I have bought blur during last Steam sales, I download it but I was not waiting a lot from it.
Surprisingly, the game has hooked me all weekend and is quite challenging. Never had that much fun on a racer since FZero, even if this one is far easier. I haven't tried GT5 yet, though.
Basically, Blur is a racing game with licensed cars that you have to unlock during the SP game, but there's several power ups on the tracks to spice things up. Homing missile, mines, bolts, shield, boosts... are all very common, but well balanced so that you are not stopped straight away.
Also, finishing first is not the only goal on the track, there's also a counter of your fans during the races. The more spectacular action you accomplish (nice drifts, nice shoots) the more fan you get, and there's also specific action you have to do while racing that will earn you more fans. If you fail to do so, you'll lose fans. In the game, finishing at least third with the number of fans required gives you more points to unlock chapters.
Blur single player makes you race in chapter composed of main events, and a last one to one against the enemy of the chapter. The main events are the common races, but there's also a specific race where shooting other cars give you more time, and checkpoint based time attack ala Gran Tourismo.
I won't talk about the graphics capacity of the game, but the shooting effects are nice, especially in the internal view.
The game is very easy to get into, you get the controls very easily, but the difficulty is graduate. Some events are extremely difficult, till you find the perfect car for the race. The tracks are diversified and you don't feel running around the same super-detailed track. Though, some tracks seem pretty bland, while some other tracks have a lot of personality, with multiple short cuts , hidden jumps... The only complain I have for the moment is the drifts, which are pretty uncontrollable ^^ I can't master them for now !
The music in the game is really catchy, and even if there's a few music tracks, they still stick well to the general ambience of funny chaos.
If you like arcadey racers, go for it, it's plenty of fun !
