in that player’s brain, in order to best figure out how to win that race.
What Mario Kart and WipEout do so well is provide just enough interesting and important decisions along a player’s path to ensure they never become too overwhelmed with choices on one end of the spectrum, or too bored with a lack of them on the other.
So when developer Bizarre Creations creates a game that takes the action racing approach of Mario Kart and WipEout, complete with a range of powerful and explosive power-ups, mixes in the studio’s keen ability for creating realistic vehicles and tracks, includes a few new features and hooks of its own, and calls that game ‘Blur,’ what can go wrong?
Not much, evidently.
Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Blur.
Bizarre Creations has unleashed a new pumping trailer for Blur, the studio’s recently released arcade racing game. The new ‘Freeze’ trailer shows a moment of the race, frame by frame in slow-motion. It’s pretty awesome but you can see that for yourself below:
A new demo for Bizarre Creations’ power-up infused racing game, Blur, has hit Xbox LIVE Marketplace today, available in all Xbox LIVE regions (but currently only open to Xbox LIVE Gold members).
Despite a 40% drop in sales compared to the previous week, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption has managed to remain the best selling title in the UK, appearing at No. 1 on Chart Track’s UK Software Sales Chart for the second week in a row.
Activision and Bizarre Creation’s hybrid action racing game Blur raced on to shelves across North America yesterday, and an explosive launch trailer has been released to celebrate the launch. The game will be available across Europe, the UK and South Africa on the 28th of May (this Friday!) on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Developers at Bizarre Creations have stated on numerous occasions that they don’t mind that their latest action racing game, Blur, is being compared to Nintendo’s power-up infused Mario Kart series of racing games. They’re even honoured that Blur can measure up to such a distinguished and long-running franchise.
It seems as though Blur’s marketing team has other ideas.
While this latest trailer for Blur is rather funny, it’s always a little worrying when one game needs to belittle another ‘competing’ game to get ahead. Can’t Blur stand on its own features?
It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt:
As a result of the enormous response to the closed multiplayer beta for Activision and Bizarre Creation’s arcade racer, Blur, the pair have put the beta demo up on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for all to download and enjoy.
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