Once in a while there’s a game that comes along that’s just that little bit special, just unique enough to make you take notice. It’s not out there to utterly blow your mind with fantastical new gamegasmatronictastic features or some amazingly-honed one-of-a-kind physics engine, but it’s trying something new without being too new in itself, if you get what I mean.

We’ve seen it before: Mirror’s Edge was a capable FPS that just happened to involve some dizzying parkour; Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was a run-of-the-mill action game made all the more enjoyable thanks to its stellar script and Hollywood-esque storyline.

Blur is, to me, another one of those games. Read why over the jump.

Blur is the new brainchild of Project Gotham developer Bizarre Creations and, unlike that series, will be appearing on the PS3 and PC as well as the Xbox 360. Also unlike this series of old, Blur is not about rattling around the Nürburgring in the snow in a clapped-out old Ferrari as fast as you can. Instead, the emphasis is on fun and – gah – social networking.

But hold off from your cynicism for a second there. As much as everything these days seems to be tagged as a form of social networking without ever actually trying, Blur is as much about networking with fellow racers – AI or otherwise – as it is about being a fun racing game.

PGR this ain’t: there’ll be less medal-awarding and more communication between you and other racers. A storyline will accompany the entire single-player experience, all set around a faux social networking website, with fleshed-out characters you’ll enjoy slamming into walls or using power-ups -power-ups – on time and time again.

And slam into walls they will, spectacularly. Despite the hardcore PGR roots being cast to the wind, the game will still look the utter bees’ knees, with a fully-comp damage system to boot. Throw in some drift-tastic arcade handling and power-ups ranging from speedboosts to shockwaves that send everyone flying out your way and I think we’re onto a winner here.

The concept of “social racing” is one that Blur is hoping you’ll enjoy: the single-player game’s characters will send you messages on the fictional social networking website that forms the menus, posting Facebook-style status updates as well as sending you messages about your race performances. Some might even post photos or videos they shot during the race.

This extends online too, where you’ll be able to issue challenges and organise races with your PSN/LIVE friends, and even create your own game modes; these modes are then shared with the rest of the Blur community when they’re considered “complete” and ready for play.

These can be anything, too: one example created by the development team is the “David Hasselhoff” mode, where players had to shout “Hasselhoff!” every time they overtook a competitor. According to Bizarre, this is something you could “feasibly create”.

It looks brilliant, sounds brilliant, and with Bizarre’s track record you know it probably will be brilliant. There’ll be a traditionalist out there who won’t want to mix Ferraris with Facebook but I think that the racing genre has been overdue for a bit of a shakeup since Burnout Paradise gave us Freeburning.

Are we onto a winner here? Sound off in the comments…

Check out Edge’s feature for some more info and screenshots of Blur.

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