Ever played a video game and found something terminally wrong with it? Perhaps you’ve found something wrong with all video games? You may not be alone - You’re Doing It Wrong is the name of a column from the mind of contributor Harry, who feels it just to let the internet know of his video game grievances. After all, the games we love could be better…

I like Blur; it’s a fiery and ambitious racer akin to Mario Kart on acid but with the aim or reciprocating Forza Motorsport‘s realistic graphics. The game has beautiful presentation, a career mode something other racing games should aspire to have and a weapon play system possibly even better than Wipeout. Bizarre Creations, who developed multiple Formula One titles, a street racer for the Dreamcast and my favourite racing series, Project Gotham Racing, do indeed garner a reputation that precedes them.

The Bizarre development team have clearly put their hearts and souls into Blur to produce the quality I amongst other gamers have come to expect from them. However, sitting down to play the game’s offline mode I’ve been left with a question to raise. Something is plaguing my enjoyment of the game and my overall receptiveness of its qualities: why is Blur so hard?

My developer crush on Bizarre Creations almost left this question unanswered as I battled with Blur to try and see if the list of positives would mask the crushing negative. Alas, they have not and after a lengthy spell of racing I still have the same problem I had when I first put the game into gear.

The first time I experienced Blur was during the beta, when I clocked about three hours online. The first thing I noticed was the neon presentation style of the game and its menu system, which immediately set off a warning bell in my head: I wanted Blur to be a real-world Wipeout and the aesthetic suggested Midnight Club meets Need for Speed. I had faith in Bizarre though so I ventured forth into a race with other people around the world, in the hopes that the game would prove me wrong.

It did: what I was given was an adrenalin-fueled, pacy and spirited arcade racer with explosions galore. Needless to say my gaming palette was to be satisfied. It was… until I hit the first corner. Fighting for control, I felt like I was trying to drift an articulated lorry around the bend – my 360 controller’s analogue stick was feeling the full force of my thumb as I waggled & pushed incessantly to gain control. I had played the Split/Second demo before Blur and I was beginning to think that I should try not to adopt the same drifting style I was employing in Black Rock’s racer.

Perhaps I approached the game wrong: Project Gotham Racing was a blur between arcade racing and racing simulation, combining kudos and arcade-style game modes with real-world vehicles, settings and graphics. While the spirit of Blur is clearly more arcade than simulation, the cars and level settings at least are anything but. Perhaps the simulation aspects of Blur stretch as far as the actual driving mechanics which if true would require far more discipline and a definitive, Forza driving line. I have attempted to recreate driving lines without drifting but it seems futile because the game is clearly more arcade-based and driving with etiquette when you have electro torpedoes doesn’t make much sense.

On reflection, it seems I need to adopt a drift technique for racing in Blur. Therein lies the problem though because keeping your car under control whilst drifting in a game like Split/Second was doable but in Blur this isn’t so. You really have to be able to drift effectively if you want to both avoid oncoming fire & maintain your race position. Much like Burnout: Paradise, DiRT 2 and interestingly Project Gotham Racing 4, if you can master drifting around corners you’ll find yourself better off when you fly out the bend. I’ve had no particular problem with cornering on any of the games I’ve listed, or indeed on any racing game I’ve played (that’s a fairly big list, might I add).

With Blur though? Well, I’m giving my controllers’ analogue sticks a real bruising. I currently am in possession of Blur on the PlayStation 3 and I’m pretty sure my left analogue stick will snap off soon; the build quality of the PS3′s non-Dualshock controller is less sufficient than the standard 360 controller and my analogue stick is creaking every time it’s touched. In a racing game I should be able to, after a couple of races at most, have control over my car in a corner. I’ve competed in about fifty races and fifty retries in my time with Blur and I’m no closer to taking a corner controlled.

Maybe it’s a difficulty issue? That question strikes a nerve, because what Bizarre have done with regards to that is nigh on unforgivable.

I believe that no racing game should have a difficulty setting. I feel that a racer should have one singular difficulty that is balanced for both casual and core gamers alike. This is something of an ask I realise, as it is very difficult to provide a singular difficulty that caters to all. Progressive difficulty, going at times hand-in-hand with boss races, is something I offer as an alternative. Split/Second is a winner in my books when it comes to difficulty because it has an excellent balance that has you choosing the right car for the right type of race, where you are racing opponents who can be faster than you but are tactical and may not exert pace in favour of power-playing. It provides ‘elite’ races at the end of each episode where you race the best challengers. The icing on the cake is that these aren’t even always the hardest events; some of the survival of the fittest or time attack-style events provide a greater challenge.

What’s vital then is being able to take a corner effectively in order to win against skilled opponents. Quite literally, a split/second is all that can separate first from second as I’ve found out after being at both ends of the proverbial stick come the finish. Blur has more racers in events than the likes of Split/Second and Mario Kart which inherently brings more blows to you and them. The tracks are wider and longer to compensate and this makes the corners wider and longer (an Achilles Heel…).

Trying to overcome nineteen opponents who can all match my speed whilst avoiding weapon fire and backlashes from hit opponents makes cornering difficult before you’ve reached a turn, never mind while you’re taking one. It’s absolutely vital that Blur has approachable cornering so I can take a corner effectively in the midst of sometimes hectic battle. Hell, maybe I want to be tactical in a corner and dare to try a sliding takedown, a la Burnout meets Wipeout. Unfortunately, I can do neither because Blur does not provide the ability for me to turn even the loosest of corners effectively. I’m losing valuable seconds which as mentioned before are vital.

The opponents around me all take corners rather effortlessly: I’ve wondered whether I am doing it wrong and have experimented with several different ways of tackling corners, all to no avail. In my first couple of races online, I was winning: everyone around me was having as much difficulty turning as I was and I was just the fastest at bouncing off the sides. In my first couple of races split-screen with friends I wasn’t winning everything but all of us were not taking corners skilfully and I was driving a stupidly fast Ford van.

Offline in the Career mode was completely different: I was restarting numerous times to try and win the races and complete the side challenges. After the second race I was already six ranks better because I had racked up so many points: I was restarting to try and gain a seemingly unattainable first place. The track designs weren’t helping my plight: at times I was bouncing around so much I was approaching some corners with no wheels on the track.

I stumbled across the game’s difficulty setting during a restarting of a race. The option to change difficulty was at the bottom of the screen in small font, only available after I pressed retry. I hadn’t noticed it before and this was after about two hours into the Career mode.

Without trying to be sound immodest, I am a decent gamer, particularly when it comes to racing games. I know my way around a track and I had an expectation that I would be able to jump into Blur and be able to put my skills to use. I couldn’t and finding the difficulty setting by accident, I was inclined to decrease the difficulty to accommodate for my frequent dropping of time in corners.

I have a lot of pride as a long-term gamer though, so I’ve stuck with the Medium setting. I would like to switch up to Hard so I can be prepared for a later venture into the Online portion of the game where I’ll inevitably face opponents tougher than the AI. That’s not going to happen though, because if I switch to Hard I won’t stand a chance. I’ve won some races on Medium but I’ve struggled to do so and with my extensive racing game experience and my even more extensive videogame experience I shouldn’t be struggling so early on in a game.

I can’t forgive Bizarre for not making clear the difficulty setting but that is overshadowed by the greater cardinal development sin: what hope do I have of competing online or indeed completing the career mode when I can’t even take a corner? For a game like Blur and a developer like Bizarre, I’ve been let down by one glaring fault that has perhaps ruined what is an excellent game otherwise.