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Why Blur can damage its cars
Car manufacturers are notoriously cranky about letting their autos show damage in racing games. So why will you find bumps and bruises on the cars in Blur but not in Bizarre's other racing title Project Gotham? Apparently, it's all about the make.Because a game like Blur doesn't have to have companies like Porsche and Ferrari, Bizarre is able to focus on the ones that will let Bizarre beat up its cars. Plus, according to Bizarre's Gareth Wilson, car-crunching games like GRID and DiRT helped to pave the way. Just out of curiosity, how much does damage modeling matter to you?
Blur trailer races into clear view
Announced by Activision on Tuesday, Blur -- the latest racer from PGR dev Bizarre Creations -- can be considered officially teased with the release of a brief (but certainly not blurry) first look at it in motion. The teaser appears specifically tailored to elicit the exact reaction we had when viewing it for the first time; that is, "Wow, it looks like PGR," followed by, "Whoa, what was that crazy blast?"We know, of course, that it's the effect produced by one of the many Mario Kart-style power-ups intended to make Blur stand out from other current-gen auto racers. It looks a little out of place in the context of the trailer, but we'll save our "spiffy / goofy" verdict until we see some actual gameplay. What do you think?
Blur is a 'breath of fresh air' for Bizarre Creations
Bizarre Creations' Ged Talbot admitted that the developer's long-running, Xbox (and Xbox 360) exclusive racing series Project Gotham Racing was beginning to lose its sizzle, according to an interview with CVG. Talbot explained, "By the time we got to PGR4 I certainly felt that the time was right to move on and do different things." That's a desire the developer will be fulfilling with its upcoming "Mario Kart meets Forza" racer, Blur -- a project Talbot calls "a breath of fresh air."Yes, they're breaking up the monotony of their worn out racing franchise, and rejuvenating their stagnant creative juices by generating a totally new ... racing franchise. Bold!%Gallery-63796%
Blur screens hit the web, are surprisingly sharp
After we found out earlier today that Bizarre Creations' Blur would be speeding to store shelves this fall, we thought that'd be all the Blur news the game's publisher, Activision, was ready to drop in a single day. Turns out we were wrong, as a handful of screens for the new racer are clearly available at Gamersyde -- and now right below in our gallery.The cars are plenty nice and the brightness has apparently been turned up to 11, but most importantly, we get an early glimpse of those "Mario Kart meets Forza" special effects. Seems as though electricity is the effect of the day, as nearly every shot we've seen features fractured blue light from end to end. No oil slicks that send cars careening to their doom? No carefully placed explosive barrels intended for multiple flips? For shame, Activision. For shame.Update: Added a gallery! Enjoy:%Gallery-63796%
Bizarre Creations' Blur to trade paint this fall
After a few weeks of kind of announcing it, Activision finally got around to actually announcing Blur, Bizarre Creations' new title, today. The arcade racer, once described as "Mario Kart meets Forza," is due on PS3, 360 and PC this fall.With little more than a non-working official site to go off, we still don't have a great sense of how the game will play. At this point, we know it features 20 "photo-realistic" cars battling it out with offensive and defensive power-ups in locales like L.A. and Barcelona. There's also apparently some kind of narrative that evolves as players compete online. ... Yeah, we can't make heads or tails of that either.For a better take on the game, you -- like us -- are just going to have to wait for E3.
Activision: Blur 'to do for racing what Call of Duty did for shooters'
Activision has big hopes for Bizarre Creations' upcoming racer, Blur. Following the company's revenue report yesterday, CEO Michael Griffith said that Blur "brings real innovation to the racing category and is looking very strong." According to MCV, he noted that Activision would be "targeting Blur to do for racing what Call of Duty did for shooters," which, in layman's terms, means selling a lot of copies. Griffith says to expect Blur at next month's E3, and you can believe that we'll get our hands on it the first chance we get.
Bizarre Creations discusses Microsoft relationship, Activision acquisition
Bizarre Creations and Microsoft used to be BFF. Together, the two produced a number of great racing games, the latest being two racers for the Xbox 360 -- PGR3 and PGR4. In October of 2008, however, Bizarre Creations found itself under the caring wing of mother bird Activision, and creative director Martyn Chudley told Edge that the studio has been better off because of it.Chudley described Microsoft's presence near the end as "corporate and cocky," attributing most of that to the shift in power between Microsoft and Sony this generation. He added that the company has always been too focused on the Forza games, seemingly neglecting to give the PGR franchise the marketing push and focus Bizarre Creations always felt it deserved. Enter Activision, which showed a lot of interest, especially considering the lack of a proven racing franchise to call its own. Bizarre Creations hopes to produce such a hit with Blur, its first title following its acqusition by Activision. We expect to see more of the game -- including that franchise potential -- during this year's E3.
Rumor: Bizarre's new racer is 'Blur'
Don't blink, or you'll miss this latest tidbit concerning Bizarre Creations' potential new racing project. Going by the name Blur, urban racer was reportedly revealed within the pages of French gaming mag Joypad, with the hazy racer adding power-ups, weapons and new collision tech to the developer's long-held love of racing.While still unconfirmed, Bizarre Creations' next racing project was first teased in late 2008 as "Mario Kart meets Forza," and we've fired a turtle shell in the developer's general direction to find out more.Source: NeoGAF translationSource: First Info on Bizarre's Blur
New Pentax DSLR shots blur the boundaries of Mr. Blurrycam
Trust us, we've seen some significantly distorted sneak peeks before, but the three Pentax DSLR shots in the links below are certainly amongst the blurriest to ever tease our retinas. Obviously, it's next to impossible to glean anything other than the brand (Pentax) and style (DSLR) from the shots, though we will say that the mode dial's copious amount options has our interest piqued. Give 'em a look if you're not susceptible to motion sickness, and feel free to dish out your wildest accusations in comments below.Update: Could these be non-blurry pics? Or just meaningless renders? You decide. Thanks, Andrew!Read - First sneak peekRead - The other two
Billy Joel and Queen headline SingStore update
Another SingStore update goes live today in Europe. Check out the full list, via Three Speech:English Incubus - Drive Blur - Good Song Sherbet - Howzat Roy Orbison - In Dreams Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty Trace Adkins - Honky Tonk Badonkadonk Andreas Johnson - Sing For Me Billy Joel - Tell Her About It The Triffids - Wide Open Road Phyllis Nelson - Move Closer Helena Paparizou - My Number One The Fray - You Found Me OutKast - Roses Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water Trace Adkins - You're Gonna Miss This
Smudge photos with Seashore
If you're looking for a quick and dirty way to smudge sensitive information in photos before putting them online then give Seashore a whirl. We've written about this neat little open source Mac-only app before and think it's great for basic image editing and touch-ups. To smudge parts of a photo, simply open the Seashore toolbar, then open the photo you want to edit. Select the "finger" icon from the left side of the toolbar and right-click on the mouse while dragging the cursor across the area you want to blur. Save the photo and you're done. Be advised, however, your blurring efforts can be undone just as easily so if you need to hide extremely sensitive information, you'll need to use another method.
EA hosts SSX party at Ice Hotel
To celebrate the release of SSX Blur, EA held an event at Quebec's Ice Hotel, which is a hotel made of ice. A hotel, where people sleep, where the walls are made of ice. Journalists got a chance to play the new game and see new demos of Army of Two and a mysterious new property that is, unfortunately, under embargo. Junkie XL, who is responsible for Blur's soundtrack, provided a performance, presumably using non-ice-based instruments. The crowd was also treated to drinks at the ice bar (a bar made of ice), and, of course, warm chicken soup, which no doubt helped everyone keep warm. Ice, as you may have heard, is cold, and the event took place in a building made entirely of ice.We don't know whether to be jealous of the people who were invited to this unusual locale, or happy that we spent the day in an environment habitable by humans. Luckily Blur is out in stores and we can enjoy it in our nice, temperate homes.[Via QJ.net]
De-interlacing and scaling the most important buying factors?
While the whole "1080i vs. 1080p" debate could likely go on for a good decade or so, having that oh-so-coveted "Full HD" logo slapped on your set evidently isn't the answer to all your HD problems, at least if you watch a good percentage of cable / satellite-provided content. A rather informative writeup / rant over at HD1080i lends a bit more insight into the ongoing discussion of when 1080p differs from 1080i, and goes on to explain that many incorrectly processed images cause quite a bit of dissatisfaction when it comes to quality, and oftentimes, it's not even your fault. Sure, folks outputting 1080p from an HD DVD or Blu-ray player get the benefit of seeing a progressive, pre-cleaned-up image, which basically removes all the hard work from your TV's internal scaler; however, for those watching a processed episode of TNT HD's Charmed, for instance, could witness a bit of "interlacing crop errors when de-interlacing is not done properly," rather than just a correctly rendered motion blur. Essentially, this fellow attempts to convince us that 1080p is an important matter, and it's great to have it there "when you need it," even though it's not likely that we see 1080p content coming through our cable STB anytime soon. So be sure and hit the read link to take a gander at yet another perspective, because a bit more research never hurt anyone, eh?
Mitsubishi develops "flutter shutter" for deblurring pics
Recent projects are really putting the hurt on bluriness. We saw camera shake take a big hit with the recent MIT project that uses a fancy algorithm to sharpen a picture, but does nothing for moving objects. This new tech from some Mitsubishi tackles the motion blur problem thanks to a relatively simple "flutter shutter" attachment on the actual camera. Their device uses a coded exposure sequence to cut a normal exposure into short burst, allowing processing software to sharpen any fast moving objects in the picture. The prototype is based on an 8 megapixel Canon PowerShot Pro1, but the method can apparently be applied to any camera, and would even work as a built-in feature on a consumer cam -- though it'll probably be a few years before it trickles down that far. In the more immediate future the tech seems a great fit for security cameras, since the system can help decipher blurry license plates. Senior research scientist Ramesh Raskar likened the method to a UV filter or a polarizing filter, and based on Mitsubishi's examples of the flutter shutter in action, the tech could really be a boon to all sorts of photography.
