WipEout HD

[Dogg Thang]

Wipeout Pure tracks:

* Chenghou Project
* Sol 2
* Vineta K
* Sebenco Climb
* Anulpha Pass
* Ubermall

Wipeout Pulse Tracks:

* Moa Therma
* Metropia

And their reverse versions.

Against my better judgement, I ended up getting this. What am I? Their bitch. That's what.

[Malc]

Thanks for the info' Dogg.

[Dogg Thang]

Graphics are technically really impressive. Textures are detailed and, for the most part, it runs smoothly. I also love the front end.

So for the most part, the game itself is just like Pulse with Pure's tracks, though obviously with far fewer tracks. Aside from the technical advances, not sure it much to offer over either of those, except that Pulse was severely bugged and so is hard to recommend.

I find the track textures really distracting and they overwhelm some tracks, particularly Chengou and Metropia, both of which have lost all the character they had. And, of course, being Pure and Pulse tracks, they contain all of the design problems I had with them initially.

The sound is great and the level of polish is obvious. I guess this will be great for those who didn't go for the PSP outings and also people who like textures.

[KusoGaki]

This is my first time playing wipeout, it's a great game but i find it a bit difficult to steer around corners without slamming into walls (And it's a bit too boring playing with the auto thing)

I like the fact you can customise your own playlist into it as well, flung a load of t+pazolite (Japanese hardcore) tracks onto my ps3 and it suits the game quite well
Check out his mp3s on his site here: http://www.c-h-s.net/music.htm

[Rossco]

Interesting opinions Dogg.

You're right of course in saying how impressive the visuals are, great textures, and overall polish for the game. It really does feel perfect in the sense that it's probably been tested to death as nothings happened so far for me that's ruined the immersion. Everything has been silky smooth, no skips in frame rate or unexpected things happening.

I don't agree on the textures being distracting though. Do you mean there's too much going on and you can't focus on the racing line you should be taking or seeing where corners are? Once your in the zone, I think you just know where the corners are but even so I never thought it was distracting.

Also, what character has been lost from the tracks? I have Pure for PSP, didn't play it alot as my PSP doesn't get alot of playtime so I can't think what you mean although I'm interested to hear thoughts.

I really feel it's such a polished, well presented game and for £12 it's a complete bargain. I'm not trolling btw, generally interested to see what your thoughts are since everyone so far has praised it to high heavens.


PS - Malc, get it!!!

[Dogg Thang]

No, you can see the corners and from a pure racing perspective the track textures don't negatively affect the game. But they do overwhelm the visual design of the tracks.

The thing with Pure, Pulse and now HD is that they are exceptionally well modelled. If you go around a track slowly and see the detail, it's immensely impressive. But, because of the overall design mentality (must fill all available space) and a lack of composition, most of that modelling goes completely to waste. More so now with some of the new track textures. Chengou is just eaten up by its track texture. As a result, the character of the track design is lost.

Metropia's character is lost as a result of both the busy track texture and the need to fill every square inch with every single colour in the visible spectrum. It's lost the track's feel. Same with many areas of Sebenco Climb.

So it's mostly a visual thing.

Yes, it's polished and most definitely well presented. The front end is gorgeous and some of the touches (like the break up at the end of Zone mode) are fantastic.

[Rossco]

Ah okay. I do see where you're coming from but still think it doesn't take anything away. You're going too fast to be able to visually take it all in and fully appreciate the environment around you. And I think the fact that it's full of vibrant colours and lights adds to the effect when whizzing by you at speed.

I took a picture of the track you mean that has the lines going straight up the track as it's texture, looks great I think. Took it on my PS3 but dunno how to transfer them to the PC? Anyone give me a link or something telling me how.

[NekoFever]

How do the leaderboards work, exactly? I was playing online earlier and according to the leaderboard at the end I was ranked fifth in the world on Anulpha Pass. I'm comfortable enough with my skills to know that that's a filthy lie, so what's going on?

[SuperBeatBoy]

What difficulty is everyone playing? I noticed last night that it was on novice at default...

[Eight Rooks]

Left the AI on Novice for now, given I'm so terrible. Though I find races much, much easier overall, given there's no requirement to do X perfect laps or whatever. I might bump the AI up a notch, see how I do.

[Rossco]

Yeah I'm doing Skilled and it seems just right just now, races are always close and the AI barge you out the way etc and are generally tough to beat!

[sj33]

Interesting reading about the game's 1080p support on the Digital Foundry blog.

http://insidethedigitalfoundry.blogspot.com/2008/09/wipeout-hds-1080p-sleight-of-hand.html

[helicon2]

Yeah I'm doing Skilled and it seems just right just now, races are always close and the AI barge you out the way etc and are generally tough to beat!

Skilled for me too. Done a few tracks on Novice with the Auto Assist on, but now ramped it up a bit after 'getting in the zone'!

[kernow]

I knew a couple beers would ease me in to buying this

still downloading

[saturn-gamer]

I beat Uplift on skilled, all gold. I can win the first few tracks venom class on skilled in Race Box. But any higher class, and I'm in big trouble.

Possible GOTY 2008 imo.