Wipeout HD [PSN]

[MonkeyWrench]

Nope you're not. A few flash effects removed or a trip in an ambulance, lemme think...

[BeyondJumpFish]

Its hardly a big deal really. Its just an effect within the game, its not like they have removed the whole mode because of it. Yeah it would have been nice to have, but if i played it and then had a fit i think i'd wonder why its in the game.

[Profit]

Problem with these type of seizures is you wouldn't know your susceptibility until you've had one. And past experience is a bit irrelevent and never quite reproducable.

[JP]

It was only in that one mode and although I thought it worked brilliantly with that treatment, if it was causing people to have seizures then I don't see how they could really justify leaving it in even with warnings.

Bear in mind that all Sony said was that it was put on hold due to a technical difficulty and that the medical issue was a rumour but it does seem to fit in with the changes.

It's a shame to see it go but if it was causing problems then it had to happen.

Have they added blurring to it now? The last gameplay video on the PSN from a couple of weeks back doesn't show any motion blurring apart from the initial burst of a second or so when you go over a boost pad which was always there.

[Matt]

Interesting technical aside - do you need blurring at 60fps? Won't your eyes handle that "effect" instead of having to simulate it?

[ezee ryder]

Does everything go through this testing? Wipeout looks more intense than Rez, the speed and pulsing are faster, maybe that's why??

Speaking from experience, I imagine this is something that would have been brought up during testing. Majority of testers probably thought it was rather too much for the senses and reported the "bug". The developers then probably looked at it and thought to themselves that it was probably a bit too much for the senses and they toned it down just to be on the safe side.

Can you imagine the headlines if this did cause seizures?! Probably for the best they toned it down to be honest.

[hexxed]

TBH, anyone who is prone to epilepsy shouldn't be playing a video game.

Movies and TV get away with "this may contain fast flashing lights" etc.

Changing a whole game for the 1% seems mad, especially when it was a hyped feature in the first place.

[Matt]

It's not the whole game now is it? It's a graphical part of one play mode.

And again, as has been iterated several times by different people here, saying anyone with epilepsy shouldn't play games is ignoring the fact a lot of people may not know the have it. Clearly it had Sony worried, and clearly it's a rather unique situation - they were saying it's a problem no-one has encountered before or something like that.

Would you want to risk putting someone in hospital if you were in charge?

[JP]

Would you want to risk putting someone in hospital if you were in charge?

As long as I can choose who that person is I do!

Seriously though, I'm really not understanding why such a fuss is being made of the changes. Whether it's just one person who may be made seriously ill by this or if it is 1% of users (Which is going to be tens of thousands of people) then it's no point risking it.

The main difference seems to be less pulsing and a reduction in the reds used which is usually the most risky of colours to use.

I think the frame rate has contributed and made the risk higher than with some other games as it just happens that 60Hz is one of the frequencies that is likely to contribute to seizures.

If it is true then it's an unfortunate combination of a few things that have contributed to the risks.

Changing a whole game for the 1% seems mad, especially when it was a hyped feature in the first place.

Going by that comment you may as well say why not remove it despite the absolutely tiny minority, less than 1% I'm guessing, of people who are just too bloody stupid to understand that they've not actually changed the whole game.

[MonkeyWrench]

What a crackpot post that is. Maybe read up on epilepsy and it's causes before posting drivel eh?

Since when did Wipeout become a cutesy platformer? Cause *that* is "changing a whole game", all the developers has done is alter the aesthetics alittle, hardly a complete redesign is it now? Also how do you know that this minor visual change is anything to do with the epilepsy rumour? It is more than likely a design choice. In fact the original comment from Studio Liverpool was something along the lines of Wipeout having a technical issue that no one in the world has managed to resolve, so you reckon someone would have stood up and said "hey instead of getting Sony coders from around the globe to try solve this problem, we could just change the way we do it?!". You would think that would be first on their list.

[sj33]

Main Menu->Option Menu.

Flashy Effects - Enable/Disable.

"Warning, enabling this option is not recommended for those prone to Epileptic seizures, do you wish to continue?"

[Matt]

No one reads more than one post at a time do they?

[mr_woo]

Can't say it bothers me one way or the other about the flashy effects. I'd love to have them in but as long as it plays well I'm not bothered.

I'm more happy about the price, ?11.99, **** me!

[sj33]

No one reads more than one post at a time do they?

Not sure if that was aimed at me or not. I don't see what was unreasonable about my post. People who are not prone to an epileltic seizures can choose to enable the effects. Disabled by default for those who are - then they can play the game too, as they certainly should do. Everyone's a winner.

If it's just a difficult thing to implement on a technical level, fair enough. It's hardly game-breaking. Just that a selectable seems to be the option that pleases everyone.

We're adults, at the end of the day.

[Matt]

As we've said, you may not know you're prone. Then Wham, you're on the floor, unable to brief correctly, deprieving the brain of oxygen. Sony already knew of a potential related issue, **** the warning screens, let's sue! It will happen! People will sue over anything. Even if it's a secret feature locked away only being open following a sequence of 50 button presses, someone would sue.

So why take the risk? I think this is very responsible of Sony.

This may well become more of an issue in the future, when all games start hitting 60fps and the futuristic racers get faster with more elaborate tracks.