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sigh, what a shame...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 19
Date: July 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

There have been so many PS/2 games that weren't quite what they should've been. I don't care so much about light sourcing or smoke effects in the games I play; I want games that are well-polished and fun to play. Too many PS/2 games are relying on good graphics to carry the day.

Unfortunately, the Wipeout Fusion designers seem to have focused more on the dust and smoke and less on the game itself.

The graphics are OK. The resolution is noticeably better than in the PSone (of course), but there are noticeable popup effects and framerate problems as well. (In bad cases I've seen the framerate slow to what appears to be less than 5 frames a second. Wip3out at its worst was better than this.)

The gameplay itself also has significant problems. The first noticable issue is that it's tough to compare the different ships--unlike the first two games, each ship is on a separate screen and the various statistics aren't directly comparable. Not a huge problem, but it struck me right away as something easily fixable but quite annoying... especially as some of the more advanced ship descriptions are less than helpful.

There are also some big clipping problems. I've gotten my ship blown through walls, mountains, rocks, you name it. The game recovers cleanly, and sometimes it's even an advantage (depending on where you can be placed back onto the track) but again, it's annoying. I can't recall this sort of problem ever happenign in Wipeout XL/3... Maybe the designers considered this to be a feature, but I haven't found it so, especially as the ship often ends up in very strange places and can even get trapped.

Some of the new weapons exacerbate the clipping issues. One of them (gravity bomb) gives your ship a high acceleration before stopping it dead, and the high acceleration causes a lot of the clipping issues. (It also has a very large area of effect, which I can't say is a feature either.)

Another annoying feature is that the CPU ships have access to all the weapons, including the ones that they weren't allowed to use in Wipeout XL/Wip3out. I've lost many races because five or six trailing enemy ships decided to release Quake at the same time, and there's no defence; you lose. Ditto with Gravity Bomb or some of the other area-effect weapons. The enemy ships also have eyes in the back of their heads, as they're amazingly skilled at blocking your ship.

None of this would matter so much except for the structure of the league races, where losing one race can make all the difference between earning an overall first place finish and not--and you have to come in first to advance. I'm also not that thrilled with the whole credit system for upgrading ships, as it just requires playing the league series over and over and over and over...blah.

Finally...it just doesn't feel anything like the originals. The physics are strikingly different; it's almost a totally different game than the first two. I also miss the Designers Republic influence on the game, and I'm totally missing the point about the big heads (er, sorry,pilots), as there's no real personality behind them. And why would anyone find looking at preliminary sketches of the artwork interesting? That's a pretty crummy extra.

In short: it feels about 3/4 finished. I hate to judge it against the first two, because of course it's allowed to be its own game, but I'd give it about 50% for the effort. They should've called it something other than Wipeout, and really finished the game before releasing it.

Not Perfect, but still a blast!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: June 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The 4th episode in the Wipeout Saga, Fusion was originally set as a launch title for the PS2. During its 2 years of delays, other games tried to tap the formula(Extreme G Racing , Kinetica , Star Wars Racers Revenge) to mixed results. Now the game that started it all is back, and Im happy to say , mostly lives up to its reputation.
The first thing is the control. There was nothing better than making that perfect lap in Wipeout Xl or Wipeout 3 , the control of those games was dead on. Fusion has a different feel, ships feel more 'on rails' than previous games, almost making it harder if your used to the physics of the older games. But a little time with it, and I was screaming around the tracks like the old days, and as you progress and the better ships and higher speed modes come, the control is fine.
There are a few graphic problems, which is why I didnt give it perfect marks. There are polygon pop up's , and when the action gets heavy, the framerate slows down, making it difficult to steer. Those problems aside, the graphics are great, crisp track designs, and little touches on weapons are spectacular. Dust kicks up when your off track and on the ground(although its a nod to pod-racing that should have been left out of Wipeout) and the ship designs themselves are high polygon and very cool.
The soundtrack features great tracks by the likes of Orbital, Timo Maas, Luke Slater, Hybrid and more. A much more breakbeat feel this time, but the tracks are fitting and sound great.
All in all, its not perfect, But the best thing out on PS2 of this type. With tons of stuff to unlock, and awesome 2 player weapons, youll be playing this a while. :)

Mediocre rehash of a much beloved game series

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: July 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Let's go back a few years. I bought a Playstation _so_I_could_play_ WipeOut XL. That's 360 bucks for one game. Wonderful graphics and tracks, a powerful soundtrack by incredible electronic artists. Still play it, love it, even though it's pre-analog controller and the graphics are early Playstation era. It's one of those games that makes you want to shoot fireballs out of your hands. Jump forward a bit. Wipeout 3. OH MY GOD. BOOM. Aural, god-like soundtrack, blistering speed, BETTER graphics than XL, and an interface design that destroys all that stand in its path. I haven't seen a game since that tops it for overall focus of intent and feeling. It is a work of art.

...So I HAD to get Wipeout Fusion. Atari-era soundtrack of bad techno. No energy in the music.

I think they may have actually de-evolved the game to produce this definite SEQUEL. Puerile ship designs and world treatments. Think cotton candy compared to XL's patinated steel or 3's crisp diamond edge. The prior game producers (original, XL and 3), Psygnosis, must be crying over this butchery. BAM! did an awful job with this game. Turning action is jumpy, there aren't movement cues where there should be, there are exagerated movement and visual cues where there REALLY shouldn't be. Ship and weapon noises take two steps back.

The menu interface is bad, and the visual atmosphere employed both in and out of the race just falls flat. The design of all elements is overly commercial, uninteresting, bland. The introduction of characters into the game is needless and gimmicky, and brings a feeling of GTA3 meatheadedness to what should be a hard, fast, and beautiful sci-fi racing game. I'm going to try playing again tomorrow, with the music off, and with a clear head, and see if I'm still as negatively focused on this game. For now however, I'm pronouncing that from this corner of the WipeOut fan crowd, the consensus of one is unanimous: this game BLOWS.

As good as it get for now

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As a wipeout fan from the beginning, i have only seen the game itself get better and better. This one is just like all the rest, same type except bigger faster, more things to unlock, and when i say more things to unlock, i mean it. the music score is one of the best in the industry, it is rare to find that kind of music in todays games, but once you race a few tracks, get used to the controls, you get hooked and it is hard to put the game down, i bought because i am a fan of the old, if you never played the wipeout series before, then this is a good one to start at.

Wipeout will keep you coming back for more

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The speed, the ships, the courses are superb. This title continues to set the level against which all race games are measured. There is more than just racing to this. Unlock the zone and you will never be able to leave, trying to get to the next zone. There is no limit to the number of zones.

Enjoy the feeling of seeing your oponent disappear through the force of a quake. Use your air brakes to make the jump and take you round the corners of the corkscrew. Addictive as hell, not to be missed.

Good, but not perfect.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The fourth coming of Wipeout. Is it all we hoped for? Well, that depends. The gameplay has been signifigantly altered. The ships are now easier to control, feeling less "floaty". Enemies are now much closer together, and attack mercilessly. And if you don't get a shield recharge pretty often, you're probably going to go up in flames. Technically, Wipeout Fusion is somewhat of a mixed bag. The graphics are nice, but not great. The frame rate is usually steady, but not rock solid. The sound is sweet, and the music easy on the ears. The controls aren't too bad either. But the presentation, that's another story. This game features some of the worst load and save times I have ever seen on the playstation 2. Every time you enter a race, you wait. Every time you save, you wait. After a while it gets annoying. And the menu music is absolutely terrible. In short, this game is good, but not great. And the reason why is simple. This game was sloppily made. Despite al the delays in development, this game was realeased in what I would call an unfinished state. Is it worth playing? Oh yes. Worth buying? Almost definitely if you're a fan of racing games. It's just not the greatest racing game ever made. And that I can live with.

The first PS2 game that I can't stop playing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I go back to the original Wipeout in the tall box for the (now called) PSOne and have always loved this series. This latest installment does not disappoint. Highly recommended for any racing game fan.

PROS
* Very different handling characteristics for each ship - you'll have to alter your driving style when you switch teams
* Upgradeability of each ship, although this gets rather easy once you've got at least one super-ship in the stable
* Beautiful graphic design of ships, courses, menus, etc.
* Different modes of play (career/league, mission/challenges, etc.) plus plenty of courses plus different vehicles equals limitless gameplay

CONS
* Occasional graphic flaws (clipping, going off-course) lead to head-scratching moments
* Some individual challenges are extremely challenging to the point of frustration

The naked truth about Wipeout Fusion

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Unfortunately I am one of those Wipeout `fans' who have played and completed all of the various incarnations. Only very recently did I get my hands on a PS2 and a copy of wipeout fusion. To be honest, I thought it was a bit strange that the game moved forward so much in certain areas but lost so many of the features that define the wipeout experience.

Firstly I would like to say that I find both the graphics and the track design (there are a couple of minor exceptions outlined below) absolutely excellent. The attraction of the Wipeout series for myself and the majority of the fan-base was really the sense of speed, the `coolness' factor and also the sheer satisfaction of linking up a couple of good corners by mastering the authentic feeling aircraft model. It was these things that kept you playing.

The speed issue is hard to understand. Wipeout fusion is just really slow compared with the upper leagues of the previous games. In addition to a new aircraft model that feels somehow synthetic and not really based on physics (sometime when cornering with the airbrake there is a conspicuous lack of momentum or something) the lack of speed puts an end to that heart-in-the-mouth feeling you got in fast sections in the other games. It is also probably the case that the sudden deceleration from hitting the side of the track in the earlier games was part of the addictiveness and thrill of getting it right and going fast. Additionally, there is no longer that drag sound as you air-brake which reinforces the sense of current speed and momentum and also deceleration - which removes a fraction of your immersion.

The aircraft model no longer lets you take a tight corner from a bad angle, slowly. In XL/ 2097 if you messed up your approach you could still airbrake like mad and avoid colliding with the side of the track - the penalty some speed, but not as significant as hitting the side of the track. Which is the other strange thing, given you cannot make corners at absurd angles anymore, you tend to hit the side of the track very often which doesn't really do much to slow you down. The penalty is shield energy which is not really the most attractive aspect of Fusion.

The weapons are bizarrely over-powerful and now you can race a perfect race and still come last due to luck alone. The most irritating are those that stop the player's craft entirely. The previous games would certainly not have put weapons over speed. The leagues are now a matter of trial and error and you get the impression that skill had a smaller part to play than probability. You are no longer awarded for you ability to fly the craft. A minor gripe is that pitting (which you have to do no matter how good you are) takes too long since you are forced to slow down.

The lack of the coolness factor is a bit inexplicable. The underground techno music of the previous games that lends a dark and industrial feel is gone and replaced with somewhat tacky trance music which is a bit weak. The menu music is optimistic like that of a football game instead of dark and gritty - a cue to get wired. The Designer's Republic did good work on the other games and the Fusion interface seems shallow and sterile by comparison. The 3d character designs look infantile next to the 2d anime-chic of the first game.

The other problem is that the speed/difficulty issue is gone. Leagues are not noticeably faster and even when they actually are, the effect of speed in determining difficulty is masked by the heavy bias of weapons and shields and pitting etc. Other minor issues are annoying `open' areas that have you lost in a cave unable to see due to over-opaque particle effects. There is also an odd tendency for the aircraft model to change when you are exiting one of the open areas in such a way that you feel pulled toward the exit - or quite often a wall demarking the exit. The problem is, that the faults tend not to feel deliberate since there are clearly undesirable faults such as fairly bad slow-down. Also, I cannot be the first to mention the difference in handling of the craft between regular and widescreen display settings.

The overall impression is that the game has not been tested thoroughly and/or it has paid little notice of the fundamentals that made previous incarnations so great. I still load up the other games for a blast - just single arcade races around one of my favourite tracks - despite the improved graphics and tracks, I have no desire to do so with fusion which is a great pity. Nevertheless I pray that the series will find its feet and continue.

A hugely disappointed wipeout fanatic and software developer.

High speed mayhem guarenteed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is just one hell of a challenge. If you like your gaming fast and hard then this is it.
Graphics are very good, the tracks are varied and always look good (sometimes it would be nice to just stand and stare but there's always races to win and enemies to beat)and sound is top notch but it's the gameplay that does it for me. When I play a game I like to have the difficulty setting just right so that I get a kick out out of finally achieving a win. Wins that come too easy just fade but hard victories are sweet.

One thing that I just can't seem to do is get perfect laps. It is very hard to avoid hitting the sides. This is not so important in arcade or league modes as you can pit in or give your craft a boost in shield strength but in challenge mode when you need to do fast laps it is critical especially if you want gold - getting bronze/silver is always within reach with a bit of practice but to get gold you gotta be something else. That's the way it should be though, golds should not come without a lot of effort.

The action is fast and furious in arcade and particularly in league as you need to perform well over 3 to 7 races.

In short if you are a speed freak then this is the one. It's a damn sight better than Extreme G3 which I found frustrating because your momentum and shields were well and truly lost if you collided with the sides. WF lets you get on with the action with hitting the sides only becoming an issue if you want to really progress in the game.

The game keeps track of the playing time and I been playing this game for about 60 hours now and it still rocks. Get it!

Get some asprin before you play!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Great game, with awesome graphics. But don't play on a big screen T.V. for to long without any asprin. You are going really fast, around 100-300 MPH, or more. It takes a while to unlock the other tracks, and there are a lot of weapons that you and your opponents can use.

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