Well, I'm flabbergasted. What more can I say? Wipeout Pure has it all; edge of your seat racing, big explosions, challenging tracks, aggressive competitors, superb graphics, exemplary cutting edge sound and is altogether one of the most well thought out and brilliantly conceived titles that it has ever been my joy to come across.
Each of the game's eight new standard racing circuits are marvelous to behold; while the course design in the series has always been wonderful, never has so much effort been spent to ensure that each track feel as though it's part of a vast, living world.
I'm a bit of a white-knuckler flyer, so handheld gaming is a must. I bought my PSP for this game (and bought 3 more copies for my friends so we could play it in ad-hoc multiplayer). Great fun - good for smack talk. Still play it. In my mind, it's far superior to its successor Pulse. I have no idea how to finish this game, it's so tough in the faster classes, but I've had a great time trying. This game and Lumines were a promising start for the system.
PSP's WipEout Pure has one fault: bad AI, but that can be forgiven since the game pretty much excels in all other areas. WipEout Pure is, as the name suggests, a return to the roots of the series and this has been a excellent design choice. The gameâ??s fast and smooth featuring great visual design and also the best use of the PSPâ??s wireless functionality. Users can download loads of new tracks, craft and skins to expand the game experience. WipEout Pure is the perfect Zen practice. [Sept 2005, p.54]
It isn't, you understand, that WipEout Pure is terribly revolutionary. No, the appeal of this game is that it returns to the roots of the franchise, and puts it in the palm of your hand with startling clarity.
The high-speed gameplay that has always characterized the Wipeout series is still incredibly engaging, and the visuals simply impress, both on an artistic and a technical level. Wipeout Pure is a joy to look at.
This is a back-to-basics affair for Liverpool Studio, but that doesn't mean that gameplay is thin on the ground or simplified - this is literally WipEout in its purest form and SCEE couldn't have summed up the gameplay better. WipEout. Pure.
Reaching the end of Wipeout Pure is certainly a challenge, but once the higher ground has been breached (without PSP owning friends) there is little reason to return to the game.
The Wipeout series gets back on track after the disappointing Fusion on the PS2 with a PSP version that looks and sounds top notch. It does make the same mistake as previous Wipeout games in that the difficulty curve is rather off; the early levels are a walk in the park but the later levels are frustratingly over-difficult. The sequel Pulse rectifies this as well as adding a wealth of new modes which makes it the natural choice over this instalment, but it's still well worth a look for racing fans.
Great mechanics. Superb track design. Superb music.
That is really all you need to know because that is the recipe for an awesome racing game. But there are a few other areas I'd like to touch on.
There are some issues with structure and progression. Although the tournaments are very fun, after you unlock a new speed class its basically rinse and repeat. The game doesn't tell you how to unlock new tracks so its easy to get the feeling after completing the third or forth tournament that you've seen everything the game has to offer meanwhile there are still tracks to unlock. The game also has free DLC that nearly doubles the amount of content.
Being a launch title for the PSP, Pure was stuck running on the CPU's 222 MHz clock speed. This caused some noticeable performance problems. In a firmware update that came years later, developers were allowed to use the PSP's full 333 MHz clock speed but Pure never took advantage of this. In Single Race and Tournament modes, the game held 60 FPS but when weapons fired it often caused a drop in the frame rate that lasted for a few seconds. Sometimes it would drop into the 40's and even 30's. Being a fast paced racing game, response time is paramount and my ability to play well was sometimes affected by these performance hiccups. It wasn't a constant problem but it happened enough to be annoying. Strangely the developers limited Zone, Time Trial, and Free Play modes to 30 FPS. This was an odd decision because you would think those were the modes that would be easier to maintain 60 FPS because there are no A.I. opponents or weapons to fire. So you lost a lot of fluidity in those modes that you need in a game like this.
There were also a few bugs such as inconsistent thrust from performing barrel rolls.
Regardless it still looks very good on PC with an emulator and you can run it at a perfect 60 FPS in all modes (using a cheat code for the emulator).
Buen juego, pero muy frustrante conforme avanza. La IA además no me gusta para nada, siendo capaces de doblar perfectamente a toda velocidad, cosa que uno no es capaz de hacer lo mismo.
I never got into Mario Kart so I'm not exactly the right person to review this but there's not much else to see here. It's basically Mario Kart with futuristic cars. Very beautiful game with an awesome soundtrack but overall, not much different from similar games.
SummaryThe latest and the greatest in the seminal WipEout series, "Pure" distils the essence of anti-gravity racing and futuristic adrenaline-fuelled combat. Hi-tech weapons, hi-octane speed and a high-tempo dance soundtrack combine to deliver an explosive taste of the future directly into your hands. Features all-new environments and race craf...