Its heart is still beating...Just - Pulse smashed by OPS2

[Rapier Racer]

Its funny how things change. Back in the 1990s Wipeout was an exciting futuristic racer, unparalleled for both speed and garishnes, the pride of the Playstation. Now, it feels like little more than a slice of nostalgia to fill the gaps in the release schedule in between RIDGE RACERS AND BURNOUTS!! (caps added by me, also, F*** OFF! Yes because every burnout is SO original and doesn't feel like the pile of crap the came before it in any way shape or form)

Going hands-on for the first time with the latest version, Wipeout Pulse, highlights just how much the cyber-racing franchise is starting to get cold and stiff. First, you must navigate through a bizarre career that’s laid out in a fiddly beehive style (each cell representing a race you need to complete).

Then your into the racing. As with all in its genre, Pulse starts out sedate and gets quicker. Competitors become more aggressive and use their weapon pick-ups more liberally, the tracks get twistier, the races longer.

But the excitement is sadly lacking. Choosing between any of the eight racing teams doesn’t make a difference when your out on the tracks (WRONG, prick) and the majority of the 24 new circuits have the same uniform, grey sheen we’ve seen a hundred times before.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Although we weren’t able to try it out, we have high hopes for Wifi multiplayer (I have high hopes of your being hospitalized) which lets you compete over a local or national connection in seven race modes.

The customization options look good too. You can personalize the skin of your craft, then post pictures of it online. Sony is promising downloadable music, tracks and ships too, after the games release in September, so as a package this is top portable fodder. Its simply a shame the core game is so dated

Little box at the bottom with stupid rating-based-on-heat-o-meter says:

There will be plenty on offer for hardcore Wipeout fans in Pulse, but the old and rather dated formula is unlikely to garner much favor with newcomers

Rating: Tepid, Warm, Hot, Boiling, Meltdown:: WARM.

Bits in brackets added by me :g I'd like to hurt the man who wrote this though, severely so.

[mclarensmps]

Well that review was a pile of crap. There is no way the ships are so similar that they don't make a difference on track. That just doesn't happen in wipeout.

Therefore, I think the whole review has pretty much 0 credibility. Specially if they think burnout or ridge racer are games that people should look forward to. Those two are probably a pair of the worst racing game franchises I have ever come across. I hate them both. Almost as much as I hate PGR and Forza.

[RJ O'Connell]

I agree that was total bollocks, though it doesn't surprise me to see someone think that.

Someone needs to tell him that FEISAR =! Triakis.

Oh, and I do like all four of those other game series too, mclaren. I just happen to like WipEout better. ;)

[Dr. Angryman]

Who wrote this? I'd like to give him a peice of my mind! :bomb He calls WipEout (do I dare say?) boring. WipEout made the Playstation the greatest console in the world in 1995, and he is unimpressed? Why!?

I can't wait for WipEout Pulse. By the time it's released, it'll be the greatest game on the PSP. :rock

[RJ O'Connell]

WipEout made the Playstation the greatest console in the world in 1995
Of course, every "knowledgeable" gaming journalist will tell you it's either FF7, Metal Gear Solid, or FF8. (Lance, I don't know what the rolling eye smiley is!)

They're all great games, but did they establish the system's place in gaming history first? **** no. And that opinion is why, for the most part, I hate a lot of mainstream gaming mags and sites. Because they don't. get. it.

What do most casual PSP gamers think of when Wipeout Pure is mentioned? The ****ing web browser exploit. Not the actual game, the god damned BROWSER. That seriously makes me ill.

Wipeout, to most of them, is just a novelty item. Nothing more. >_>

[Dr. Angryman]

Thanks for backing me up, man! :g

[mdhay]

This is what psm3 say:
(I may need permish to dub-post.)
After a 2 year hiatus, Everybody's favourite A.G. racer is back on psp with a host of new tracks, ships, weapons and new features...we know the features ;)

Comparison, no? (héhé :))

[mclarensmps]

Meh, in terms of racing games, the only ones I play are the wipeout series, the gran turismo series, F1 Career 99-02, and the new F1 Championship

[lunar]

don`t worry about it - even Mozart got some bad reviews and now he`s regarded as pretty good. It annoys me in the way that WipEout is always criticized for doing the same thing as it did in the older games, and it`s implied that it`s stale for this, yet none of these reviewers ever start an FPS review by saying "yawn, it`s just you looking down a corridor over the barrel of a gun." They won`t start their Halo3 review by saying that wandering around shooting people with a variety of weapons is a "dated" concept. They won`t call the next Burnout "dated" for being a car racing game where you have to dodge oncoming traffic to a soundtrack of nauseous rawk music. I mean, what`s Pulse supposed to do to avoid being "dated", turn into a different game altogether? That review is really pretty meaningless, and it`s just written by a journalist who doesn`t like the genre.

[Dr. Angryman]

Yeah, the reason why WipEout still retains most of the original formula is because the formula is extremely well done. And WipEout Pulse does have some features that make it different from the previous games, including the Mag-strips, revised Zone mode, Racebox, new ships, and new circuits. Simply putting WipEout off as a novelty item or a tired franchise is ignorant and unintelligent. WipEout is still considered the gamer's choice for futuristic racing. In fact, most WipEouts fare off better than most normal racing games. The only stumble that WipEout ever made was in Fusion, but SL quickly got on it's feet and ran off with WipEout Pure. Pure is still running strong in the PSP's library, even though it's been over 2 years since it was released. WipEout is not a boring franchise that needs to be put out of it's misery. It's a great series, equal to that of Metroid and Final Fantasy. GO WIPEOUT! :rock

[supersocks]

This guy reviews WO mostly as a 90s popular culture phenomenon - NOT a videogame. I think those "new generation gamers" back then without any previous gaming experience have almost all except few of us dropped their gaming hobby as it ever lasted longer than year or two. It was one of the main reasons for the domino effect which made video games more mainstream to the point where it is nowadays. Once niche, now cliche. The core target group is just living and destroying the past into tiny pieces. Now that's futurism! Too bad it's a concept destined to destroy itself.

Don't know if it's something to do with lack of TDR, the Psygnosis Sony merger or just the today's way to make games(tm) but seriously, wipEout has a testicle tumor. When one part of package is lost, the vibe is no more. Not a change for the sake of change but a rebirth for a new beginning. It's the same but you don't want to actually know that.

[Cannon_Fodder]

You've got to take opinion pieces as they are really. What comes across is that this journo doesn't like futuristic racers. Given that he can't get over that fact, his views on that subject are largely irrelevent and people shouldn't get worked up about it, no more than I should get worked up by mclarensmps' hatred of Forza (which I think is awesome).

No game is universally liked. I'd be more concerned if lots of Wipeout and futuristic racing fans were unimpressed by Pulse - that might point to a problem. I happen to think that Pulse is likely to be utterly fantastic. That doesn't make my view right either - I'm biased towards it.

I also suspect that the review in that mag won't have the same tone.

My complaint would be towards the editor. Why give a genre of game to a person that thinks that the genre has no value and who can't look past that fact?

[RingoSpoon]

Obviously he never played pure and does not understand pulse as there was no mention of the new mag strips, reversible tracks and weapons.

I see he does not mention the fabulous race box. If he thinks its boring I suggest he tries racing phantom speed lap :)

[Hellfire_WZ]

As has been said, the first paragraph ruined every ounce of credibility this reviewer had. If he thinks that the many iterations of Ridge Racer and Burnout (okay, maybe Burnout has made some changes between games) have been original games aside from each other then he's living in a world of his own.

Considering the Wipeout series has tried to evolve with each game I don't think he could have made a worse comparison. Let's see if he's eating his poorly chosen words when the full game is released.

[Colin Berry]

Whoever wrote it is entitled to his opinion no matter how dumb it is

:)

(I probably shouldnt say that but meh)

[RingoSpoon]

I think he is in a huff because he got his arse felt on Flash :)

[RJ O'Connell]

I think he is in a huff because he got his arse felt on Flash
Now THAT, by my standards, is an embarassment.

[Medusa]

The important thing to remember, whenever reading any review of a Wipeout game, is that the Namco NeGcon had MANY horrible, horrible reviews against it.
That should always make you feel much better. At least until you have the chance to "review it" in the comfort of your own home!;)

[Dr. Angryman]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, if the opinion is unbiased. You can't compare Burnout and Ridge Racer to WipEout. WipEout is too different from those games. You can compare it with F-Zero or another hover-racer game, but not a game where the main objective is to crash a car into a semi. ;)

[phl0w]

Well, playing both games with a certain dedication, i.e. WO and RR, I can definitely say that there ARE similarities, other than the obivous one that is racing on closed tracks against a field of competitors and/ or time (e.g. Curly - Reiko Nagase, Car manufacturers with long traditions focusing on different aspects of their machines, long, sweeping, fast courses that are as fast as they are technical challenging, every iteration comes with tweaked physics, resulting in frustrated fans :p, and the list goes on). While Burnout is a complete different experience since its mechanics differ quite a lot from WO, or any racer for that matter, I have to say that playing RR and WO often enough leads to some kind of flow-experience, when time and consciousness seem to disappear and I am one with the game- and at my best. I can't help it but roaring down a straight at 400kph in RR, adrenaline pumping through your body, heading towards flashing signs indicating a dreaded corner, releasing that throttle at the exact moment for a fraction of a second to start a slide through the corner losing as little velocity as possible- and the feeling when you managed to nail a perfect lap in the highest class, is not far from that in WO. The experience is the same, when you're into it. Only the package differs.
Surely, the author compared those games on a rather shallow basis, just by looking at them being racers and series with numerous iterations by now, so you're right, that his opinion is completely biased, ill-informed and just another bad example of the so called gaming-journalism. However, reading this thread rose the suspicion that some feel offended by seeing their beloved WO compared to the big cash-cows of contemporary videogame racing which is complete nonsense and misses the point in the same way that review does.

[mdhay]

In case you didn't know, Metal gear wasn't just released on the psx [sNeS, GbC got the action, too.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear:_Ghost_Babel
If you wanted to know more, there's the link.

[RJ O'Connell]

Yes, I know there were more versions of MGS on more consoles.

That wasn't my point. I was trying to point out how disrespected this series really is in the eyes of large video game media. (At least GamePro Magazine understands - they've reviewed each Wipeout game quite favourably.) Especially when it comes to "What game was the most important in terms of making the PlayStation what it is today?" I will always answer WipEout and I will defend that to my grave.

[Dr. Angryman]

Don't forget IGN. They named WipEout Pulse "Best PSP Racing Game of E3".
They also named Pure "Runner-Up Best Game for the PSP of 2005"

[RJ O'Connell]

Yes.

It's why I'm favouring IGN over the C-Net sites like GameShit nowadays. (Well, that and GS is just all-around average.)

[Dr. Angryman]

This is two different reactions of two different game-reviewers when they heard that WipEout Pulse was coming out:

IGN: w00t!
Gamespot: ...meh...

It's hard to find a game that everyone loves....

[mdhay]

PSm3 is the only mag I know that hasn't bashed it. However, ' HD has re-kindled the PS mag's intrest, being dubbed 'The Comeback Kid"


Every Feisar has a silver lining.....
.....Depending on the livery.....

[swift killer]

isnt OPS2 basically OPM rebranded, if so.......... i've jus heard that the magazine has had to stop because it was losing out to other media (probably people realise what a bunch of douches they are to slam WipeOut Pulse). if you ask me, serves em right :D

[RJ O'Connell]

I remember Official US Playstation Magazine during the late PS1 days. That was acutally a fun magazine, when I used to buy game mags.

Oh how the mighty fall to this level.. -_-