Wipeout 2048 - Vita

[Neon Ignition]

Gave this a go last night, just trying out the first track. It's probably mostly due to the compressed size of the screen but it really does look a lot more detailed than HD was. There's no frame drops in the first race so I'll see how that goes later on but based on that race the game plays very smooth with the 30fps matter being of no real concern. Impressed so far.

[Silvergun X]

Very, very impressed with this. Cleaning up the single player campaign at the moment before going on to the multiplayer campaign.

One of the final Zone missions just now... Almost got the Mach 1.5 trophy!! Made it to Zone 64 and crashed and burned... Not felt my chest pumping like that from a game for ages!

[marcus]

Ive been playing this for much of the last 10 days or so to on the train to and from work, really enjoying it so far. Finding it hard going, Ive got elites on all but the time trials for the C class levels, with the pilot assist turned off the game is as punishing as ever. To those getting elites on later classes I have much respect for you, Im not sure Ill be able to do the same. Are you all using the 'wipeout' style of control? I stumbled across this today and initially it seems more difficult but I have a feeling longer term once Im used to it that control method will work best.

[Dogg Thang]

I use the Wipeout control style but that's because I'm used to the previous games. I have no idea if it's actually better or not though. I have the elite passes for the 2048 and 2049 events but I'm missing a bunch for the 2050 ones. The time trials are pretty tight there and, with them, I often have no idea if I'm missing them because I'm just not racing it well enough or because I'm not taking the right route - which is why multiple routes kind of stink. Also bugs me that to elite pass a couple of the races in 2050 you have to do it through eliminations. Like it wasn't combat-heavy enough.

[dvdx2]

I am still finding it difficult to play games this fast, on a handheld....

I can go round the track on rapier setting on the ps3 version of HD without hitting anything , yet i find myself banging off walls constantly on this - For me the analogue sticks are poor and I dont have the same level of control as a DS3.

[sj33]

I'm having trouble finding the secret events on this. I have been told that you need to use the reach touchpad to find them, but I'm a bit lost as to where on the map to even begin looking.

[J0e Musashi]

Just drag your finger around the map. They aren't that hard to find really.

[wakka]

I didn't use the rear touchpad. You can just see the outline of them pulsing. And don't bother looking to the far corners, they're all situated around the rest of the events.

[sj33]

I managed to find one in the end, though the challenge is hard as nails.

Overall, this game is very good... with some caveats. This game is definately from the 'Pulse/Pure/HD' family in terms of the way it plays, rather than the classic WipEout family. I don't necessarily mind this (as much as I'd like to see a classic WipEout), though it also shares the same problems that the newer games have - namely, too much emphasis on combat, and just looking overly-detailed.

The 30fps issue didn't bother me as much as I was expecting it to, though I think I would have preferred them to go with a more sterile look, and maybe went with 60fps as a result. There's so much detail on screen that it can be difficult to see what is going on sometimes. Given this game is set ~50 years before 2097, it probably makes more sense for the game to look less sterile, but still. It does look very impressive visually, though they've probably gone a bit overboard with the detail and lost that sterile look as a result.

The music is 'memorable' in that I actually remember them, though it isn't really to my tastes. Bring back Cold Storage eh?

Still, I don't feel too negative about this, because it's an excellent game. I do pine for the classic WipEout of old, but it's difficult to deny that this is a very well executed title.

[ItsThere]

This game has f*cked up my Vita.

Was working ok offline. Redeemed my online pass and then it crashed the WO game constantly.

Ok, only played about an hour so I will delete all the data, reinstall and only lose an hours progress. Then I read up on the error message, {error c2-12828-1} and it requires me to fiddle around with the rubbish BT Home Hub that I have. Which doesn't work. So I am now in the process of trying to get it working with the Wi-fi at all. Hs anyone else had this problem?

EDIT

Here is a fix guide but it still isn't working for me: http://community.eu.playstation.com/.../td-p/15328217

Noting that the version of home hub I have runs a Gateway and DNS of 192.168.1.254

[Dogg Thang]

The HD/Fury add-ons are available now, free to those who already have them on PS3. I got them installed last night and had a play through some races. The good news is that the full campaigns from both HD and Fury are added, with all the events. Racebox is missing.

Now I wasn't a big HD fan and definitely wasn't a Fury fan, where the combat just got to be too much for me and I felt they tried to milk too much out of not even a handful of tracks. Nevertheless, these add-ons add some of the best tracks from the Pure/Pulse era with Vineta K, Moa Therma, Sol 2 and more. Really great and interesting tracks and, to me, far better than just about all of the 2048 tracks. So this should be a real boost to the game and makes it a very impressive package now.

Except for one key problem - the tracks don't run all that well.

They were 60fps on PS3. 2048's tracks on the other hand run at 30fps. The HD/Fury add-on tracks for 2048 rarely manage that and only get close in the empty modes like time trial. They're usually running at a pretty godawful 20fps or so. It's pretty shocking actually and really hard on the eyes. To make matters worse, they look murky and smeared. I'm not sure but it looks like they are not rendered at the full res that the 2048 tracks are rendered at. Weirdly, it almost looks like the res varies - is that possible? Could it be changing the res on the fly depending on what is happening on screen? Sounds unlikely as I write it but, whatever is happening, that's sometimes how it looks on screen. Big blurry wobbly pixels at times. Other times, they're harder to spot. Murky and stuttery. That's a pretty major negative here.

Maybe they'll sort that in an update. Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit. If they did though, these tracks are excellent and make this a far better package.

[sj33]

I think they are actually 30fps, but the switch from 60fps to 30fps is very jarring with a game like WipEout. I found this myself when I fired up WipEout HD the other day. The packages are very generous, but the do have you craving for 60fps goodness.

A small note, the horizontal resolution actually dynamically modified even with HD/Fury to maintain framerate. I assume 2048 has something similar.

Another thing, I foolishly assumed that the HD/Fury soundtrack would be included. I'm not even that much of a fan of the HD/Fury soundtrack, but it feels slightly wrong playing the tracks without that soundtrack (not to mention the fact that 2048's soundtrack is mediocre, and much smaller). I assume there's a way to set up a custom soundtrack with the HD/Fury music though.

[Dogg Thang]

Well people said that 2048 was 30fps and these HD/Fury tracks are a good bit lower. Just switch from one mode to the other and you'll see the difference. I don't know if 2048 is genuinely 30fps but, if it is, the HD/Fury tracks aren't reaching that at all.

I didn't know the res was altered dynamically in HD/Fury. That makes sense and it must be what's happening here too, although to achieve a less than impressive frame rate. Overall, I feel they've dropped the ball on the technicalities of what is delivered here. Odd given that, for all my own criticisms, 2048 has been the poster child for the performance the Vita can deliver.

[cavalcade]

I thought they were fine. Can't we just enjoy them for what they are?

[Dogg Thang]

I guess we could... but then applying that across the board, what would we use the internet for?