YouTube video reiew - in Portuguese.

[blackwiggle]

This is the first real look at what's new with PACER, it's in Portuguese, but you don't really need to understand what the reviewer is saying, you just follow what he's doing on screen.

I like that you can now sort your craft for online racing LOADOUT page into 4 categories, you just named them previously and hoped you remembered which ones were which.
Drifter
Defensive
Agility
High Speed
This also gives away what the 4 main different types of tracks/racing you are going to be running across.
As yet I don't know how many craft in each categories you will be able to save [ hopefully quite a few so you can test them one after the other, and then delete the worse ones]


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-iilvcb9EM#action=share

[blackwiggle]

I asked Loadstate what racing views PACER had, and if it had internal cockpit view.
The answer was NO it doesn't, and PACER has 4 racing views.

Basically Near , Far and strangely Left and Right.
At first I thought something must have been lost in translation to Portuguese, but when you factor in that one of the loadouts is named DRIFT, it makes more sense.

Also Loadstates original comment on the video said this.

No Loadstate, nós jogamos Pacer, um jogo de corrida e combate de naves, ao estilo F-Zero, com gráficos maravilhosos e muito combate!
Translated says this :At Loadstate, we play Pacer, an F-Zero style racing and fighting game, with wonderful graphics and lots of combat!

So one could assume that PACER has now morphed more into F-ZERO territory than Wipeout.

Given some of the newest track designs, this also would confirm this [I remember when we tested them in Red Route mode several years ago and commented as such ]

The craft handling in Formula Fusion has always been more Drift weighted, with the center of the crafts gravity pretty much rear orientated, which is what made it different from Wipeouts handling, so this doesn't really come as a surprise.

What has come as a surprise is just how much DRIFT appears to have been emphasized in PACER.

This questions just how much of a straight out race can PACER be as well ?
I was looking forward to racing online with a PSone type Wipeout [No Barrel Rolls ], where racing lines a corner entering / exit speed were what won you races.
How much of THAT is still possible now such a seemingly heavy emphasis on DRIFT has been brought into the game remains to be seen.

If that is still possible all well and good.

But it does bring up the thought that if PACER can be both types of racing game, will it divide a already small player base into 3 different types, DRIFTERS, RACERS and those that prefer Eliminator / fighting type racing ?
We all know what happens when in a room in Wipeout and the original racing format was normal racing, then somebody [using false advertising to fill the room] changes it to a Eliminator race at the last second.....everybody just gets pissed off and leaves without racing.
Your either a person who likes playing Eliminator or your not......I suspect you'll now add if you like DRIFTING or not.

See how this division plays out, and I've been around long enough to know that there will be division / racing preference, and it will happen very early after release and pretty much stay that way.

It's a BIG RISK R8 have taken here, basically trying to satisfy 3 different types of AG Racing fan with the one game, the straight out Wipeout type racer, the cross between Wipeout / F-Zero battle-fighters and the F-Zero Drift type racing.

Is the player base going to be big enough to have enough people playing each type of race so they come back, knowing there is a good chance that they will get a race online ?

We all know how hard it can be to get a online race with the Omega pack.

[Concealed Sequence]

I don't have that worry as I don't play online. But of course this could effect future content/games if it doesn't work out.

[blackwiggle]

Sixaxis published a preview of PACER which you can read below.
https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2020/08/17/pacer-preview-gameplay-wipeout-formula-fusion/

In it they describe what they say is a Wipeout like Zone mode called Flowmentum, You can see it in the video above starting at 14.23
This got a few people really excited.
After watching the video again, it didn't seem like any Zone mode that I'm familiar with, so I contacted the video reviewer again and asked what is different.....his reply below.

"It is very similar to the Wipeouts' Zone mode, with the difference that the Pacer's green targets recover the ship's shield and life. Another difference is that the Pacer’s ship doesn’t increase its speed gradually as it does in the Zone Mode of wipeouts"

Doesn't increase speed is the operative difference here.
Seems more like a speed lap survival mode till your shields fail.

I can imagine how this will go down with those hoping for the insane speed that WO Zone mode can reach, underwhelmed to say the least.

This might of happened for fear of copyright IP infringement, so it understandable to a extent.

[AdHoc]

PACER is basically F-Zero: Tokyo Drift. The physics of the ship seem appalling. Looks like a free game you’d get in a cereal box.

I’m so frigging sick of the "ex-Wipeout devs" argument you read in every single review of Formula Pacer. Please stop attaching this game to Psygnosis’ legacy.

[blackwiggle]

Two more short video previews of the final build

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkfFq-XKA3c

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_HHgp4Ajb0

[AdHoc]

Why does no one mention the handling and physics? It’s the most interesting aspect: gameplay. Infuriating.

[blackwiggle]

Why does no one mention the handling and physics? It’s the most interesting aspect: gameplay. Infuriating.

Because it is already known.
It's also why the tracks are much wider for the most part than Wipeout tracks, to compensate for the handling different.

Just because the craft handling in Formula Fusion is looser than Wipeout, doesn't necessarily mean it has stayed that way.

You can build craft to handle more LIKE a Wipeout craft if you want.....sure not exactly, but then again Pacer is not Wipeout, just as BallisticNG isn't Wipeout either, even though all the assets used to build BallisticNG were reverse engineered from a Wipeout 2097 Disc [The whole history of BallisticNG and how it was made is within this forum]

If you want another Wipeout get onto Sony's tail and start kicking, I don't fancy your chances.

[T-301]

I got a few peeves with this game from the footage I'm seeing. First is the effects. Even though you can see contrails behind your opponents, there's none trailing the player's ship. It seems to be so far back you can't even see it, and it's absence isn't doing the sensation of speed any favors. The weapon effects are also lackluster - weapons like the machinegun don't seem to have have any muzzleflash when you fire, and barely visible impact sparks when they hit something. They're not pronounced enough.

Second is the antigrav feel. The ships shown so far seem to be glued on the tracks, lacking any floatiness whatsoever. I don't know if this feature is present in the game, but if it is, they could've shown it, or at least make it a visual thing, like in HD and 2048, where you can see the ships being animated in such a way that they react to inertia on every axis when you make turn and use handbrakes, but are still locked at a fixed position over the track when you land after a jump. The ships in Pacer feel very static in comparison, too much like Fusion.

[blackwiggle]

Both valid points you bring up.
But there is a underlying reason why the weapons are as they are.

Firstly, let's make this clear, PACER is NOT WIPEOUT !
It could be considered a lesser AG racer similar to Wipeout if you don't understand what the thinking is behind the design of PACER, which I what I think IS generally happening......they are different games.

PACER is MUCH BIGGER in SCOPE than Wipeout.
The underlying design principle has always been to take AG racing to the next level, and it does, but your going to have to read on to find out how it does.

With Wipeout, if not playing Eliminator online [pretty much the only rooms you find online with Omega]
Wipeout is still pretty much, sit on the lounge and spend endless hours tying to beat your PB only for it not to be loaded to a unsupported leader board ....sad but true.

First the Contrails.
You can adjust those in the garage to how you want to be seen from behind [helps in Team events for team members behind to recognize you ] Keep reading to see the REASONS things appear as they do.

The weapons have always been the achillies heel of FF,IF YOU PLAY PACER ONLY LIKE WIPEOUT, and it would seem at least from a visual standpoint as seen it the videos above, improved, but still somewhat lackluster in PACER.
In testing over many builds I always found them pretty much ineffectual, if that is still the case I don't know, they do seem improved regarding targeting, and the across track electro wave weapon looks good, so does Flash Bang.
The problem of trying to deduce just how good or bad the weapons have stayed/become by viewing the videos above, is that none of the reviewers seem to know exactly how the weapons systems work in Pacer.
They don't work on a ad hoc pickup basis as in wipeout, you first have to open up the game in Campaign by winning credits, then buying weapons and also upgrading them, then you have to choose which TWO different weapons you are going to fit in your craft loadout before you start racing, THEN it's a matter of running over the weapon charge pickups till you have enough to use the weapon.

In one video specifically the reviewer says that they couldn't remember, or didn't know how to use the weapons properly because the demo version came with no tutorial.
From watching the other videos I think that's safe to say about all of them, which is probably the reason why intense wipeout like frenzied use of weapons isn't apparent in any of the videos.
By the same token, it does make you wonder how much of a challenge the AI are in PACER, they certainly don't seem very challenging to me.......BUT, this is in SINGLE player mode against AI playing like a Wipeout game.

TBH R8 told me long ago that they didn't want to put as much as a emphasis on weapons use AS FOUND in wipeout, well their use not in the same manner as wipeout, they wanted to concentrate on the racing, it would appear that stance has pretty much stayed.
Weapon choice and use has been designed to be far more strategic .......Keep reading and you'll understand why.

Although once the game is opened up and you can build a craft with powerful weapons, and you open a online room with like minded pilots, I'm sure things could get as frenzied as a wipeout game, like will attract like, much as wipeout have eliminator fans who prefer that mode.

The thing is FF/ now PACER intent was always to be more orientated to Online racing, that's why you already have so many teams dedicated to countries around the world.
They were made exactly for that, so people in the UK, US AUS, France etc could get together, make teams using the team craft skins, and race online as teams......Man, if wipeout had that back in the old PS3 haydays, or even today it would have been magic.
Of course having teams leads to tournaments.....do you see what where this is going?
People wanting to start teams are going to want to make sure they attract the best pilots for their teams, so that will start contests/tryouts for those positions.

Ideally things will lead to a 'Rocket-Leauge''type situation......THAT has always been R8's intent for Pacer.

Say you have a 5 craft a side team, you'll want to configure some craft differently, say having one or more of a heavy Tank, a Attack or a fast agility craft, and have each of those craft weapon ed up differently or the same, up to you, you'll use those attributes, and team strategy to beat the opposing team.

This is why the weapons system has been designed like it has.
It's also partially why the weapons don't seem as visually impactful as Wipeouts, WHY?
We'll envision you have teams tournament happening, and people are watching online what's going on.
With 10 players all going for it, trying to make sense of where the race stands at any particular point is going to be extremely hard if the weapon effects were as heavy handed as wipeouts, you would certainly have trouble making a running commentary on the race, or if wanting to review the race, deduce where the team went well or could have done better with all those visuals going off at wipeout levels.
There is reasoning to R8's seemingly mad way of doing things.

As for the perceived lack of AG effect on the craft, as viewed at the starting grid , well I don't have a answer for that.
My only guess is that that being a very small team it was one of those niceties that they would have like to have included, but weren't able to perfect to a degree they were happy with, so decided to omit it.

As for the actual AG feel of the craft, well that is adjustable in the craft build options you can adjust the amount of AG force your craft has, although as I understand it this was to make craft loadout for specific track that had large jumps, and to somewhat counteract the weight of Tank build loadouts, it did effect the AG feel of the craft a bit, but TBH it wasn't much.

R8 said 2 years ago that these things would be modified for the final build, so I'm guessing some changes have been made here, just what they are I don't know.