Due to some small financial issues (read: I purchased GalCiv2), I’ve been unable to pickup Wipeout HD as of yet. My close friend Ryan Honey has offered his thoughts on the game.
Well the latest installation of the WipEout franchise has finally arrived on our digital doorsteps after being delayed for reportedly failing epilepsy standards tests. Wipeout HD can be obtained via the PSN for $27.95 AU and a relatively small download topping out at just under one gigabyte.
When initially announced, Wipeout HD was a new entry simply containing high definition versions of all our old favourites. For the most part, this is true. However we’ve also got new teams as well as a few new tracks; with a lot of the other content generated from “the best parts” of Wipeout Pure and Pulse, this includes the soundtrack.
Visually, the game is nothing short of stunning, breathtaking, or any other adjective you could think of. I think anyone who has played the game will agree with me in saying that the lighting effects are simply astonishing, while in the ‘Zone’ game mode, almost all textures are stripped in exchange for some visually intense colouration patterns. As you progress through the numerous ‘zones’, your ship gets faster and the whole world changes form around you. The best part about this mode is the environment responds to whichever track happens to be playing, which includes huge digital oscilloscopes assaulting your eyes. Of course, all our other game modes still remain as well as the addition of an online component.
Gameplay-wise any veteran of the Wipeout era will quickly gain their footing, with pilot assist options handy for novice players. With our handy new SIXAXIS/DS3 controllers having great pressure sensitive shoulder buttons we also get the experience of controlling the intensity of the ships air brakes, which makes cornering a lot more… controllable. The old ‘recharging pit lane’ still has not seen its’ return, with absorbing of held weapons still the way of the future it seems. One fancy thing they did hold onto are those groovy magnetic tracks where you can go through a seemingly never ending corkscrew at 700km/h.
