Epilepsy is for Cowards
WipEout HD is everything you imagined it would be.
Published: October 7, 2008
In spite of the cross-platform proclivities of the early games, the intense anti-gravity combat racing of the WipEout series has always been strongly associated with the PlayStation brand. WipEout HD is the seventh WipEout game to appear on a PlayStation system in the U.S., and it will likely be as instrumental in defining the identity of the PlayStation 3 as the previous titles were in their generations.
Until now, the promise of console gaming in decadent 1080p has remained largely unfulfilled, but WipEout HD delivers all of those shiny pixels to your fancy HDTV, and at sixty frames per second to boot (though not without a few caveats which I will address later in the review). WipEout HD also features custom soundtrack capability and obsession-inducing Trophies, both of which are coming to be expected features of PlayStation 3 games. They even included surprisingly effective SIXAXIS motion control.
Priced at twenty dollars and offered exclusively as a download via the PlayStation Network, WipEout HD is an incredible deal. Contained within are eight twisting circuits, all of which can be raced in reverse. These tracks have all made prior appearances on the PSP; specifically, six of the tracks were featured in WipEout Pure, and the remaining two hail from WipEout Pulse. Though the topography is familiar, the massive increase in fidelity goes a long way toward making the experience fresh.
Speaking of looks, WipEout HD is a stunner. The twelve ships (thirteen if you include the vehicle exclusive to Zone Mode) are brimming with detail, from the corporate logos and safety warnings adorning their shiny hulls to the functional-looking fiddly bits hanging underneath. Thrusters emit blazing energy, smoothly animated textures add life to surfaces and detailed pilots are visible in cockpits.
The environments have received an equally impressive amount of graphical and artistic attention. From the underwater tunnels of Vineta K to the clouds of Sol 2, every inch of the world is lavishly decorated. The road surface itself displays an absurd variety of textures and shapes. Buildings are covered in advertising for fictional corporations, often in animated form. It is common to see civilian air traffic going about doing whatever it is that the people of the future do when they aren't blowing each other up on a racetrack.
In the introduction I mentioned that there are some issues with the visuals. One piece of information that has been making the rounds is the game's use of some jiggery-pokery to dynamically scale the horizontal resolution in order to maintain high frame rates (source). These findings sound legitimate, but when actually playing the game I find the effect to be undetectable. The claim of a steady sixty frames per second is mostly true, but there are rare moments when it will ever so slightly drop. The two-player split screen mode suffers from a generally lower frame rate, though it remains quite playable. Perhaps unsurprisingly, WipEout HD loses much of its visual impact on a standard definition display.
It cannot be overstressed how little these minor issues detract from the incredible visual experience of WipEout HD. A few pixels and frames may fall through the cracks from time to time, but the game looks damn awesome overall.
Until now, the promise of console gaming in decadent 1080p has remained largely unfulfilled, but WipEout HD delivers all of those shiny pixels to your fancy HDTV, and at sixty frames per second to boot (though not without a few caveats which I will address later in the review). WipEout HD also features custom soundtrack capability and obsession-inducing Trophies, both of which are coming to be expected features of PlayStation 3 games. They even included surprisingly effective SIXAXIS motion control.
Priced at twenty dollars and offered exclusively as a download via the PlayStation Network, WipEout HD is an incredible deal. Contained within are eight twisting circuits, all of which can be raced in reverse. These tracks have all made prior appearances on the PSP; specifically, six of the tracks were featured in WipEout Pure, and the remaining two hail from WipEout Pulse. Though the topography is familiar, the massive increase in fidelity goes a long way toward making the experience fresh.
Speaking of looks, WipEout HD is a stunner. The twelve ships (thirteen if you include the vehicle exclusive to Zone Mode) are brimming with detail, from the corporate logos and safety warnings adorning their shiny hulls to the functional-looking fiddly bits hanging underneath. Thrusters emit blazing energy, smoothly animated textures add life to surfaces and detailed pilots are visible in cockpits.
The environments have received an equally impressive amount of graphical and artistic attention. From the underwater tunnels of Vineta K to the clouds of Sol 2, every inch of the world is lavishly decorated. The road surface itself displays an absurd variety of textures and shapes. Buildings are covered in advertising for fictional corporations, often in animated form. It is common to see civilian air traffic going about doing whatever it is that the people of the future do when they aren't blowing each other up on a racetrack.
In the introduction I mentioned that there are some issues with the visuals. One piece of information that has been making the rounds is the game's use of some jiggery-pokery to dynamically scale the horizontal resolution in order to maintain high frame rates (source). These findings sound legitimate, but when actually playing the game I find the effect to be undetectable. The claim of a steady sixty frames per second is mostly true, but there are rare moments when it will ever so slightly drop. The two-player split screen mode suffers from a generally lower frame rate, though it remains quite playable. Perhaps unsurprisingly, WipEout HD loses much of its visual impact on a standard definition display.
It cannot be overstressed how little these minor issues detract from the incredible visual experience of WipEout HD. A few pixels and frames may fall through the cracks from time to time, but the game looks damn awesome overall.
