10 Things I hate about WipEout 3

[Triple Lei]

First, a bit of background:

I started with the original Wipeout back in '95 at the PlayStation launch. I played the hell out of the demo, and I purposely timed out during the game just so I wouldn't have to face those loading screens again. I even forced my cousin to get a copy so I could see those extra weapons in Link Mode! I'm not sure I unlocked Firestar (I did a few weeks ago on my PSP (http://rapidshare.com/files/89656092/Wipeout_-_20080117_-_Firestar_Unlocked.avi.html), though)... but I at least unlocked Rapier.

Then one day I came home and I saw the Wipeout XL intro, which was the coolest thing ever. It was was one of the few games for the PS1 that I was really, really looking forward to. I got good enough to beat Challenge II and earned the Piranha ship with Qirex.

For some reason, my brother got an N64, but at least he got Wipeout 64 too. The control was kinda nice, I guess... but those new weapons sucked. I don't really remember how far I got in that game. I think I unlocked Piranha, or something.

I had heard about Wipeout 3, but I didn't really care for it and didn't bother getting it. "Surely," I thought, "Wipeout XL was the best Wipeout game and always will be!"

And for a long while, it looks like that was true. For better or worse, I never even heard of Wipeout Fusion (I imported a Japanese PS2 at launch, so Tekken Tag Tournament was my main), and I didn't want a PSP of my own until I saw my brother playing Wipeout Pure.

With all this talk about PS1 games on PSP, I decided to hunt around for Wipeout 3. I paid $1 plus $5 shipping on eBay, and having now played it, that's about as high as I'd pay...



Right off the bat, you have the WORST intro ever. Not just among Wipeout games, but... ever. In any game. I honestly thought my game was defective, but then... no. The music doesn't fit - certainly not inspiring (like the original), not sweat-inducing (like XL), and not pure and awesome (like Pure). I guess the team logo part was cool, but then... "Piranha" was misspelled. Seriously, what the hell?


Next, you have the hard-to-read, confusing, ugly-as-sin menu. Let's be honest - it could have been done on the NES. No track previews for the sake of "simplicity?" Lame. And why can't I hit up or down on the d-pad to actually select the track and ship, even though it sure LOOKS like I can? Instead I have to hit left and right, which is... kinda stupid. Who would have thought functionality only got WORSE in the future?


Then if you manage to get a race started without wanting to kill yourself, you realize that most of the tracks are also extremely ugly with their dark, drab colors. And maybe it's just my monitor, but all that darkness made the game literally unplayable as early as... well, Porto Kora (moreso, anyway).


No actual lap display. Because nice, big numbers would have been too easy on the eyes, especially in the middle of the race.


The ships are TOO quiet. Dammit, I LIKED that subtle "fizzzzz" in XL. There's almost none of that in 3. There's not even a sound for Hyper-thrust, so I don't even feel like I'm going hyper-fast.


Crappy weapons. Force wall? Reminds me of Wipeout 1 when you'd successfully hit a ship with your rocket, only to create a huge roadblock that you'd have to try REALLY hard to avoid. Reflector? So for 10 seconds or so, I'm supposed to switch from "please oh please don't hit me omg" to "HA HA!! Hit me now! But only RIGHT NOW and for the next few seconds, and NOT with Mines!" More often than not, it seems to be there just so the computer can legitimately stop you from using Energy Drain. And Cloak? Who cares. Just more weapons I have to cycle through in order to get the not-as-satisfying Quake or the now-ugly Rockets...


No ACTUAL Turbo means Hyper-thrust is required... which means as far as pickups go, the Energy Drain pickup is also the Turbo pickup... which makes Feisar suck.


The voice during the race tells you the weapon YOU got. Were people actually clamoring for this? So now when I'm about to get hit by a weapon, all I get is "WARNING!" It's just not as satisfying when you stop without knowing exactly what hit you. It's as though the computer just says, "HEY, YOU STOP NOW."


Really bad ping-pong effects. The slow Auto Pilot doesn't help things, either. I never realized how much I missed that THUNK from the original Wipeout.


And finally, UNLOCKING EVERYTHING IS A CHORE. Unlike in Wipeout Pure, I almost dreaded getting golds in Wipeout 3 because that just meant I'd just have to slug through more tracks with ships I really don't like.


I'll admit that the game is not all bad. Music is opinion, as always, and while I did like most of it, I can't say that it was racing music. The fact that the music stayed during a pause or restart was nice, and the loading times were nice and quick.

(Still... I hate this game and everyone who enjoys it more than XL or Pure!) :rock

[supersocks]

(Still... I hate this game and everyone who enjoys it more than XL or Pure!) :rock

http://www.omamoka.com/stuff/lets_be_friends.png

[mdhay]

Well, that blows. wip3out was brilliant. I expected more, especially since it was the final WipEout console game that came before 2008 that is good. I'll agree about the left - right thing, I've never understood that.

[Alex_Se]

Wow...
...
Wip3out was great. Both graphics and gameplay.
I do agree with some of your points. But still it was a revolution.



Right off the bat, you have the WORST intro ever. Not just among Wipeout games, but... ever. In any game. I honestly thought my game was defective, but then... no. The music doesn't fit - certainly not inspiring (like the original), not sweat-inducing (like XL), and not pure and awesome (like Pure). I guess the team logo part was cool, but then... "Piranha" was misspelled. Seriously, what the hell?

1st yes i didn't like the intro, that i agree.
2nd Piranha wasn't misspelled. In english people say "Piranah" That's why its like that i think.




Next, you have the hard-to-read, confusing, ugly-as-sin menu. Let's be honest - it could have been done on the NES. No track previews for the sake of "simplicity?" Lame. And why can't I hit up or down on the d-pad to actually select the track and ship, even though it sure LOOKS like I can? Instead I have to hit left and right, which is... kinda stupid. Who would have thought functionality only got WORSE in the future?

I can read everything pretty well. The only thing i can't read well is the Ship Statistics.

The Track preview yes i agree they should have put at least an image for us to see.

The fact that we can't go up and down while selecting tracks and ships also bothers me so i agree.



Then if you manage to get a race started without wanting to kill yourself, you realize that most of the tracks are also extremely ugly with their dark, drab colors. And maybe it's just my monitor, but all that darkness made the game literally unplayable as early as... well, Porto Kora (moreso, anyway).

I iz disagree. The tracks are pretty cool, Porto Kora is one of my favourites and its pretty well designed!



No actual lap display. Because nice, big numbers would have been too easy on the eyes, especially in the middle of the race.

err... what? lower left corner...?



The ships are TOO quiet. Dammit, I LIKED that subtle "fizzzzz" in XL. There's almost none of that in 3. There's not even a sound for Hyper-thrust, so I don't even feel like I'm going hyper-fast.

Actually the sound fits pretty well, and when you use the Hyper-thrust the sound changes :/



Crappy weapons. Force wall? Reminds me of Wipeout 1 when you'd successfully hit a ship with your rocket, only to create a huge roadblock that you'd have to try REALLY hard to avoid. Reflector? So for 10 seconds or so, I'm supposed to switch from "please oh please don't hit me omg" to "HA HA!! Hit me now! But only RIGHT NOW and for the next few seconds, and NOT with Mines!" More often than not, it seems to be there just so the computer can legitimately stop you from using Energy Drain. And Cloak? Who cares. Just more weapons I have to cycle through in order to get the not-as-satisfying Quake or the now-ugly Rockets...

Solution: press []



No ACTUAL Turbo means Hyper-thrust is required... which means as far as pickups go, the Energy Drain pickup is also the Turbo pickup... which makes Feisar suck.

50% agreed. I missed the turbo item in this game, bt Hyper-thrust was a good way to replace it.



The voice during the race tells you the weapon YOU got. Were people actually clamoring for this? So now when I'm about to get hit by a weapon, all I get is "WARNING!" It's just not as satisfying when you stop without knowing exactly what hit you. It's as though the computer just says, "HEY, YOU STOP NOW."

I don't really mind... they only use a few weapons so its predictable.



Really bad ping-pong effects. The slow Auto Pilot doesn't help things, either. I never realized how much I missed that THUNK from the original Wipeout.


...?



And finally, UNLOCKING EVERYTHING IS A CHORE. Unlike in Wipeout Pure, I almost dreaded getting golds in Wipeout 3 because that just meant I'd just have to slug through more tracks with ships I really don't like.

Oh cmon! it was fun!

Btw i love pure, pulse and 2097/XL more than wipeout 3:rolleyes:

[Triple Lei]

...?


Well, when you go really fast and need to turn but hit the wall, you'd end up going back and forth... a lot. Just yesterday I did a Hyper-thrust on P-Mar Project (I think) and needed to turn, but I bounced off the walls, like, 5 times before I was able to go forward again. :brickwall And yeah, I'm pretty sure Auto Pilot slows you down!



Btw i love pure, pulse and 2097/XL more than wipeout 3


Excellent! :nod

[BARTgai]

wow, i thought Wipeout 3 was one of the best :)

[stin]

Surprised!!!

I thought Wipeout 3 are awesome, yes there are tiny letters but that does not bothered me and I thought the intro are cool!

Everybody got different tastes.

stevie:)

[Medusa]

LOL, sox! Good one!

I have to say I chuckled reading this. Almost everything mentioned was something I loved about this game. Although I prefer a dedicated turbo to the hyperthrust, it really fit this game. "Hyperthrust through the checkpoint or lose"...this is the wipeout that makes me gnash my teeth in tense nervousness as I race - it just all fits together, in one perfect game...(SE, that is. Not one glitch in the whole game!! :O)

I find it funny how everyone notices the spelling of Pirhana A. after it was Piranha. Yet this is a video game after all. Look what they did to Icarus. ;) And look what happened to AG-SYS after the F7200, it turned into some convertible called G-Tech, lol.

Each to their own! I can't honestly say I hated anything about this game, other than glitches in my NA version of W3O. (But SE fixed all that.)
I am not better than this game. I think it's the only wipeout that makes me feel inferior on its own merit. (Ie. without human competitors to show me up!)

[Lion]

a brilliantly written troll :) made me laugh

there's a couple of points in there I agree with too (pirhana, menus, hyperthrust, "warning")
overall though, I still prefer it to WipEout original, but XL/2097 just edges it out as my favourite on the PS One

[lunar]

I am not better than this game. I think it's the only wipeout that makes me feel inferior on its own merit. (Ie. without human competitors to show me up!)

I feel the same about it. Wipeout 1 has the reputation for being the hardest. Infact Wip3out is the hardest to look good at and be good at, if you play Phantom class, particularly with Qirex or Icaras.

Others have defended it well enough. I don`t hate hyperthrust. 3 is the hyperthrust game and that makes it different.

A few things I dislike:

- "Ping Pong". Yes this is highly annoying, and worse in SE. But if you don`t hit the walls you don`t get the problem. It`s just another reason why this game is tough.
- The clanging. Hitting the track wall, or the track, or other ships, gives you a really irritating tinny clanging sound, which sounds like hitting a steel drum with a small hammer and really doesn`t sound like part of the game at all. Maybe it`s meant to annoy you, every time you fail the game is telling you that you did with this sound. Not a good effect, but again it`s not really a problem if you`re playing well enough.
- In my opinion, the tracks are uninspired in comparison to the other games. After playing through 2097 I was desperate to get this game, and after playing through it was just disapointed at the shortage of "woah" moments, the lack of jumps and the lack of fun in the tracks. I`m still disapointed with it. It`s technical all the way with little release, and little to make me smile.

All these bad points just got worse in SE, which added shortcuts. All in all I rank this as a great game, but behind the original, 2097/XL, Pure and Pulse.

It has great points for me too, though, which do outweigh the bad. The design and overall package is unique and quite beautiful in its own way. The front end, logos, in-game graphics and music all hang together in a way no other game has achieved. It has the best graphics of the series, is a fantastic achievment for PS1 and has a great framerate. Swooshing down the back straight of Porto Kora and into the tunnel is undescribably thrilling.

But it all comes down to what Stevie says, everyone`s got different tastes.

[JABBERJAW]

I like most things about the game except the turbo scrape on turns sucking you into the wall. The pingponging is much worse in SE, because of the extra floatiness I think(hitting ceilings in stanza and sampa are not fun, and bouncing all over the place down mega mall sucks, although it is faster. Definitely the hardest game imo to do perfect laps on, at least on phantom for me. Not my favorite(xl,64), but the physics are there though.

[Sausehuhn]

I agree about the extreme wall bouncing (only played WO3:SE and it can be very annoying).
And I agree about the HUD being too cuttered (even though you get used to it very quickly) and also about the somehow uninspiring weapons.
But other than that: It's a wonderful game. The Intro and the whole menu is perfect minimalism. But that's always a matter of taste, and even though I've seen alot people not having problems with reading the font, I also know people who really have problems with reading the menu items because of that font.
Track info? Would have been nice, but it's not necessary for me.
I like the style of the game very much, most of it just looks so nice. So do (most of) the tracks. WO3 has a very special mood to it, always feels like future to me. Maybe not like the most beautiful and peaceful future I could imagine, but I like the theme very much :)

And then there's one thing I have to praise: floatiness. Sadly the last game that really had it :(

[Lance]

I can only think of two things I dislike about it, the multiple wallbounce, and excessive button pushing in menus. Aside from those little quibbles, I love it. I love the mood, the look, sound, the ship designs, and the perfect physics.

[Asayyeah]

I was completely disapointed when i discovered the handling of W3O when the game launched in France, i ve been hooked on 2097 so much and put all faith into that new wipeout thinking about a new 2097 with new tracks and new modes : big desillusion at 1st for me : i hated it ( no ilink mode only split screen available at 1st) and did not finsihed it ( shame on me cause ilink did unlocked when you finish the game ...)
After few years, i decided to give a chance to W3O and compete agaisnt amazing scores of mister Al.
Now after finishing it and simily-mastering it, this is one of my least fav from wipeout franchise, don't get me wrong , that is a good wipeout but handling is so different from my best all over wipEout 2097/ XL are.

If i need to pick up a negative point, i ll say hitting ceiling like Al said on Stanza Inter & Sampa Run

[Lance]

I thought the vertical bangbang was mostly in the SE version, but not the standard PAL or NTSC versions.

[zargz]

Hate the shortcuts, the speed_for_shield mechanics and some stupid weapons - autopilot, energy wall, cloak (good for multiplayer though).
the rest I love - the tracks design, 4 player on 2 TVs etc etc.
wipEout is the Real wo, wo3se is the Best till there was pulse 8)

[JABBERJAW]

"I thought the vertical bangbang was mostly in the SE version, but not the standard PAL or NTSC versions."

The pal version had some of that too Lance, as well as a little more pingponging off walls than the ntsc version(mega mall). Although 3se was the worst for this effect. Pal was floatier than ntsc, just like xl/2097. Weird, because the J version is even a little less floaty than the ntsc A version. I wonder if xl for Japan is a little less floaty as well? Never noticed it before though.

[Lance]

I hadn't really noticed the J version being less floaty than NTSC, but I just haven't played it a lot. I like the stronger shields on Icaras. I noticed thAt. :D

[Animagic]

I'm surprised at the level of wipeout3 hate here...
I think it was the absolute peak of the series.

Everyone praises 2097 but I wasn't feeling that one so much after my love affair with the first game.
Wipeout 3 seemed to bridge the two with supreme design aesthetics and production values.

I think the tracks are top notch and the music to me is the best soundtrack out of all of the Wipeout games.
Whereas the other games had compilations, WO3 had a cohesive soundtrack from one DJ more or less and retained it's own identity because of it.

I agree with the tedium at which you have to unlock everything but that's been a mainstay since 2097 up until just recently with Pulse...

It's funny, when I first brought Wipeout3 home and played it I hated it because I hit the walls all the time,
and I missed all my favorite tracks, but over time it grew on me and I gained new favorites.
Pretty much every Wipeout is like that actually now that I think about it haha...

[RJ O'Connell]

1 - Hyperthrust system, because the single turbo boost was good enough IMHO. I'd still take it over Barrel Rolls any day.
2 - Getting rammed from behind by AI ships into walls.
3 - The esses of P-Mar Project at lower speed settings.
4 - Default neGcon settings are making my thumbs swell up and the ligaments in my fingers hurt just thinking about it.
5 - Shield, Cloak and Reflector in the same game makes no sense at all. Especially when activating the Cloak also gives you shield-like capabilities (can't take damage). You should be able to take damage with the Cloak on if you run into a mine. Otherwise it renders the standard shield redundant.
6 - Maybe the interface is TOO simplistic and bare? Not the ships, logotypes and tracks, just the menu screens.
7 - The tiny, tiny text.
8 - Aside from Xpander and the MKL tracks, the soundtrack isn't really that special compared to WO1, XL, or Fusion.
9 - LS104
10, and most importantly - How tedious is it to unlock **** in this game? Seriously, this is definitely the game's worst flaw. I would have liked to unlock tracks and ships through Challenge or Tournament - I mean, that would make sense, right? Instead, I have to run the first four tracks eight times over to unlock all the ships, and then I have to win one, two, three and four races respectively in circuits 4-7 (Stanza, Hi-Fumii, P-Mar and Manortop) to unlock the second set of tracks. FOR THAT SPEED CLASS ONLY. It's just too repetitive.

[Lance]

Well, it's a good thing those esses weren't zees. :)

[or zeds, depending on one's brand of English]

[RJ O'Connell]

They actually are more like "zeds" as Jeremy Clarkson would put it. Just an absolutely vile feature to what is otherwise a nice looking track.

Anyone else's gripes?

[blixabargeld]

wip3out was kinda great, maybe my favourite game of the series.
it is the triumph of design, colours hud and everything else created a parallel futuristic world that it was fantastic to be in.
ships were great too, icaras and assegai, two of the most popular teams, were introduced here!

[Albino Ace]

wip3out was kinda great, maybe my favourite game of the series.

Agreed. :hyper

While I do think that the bounciness could be annoying, and Autopilot doesn't help with that :P timing turns better and using the Square button fix those problems - same with Reflector. So, they're minor...

As for the font...I like its futuristic feel. Believe me, back in '99 I had some trouble reading it as well...but you get used to it. I know by now I am! :lol

Getting used to those things adds to the challenge, which IMO makes it more fun. As long as I've been playing it, I don't have ALL the medals - heck, I barely even know the prototype tracks. So, what some say is tedious I think adds to its replay value. :nod

[Quasi]

The first Wipeout i played was 2097, so it makes it hard to find a new "king of wipeout" in my opinion.

But one thing that really got to me in Wip3out was the ion trails. I mean C'mon, they just look like a stereotypical rocket trail, with a point at the end.
A few more minor rants might include the sound of the ships are like electric cars, and the cartoonish way your ship is destroyed.

but other than that, its practically perfect.:g

[Lance]

I love the quiet ships; they made it feel like the future to me.

[Axel]

Oh come on Lance, you can't tell me you don't like the roar of a engine now and then? Besides at the speed them AG crafts are flying, I expect to be hearing some ROARING sounds :D

[RJ O'Connell]

At least they're making noise in Wipeout 3, WipEout original has no engine noise at all save for using a turbo!

[AG-wolf]

about the only thing I REALLY can't stand in WO3 is the little speed boost you get when another ship rear-ends you. Sure it can help but say you accidentally smack a wall around a turn... you're in the middle of correcting yourself and getting back into your line when someone rear-ends you back into the wall. I've had times where this has happened 3-4 times IN SUCCESSION, like wall, straighten, rear-end, wall, straighten, rear-end, wall, straighten, rear-THROW THE CONTROLLER ACROSS THE ROOM

Edit:
BANG CLUNK BANG CLUNK BANG CLUNK BANG CLUNK

[Darkdrium777]

Isn't there a "BLAM" missing for the gunshot wound the pilot inflicts upon himself? :g

[adelheid]

The "Everyone Hates You" Syndrome

I don't think I've ever known my opponents to attack each other unless they "know" the player is there, which can occasionally lead to some fun things happening:

Imagine floating along with Cloak humming away.
You round a corner and there is a small pack of four or five ships.
Your Cloak wears off.
BLAM! At that instant they all fire, annihlating each other.

Anyone who's ever played a Destruction Derby game, where this is most blatant on the PS1, should be intimately familiar with this syndrome... I imagine it had something to do with the limited amount of space on the PS1 for things like AI and stuff, b u t (I just remembered) this also happens on Fusion, in a much more obvious manner. WTF?

[Darkdrium777]

This doesn't happen only in Wipeout. It's sad when developers have to do this to create a challenge because they know that otherwise it would be a piece of cake. I can list many game where the AI plays mostly only against the human players, and never against itself. :/

[Rapier Racer]

Uh, I don't think the AI in Wipeout Fusion shows this everyone hates you syndrome, they have ZERO problems with massacring each other as well as the player. Also you can tell on each track when Fusions AI will start the fight it seems to wait till about half way through lap 1.

[mdhay]

At least they're making noise in Wipeout 3, WipEout original has no engine noise at all save for using a turbo!

Yes they do.

[RJ O'Connell]

Then again, I do have the default audio settings on which is biased towards Music volume...

I revised my list of ten, just like with Fusion, at the end of Page 2.

[S'kilov]

I've noticed my thoughts on all the Wipeout games have changed since I've been getting back into them to pass some time these days since I've been in the mood.

Wip3out was fantastic when I was playing it at release, especially with everything that could be achieved for each track/class that kept me pushing forward till I got to the phantom leagues. Then the "I accidentally deleted my save file" plagued me for months, lol. Never was able to complete it due to that problem. It was an amazing experience, but nowadays I'm just annoyed with a lot of things, although I'm very sure I can keep positive about it and go forth, however, time flies as we get older.

Recently, the most annoying part is getting banged left and right into the walls which literally drives me up the walls, haha. Yes, yes, I'm getting the hang of the game again, but I always enjoy going back and learning again in any game.

Now I may be going off topic a bit; Wipeout XL is the only Wipeout and GAME in existence that makes my jaws drop even to this day. Not even MGS4 compares to the feeling WOXL gives me. The (physics?) or coding for the craft movement with the turning/airbreaks is absolutely perfect to me, I can't even describe the feeling in words. Not to mention Firestarter playing! /squeeeeeee ^^

This is another thing that throws me off in WO3 is I'm so used to WOXL, I just have a hard time adjusting to the hyper thrust system, realizing I'm low on shield strength rather quickly. And lastly is my shift from the Qirex team to those with more maneuverable crafts like Piranha since WO3 is a tad bit different in the handling physics. Qirex will always be my team in WOXL.

[andy]

well, wip3out is my favourite game ever, never mind favourite wipeout. the only thing i hate about it is that my disc is scratched and i cant play manor top or terminal anymore and some of the music doesnt work but thats not the game's fault. =P

the only things i dont like about it is the grey of the menus and loading screen, and that its not fast enough. the AI is way too slow, im past them after the first lap and then i dont see anyone till i lap then on the forth so i dont get to use weapons as much as i would like and races are just a bit too lonely.

but yeah, i think hyperthrust is amazing. speeding round the track using bursts of hyperthrust inbetween corners is so much more satisfying than picking up a turbo in other wipeouts and it makes the whole race so much faster. i love the physics and stuff too

as for the unlocking stuff; jazznazz, wizzpig and avinit - then i save the game so i can just load everything up fully unlocked. ive unlocked it all before anyway so what does it matter =]

and ive never noticed the ships sounding too quiet, ive always loved the big roar when you turbo start :g

[DJ Techno]

This game was my second wipeout and my first playstation game purchased, when i moved back to Columbia, SC.

I already said some hates about it.

But
other than its where I started with Wipeout64. In training racing pilots, friends, and others.

It proved to me, to first use the inside cock pit screen. some say that its wild to drive in the vision.

for me. its reality.
reality as every turn is like a real turn off the highway and the five points streets. Ripping, Running, Burning tire tread, and breaking all limits/laws the DMV/law division puts on the street roads.

[Task]

the only things i dont like about it is the grey of the menus and loading screen, and that its not fast enough. the AI is way too slow, im past them after the first lap and then i dont see anyone till i lap then on the forth so i dont get to use weapons as much as i would like and races are just a bit too lonely.You should play on LS104, that'll solve most of your issues right there! 8 )

[Lance]

Well, it's still possible to feel lonely on LS104. When the other ships are out of sight ahead of you. :eek

[andy]

heh, none of the prototype tracks work on my copy of wip3out xD i need a new disc, its all scratched

[fusionfrenzy]

Y'know, I never even noticed the left/right thing. I just went with it. I wont hear of this thread though. It is blasphemy purified into thread form. I love Wipeout 3. It is my favourite game of all time. I must've put in some crazy hours.

First things first, hyperthrust does make a sound- the sound of the ship becomes higher pitched and more pronounced, like an engine maxxing out its revs. Secondly, the colour scheme is brilliant, it is the only Wipeout (to my knowledge, I missed a couple) which has dark colours. The urbane mundanity of the tracks serves to heighten the realism of the game- would the future be clean 'n' shiny or gritty and grey, with sharp edges and sharper corners? The latter, definitely.

Say what you want. I just love Wipeout 3. And I could write a whole essay on the tracks, from Mega Mall to Stanza Inter, Hi-Fumi and the masterpiece that is Manor Top. The game is a classic.

[Lance]

If we don't already have a thread for ^Ten Things I Love About WipEout 3^, we should. :D

[eLhabib]

... it is the only Wipeout (to my knowledge, I missed a couple) which has dark colours. ...

errr, WHAT?! ever played the original wipEout and 2097/XL? wipEout 3 is actually the brightest of the 3 original games!

[fusionfrenzy]

I have got 2097 (though I played it after Wipeout 3) and I didnt think it was darker. The tracks had much richer colour schemes and ran through lush environments of ice and jungle as well as the darker city tracks. I just felt that the whole theme, the atmosphere of Wipeout 3 was moodier and yet more mundane, tracks like Stanza Inter felt like they were weaving through the heart of gritty future urban citites, from the dark reds and gungey greens of Stanza to the industrial influences of Terminal and Hi-Fumi. Similar tracks in 2097 to me felt optimistic where WO3's were self-consciously decadent.

Just my opinion, though.

[eLhabib]

Interesting how perception differs! To me, the original wipEout and 2097 always felt underground and gritty, whereas wipEout 3 felt set in an almost utopia-like future. Might have to do with the cleaner design and pastel color scheme.

[Sausehuhn]

Have to agree with fusionfrenzy.
WO2097 definitely is a dark game, but WO3 felt way more realistic (in terms of atmosphere) and had a red thread through the tracks (we're talking about WO3 here, not WO3SE, so only consider the original 8 tracks here).
It's brighter than WO2097, sure, but it has a more urban feel to it.

[Lance]

I always thought that W3O's environments look closer to a present-day modern city with industrial park and suburbs with the whole thing projected just a little bit into the future. Makes it seem more real than the others, and the quiet sound of racing, and the convincing feel of floating as you race makes it feel like you are truly in the future.

[fusionfrenzy]

Yes, definitely, I agree with this. The sense of immersion built up from the feel of the speed and the float of the ships as they turn through the corners made it seem almost real to me. I mean, the brilliance of the design was that it presented the distant future not as some brilliant utopia but as an almost dingy, harsh reality of industrial presence and inner-city cluster, but contrasted it with the speed and energy of a pure-adrenaline sport passing through it's midst. No other Wipeout has matched it for that in my opinion.

Kind of ironic that we should be so positive about it in this of all threads :D

[Lance]

The world of W3O is not so much harsh as just banal. Average. Bland. Undistinguished. Mediocre. Ordinary. With the brilliant exception of Anti-Gravity racing.

Sorta like our world.

[fusionfrenzy]

Exactly, and that's what makes the game feel so special, so true, so real. I wish that the new generation of Wipeout games (not that they're not great) could match it.

And yeah, a lot like our world. Only 11 years until AG-ships are invented, right? ;)

[Medusa]

Today I was very excited to post in the "favourite things about W3O" thread. So excited I had to play the game today.
Today I am tired, and when I am tired I mix up phrases and words until I sound like igpay atinlay Yoda teaching.
I have all Wipeout memory cards carefully labelled "WIPEOUT! DO NOT SAVE OVERTOP!" You know, just in case some poor sod unaware of my true love happens to come along and touch my Playstation. *slap*

Back to the story. I turn on my PS1, watch the intro lovingly, load my save game, fire up Sampa Run Rapier TT, and like usual, the game hasn't loaded my saved Neggie presets. So I go to change them, and like usual, this freezes my game and I have to reset.

So, I reset, go to load game, hit I, and take a sip of coffee until it tells me "save completed". SAVE COMPLETED?!
Saved, absolutely no records. Deleted, the most precious wipeout records I have - the ones I've had the longest, including my Portokora ones which are so special....the records from my very first wipeout game.
And so I sit there, staring at the screen with my coffee - weep, ROAR, KILL! That order seems to work well for me. At myself pissed I am.

And so now I know. There is one thing that I absolutely hate about Wipeout 3 - the way that "load game" and "save game" are on the same selection screen.

[Lance]

My deepest sympathies. I did that twice! Took a week to get the records back, but I improved almost all of them. Look on the bright side.

Luckily, I did have a couple of separate saves of my very earliest 'records', slow though they were/are, I have a nostalgic attachment to them.

[eLhabib]

OUCH! I feel your pain (I think...)

[Asayyeah]

I feel sorry for you Medusa :(
That also happened to me several time ( not only W3O but also other wipeouts) but since the 1st crash, i have doubled the saves : i mean i copied into a 2nd memory card all my saves, now i can feel more reassured.

[Medusa]

Thanks guys for the sympathy, I may have gotten over it now. Mostly, LOL.

I do have all the times written on paper...nerd that I am. But it's just not the same. And now that copy of W3O seems to have developed a grudge against the Neggie I use with it (or maybe vice versa?). It won't allow me to reconfigure the buttons at all without freezing. I'll just stick with SE for awhile, until I can dig out my other neggies. SE is really idiot friendly.:P Just my thing!

[Lance]

To unfreeze the configuration page, try pressing both shoulder buttons of the neG at the same time. Repeatedly if necessary. It sometimes works. Sometimes.

[Kscorps]

I need this game.

And a PSX memory card.

=)

[love9sick]

Man I should really grab my flame shield first but I might be one of the only people in the world than who actually likes Wipeout 3 over XL. It felt like a natural progression. I also think that pulse owns pure and there is something wrong with Wipeout Pures controls...I can't put my finger on it but they don't seem to flow as smoothly as pulse.

I just recently found my original copy of Wipeout 3 and am trying to unlock everything on the PS3 save unit Hard drive. Feels like a fantastic wipeout to me.

PS: I wish we had the track "Stanza Inter" remade in HD for Wipeout HD! that would have been sweet! the City back drop would rule.

[The Dizzy Vizzy]

Blah blah blah




The voice during the race tells you the weapon YOU got. Were people actually clamoring for this? So now when I'm about to get hit by a weapon, all I get is "WARNING!" It's just not as satisfying when you stop without knowing exactly what hit you. It's as though the computer just says, "HEY, YOU STOP NOW."



(Still... I hate this game and everyone who enjoys it more than XL or Pure!) :rock

This was easily the biggest flaw ever in the entire series... unfortunately, it carried on into Fusion.

Thank GOD it was done away with in HD, or it would have simply RUINED the experience.

:)

[Lance]

"Thank GOD it was done away with in HD, or it would have simply RUINED the experience."

mm... Just possibly an overstatement. ;)

[G'Kyl]

Most certainly one! ;)

As a matter of fact, I remember that after having played WO3 for a while I got used to the then new system and actually started anticipating from where I'd be hit after a "Warning". Kind of made me more aware of the other contenders, which I can't say was a bad thing. I still prefer the announcment of what's being shot at or laid out for you, but not having to make the ever-so-slightly distracting look at the HUD icon was sort of a relief, too. :)

Ben

[xEik]

I'm not sure whether it would work well or not but I'd like to try this:
-Female voice tells you what you picked up.
-Male voice tells you what is being fired at you.

[eLhabib]

I don't see why you need to be told what you picked up. That's what the weapon icons are for, no? 2 voices would be confusing imo.

[Lance]

I appreciate not having to look at the icons; that way I can concentrate fully on controlling the ship.

[rdmx]

Maybe pickups on the right speaker, incoming on the left? Preferably a male and female voice to distinguish as well.

[BulletWraith]

so I've finally started playing this game, had it for about a year but now I have friends that like AG racing and we've spent the last week and a bit unlocking ships and tracks and playing eliminator.
multiplayer is prettymuch the only reason I play the game as I don't have two PS's for two player XL/2097

anyway here goes:
a. the controls and feel of the game blow compared to 2097's handling
b. the craft stats are to hard to read
c. the Quake lacks the H@&*Sht factor of 2097's
d. the warning you get when someone fires on you, I prefer being told what weapon is going to hit me so I know weather to use my shield/cloak/Lexus/boost to avoid it
e. the lap counter bugs me as it's a little annoying to see what lap I'm on
f. the crafts, well most of them look really wussy, especially Qirex, they don't have the edge to them that they had in XL which made all WO's after 3 absolute Pansie's, I'm up for a gay frolic as much as anyone else, it's just that I like my craft solid gritty and industrial looking, cyberpunk even
g. the load save thing being so close together( I saved over my all my challenges last week which wasn't so bad as it was early days, but I'll have to get another memory card to make sure I don't lose my game)

thats about it, it can't compare to 2097/XL in my eyes but it doesn't have to, I'm enjoying it for what it is and I do think it is a masterpiece, it doesn't feel like a replacement for 2097, it just I dunno
sometimes at the arcade I feel like house of the dead and sometimes I feel like time crisis
both are great, sorry didn't know how else to put it, just that's how I feel about XL/3

-zer:donutshen

[DawnFireDragoon]

i love that comparison.

for me:
time crisis - 2097/XL
house of the dead - 3

the two games are awesome, part of the holy trilogy from the glory days of psone wipeout. they are two very different games, but i have a lot of love for both. though 2097 was and still is the best wipeout, i still enjoy 3 a lot.

[willsgb13]

ok, the only thing i'd agree with is the lack of track preview. it never bothered me before, but a picture of the track as you select it would indeed have been nice. others things mentioned though >

- the intro. this is aesthetic taste. it's not particularly awe inspiring but it is cool the way the music builds and segues into the team banners.
- the menu, besides the lack of track pictures, is fine, perfectly readable and so what if it's minimalist?
- no turbo... i'm pretty sure there was one, may be wrong, but i'm sure there was one besides the shield energy boost

a lot of the things mentioned like hyperthrust, wall bounce, being shoved by opponents etc. are simply matters of competition and skill and putting thought into what you're doing. a few of the weapons like the shield may have been a little redundant due to the properties of others like cloak but that's not nearly enough of a problem to spoil the game in any way, as far as i'm concerned anyway! the other things mentioned like track design and environments and weapon notification, lap display, sounds etc. are either opinions or trolling :D i can't see fault in anything in this game, to be honest.

having played wipeout, 2097 and pure extensively and having a distinct respect and love for these games individually that rules out favouritism, 3 is still right among these and has a special place in my childhood, and still retains a huge amount of quality both playable and visual even now in my opinion. it still looks great besides slight graphical texturing overlaps at high speeds and the occasional glitch like on manor top at the 90 degree turns, where both opponent ships and i have been trapped before. all part of the fun of the game though for me. the racing physics are brilliant and the track design excellent and well designed to test a whole spectrum of abilities with the necessity of winning each track with each ship. and the 4 challenge modes were an exceptional way to pile all your experience into genuinely challenging and frantic races for prizes.

it has my favourite soundtrack, every track infiintely listenable and simply perfect for the game and its vision of the future and of the racing - xpander :D but the others are brilliant too, no weak tunes either :+ -, and i like this comparison below that highlights and describes in appropriate viscera the style and atmosphere of the tracks of 3


I have got 2097 (though I played it after Wipeout 3) and I didnt think it was darker. The tracks had much richer colour schemes and ran through lush environments of ice and jungle as well as the darker city tracks. I just felt that the whole theme, the atmosphere of Wipeout 3 was moodier and yet more mundane, tracks like Stanza Inter felt like they were weaving through the heart of gritty future urban citites, from the dark reds and gungey greens of Stanza to the industrial influences of Terminal and Hi-Fumi. Similar tracks in 2097 to me felt optimistic where WO3's were self-consciously decadent.

Just my opinion, though.

an opinion i share, and nicely illustrated.

cheer up you miser bastards, wip3out is teh winz :D

[WolfKill01]

Beautifully said willsgb13. I couldn't agree with you more. Personally, wipeout 3 has been my favorite wipeout so far. It was fast, beautiful, and the tracks made you feel as though you were a part of the futuristic soceity. I still play it to this very day.

OH, and welcome to the forums. :beer

[willsgb13]

thanks wolfkill! i also played through it very recently, a matter of months ago. perhaps the lack of medal awards for tournament and time trial make them a little redundant, just to slip another possible complaint into an appropriate thread for such commentary, but overall 3 was :rock

also, you don't see track previews on pure either. although perhaps such a feature would benefit both games then :beer

there could be a monotony in doing the same 8 tracks with the same 8 vehicles for a total of 256 gold medals, but then the spread of qualities in each craft and the high quality both visual and environmental of each track, not to mention the at once challenging and speed friendly track design made for an experience that failed to get tiresome, IMO. eliminator was good, and missed in subsequent entries. the challenges were also excellent, especially the combo challenge. the final few, with assegai and icaras on manor top and terminal on phantom i believe, were insane :! a great, frantic and memorable challenge to bookend your wip3out experience and prove yourself as a genuine expert in the mechanics and techniques of that tournament :nod

any challenges to any of that? if anyone has any, give it your best shot, that's what this thread is surely for

[SonicChaos]

I think the game was amazing and I loved it. as far as being monotonous for making you do 256 runs is not necessarily true. You learn to use each craft and what they can and can't do. It makes you more well-rounded with each craft and I think that's a good thing. You may discover strategies you might not otherwise think of.

Track previews might have been a better idea so you knew what you were getting into, doesn't make it a bad game, it just would've helped a bit.

The Challenges were fun and I loved doing them, even if some were frustrating at times.

Eliminator was fun and I'm sad to see that no other version had it (save the upcoming HD expansion). It was deathmatch done wipeout style and I would spend hours playing it.

While people say XL/2097 was the best one in the series, i have to say I enjoy playing this one more than XL. I'm not saying it's superior, but I personally find myself coming back to 3 to get that tenth of a second faster.

[willsgb13]

of course, learning each course meticulously is essential when you require a gold medal even with ships like feisar, goteki and auricom in 3.

i have to say though, i've been playing pulse in the PSP recently, and it has reintroduced eliminator, to great effect :) pick it up, it's fantastic

[SonicChaos]

I do not own a PSP nor will I ever own a PSP. If I can find a good price on a fully backward PS3, I might get that and put HD on it. I want to be able to play my WO3 on my PS3 and not drag out my PS1 all the time.

[willsgb13]

apologies, lance

sonicchaos, what do you mean a fully backwards PS3? one that can play PS and PS2 titles as well? not sure one exists, but then i'm no authority on the PS3. i would quite like to play HD at some point. question, does HD play like pulse, or is it more reminiscent of pure in gameplay style?

going to give 3 a spin on the weekend. 3 on multiplayer would be exceptional.

[Rapier Racer]

Was the US launch PS3 not capable of PS1 and 2 emulation? They had the PS2 chips did they not. How they play PS1 games in comparison to say the Euro launch PS3 I don't know

I've never heard anything about the PS1 emulation being different on the b/c capable consoles, all the focus was on PS2.

[Darkdrium777]

All the PS3 consoles have the same backwards compatibility with PS1. It's all software driven. At least as far as I know.
The backwards compatibility issue only affects the compatibility with the PS2, where you have three options: most is compatible, a lot is compatible, or zilch.

[SonicChaos]

All models have PS1 compatibility but some have none, software, or hardware compatibility. The newer PS3's DO NOT have PS2 compatibility AT ALL. They dropped it for unknown reasons. If you check the wikipedia article it lists the models and what they have and don't have.

[willsgb13]

i have a working PS and PS2, so i guess that's cool. :hyper

i do plan on getting a PS3 at some point, however. HD would be one of the main titles i would get it for. far more likely to if another wipeout appears on it as well.

back to wip3out then? i'm trying to think of complaints. perhaps the comparative redundancy of the tournament mode in it, and the very tentative and restricted nature of the first foray into multiplayer the series took - edit - without needing more then one TV, PS and copy of the game as i believe wipeout and 2097 required? other then that, besides the lack of a course preview or screenshot, i'm not bovvered; quite magnificent.

edit - another complaint, your opponents never use quark, quake or plasma to my knowledge. this is unfortunate, especially on eliminator. doesn't detract much from it, but it's still a shame.

here's a question for the thread too; does the special edition iron out or solve any of the complaints listed in the thread?

[SonicChaos]

It added new tracks and nothing else.

[Lance]

SE has new more readable menus, plus modified game physics. More 'floaty'.

[willsgb13]

i thought the menus were readable enough and the ships floaty enough personally, but that doesn't mean the SE's particular modifications were devalued any, perhaps they have a quality and a distinct wipeout experience of their own to make 3 SE a worthwhile time even for a veteran and owner of 3. i've seen videos of the extra tracks, and would to be honest love to try sagarmatha etc. on 3's engine as SE allows you to.

cheers for the information :hyper

[SonicChaos]

Yea, it's actually pretty cool, also 2 of the ships got increased stats. The extra tracks are pretty cool i must say.

[willsgb13]

edit - aaaaaaah balls i quoted the previous post, sorry, editing it out

oh, well that's something to hate about wip3out, since there's so little else - it gets a special edition with even more cools that those who own the original version miss out on.

may i ask which teams got the increased stats, and which stats were increased? :hyper

[SonicChaos]

Instead of nickel and diming information here's a list of differences from Hellfire X's FAQ on GameFAQs

- 8 classic courses from WipEout and Wipeout 2097 make up a new Classic
league
- 2 tracks from the Japanese version of WO3 added to the prototypes and
the addition of a new high-speed craft to race on them
- Several AI bugfixes
- Game physics are now more "floaty"
- Assegai shield upgraded to 2
- Icaras handling upgraded to 3
- After finishing a race, there is now a "Next Race" option in the menu
- The game now auto-loads your data instead of letting you manually load it
- Certain tunnels have had their brightness increased to make navigation
easier
- A number of bugs were removed that caused your craft to react as
though it had hit a wall when there wasn't one.
- Text size on the menu screens has been increased so you don't have to
use a microscope anymore
- Numeric characters available for player name entry
- AI craft now have shadows underneath them
- Perfect laps are now indicated on the race results by a red P next to the
time
- The console link-up feature is now fully available without having to unlock
it with a code
- There was a bug in the original that if you changed the configuration of
the NegCon controller, you wouldn't see your opponent's craft in
multiplayer/replay. This has now been fixed
- Weapon pads now grey out for a second once they have been used
- There is now a confirmation before saving/loading your game. before it
would just save/load without confirming, resulting in a lot of lost data.
- The four original prototype tracks have slightly enhanced graphics.
- Elimination mode is now multiplayer only

Copyright 2006-2007 Charlie Emery - Hellfire X

[willsgb13]

interesting stuff, thank you. i would very much like to play icaras on phantom on wip3out special edition, after reading that, on all those extra tracks too, damn i am compelled to track down a copy now. 8 tracks from the first 2 games too? that's immense, i thought it might be just the 4 or something. i know sagarmatha is on it, as i saw a video on youtube a while back. and 2 new tracks from the japanese wip3out, and even a new fast craft? wtf? is this like the precursor to the zone craft or something, or another team?

that list also brings up a couple of other issues with 3, for the benefit of this thread;

- i did once lose my save file, in fact i've lost one twice, once when i was younger and not long after i got the game, once more recently - although it may have been a memory card malfunction on one or both occasions and not necessarily the game, but i haven't had this problem with other PS games - but it is slightly annoying to have to load it up every time you start the game up as well, to be fair.
- i have also been impeded by invisible walls - but only very rarely
- never noticed no shadows underneath opponents but if that's true, it's positive that they fixed that
- was not aware that console link up required a code in the regular edition of 3 either, because i never undertook to hook that up and play with multiple friends, but that sucks, if only slightly

- the special edition itself sucks for moving eliminator to multiplayer only, however; it is a lot of fun on single player, although after 40 or 50 laps or kills you do see glitches setting in, such as invisibles, voiced warnings not materialising etc. but it was still good. i can imagine it being great fun on multiplayer too, however.

anyway, nice one :banzai

[SonicChaos]

Yea, 2 prototypes were added as well as the Drag Prototype that you can only race on those 2 tracks. The Drag Prototype is ridiculous, 3 in thrust, 3 in handling, 3 in sheilding, and a mindblowing 10 in speed.

The Old Tracks are in a classic league with Altima VII (Wipeout), Odessa Keys (2097), Gare d'Europa (2097), Talon's Reach (2097), Sagarmatha (2097), Phenitia Park (2097), Terramax (Wipeout), and Aridos IV (Wipeout).

[Sausehuhn]

The first Drag Prototype is just dope. When the controller begins to rumble because you reach high speeds and then becomes silent again as you get even faster than that. Pure speed, really.
I never got the hang of the second track, though.

[SonicChaos]

It's way too fast. I'd never be able to handle that thing.

[willsgb13]

thank you sonicchaos. the drag prototype does sound exceedingly insane. an auricom statistically apart from double icaras speed. that would be unreal to shoot through on phantom. wow

pity silverstream, firestar, vostok island and spilskinanke don't get iterations in 3 SE; they would be spectacular. still, too much of a Good Thing and all that. nice one

[SonicChaos]

It definitley is a sweet deal. If I could I'd invest in some PAL to NTSC Conversion gear to get it running.

[willsgb13]

doesn't NTSC have better framerate? or do you mean SE was never released in NTSC regions?

[Lance]

SE was never released in NTSC regions.

NTSC framerate is 60 Hz: 30 complete frames per second, 60 interlace fields per second. PAL is 50 Hz.

[SonicChaos]

Yep hence why i need a converter. Why didn't you release SE NTSC Psygnosis. Curse you.

[willsgb13]

thank you for the specific details lance. and it is unclear to me why they would refrain from releasing it in the NTSC regions... that is a shame for you people. i shall endeavour to get a copy in PAL, and perhaps send it around with my PS or something, haha. or you could come visit and we could play it inbetween sight-seeing and mashups

[SonicChaos]

Bad move on their part. Unless they release it on PSN sometime (Wink Wink Nudge Nudge).

[willsgb13]

it would seem like a smart move on their part; i believe 3 sold well and is certainly popular among the fanbase from what i've seen; also, many people will have gotten the original edition but not the special edition, so it would probably get more downloads then the original edition re-released. *HINT HINT WINK WINK.*

[SonicChaos]

Given the choice I'd go with SE. It's still widely played as we have seen so what are you waiting for Sony?

[willsgb13]

depends on demand really

qirex were pretty good in wip3out. i hate that the cold soviet team is one of the best of the lot

[SonicChaos]

Hated Qirex. I can't stand how it takes 2 city blocks to turn the thing. Everything else is great though.

[willsgb13]

makes it more challenging and thus more satisfying to master. i managed alright eventually, got all golds, and it has enough speed to be thrilling when you get the lines right, plus it takes a lot of damage

worst/least favourite track? since this is the thread of dislike and everything

[SonicChaos]

Stanza Inter, that dark tunnel screws me up everytime. I can't see crap when I'm in there and I misjudge corners all the time. It'd be decent if I could see something.

[willsgb13]

haha, stanza inter is one of my favourites, but you're right about one stretch of tunnel - when you loop around after starting the race and come to the junction, the tunnel on the right is deceptive, dark and can destroy your race, takes good lines and concentration to navigate without collisions.

personally, p-mar project is my least favourite. it's a good track, but it doesn't look as spectacular as other tracks and a few of the bends and tunnels are showstoppers. then again, it's challenging and thrilling when raced through smoothly, and it does feature the most spectacular jump in the game, before the final bend and tunnel; i love hyperthrusting into it, exhilirating

[Aeroracer]

10 things i hate about wipeout 3....

couldnt really say.. the game was crap and boring :turdand i cant even remember it.but i can remember wipeout2097 and wipeout so that says it all.

[willsgb13]

lol jasmin, it did not break new ground in the series or genre of gaming, not like the first 2 games did, and you may not have found it particularly memorable, but surely there are other reasons why you dislike it so? a shame that you do, but i suppose that if you found it boring and despise it, that's your prerogative. i hate harry potter but enjoy a lot of other fantasy, and i couldn't really tell you in much detail what it is i don't like about HP. oh well!

[Aeroracer]

Im not keen on harry potter myself. Not my cup of tea.

[ACE-FLO]

I have played/owned all uk released W"O games barring HD.

W"O"3 - I only remember one thing about it, Sagarmatha - it means "Mother River" in Hindi.

The game was unmemorable and slightly disappointing, hence even after clocking it, I reverted back to 2097.

I actually liked Fusion more than W"O'3... don't lynch me for saying that!

[XpanDrome2097]

The game was unmemorable and slightly disappointing, hence even after clocking it, I reverted back to 2097.

I actually liked Fusion more than W"O'3... don't lynch me for saying that!

Some people says that Wip3out (and WO3-SE) is the perfect game of the saga, am not agree with this; Wip3out has a great design, some cool ships (Assegai and Goteki are very wonderful) and some wonderful tracks but sometimes it annoying me.
This is because the flying dinamic of the ships is too light to be serious for me, this characteristic for long times can boring, especially in the fastest class, and the soundtrack is not that great....every time am playing of Wip3out i feel the same sensations....absolutely is not a bad game (I like it, is a very good game, don't exists a Wipeout game that I don't like), but at the same time it don't represents the perfection in the saga.
For me the first two episodes are incomparable, but I think that the general design of Wip3out is one of the coolest in the WipEout history.
But this is only my opinion, and I respect all the opinions about it ;).

[SonicChaos]

While I agree 3 is by no means the best of the series, it's the one I grew up on and played the most. It's enjoyable for me and I like it. There is no such thing as a bad or average Wipeout Soundtrack as far as I can see imho, however. Once I get HD I'll be spending more time on that though.

[Lance]

W"O"3 - I only remember one thing about it, Sagarmatha - it means "Mother River" in Hindi.


Sagarmatha is not in WO3, it's in 2097/XL.

[willsgb13]

jade, it is encouraging that the HP bug hasn't caught everyone. it may be well written, structurally and grammatically outstanding and engaging due to basic plot, characters and developments but it just doesn't hook me. i guess the piloting, style etc. of 3 didn't hook you in the same way wipeout or 2097 did

ace, as lance said, dude, sagarmatha is from 2097, not 3. i guess it was that unmemorable for you as well that you cannot even remember the names of the tracks, hehe!

venom, i respect your expanded upon opinions. may i ask what it is about goteki that you like? i personally love the soundtrack more then any other in the series, although i feel there are no weak soundtracks in the series impressively. each one signals the specific time it was released in its own way, as well as the atmosphere and vision of the game itself. each one fits the game nicely in selection and style.

i also feel the design is outstanding, and i'm a fan of the menu system too, something much derided in other wipeoutfan quarters from what i've seen. as for the flying dynamic, i didn't think it was that light; i feel pure was lighter and bouncier, and pulse can be on phantom, but that's just my limited experience and memory of them!

sonicchaos, it's also the wipeout i grew up with, although the first one was the one i first played and the one which originally blew my mind.

[Lance]

3 had been out about six months before I got my first game console, and was one of the first few games I bought. When I played it for the first time, I thought: "I am in the Future." The smoothness and near silence of the ships seemed like something apart from today's reality.

[XpanDrome2097]

venom, i respect your expanded upon opinions. may i ask what it is about goteki that you like? i personally love the soundtrack more then any other in the series, although i feel there are no weak soundtracks in the series impressively.

I like Goteki because....I like it ;)!!!!
But my favourite one is Assegai, strongest Wip3out ship ever ;)!
For me the best soundtrack ever is from Wipeout 2097/XL.

[SonicChaos]

Soundtracks are more so a personal opinion, but I have to say XL's was pretty good. Go Assegai!

@wills I played Wipeout first, but 3 drew me in more because it was a lot easier and I was young at the time (if you consider 10 young).

@Lance Exactly. What are those scientists waiting for? Gimme my antigrav darnit!

[G'Kyl]

Sagarmatha is not in WO3, it's in 2097/XL.

Aaaand, WO3SE has it. ;) Maybe that's what he was referring to.

Ben

[Lance]

Could be. :)

[SonicChaos]

I really hope SE will get staeside at some point in some form. I really wanna play that game.

[willsgb13]

3 had been out about six months before I got my first game console, and was one of the first few games I bought. When I played it for the first time, I thought: "I am in the Future." The smoothness and near silence of the ships seemed like something apart from today's reality.

yes, it marries that with very recognisable and seemingly contemporary track locations which may help to inspire that feeling of futurism, the first one did so too IMO, while 2097 and the later fusion adopt a more futuristic overall look, in different ways


I like Goteki because....I like it ;)!!!!
But my favourite one is Assegai, strongest Wip3out ship ever ;)!
For me the best soundtrack ever is from Wipeout 2097/XL.

come on dude, give me something for goteki! i like the look of the ship and it's got good handling but it's a challenge to make a winner out of it. fair play though! assegai's handling is indeed joyous, especially on phantom

2097's soundtrack does seem to be very popular here, but i will stand by my favourite of 3, although the original wipeout is a very close second, and i have grown very fond of the smart pulse one. none of them have a bad soundtrack though, that's the thing, they're all top notch without exception


Soundtracks are more so a personal opinion, but I have to say XL's was pretty good. Go Assegai!

@wills I played Wipeout first, but 3 drew me in more because it was a lot easier and I was young at the time (if you consider 10 young).

@Lance Exactly. What are those scientists waiting for? Gimme my antigrav darnit!

wip3out is easier due to wall-grind-speed-boosting as opposed to wall-stop-you-dead-in-your-tracksing but the learning curve is quite steep and phantom is satisfyingly difficult and thrilling to nail


Aaaand, WO3SE has it. ;) Maybe that's what he was referring to.

Ben

perhaps! i for one would love to try the classic wipeout and 2097 tracks on 3. i have seen SE selling on websites but the price seems steep. i'm very tempted to try it out. bring a tv and PS and copy around and we'll do 4 way eliminator deathmatches and race the **** out of it :hyper:hyper:hyper

[SonicChaos]

I'm all for it. Even if tyhe game is 8-9 years old I still am desperate to play it. That's the mark of a truly good game.

[Darkdrium777]

1. The ships aren't balanced... Feisar and Goteki I'm looking at you. :/
2. Some really bad track design in some places... gah. I feel like the ships weren't made for the the same game (Granted I'm no expert but there's no ****ing way you land that jump on Mega Mall smoothly. And then that turn, omfg.)
3. Tedious. Mind numbingly tedious.
4. Doesn't appropriately save settings. Why do I have to go back there and set my default name all the time? Also, after I watch the replay, I got to enter it again if I make a record time!

[Ally]

I know this isn't a *love* thread but oh well - hijacked :) I really think that Wip3out is there beside Final Fantasy VII in gaming perfection. The best videogame experience I've ever had. Still listen to that soundtrack.

[Lance]

Wayne Imlach, the project head for WO3, and the rest of the crew at the Leeds studio, would appreciate the praise if they read it. :)

[I wonder if hate threads have a rule that says "If you can't say something bad, don't say anything at all. ;) ]

[Darkdrium777]

Well saying good things on a "hate" thread (And it's not a hate thread per-se, just listing cons) would take it off topic.
So yeah, there's kind of a rule... :|

And then there's this (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5192).

[willsgb13]

1. The ships aren't balanced... Feisar and Goteki I'm looking at you. :/
2. Some really bad track design in some places... gah. I feel like the ships weren't made for the the same game (Granted I'm no expert but there's no ****ing way you land that jump on Mega Mall smoothly. And then that turn, omfg.)
3. Tedious. Mind numbingly tedious.
4. Doesn't appropriately save settings. Why do I have to go back there and set my default name all the time? Also, after I watch the replay, I got to enter it again if I make a record time!

1. fair point, but in wipeout and 2097, auricom and qirex were markedly better then feisar and ag-systems, amirite? and i managed all golds, all speed classes on 3, took a while and a long learning of each craft and track but i did it, feisar and goteki were the weak links but they weren't fodder, they had their own identities to add to the fray
2. are you talking about the jump after the helter skelter? tip the nose up, not too different to one of the metropias on pulse. if you mean another jump, elaborate and i'll try to answer you again, like a ninja :banzai
3. it is repetitive and exhaustive in single race mode, with so many golds to get, but that's a point more subjective then objective; i for example enjoyed it ;)
4. all of the points you make under number 4 are valid and unfortunate flaws. :cake


I know this isn't a *love* thread but oh well - hijacked :) I really think that Wip3out is there beside Final Fantasy VII in gaming perfection. The best videogame experience I've ever had. Still listen to that soundtrack.

yes, i grew up with 3 so i can relate, and the soundtrack is outstanding. and FF7 is more of an epic experience then a computer game, too, not to mention having a soundtrack of memorably brilliant proportions too. the PS has some great titles to its name besides even these, too.


Wayne Imlach, the project head for WO3, and the rest of the crew at the Leeds studio, would appreciate the praise if they read it. :)

[I wonder if hate threads have a rule that says "If you can't say something bad, don't say anything at all. ;) ]

if mr imlach and anyone else is perchance reading this, you guys enriched my childhood and your game made a lasting impression on my life. thank you

and DD, i think it's fine to put good points, if they are in response to negatives suggested, due to the discussion that can generate ;)

[SonicChaos]

True, It also has issues saving my controller set up. Seems to switch the fire and HT buttons on me all the time. As for default name you have to go into it hit x til your name is in and THEN it will appear all the time. I also love auto load instead of manually having to do it in the regualr 3.

[Task]

As for default name you have to go into it hit x til your name is in and THEN it will appear all the time.
Yes. If you then also save your game, every time you load your game you'll have the default name in already.
First thing I ever did with W3O was adjust all the settings and save my game. I've never had any of the complaints that some people have. 8 )

[SonicChaos]

Yes. If you then also save your game, every time you load your game you'll have the default name in already.


Nope that doesn't work for me at all. I've tried it at least 6 times and nothing saves. Your copy must be extra special.

[WolfKill01]

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?! I THOUGHT THIS WAS A HATE THREAD!! Oh well, hostile takeover. ;)
Thanks for that HUGE list of the stuff SE has to offer, sonicchaos. 2 new prototype tracks AND a new ship to race with. I could have some fun with that.


Wip3out has a great design, some cool ships (Assegai and Goteki are very wonderful).

I'm beginning to take a liking to the Assegai and i've alwas loved the Goteki. Not sure why, it's just such an excellent looking ship, it's really fun on eliminator too.

WipEout 3 is still the best wipeout for me thus far. Even though I haven't played wipeout for weeks :beer

[SonicChaos]

I've been leaning toward HD lately. things seem to work better for me, but I'll come back to 3 every once in awhile.

[WolfKill01]

I'm posting from a friend's house whom has a ps3. He just got through downloading fury and we're gonna play it here in a second. We played regular HD quite extensivly earlier today. I was actually able to fly my icaras and not blow up! :) We started out slow on venom but I'm doing pretty well on phantom now. At least on a couple tracks. ;) I'm sorry but 3 is STILL holding that special place in my heart, and I don't think it's going anywhere.

[SonicChaos]

Same here, but HD is now my current favorite. Just wait until you play Fury.

[tileon]

I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE!... That not every WipEout is pure perfection like Wip3out was.


The intro and menus is cold genius european snobish minimalist good taste, it was althemore great that it generated such hatred... Menus were cool. You couldn't read them, but they were cool.
The advertising campain was uber cool. I've been trying to find promotional posters, but... couldn't I would pay a shitload for the Auricom Poster.
GREAT, consistent track design (in terms of visual design). Dark tunnels were WAY too dark though. You really were under the impression of racing in a city, in an urban, contemporary (not futuristic) setting. Pulse and HD are clearly over-the-top.
The tracks were great! 90° left on Hi-Fumi, then the bottleneck... And Megamall which was impossible... Stanza inter! And P-mar Project and its chicanes!! Great, great, GREAT GAME!!!
The woozing (I know that's not a word :p )sound of the ships... floaty warped breath!
The soundtrack, the best yet.
HD graphics!! (HD for the time) Amazing looking for a PSone game, and hasn't aged so much!
This is a TRUE wipeout, by Psygnosis. I love Pure Pulse and HD, but the physics of WipEout on PSP/PS3 can never equal the sweet thrill of Psygnosis games.. You could break left to go right, it was delicate and complex and nuanced gameplay... like flying!
Special Edition!!!
Replays
Hyperthrust made the game tactical like it is today. Speeds where brain-ripping!
The lady's voice.
Overall I prefer it because everyone is so infatuated with XL... I find 2097 kitsh.

[SonicChaos]

Meh I prefer 3 over XL/2097 personally. Still everyone has a favorite and WO3 isn't exactly perfect with it's invisible walls.

[willsgb13]

ah well, pulse has the walls, to protect the spectators and the places the tracks snake through, that one just made the walls visible

it is annoying on sampa run or p mar project on phantom when you go into a big jump or fly over a big drop or hill and you misjudge it slightly, go into the aforementioned invisible wall and ruin your smooth flight

i hear the special edition eliminated them though; i need a copy of that one

[SonicChaos]

Yea it did. i still ne a PAL to NTSC Converter to play it.

[Haywire_Guy]

Rly only didnt like 3 things about this generally awesome game:

1. No Playstation wheel support!! Like, why doesnt the greatest racing game for the PS1 have no wheel support??!! Even Wipeout 2097, Wipeout 1 and Wipeout Fusion i "inherited" from my elder brother worked perfectly with ye 'old PS2 wheel. Why not Wip3out?

2. No PS3 support! being one of the last few PS1 game released it came with a piracy block that modern day PAL PS3's cannot overcome since the only emulate the software. Was hoping theyd release a patch for this someday but its been shrinking ever since the PS website took it off their compatibility list. (they had it on there before, not sure why)

3. Lastly dont like the menu much, but thats rly just a minor complaint. looks to drab gray to me, liked the blue iconised menu of 2097 and the modern HD menus best. Fusion menu kinda sucked too.

[MiguelX69]

didn't had the chance to try older games... just wip3out was my first one... actually my first game ever... and i liked it... personally i like pulse more than pure... dont know how to explain but... anyways the best one is HD... best game in the world (for me at least) and only until the next wipeout

[Dan Locke]

I realize that it's kind of silly to rebut a two-year-old post, but I feel compelled to defend my favorite racing game ever.


Right off the bat, you have the WORST intro ever. Not just among Wipeout games, but... ever. In any game. I honestly thought my game was defective, but then... no. The music doesn't fit - certainly not inspiring (like the original), not sweat-inducing (like XL), and not pure and awesome (like Pure). I guess the team logo part was cool, but then... "Piranha" was misspelled. Seriously, what the hell?
I know, right? Who asked for a fake-looking explosion played backwards in slo-mo? And who's the idiot who put the H after the R in Piranha? It's the kind of mistake that a third-grader would make.


Next, you have the hard-to-read, confusing, ugly-as-sin menu. Let's be honest - it could have been done on the NES. No track previews for the sake of "simplicity?" Lame. And why can't I hit up or down on the d-pad to actually select the track and ship, even though it sure LOOKS like I can? Instead I have to hit left and right, which is... kinda stupid. Who would have thought functionality only got WORSE in the future?
True, the menus were awful. I like the visual aesthetic, but there isn't anything approaching good ergonomics.


Then if you manage to get a race started without wanting to kill yourself, you realize that most of the tracks are also extremely ugly with their dark, drab colors. And maybe it's just my monitor, but all that darkness made the game literally unplayable as early as... well, Porto Kora (moreso, anyway).
It has to be your monitor. (You're playing on an emulator?) Porto Kora is actually quite bright, in a sort of late-afternoon way. Even the darkest tracks like Sampa Run and Manortop have plenty of lights to keep everything clear - they're certainly brighter than most of the tracks in the first two games!


No actual lap display. Because nice, big numbers would have been too easy on the eyes, especially in the middle of the race.
Actually, there is a lap display. The little blue and gray rectangles near the bottom are the lap counter. I agree that it wouldn't have hurt to use bigger numbers, though - it's pretty much impossible to read those things during an actual race, unless you're on a straightaway and have time to look down.


The ships are TOO quiet. Dammit, I LIKED that subtle "fizzzzz" in XL. There's almost none of that in 3. There's not even a sound for Hyper-thrust, so I don't even feel like I'm going hyper-fast.
Fizz? The engines in Wipeout XL hiss like airliners.

Personally, I have no trouble hearing them. And you can turn up the sound effects if you can't hear them well.


Crappy weapons. Force wall? Reminds me of Wipeout 1 when you'd successfully hit a ship with your rocket, only to create a huge roadblock that you'd have to try REALLY hard to avoid. Reflector? So for 10 seconds or so, I'm supposed to switch from "please oh please don't hit me omg" to "HA HA!! Hit me now! But only RIGHT NOW and for the next few seconds, and NOT with Mines!" More often than not, it seems to be there just so the computer can legitimately stop you from using Energy Drain. And Cloak? Who cares. Just more weapons I have to cycle through in order to get the not-as-satisfying Quake or the now-ugly Rockets...
Crappy weapons? As in, every weapon from Wipeout XL, minus the Electrical Bolt (which was annoying to be hit with and unsatisfying to use) and Thunder Bomb (which was essentially the same as the Quake, but not as cool), and with some new weapons to add more variety? Sure, the Deflector is nearly useless, but the Cloak is cool and the Energy Wall is super-effective on large groups of enemies (and you can fly right through it, rendering your point false). And what makes the Quake "not-as-satisfying"? The fact that it doesn't blindfold you by staying right in front of your ship and blocking your vision? I always thought of that as an improvement. Also, it destroys mines now, and how can that be bad?


No ACTUAL Turbo means Hyper-thrust is required... which means as far as pickups go, the Energy Drain pickup is also the Turbo pickup... which makes Feisar suck.
FEISAR has sucked since the first game, and the Hyperthrust adds technical depth that the Boost never had.


The voice during the race tells you the weapon YOU got. Were people actually clamoring for this? So now when I'm about to get hit by a weapon, all I get is "WARNING!" It's just not as satisfying when you stop without knowing exactly what hit you. It's as though the computer just says, "HEY, YOU STOP NOW."
I know exactly what you mean. If you're going to tell me which weapon I got, at least have a different announcer tell me which weapon my opponents are using. In the old games, I'd put my shield up if I heard "Missile" or "Shockwave" and I'd just avoid being directly behind an opponent if I heard "Mines". I can't do that in Wipeout 3.


Really bad ping-pong effects. The slow Auto Pilot doesn't help things, either. I never realized how much I missed that THUNK from the original Wipeout.
The Autopilot has always been slow, and I think that scraping metal is more fitting than soap falling in a bathtub (which is what the old sound always seemed like to me).


And finally, UNLOCKING EVERYTHING IS A CHORE. Unlike in Wipeout Pure, I almost dreaded getting golds in Wipeout 3 because that just meant I'd just have to slug through more tracks with ships I really don't like.
I think that it was actually an improvement over Wipeout XL. That game only requires you to beat two tournaments, which takes less than an hour at most. Wipeout 3, on the other hand, requires you to excel in any possible situation before you can truly say that you've beaten it. It takes weeks to beat, and it eventually becomes second-nature. After you've beaten it, it still has the same stunning replayability as the other games in the series.


I'll admit that the game is not all bad. Music is opinion, as always, and while I did like most of it, I can't say that it was racing music. The fact that the music stayed during a pause or restart was nice, and the loading times were nice and quick.
Really? The soundtrack and loading times are the only things about Wipeout 3 that aren't bad? You've completely ignored:

1. The ships. Twice as many as in the other pre-Fusion games, but much better-looking (especially the Auricom, which looked hideous in Wipeout XL) and still distinct from each other. Each is suited to a particular playing style, and the Piranha (I refuse to misspell it) is actually useable!

2. The weapons. I can't believe that you painted them as a con. The pit lane in Wipeout XL was useless for two reasons: it was hard to lose a significant amount of health, and the Energy pickup never failed to bring your energy back in the pit lane's absence. Wipeout 3, on the other hand, fixes this: the Hyperthrust mechanism provides an incentive to have as much health as possible, and the energy pickup is much rarer and actually requires skill to use effectively. Gone are the Thunder Bomb and the Electrical Bolt, and, while I miss the former somewhat (although the Quake essentially made it redundant), I couldn't care less that the latter's gone (it's essentially a Missile with an ugly-looking wireframe effect, and it's frustrating when it hits you). On the other hand, there are plenty of new weapons: the Force Wall is a great idea with a cool effect, the Cloak is awesome when you're playing against a friend, and the Energy Drain adds a lot of depth. The only weapon that doesn't really work is the Deflector - it's too limited to be of any real use as a shield.

Also, the Plasma actually hits enemies now! Woo!

3. The track designs. Easily as good as Wipeout XL's, and with more unique scenery for each track, not to mention "special" areas that set each one apart from the rest (the corkscrew in Mega Mall, the 90-degree turns in Manortop).

4. The prototype courses. Like deleted scenes on the DVD release of a movie, but cooler! It's easy to see why they were cut from the final game - they aren't nearly up to par with the rest of the tracks - but it's neat that they're playable along with the "real" tracks.

5. The handling. In my opinion, it's the best that the series has to offer. It feels much smoother and more responsive than even Wipeout XL's, while being subtle and nuanced in a way that the other games can't match (certainly not Wipeout 64).

6. The game modes. It has all of the single races, tournaments, and time trials from the first two games, while adding Wipeout 64's challenge system, combat mode (as Eliminator), and split-screen multiplayer. All that it needs is a Zone mode to be perfect.

7. Split-screen multiplayer. I know that it's redundant to mention it, but it's really something that the other PlayStation games should have had. The only other pre-Wipeout Fusion game with that feature is Wipeout 64, and it doesn't count because it's on the N64. :g Seriously, though, it's a crime that the first two games don't have it.

8. The replay feature. It's cool to go back and relive a race's coolest moments after you've played it, and Wipeout 3 is the only game in the series (to my knowledge) that has this feature.

9. The graphics. Sorry, but it just has to be said. They're amazing.

Really, your complaints are almost entirely focused on the (admittedly awful) interface and a few of the sounds. The game's content, playability, and technical depth are what matter, and Wipeout 3 blows the other games away when it comes to those.

[willsgb13]

passionate stuff dan locke, and while i can't say that it's the best in the series as wipeout and 2097 broke more ground and for that are usually considered the best, 3 is still a top class game and one that brings back many good memories and has a lot of significance for me, and i largely agree with your rebuttals :nod

[Dan Locke]

i can't say that it's the best in the series as wipeout and 2097 broke more ground and for that are usually considered the best
Yeah; I get the idea. For me, though, Wipeout 3 is the best game in the series because it's the most polished iteration of Wipeout XL's formula. Wipeout XL may have redefined the series, but Wipeout 3 perfected the design far beyond anyone's expectations.

It's sort of like the difference between F-Zero X and F-Zero GX: the former may have given the series its current character, but the latter went back and refined the formula while adding new and better content.

[andy]

If I could still +rep you, I would. I agree with everything you've said. 3 is my favourite game ever :)

The only thing I hate in 3 are the invisible boundaries, such as the invisible walls on the sides of the halfpipe-style section of sampa run, but once you know where not to go, those aren't really problems and they're not exactly as if they interfere with any proper racing lines.

[Dan Locke]

The only thing I hate in 3 are the invisible boundaries, such as the invisible walls on the sides of the halfpipe-style section of sampa run, but once you know where not to go, those aren't really problems and they're not exactly as if they interfere with any proper racing lines.
They were also in the first two games, so what difference does it make?

Actually, my biggest complaint regarding Wipeout 3 also applies to the other games in the series: the opponents are very badly-implemented. Enemy positions are obviously rigged to keep opponents spaced at certain intervals, which makes the races feel less like actual races and more like time trials with traffic. They barely put up a fight, even when compared to Wipeout XL - it's possible to get to first place by the second lap, especially with the Icaras. Also, there are eight different teams, so why do the races only feature four of them at a time? The first game added to its pseudo-realistic atmosphere by making all of the opponents different; Wipeout XL's repetition of the same five ships was understandable, given their limited number, but Wipeout 3 has no excuse for making me race against two identical Auricoms, three identical Piranhas, three identical Qirexes, and three identical FEISARs, let alone expecting me to believe that a pilot would blow up another pilot from the same team, racing in the same ship, with a guided missile. Even in tournaments, half of the teams aren't even present for any given race. How in Burcombe's name does that make any sense?!

Thankfully, the newer games are much, much fairer in this respect, and actually bother to diversify the opponents (along with adding a much-needed difficulty option), but they don't play nearly as well as the older ones do.

[andy]

yeah, I find that AI annoying sometimes because its so slow - but I go for lap times these days anyway, so it doesn't really bother me, less stuff in my way is fine if I'm trying for times.

[willsgb13]

dan, i certainly agree that 3 refined everything that was good about 2097 to a point, but it does also have an identity of its own, in the form of content unlocking, teams, track environments, race physics and soundtrack as well. it introduced its own innovations, such as eliminator, and of course split screen :) but i see what you mean

andy, the invisible walls - you mean at the end of sampa run, when you take a left and go up the hill and come down again before the sharp right, the tunnel and the home straight? when you go over the hill and hit the invisible wall if you go off track? - similar story on stanza inter when you take the left and go straight, but it's something i tend to overlook because it's not a big deal for me, even though it can muck up your race

if anything, it increases the sense of precision and achievement if you ace the track and avoid those as well as everything else, although it's a bit annoying when you hit them

i think pulse introduced energy shields that protect the crowds as a way of justifying having invisible walls, but in pure you could go all over the place, although of course you'd be retrieved and lose time if you lost the track

as for the complaint of the field of teams you race against in 3, it's something i also overlook but then it would be nice to test yourself against all of them in each race, and have the more realistic scenario of team-mates avoiding blasting each other - is this rectified - lol, i love using that word - in the special edition? as for the field spreading out across the track and becoming rigid in terms of opponent ships you pass and being spaced out evenly and caught up easily - i thought that was more the case in 2097 then 3, and certainly more then in the original game, but the stats of each ship were kind of unbalanced in 3 anyway, so you'd always pass goteki and feisar first, and you'd always be going ahead of the likes of qirex and icaras for 1st place, i found

anyway, in this thread of hatred for this particularly game, 3 is the magic number :rock

[WolfKill01]

The Auto-pilot was crap in this game. It always seemed to wanna play the, "LETS HIT AS MANY MINES AS WE CAN!!" game, whenever you engaged it behind an opponet :brickwall. That was the ONLY fault in the game that truly got frustrating. Especially when you're just starting. :)

[XpanDrome2097]

"LETS HIT AS MANY MINES AS WE CAN!!"

Bruuuaaargh, uahahahah :g!
I have the impression that Auto-pilot in Wip3out follows only default trajectories, probably this is the reason because you can hit every possible type of dangerous items like mines...

[Dan Locke]

I have the impression that Auto-pilot in Wip3out follows only default trajectories, probably this is the reason because you can hit every possible type of dangerous items like mines...
That's correct; it (and the ones in Wipeout XL and Wipeout 64) just stick the player ship on a rail and call it autopilot, paying no attention to the game's actual physics engine. It actually turns the player ship into a drone, with the same penalties (greatly increased weapon effects) and advantages (DRIVING THROUGH WALLS!) as the others.

[DJ Techno]

10 things i hate about wipeout 3?...

Hmmm my numbers...

Numbers 1
the person whining about i can't turn right in the game. Have problems with the clipping ( yes if u know what it is, passing through walls or something more, their was a cheat for this in the first doom for the pc "loved it! )

numbers 2
they didn't have enough tracks... Really!

Numbers 3
if u can't get good at it. Don't break the game. Get ya money back!

Numbers 4
if whoever told the guys n gals (if their were any woman) creating and working on wipeout 1-3 the originals teams, not studio liverpool. If that person (s) didn't put the brakes on them developing one more time. The next ag racing after wipeout 3 would have been better than the time wipeout fusion came out.

Numbers 5
the final ending when u are defeated (ship destroyed) or didn't finish (ship destroyed), not the didn't become first place.
Your ship is turned into a darked non moving piece of junk... In wipeout xl and 64. Your ship was blown away. Its bad when ur playing 2 player. And your friend 's ship is turned into a just a black piece of dead weight on the track. And guess what. You can still end up hitting the damn thing. Well at least in the wipeout 3 here in the usa i played.

Number 6
i already said music and racing tracks... The music that could have been from djs of early nineties who remixed pretty good tracks of today.
No offense keep sasha... But chemical brothers, paul van dyke, mkl, and probably one more. They could have also added.

Moby ( say all the boo's and im crazy you want )
but go, bodyrock remix, and some of his songs back in the underground years 90's and 89. Yes!
Kmfdm
josh wink theirs some good stuff by wink, yeah higher states of conscienceless is long. No matter where you heard it from his remixes, extended versions, radio version, etc.
Deepdish
deepsky
so on...

Numbers 7
it was, i believe an early time for this game to have come out, and it could have been a hit on the playstation 2.

Numbers 8
it was the only one in the wipeout series. That had a real cockpit view. Of you being in view inside the vehicle.
You know the visual picture. Your team logo on the bottom left or right, the front windshield the view and size you would assume if u were inside, and some bells and lights.
And the yahoos in studio liverpool didn't want to apply that idea in the future games. Till i think later... I haven't played wipeout fury to know.

Numbers 9
oh the united states and the rest of the ntsc side of games didn't get the wipeout 3 special edition, but euro and pal players did....
I guess it was not a kind of share the wealth or restrictions that the usa has on things imported into the united states. Hmmmm? The wipeout game was made in the usa!

Numebrs 10
i love wipeout 3.
But it had its bad parts.

[JABBERJAW]

kfmdm Juke joint jezebel music version would be nice. very bizzarre covers for their albums

[Inter]

bah , I am convinced Wip3out is the best game of the whole series, I love graphics , I love the Background Music , I love races, I think the Manortop,Terminal,P Mar Projects races are so much beautiful. It is the best Wipeout of PS1 and it is better too than the various PS2' s Wipeout.

[mistroboy]

WOW i thought WO3 was pretty solid, i mean the tracks were well designed the ships were great plus the graphics put the playstation to it's limits and to round that all out the music i thought fitted in well.

[WolfKill01]

Well said mr.mistro. wipeout 3's music fit the atmosphere of the game very well. oh, and welcome to the zone. hope you enjoy your stay. :beer

[AG-wolf]

about the only thing I REALLY can't stand in WO3 is the little speed boost you get when another ship rear-ends you. Sure it can help but say you accidentally smack a wall around a turn... you're in the middle of correcting yourself and getting back into your line when someone rear-ends you back into the wall. I've had times where this has happened 3-4 times IN SUCCESSION, like wall, straighten, rear-end, wall, straighten, rear-end, wall, straighten, rear-THROW THE CONTROLLER ACROSS THE ROOM

Edit:
BANG CLUNK BANG CLUNK BANG CLUNK BANG CLUNK
Sorry to quote myself, but I realized making an addition to a post I made two years ago probably would be pointless lol :P

I just fired up WO3 for the first time in a while... I have a few additions to my list:

- The save/load BS... everyone has said it before, so I'm only echoing their sentiment, but that damn lag between making a selection and when it actually happens on the save/load screen is INFURIATING. I don't know if I ever accidentally saved over my previous game, but I know I've loaded the same game like three times in succession... "NO I JUST WANT TO SELECT "EXIT"[/i]

- I also hate how many weapons hit you completely unannounced. I don't remember the CPU being such a rape-machine in this game... it's just like bam bam bam unsympathetic

- and I don't remember how much of an issue this was in any other wipeout games, but I can't stand when you're RIGHT before a turn, you've already got your fingers on the d-pad and airbrake, and out of nowhere some weapon hits you... you immediately lose all your speed and turn straight into the inside part of the curve. >_<

I think I wanna start playing this game again, though. I remembered eating it up back when I first found it... and I also somehow used to be good with the analog stick. Once I'm competent with that again, I'll be satisfied lol

[80T]

Just here to express my deep love for Wip3Out 3. For me, WO3 it's the best WO game ever. Yes, it has it's own quirks and downsides, it lacks the music and feel of 2097/XL, but for me it's still the best of the bunch. And I totally hate everything after WO3.

[TroJan_Virus]

Weird, I thought the music was even stronger in WO3!

[Hybrid Divide]

Coming from WO1, 2097/XL, and WO64, I didn't really like Wip3out when I first played it.

It took a while to grow on me. And now I love it. Especially with the refinements seen in WO3:SE.

I still do suck at WO3 pretty badly, though! :D

[HusarDPL]

Well, i have many positive feelings about Wipeout3 - but game have some issues... it's true. When i get WO3SE some things changed, because this version have many bugs fixed and many things added. Generally I like this game. It's not best WipEout but it's good :)

[T-301]

I'll have to agree with some of those points, now that I'm playing through it after all these years.

- The in-game HUD is hard to read, and since you need to concentrate on the race, reading through the clutter takes too long. No lap indicator is a real pain, especially since there's not even an audio cue for the final lap, and the only visual indicator is blinking yellow text, which is easy to miss when you're focused on the game.
- Hyperthrust. I know it's an unique thing about WO3, but its cost and function aren't really appealing. Turbo pickups were fine, especially for ships like Feisar on higher classes. Thankfully, this mechanic is not required if you want to win.
- Some of the items are, frankly, drivel. Cloak is beyond pointless, being basically a shield that doesn't make you impervious to damage. Force Wall is almost entirely useless since Quake already does the crowd control job a lot better, and doesn't throw opponents at you (which is ridiculous). And Reflector - oh, Reflector - it throws the whole combat balance out of whack. What a brilliant idea, to make yet another Shield that doesn't shield you from everything, but also punishes you for having the gall to use weapons so you can have a chance to overtake another racer. I wouldn't have much of a problem with it if the AI didn't abuse it to no end. Got missiles? Reflector. Rockets? Reflector. Got freaking Cloak? You better believe the AI has Reflector on, just in case. The worst thing about these three is that they're a waste of weapon pads. I could've gotten an actual Shield, an actual Quake, or actual weapons instead of these.

Beyond that, WO3 is pretty good.

[Jonny]

I really agree with the HUD part. Kinda ironic flaw in a WipEout game that it lacks functionality for the sake of appearing futuristic.
Some may say it is a prediction cough

[WolfKill01]

Wip3out is still up there at the top of my favorite WipEouts. Probably just because of the amount I played it. It definitely has its flaws though. The design aspects still holds up surprisingly well but looking back and can be tempting to say that it’s teetering on the line of form/substance. Really hoping to find a good emulator so I can come back and visit it again soon.

[Chill]

With all this talk about PS1 games on PSP, I decided to hunt around for Wipeout 3.

Then if you manage to get a race started without wanting to kill yourself, you realize that most of the tracks are also extremely ugly with their dark, drab colors. And maybe it's just my monitor, but all that darkness made the game literally unplayable as early as... well, Porto Kora (moreso, anyway).

How is this much different from a more gritty Bladerunner style? Where things have some gloom and everything is not all lit up and shiny like the newer tracks? I prefer the older style, some of the pure tracks were more simplistic than omega.



No actual lap display. Because nice, big numbers would have been too easy on the eyes, especially in the middle of the race.

I mean, you were playing it on a PSP. It was meant for a full screen.


And finally, UNLOCKING EVERYTHING IS A CHORE. Unlike in Wipeout Pure, I almost dreaded getting golds in Wipeout 3 because that just meant I'd just have to slug through more tracks with ships I really don't like.

Well it's good that you hadn't tried Fusion then yet. But looking back, I'm glad I mastered both games just for the love of the Wipeout series.


(Still... I hate this game and everyone who enjoys it more than XL or Pure!) :rock

I never got XL when it came out, although I would've loved it at the time. Wipeout 3 would make a stronger impression when it's the new "in" thing that just came out; and if it doesn't impress then, it can sometimes take time to warm up to something different. I definitely LOVED Wipeout 3, it's the title that spurred my whole fascination with the series. That includes its "simplicity". Again, not everyone gets it. It's like a sexy girl that dresses modestly as opposed to dressing like a raver all the time. I like both and appreciate each style. But the simplicity that you didn't like reflected the environment of the times with less tech and LED lights everywhere.