worth the purchase?

[Pirhana59]

This might be my tenth million post I've ever done where I ask if a game is worth purchasing :roll: ..But, after playing XL and Wip3out, this is one game I might follow through if enough people tell me some things about it.

Many online reviews I have read (sorry, most of my game purchases are decided by other people's reviews...just the way I do things..) have said it is a great game, but its too short. Now, I can buy it for 3 bucks so..Replay value is the least of my worries..That was how much I shelled out for both of the other WO games..So that is not the issue here. But rather, is it as fun as the others and how many ships can you choose from?

Also, just what are your opinions and personal reviews of it? Good, the bad, and the ugly? As I have stated before in previous posts I know that this was a prequel to the next games so, things that were bad have probably been improved for the new games..so..just now that I have said that..what do you think about the game? Keep in mind..its 3 bucks for me, well more like 10 with shipping but still..

Thanks- Pirhana59

[Lance]

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i would say that the original WipEout is worth it. even though there are some things in it that were done better in sequels, there are likewise a couple of things, notably track design, that some people prefer to those of the sequels. the game has a different feel from all the others, as is true of each version. you may possibly enjoy the greater emphasis on storyline that is due to its being the original exposition, the setup for a potential series of sequels, which we now know did happen. ;)
i noticed that the player's ship seems to have a greater reaction to being hit by weapons, which makes for a good immersion quality in the game. the sensation of driving the courses is different from any of the following ones, a matter of different track design, more like present-day roads for wheeled cars, plus slightly different handling 'physics' produced by the game engine. be aware that the differences in speed and handling between the ships is not as great as it is in later versions, particularly WO3. even so, the game is a unique and good experience. is it good enough to be worth the 10 for purchase and postage? depends on your budget and your tastes. if i had the cash to do it i would do it
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[AmishRobot]

Good:
Track Design. Like Lance said, they're more traditional tracks. They're very well designed, and a great deal of fun.
Atmosphere. Just as XL is vastly different in feel from WO3, WO1 is completely it's own.
Characters. The first one actually has characters with their own storylines. Much like Fusion, only with good art.

Bad:
No scraping. Unike the other two games, touching a wall means you stop. There is no scraping along the sides. Some people find this aggrivating, others (like me) don't mind so much. The track designs make it less an issue than you might expect.
Loading times. They're pretty harsh in this version.
No licensed music. Some might see this as a letdown. Most people here agree that the music that is there (by Cold Storage) is great.

Ugly:
Silverstream. Why the developers thought that a track made of ice would have an effect on the handling of a vehicle that doesn't touch the ground is beyond me. Once you get the hang of it you'll have great fun, but you'll pop quite a few blood vessels getting there.

It's definitely worth $10.

[Brother Laz]

Huh?

There is no effect from the ice at all. It's just that you suck at this track :D , and the fact that they were so nice to put double rows of 4x speed arrows in front of hairpin bends. ;)

It's frustratingly hard at first, this track. But once you get the hang of it, you can make first in one lap 50% of the times, and win the race 85% of the time. :)

The Good.

- Best track design of the series (though Terramax sucks and Spilskinanke is also great).
- Longest and most challenging tracks. None of that 20 seconds per lap nonsense.
- The opponents actually offer a challenge, and not just by being faster than they should physically be like on LS104.
- New texture set in Rapier class. IMO most tracks look better at night than the 2097 tracks.
- Good design... IMO the best of the series. 2097 is garish in places (Odessa anyone?), and WO3 has a number of very bland tracks and one depressing track. WO1 is the only game that can put those huge backlit buddha statues near the track and get away with it. Especially Altima, Karbonis and Silverstream have a very slight alien planet touch - it all looks very terran, but those small concrete domes on Karbonis, that metal Stonehenge thing near the track on Altima... 'what are those things...?'
- Why race Hi-Fumii, when you can get the real, original one: Korodera?
- You gotta be real good at the game to win, not just be merely decent and get lots of quakes.
- No autopilot. Race for real.

The Bad.

- No scraping... I don't mind as much (when you're good, how many times do you hit walls anyway?).
- Less weapons, no damage meter. Missiles annoyingly stop you dead (usually right before the finish line). You also tend to pick up like 30 mines and shields in a row, unlike in the other games where you can't get the same weapon twice in a row.
- Badly handled collisions with other craft; tangle with a competitor and you're likely to get launched like a cannon ball into the nearest wall.
- Well, it's a '96 game... graphics may look dated for today's standards.
- The hidden track Firestar has a heinous bright orange color scheme, except indoors where it's neon blue. Yaargh.
- Slower than the other games, and until you're good at it, it's even slower due to you constantly crashing and stopping dead. But once you're good, it is relatively faster than WO3.

[AmishRobot]

It's just that you suck at this track :D

Ouch.
:)

[Brother Laz]

Sorry... :P

*proceeds to get his hindquarters handed at him on Manor Top Rapier trying to get on the WOZ record tables, before falling off the track in the final lap*

[xEik]

You gotta be real good at the game to win, not just be merely decent and get lots of quakes.
Quakes in the first part of WipEout? Not that I know of. :roll:

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Brother Laz]

You gotta be real good at the game to win, not just be merely decent and get lots of quakes.
Quakes in the first part of WipEout? Not that I know of. :roll:

I didn't say 'you gotta be real good and get lots of quakes to win'... ;)

[xEik]

Uhm, I see what you meant. I suppose I read it as if there were a coma between 'decent' and 'and' that in fact isn't there.

I agree that with every release it has become easier to win a race. But I think that 3 is the one that allows a fine pilot make much faster times than an average one. Mainly due to the wise substitution of aleatory turbos by deterministic hyperthrust.

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Lance]

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um... aleatory? did i get up too early to understand this?
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[Roger]

...the wise substitution of aleatory turbos by deterministic hyperthrust...

In the wise words of dictionary.com:

Aleatory.
Dependent on chance, luck, or an uncertain outcome


Hmmm, come to think of it, all my times in the record tables are pretty darn aleatory :wink:

[xEik]

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um... aleatory? did i get up too early to understand this?
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I don't know. Your post shows 15:17 in GMT+1+1(from DST). What is that in Florida? ;)
Probably 9:17. Definitely too early for Lance. :D

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Lance]

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any time of arising [that's arIsing, not arOUsing] before 16:00 or 17:00 local time is too early for lance. although going to sleep by 08:00 or 09:00 after being up all night is okay. unfortunately, today was a case of getting up at that time. even so, this does not excuse my not knowing the word, which i have never seen before. did not have time to look it up in el dictionario, le dictionnaire, das Worterbuch [sorry about the umlaut]. i now have time, but the work has already been done for me by the esteemed scholar, Sir Roger de Suomie [french form].

thank you Sir Roger

___sincrly yrs,
______Sir Lancelot du Lac [Llwch Llenlleoc [keltic form, the original]]
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[zargz]

pirhana: deffenetly BUY IT! the most difficult wo (of 1 2 & 3) to beat! 8)

xeik: since u first spoke in these forums u engl has been improving by the hour! :D

bro laz: no need 2 apologize if he cant beat it he must suck no? :wink:

amihsR: .. eeer .. sorry? :roll: .. :D :D :D

lance: wazzup! 8)

[xEik]

I guesss aleatory is a xEikism for random. :P In latin derived languages, things like thermal noise are called aleatory processes (or stochastic processes). I'm not certain of what adjective is used in English. Another example, in probability and statistics, random variables are called aleatory either in Catalan, Spanish or French.

Deterministic processes are opposed to stochastic processes in the sense that deterministic ones always give the same outputs with a given input, while stochastic ones can have a different output every time they take place or are performed even though the inputs are the same.

ALEA IACTA EST !

[FoxZero]

the biggest difference is probably that A) you dont blow up and cant blow up anyone else, and B) if you get shot or hit a wall you WILL stop. once you have gotten used to that the potential for going fast is very high, especially on rapier if you get 3 or 4 turbos in a row which is possible in this game. going fast is very satisfying as well, since it is so hard to do and still keep up the speed throughout the track. if you miss a turbo pad, often your speed will suffer signifigantly. you also must be very good to have first place after the first lap, unlike the other games in which you can lap everyone easily. the music is solid and consistently good, and i love how the weapons throw smoke all over the place. firestar is still my favorite track too. for 3 dollars you cant lose.

[AmishRobot]

Everybody gloat. I am not editing my earlier post, because that's honestly what I've always thought, and I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong. The track honestly always felt much floatier than normal.

HOWEVER (you knew that was coming...), I feel I must say that there was once a time when I had no trouble getting first place on Silverstream, and was often able to do so with minimal contact with the walls. I remember those two sets of 4x boosts, and I remember enjoying them.

Sadly, that was long ago. My skills in that game have atrophied, and I am now lucky to even make it to Silverstream, much less beat it. It's been a while, since I bought the game the day it came out in the US. Does that make me "old skool", 8) or just "old"? :x

[Lance]

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James: definitely old. i can hear your joints creaking from here ;)
____

off-topic:
one notes that xEik is the third person to post more than 400 messages on this edition of the wipeout message board. [one also notes that he posts way more than i do on the Opera browser forums, but damned if i see more than a few of them in the topics i keep track of. where are you doing all that posting, xEik?]

____

lightbulb?
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[xEik]

Mainly in a thread called guess the game. Someone posts a screenshot and the person who guesses the game posts next.
Obviously the first screenshot I posted was of Wip3out. 8)

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Lance]

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ah, so. i had never even noticed that topic
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[Vasudeva]

Why do we got bogged down in linguistics discussions here so often? I don't find this at other gaming forums. Anyway, me likes it :lol:. Being a semi-professional linguistic idiot.

I frequently use the word "stochastic" (its Dutch variant) in everyday speech. Geek pride!

Thé bonus point that the original wipEout has, for me, is the overall futuristic feel. In 2097/XL and even more in 3 and SE things are more arty and in some ways bolder (which I like) but somehow the spirit is missing that makes you truly identify with this world. I could immediately identify with the world of the first wipEout, however.

I'm surprised that no one mentioned FireStar, the first alien track, looong before Katmoda 12 or Planet Novon (which was quite a good track by the way, it's just a shame that it can't be selected to play!). And indeed Terramax is quite boring... that blasted tunnel though can be tricky ;).

By the way, Pirhana59, if you happen to own a Saturn, you might want the Saturn version. If you bounce against the walls you don't come to a complete standstill. Plus, the Saturn version has three extra music tracks.

Peace!
V.

[Lance]

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the world of the original WipEout is so close to our present-day world that it is as though anti-gravity racing had been invented, but no application found for it except racing for entertainment. i actually would prefer the more futuristic ones, but even though WO3 is also pretty close to our present world, the other design factors [ships, physics, game structure, etc.] make it my favourite over 2097
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[zargz]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned FireStar, the first alien track, looong before Katmoda 12 or Planet Novon (which was quite a good track by the way, it's just a shame that it can't be selected to play!).


if u beat it u can! 8)


And indeed Terramax is quite boring...
that blasted tunnel though can be tricky ;).


tricky - yes boring - NO!! :evil: .. :roll: .. :wink:

[Lance]

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my copy of WO didn't work long enough for me to accomplish much, but i did like Terramax. and the second track, which had a section where you zigzagged down the hill in series of sweeping switchbacks. i forget the name, but i think it was either Karbonis or Korodera, probably Karbonis. i thought Arridos was harder than some of the others.

i thought Silverstream was a fairly easy track [i never played the Silverstream Challenge], easier than Arridos, for example. i never did get to see Firestar
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