Chennai, the city that’s famous for its south Indian dishes, idlis and dosas, now has its own gaming paradise, ‘Blur’. The gaming lounge is three stories of pure gaming experience inside the Sathyam cinema, Chennai’s biggest cineplex theater. Launched on November 2, 2008, Blur would definitely make any player feel like they are in a gamer’s version of heaven and would make a non-gamer gasp at what it has to offer.
Imagine yourself spending hours playing your favorite game on a big screen TV sitting on awesomely soft reclining sofas that have speakers attached to the headrest holding the controller of your favorite next generation console while eating your favorite snacks. An experience most gamers would die for, Blur manages to delivers this exact experience plus more and all at a very affordable price as low as 25 rupees an hour ( but that’s on the 50 hour package*).
Blur offers players a huge selection of games and a variety of gaming experiences under one roof that focuses on all age groups and gamers from the newbie casual gamers to the really hardcore gamers that is spread across on almost every gaming platform available from the Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, next-gen PC’s to a massive video game arcade and even a two lane Bowling alley.
Future additions include Sony PSP consoles and Nintendo DS consoles to play while you wait for your food at the Blur café, which is the futuristic food joint with a nice ambiance where you can order snacks and drinks to enhance your gaming pleasure.
Blur is split up in three floors, Level 4, 5 and 6, each offering a different gaming experience.
Level 4: This level offers players the best lag free PC gaming experience with a total of 24 gaming PC’s that are armed to the teeth with some of the best PC specs you could ask for at a gaming café. Any PC gamer would know playing Crysis at the highest settings without any frame lag.
A great mind-blowing PC gaming experience! Blur’s gaming PCs are loaded with Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz processors, 2 gigs of Ram, Razer mouse and pads, Dell 24 inch LCD monitors, very comfortable Logitech headphones and a pair of G-force 8800 Sli (dual graphic card), which would make most games run as smoothly as a knife slicing through butter (or in some cases a katana blade).
Blur’s PC game café runs on a café management software called “ Smart Launch “ that lets every user have their own login along with their saved games and profiles from previously played games. “Smart Launch” has similar features to Steam, so players can expect a lot of upcoming contents from it like World of Warcraft and other online games as well.
Blur also has something very unique that has not been seen in any gaming café yet, Force Feedback FPS gaming vests from TN Games. When a vest is worn by a gamer, he / she will be immersed in the FPS experience like never before. When playing games like Call Of Duty 4, you can feel bullets and grenades really hurt you from every direction as you get shot by an opponent or blown up by a grenade.
You feel the impact on and all around your body, if someone were to shoot you from the back you would actually feel that you are getting hit from behind! An experience well worth it, at no extra charge but available on request.
Level 5: The level has the Wii zone. The Blur café and a two lane bowling alley, which is scheduled to launch by the end of December. The Wii zone has a total of 7 Nintendo Wii’s, along with two PS2’s that have Singstar, a karaoke game running on it which is quite popular as a group activity game among casual gamers and non gamers or with anyone who likes to sing. The Wii zone has a nice floor layout to let you know exactly which the best spot for the sensor to detect is.
Level 6 (Arcade games and console games): There are a lot of arcade games on level 6, which vary from all genres and for all age groups, including old favorites like “Daytona USA , House of the Dead 3, Street Fighter and a lot more, which are quite popular with arcade regulars
The 6th Level also features the Console Games Zone with a total of 7 PlayStation 3 consoles and 10 Xbox 360 Elite consoles along with all the popular and latest game titles available in the market like Gears Of War 2, Heavenly Sword , Metal Gear Solid 4, FIFA 09 etc.
As mentioned earlier, the console section has a nice big screen LCD TV’s and really comfortable recliners (kinda like a mini-sofa that you don’t want to get up from)
The game assistants of Blur: Having trouble with a game, stuck at a level, don’t know how to proceed? The game assistants are ready to help you solve any problem you face, very friendly and quite knowledgeable in games these guys are around you in need of trouble.
Tournaments: Blur will be hosting its first Tournament on Christmas day (December 25) with Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a 4 vs. 4 player team death match with exciting prices to be won, including graphic cards. More details on the tournament will be put up on the Blur blog soon.
Overall, Blur is an excellent place for anyone with the passion of gaming and will defiantly be impressed by all its glory, a truly fascinating place to experience.
The Pricing and the Packages at Blur gaming lounge in Chennai: Except for the arcade that has its own individual pricing per game, the consoles use the same price as the various packages available.
Following are the packages available at Blur applicable at the PC and Console Zones:
1 Hours: 60 (60 rupee per hour).
5 Hours: 250 (50 rupee per hour).
20 Hours: 700 – (35 rupee per hour).
50 Hours: 1250 – (25 rupee per hour).
Unlimited Day: 300.
Unlimited Month: 2500 (Valid for 30 Days).
All packages other than Unlimited Weekday are applicable for 31 days from time of first use.
- By Sanjay “Rava” Ramjhi