Looking so hard for something that was already there...

[infoxicated]

I don't think I've made it too much of a secret that I was a bit disappointed with Wipeout Fusion. Don't get me wrong, I think it looks great and it travels at a tremendous pace. It's just things like the simplistic handling, freeform areas and shortcuts that make me feel that it's far from the perfect game I had wanted.

So, other than for Al's Zone challenge, I've been playing Wipeout 3 SE again.

And it turns out that I had forgotten how good it is. The attention to detail, the handling, the whole ambience of the title just hangs together perfectly. I already had the perfect game - I didn't need to build my hopes up to such an extent that Wipeout Fusion fell short of those expectations.

It seems that in the stampede to embrace Wipeout Fusion as the new benchmark in our Anti Gravity Racing experience, I forgot what a cracking game Wipeout 3 SE is. True, it's not super high res and it doesn't look half as good as Wipeout Fusion.

But for me, it's the perfect game.... with only one minor "if only"... if only Wipeout 3 SE had the AI of Fusion. Then I'd never need another game!

Agree/Disagree - let me know what you think.

[Lance]

~
i've not played SE, but it is an extension of WO3, and for me, that is a near-perfect game. i don't need 24 light sources and transparent cockpit canopies. or even scenery! [love those prototypes] i think there is and should always be games at the level possible on the PSX or the Saturn. also 2d on Gameboy Advance and Sega Genesis. it is the gameplay that is important, not having virtual reality, which is where the consoles and computers are headed. more focus on game design than on graphics and sound is the way to go. sight and sound add to a high-quality game, but they won't turn a low-quality game into a good one. for graphics and sound, i cannot imagine needing anything beyond a Sega Dreamcast. look at Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure, two different styles of graphic excellence. having more mass memory on the storage medium so that RPGs could be put on one disc or card or whatever storage unit is used in the future would be good, but other than that? in fact, keeping the total size of the game down is almost essential to making a game of high quality without spending 4 or 5 years and many millions of dollarspounds etc.
^

[vincoof]

Couldn't agree more with both of you !

Lance : if you've played Wip3out, you've played Wipeout 3 SE. The only "significant" add in WO3SE is the special feeling of racing the elder races with a new graphic style and new weapons.

[Piranha Advancements]

..that the best ever wipE'out" was the original.My PSOne still has their freebie stickers from Edge? mag in 97.I still keep coming back to this rather than the evolutions ;for the handling (hit a wall and you die!),the beautiful tracks,the interstellar soundtrack and the original pilots that started it all.

Hey,still love that Bum! sound when you konfigured the controls.Although there's no thrust,no Penetrators,no Curly says Go! etc., it's just a magical feeling,ya know.

[JABBERJAW]

I hate the turbo scraping in 3, but the control is great. But if fusion had better pitch control like 3 or 64, I'd say no contest. I'm kinda still judging, I love fusion, but no race records or tt races is a serious downer whereas 3 has all those

[G-Hob]

3:SE was something of a disappointment to me. The enemy ships are far too slow in comparision to the great challenging speed they raced at in 3. The decision to make SE a lot of easier made it much less fun for me than 3 had been.

[Vasudeva]

Well, SE was kind of a marketing trick, of course.

A part from that, I do love the choice from eight ships in both W3 and W3SE rather than four (or five) in the previous games, and I was kind of disappointed to read that none of the new craft models made it to Fusion. The side-cockpit of Assegai Dev. was truly superb. And, of course, I love ICARAS. Too bad that the colour of the craft was pink. But hey, you can't have everything :lol:

Oh and they should have brought back Korodera. And Spilskinanke, which is much darker and unpredictable than its successor Manor Top. Not to mention the broken tunnel with zero visibility. Ahh... ramming the walls with a Qirex.

Vasudeva.

[Piranha Advancements]

Spilskinanke..that track gives me the creeps,makes Manor Top look like Karbonis V.I feel like a pinball racing that track on Phantom.And Icarus had a great color scheme,too bad it's now a kouple of feet under brown earth and black...

[Vasudeva]

ICARAS with a black colour scheme? Where? afaik, it's not a team in WF.

Oh yes, Spilskinanke *is* creepy. I made up a story that it's the ruins of a US city on the westcoast, bought by Auricom, and that the track was broken in segments on purpose by an earthquake (I mean that they just let it happen, not that they created a quake on purpose :) ).

And Karbonsi V, well, I never understood why it was the second track of the original WIpeOut. I found Altima VII to be more difficult (especially that last corner in that tunnel).

Vasudeva

[Piranha Advancements]

Yeah,Karbonis V is an easy track but it's fun nonetheless especially when you emerge from the tunnel and you jam left down the mountain.Coolnes.

I agree on Altima VII's tunnel but only on wip'Eout's handling and not wip3out:SE.

[Zebula77]

Hey, I can't really decide which is the best WO. I mean, recently I played all of the old ones, you know just to see how they compared. And they're all great, in their own funny, little way. In some ways, Fusion is the best, whilst WO3 has something that's better, and the same goes for WO 2097 and WO1. I can't choose. They're all my babies. :D I love 'em all.Don't force me to pick.

Anyway, in WO3:SE I really loved the prototype tracks that had almost no curves, where the ships had full specs for speed. Damn, that was like zone mode sometimes, and the sound of the engine as you reached speeds close to the 1000kmh mark was just great. I wish there were more engine sound in the WO games. The sound definately adds to the sensation of speed.

Long live Wipeout, I say. There should be no reason to pick one over the other, apart from when you want to race a particular track.

[Lance]

.
i like the sound level of the racers as it is. wipeout has a different technology; it establishes its own level for the sound of speed. i don't expect it to produce the same noise level as an internal cumbustion piston engine; it seems only appropriate that futuristic anti-gravity racing feels more efficient and sophisticated.
.

[Zebula77]

You're right Lance. It's just that the louder sound in those prototype races made me think 'Jeeesus, I'm going fassssssst!!'. You know, the sound helped to inspire that feeling in me. The feeling of danger at the prospect of going any faster, cuz you're already going faster than what feels rasonable. I dunno, just like that feeling I guess.

[AmishRobot]

I repurchased WO3 last fall after initially hating it. I've managed to give it a fair chance and actually come to like it a lot, but it just doesn't have everything for me.
Wipeout has the characters and fantastic track design
XL/2097 has the atmosphere and music
and WO3 has perfect control.
I don't expect to be disappointed in Fusion, because my expectations aren't unrealistic. I'm expecting a very different game that holds true to the spirit of the series. Hopefully I won't be disappointed.

BTW, most of my appreciation for WO3 comes from participating on this site in the forums and tables.

[Brother Laz]

Oh yes, Spilskinanke *is* creepy. I made up a story that it's the ruins of a US city on the westcoast, bought by Auricom, and that the track was broken in segments on purpose by an earthquake (I mean that they just let it happen, not that they created a quake on purpose :) ).

Vasudeva

You are underestimating the American government. They didn't warn the about 10 million people living there because Datacast was setting up their cameras at strategic spots for a dramatic television show!

[Nathan Adams]

wo3:se was always my favourite
it was just one of those games where, whilst things on their own might not be the best, together they fitted together perfectly. wonderful balance - and therefore it felt by far the most cohesive.

and hence, when I do play games at home (which isn't so often now), it's gotta be wo3:se that gets the gametime