Busy Gamer Review - Blur
Too busy to devote 12+ hours a day to your gaming habit? Here's a review that's sensitive to your needs: Short and focused on just the things that a busy gamer like you really needs to know.
Reviewed On: Xbox 360. Also available for PC and PS3.
In a Nutshell: Aggressive driving game from the folks who made Project Gotham Racing in the spirit of Burnout with a touch of Mario Kart - but with a grown-up edge to it. This is not for the really small kids. Driving skills are important, but it's your willing- and ableness to mine, shoot, bash and generally beat the crap out of your competitors that will help you win. If this is your bag - and it is most certainly mine! - you'll have a terrific time. You'll also get to know the tracks very well, as you'll be running the same loops over... and over... and over as you attempt to garner at least a third-place finish.
Learning Curve: Experienced drivers should have no problems picking up the game. Learning to distinguish between some weapon icons can take time, as they may look similar at first glance. Once you have it down, you're solid. Then, it becomes a matter of positioning yourself to pick up the items you need to succeed. Opponents (both real and AI!) will aggressively bump you out of the way to get to items, meaning you either have to fall back long enough to let the desired item regenerate or risk getting rammed and losing it entirely. So, yeah, there's some minor strategy.
The Save Game: As with most racing games, Blur autosaves after every completed race. Keep an eye on the corner and watch your button mashing - you don't want to lose fans by exiting prematurely. You'll also miss out on unlockables if you exit before the game has finished announcing all of your wins. Pro tip: If you "fail" a race, DON'T retry it. Instead, select Continue so you get credit for any fans earned (even a few fans is better than none!). Then restart from the menu. A pain, yes - but as you hit harder levels, you'll need every fan you can get to level up, unlock cars and finally have what you need to take down the increasingly difficult challenges.
Family Factor: I've let our 7-year-old watch me play, and so far, he hasn't crashed any cars in real life. We have had many discussions about why it's a fantasy and we don't drive like this around the neighborhood. He does not play the game; he's relegated to Mario Kart for his own vehicle destruction thrills. There is no language in the game, but online players sometimes get salty. I'm looking at you, prepubescent griefer in the Ferrari. There's a reason we threw you out of the game!
Buy, Rent or Skip? An absolute buy for racing fans. Even with the frustrations, this is a great game with solid replay value. Due to the wide range of power-ups and vehicle choices, every race is unique. I've even greatly enjoyed playing online; except for the aforementioned booted pre-teen, people are friendly, play nice (they'll even apologize when they run you off the road!) and are generally well behaved.
On a Personal Note: I have to admit, I wasn't particularly excited about Blur when I first saw the videos earlier this year. I entered the beta for the same reason I enter most betas - for Busy Gamer News. I fully expected to play long enough to be able to speak intelligently about it and then be done. Instead, it became my nightly obsession, and I quickly hit the level cap implemented for the beta. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the game for reals, and have been greatly enjoying it ever since.
Online racing is mostly done right with drivers matched within a level range. There's one problem, however. Your online ranking is based on online driving - so drivers can master the courses for days/weeks/months in career before going online and smoking the newbies. Your best defense, unless you really just want to race real people online, is to work on your career first - even though your offline career in no way levels your multiplayer one and the car unlocks are separate as well.
The basic single-player challenges are: 1) placing in races, 2) "fan runs" that require you to zip between slalom-style gates in the midst of regular race (AND place to get credit for it) and 3) scoring a certain number fans within the race, primarily by being a jerk to your fellow drivers. There are also destruction mode challenges that amount to chasing down cars and shooting them to gain more time and a beat-the-clock mode that requires you to boost and collect stopwatches for a few bonus seconds as you race through timed checkpoints.
The single-player career mode has you beating a set of challenges and special requirements (e.g., "evade 3 lightning attacks") staged by your various AI opponents so you can finally race them and take their cars. Your fan base contributes to your level and unlocks new vehicles. Every run will earn you fans as long as you cross the finish line (or time out in timed modes) and DON'T select retry.
If you run into trouble when the difficulty ramps up (as it does rather quickly after your first one-on-one win), be sure to collect every fan you can and match off-road vehicles to races with long stretches of dirt track. Don't worry about fan runs - they can distract you from the win and only count if you place in the race. Always try to keep at least one defensive power-up handy to protect against attacks from behind. And if you're the leader, save a shunt attack in case someone passes you right before the finish line!
My all-time favorite attack is the barge - it's a purple power-up that lets you blast away enemies on either side of you. Wedge yourself between two aggressive drivers (or anyone approaching that next power-up you want to collect) and watch them fly away and then roll off in your rearview mirror!
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In a Nutshell: The titular Maw is a giant purple blob with a big, hungry mouth (get it?) and the brain of a dog. A sweet, stupid, really hungry dog. The game's opening scenes imply - but do not show - Maw in a laboratory, presumably about to get sliced and diced. He escapes with his buddy Frank, an adorable yet slightly creepy bug-like alien dude. That would be you.
On a Personal Note: Our 7-year-old discovered The Maw last year, and immediately started mimicking Frank's call (Maw? MAAA-AWWW!), even adapting it to call one of our cats, Mal. (Listen to our next Sunday podcast for an audio sample!)
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In a Nutshell: Basic sandbox game with a main quest line, side mission opportunities and the chance to wreak general havoc if you are so inclined. You play an assassin in training running around Italy in the 1400s (the game bounces around years). Your primary weapons are blade-based (knives, swords, throwing knives, etc.) or big heavy hammers. You will not be sniping or going rogue with a sub-machine gun in this one. You also won't be seeing well in some areas, as light sources are kept strictly period (windows and torches on the wall). You will defy gravity on a regular basis, climbing and leaping across rooftops and reaching the tallest buildings in multiple-bounds.
In a Nutshell: It's the famous match-3 shooter game featuring a frog and a vengeful tikki statue, with some welcome new twists. The basics: Your shooter is a stone frog, your targets are multi-colored marbles. Match 3 or more, you score and the meter fills. New balls stop coming when the meter is full. The game ends when you either clear the board or the balls reach the drain (i.e., you lose the level), whichever comes first. Balls periodically convert to power-ups that activate upon matching. Holdovers from the original Zuma include Reverse balls (the balls roll back away from the dreaded drain), Slow balls and Bombs.
In a Nutshell: Solve puzzles and advance through "action" levels in this platformer with a twist. Most levels cannot be completed without conjuring one more items from the game's vast dictionary. Open your in-game notepad and scribble or type the name of the object or creature you think will help. Then see if you can use it to satisfy the level's goal and collect a star. For instance, in one early level there's a star stuck in a tree. You can select an item that cuts down the tree or one that carries you up to collect the star. You can even place a heavy object on top of the star to push it down.
In a Nutshell: Turn-based battle action in the Wolfenstein 3D setting with tweaks to make it more playable on a touchscreen portable. The first-person perspective is intact, with options to punch, kick, shoot and eventually blow up enemies and stuff. The enemies have evolved; Hitler now has a soul patch - among other historical re-imaginings! Not the same game you remember from the '80s and '90s or even a few years back on the consoles, but not bad, either. Just different.
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Learning Curve: If you've played a first-person shooter before, just jump right in. You start with a wrench and soon pick up your first plasmid power and a standard issue pistol. The game introduces new elements every level pretty much right up until the end, so you're constantly learning new tricks and gaining or enhancing your capabilities - but in small, easy-to-absorb doses. An extensive in-game help system fills in most gaps in your knowledge, and a quick skim of the manual delivers the rest. The only thing that proved confusing were the plasmid and tonic slots, since the first Gene Bank (for reviewing and swapping these around freely) doesn't appear until the level after you first need it. Fortunately, you can backtrack to most places in the game - just not the "Welcome to Rapture" intro or a place known as "Control Room," so search those areas carefully before progressing the story.
The Save Game: Except in one or two spots, you can save the game anywhere. This makes it very convenient to quit at any time - assuming you can pry yourself away from the highly addictive gameplay. So even with the great save system, you'll probably want to find a few days (15-25 hours of play time) that you can devote largely uninterrupted to this worthy title. The game also resurrects you if you die, with all weapons and powers intact plus at least a little health, so you can recover quickly when your attacks fail. Note for 360 players: If you use a memory card with no hard drive attached, you might avoid some framerate stuttering suffered by some hard drive users in later levels (including me!), but be aware that autosave won't work properly when your storage is full - and it prompts you to quit the game to clear space! If this happens, simply back out and then overwrite an old save file yourself.
On a Personal Note: This is simply the best game I've ever played, thanks to a design that lets you choose your style of play and experiment with new attacks. At one point, I went into a sort of fugue state where all I could do for about 8 hours was play. I'd save and shutdown only to reboot 10 minutes later. Normally I'd try to savor a game of this caliber, like I have with the Elder Scrolls and Halo series. I found that impossible here. No matter how hard I tried, I just had to soldier on. I can see why Valve banned the game in the office.
In a Nutshell: Pull off surfing tricks with the characters of the computer-animated movie of the same name. Really, that’s pretty much it. Well, there is a leaf-sliding mini-game and you can unlock some movie clips and such. But mostly it's about the surfing.
In a Nutshell: This is not your mother's gem-matching game. You create a warrior, wizard, knight or druid and then level up your skills by winning battles enacted on a shared field of brightly colored gems, stars, skulls and coins. If you've ever played Bejeweled, it's a lot like that - only there's an opponent who is trying to mess up your game and outmatch you with the same gems. So there's a strategy component as you try to anticipate cascades and your enemy's next move. You also collect different types of mana (red, green, blue and yellow) to power spells and abilities that can level the playing field - or, in the hands of your opponent, you. You'll save up gold pieces to purchase better armor and weapons, capture enemies to learn their tricks, collect special runes to craft your own wares and build a citadel to rule over any cities you conquer. The story is a bit weak overall, but the quests are fun and the game is an instant diversion for dozens or even hundreds of hours of play - both in the main mode and impromptu battles against the computer or even a real person if you can find anyone else who actually has the game, which is available in disturbingly small quantities at retail.
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In a Nutshell: If your full-time work isn't tedious enough, you can pick up some odd jobs from the folks at Work Time Fun, a demonic temporary placement agency. At any moment there are four job positions (aka mini-games) available, and you can unlock more by feeding your ridiculous pittance they call a paycheck into coin-operated vending machines that suck up $1 per capsule all the way up to $50. More often than not, you'll collect junk that's simply catalogued and filed away, but every so often you'll unlock a new job or gadget to play with. Alas, these "jobs" tend to be very short and not much fun. You can put caps onto thousands of pens, or try to shag baseballs for as long as you can without a miss. Chop wood (but not the fuzzy stuffed animals that bleed when struck!) or find just the right target to hit with a "happy bullet." There are also "tools" that are quasi-useful: a flashlight mode where you choose the color you want your PSP screen to illuminate the world, a sexy Ramen noodle timer and even a set of customizable eyeballs to pay attention to you when no else will. Finally, you're continually harangued by "friends" via e-mails that provide tips and inane chatter but occasionally penalize or reward you.
In a Nutshell: Explore a vast world in this incredibly deep single-player adventure game. The main quests require 20+ hours to beat, but the game can easily be played for more than 200 hours if you take on countless side quests and downloadable add-on missions (see 
In a Nutshell: Burger King has put out three adver-games for the Xbox and Xbox 360, and the kicker is that they get you to pay for them TWICE. Depending on who's working the counter when you go in, you must purchase up to three value meals to get the three games plus shell out $4 apiece for the games themselves. (Each disc contains both Xbox and Xbox 360 versions.) So, are they worth it?
In a Nutshell: Edgy, arcade-style snowboarding action. The opening is spellbinding and funny: Manfred Mann's Blinded By The Light fades up as you ascend a mountain ski lift... in a giant pink bunny costume! The song continues as you execute your first challenge, to the amusement of other boarders. Then some wacky cut scenes kick in as the game proves immediately that it's like no other snowboarding game you've ever played. Alas, later scenes lose their entertainment value as an inane storyline takes a few uninteresting twists. But the game is still compelling as you embark on a variety of challenges to gain respect, awe bystanders and unlock music, gear and new mountain areas to explore. There are seven mountains, and some contain as many as four areas. And there are hundreds of challenges to keep you busy. Besides, there hasn't been a new snowboarding game in a couple years, and nothing as fresh as this since SSX Tricky.
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