Wipeout HD [PSN]

[JP]

It's already been leaked that something new is on the for this series via the pretty normal method of online CVs.

SCEE registered the domain of www.wipeout2048.com last month as well as the www.wipeouttrinity.com domain in December so although neither name may be final with a bit of luck we'll get an announcement at E3 this year.

The Wipeout 2048 link is clearly a dead end at the moment but check where the Wipeout Trinity link leads to.

With that title it could of course even be something like a HD compilation of the PS1 games although they've not done that before but I suppose it would take care of the issues they currently have with the music in the PS1 games over here.

I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult to rebuild the tracks from Wipeout, Wipeout 2097/XL and Wipeout 3 in the current HD engine. If it happens it could of course be something that they're instead lining up for the NGP launch as they've apparently got the HD engine running perfectly on that already using the PS3 game assets.

[Darwock]

The thing is, they always said it would actually be VERY difficult to rebuild the old tracks in the HD engine - because they lost all the original assets.

[JP]

At GC 2007 Tony Buckley discussed that they used tracks from the PSP games as they still had all the code from those games and due to the tight development cycle it made sense for them to do this.

I'm not aware of anybody stating that it would be too difficult to create new tracks using the HD engine?

He also mentioned that they would like to add new tracks to the game post launch so I suppose this could even be downloadable tracks, I'd imagine that they'd much rather sell it as a brand new game though.

[bcass]

I think they mentioned that they no longer had access to the original track data (and/or the tools to access that data), but that wouldn't stop them making approximations of all the old tracks.

[Darwock]

I don't have a source unfortunately, I got the notion from the wipeoutzone forums. Some of the developers post in there and it certainly seems to be an accepted fact on those boards.

[Dogg Thang]

Making approximations of the old tracks is a world apart from any sort of remake or hi-res compilation of the early PS1 games because there are many roadblocks that came up around the Pure era. There were classic tracks included in Pure and the scale was way off, having rebuilt as (as bcass says) approximations. As Darwock says, they have insisted since the move to PS2 that they lost the original assets.

But it's not just getting those tracks right that is the major issue - the handling is a bigger issue. Those early tracks were built specifically for the precise handling of the craft. For example, even a small barely noticeable difference in the handling of the Saturn version of WO1 left a bend in Silverstream pretty much impossible to get round without bumping the sides. Many of those early tracks will only work with the handling from the games they came from.

The handling in Pure/Pulse/HD is completely different. Which is possibly why the scale of the classic tracks had to be so different in Pure. And it's not just that the handling is different because they wanted it that way. Again, in the move to Fusion on PS2, they said that they couldn't replicate the handling. It was a whole different model. They moved closer to it when going to Pure but it's still hugely different. The momentum, anti-grav feel, weight, air time, cornering/air brake feel is different from the handling in those original games. And, even if they could get it spot-on, it brings its own problems (like being able to get so much air that you could fly through objects, acceptable to a point in PS1 era but not so much now).

That's not to say it can't happen.

But everything they said around Fusion and then with Pure says that it would not be a case of porting them. They would have to completely rebuild the games and recreate things that, seemingly, are incredibly difficult to recreate.

[bcass]

But it's not just getting those tracks right that is the major issue - the handling is a bigger issue. Those early tracks were built specifically for the precise handling of the craft. For example, even a small barely noticeable difference in the handling of the Saturn version of WO1 left a bend in Silverstream pretty much impossible to get round without bumping the sides. Many of those early tracks will only work with the handling from the games they came from.

This is probably a good reason to actually remake approximations of the old tracks rather than them being identical. That way they can tailor the tracks slightly to accomodate the different handling model. If they do such a thing, I hope they don't forget the tracks from the under-rated/excellent N64 version.

[sj33]

I must admit, after the reports of massive downscaling and layoffs at Studio Liverpool, I had assumed that Sony were putting the WipEout series on hold for the time being, so it's brilliant to hear that something is in the works.