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Yes, Bizarre Creations' fast-paced, Mario Kart-esque combat racer Blur will apparently have a story, according to the trailer above. We're just as surprised as you! Frankly, we expected the game to be completely plotless, unless you consider "you're a guy who doesn't like being blown up or not finishing in first place" a plot, which we don't.

Check out the trailer above to get a brief taste of what the game's story and character progression will entail. We guess we're okay with these two elements being present in the game -- provided they don't provide long pauses between our drivefights.

Leadfoots looking to put the pedal to the metal in Bizarre Creations' upcoming racer, Blur, may just get their chance, as Germany's USK database has posted (machine translation) that a Xbox 360 multiplayer demo is in the works. The listing makes no mention of a PS3 demo, though we wouldn't suggest our PS3 brethren start taking long walks off short piers just yet. Odds are if a Xbox 360 demo makes its way onto Microsoft's console, a similar demo will also eventually end up on PS3, right?

Blur is currently geared up to race onto consoles sometime in 2010.

[Via VG247]

Activision's plan to annualize the Bond franchise -- regardless of the status of a movie to tie into -- has already come unraveled, with the decision to pull Mr. Bond out of Modern Warfare 2's line of sight this holiday. So, Bizarre Creations' "racing and driving focused" crack at Bond is now due in 2010, unattached to the Daniel Craig-powered, as-yet-untitled 2011 Bond movie. This poses an obvious question: With no theatrical attachment, will confessed gamer Daniel Craig reprise the interactive Bond role or will Bizarre's seemingly unique take on the license also have a unique actor in the role of 007?

According to Adam Croasdell, the EastEnders star (it's a long-running BBC soap opera, for the non-British amongst us) has wrapped up voice work on the game. "Oddly enough I have just played James Bond in the new James Bond video game -- how weird is that?" Croasdell told BBC Asian Network, as reported by the Press Association. "I think video games and the making of that type of technology, being in a funny one-piece suit and being shot with 60 cameras, I think that's sort of the future."

We're right there with you, Croasdell! Oh, and you better get used to that one-piece suit ... Activision has plans to milk that Bond license before it expires in 2014.

[Via Digital Spy]

Blur won't be making its scheduled November release, as Activision has officially pulled the arcade racer from the track, pushing it toward a 2010 launch. According to Activision CEO Mike Griffith, the move is being made to "fully optimize the vision [Bizarre] set out to create for Blur including a distinctive and groundbreaking multiplayer mode that will appeal to a broad audience." The vision for Blur!

Activision still has plenty on its plate this holiday season with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and DJ Hero. Then again, with the early part of 2010 as packed as it is with pushed releases, who knows what delays are still lurking.

I'm a pretty tough customer when it comes to the adoption of racing franchises. To me, the driving genre seems much like a foreign language -- because I haven't been a strict stuent of virtual vehicles since my early youth, attempting to add it to my expansive areas of expertise would be a near-impossible task.

Bizarre Creations' upcoming arcadey racing title Blur eschews the genre's unsavory, ultra-realistic bits, replacing them with weapons, power-ups and fast-paced neck-and-neck action. It's not the first time racing games have swapped out real for enjoyable -- but after playing a handful of four-player split-screen matches at Activision's PAX event, I couldn't remember the last time a racer made said switch so sublimely.

After watching this brand new trailer for Bizarre Creations' Blur, we were left with a few key observations:

1. Blur looks like an awesome combination of the slick street racing of Fast and Furious with the unpredictability of Mario Kart-style power ups -- all bathed in gratuitous neon light.
2. While really exciting, it's still only our second-favorite Blur-related video of the day.
3. The sound of British people talking makes cars look faster. We have no explanation for this.

On this afternoon's earnings call, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith dropped some details on what we can expect out of Activision in 2010. Of course, there's "a strong lineup behind the Guitar Hero franchise" and some Call of Duty "new releases" as well as "online monetization" of the franchise (not this again!) and strong Modern Warfare 2 sales, but that's not all it has in store for 2010.

"We'll launch also new games based on James Bond, Tony Hawk, and Spider-Man, along with games supporting the theatrical releases for Dreamworks' Shrek 4 and How to Train Your Dragon," Griffith said. "In addition, as previously announced, we're planning to release an innovative property in the $4b action genre." Here's Activision CEO Bobby Kotick discussing the aforementioned $4b opportunity; could this be what former Dead Space producer Glen Schofield dumped EA and went to Activision for?

Regardless, it's been nearly half a year since we got an update on Activision's first stab at the Bond franchise, after acquiring the rights from EA over three years ago. So it looks we'll be seeing more of Bond in '10 ... two-thousand and ten.

Activision has announced the pre-order bonuses for Blur, which include different extras for three different retailers. Don't worry too much about being forced to choose -- it's just digital stuff, and not, like, a hat or anything.

Pre-ordering Bizarre Creations' latest racer from GameStop (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) will net you an "Exclusive Multiplayer Advantage Booster Kit" which unlocks a Ford Bronco and an exclusive "Last Man Standing" multiplayer survival mode, as well as a "Double Fans" bonus for the first ten multiplayer races, which increases your ability to earn money.

Those who pre-order from Game Crazy will receive double cash for the first three single-player races. And purchasing the game on the release date from Best Buy gets a code to unlock a Dodge Hennessey Viper.

Activision still has yet to officially reveal when that release date will be, though all three retailers agree on November 3.

It's unfortunate that at the end of the half trailer/half developer diary you see above for Blur, the game's publisher, Activision, makes no mention of a release date. We enjoyed the time we spent with the game at E3 earlier this year, no doubt about it. However, the lofty claims various companies associated with the game have been making have us anxious to find out when we'll get to put it through its paces a bit more thoroughly.

More importantly, we'll finally find out what the "Shunt" power-up does. Also, how is that not a swear?

If you doubt the potential for success with Blur, the first racing game under the protective wing of new mother bird Activision, then you don't know how popular Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing franchise has been. We didn't either, to tell the truth, until Bizarre's Chris Pickford revealed to Develop that the franchise has sold over seven million.

This is the kind of runaway success Activision is looking for in Blur, as Bizarre could make $40 million should the game meet projected sales by 2012/13. While we don't know what the target sales are, Blur will have close to three years to reach the goal set by Activision when it releases later this year, so we'd say something around the four million mark is definitely not out of the question.

We're not certain whose expectations Bizarre Creations' communications manager, Ben Ward, was referring to in his recent -- and incredibly vague -- statements about supposedly disappointing sales of (equally unspecified) racing games, but they must belong to someone. "I won't name any names, [but] more recent titles that were really good, critically acclaimed and we all played them, they didn't sell as well as can be expected," Ward posited to VideoGamer.com.

It's difficult to argue against Ward, as he doesn't suggest anything concrete, but racing games have been competitive in the sales charts this generation (if that's recent enough). Console exclusives such as MotorStorm, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (a glorified demo!) and Forza 2 all rank among the top 10 bestselling games to date on their respective platforms, and Burnout Paradise has succeeded both at retail and digitally in its lengthy, multiplatform run. Sure, a niche racer like GRID is never going to gain mass appeal (nor is it intended to) and certain staple franchises, like Need For Speed, have dwindled in popularity and quality (hence the reboots), but the racing genre is right where it should be -- at least, in terms of our expectations.

Perhaps Ward and Bizarre just have greater expectations for their upcoming racer, Blur, which we called "a hyper-realistic Mario Kart." That puts Blur in good company, as Mario Kart Wii -- what Ward calls "the exception rather than the rule" -- has sold in excess of 15.4 million units by last count in May. But, really, there's nothing realistic about expecting those kinda numbers.

Blur is a hyper-realistic Mario Kart. There is no sugar coating it.

After being behind the development wheel of realistic racing titles like PGR (well, realistic at least in look), Bizarre Creations has decided to do away with its half-and-half arcade style and create a different kind of racing experience. That experience is Blur, published by (new parent company) Activision.

As we sat down at the (ridiculously loud) Activision booth in the West Hall during E3 2009, we were greeted by an enthusiastic Bizarre employee who explained this was the game the developer always wanted to make. A fun, almost party-game style racer where players jump behind the wheel of powered-up, real-world vehicles. Yes, strangely, Blur features licensed cars -- with unreal abilities.

While wandering through the EA booth on the last day of E3, we noticed the grinning symbol of Blur developer Bizarre Creations on the back of a man playing ... Need for Speed: Shift. We stuck around for a few minutes to make sure the gentleman in question was for certain a developer on the upcoming Mario Kart-inspired racer, then ran off to giggle with all our friends.