You may remember Blur from their runaway hit "Song #2," which made its way into nearly every sports game published in the late 90's, early 2000's. The song's profound lyrics included the haunting "Woo-hoo," which brings to mind carefree reveling and the strangling of unsuspecting owls. "Song #2" is one of the tracks in LEOGO Rock Band, and all four members of Blur have gotten the tiny LEGO guy treatment , joining Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Queen in the family-friendly LEGO lineup. Woo-hoo.

Rolling Stone has a video of the band's LEGO avatars doing their thing, so click the link below if you feel the desperate need to.

Blur Join "LEGO Rock Band": See the Band's Avatars [Rolling Stone - thanks Noble!]

It's all in the name of multiplayer, according to the Activision press release announcing Blur's move into next year, a move that will give the development team "more time to enhance the game's innovative and distinctive online multiplayer gameplay". In other words, the online isn't quite finished yet.

"We are committed to making Blur a great new racing franchise, and we are very encouraged by the game's design," stated Mike Griffith, President and CEO, Activision Publishing. "The additional time will allow the studio to fully optimize the vision they set out to create for Blur including a distinctive and groundbreaking multiplayer mode that will appeal to a broad audience."

It remains to be seen when in 2010 the game will be released, with the company only mentioning the year without any specific month or season or even half. Here's hoping it's early in the year, for the sake of anyone who might have been really looking forward to it. Anyone?

We might as well have been back in 1997 playing GoldenEye or something at Activision's PAX-week event in Seattle last week.

Twenty-first-century gaming publicity events just don't involve four-player split screen matches of anything. Companies prefer to link TVs together to allow multi-screen multiplayer. Or they network the console on which they are showing a game to an online match linked back to the game's development studio or testing team.

I was stunned, then, when an Activision representative actually invited me to step out of the company's game-filled party and into another demo room to try Blur's four-player split screen.

It's notable that Blur even has four-player split screen to offer. What once was common is now rare. This month's high-end EA racer, Need For Speed Shift, doesn't have split screen, nor did that publisher's 2008 aggressively online-focused racing game Burnout Paradise. Next month's Forza 3 has only two-player split screen.

We live in an age of online multiplayer. Screens just don't get split as much as they used to, not for racing games, among other genres. Some might argue that online multiplayer is superior. It gives each player a full screen's view. It causes no one to squint.

At the Seattle event, four-player split screen didn't feel like a superior option when I went up to hotel suite where a big TV was waiting. Only three of us were in the room: Me and two Activision employees. We considered asking the guy who came in to re-stock the hotel bar to join as Player 4, before deciding to call for a fourth, summoning them up from the party downstairs where Blur was being played over a two-TV LAN connection. Then Joystiq showed up. They'd do.

Blur has other attributes Activision and Bizarre are probably more interested in reporters discussing: The game's social-networking-influenced campaign; its Mario Kart style power-ups; and other details we've covered.

But this four-player split screen multiplayer mode? What's old is novel again. We had fun, even if this isn't the cool way anymore.

The racer - Bizarre's first since leaving the Project Gotham series behind - hasn't exactly captured the public's hearts and minds to date, probably because...well, the idea of cars shooting electricity seems a bit silly when it's done outside WipeOut. But hey, it's Bizarre, so come November, we'll know for sure whether Blur is of the same calibre as the top-notch PGR series.

It's out in North America on November 3, while Europe will get it on November 6. In case you've forgotten, the game's coming on 360, PS3 & PC.

As usual, GameStop winds up with the best incentive to preorder the game, with a "Multiplayer Advantage Booster Kit" that gives players "unparalleled multiplayer benefits." Those benefits include unlocking the powerful Ford Bronco in multiplayer, a survival multiplayer mode, and double the fans for the first ten multiplayer races you participate in, which translates to more cash for more upgrades.

GameCrazy preorders cut out the middle man, delivering double the cash for your first three single player races.

Finally we have Best Buy, which instead of a preorder bonus is offering up a day one purchase bonus in the form of an unlock code for the 600 horsepower Dodge Hennessey Viper.

These store exclusives are becoming sillier each day, aren't they?

Bizarre is no stranger to high-action racing, but they're doing something completely different with Blur, the first racing title developed under the company's new Activision overlords. It's a battle racing game that looks completely different than anything we've seen out of EA's Burnout series, with licensed cars with full damage modeling, which alone is enough to make racing fans sit up and notice. Add in power ups and all sorts of fancy special effects, and you've got the makings for a wonderfully entertaining driving experience.

Another Chatpad Dream Dashed: On Monday I ran my preview of Dragon Age: Origins. I included most of what I learned about the game's contents in there. I omitted something that is being left out of the game. What the game won't have, not surprisingly, is hot-key support for the Xbox 360's QWERTY chatpad. (Officially: The Xbox 360 Messenger Kit.) This peripheral has been attached to my 360 controller ever since I got it. It doesn't add too much weight and makes typing messages and passwords much easier. While the chatpad usually works with any part of a game that requires text input, I've never seen it integrated into gameplay control schemes. But complex role-playing games and real-time strategy games would seem to benefit from having an optional control scheme that engages it. Imagine being able to map powers or units to some of the keys on the keyboard. I asked one of the BioWare reps showing me the game if Dragon Age would support it. Nope.

Some Fun Hype: On Wednesday I went to an Activision event and played some games. I also watched Drew McCoy from Infinity Ward play Modern Warfare 2. Drew didn't say much during my meeting, leaving most of the question-answering to IW's Robert Bowling (His answers here). But Drew did engage another reporter's question about whether the first level of the new game would be as exciting as the first level of the first Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Drew's answer culminated in the boast that MW2 will have "more holy shit moments per hour" than MW1. I turned to him and joked that maybe that was because the new game would be as exciting as the first but shorter. He laughed and asked me not to draw that conclusion from that statement. No way, man. I was kidding.

A Blur of Blur: At the same event, I played Bizarre Creations' Blur. It was as we've described it: a fast racer with realistic-looking cars, heavy on neon special effects and charged with power-ups. You can blast rival cars with electricity, shunt them, lay down mines, etc. Think of all the key Mario Kart abilities, but rendered in a more literally electric way. I held back from writing a preview because my experience with the game was almost identical to Crecente's. Just read his Blur preview. That's what I saw and how I felt.

Embargoes: For the record, I saw five games that were under embargo last week, and played four of them. Three of them can be covered by the middle of next week. Two are off-limits until next month. I don't bring this up to tease, but to illuminate how the work we do doesn't always appear on the site right away.

That's it for me for this week. Be nice to Owen this weekend. And maybe I'll have something for you on Sunday. Maybe.

I'm not going to mention numbers but not really, with the exception of Mario Kart, which has done very well because it's a Mario Kart game. That is the exception rather than the rule. But generally titles, I won't name any names, more recent titles that were really good, critically acclaimed and we all played them, they didn't sell as well as can be expected. I know sales is one thing, but sales are reflective of people who are interested in the concept and interested in what they want to play. So if it's not selling then the developers are doing something wrong and pushing it in the wrong area. We totally rebooted with Blur. All of these things we think are wrong; we're trying to fix them.

The people sure love their Mario Kart. Shame they don't love other racing games as much. Upcoming racer Blur is Bizarre's bet that it can put out a racing title that does well with critics and retail. We shall see.

Blur Interview [VideoGamer]

While it's no surprise that Bizarre is sticking to racing games, you may be surprised what direction they're taking the genre in.

What Is It?
Bizarre Creations' 2009 arcade racer will be the first game published from the developer by Activision. Developers say they took all of the things that are fun about racing titles and put them into their highly stylized, vehicular combat game. The development team say the game is like Project Gotham Racing, but with all of the elements they like Mario Kart.

What We Saw
I ran two races on two courses of the game in single player

How Far Along Is It?
I played a pre-alpha build of the game.

What Needs Improvement?
Damage Modeling: The damage modeling for the vehicles doesn't really match the aesthetic for the rest of the game. It needs to be in there, but maybe there's another way to present damage.

Courses: The game comes with a ton of courses, but both of the ones I raced on were ovals. I'm sure there will be plenty of non-oval tracks, but since I haven't seen them yet it's worth pointing out that there really needs to be.

What Should Stay The Same?
New Look: When I saw the game last month it looked pretty bland. I liked the ideas behind the game, and I liked the pedigree of the developers, but visually there was very little for the game.

Since then the team has been hard at work trying to fix that problem. They added filters to make the game pop, giving the game a bit more sizzle. They also shifted the away from daylight runs. Now drivers race only at night, dusk and dawn. Finally, they've added a bunch of light effects and lights to highlight the dark settings. The result is like racing in a disco... in a good way.

Weapons: Lately, I've lost interest in the racers that lean more toward simulation over, well, over fun. Bizarre Creations gets that and decided the best way to win these gamers back is to add weapons and shields, essentially making the game a more realistic Mario Kart.

When I played the game there were about five weapons available, one that knocked cars aside, pushed them out of your way, stunned them and blew them up with mines. The team said they'll be adding three more or so down the line., but no blue shells.You can hold three weapons at a time and, after you pick them up, you can cycle through them to decide what order to use them in.

Shields: Because they didn't want the weapons to overpower the racing element of the game, Bizarre Creations also added rechargeable shields. Right before getting hit with a weapon the car sounds an alarm giving you a second or so to activate a shield.

You start with four shields. Once you use them you get earn more by attacking other players.

Projected Light Graffiti: The game's user interface is mostly displayed in lights either projected onto the screen, forming a lit heads-up display, or with projected light graffiti. The real world technique applies digital graffiti to buildings until the lights are turned off.

Final Thoughts
Blur's weakest link were it's bland visuals. The new look of the game goes a long way toward solving the problem. At issue now is whether Blur can stand out in an increasingly crowded field of arcade-like racers with a twist.

Blur - Activision is hoping for a Call Of Duty-scale new racing franchise, from Bizarre Creations. Realistic cars, low-stress handling, mixed with Mario Kart -style pick-ups on the track. (Expected for all major platforms)

Split/Second - Disney's Hollywood-action racing game, includes huge track-deforming effects that players can trigger, like destroying gas stations or causing buildings to fall and alter the course. (Expected for all major platforms. Preview here.)

Need for Speed x3? - EA's got a Need For Speed: Nitro for the Wii, the more realistic Need For Speed: Shift for higher-end consoles and PC. Plus there's a Need for Speed: World free PC game coming. Maybe we'll see that too?

Fuel - Codesmasters' racing game with its massive world will be out the week of E3, which means it'll maybe show up at the big show.

MotorStorm Arctic Edge - Sony's PSP revival is supposed to include a cold-weather edition of the MotorStorm franchise, the one that pits cars against trucks against motorcycles against craggy cliffs. (PSP/PS2. Preview here.)

UPDATE: More avid racing games than I pointed out that I excluded the deserving Dirt 2. Consider that sin confessed publicly. Game's coming to all current platforms, handhelds and PC.

Bond Racing project - Bizarre Creations is expected to be working on a James Bond racing game of some sort, but we don't' hold out much hope that it will be at E3.

New Forza? - It's rumored, and it seems awfully plausible.

Gran Turismo PSP or 5? - GTPSP, announced in 2004, is Duke Nukem Forever of racing games. Despite the game being a favorite E3 guess of podcast pundits such as the guys on Listen Up, who wants to bet that a portable game or it's long-in-the-making first full-sized PS3 big brother will be at E3?

What's the trend here?

EA and Activision are in a deathmatch/deathrace with their competing racing franchises, pitting the branding power of Activision against the franchise success of the slightly faded Need For Speed line. In general, those games and the others point to racing games tilting more toward the arcade-y side of things.

While the racing games of E3 2009 look to have an arcade style, the cars themselves will likely continue to trend toward realistic visual styles. After all, with Nintendo coasting on sales of Mario Karts for Wii and DS — plus having just released ExciteBots Trick Racing — the chief purveyors of cutesy cars are likely on the racing sidelines for this year's big show.

According to Bizarre, it's choice of vehicles helped — meaning, there aren't Ferraris or Lamborghinis. "If someone doesn't want to do what we want to do then we just won't put it in the game," says Bizarre Creations' Gareth Wilson. "There have been a couple of big manufacturers, can't tell you who, that have gone you can't set the cars on fire, and we've gone, OK we won't use your cars then."

This flexible take-it-or-leave-it approach seems to have given Bizarre more confidence at the bargaining table. "Also other games have kicked the door down for us as well, like GRID and DiRT," he added. "We had one thing with a manufacturer where they didn't want smoke coming out of the car, and we just said yeah but you're in GRID, and GRID does smoke. And they went, oh yeah."

Future ground that Bizarre hopes is broken: Flames coming out of a licensed car while moving. After that? Explosions!

Bizarre Creations' Gareth Wilson Interview [Eurogamer]

Teaser trailer? More like taser trailer. While the screenshots did an admirable job of showing off the game's graphics, I believe this teaser trailer captures the game's essence. This isn't your average pretty yet boring racing game. I'm a little worried about their overuse of electrical effects, but this is Bizarre Creations we are talking about, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt until I see more.

For those of us without pockets deep enough to afford a subscription to Edge magazine, Activision has released first screens of the weaponized racer slated for a Fall release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

"We did our homework and saw a huge opportunity to move beyond traditional racers and create a game completely focused on making racing ‘fun' again," said Martyn Chudley, Creative Director, Bizarre Creations. "Blur delivers a new style of racing experience for all gamers, regardless of their experience, skill or genre preferences. Everything the player does, both in their cars and with their cars, is a dramatic adrenaline rush; it's a real blast!"

Blur will feature 20 cars, offline or online, on a track and offensive and defensive attacks set in real-world locations ranging from L.A. and San Francisco to Hackney, UK and Barcelona, Spain. The game also supports four-player split-screen play.

"We know that racing can be fun for everyone, and we are excited to enter this genre with a game that keeps players in the pack and combines fun with intense racing battles," said Maria Stipp, EVP and GM of Owned Properties, Activision Publishing. "Bizarre Creations is one of the most creative studios in the industry with a rich heritage of top-rated racing games and we are excited to partner with them on Blur, which is set to break the mold of traditional racing games."

The game will be presented through "Bizarre's innovative new community-based interface", according to the press release.

This unique story-driving social network evolves dynamically as players compete in different races, make new friends, rivals and fans, and connect with other racers both in-game and in real life.

Custom Groups will let anyone create multiplayer modes with custom settings. These new modes are then shared through Blur's "social network" so others can try the modes as well.

Blur is set for a fall release on the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

I have not been able to escape The Club — a game I thought no one played.

For those who are among that crowd of non-players, all you need to know is that Bizarre Creations created this game for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Sega released it two Februarys ago. It was a third-person shooter designed to be played for high scores — with consecutive kills adding to score multipliers like consecutive tricks racked points in a Tony Hawk. Trick shots and the shooting of various hidden signs and icons further boosted scores. The idea was for players to re-play enough so they could make the perfect run through the game's levels, to play the third-person shooter not for macho gunning glory but for arcade scoring thrills.

For a year I heard almost no one discuss the game, but then...

Rapper Ice-T goes on Jimmy Fallon's show last month, gives out his Gamertag, I look it up and discovered that he's been playing... The Club.

I go to a demo for the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Game, which, on the higher-end consoles allows players to take missions set in a globe-spanning theater of free-range levels. The game is full of scoring opportunities. The producer showing me the game points to icons hidden throughout the level and says they can be shot at for points and score modifiers. It's like that other game, he says... The Club.

Some time close to these events I play through 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, a game that is a third-person score-based shooter, exactly like... The Club. (Whole lot of good that did it.)

Earlier this week, we cover the Edge cover story about Bizarre's next project, Blur, which we notice is a racing game constantly being compared to a shooter. A commenter notes that that is the inverse of the hype for Bizarre's last original game, which was sometimes described as a shooter influenced by a racing game. That game was... The Club.

When the chapter for this console generation is written in the history books, it will surely include the obligatory sidebar that notes that heavyweight Gears of War owes much of its cover-mechanics innovation to the unsung Kill.Switch.

If recent rampant references to another game are any indication, there may be a second sidebar for another unsung innovator... The Club.

From a "business perspective" it's not hard to see why Activision would hope that the first racing game Bizarre Creations makes since the publisher acquired the Project Gotham Racing development studio would have a Call of Duty impact.

But did you know that Blur seems to be drawing some creative inspiration from some top shooters?

The cover story of Edge magazine's June issue elaborates on the Mario-Kart-Meets-Forza design and the Facebook influence on Blur. But what caught my eye were the references to shooters.

Here, in a discussion about how the power-ups strewn on the track can affect gameplay: "The perfect lap is not apex to apex, it's about decisions: I need this, I can go and collect it, then I can use that. We're building up a story that the player is putting through in his mind, very similar to the process that a seasoned FPS player will do - they have a path they follow, picking up this weapon, using it, and then going to collect armour. We're hoping people will start to generate that sort of racing line through our game, as opposed to car control per se." - Martyn Chudley, creative director of Blur development studio Bizarre Creations

Here, in the context of how one race in the game's single-player campaign is designed to make the player fail the first time: "Shooters have been doing this for ages, but nothing like it seems to happen in racing games - you just go for first, restart, retry. In shooters there's a big robot you can't kill until you get the gun." Co-lead designer Gareth Wilson

Here: "It's clear that Bizarre has been very carefully watching Bungie's work with the freedom it has granted users to make their own gametypes and share them online in Halo 2 and 3." - The Edge article's author

And here, your direct Call of Duty reference: "Bizarre originally named Blur's power-ups 'perks' because they were all about empowering the player in a similar manner to COD4's Perks. Early ideas included the ability to see through cars." - The Edge article's author

Remember, Bizarre Creations hasn't just made racing games before. The studio is responsible for score-based third-person shooter The Club and the twin-stick arcade Geometry Wars games.

Coming later this year from Activision, it seems, is the feeling that there's an FPS in your racing game.

Much more on Blur can be found in Edge's cover story, which isn't online but is on newsstands in the U.K.

Revealed in the latest issue of French magazine/Edge accompaniment Joypad, Blur seems be offering everything Bizarre did so well with Project Gotham - namely fast cars, exotic locations and a great damage model - and adding something new.

Weapons.

Yes, if you ever wanted your PGR to have a little more Mario Kart (and really, you should have been expecting it), the game will apparently feature a range of vehicular weapons and armour.

And...that's about all that can be gleaned from the article. We'll hope/expect some more details and screenshots to come sometime between now and E3.