Joining The Club!

[Task]

After all this time... I've finally gotten a PSP w/ Pure!

So I've read the manual, played some Vector TT, some Vector SR, and some Zone. Tried all the ships, looked through all the options, enabled the hacker skin, all the usuals. Now my thumb hurts, so I have to stop playing for a bit. Probably go to work. Take care of business.

So here are my first impressions:
Controls: Very good, limited only by the fact that the PSP isn't a Dual Shock. I love that I can assign any darn fool button I want to be anything I choose.
Absorb: Love it! Totally brilliant.
Feiser: WTF? It's FEISAR! All caps! With an "A"! Because it's an acronym! Gotta love those typos in large face type...
Free Play: An excellent addition! I hope this mode sticks around.
Stats: I knew it was coming and I still laughed when I read "Time spent looking at stats". Somehow, it's still that funny.
Music Setup & Sequential Play: Another totally brilliant idea. Now I know for sure I'll be listening to all the music, and not just accidentally get the same three songs for half an hour. I never liked "Random", and being able to take certain songs out of the loop is a great feature. Not sure if I'll use it, but am I ever glad it's there!
Special Thanks: Robert Foxx. Woot!
Director of Product Development: Connie Booth? Of Monty Python fame? Nah, there must be more than one.
The Music: I haven't really noticed any of it yet. I find that odd. Perhaps it just meshes with the game so well that I don't notice it, and that's a good thing, but I'm used to "noticing" several tunes while playing (and being somewhat distracted from playing!) and that hasn't happened yet.
Vector: I've heard lots of "it's too slow!" complaints about Vector, but so far it just seems like Vector. Have these people played WO3? Vector was slow. I'm wondering if I'll get to Venom and not find enough speed increase, that might explain what the noise was about.

Anyway, that's me carrying on for far too long, I'm actually here to ask some questions of those who would know!

1) What firmware should I go up to? I'm at 2.8 now (I think) and I don't want to go very far over 3 (due to issues with Pure and the download packs not working anymore on those firmwares), but I think I would like to go up to 3.04 OE or whatever it's called so I can get the framerate improvement (not important here at Vector, but I'll get to Phantom eventually).

2) The analog nub falls off. What's up with that? I'm thinking I should put a dab of gunk in there and press it on so that it's stuck forever.

3) The "Memory Stick Duo" door opens while I'm playing. I've had to tape that sucker shut! My left index finger rubs along it when I'm playing and it just pops open and ejects the card. Not good! I got the PSP used, so I'm thinking that might be a problem I've inherited from the previous owner.

4) What's that little switch for? Right on top of that door there's a swtich, it seems to have a 'broadcast' and 'squelch' mode judging by the little pictures. I thought it would be a lock for the memory stick door, but that door opens regardless of switch position. If I'm taping that door closed, I'm also taping that switch into one position. I kind of wish it came with a Users Manual like it was supposed to. The price of getting the unit cheap, I guess.

5) No USB cable, no wrist strap, and there's a bit of dirt inside the PSP. Looks like I'll have to pick up some accessories. Suggestions/advice/warnings? Do I have to open this thing up to get that speck of dirt out? It's right smack-dab in the middle of the screen, just on the inside. Sooo annoying!

Is it ever nice to finally be playing this game!

[stin]

Task says "1) What firmware should I go up to? I'm at 2.8 now (I think) and I don't want to go very far over 3 (due to issues with Pure and the download packs not working anymore on those firmwares), but I think I would like to go up to 3.04 OE or whatever it's called so I can get the framerate improvement (not important here at Vector, but I'll get to Phantom eventually)."

That`s plenty for you! Just concentrate on touraments which takes you right up to Phantom level but also, you will need to win golds on any SR or TT to unlock Classic tracks.;)

Good luck for you against the mighty ASA! ;)

stevie:D

EDIT!, as for number 5, here is the link for you, http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2274

[mdhay]

If and I mean if (I would put caps but I know what that means!) you were to upgrade to 3.50 to play any new games then you could not play pure bug not fixed!
Oh, that switch is for wlan.<--caps
answering qs that i can answer
top pic is to show magicgate memory stick acess with an orange light to illustrate the latter.
the nub comes off because it can be replaced when the grip is worn out

[The Uncreated]

1) What firmware should I go up to? I'm at 2.8 now.. but I think I would like to go up to 3.04 OE or whatever it's called so I can get the framerate improvement..[/COLOR]

That's 3.40 OE-A. You'll be able to do that as long as you don't upgrade your PSP with an official firmware later than 3.03. If you do this, you are ess-oh-ell for homebrew for the discernible future. To be safe, don't do any upgrading until you have done a lot of research concerning custom firmwares and how to keep your PSP from turning into a doorstop (mm, recovery menu). Custom firmwares are not without their risks, especially if you're one to tinker.

"Upgrading" to custom firmware involves a rather perilous downgrade to 1.5 in most cases, followed by another equally perilous upgrade to 3.40 OE-A. If you're one for reading instructions thoroughly, you'll be fine.

Uncreated

[q_dmc12]

3) change the way you hold it - handle it somewhat like a dualshock

5) yes, you'll have to void - oh, right you bought it pre-owned:p Yes, open it and blow gently or if you have a soft brush...

PS> some krazy glue should do the trick for that nub-popping problem of yours. :)

[infoxicated]

Welcome to 2197, Task! ;)

The little switch is for turning the wireless feature on and off - the psp can be set to broadcast its presence to other psp's, although I haven't seen it used in any game yet, but by flicking the switch down it shuts it off completely.

It does sounds like you got a particularly used example of a used psp, judging by the wear and tear. I've never had the analogue nub come off on me. If it comes off then you might want to look at the after market ones that give a little better control. You're going to need it for Pulse! ;)

[G'Kyl]

There are nubs that give you better control?! Can you recommend any of those? By the way, my nub fell off once - even though my PSP was fairly new and I treat it very cautiously.

Ben

[infoxicated]

Cant recommend them as I haven't tried them, but here's a link:

http://www.dragongames.com.sg/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_53&products_id=703

keywords: psp analogue nub replacement dragon

[Task]

Okay, so consensus is that I'll be opening up my PSP to clean it out!
I figured that would be what I'd have to do. No problem, I've got all the tools and expertise required for a small job like that.
And if stin sez that 2.8 is good enough for me to complete the majority of the game, then I'll happily go without firmware upgrades for a while. At the very least, I'll want a USB cable so I can save my whole mem stick to my PC before I go mucking with the OS.
A Little Linux-Learned Life Lesson. 8 P

In the way of my continuing Pure Experience...
AI: Sadly familiar, still totally pants. Lap 1 they're annoying pylons to get past, Lap 2 there's a nice bit of a fight gaining 1st place, Lap 3 I'm on my own no opponent for miles. *sigh* On the upside, rumor has it that the AI has been improved for Pulse! Yay!
Tournaments: Way too easy, but definitely good fun.
Zone: Up to Corridon 12 now, I was quite surprised by that one! Wow, what a nifty zone track! Still, I think I'd prefer it if there weren't special Zone tracks. I believe that's a change in Pulse, and I can see why.


Welcome to 2197, Task! ;)
Thanks, it's nice to be here! 8 D


The little switch is for turning the wireless feature on and off - the psp can be set to broadcast its presence to other psp's, although I haven't seen it used in any game yet, but by flicking the switch down it shuts it off completely.
Ah! Hence the "squelch" setting! I get it now.
So I'll probably want to turn it off until I'm doing some head-to-head, just to save power. K.


I've never had the analogue nub come off on me. If it comes off then you might want to look at the after market ones that give a little better control. You're going to need it for Pulse! ;)
8 ) Oh I don't know, I probably won't even use it. So far I'm still a d-pad man, I just don't find that the nub is positioned in a place where I can put my thumb while still being able to use the airbrake. Not without significant hand cramping, anyway.
I'm surprised that the PSP is such a brick, I would've thought that the wild success of the Dual Shock would have taught them the importance of ergonomics...

[Lance]

Well, it's meant to fit in a large pocket, isn't it? Or at least store conveniently flat in a backpack or case of some kind, but to me that means little because I never play games anywhere but at home. Even so, I would like to join the club, but various um.. one constraint prevents me from doing so. :D [Stares hard at empty wallet.][Starts playing WO1, and enjoying the heck out of it.] :)

[mdhay]

Make sure to purchase a new battery every 3.5 years for eventually it will not charge. I have had my psp for almost three years on my first battery and it is still going strong!

[q_dmc12]

It has only been out for 1 year :p

[Piranha5p33d5]

Whats this I hear about WipEout Pure downloadable content not working properly with updated PSP firmware?


You're scaring me people!

[rdmx]

What? I pull the nub off when I'm bored :)

[mdhay]

the psp has been out for two years.I got mine on launch day! Start up pure and you may see why.

[Mad-Ice]

Hi there Task!

I am happy for you and of course welcome to the club! I can see you are enjoying this game very much and posting times already. The good stuff!

Greetings Mad-Ice

[infoxicated]

Make sure to purchase a new battery every 3.5 years for eventually it will not charge. I have had my psp for almost three years on my first battery and it is still going strong!
Martin, what evidence do you have that the PSP battery only lasts 3.5 years?

[mdhay]

my evidence is that this is written in the manual, and my psp is taking much less time to charge a bit suspicious being used every minuite of the day.
ed:q was right- it has only been out for a year.+not 3.5 years but at least one year .sorry for the mistake, by the way

[Rapier Racer]

Are you sure about that I don't recall seeing any specific time frame for battery life in the manual it just said that eventually the battery will begin to fail and will need replacing. Think about it, how they say it will fail after 3.5 years what if person A uses their PSP more then person B.

[mdhay]

that is that i mean.Eventually it will need replacing.And I said that every 2 years or so, because that is my estimate of fanatic/net-o-holic.(me:+)And besides, I have said enough about it;I am hi-jacking task's thread.

[Tomahawk]

Hey Task! Welcome to the club. I'm glad you got yourself this beautiful piece of software called WipEout Pure. :D I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Looking forward to race you on X-Link Kai... :banzai


Whats this I hear about WipEout Pure downloadable content not working properly with updated PSP firmware?


You're scaring me people!

There (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3774) you go, read all about the problems sony's firmware 3.11 or higher causes to Pure's download packs...

[Task]

8 ) Hiya Tom! So our rivalry is going to meet head-to-head one day?
Excellent! It'll take me a while to get this show online, but I know it'll happen eventually.

So I've finished with Vector and moved on to Venom!

Venom: Ah, finally I'm seeing the difficulty! Vector was too easy, Venom is challenging, I can see where this is headed! Okay, that's not bad at all, I was worried that Venom was going to be as much of a cakewalk as Vector. So far, I'm not getting that SR gold on my first attempt every time anymore. At least, not on the tough tracks. They take another try or two.
Citta Nuova: Okay, I officially hate this track even more than Stanza Inter. I didn't think it was possible! There's a period of time where you're at a dead stop unless you do that 180 perfectly onto the boost pad (not quite there yet) and it feels like it's about a year and a half long. On the up side, there's no track that gives as much of a feeling of accomplishment when you really nail it like this one.
Weapons: I hardly noticed them in Vector, but they're a lot more important now. Disruption Bolt might as well be called "Player Killer" since it's totally useless against AI opponents and will likely slaughter a player, I'm glad it's gone in the next version. The weapons are hard to aim, I like that. It'll really take some skill and experience to become a killer on the track, I don't think I've even heard the Contender Eliminated! yet. For a racing game, that's likely exactly the way it should be.
Physics: Sliding downslope is awesome. The incredible inertia of the craft is also fantastic. Really takes me back to WO1. I'm still getting used to how early you have to turn and airbrake to really nail the corners. Definitely liking it.
Weapon Physics: Why does any weapon hit lead to sliding off the track? Is it just me, or do you always slide off the right side? What on earth is up with that? For a while this was incredibly annoying and I didn't know why, now it's annoying and I know why. Every single offensive weapon in the game is also somehow a Grav Stinger (yup, one of the many awful features of Fusion), kills your speed and your engine for a moment. Good god, why? So far, I think that's the only significant flaw to the game.
Progression: Zone mode unlocked nicely, Beta and Asension unlock nicely, but after I got them the unlocks started going real slowly. I've got all the Vector TTs and I think that gave me Karbonis VR, and all the Vector and Venom SRs and that gave me Sagarmatha VR, I haven't got many golds left to get and there's still a lot to unlock by the looks of it. I get the impression I'll have to unlock Flash (or whatever it's called) before I can unlock the rest of the VR tracks. I would prefer to have that whole Classic Tournament fully unlocked before moving on to Flash. A minor nitpicky point, but I think the feel of the game would be improved if things continued to unlock smoothly instead of petering out like this.

So my next challenge is to finish off Venom, and the main obstacle in my way there is getting gold medals on Citta Nuova...

[Mad-Ice]

You will get there! :banzai Nice breakdown of likes and dislikes!!

[q_dmc12]

Weapon Physics: Why does any weapon hit lead to sliding off the track? Is it just me, or do you always slide off the right side? What on earth is up with that?

Use a heavier ship - piranha or triakis or auricom

[Rapier Racer]

AURICOM!? No do not use Auricom it is not a good ship

Shame on you for recommending that to poor Task Dmc :naughty lol

[Task]

As if I would ever even _consider_ getting in one of those awful contraptions!
8 )
I've been using Triakis today and yesterday, a heavy ship indeed, but I still notice that I get hit with a weapon and I slide off to the right side, thunk the wall, dead stop. It's not as bad though, I'll definitely admit that.

Must be just me, then. Weird!

Hey, here's something else I've noticed, there's no piloting tips in the Pure piloting guide! I kind of want to go in and add things I've learned, but being at the bottom of the tables I don't trust that I'm flying as best I can at the moment.

[q_dmc12]

Okay, ok - my punishment is next time on kai I use only Auricom...and still beat you rra.;):pirate

The slamming into the wall will diminish in the faster leagues (i.e. rapier and Phantom), you'll just have to live with it in vector, venom and flash. You need alot of momentum to keep going and you know what that means, more speed - P(momentum) = Mass x Velocity.

[The Uncreated]

Hey, here's something else I've noticed, there's no piloting tips in the Pure piloting guide!


The absense of tips makes the thread perfect, IMO. :)

Uncreated

[Asayyeah]

but I still notice that I get hit with a weapon and I slide off to the right side, thunk the wall, dead stop.

There's worst than a dead stop : the fall back. When you are using a light ship and been hit by a bomb or 5 mines on a row you will see your ship going backwards ! that is not happening with Tigron or Triakis.


there's no piloting tips in the Pure piloting guide! I kind of want to go in and add things I've learned, but being at the bottom of the tables I don't trust that I'm flying as best I can at the moment.
Feel free to put your tips you found. We all know you ve got the eyes of the pro, you are, by those years spent on various Wipeouts.
Other pilots may complete that guide.

[Task]

Arnaud: Indeed, going backwards bites the big one. It happened to me a lot on Manortop recently (Over 40 golds! Yay!), just from hitting walls head-on. 8 P


The absense of tips makes the thread perfect, IMO. :)8 D That one had me laughing for at least a minute.

Anyway, the continuing saga of my Pure Enjoyment...

I got past Venom recently, and it was quite the hump for me. I had to realize two important things:

1) Lift to turn. Not lift the nose, but "lift" as in the 4-wheeled racing term, take your foot off the gas, that'll slow the vehicle down a bit, shift the weight forward, and with the extra weight on the front tires you can turn. I was playing Vector in the usual foot-to-the-floor-all-the-time way, and managing with a disturbing amount of airbrake, but that wasn't as easy to time in Venom and to really do the corner right (as in, have any traction at all for sharp turning) I had to learn to come off the X for a moment at the apex. This blew me away. This ain't your daddys wipeout! Like, "woah". Blows... My... Mind. Suddenly Citta Nuova wasn't wallbang-wallbang-wallbang, it was thrust, let off, turn, thrust, let off, turn, it was like figure skating it was so smooth and choreographed. I haven't heard this specifically from anyone else, but I'm finally appreciating what everyone meant about how it's a totally different WO from anything there's ever been before. Still... it bothers me a bit. Along the lines of "You got your Gran Turismo in my Wipeout!". I don't use airbrakes in wheeled racing, I didn't expect to have to lift to turn in AG racing. Yeah, my mind is _still_ blown by this. This was two days ago. I think I've adequately communicated just how huge a revelation this was.

2) Triakis is really important. I took Zone into Citta Nuova since I wanted the high thrust and handling to take that track on. I got some really nice scores, but I also earned my first elimination in there. As in "I got eliminated", not as in "I destroyed someone". Not really what I was looking for! So I try out this "Big T" that I hadn't liked in Vineta K/Vector/TT so long ago that it might as well have been last year, and I taste the difference that whole eggs make! I've got the shields to survive any kind of enemy fire, do some barrel rolls, and scrape half the walls on the track. Nice. ALSO, I don't spend that half moment dead in the water while doing a seriously tight turn! Despite the low thrust, that beast can just slide through normal turns with no appreciable loss in speed! So the Big T is now my SR vehicle of choice. Still liking the Zone for most TT work, but oddly enough the Big T does fairly well in that venue as well. I guess Al got his supership. 8 )

This leads me into the next important thing I've learned. Now that I've got Flash open, I expected to have some difficulty with it at start. After all, it's faster than I've gone in Pure so far. In actual fact, I'm finding the game gets EASIER when you go faster. Yeah, really. Here, let me spin you a tale... In the grand old days of WO3, you'd earn the mythical Icaras and take it to Porto Kora for a spin. Start with some Vector TT, just to get a feel for it. After burning it around the track a couple times, you figure you've got the hang of it, a bit of nose control here, a bit more there, the track is fully navigable at pretty fearsome speeds (for Vector). So you crank it up to Venom. Now you need to tap the airbrakes in a couple turns, and the other turns likely need some good nose control to navigate without scraping. The low handling of the craft wasn't such an issue at Vector, but it becomes more of a challenge as the speeds increase. Now you go for the real challenge, try this beast on Rapier! Eventually you've got the hard airbraking timed correctly in the few places you really need it, and you've got smooth brake-tapping most other places. If you're really hardcore, you go up to Phantom level and try to finish the race without blowing up. Wow that's fast. Still, you're sure that with some hard airbraking _combined_ with timely nose control, you can do that track.
Okay, so story time is over, now we look at Pure. While your Speed and Thrust increase as you progress from Vector to Venom to Flash and up and up, not only are you going faster and recovering sooner, but also your Handling is increasing! If you needed a slight tap of airbrakes in Vector, you'll need... a slight tap of airbrakes in Venom and Flash as well! I imagine this carries on up the rest of the way. This explains why Hellfire only gives track guides for Phantom, they're all the same! So the different speed classes are really just about less reaction time because of the greater speeds involved, what you're doing on the track is the same all the time. I still have no idea what I think of this. It's just really different. I certainly like how the game gets better as you go faster, it's really becoming more and more like the WO that I know as I progress further in it, but I'm kind of wishing that I didn't have to sacrifice quality in the lower speed classes (where racing is a bit clunky) in order to get the high quality (the racing gets really smooth!) high-speed races.

So with all that out of the way, here's some other random points:

Barrel Rolls: There's a whole lot I could say here, but I think it all sums up to "I prefer hyperthrust".
Bomb: Definitely wins the award for Bestest New Weapon. Go boom!
VR Tracks: I love the look of them, Tronnic == Awesome to me. Unfortunately though, they've taught me a hard lesson: I pilot tracks based on visual cues from the scenery. When you take away all that scenery and replace it with featureless VR-land, suddenly I can't fly a track worth a damn. I know it's time for the jump and going left so I can cut hard right when I see the fat cat come into view. I know how close i can get to the curved railing with the large gaps in it. When the track is all green and surrounded by vague blue lights, I have no idea where I'm at on it. Damn. So there won't be any more of them, and that's definitely a good thing, but I really wanted them to work. Damn.

And that's definitely enough typing for me!

[lunar]

Great observations, particularly about handling. Pure is a little like flying one of the heavy ships in WipEout: the handling changes (gets sharper) on the faster classes, and releasing thrust is a useful technique, not just what you do when it`s all going too fast and you`re scared. On many tracks you will probably end up using thrust-off and sideshift to get round, and rarely, if ever, use standard airbrake at all. What can really catch you out is when you`re used to Phantom, then go back to Flash, and you find you can`t get round any corners because the ship won`t turn! You seem to be driving in some strange combination of ice and treacle.

Millesecond thrust-off is also a great way of not climbing too high on some bumps, and works better than pitch control sometimes.

Thrust-off is very handy as well when aiming for the high road route on Anulpha Pass. It`s probably quicker not to use it here, but you only lose a fraction and it makes getting on that route and not falling off a lot easier. When battling online, the main thing is not to fall off. ;)

[Asayyeah]

'When battling online, the main thing is not to fall off'
oh yes but sometimes that's funny to get the turbo on this big left turn just before high road route, i remember a nice kamikaze turbo in which RR was totally surprised by this and went out on the right , i fall off myself on the left side which was less annoying ( no respawn).

Back on topic : congrats for opening flash quickly Jay, it's obvious you have learnt well the basis of pure and noticed many different sights of how handling of the ships are.
You spot also it right about Big T which is really the supership of Pure : no loss of speed while turning, best shield to do Barrel Rolls and hard to stop even by being hit by weapons.

[il_NIK]

Welcome into the Pure's gathering.

It's an honour for us:+

[The Uncreated]

About letting off on the gas for corners, that's one of the cardinal rules of roadracing (I'm one of the fastest racers in PS2's Tourist Trophy). The saying is "go slow to go fast." A tighter but slower line is equivalent (sometimes superior) to a wider but faster one. The key is to ensure your velocity is moving as forward as possible when exiting turns rather than sideways. You can make up a lot of time that way. It's tough to believe but it's very true.

Uncreated

[Mad-Ice]

MMMmmm, I always just press so hard on thrust (X-button) and never letting it go!! My thumb is hurting and I am thinking of a way to stick the button down forever!!! I use side shift if I lose the perfect racingline. I don't know if it is the best thing to do but it feels so good!

[q_dmc12]

"go slow to go fast."

I like that, think I'll put that on my facebook:p

[Asayyeah]

I don't know if it is the best thing to do but it feels so good!
i must reckon you right :beer , if someone doubts on this , i enjoy him to check Pure's TT records table

[infoxicated]

heh! I always wish that the PSP had pressure sensitive buttons so that I could justify pressing so hard. :D

Then again, with racing games on the PS2 you just get a numb thumb trying to make sure you're pressing it at 100% all the time.

[Task]

About letting off on the gas for corners, that's one of the cardinal rules of roadracing ... The saying is "go slow to go fast." A tighter but slower line is equivalent (sometimes superior) to a wider but faster one.Yes, I've bolded the section of your text where you make my point for me. For 4 wheel racing, it's generally best to drive the shortest distance necessary at the best speed you can manage. What it has to do with no wheel racing, I have no idea.
Hence my general shock and amazement.
Still, I have much further to go before I can put in record times, so I'm sure my piloting techniques will change as I go.

Recently, I've had to take advantage of the music options. I needed to turn off Naks Acid, that track is horrendous. I turned off Grand Theft while I was in there too, not my style.

Downloads: So I decided this week that this weekend I would get those download packs. I've experienced enough of the "base game", I now feel I can expand my experience with the bonus content. So I found a wireless hotspot (a lot more involved than you'd think) and went for the download. Got to the site (yay!), noticed it defaulted to UK (why does a US copy of the game default to UK?!?), went to change that, and crashed my PSP! It froze during downloading and turned itself off! After I recoved from that shock, I tried again, and crashed it again. So it wasn't just a one-off thing. Changed my hotspot, tried again, crashed again. Tried to register, or log on, or whatever the top two options were, same result. So I quit that, and tried to register from my PC, found out I needed some ID code that didn't come with my PSP, and finally gave it all up and downloaded the packs onto my PC and then sent them over the USB cable. Finally, I'd found a process that worked smoothly! So now I have twice the tracks, twice the number of ships, and I can see the bug in the skin selection screen! I guess they didn't have more than 6 skins when they did the testing of that particular menu. 8 )
The happy ending to the story is that now although it takes half a minute to start Pure, I've got a Qirex skin and twice the game I bought! And there was MUCH rejoicing.

So I guess I have to go back to Vector and play through all these new tracks now... With all these new ships to try out... The real shocker is that I'm here typing instead of off doing exactly that. Uh... gotta go, bye!

[xEik]

Recently, I've had to take advantage of the music options. I needed to turn off Naks Acid, that track is horrendous. I turned off Grand Theft while I was in there too, not my style.

Exactly as I did. :D

[Rapier Racer]

Does anyone on these boards actually like Naks Acid? Really don't know how they could put that in the game :naughty

[The Uncreated]

As a child of the seventies with his nostalgic heart still stuck in the eighties, I shamelessly admit that I like it. I listen to Acid House, among other forms of techno music.

Uncreated

[infoxicated]

Man, I'm a child of the 80's and I thought the entire soundtrack for Wipeout Pure sucked! :D

Quite happy about the way the Pulse soundtrack is shaping up, though. :)

[rdmx]

I expect to see Foxx racing to 'Kids in America' then?

[infoxicated]

Hah!

Apparently on the product tour done a couple of weeks back, the game had the Walking on Sunshine mp3 playing on it. :D

For myself it'll probably contain a blend of some older Wipeout stuff and a selection of tracks off of disc two of the recent God's Kitchen compilation - very Wipeouty stuff. ;)

[Asayyeah]

:turdNaks Acid :turd
The real new one i love from Pure soundtracks is Mean Red by Themroc


The real shocker is that I'm here typing instead of off doing exactly that. Uh... gotta go, bye!

Ahaha that's always what i am thinking while i am writing too much :D

[Task]

So I've finally finished with Vector and Venom! All TT done, all SR, all Tournaments... except for that Venom Descension, I've started it twice but I keep having to sleep it partway through and it just crashes the PSP when I resume, so I've put off that one till I'm alone for an hour. So I'll likely get to it, oh, next year or something. 8 )

Anyway, all those gold medals have learned me several new things:

The AI Opponents: On the track there are 8 ships. One is you, "the hero", who (for the reason of, uh, tradition) starts in last place and should win the thing. At the front is "your nemesis", a ship that will always be fast (even if it's a Feisar, which is really hilarious) and tough to beat. Behind that ship is "the chaser", his sole purpose is to fire weapons at "your nemesis" in order to slow him down a bit. He's a shade on the fast side, but you'll pass him. Clustered around you at the beginning are "the sheep", a bunch of ships that create massive firepower storms if you have the incredible unfortunateness be stuck in their midst at the wrong point in time. Just ahead of them is "the shepherd", a ship (or couple of ships, no more than 2 ships at any given time) who leads the sheep around. If you can't get past him, then you haven't yet escaped the wrath of the sheep, but if you have, then you're pretty much free and clear of them the rest of the race. This would be easy, except for one thing: For the first lap of the race, all the opponent ships are cheating. If you want to pass anyone, even a Feisar, you're going to have to hit a boost pad when they haven't.
This definitely leads to an exciting race, and that's totally a good thing. But I don't really like the method they chose for creating the exciting race. I want a challenging opponent, but if the computer has to cheat to create that challenge... There's got to be a better way.

The Barrel Roll: Okay, here's a good story. Initially, I was lifting the thumb off the d-pad, then pressing left, right, left (or whatever) to create the BR. This wasn't working very well. Quickly, I learned that I needed to "roll" my thumb on the d-pad, hitting the left-right-left without taking the thumb off the control. This worked a lot better. I'm far from getting it every time I want it, and once I even got it when I didn't want it, but it's definitely working better. Still, it's hardly a maneuver I can really count on. Sometimes I manage it, sometimes I don't. But that's not what really bugs me about it, not at all. I don't mind that it's tough to pull off, even kind of appreciate that. What really bothers me about the barrel roll maneuver is that every time I do it, I feel like I'm trying to, uh, "stimulate" my PSP. I rub it just the right way, and suddenly my ship freaks out and is soon going really fast but it's kind of tired afterward, and I have to absorb a weapon to get it ready for another go. Now I'm pretty sure that the Japanese just love this kind of thing, but oddly enough it's not really what I was planning on doing with my sexy black pocket machine, ya know? Maybe I'm the weird one here, that's always a possibility. Does anyone else get this?

Free Play & Time Trial: The Vector Time Trials I went right through, picked up those golds real quick, but the Venom ones weren't so easy. There were about 4 tracks that I just couldn't get a good time on. So this weekend I spent some time in Free Play on them and finally got them. Then I moved on to Flash and found out that a little bit of Free Play before tackling the Time Trial for each track was definitely a good maneuver. I did Vineta K in 3 tries, Bronze-Silver-Gold, but I knew Modesto Heights would take me forever (it was tough for me in just Venom) so I did about 20 laps in Free Play and got the gold Time Trial in my first shot! Anyway, my point is that the Time Trial goals are varied, some are really easy, some are really tough, and I really enjoyed that challenge a lot more than I expected. I'm certain that the "challenges" from WO3 were a shadow of what they should be, and I'm positive that they really nailed the Time Trials here. This is definitely the way to do it. You know you've got a line for a track when you can beat the time, it's as easy as that. So now I attack each track in the structured manner of "Free Play (create a ghost time), Time Trial (get the gold), Single Race (get the gold), Tournament" and it's really working well. The only thing that stopped working well is that "next race" thing. I'm going track-at-a-time, so when I want to "move on" I don't want to move on to the next track, I want to move on to the next mode. It's too bad, I really liked that "next race" thing. It was great in WO3SE, and I liked seeing it back again.

So now I assault the Flash Beta league! Let's unlock Rapier!

[The Gracer]

Interesting structure. I just attack the game full force - no creating a ghost, just bam! straight in there. Ive unlocked Rapier, and ive mucked around with it in time trial, but im still not flying like i want to be. To be honest, i only have bronze in the first two flash tourneys. I have gold in the Ascension one though, which is strange.

I dont know who is winning the race to unlock everything! (yes, there is in fact a race, and no, i didnt tell you about it. :D)

[Medusa]

LOL! Great race description Task, I think you've nailed it. Personally I love it when FEISAR is the shepherd, I can give him a good bite on the way by...I'm a border collie - slightly mad with a bit too much jumping around and barking...

I haven't even unlocked the Descension tournament yet, I'm just getting all my TT and SR (and tournament) golds on the Alpha and Beta tracks to unlock the speed classes, then I'll go back to the other leagues. I've just started on Rapier...it's early to say, but I still feel skipping Flash would have been a great blessing. Oh well, the rest of game is great.

[q_dmc12]

I'm still waiting for that kai session:pc

[Dogg Thang]

Wow, Task, that is incredible observation on the AI. I've been playing a lot of Pure recently with all the Pulse hype so I'm going to have to look out for that system.

The barrell roll observation, on the other hand, has frightened and disturbed me.

I worked through my US and JP versions of Pure and got gold in everything but, man, it's a real chore to do Venom and Vector on my UK version. I'd have loved a system where, if you get a gold in a specific class, it will give you all the golds of that same race in the classes below. But someday, I'm going to get all the golds in game.

[Task]

The barrell roll observation, on the other hand, has frightened and disturbed me.8 D Glad you liked it!


man, it's a real chore to do Venom and Vector on my UK version.I like how in Pulse we'll get all the speed classes, no unlocking necessary, but I myself really enjoyed working through Vector and Venom. It went really quickly, and it was a fast cycle of earning the reward (gold medal!) and moving on, so I had no complaints in that department at all. Of course, this is only my first time through the game, perhaps my opinion will change when I finish this one and move on to an EU version.

Continuing my Pure experience, I've finished with Flash for now. Haven't touched it since Friday I think. Been working purely (ha-ha) with Rapier. Damn, but I'm having a heck of a time with it. I'm sure I'll have Phantom unlocked for the WWT, but I won't have much practice with it. Man, I'm SO gonna get stomped...

Flash TT: These were supremely challenging. I'm not even finished them! I couldn't beat the Porto Kora, Odessa Keys, Extrosa Run, or Ubermall gold time. I couldn't even beat the BRONZE time for Khara Descent! The difficulty level is just _way_ up there, and I'd say that the TT challenges are an excellent place to hide the extreme difficulty of the game. Going through SR is laughably easy in comparison. I can't say enough good things about how well it works. Some of the challenge times I could nail on my first or second try, no problem. Some of them really required concentrated effort. Some of them were so challenging I had to put them aside so I could move on to the next speed class. That level of difference between them made moving from one TT challenge to the next a bit of an adventure, and a really good one at that.

Rapier: The game really starts to get difficult here. Going through the SR set really nailed home how well I'd learned each track up to that point. I would either earn my gold fairly quickly, or I wouldn't even place in the race. It's really showing what seem to be some not-so-attractive features as well though. Travelling at these speeds really brings into stark contrast collision events. Getting hit by a weapon, scraping the track, or slamming into a low-hanging sign, they all feel strange at these speeds. I mean, you're travelling at several hundred kph, something drastic happens, and you come to a dead stop? Wouldn't that kill the pilot? And where's the rebound effect? When I hit something (or something hits me!) at these speeds and it's not a head-on collision, I'd expect to be bounced off it a bit. Instead, it's like I scrape a wall and I'm stuck to it a bit, it takes definite effort to come off the wall. I'll likely stop noticing this once I'm a good enough pilot that I'm not hitting stuff all the time, but for what's supposed to be a racing game I'm spending a disturbing amount of time at a dead stop.

FW 3.02: I was finally able to run the Descension tournaments! Went through both the Venom and the Flash without crashing the PSP! Yay!

Teleportation: I'm a definite fan of the system Pure has for determining where to put you back on the track when you track-out. It's a little back from where you left the track, but it's instantaneous. I think it would be a lot better if you had some speed when you came back, since there are times I've been put back at a location where having no speed means I just fall off the track again, sometimes several times in a row, and that's just not good. But that terrible bug from Fusion where you get placed back on the track further ahead than you left it seems totally gone, and that's a great relief. That being said...

Track-out: The system for determining when it's time to teleport you back onto the track seems _way_ too rigid. Staten Park is one my favourite tracks in Pure, but when you turbo over the peak you're looking at the track jog to the right and then come back left, and several times I've been flying over this v-shaped gap, and it looks like I'll make it fine to the other side, but I get teleported back to the peak. If there's a chance I can make it, I want to go for it! I certainly prefer a more stick-to-the-track approach, but flying is a part of WO, and imposing artificial limits on where you can fly is more than a little on the cheap side. If you don't want anyone flying there, put a building there or something! Actually, as a more complete fix, I propose a radical change to the whole wuss wagon concept. Remember Spy Hunter, the arcade box? Remember that button you had in the middle of the steering wheel, and you'd press it to signal your truck to pull over so you could enter and upgrade your car? That's my propsal for the WO Wuss Wagon. Unless you come to a complete stop off the track, the wuss wagon won't pick you up. However, you can (at any time!) press Start and the wuss wagon will pick you up and put you back on the track! That's my suggestion.

Khara Descent: How come Quake doesn't work here? What's up with that? Strangeness!

And so I continue my descent into Pure, ever heading towards the ultimate achievement of beating Phantom races...

[Dogg Thang]

Task, I think what you might have there is a prerelease version of the Delta Khara Descent track. A version made it up on the Pure site before it was announced. If I remember correctly it was that very track and quakes didn't work but I'm pretty sure that quakes work fine on the fixed version that was up when it was officially announced.

Which version are you playing? I know the quakes work in my EU version as I was playing that just yesterday but I could check either of the other versions for you if you like.

[Hellfire_WZ]

I have a feeling that bug wasn't fixed in the US version, I remember a lot of people complaining about it on the GameFAQs boards

[Dogg Thang]

I think you might be right about that, Hellfire. My memory is all hazy on it.

[Task]

Yeah, I'm playing the US version ATM.

Total weapon carnage, no Quake on Khara Descent, bonus download packs are Jak & Daxter and SOCOM. I can't really see anything remarkable about this version of the game, but at least I'm not flying a Coke bottle! Those poor Japanese version people...

Which is why once I'm done this version I'm going to play the EU version.

[Task]

So I've had Phantom unlocked for a week now, and the vast majority of my practice in the game has been multiplayer(!!!), and I'm still having difficulty getting the Phantom SR golds. 8 P
There are even some Flash TT golds eluding my grasp as well.

Making it even more difficult is that I've got the EU version now. I was playing it a bit yesterday, totally owning the Vector Alpha Tournament, just to make sure it works you know. Once everyone was gone, I couldn't help myself, I had to try some more of the EU version! Unlocked Flash (still a fun process, even if there isn't any challenge to it anymore), listened to the new music tracks (not as good as I was hoping, but not bad at all), and then... Tried out the Omega tracks!

Burgertown was first, and my eyes nearly exploded out of my head. Luckily Cardcity was next, that track was soothing to my senses. Reminded me a lot of Quake 2... The hairpin on it reminded me of Citta Nuova. Then it was Paris Hair, like I needed any more "weird" in my life. 8 )
The final track, and in my opinion the best, 123Klan! I definitely love the spiral climb and descent.

I think the only thing that'll keep me playing the NA version is that I've nearly got the 200 golds and in the EU version I have all those TT races to go through again... That's a lot of TT ahead of me, the task is daunting!

And the temptation to get onto the EU tables is strong...

Well, if you see me appear on the EU tables with a load of crappy times, you'll know which temptation was stronger! 8 D

[Medusa]

if you see me appear on the EU tables with a load of crappy times

Hey that's my job!

So I've had Phantom unlocked for a week now, and the vast majority of my practice in the game has been multiplayer(!!!),
I know the feeling - nearly every track I've raced, the first Phantom race was done on Kai. How to embarass oneself, step #1...not that I'm improving much though.

[RJ O'Connell]

What's an "Omega Track"? ;)

[q_dmc12]

discipline of the mind is the first step to achieving "fly-by-zen"

[Lance]

Complete non-discipline of the mind may work even better. Ignoring the mind lets it be itself instead of the conscious so you can just fly.

[q_dmc12]

that's what I mean....perhaps .....no..no, I'm right - we're both right.....stop confusing me >_<

On second thought you're half right, non-discipline would cause the mind to wander and distract from focus (that's me anyway).

[zargz]

eer .. back on topic now ;)
I've had Pure for about two weeks, courtesy of stin - thanx mate, but only Today ..
about 40 min ago I won a bid for a psp on the swedish equivalent of eBay!!!
http://www.tradera.com/auction/auction.aspx?aid=46019431 .. so I'm in!
a bit late but .. better late than Never !!! right?
will probly have it in two days http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/well.gif

[lunar]

Excellent, let`s hope you can get Kai set up. :beer I don`t suppose the Pirates game will be seeing much action.

[zargz]

http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/lol.gif wouldn't think so!
but may be my bro coz he likes pirates and he looks a bit like cptn Jack Sparrow :pirate
http://www.ludd.ltu.se/~silver_p/World/thai201.jpg

yeh, I'll try'n get kai ASAP!

[Lance]

:o How much of a bit? ;)

[zargz]

You tell me .. but I sense some monkey business there! http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/ninja2.gif

[Task]

High levels of monkey indeed! (Hey Vic, Monkey Balls!)

Back on topic though, I've been trying to go faster.
So I opened up a Vector Time Trial in Vineta K, hopped in the Zone, and proceeded to blow away my old records. Once I couldn't improve my time easily, I put it down and entered the new record. For my several second time improvement I moved from 9th place to 7th. Woo.

My best lap time, as perfect as I can make it, is 37.5 seconds. The record is 33.5 in NA, 33.0 in EU, and there's a 32.6 listed on the defaulted site. So obviously there's a lot I'm missing. More sideshifts, nose down all the way, things like that I imagine. There might even be a barrel roll or two to be done. The problem is that I don't know what it is because I can't download a ghost! All the ghosts on defaulted were lost, all that's left is the traces of previous occupation (ha, ghost of a ghost!), and I can't get into tt.wipeoutpure.co.uk because it requires a login/password.

So is there a current source of downloadable ghosts these days? What's the arcane ritual I have to perform? Anybody know?

[zargz]

Perhaps to go back on topic in the .. wrong thread? http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/lol.gif .. .. ==>>> Joining the club?

[Task]

Hey, yeah! You've got a PSP now right? So you're going to be joining the club as well! Congratulations!

Hmm, looks like you haven't been online in over a day. Perhaps you're busy right now trying to unlock Flash class! 8 )

Actually, continuing from my last post, I have significant achievement to report!

Speed Levels Increased!

I've figured out how to go fast. I'd still _really_ like to see that 32.6, just in case I'm missing something, but having obtained medals on the zone time tables I'm fairly confident that I'm making serious progress on this whole "speed" thing. Time to tackle another track! 8 )

[stin]

Actually he has not got the psp yet and he is forcing to wait till Monday coming for delivery.

He will need patience cos he just want to beat me on that challenge! but I will be playing Pulse by then, then he will be ready!!:p

stevie;)

[zargz]

I don't have it yet.. http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/sad.gif
and yeh, my purpose in life is beat every single record that stin's got!
my nemesis nr1! http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/stin4.gif

[stin]

Pavel, I know you just joined the club but beating my scores?, now you will need to lay off water! ;)

stevie:p

[Lance]

''...now you will need to lay off water!''

lol. Now I have a new quote for my list of faves.

[zargz]

I wonder what that means? http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/pq.gif

[Rapier Racer]

lol yeah! Zargz home made emotions featuring himself return :)

[Lance]

Zargz, it's sorta like ''Man, you are dreamin if you think you can beat me already; you'd best lay off drinkin that stuff cos it's makin you delusional!'' :)
Usually, it would be alcohol in some variety, but stevie is sayin you are sO delusional about beating him that even water is too strong a drink and it's affecting your perception of reality. Nice one, stevie.

[zargz]

http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/plol.gif LOL!!! 10-4 (http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/polcodes.htm)!

[stin]

Lance!, you are 100% spot on!, you did read my mind! ;)

Now you know what Pavel is like! :D

stevie:g

[zargz]

Now I got it .. all?
the psp and pure but ..no memory card!?
http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/mad.gif Gggrrrrhhh!

[Task]

You want a SanDisk memory card, I think it's a "Duo Pro" or something. I'd say 1 Gig at least, 2 Gig would be better, 4 Gig would be whole bunches.
I bought an official Sony one and paid a bit too much, but it was all they had there at the time. I couldn't wait the day it would've taken to find the SanDisk elsewhere. 8 (

[RJ O'Connell]

I bought my 1 GB at Wal Mart.

It was the generic Lexar brand. Only $40. Boo. Freaking. Ya. ^_~

Yes, and in a few months I will be racing zargz, stin and all the others on Wipeout: Pulse!!!!

[stin]

Yes but I will need to find a 32mb for zargz and send it to him!.

stevie:)

[RJ O'Connell]

He can have mine for all I'm concerned - I don't need it.

Oh, that's right, I dunno where that one is either. X_X

[phl0w]

I am willing to part with mine too. 32mb memory stick, that is. My purchase back then was the following: PSP + 2gb SanDisk + Pure + Lumines. Although many may beg to differ, best thing I spent my money on in many years.
Whoever desperately needs it should drop me a message, one should consider though that it's too small for Pure's downloadable content

[stin]

It`s ok guys, I have it here and ready to send it away within a hour.

stevie:)

Edit I did try my best for dl packs for you but it`s not enough space so it`s all down to you ;)

[zargz]

http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/le.gif hehe thanx, bud! I need it so I can save my progress so I don't have to start all over again every time i wanna play.
now, since yesterday I left it (the psp) in sleep mode. wonder how long I can do that? :?
amt I'm looking for a 1G on the net! ;) cheers!
Man! is pures steering differnet from wo3 or is pures steering differnet from wo3!!? http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/pjs.gif hmm!

another thing - I never had a portabe so I yesterday I had problem seeing the screen
coz I held it like I hold the psx controller the d-pad facing to the roof instead of standing 90¤ to face my eyes! http://www.geocities.com/zargz/leenden/lol.gif LOL!!!

[phl0w]

the d-pad facing to the roof instead of standing 90¤ to face my eyes! I hold it like that on purpose when the sun's shining, you'll see nil otherwise.


since yesterday I left it (the psp) in sleep mode. wonder how long I can do that? My PSP is always in sleep mode. Doesn't harm her (yes, it's female ;) ) in any way. Besides it takes an eternity to boot Pure anyway, might as well leave it on in the first place. Just make sure you always go into sleep mode on Pure's main menu. It's got a tendency to crash when you turn it back on.

[zargz]

okay, thanks! :)

[infoxicated]

heh! Mine is always in sleep mode so that it can turn itself on in the morning and download all my podcasts before I go to work. Occasionally I forget the battery is low and it runs itself dead, though. :D

[phl0w]

Mine does that with RSS feeders. Maybe this is a stupid question, but what is a "podcast"? :?

Yesterday I looked at the league menu to choose a track for free play and had some business elsewhere. So I left my PSP running. It took longer though than expected and when I came back like 5 hours later, my PSP was off obviously. I fed it some ac/dc and when it awoke there were only Alpha and Gamma displayed. Silence. After my initial shock (pulse ~180) I figured it MUST have hung up and hard resetted the thing. Luckily my savegame was fine...

[Task]

So I think I've got Rapier fairly well now. I'd say I'm about as good at Rapier now as I was at Flash two months ago. 8 P

The difference between them is incredible. Vector and Venom are truly just training, Flash is where it starts to really happen, but Flash ain't anything compared to Rapier. And I still don't have a very tight grasp on Phantom, but at least I think I can play it without embarassing myself too badly now. 8 )

Still, I've finally got all the SR golds up to Rapier, and the tournament ones (minus Descension till I can get a solid half hour of no interruptions that I'm not working in), and most of the TT ones as well. There's always more work to be done in TT. I think I'm actually missing more Flash TT golds than I am Rapier TT golds, I really don't know why Flash is so difficult in TT. Probably because it's the first time barrel rolls are really doable and yet I'm not very good at doing them.

At this point in the game I think I'm finally familiar with all the tracks (racing and music), but I'm still not much of a pilot. The physics are still kind of strange to me and it's taking a long time to get used to them. I'm seeing a whole lot of the "flying off the track" going on now that I'm spending a lot of time on Rapier, and I'm definitely not liking that much at all. The last turn on Exostra, I point myself towards the finish line and fly sideways right off the track. It doesn't happen all the time, but every now and then. It's obviously the way I'm flying the corner, boosting up the hill and not turning early enough because I'm too close to the inside, but the low accelleration of the game really shows in instances like that.

I think my least favourite alteration is the effect of nose control. It has nothing to do with handling as far as I can tell, instead it's just an altitude control while flying and (this is the part I don't like) a speed increase while driving. If you nose down, you'll go faster. The biggest problem I have with this is that the AG craft should be optimized for least air resistance at an even keel. So when you nose down you should be giving youself a _worse_ profile, creating more friction with the atmosphere, and going _slower_. Not faster. I was able to take 2 seconds off my lap time just by holding down the nose. I really don't think that's the way it should be.

So, more TT work ahead of me and then... Phantom! I've already played a fair amount of Phantom, but I still haven't really tackled it full-force.

[Mad-Ice]

I think my least favourite alteration is the effect of nose control. It has nothing to do with handling as far as I can tell, instead it's just an altitude control while flying and (this is the part I don't like) a speed increase while driving. If you nose down, you'll go faster. The biggest problem I have with this is that the AG craft should be optimized for least air resistance at an even keel. So when you nose down you should be giving youself a _worse_ profile, creating more friction with the atmosphere, and going _slower_. Not faster. I was able to take 2 seconds off my lap time just by holding down the nose. I really don't think that's the way it should be.

So, more TT work ahead of me and then... Phantom! I've already played a fair amount of Phantom, but I still haven't really tackled it full-force.



You describe it so well, I totally agree with you. I really enjoy reading about your progress, good luck.

[Task]

It's been over a month since my last post in this thread, but not because I'm done with it. Oh no. It's just because I haven't been playing Pure a whole lot. I want to, no doubt about that. So why haven't I?

Well.

Now that I'm halfway competent in Phantom, the single-player experience just doesn't have the draw anymore. What I've learned about Pure in the past month or two is that the single-player portion of the game (which is likely what >95% of the purchasers were buying into) only has one purpose: To get you ready for multiplayer.

Now that I have tasted of the glory that is multi-player WO (and by multi-player I mean more than 2, something that unless you linked up SE and had 3 hardcore wipers nearby nobody had experienced before Pure) it's all I really want to play. The shine is gone from single player, I want to play against human opponents. Not just because of their skill either; after all, the AI can still beat me on most tracks at Phantom. Nah, it's because the human players are so much more _fun_ to play against! So much more interesting.

Have you ever had an AI opponent just lose it for a couple seconds and slam back and forth between the walls in front of you? No, of course not. I'll tell you though, it was pretty hilarious to watch my cousin do it! I could hardly fly straight myself I was laughing so hard.
Has an AI opponent seen that they can't catch up in the remaining lap and found a way to place SIX bombs in one treacherous area, pinning all their hopes on taking you out with a minefield? I'll bet not, but I flew through one of those minefields. Dodging all those mines and surviving the one I couldn't gave me FAR more satisfaction than beating someone by half a lap ever could have.
No AI opponent is going to pull out surprise tactics like that. There's a lot you can learn racing the AI, but it'll only take you so far. If you want to break your limits, you're going to have to take your game online and find out just how little you really know.

I wasn't so sure when I heard that "solo play has gone the way of the dinosaur", but now I see that there's a large amount of truth to that. If a game can be taken online, then it probably should be. And if it isn't, well, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't sell well. Which will definitely have the end effect of making a ton of single player games obsolete as they're replaced by multi-player variants.

The really good news here is that WO seems to be doing very well in this regard. Pure was developed a bit limited in this area, but it's a bit of an older game I guess, and ways around some of those limitations have since been found. Pulse might very well have no limitations at all, and offer us the ultimate multiplayer WO experience. The same could easily be true of WOHD as well, and I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

I've mostly been a solo-play gamer myself. A bit of hotseat Warlords in the distant past, and some Age Of Wonders in the recent past, are about my only forays into real-time multiplayer. For the first time _ever_, I really want to take my game online, to the expense of my solo play time.

And that, right there, is (to me) an incredible achievement. WO has changed me.

Again. 8 )

[Lion]

very eloquent :)
and I can totally relate to the sentiments you express.
and not that this point is relevant to wipeout in any way that I can really determine, but cooperative play makes developing a single player campaign worth it in a lot of games. it's something that is sadly missing from too many games now. Halo3 impresses in that regard
I can't really see that working in wipeout except in teamplay multiplayer. a blocker and a runner could be great (like an F1 teams championship)

[Rapier Racer]

Yeah, just think of some of the unstoppable teams that could be formed....:o

[Asayyeah]

ohhh a pure killer added to a crazy racer sound like a poisonous mixture team for the other fellow pilots :cold

Jay : amen again to what you said, multiplayer is the essence of multiple feelings that is hard to find in one race vs AI. From the rage of global fury being eliminated by your dear mate to the explosion of happiness when you beat him by the smallest margin possible after a deep intense battle during 5 laps. Only multiplayer (through kai or gathering/convention) can give you this . Complitely in agreement with you

[Medusa]

100% agreement with you, Task! You know exactly how to describe it.

I find this Wipeout (Pure) such a big departure from the others in this regard, because I find the other wipeouts very satisfying to play alone. They each have a remarkable addictiveness while flying solo that I just don't find in Pure. I still can't nail down the exact reason but Pure just seems to be quite boring (dare I say it??) most of the time when playing Single Player. Perhaps it isn't as immersive in Single Player mode compared to the other games, I don't know what it is.

I find myself playing on Phantom most of the time on Kai instead of by myself (which still isn't that often unfortunately!). Consequently I still don't even have all of the packs unlocked in Phantom, no Ascension gold yet. Just find it hard to convince myself I should sit down that long to play Pure by myself...

[Task]

Absolutely, it is NOT as immersive.

I think the reason for that... is the controls and the environment.

The earlier wipeouts (the ones responsible for building the franchise) had a very strict control scheme, the craft would only do exactly what you told it to do, immediately and without limitation. If you told the craft to fly at maximum speed off in yonder direction, that's what it would do. If you told it to slam into a wall at full accelleration, you could hear the "whang!" and really feel the rebound. The controls in Pure are more... slippy. Tenuous. Vague, even. There's a lot of sliding, and I do love the sliding, but it's more the lack of reality to it. It's somehow "off by a bit", so it definitely feels like a simulated world, it doesn't have the physics of the real world exactly. You can't suspend your disbelief that you're actually in an AG craft because it just doesn't react quite exactly the way you'd expect. It's really close, and I'm hoping they get even closer in Pulse, but that small difference makes it difficult to really immerse yourself into the game.

Or so I've determined. YMMV.

And then there's the environment. It's pretty. Beautiful, even. Artistry like was in Fusion, only glitzier! Rich sounds, too. That's a lot of information to process. Track surfaces are different, track shapes vary, the differences from track to track are huge compared to the earlier games. It was easier to focus on the track when all the tracks were the same channel shape, the same width everywhere, and the graphics were severely limited by number of polys and simple textures. Now they've got this beautiful environment trying to convince us we're looking through a window into the real future... And the difference between the control inputs you give and what you'd expect to happen is made even more jarring by it.

So I think it's the difference between simulation and reality that leads to a less immersive experience, and a less satisfying solo play.

It's just off by that little bit, and it shakes me out of the zone.

Ah well, it's a long weekend! That means I'll have time for some WO! A bit of multiplayer up at the cottage and hopefully some more Phantom practice, get the golds in those tournaments...

Oooh, and then the next Toronto Gathering!

It's a good future that has Wipeout in it. 8 )

[lunar]

I really like the ever so slightly random or "vague" controls in Pure. It`s very hard to fly the same lap twice, which makes it addictive. But, as you say, you also don`t really get the zen like immersion of the old games.

Your description of multi v single player is very apt. Kai finally killed off my last vestiges of interest in single player games. Before that I had been tweaking Madden AI sliders to try and get a good game out of it. After playing on Kai I realised that I no longer saw any point in just trying to beat a computer program, in any game really. Offline play is just practice for the real thing, or indirect competition with other humans via time trial. Having said that, I wouldn`t mind tweaking Arnaud`s sliders down a bit.


@RR - the ultimate team would surely be ASA as the speed merchant and yourself as his wingman/protector/enforcer. That would be a deadly Scottish/French duo indeed. :o You could reverse the roles on Sinucit though, and maybe one or two others. ;)

[Task]

So now that I've got the game beat and I've taken a good crack at some TT records, I'm at a point where I think I've played the game enough to give it a bit of a review. So let's do that.

ZONE - The place to start

Zone mode in Pure is, IMO, the best introduction to Pure. It's visually beautiful, and it'll really get you used to the control scheme. This is the very first thing you should play when you're starting a new game, and I think focussing on it until you beat it will prepare you well for the journey ahead.
Also, it'll give you the awesome Zone craft to assist you in the TT challenges and learning all the tracks you're going to have to get used to. It'll probably only take you 2 hours to beat it, but the challenge looks enormous and insurmountable until you've spent the 2 hours at it. Getting all 4 golds here is a definite achievement, well worth the time spent.

Unfortunately, there isn't really any reason to go back to Zone once you've beaten it, so after you've gotten those 4 golds you'll probably never play it again.

Pro: Very well designed, fantastic introduction to the game, likely the most immersive experience you'll get off this UMD.

Con: No multiplayer means no replayability, and these tracks are only used for Zone mode and you'll never see them again. Very sad. Zone mode carries the ball to the 10 yard line with fantastic speed and style and grace and then falls over with a heart attack.

TEAMS - Choose your boat!

Out of the box, with all the download packs, Pure comes with a huge selection of AG craft! These are the ones that you should look at closely:
Van Uber - Very similar to the FEISAR, but a little bit faster, this is a good ship for learning how to play. It's got great handling, good acceleration, and reasonable sheilds and top speed. Once you've gotten used to the airbrakes you probably won't need such a tight-handling craft and you can try out:
Tigron/Triakis - These craft have the highest shield rating, and that's something you might very well want and need for Tournament mode and perhaps even Single Race. The Triakis is much faster than it should be due to a programming error, otherwise the Tigron would be the faster ship. After racing these "fattie" ships for a while you'll appreciate what their mass does to the way they fly, but you'll start wanting something a little lighter and with more acceleration. At that point, have a look at:
Goteki - A midweight craft with one of the best accelerating engines in the game along with strong shields and reasonable speed and handling, this is one of my top 3 favourite craft in the game. I would call this the Ironman Craft, because you can take it into almost any situation and it won't let you down. There are definitely a couple more "specialized" craft that you'll want to remember though, for special circumstances:
AG Systems - This light craft has the best acceleration in the game. If you've got a tricky technical track with more corners than straights, and if you can survive on just 2 points of shield, then you can really make this ship perform. Boosts are all based on the acceleration of the ship, not the top speed, so if you can just keep hitting those boost pads you can maintain a high speed like a Tigron on a straight. Difficult to use, but the expert pilots won't trade the experience for anything. Lastly, there are some ships that are really made for Time Trial:
Zone - Don't fly it in a weapons-on race, that 1 shield won't last long, but with weapons off this speed craft can post some really great times. The high handling makes for an excellent craft when you're learning a track, and the high thrust means mistakes don't cost you very much.
Icaras - If you really don't like the low shield of the Zone, Icaras might be for you. One of the fastest ships in the game, I would say that this craft is one of the best offerings in Pure. If Triakis didn't overshadow it, I'm sure it would be used a lot more. A good pilot could probably use this ship for any kind of race at all, and do very well.

Pro: There are 18 craft in all, and while some are very similar to each other, no two are alike. With all this choice, you're bound to find a ship that fits you perfectly. No other WO has offered such breadth of choice, and when you add in the "livery" option there's even a bit of customization possible. The power of downloaded content shows strongly here before you've even started your first race.

Con: Only 4 stats are shown, but you can tell that craft seperate into light, medium, and heavy weight. Also, craft ratings are "rough values", far from exact measures. It would be nice if the stats on each craft could be a bit more detailed. Perhaps by pressing [] and switching to detailed reports on the craft or something. It would mean less "playing around" to find the craft that's right for you.

(continued next post)

[Task]

SINGLE RACE - Jump right in

Normally I wouldn't recommend going straight to SR. In most WO's you'll want to do some TT before you go into a full weapons-on race, get some track practice in before "the real deal", but in Pure it's different. So go ahead, choose Single Race and have yourself a blast racing the 7 killer AI opponents until you manage to come in first. This will teach you to absorb, a critical skill. You'll probably also try a couple different craft this way, eventually finding one that fits you well. If you keep getting eliminated, change craft! Work your way through all the tracks in a league till you've gotten gold in all of them. Now you're ready for a tournament!

Pro: The AI opponents have access to all the same weapons as you do, and you can get some surprisingly intense races out of them because of it. They're good at shield management, so getting an elimination is difficult, but if two Quakes rip through the group then chances are you're going to hear "Contender Eliminated!" at least once.

Con: These are supposed to be professional-level pilots, but you're the only one on the track that can get the good start? They race like demons for the first lap, and then turn into slackers? The end result is that you get a good race through the pack, and winning is a bit of a challenge but isn't too difficult, but I would have hoped that it was high time for an improvement in the AI.

TOURNAMENT - Test your skills

If you can get a SR gold in each track in the league, then you can win the tournament. So do so! Not just because you can, but also because winning tournaments is how you unlock the game. Beat Alpha to unlock Beta, beat Beta to unlock Ascension, beat Ascension to unlock the next speed class. Rinse and repeat 4 more times. Tournaments are a lot of fun, and this is where the majority of the multiplayer action will be. Set it up once, race for 20 minutes solid. Very nice packaged racing.

Pro: The scoring system only rewards placement, there's no additional reward for eliminations (one of Fusions best features many would say, but whether this is a good or a bad feature is obviously opinion-based), and repeatedly coming in 1st can give you enough of a lead so that you can win even if you get eliminated in a race. Solid piloting skills overwhelm small patches of bad luck. This is probably the core functionality of the game, so it's good that it's been well designed.

Con: Leagues are static. If you like 3 tracks in a league and hate 1, you still have to race all 4. Also, the Descension tournament is prone to crashing your PSP when you're 3/4 of the way through this "gruelling 12 race monster". If anything in this game is going to make you want to push the PSP through a wall, that'll be it.

FREE PLAY - From "cruising" to "hotlap madness"

New in Pure is the "Free Play" mode, something that many have wanted for a long time. Want to "walk the track" and have a look at certain corners from any and all possible angles? Want to see if you can ride along the top of that wall over there? Want to try and figure out how tight you can cut that corner before the game decides you've gone off-track? Want to try and generate the fastest possible lap time? That's what this mode is for. Your shields slowly regenerate, so there's no need to exit and restart just to refill your "barrel roll energy".

Pro: Mission accomplished, you can do all of that any anything else you can dream up!

Con: None. You can ignore this mode entirely if you want, or you can spend most of your playtime in it. It's up to you. Like it should be.

TIME TRIAL - A brand-new challenge?

It used to be that TT mode was just there for you to practice on. No longer! Now there are posted goals, times you have to achieve before you can say that you've "beaten" a track. The time to beat varies from "no real challenge" to "serious challenge". This portion of the game can be skipped entirely (only tournaments are necessary to unlock the game), but completionists and race record makers will be focussing on this area. The posted time to beat gives you a good signpost, a way to know when you're "good enough" on the track. You can always lower your time more via practice, but once you've gotten the TT gold you know that you've got at least a basic understanding of the track and you can move on if you want.

Pro: Totally optional, but set up to be a rewarding experience. The ghost ship is "best lap" based, so every lap you've got a fresh ghost to follow. These ghosts are totally sharable, too! So if you want to see how a sub-20 second lap is possible just get someone else's ghost and put it in your PSP and follow it around the track. A fantastic addition to a required game mode, it's good to see that they were looking to make improvements in all aspects of the game. I think here they've really done it.

Con: To get the high speeds necessary to beat this mode, you're going to need a fast ship. If you're particularly attached to, say, FEISAR, you're not going to be able to get through all of these. This is nothing new to practiced TT pilots, who think that finding the best ship for this particular class and track is half the fun, but you might have to get into a ship you don't like in order to beat the challenge. Addionally, while having a "lap based" ghost is a very nice thing, there's no ability at all to have a "race based" ghost. If someone has a really nice lap time you can get their ghost and follow it, but you'll never be able to see their full race. Neither of these things is a big deal to most people, but it's probably enough to turn some off entirely.

Wow, that was a lot of typing. Did you know that there's a 10,000 character limit per post? I didn't know that.

Anyway, I was planning on having a look at each track next. The tracks are the most important part of a WO game, so I figured I'd review each one seperately. Later though.

Yes, I'm crazy, I know. 8 )

[zargz]

hehe! I was thinking doing a review too .. when i got all the golds!
got just the phantom tournament's and a TT gold left to get 8)
don't think my review will hit the 10.000 words limit though.
:D
nice one J :+

[Lion]

Good review! I'd add one thing to the single race section, you list that the AI having access to all weapons is a Pro, I'd argue this based on the notion that while they can hit you with a disruptor and completely ruin your race with a steering reversal (unless you happen to be carrying an autopilot), hitting an AI with a disruptor has no discernable impact on their flight.

Are you planning to review each of the weapons as well?

[Task]

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

Lion: Yeah, I was thinking that if I was going to do all the tracks I might do all the weapons as well. You're definitely right about the Disruptor, but the issue there is that Disruptor is implemented really badly, not that the AI shouldn't have it. Pure would be better with no disruptor at all.

[zargz]

.. but the issue there is that Disruptor is implemented really badly..that's right! I don't like the AP version and hate the revcon but the forth and back camera is just on the spot!!!
it's just about as difficult that you can manage to stay on track being careful but if on multiplayer and the pressure there
for sure you'll end up making a misstake! :D
Had it been just that, that would have been the perfect Disruptor! .. imo. 8)

[Task]

As requested, the weapon review is next! 8 )

WEAPONS - Open up a can of whoopass

This is the first WO where spending time in SR can teach you the track better than spending it in TT. The reason for this being that in TT, there are no weapon pads. Knowing where the speed pads are will definitely help you go fast (knowing when to take them and when to avoid them is another topic entirely, I'll get into that below) but you're going to need to hit weapon pads if you want to stay alive! There's no pitlane, so when you lose shield energy (which you're going to do whether it's enemy weapon fire or barrel rolls draining it) you have to hit the weapon pads and absorb. This is a fantastic mechanic added to the game, pun totally intended.
I'm fairly certain that weapons are all the same when absorbed, but they're definitely all different when used. Well, mostly different anyway.
One definite issue with all offensive weapons though is "weapon effect". The level of "realism" they're going for in WOPure is very high, gravity effects and mass/inertia effects and thrust and the list goes on. Generally, the game does quite well in the "simulation" area. Nowhere near an actual simulator of course (not the experience being aimed for anyway, so hardly a realistic expectation) but the world presented in-game tries to be consistent. The effect of weapons on your craft is a gaping hole in this simulation. If you get hit from behind with a Missile (or Rockets, or Quake, or VorpalBunny) the absolute LAST direction it should throw you is backwards in the direction of the attack. But this is quite often what happens. The reason for this is, I'm sure, that they don't want you getting a speed boost when you get shot, you're supposed to slow down when you get shot. That's one of the core concepts of the game, and I can certainly see why they wouldn't want to mess with that. Still, a more imporant feature of the game is "going stupid fast", and being brought to a standstill twice a lap is, in my opinion, a much worse violation of the core concept. What's the solution here? Well, I think it would be great if getting hit by a weapon did give you a shove in the incoming direction. This would mean that getting hit from behind by a Missile would give you a slight shove forward. This would also mean that if you drove over a bunch of Mines each one would shove you backwards and up a small amount, perhaps enough up that you'd clear the last one or two in the set. Landing on top of a bomb might give you enough air to do a barrel roll! I could be wrong, but I think that would be totally awesome. Of course, we're still left with the whole "you just got hit, the last thing you get from that is a speed boost" problem, and I think we can solve that by making the shield on the ship go wonky for a bit and the thrusters on your ship cut out until the whole AG field stabilizes. So small amounts of damage (which would give you a very gentle push in the impacting direction, likely not even changing the vector for a heavier ship) would cut out your thrust for just a moment, and heavy damage like Quake or Plasma could cut out your thrust for perhaps a whole second. Maybe two. But that would probably be too long. This could be a general effect, any time you take shield damage your thrust cuts out, or even just lessens for very small amounts of damage. Without the acceleration, air friction will slow you down, and overall you lose speed. I think I would call that an awesome implementation of weapon damage. What we get with Pure... well, it really needs work. The best feture of TT mode is that you don't have to worry about weapon damage effects anymore, and that's quite telling.

Track Garbage - Mines & Bombs
Mines stick around for 5 seconds, Bombs stick around until destroyed. Mines are small and come in a pack of 5, Bombs are large and singular. Excellent implementation on these weapons, including the small "detection radius" they have. You don't have to hit them, a mere sideswipe will set them off. If you're not in front, you have to learn how to dodge these. If you are in front, you have to learn how to best deploy these. These defensive weapons are going to be the bulk of what you'll have to handle in a race, get used to them.

Protection - Shield & Autopilot
The shield is another very well implemented weapon. Not only does it look cool when deployed, it looks even better if you're absorbing while you've got a shield up. Also, the Shield doesn't always last the same amount of time! If you hit (or get hit by) some serious weaponry (usually the previously mentioned Mines & Bombs, but a Plasma can easily do it too) it can blow your Shield out early! Very nice addition to this classic weapon.
Autopilot is, unfortunately, a bit of a disappointment. Sometimes it'll drive you into a wall, or take you off-track, the only way you can be sure that it won't fly worse than you is if you use it on a straight. And what's the point in that? No longer will Autopilot always save you from a crash (probably a good change, WO3 Autopilot would take you through buildings if that was what was required to prevent a crash, amazingly useful but not very realistic) but sometimes the Autopilot can fly a section of track (chicane, I'm talking to you!) faster than you'd believe possible. This would be a better weapon if it was more reliable, as it is it's probably best to absorb unless you know for sure that the upcoming section can be properly handled by an Autopilot when you're travelling at this speed with this entry angle.

Unguided Offense - Rockets & Plasma & Disruption Bolt
Rockets are back to being the great 3 rocket spread attack, Plasma is still the devestating charge-up weapon. Nothing's new or changed here, but can you improve on greatness like this?
The return of the Disruption Bolt is not such a happy story however.
It sounds like such a nifty idea "Let's have a weapon with random effects! You won't know what it'll do till you get hit by it!". In practice, that randomness is a good part of what makes it so awful. Like much of what we saw in Fusion, it sounds really cool, but it plays really bad. Part of the problem is the inconsistent levels of effect. Perhaps it'll give you an autopilot through a tough section and you'll be glad you got hit by it. Or maybe it'll just disable your airbrakes and have little discernible effect. Or perhaps it'll reverse your controls and you'll go straight into the wall and from 1st place to 8th. By the time you've realized what's happened, it's too late. Likely the greatest improvement from Pure to Pulse is that we won't see this weapon again. The bright spot here is that since this mistake has now been made, we shouldn't see weapons with random effects happen again. Ever.

Guided Offense - Missile & Quake
The lock-on Missile can't be fired backwards easily (a shame, always loved that WOXL feature!), but we've all heard how if you just do a quick 180'...
These weapons do have a problem though, and it's a problem shared by all "fired" weapons in the game. The speed they travel at. If you're going really fast when you fire your Quake, you're going to keep up with it. This is not good! I'm of the firm belief that all weaponry, when fired, should have a speed which is the speed it was fired at plus a constant value, or perhaps an acceleration value. Either way, you'd have a much faster Quake/Missile/whatever when you need it to be faster. Of course, that might seem to make them a bit too strong. A faster missile is harder to dodge, right? And a faster Quake can't be outrun. A faster missile should have a tougher time following the curves in the track, so a slow missile should be able to track its target around a corner, and a fast missile should explode against the wall. Also, as it is you can't dodge a Quake except by tracking out and getting teleported behind the Quake. That also seems a little extreme. If I'm high enough in the air, a Quake shouldn't hurt me if it passes under me while I have enough altitude. And higher altitude should somewhat reduce the damage you take. Perhaps you aren't high enough to avoid it entirely, but you're only being whacked by the top part of the quake, not the whole length of it. So a slightly different implementation of fired weapons would, I believe, but a definite improvement in many ways.

Speed - Turbo
A classic pickup, but not as good as it should've been. For one thing, turbos don't play well with boosts. Hit the turbo, then hit a boost pad, and you'll actually slow down. I'd call that a fairly serious bug, myself. It means that if you're going for the best time possible, you have to hit all the boost pads you can, but not hit boost pads while you're turboed. Counter-intuitive. Also, using the turbo is likely going to make you fly. This is good, flying is a part of WO, we're not stuck to the track if we don't want to be. Unfortunately, there's this magical unmarked zone called "on track" and if we ever cross this boundary line we get teleported back to before we used our turbo and the dream of flight dies a horrible death. Not very nice.
So the turbo itself is just as good as it always was, but the game doesn't seem well designed for its use. As such, instead of being "the ultimate speed tool", it's more of a "recover from crippling stall-outs tool". Which isn't really what turbo is supposed to be for.

And again, that's enough typing for a little while. More to come later!

You know, if your eyes haven't turned into squares from reading reams of my pixellated text... 8 )

[Lion]

cheers, a couple of small addendums. you seem pretty down on the AP, but it's probably worth noting that (if you are carrying one at the time) it's an effective anti-disruptor. AP can instantly adjust to reversed steering.
personally I think the pure AP is a worthwhile item, it's simply a matter of correctly choosing when to use it
also worth noting that the shield acts as a reflector against the disruptor. it's possible for someone to bone themselves by shooting a shielded opponent with a disruptor

[Task]

Eh, I already mentioned that the AP is best used in situations where you know it'll work for you, I don't think elaboration is really necessary.

Hmm, so you're saying the Disruptor is even worse than I've detailed? I'm not sure I can rate it any lower! 8 D

[Task]

Central to any WO is the track listing. Pure introduces banked track sections to a high degree, so much so that you'll have a tough time finding a section of straight and flat anywhere in the game. Each track can be run in either no-weapon (TT) or race (serious weapons) mode, and this changes the way you attack the track to a high degree. So let's have a look at each one...

ALPHA - This is where it all begins
This initial set of tracks has a high average quality level, but you will start to see some of the small annoyances here and there. A very good pick of tracks to get you started in the game.

Vineta K
The first track has always been a quality speed track, and Pure does not disappoint. Close to the water, mild jumps, a light chicane, some tricky-but-not-too-challenging corners, this track is an obvious evolution of the WO3 Porto Kora and a worthy successor to Talon's Reach.
SR: Turbos rule on this track, Bomb and Mines in the chicane and that blind corner can cause you difficulty. Rating: Easy and fun.
TT: A simple track like this poses little challenge, but it's still a lot of fun to race and the scenery is great. There's a good chance that if and when you decide to really try for some good times on a track, it'll be this one. Rating: Easy and fun.

Modesto Heights
The second track usually tries to crank it up, throw some real challenge at you while maintaining a high speed level. Not as fast as track 1, but all the difficult sections are amplified. Modesto maintains this standard well, but "the bump jump" and its corresponding "evil sign of doom" are serious traps for the unwary. You'll have to be a good pilot and also avoid the pitfalls to do well here. This track is a good introduction to the challenges of racing Pure, but that sign will eventually annoy you no end.
SR: The downhill section is a shooting range, go through it quickly or get targeted. The hairpin leaves you wide open for a broadside. The chicane is a dumping ground for track garbage. Turbo over the bump only if you've put a lot of practice into landing it. Rating: Challenging and difficult to master.
TT: Once you've mastered the hairpin and the chicane (it's all about entry), you've pretty much got this track beat. The bump is your free BR, but using it effectively is the biggest challenge here. Rating: A low annoyance level + a high reward level = worth the time you'll put into it.

Chenghou Project
With a good hairpin and a double jump and an inverse-banked curve, this track really bring the different! The big drop gives you a chance to make a BR no matter how long it takes you to pull it off. One of the best tracks in the game, if only because it really shows you how much Pure is capable of.
The biggest downfall of the track is that the inverse-banked curve has amazing propensity to make you turtle. Spending time upside down really kills your race time.
SR: The hairpin is a killing area as usual, and Bombs and Mines can be placed in the double jump landing zone for scary effectiveness: Beware! Rating: Avoid the dangers and unearth the fun!
TT: The hairpin and double-jump are the big challenge here. Learn how to do them properly and the track is easy. The big drop is your free BR, learn how to enter the chicane with the speed you get from it. Rating: Learn the secrets of the track and rise to the next level!

Blue Ridge
The final track of the Alpha league, the difficulty level really rises here. Sharp corners linked together into deep chicanes provide serious challenge to all but the best pilots. If you can beat this track, you're ready for the Beta league.
SR: Autopilot might be the best way to navigate the beginning and ending sections until you've learned how to pull off those moves yourself. Till then, serious airbrakes and sideshift will reduce the amount of time you spend in the wall. The chicane is still a good place for Bombs and Mines, but it's wide enough that they're not a show-stopping impediment. Rating: Difficult.
TT: Likely the best track to use as technical practice, the long straightish section after the big jump is your speed lane to break the challenge of navigating all those difficult corners. Rating: One of the best-designed technical tracks ever.

BETA - Both extremes in one package
Your reward for beating Alpha league is... Beta league! Betcha didn't see that one coming. This league will throw you from one extreme to the other. I really think they could have done better here with a slightly different set of tracks, raising the bar from Alpha only a bit instead of a whole bunch. Unfortunately they probably couldn't count on everyone having all the download packs and had to make Pure stand alone without them. Which meant putting some of the most difficult and annoying track sections in Beta.

Sinucit
Welcome to sin city, let's race!
I guarantee, your first race here you're going to take the first corner and fall into the pit. Sorry, but that's how it goes. This is your introduction to "no walls! Augh!", get used to it. Stick to the track if you want to live.
SR: If you can do enough damage to an opponent to bring them to a standstill at the first track split around the pit, they'll likely end up falling into the pit simply due to lack of momentum. Chances are, you'll never see them again after that. Don't let that happen to you. The final section of track (big sweeping left, chicane, jump, landing area) is very dangerous, be careful. If you want to slow down the competition, those are good places to drop garbage. Rating: Don't fall in the pit and you can really enjoy this track.
TT: This track is really just straight sections linked by corners, with the weapons gone the difficulty level really drops. Rating: Not difficult.

Citta Nuova
The biggest technical challenge in the game, this track was designed with the explicit purpose of annoying you. Wow, does it ever achieve. It will teach you to come off the accelerator, ride a rollercoaster, and it will teach you how to do a 180' turn. It's method of teaching is equivalent to kicking you in the head every time you get it wrong. Effective, but not a barrel of laughs.
SR: Just try to stay on the track and off the walls. If you can get good at this track, you'll be able to easily gain a 10 second lead per lap over all those who aren't. Rating: Far from everyone's cup of tea.
TT: Once you've learned what this track has to teach you, it's really not difficult. The difficult part is sticking with the track until you've learned it. Rating: Not much fun, somewhat rewarding.

Sebenco Climb
The Escher Track: How can a race with multiple laps be constantly going uphill?
The downhill section of this track is the long narrow straightaway. It looks flat, but the speed you'll take it at is a telling indicator of a downhill run.
The first half (hill climb portion) of the track is all about taking the corners smoothly and hitting the offered boost pads. The second half is all about managing the speed and the challenging sections. The right-hander-inna-pit is a tricky turn, and you can easily do an unintentional turn onto your side or roof. Not healthy. The chicane is tricky because it's tight, Stanza Inter fans should like it.
SR: The uphill section is slow with straight sections, so weapon fire is a danger. The downhill straight is long and starts with weapon pads, so it's even more dangerous. The chicane is tight and the landing is almost blind, so track garbage can be deadly effective there. You might want to use a Quake just to clear a path. Rating: Dangerous and tricky, you'll earn your win here.
TT: As you should be getting used to by now, this track is very challenging until you've learned it's secrets, and then it becomes relatively easy. This track ages well, and maintains at least a bit of a challenge no matter your experience level. Rating: Both the slow and the fast section require skill and precision.

Sol 2
Oh! Your ultimate reward! Truly, the track designers outdid themselves on this one. This might be the first "ultimate track" in WO to really live up to expectations. It's not based on Mars or the moon, merely up in the stratosphere, but the style and elegance definitely reach a peak here. A racetrack might always be just straights linked by corners, but here you'll see how that can come together into something far greater than the sum of its parts.
SR: The section with no walls requires the greatest of care, taking damage here is almost guaranteed to throw you off the track and into last position. You might be able to gain it back in the rest of the track with smooth piloting since very high speeds are achievable, but the walls make a lot of the corners almost blind, and driving into track garbage will take all that speed away. Rating: Totally awesome.
TT: Maintaining speed through corners is the repeating mantra of this track. Link up the boost pads and fly. Rating: Not a big challenge, but it flows beautifully.

Next time: MOAR LEAGUES!

[Task]

The most impressive feature of Pure is how much bigger the game got with the free downloadable content. Literally doubling your game in size with 3 new leagues and just more of everything, the Gamma and Delta packs are shining examples of just how good it can be.

GAMMA - Even better?!?
This set of tracks are of superior quality, the only problem you'll generally find with them is that you'll get going so fast that leaving the track area is way too easy. You could hardly ask for a better set of tracks, I could race this tournament all day.

Exostra Run
The first one is the speed track, and very fast! This track has many walls to keep you from tracking out. The only tricky part is the final right turn, too much speed and you can fly off the left side.
SR: The double boost pads are as usual excellent places for Bombs, using a turbo to cross the finish line can easily win you the race. Rating: Easy and fun!
TT: Not as challenging to master as Staten Park, but if you're looking for an experience of speed you can get there quickly here. At higher speeds the downhill left and uphill right can be tricky, but this track is fairly simple. Rating: Not challenging. Until you try and beat Jack on it. 8 )

Ubermall
A longer track with many challenging sections, you'll have to put a lot of practice into the corners on this track before you'll master it.
SR: The big hill is a nasty corridor, be very careful not only navigating it but also on landing! This track will challenge you, but you can gain a lot of time by turboing up the hill and barrel rolling over the finish line. Rating: Very difficult and highly rewarding to fly properly.
TT: This track seems easy at Vector, but every time you crank up the speed class you'll find new challenges. Rating: You'll learn a lot from this track, and have fun doing it.

Staten Park
A speed track that'll take some practice to get used to the corners, but once you can fly it it's a serious rush. There are boost pads in all the right places, and doubles to boot! Turboing up the hill gives you an easy BR, but landing it is very tricky. Very similar to Exostra Run, but not as fast and a little more challenging.
SR: You can out-race a lot of weapons here, and the track is wide enough that Bombs and Mines are easily avoidable, so this is a test of your racing skills more than anything. Rating: Fast and fun!
TT: You're going to need good laps to maintain the high average speed required, on Phantom this track can be very difficult. Rating: Keep the speed up, and no problem.

Sebenco Peak
The worst thing about this track is that while "Sebenco" is a fine name for a track, we really don't need two of them. Besides that minor point, it's an excellent and very sneaky track. It starts out easily enough, with a left turn onto three (3!) boost pads, and that fires you with great speed into a murderous S. If you can manage to come out of that on the left side and catch the boost pad you can quickly get to the dangerous downhill left. Serious airbrakes are necessary, but your timing is what's really being tested here.
SR: All the wide turns make for killing fields if you don't get through them quick enough. Hitting in the S or on the downhill left can kill your speed and make you a sitting duck. Rating: Practice this one till you nail it! You'll be a better pilot for it.
TT: Assuming you've got your timing down pat, you shouldn't have much difficulty here. There's really only one line, the only challenge is to follow it. Rating: Really good airbrake practice.

DELTA - Throwing some new tricks into the mix!
This was the final set of 4 tracks released for the NA game, the most notable feature of them is how new and different some of these tracks are. After releasing 20 tracks for the game, they still managed to keep it fresh. A remarkable feat!

Iridia
As usual, we start with a speed track. It all starts out wide and flat, with an interesting wide left turn leading into an uphill section, but shortly turns into narrow, banked, and twisting. If you haven't already learned how to follow a straight line on a banked turn, this track will try and teach you.
SR: The narrow sections can be very dangerous, fly with caution through them. By the time you get to this track, you'll likely have no problem with it. Rating: The most challenging of the "easy" tracks.
TT: With no weapons, this track can almost look boring. At the lower speed classes, it really is that simple. At higher speed classes, it gets more difficult. Rating: Follow the line, how hard can it be? ; )

Anulpha Pass
Introducing The Skill Cut!
Bringing something really different to the game, this track features a very dangerous shortcut that will save you a ton of time on your lap... If you're good enough to fly it. I don't think we've seen this track feature since Silverstream, and that one was unintentional. You'll need to put a lot of practice into this one, because generally it's a choice of taking the shortcut or losing the race.
SR: The track bottlenecks after the first downhill, you'll have trouble avoiding track garbage here. So will your opponents. Whether or not you take the shortcut will depend on a lot of factors, but the winning formula is to try and block your opponents from being able to use it. Rating: Probably the most strategic track Wipeout has ever seen.
TT: You're going to need consistently good laps, but as long as you take the shortcut beating this track isn't too difficult. Of course, taking that shortcut can be tough at higher speeds. Doing 5 straight laps of it without tracking out once is easily the biggest challenge here. Getting this Phantom gold is a serious achievement. Rating: Fly in a straight line, WAY more challenging than it sounds.

Koltiwa
Featuring two drops for easy barrel rolling, this is a speed track of few boost pads. Your biggest difficulty is going to be landing the BR and not wasting it with your nose in the air. Learn that trick and you've got the track beat.
SR: The chicane has a narrow straight line through it, this high-traffic strip can get very dangerous. The hard left turn before the final drop is, as usual, a great place to turn yourself into a sitting duck if you don't fly it well. Rating: Tricky, so learn your line.
TT: Maintain your speed through the corners, use the few boost pads available to maximum effect, and grab the BR when the opportunity presents itself. A simple formula that applies for all tracks, but is really emphasized here. Once you get up to Phantom, you might need Triakis to pull it off. Rating: Basic, a good track to learn the BR on.

Khara Descent
This track is very difficult, in many ways. It can also be extremely annoying. The track starts with a nasty chicane section, and that leads into a hard right that'll just kill your speed. After that are two areas (the steps and the banked right) that are very easy to track out on. The steps are toughest at the higher speeds, the banked right is toughest at the slow speeds, so the difficulty remains roughly even over all speed classes. Inbetween them is a double boost pad that you might be better off avoiding, it all depends on your line. The annoyance factor often comes from tracking out, because you're almost guaranteed to track out again when you teleport back onto the track. This can lead to a vicious cycle that might end with you throwing the PSP at the wall, so attack this track with patience and caution.
SR: Your main opponent here is the track itself, the weaponry by itself just isn't as dangerous. The track is wide enough and there are usually multiple lines available. Choose wisely. Rating: Just plain difficult, a win on this track is earned.
TT: At Phantom, getting a BR off the steps isn't too tough. At Venom and Vector, it's not even required. At Flash and Rapier you'll be banging your head against the wall trying to beat this track. The slowest section is the hard right before the steps, so that's where you turbo. That additional speed is what you'll need to get the BR. Now you just have to put in a hundred laps of practice so you can have some consistency. Rating: The most difficult gold medal in the game is right here, are you fast enough to get it?

Next up: The blast from the past!

[Task]

The classic tracks come in two sets. The first set comes with the game and you slowly unlock it as you play. The second set is more free downloadable content. In the first set all the tracks are done in a "Tron" style, in the second set each track has it's own (simple) style. Overall, the second set show real polish and the first set show signs of being rushed. It's obvious that there wasn't really time to get them done right, we're probably lucky to have them at all.

CLASSIC - The revenge of green
W3O showed us that a very simplistic style (the prototypes) could still be excellent, and made for fantastic unlockable content. The lesson to be learned here is that "the prototype style" really belongs on prototype tracks, totally new tracks that weren't quite good enough to make the main game. If an old track is remade, it's best to really remake it, either with a new and unique style or with the style it was originally presented with. Still, there's definitely some good racing to be found in this league.

Karbonis
More of a pain than anything else, you'll be hard pressed just to stay on the track. If you can stay on the track, your next challenge is to keep off the walls. Karbonis (WO1) was originally a fairly large track, this miniaturized version bears little in resemblance to it. Bad Lead Designer, no biscuit.
SR: On this tight track, high handling is going to be more imporant than anything. You've got a lot of corners to make, and multiple difficult chicanes to get through. A lightweight high-thrust craft can really shine here, but can you survive long enough to win the race? Rating: Frustratingly difficult.
TT: This is one of the only courses that I would suggest training on TT for. Most tracks, training on SR is likely a better usage of your time, but on this track having opponents pushes the annoyance factor way over the line. If you're going to tackle this track, make it easy on yourself and learn it in TT mode. Overall, less hair-pulling will be involved. Rating: Constrictive.

Sagarmatha
This is actually an excellent remake of the 2nd WOXL speed track, and a great joy to race after the near-torture of Karbonis. One of the few tracks in the game with multiple long, flat, straight sections; if you can make the 90' turns nicely then great speed is possible. All that's missing is the snow-capped mountains of Canada...
SR: Be sure to hit the double boost pads and you shouldn't have much problem here. If you're already familiar with this track, you should take to it quickly. Rating: An excellent balance of speed and challenge, and also part of your complete breakfast.
TT: Taking the opponents out of the equation makes this track very simple. Just hit the boost pads, and fly... Rating: A fun run.

Manor Top
The most technical track from W3O returns!
The harsh 90's are terrible places to take damage, if you're slowed down then the low acceleration means you won't be able to make it from one section to the next. Not a nice way to track-out. The other serious danger is going too fast and airbraking too late and slamming sideways into the wall after one of the many hard corners, there just aren't enough boost pads for you to recover easily from something like that.
SR: Another good track for a high-handling craft, being able to fly a 90' turn smoothly is more necessary than anything else here. Even if you flew this track in W3O, it's little preparation for flying it in Pure. Rating: Highly challenging.
TT: Overcoming your own inertia is the only trick here, so it's rather straightforward at slower speeds but can be difficult at Phantom. Rating: Excellent corner training.

Mandrashee
You may or may not recognize this as being from Fusion, but all that's really important is that it's a good racetrack. The first set of corners is challenging to get through unscathed, and from there it's a speed run to a downhill jump and then two 90's to the finish line.
SR: The straight screwy section is full of weapon and boost pads, expect a firestorm every time you go through it. Getting the double boost pad before the finish line will often give you the win. Rating: A bit of challenge plus bit of fast always equals fun.
TT: It might take you a while to get used to this track, it does start out a little tricky, but once you've learned it it's pretty easy. Rating: A good showcase for all the basic track elements of Pure.

CLASSIC 2 - Continuing the proud tradition
They were able to put some good time and effort into this pack, and the quality really shows. Each track has a single colour theme to it, and it's surprising how well the design works. If you can't have an exact replica of the original track, this is definitely an excellent way to go. The tracks in this set are generally large and full of jumps you can BR off of, so craft with high shield and speed ratings will dominate.

Altima VII
The red track.
Similar to the WO1 original, but with imporant differences. This is a sprawling track with many hidden challenges. Like hitting all 3 boost pads on the sweeping left turn after the start line. What path to take on the downhill run. And avoiding hitting that low-hanging thing after the jump at Phantom.
SR: There's a lot of room on this track, and there's lots of time for weapons to play a big factor here. If you're having trouble flying the track, you might be able to win on weapon usage abilities alone. Rating: Surprisingly deep for what could've been a simple speed track.
TT: The challenge here isn't the time to beat (which is fairly easy), but more being happy with the line you've developed. There are lots of options available, and always room for improvement. Rating: If TT is your thing, you can spend a lot of time on this one.

Odessa Keys
The silver and blue track.
I hardly recognize this as having anything to do with the WOXL original, but I couldn't care less. Whatever method they used to create this track, they ended up with a beautiful racing experience. In no other track is the line you take so critically important. If your timing is perfect, you can turn your race into a high-speed rush. If you miss it, you're going to spend a lot of time slowly rebuilding your speed. Yes, it punishes you hard for failure, but it rewards you so nicely for success. For example, if your line is right, you can get a quadruple boost pad. You won't find another track like that!
SR: There are lots of opportunities for barrel rolls here, but you're probably better off conserving your shields for the assault you'll take in the corners you lose speed in. Since losing speed will be your biggest concern, boost pads are more likely to be your path to victory than weapon pads. Rating: Highly challenging and extremely rewarding.
TT: There's a lot of flexibility in the time to beat for this track, so you don't have to be on the perfect line every lap. Really blowing away the challenge time is easily possible. Rating: Easy to beat, but very difficult to truly master.

Porto Kora
The brown track.
Probably the best re-creation track in the whole game, very faithful to the original. It flies very differently in Pure from the W3O version though. There are a ridiculous number of opportunities for barrel rolls, so many so that you probably can't take them all: who has enough shield for that? If you like airtime, this track is for you.
SR: Do a lot of absorbing and a lot of barrel rolling and you really can't lose. Which doesn't necessarily make it an easy track to fly, but it's an uncomplicated path to victory at least. Rating: High-flying fun!
TT: All it takes here is consistent good laps. There are lots of boost pads, you can pretty much use that turbo anywhere you like. The wide right turn and the following downhill-left-uphill are the trickiest parts. Find a line that works for you and take it. Rating: Simple, but good.

Vohl Square
The dark blue track.
Definitely the trickiest track of the bunch, it gives you one technical challenge after another. Twice a lap it'll have you landing a jump inside a chicane, and this isn't W3O so you can't just "skip over" the chicane. There are lots of opportunities to track-out, be sure to avoid them all. Surprisingly tough is the final right-hand corner before the finish line, if you don't fly it right you track out off the left side. That final corner is very reminiscent of Exostra Run. There are several jumps, but none of them is a free BR, you'll have to be good to get it.
SR: The straight wavy track at the start has weapon pads and that makes the hard left at the end a shooting gallery. The chicane is a dangerous place for Bombs and Mines since there's a straight line through the middle. This track gives lots of opportunity for weapon attacks, so have a target and try to avoid being someone else's. Rating: Highly challenging and lots of fun.
TT: This technical track can really show its stripes in TT. With some effort and perfect laps, you can beat the track, but not by much! In Rapier especially, I found it tough to take that last second off my time. Rating: Quite challenging!

And that's all the tracks.
Or is it?

Next time: More tracks?!?

[Flashback Jack]

Exostra Run
...
Rating: Not challenging. Until you try and beat Jack on it. 8 )


Arnaud's the man here, but alas for those that try -- only 0.08 separates our best times (Phantom) so there's not much room to maneuver. Single Race might be another story if one is especially clever with their use of weapons (and boost pads). :)

- F

[piranha wiper]

woo, i can now say that i too have the pure and a spanking new white slim and lite psp, havent played wipeout for a while so im a little rusty, now i can say something here too, i feel like im in a big family ^_^

im gonna sweet talk our lass into getting me pulse for christmas

why is it now that piranha is the floating brick?, qirex seem quite nimble :S

[G'Kyl]

why is it now that piranha is the floating brick?, qirex seem quite nimble :S

I'm all with you. It doesn't make the game a bad one, but I don't like how they changed the characteristics of our beloved ships.

Maybe we should look at it in terms of what AG racing is - an evolution of Formula One. There, too, the cars of certain teams change from good to bad, from fast engines to more agile ones and so on...

Yet still... *g*

Ben

[Task]

Well, I've now gotten my EU Pure to 317 golds. And I don't think I'm going to get it any further. Not because I'm done with it, but simply because I picked up Pulse today. I'll be unwrapping that tomorrow, and it'll probably be a long, long time before I attempt to "finish" EU Pure.

For anyone interested, here it is:
Total game play time: 39:27.01
Single Race: 18:10.08
Time Trial: 11:43.39
Tournament: 9:12.52
Zone: 20.22
Free Play: 0
Multiplayer: 12.47
275 PLs, 628 golds, 130 silvers, 44 bronze, 1819 tournament points.

Overall, my favourite things about EU Pulse are that Quakes work on Khara, the extra ships are awesome, the extra tracks are unique and have excellent design, and the only problem I found with it is that in every track except Sinucit there's this bug where you start at the back of the pack and behind a bunch of ships that don't know how to turbo. This however is better than NA version where that bug exists on all tracks including Sinucit. I'm not sure how that bug got through QA, why does only one track put you in the correct starting position? 8 )

Pure was good. Here comes the next challenger!

Thanks, and good night.

[Mad-Ice]

Thanks for making this thread. Good discriptions of tracks, weapons and items and stuff!

A good read for newcomers.

[Task]

8 ) Thanks. Glad you liked it!

[q_dmc12]

Multiplayer: 12.47


Those 12 mins were probably from the US tour aren't they ;)

[Task]

8 D Of course they were!
That was the only time I've done any multi with the EU version, and that was before I even owned the EU version. We just didn't have quite enough copies of the game for everyone to play the same. I ended up being the guy that had to be able to play either so that fewer people would have to change UMDs.

[Task]

Well, 3 months with Pulse was about enough for me.
I'm sure I'll get back to it later, but I've found multiplayer Pure to be more fun. So I'm back to Pure, thread re-opened! 8 )

It started out as a little project, but oh how it has grown!

Initially I was bothered that every time I ran a non-Phantom race in multiplayer I'd earn records all over the place. It's been so long since I played non-Phantom SR that even if I played badly I was beating my previous records by 10 seconds at least. So I figured I'd just load up Vineta K with a fast ship and run through all the tracks and blow away all my old records. Then I entered the times (since I didn't want those sad old times representing me on the tables) and noticed that I was suddenly taking the gold all over the place! The lack of activity on the NA tables is mostly to blame there, I'm sure. 8 )

So I took on the Pure NA Vector challenge, and something astounding happened! I was flying Porto Kora, blowing away my old times, when suddenly there was something in front of me... and it was an AI ship. What? What lap was this? What position am I in? Frantically looking all over the screen I realized that this was the 3rd lap and I was indeed in 1st place. I had lapped the AI opponents! I knew Pure was a little slow, but this was definitely unexpected. "Ah!" I said to myself, "It's because of all the BR opportunities I'm taking!". PK being the BR-happy track that it is, it was pretty easy to lap the AI. Was this possible on any other track? Hmmm...

Blue Ridge was a bit tough to get, Arnaud had a fairly good time there.
Citta Nuova took some work, but mostly because it's not my best track. I'm better at it now. 8 )
Manortop and Khara Descent were definitely tough nuts to crack. I actually had to pull out Triakis for them! I doubt Arnaud was really trying for records when he made most of these times, because I beat a lot of them with the Icaras, and it didn't take me too long. Still, I'm firmly on top here and I'm happy with my achievement. However transitory it may be. 8 D

Staten Park was the next track that I lapped the AI on, all while chasing that crazy Italian around the track. He's got mad Zone skills. Mad I say! I never did manage to take that record, it would've taken 2 turbos a lap I think. I would love to hear the story about that race! Pierluigi Alemanno! Tell us the story about Pure NA SR Vector Staten Park! How did you keep up such great speed? Simply blazing!

So, Vector is firmly defeated, moving on...

[Darkdrium777]

Porto Kora is easy to lap the AI because some of them can stay stuck on the walls near the first bump (On the left side) after the long right turn from the starting grid and also on the last U turn before the starting grid some will ram into the walls either inside or outside of the turn. So yeah, lapping the AI is pretty easy, in any speed class. I wouldn't know about Staten Park though, I have not played it enough for this to happen to me (Although I mostly play in Phantom and it may be impossible to lap them at that speed.)

[Asayyeah]

Jay : I haven't pushed hard in N/A Pure, you right, i stayed focused on the Pal one where most of the players were competing. Recently at Al's house we practiced to your Toronto's tourney and i did few new Goteki records in phantom TT, i am gonna upload them soon into WZ table.
I shall find time to use Goteki in this table

[Task]

To keep my hand in, I've continued with my attempt to dominate the Pure NA tables. So far, so good.

Chengou Project was the first real stumbling block I hit. My old adversary Tom has practiced this one, and I just could NOT break his time. He's got me beat by over 2 seconds and I can't catch him for trying. Maybe one day I'll be feeling the track and take the big T around fast enough to beat him. Maybe. Don't bet on it though, I'm just not that good on this track.
Blue Ridge was another toughie, with both Tom and Arnaud beating me by a second here. Again, couldn't crack it. Oddly enough, the Icaras is my best ship here, which just tells me that I'm doing something wrong in the other craft. 8 P
Sinucit was a similar story, except that I was able to improve my time with both Zone and Triakis, but not by enough to take the gold. Still a second behind. Again!
I had to pull out the Triakis for Citta, but I got a really nice time when I did. It's just silly how dominating Triakis is on some tracks. Same thing for Sol 2.
Karbonis OTOH is totally made for the Zone. Once I pulled out that true king of speed and handling the seconds just fell off.
Manor Top was another track that I needed the Triakis for.
Ubermall I've found to just be a difficult track. Quite often I'll still be in 4th or something ridiculous in the 2nd lap. Something about that track makes it really difficult for me to pass what is usually a slow AI. Zone took some time off, Triakis took off even more.

Overall, a bit of time with the Icaras is usually enough to get me the top time on the track. When it isn't, the Zone will quite often give it to me. When that doesn't work, Triakis is all that's left to try. I'm still really happy about how the Triakis isn't absolutely required to take the records. It's definitely broken, but not horrifically.

Time to tackle Flash then. 8 )

[Asayyeah]

Congrats Jay , i already checked few flash new records you did : good job with Icaras and zone. :clap

Usually you can shave with Triakis between 2 till 5 sec on a racetime phantom done by any other ships. ( Pal and ntsc)
But the question is , do we really need or want to use triakis in the ntsc table? i think no for myself.
When you compare number of players in the Pal table to the Ntsc one, we can stay with a ntsc league of non-triakis : if we want to compete for the fastest time possible, Pal triakis table is the one to choose : if you want a variety of ships ala pulse ranking site , you can use your fav non-BigT one in the ntsc league :)

[Tomahawk]

But the question is , do we really need or want to use triakis in the ntsc table? i think no for myself.
When you compare number of players in the Pal table to the Ntsc one, we can stay with a ntsc league of non-triakis : if we want to compete for the fastest time possible, Pal triakis table is the one to choose : if you want a variety of ships ala pulse ranking site , you can use your fav non-BigT one in the ntsc league :)

Sooo, is the grand master of WipEout afraid that Task and me will smoke his records when we switch to using Triakis instead of Zone and Icaras or what? ;) Since we can compare our records of each ship alone now, I don't think we need a "gentlemen agreement" for the tables.

[Asayyeah]

smoke
:sonar
Sweet smoke - 'just a poke'
:sonar

[Tomahawk]

I've stopped smoking funny things, I only smoke wipeout records from time to time. :p

[Task]

I like to smoke fish.
But anyway, yeah, if you have a look at the EU Pure tables, they're just totally dominated by Triakis records, but the NA tables don't have much Triakis at all in them. So I can certainly see that as a good reason to continue in my practice of avoiding the Triakis unless absolutely necessary. 8 )
Icaras, Goteki, Zone, they're all good ships. I'll fly them. So far I haven't had to "resort" to the Triakis much anyways. After all, I've been able to beat most of the times just by spending 10 minutes in an Icaras. 8 D

That seems to be less true the higher I go in speed class though. 8 P
We shall see...

[Axel]

Hey guys, is it still possible to get the PURE download packs?

[Task]

Should be.
The threads you're looking for (found by searching for "download packs" restricted to Pure forum) are here:
Someone missing packs and looking to catch them all (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4461&highlight=packs+download)
This is the main discussion about the available packs (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2707&highlight=packs+download)
Here's someone looking for the packs (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4054&highlight=packs+download)
Same problem, different person (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2713&highlight=packs+download)

That should do ya.

[Axel]

Brilliant dude. Thanks a lot!!

[Frances_Penfold]

Icaras, Goteki, Zone, they're all good ships. I'll fly them. So far I haven't had to "resort" to the Triakis much anyways. After all, I've been able to beat most of the times just by spending 10 minutes in an Icaras.


IMHO Triakis is somewhat over-rated, at least for lap time trials, and at least for my flying style :)

It's definitely possible to get a top three or top five time in the PAL version of the Wipeout Pure with Goteki or Zone, at least for the tracks I have worked on recently. In the NTSC version, you can probably get the number 1 spot in some courses.

Not that Triakis isn't a great ship-- but it's benefits are confounded by the fact that it's a favorite of the top racers, so it tends to dominate the upper levels of the charts.

[Mad-Ice]

Congrats Jay , i already checked few flash new records you did : good job with Icaras and zone. :clap

Usually you can shave with Triakis between 2 till 5 sec on a racetime phantom done by any other ships. ( Pal and ntsc)
But the question is , do we really need or want to use triakis in the ntsc table? i think no for myself.
When you compare number of players in the Pal table to the Ntsc one, we can stay with a ntsc league of non-triakis : if we want to compete for the fastest time possible, Pal triakis table is the one to choose : if you want a variety of ships ala pulse ranking site , you can use your fav non-BigT one in the ntsc league :)


Sooo, is the grand master of WipEout afraid that Task and me will smoke his records when we switch to using Triakis instead of Zone and Icaras or what? ;) Since we can compare our records of each ship alone now, I don't think we need a "gentlemen agreement" for the tables.

Hmmmmm, that will be quite interesting! If you Tom and Jay will set your best times in Triakis and Asa will try to beat you with any other ship. :bat

[Asayyeah]

hey Don't forget you, Mister Bad Pad Man :g , just stop playing Pulse intensively :D and go back to your Pure roots, mate :)
I'd like to see what can be done by the flying Dutch Mad with its goteki on phantom Ntsc ;)

[Mad-Ice]

Thanks mate,

this gives me an idea, just have a look in the arena! 10 min after the time of this post.:g