Wipeout Pulse

[Dogg Thang]

Picked this up today and, after a bit of a pain of a ass getting a PSP (mine is in work), got to play a few races. So just very quick early impressions -

Looks great. Stunning actually on the PSP. The track intros are great with a VO telling you the history of the track (skippable of course). It's a nice touch. The races are already faster than Pure (I mean faster than Pure's starting races of course) so that's a good sign too.

Control seems very similar to Pure so far. The new mag-strips are pretty cool looking but actually don't make a big difference to the racing itself. Enemies seem quite aggressive so far.

One thing which I'm not 100% sure about but so far I'm liking is the new race grid system. To progress to the next set of races you have to do several types includig time trial and so on. It's not just you vs the AI all the time.

This does have infrastructure online but, so far, I haven't tried it.

Very Pure-like so, if you like that, you'll probably like this.

[englishbob]

Where did you get it from?

I am getting pissed off they keep delaying it, after most of the reviews where done in October and its mid-December now and there is SOD ALL worth playing on the PSP this year!

[Mus]

Yeah - what version have you got and where did you get it? Seemingly its not due out until 12th / 14th November in Europe / UK.

Please post and tell us if you get it to work online

[Dogg Thang]

HMV in Dublin don't seem to know that. Went in late yesterday (it was open for Christmas shopping) and there it was on the shelves. Had no idea it would be out, hence the PSP trouble (I had actually left mine in work). I imagine HMV's stock is fairly standard so I'd be amazed if it's not in others.

[Number45]

Looking forward to this. I'm ashamed to say I've not played a Wipeout game since 3 (Which I didn't like nearly as much as 2097, which I played to death) - it's been too long!

This will by my Christmas game of choice, I think.

[Wools]

One thing which I'm not 100% sure about but so far I'm liking is the new race grid system. To progress to the next set of races you have to do several types includig time trial and so on. It's not just you vs the AI all the time.

I love that idea, MSR & PGR invented the idea of diffrent misssions so I'm glad WipEout is having a more fleshed out Single Player mode.

I'm asking for this for Christmas so I'm looking forward to it. Let's hope Pulse has the same brilliant downloadable options in the year to come like Pure had. To this day there is noting like Omega in gaming.

[Dogg Thang]

There are already four download packs listed on the website. None up yet of course.

[Wools]

Really? Fantastic!

[angelx]

Is this much better than the last one? Pure, that was great but it did slow down so much, and I dont think I have enjoyed any really as much as 2097 still....

[Dogg Thang]

Pulse runs at 333 by default. No slowdown though I've spotted a couple of flickers that I suspect may be screen tearing but I haven't seen enough of them to be sure.

It's very like Pure though. It's more similar to Pure than any WO game has been to the previous.

Edit: Just had my first game online - works great! Not many games there at the moment but it works at least.

[sj33]

Hmm see I was never as mad about Pure as some. Certainly fundimentally a great game, but never 'clicked' with me in the same way 2097 and WO3 did. You reckon I should give this a miss?

[Dogg Thang]

Well it is an improvement over Pure in my opinion but, like I said, it's very similar. It's like Pure 2. So if you weren't into Pure there is a good chance this wouldn't do it for you. Maybe see if you can try it out or rent it first.

[Dogg Thang]

My skinned ship -

[dogen]

What price is this selling for in store?

[Dogg Thang]

No idea in UK. It was 39 Euros here if that's any help. Which it's probably not.