Blur

Handling feels as solid and responsive as you'd expect from the studio and the finished article will of course feature a stack of licensed vehicles (over 50, I'm told) to suit all driving styles. The difference is you're worrying less about the precise angle and speed of an approach to a tight bend and more about blocking the missile attack from behind while keeping the guy out in front in sight just long enough to blast him into a spin.

Traditionalist ire is inevitable and understandable. Simply, Bizarre wanted above all to make something different (a decision helped, of course, by the Activision buyout, with Microsoft retaining the PGR name). Moreover it wanted to "cure the problem of races getting boring after the first third," which Wilson feels strongly had started to blight the genre as a whole.

"You never know who's going to win the race until the last third," he continues. "We haven't done this by using cheesy rubber banding - it's through tactics and strategy. It's all about battling and being in a pack racing together."

Bizarre's solution won't please everyone. There will be racing fans who believe there wasn't anything that needed "curing" in the first place. In which case the studio would likely retort these gamers are already well served by the likes of Forza 3 and the perpetually-incoming Duke Nukem Turismo 5. But hyper-realism is no longer a location on the studio's map.

"I think the genre did need to diversify a bit," Wilson adds, explaining that it's "natural" at the start of a hardware generation to push for "tech masterpieces". But, "later on we need to be looking at gameplay, fun and enjoyment as the console tends to go more mainstream".

So who is Blur for? "People who maybe enjoyed racing games in the past and haven't bought one in a while may well like it. We still think the hardcore will love it: we've still got our triple-A Bizarre handling in there. Real cars, real locations - we've not compromised on quality at all."

Wilson is right that the overwhelming majority of multiplayer races I have retain a sense of drama and uncertainty until the finish line. Although, perhaps to prove the point that skill and experience will triumph, Bizarre testers wipe the floor with the press. Wherever I end up finishing, every race without exception is tense, exciting and fun.

Circuits in the beta include Barcelona and Tokyo street circuits, a very un-Bizarre dusty plain and a zip around LA docks. There are sections with multiple routes in each course, and which you ultimately take seems largely to be a case of which power-up you need the most.

I don't encounter any notable performance issues over LAN and nor would I expect to; four-player split-screen is also commendably smooth. I've had no problems either with early online races, although with the beta still to go public at the time of writing, the most vehicles I've had in a single race is six.

Beyond the race, Bizarre is betting heavily on community features and social networking to maintain interest for the weeks and months post-release. Twitter integration is already confirmed. This was, Wilson suggests, inspired in part by Bizarre making its first multi-format racer and wanting to find a "way for PS3, PC and 360 people to be able to communicate with each other as a community".