Wipeout when it was released back in 1995 neatly fitted into the “Cool Britannia” brand. Its cultural impact is as important as Noel Gallagher’s union jack guitar, Damien Hirst’s Saatchi period (An artistic period when Hirst became renowned for his use of formaldehyde) and the conception of lad mags.
Wipeout’s brilliant premier on the Playstation with its mix of underground dance acts, breakneck speed racing all based in the not too distant future, was an instant classic. However it wasn’t until the sequel Wipeout XL with now established dance acts The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Underworld, along with product placement for a futuristic energy drink called Red Bull, cemented Wipeout’s place in games hall of fame.
Now move forward to 2008 and you will find that things have changed. Oasis have become a sad and sorry shadow of a band that once had the potential to be as big as The Beetles. People have serious addictions to Red Bull and Sony’s Playstation is on its 3rd outing and has long since relinquished its crown of the world’s number one console. But fear not Wipeout is back!
Wipeout HD is not so much a new edition of the Wipeout series it is more a bringing together of the entire franchise. SCE Studio Liverpool (Formally Psygnosis) has handpicking the best tracks, vehicles and applied some High Definition paint. The high-definition upgrade allows the game to render graphics output at 1080p resolution with a solid frame rate of 60 frames per second and all combined with full digital Dolby 5.1 surround sound.
Wipeout HD is unparalleled in its visual appearance, the game is almost unique. To get a contemporary comparison you would have to look at the race sequences from speed racer or the pod race from Star Wars: the phantom menace.
If you’ve played your way through the previous Wipeout games, Wipeout HD won’t offer you anything other than the opportunity to relive those experiences in full 1080p. Each of the eight tracks have been lifted and re-mastered for the PSN release, as have the ships, race modes and campaign structure. Wipeout HD is nothing more than a high definition remake of what came before it.
Wipeout HD offers a fully fleshed out racing, campaign, racebox and online game modes. The campaign is where you will spend the majority of your time. The campaign is broken up into eight different events. Each event contains various different sub races, whether time trial, tournament, speed lap or zone mode. Earning 1st through 3rd place in each race will award you with points, and earning enough points will unlock the next event. On top of that, races can award you with loyalty points that can be used to unlock new vehicle skins and new vehicles. Making it all the way through each event can be challenging and will definitely push a lot of gamer’s skills to the limit.
A cautious note for all pilots new to the Wipeout world. Wipeout features a brutal learning curve. The moment you feel you have mastered air breaking and moderating the power over adverse camber corners, and then the game goes and ups the difficulty along with the speed and your back to square one, crashing from corner to corner.
An addition which will aid any newcomers overcome the steep learning curve is the pilot assist option. Pilot assist will allow even the most unskilled of gamer to zoom through the tightest of hairpin turns while the pilot assist gently guides your ship away from the walls minimising the damage your ship takes. Wipeout HD is a game which is easy to play but extremely difficult to master.
Racebox mode is essentially a freeplay mode. It allows you to customise your racing options. Race mode, length, speed and difficulty are all customisable. Additionally a simultaneous horizontal or vertical split screen mode is available. Split screen racing suffers from a noticeable drop in frames per second and draw distances, despite these drops in visual appearance game play is totally unaffected.
To find the ultimate multiplayer challenge with minimal performance reduction online mode is for you. Online features all modes found in racebox, races are separated into lobbies and all styles of races are easily accessible. Online racing is frenetic and frantic with ships taking more damage from human racers, whom are noticeably more aggressive than computer racers found in single player mode. If you can master online racing, single player mode will offer you no challenge what so ever.
Music has always been one of the major components of Wipeout, with techno and trance music having always been the heartbeat of the series. In this case, Wipeout HD includes 9 songs from previous Wipeout games all have been remixed and are presented in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. If the music featured isn’t to your liking the game features a fully implemented playlist mode where you can import music stored on the PS3 hard disk.
But don’t be fooled into thinking that music is just used to keep the race tempo high. Whether you are using your own playlist or the featured music you are in for a sensory treat. Wipeout HD is a prime example in how to utilise Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound fully. Digital surround sound is nothing new to gaming but never has the technology been refined and tweaked to such a degree. It really is the simple little tweaks that make the sound design a real star. Upon hitting speed boost pads the sound of crafts engines being pushed beyond their maximum output is enormous but with this extreme engine you notice that all other sound has died down. Then suddenly as the craft slows the music which was previously resonating all around you slowly sounds starts to emit from all speakers and all this happens in seconds.
I could go on about the sound of the air breaks being fired over your right/ left shoulder on a surround system, the creaks and grinds as your craft bottoms out over jumps and landings, or even the noise that exhaust particles make as they hit the nose of your craft while you race nose to tail at speed. But for me the one example of great sound design involves speeding through any of the many tunnels and realising that the music which was once crisp and clear now echoes in unison with engine and weapon noises as the sounds bounces around the enclosed area.
Summing up, Wipeout HD is a visually stunning game. With such beautiful graphics you would forgive SCE Studio Liverpool if Wipeout wasn’t touching mach speeds. But somehow the game manages to look and sound stunning and still keep the rapid speeds which have been a staple of the Wipeout franchise. With full trophy support and the promise of future downloadable content in the form of tracks and new vehicles the games longevity is not in question.
Mark Craven
