The Way the Rest of the World Was

[DDD113]

While the post-F9000 era tracks all wound through the pristine cities and landscapes of the world, showing the wonderful utopia that it was, a different story lay beneath. As mentioned in the Pulse track descriptions with "the ashes of Geneva," "the Grey Goo incident," "the thawing of Greenland," and "the outbreak of Nova Scotia," while select parts of the world flourished, others fell into poverty and darkness. This is where the real AG races took place, the amateurs on the streets blasting through the towering, smoggy industrial sectors and cliffsides of their struggling cities. No race commissions, no powerful media companies, just straight racing, with no rules and any weapons a man could make allowed. This is what the future really looked like, and what WipEout should have looked like too.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iv4kDWfNiJduMUtUB95B-ukp28EOhPxEIDRlpD27WZg/edit?usp=sharing

[Cipher]

What is this awesomeness?!

Cipher

[DDD113]

This is a compilation of all the pictures from the Pure gallery that show the direction that WipEout should have taken after Fusion. It show the devs were thinking about it, but it never became a reality. My thought is that while the FX leagues ran through the high, pristine, utopian cities and layouts, the lower racing leagues ran through the industrial sectors and cliffsides of their struggling cities, and that is where the true, pure AG racing occurred, and that gritty style is the direction WipEout should have taken after.

[DIXI200]

You have made ​​this project ?

[Xpand]

Hey DD113, you do know most, if not all of those images are Fusion's concept art, not Pure's, right?

[DDD113]

Yeah I know some are and some aren't, but the point is I pulled them out of the Pure gallery, so that's where I referenced them. Some of them even show WO3 ships, for example, so I'm not saying they are all Pure concept art, I'm just saying that this vision of AG racing was in consideration around Fusion and Pure's time. Plus Fusion was just, well, you know, different (while still very entertaining) so instead of saying "Fusion should have took this direction" I just omitted it because it was so different from the others, and I decided not to question it's unique style, and the inclusion in the Pure gallery simply showed that the dev team was thinking of going this direction in the more recent games.

And no, DIXI, these are concept art for a handful of the WipEout games that were also included in the Pure gallery, I'm just piecing them together to create an AG racing reality that was never captured by Studio Liverpool. :)

[Jonny]

Wooow someone over here on an emo-trip

[DDD113]

^^ ??? ^^

[Cipher]

Love the story DDD could've been epic stuff ^^ (imagines 2048 kind of style but then in the suburbs)

Cipher

[DIXI200]

nice .. really well done .. :) l your collection is very nice, there is a lot of work on those sketches.

[Jonny]

You were talking about distopian/utopian cities in wipEout...and that you only see the blinging neon lights in cities like Metropia while Genev is burning away.#
Ok I´ll make a list for you and if you don´t want it I´ll give it Cipher :P

Utopia-Tracks:
-Blue Ridge
-Moa Therma
-Ubermall


Normal-Tracks:
-Altima VII
-Phenitia Park
-Mega City
-Florion Height
-Vineta K
-The Amphiseum
-Nova State City

-Distopia-Tracks:
-Korodera
-Spilkinanke
-Sokana
-Vohl Square
-Basilico

[DDD113]

That's why I referenced that the idea of dystopia was mostly lost after Fusion, seeing that out of Vineta K, Modesto Heights, Chenghou Project, Sinucit, Citta Nuova, Sebenco Climb, Sol 2, Staten Park, Exostra Run, Ubermall, Sebenco Peak, Iridia, Koltiwa, Anulpha Pass, Khara Descent, Talon's Junction, Moa Therma, Metropia, Arc Prime, Tech de Ra, The Amphiseum, Fort Gale, Basilico, de Konstruct, Vertica, Outpost 7, Orcus, Gemini Dam, Edgewinter, and Vostok Reef, (30 total), only three have dystopian elements to them: Basilico, Orcus, and Tech de Ra. So that's a pretty low number, compared to the, well, not necessarily full dystopia, but the heavily gritty tracks in the earlier games (especially 2097/XL).

And yes Cipher, I think you have the right idea here. It would be like 2048 except with very few add-on ramps, basically just racing through a certain part of a city, which would most of the time be the dark, gritty industrial sector. However, there would also be tracks that ran through different parts of cities, and the occasional very natural mountain path track winding through residential mansions and that sort of thing. But nothing too fancy. ;)

[Jonny]

Tech de Ra is distopian for you?
BTW you missed Platinum Rush.

[DDD113]

Tech de Ra refers to the 'Great American Desert' implying that a lot of land dried up and died. Also if you ever look around you will see that all the rock shelves are jagged and sit at wild, broken angles from the earth as a continual sandstorm rages in the canyons below. Pretty dystopian in my opinion. Platinum Rush on the other hand, it could be considered dystopian by some, but I don't consider it that way, because they actually added life to that place, so it at least was a drastic change with positive effects. I guess with those two tracks it generally boils down to personal opinion. :)

[Takarias]

I can see this coming pretty naturally from the direction Fusion was going in.

I'm imagining a Wipeout game where you play as an amateur pilot, completely unsponsored, and work your way through the ranks of the underground AG racing scene, using the winnings to upgrade your craft as you go. (A la NFS:Underground, and growing out of Fusion's existing upgrade system.) Definitely could have been an interesting experience to play through and then take your craft online to see how it holds up against other designs.