are you able to do normal 2D in blitzmax? not just 3D Acc'd 2D?
As far as I know you can only do the 3D accelerated 2D
Syntax: depends on how you use it. You can stick with the b3D style procedural syntax, or you can use the object-oriented approach which looks a little more C-like... but you still have the overall BASIC structure without all the { } stuff.