So you’ve decided to race me in Blur

Hopefully you are planning to attend this week’s Xbox Live Community Playdate that I’m hosting for Blur — awesome! Kat, Hugh and I will all be in the same 20-person Powered-Up race, so we can play with the maximum amount of people at the same time. Here’s what you should know going in:

• We are not going to be able to play with everyone. All three of us got absolutely buried in friend requests this week, and even though we plan to play for two hours, we’re not going to be able to race everybody. Please don’t take it personally. In fact…

• If you are not on our friends lists (because they do top out at 100), just send me a text message during the Wednesday event. I will try to invite as many people into our session as possible.
• Remember, we are playing for two hours at the minimum. (Hugh has to go then, but I’m up for sticking around longer.) If you do not get into a race in the first five minutes, don’t give up. In past events, we’ve found ourselves with nobody to play with after an hour because people shrug their shoulders and take off. We can only play with you if you are, you know, playing!
• Try to avoid the swear words during the session. All kinds of people play Blur, so let’s make it welcoming to everyone. Here are some linguistic alternatives: “Mother father!” “Son of a brisket!” “Frigidaire!”
• I wrote up some gameplay tips and some etiquette tips shortly after the game came out. Some are products of their post-beta time, but most are still useful.
• I have found success by sticking with the same handful of cars race after race. Every time you complete a race in a car, regardless of your position at the end of the race, you build toward an upgrade in fans, health, or speed for that specific car. I didn’t really pay attention to it until after I hit Legend status and had to earn all my cars all over again, but now I’ve got a handful of upgraded rides that I know very well.
• There is one easter egg unlockable car in the game: you can access the upgraded chrome-finish BMW Concept 1 car by selecting the regular Concept 1 and pressing LT, RT, LT, RT at the garage menu. It’s all the way to the left of the cars.

Same trick works on PS3, too

Other than that…let’s have fun out there.