Bizarre: Too much focus on realism can be detrimental to "fun"

Gareth Wilson, lead designer for Blur, has said that sometimes focusing too much on ultra-high realism when developing a game can take all the fun out of it.

Speaking with VG247 in an interview conducted by freelancer Adam Hartley, Wilson said graphics alone won't convince the consumer to purchase just another racing "sim".

"Project Gotham Racing 3 was an absolute joy to work on – because whenever you work on new tech, the first thing you want to do is to make the most visually stunning videogame that you’ve ever done," said Wilson.

"So you go, 'wow, look, we’ve put 140,000 polygons into a car and we’ve got a physics engine that we couldn’t have even dreamt of a few years ago.'

"But then once you get this far into the console cycle, then everybody has got a sim. Everybody has got a Forza or a Gran Turismo or Gotham or a whatever. So trying to convince people to buy yet another sim is just difficult, really.

"It is very natural for us as developers to try to recreate reality with our new toys, but at this stage of the console cycle I think it’s important to focus on fun and new experiences, and different types of gameplay. Which is really where Blur has come from".

Gamers will get to experience "where Blur had come from" first-hand come the end of May on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and maybe, someday, handhelds.