Racing games just aren’t as fun as they used to be, at least not for those who aren’t hardcore fans of the genre. While racers have become ever more realistic and beautiful, their appeal has arguably become increasingly niche. It's a successful niche to be sure, but often sharply divided between hardcore and casual lines. We believed that even before we got the chance to visit Bizarre Creations and play upcoming action racer, Blur.

Kinetic. Is a word that pulses in the mind while playing Blur.

But the Liverpool-based developer presented us with a compelling explanation as to why the genre has become divided territory, backed up by a racing game articulating their arguments far better than words ever could. And as well as being a literal blast to play, Blur promises to push the boundaries of what players expect from a multiplayer driving game.

In part, according to Ged Talbot, lead designer on Blur, the gap between the two types of racing fan is partly a symptom of the consoles’ quick technological leap over the last decade - an ‘uncanny valley’ dip in the road for the driving game fun. “As consoles got more powerful,” Talbot explained “, the ability to create simulations, not always as simulations, but simulations of the real world with real cars became more important to people.” Recalling the first time he saw cars being presented in photo-realistic fashion Talbot understands it’s attraction (it brought him into the industry), but there was danger lurking. Such was the pull in creating realistic-looking simulations, that developers got caught up in it, merely upping the ante with each console cycle and creating evermore beautiful games. Beautiful, but increasingly hardcore.

On top of that, Talbot suggests, console cycles were quite short, making it increasingly simple merely to iterate with the better graphics and polish afforded by new technology. Beautiful and realistic racing games were perfect system launchers, naturally showcasing a system’s capabilities. And the hardcore car fans loved it. But with the focus on growing heavier on simulation, more casual fans, and a universal pick-up-and-play 'fun factor', began to get locked out. It’s a compelling argument, and one that explains why driving games, once the purview of gamers at large, have become such a polarized genre. But according to Talbot, that can’t continue for much longer.

Blur's Online Menu. Like a standard menu, but online.

“This generation, the cycle has been approximately twice as long, so you can’t just make next game for the next console – you’ve actually got to make a game that appeals to people in a different way” he offered “that’s one of the reasons we made Blur; we didn’t want to make another carbon copy of what we’d done before. We had to do something else. People thought that real equated to fun, but real doesn’t always equate to fun. Don’t get me wrong, we love simulations, we love hardcore racing games, we’re not knocking them, but we’re interested in the potential of – and wanted to make – an action game. ”

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