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amplificated
4th February 2012, 01:03 AM
As I've now finished the single player campaigns on elite and seen a good chunk of the experience (not everything, yet...), I figure some of you may appreciate a few thoughts on the single player side of the game.

Let's get this out of the way first:
is the game good?
Yes. It has a similar playstyle to HD with a few new quirks that will take players a while to adjust to, mainly due to the way sideshifting now works (it feels very different to HD, a lot harder/sharper) and the new tracks being very different.

What's good then?
The new tracks are mostly all good, and are good fun playing around in, the skillcuts feel like they offer more opportunities even if they become your "default" path through a track. The ships are fun to use and each is nicely varied.

Getting all Elite in the campaign was a basic task for me (apart from one event, but more on that later...), but I think for new players it will offer a decent challenge, without the frustration of offered by HD's Elite AI. As someone familiar with the franchise (to a degree, anyway), it was good enough to keep me interested.

The ghost functionality is excellent: you can not only face your own, but see the next highest ghost on the global ladder (I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong), which changes after each lap - you don't have to restart the race or anything, it will automatically load the next ghost you have to beat.

Or, you can hop on Near and see if there are any people in your area who have issued a challenge. It's pretty damn neat, someone here in Edinburgh put down a time which I handily beat, but unfortunately I haven't seen exactly what happens *now*. Nothing spectacular happened in the game other than a quick message telling me I beat the guy's time, so I don't know if the player was notified, or if I had to issue my own challenge and he would just load up his next best time if he beats it, or etc.. Still, I like the basic idea of it, and even if it's only implemented rudamentally, it's still good :P

So what's new?
Other than what I mentioned above, the biggest difference and new thing to the series is obviously the front end: menus, options, that kinda thing.
It is incredibly simple, straightforward, and easy to use. Using the touch screen means you have everything available to you with one touch. In concept, it could have been good. Unfortunately, I believe Studio Liverpool chose style over content for the release of the game, as the only way for a "Racebox" mode to fit into their plan as it is, is to have every individual event as a node on the menu.
It really would not have hurt to have had fewer usable nodes on the main screen and included menus that would have easily allowed all the options typically available in Racebox mode with just an extra couple of touches that would not have compromised usability, but actually increase it.

To clarify: accessing a track to play in WO2048 requires you touch a "node". Each node is its own event, with speed, track, etc. values attached to it. These are, nearly entirely, dedicated to the campaign-proper, with a few hidden tracks you have to unlock and complete to go for A+ events or receive the prototype ships. There are no tournaments or other ways of accessing multiple tracks with one touch of a node, and no submenus besides a quick review of the event.
The only non-campaign nodes are those which are dedicated to a single speed lap event - one each for c, b, a, and a+. There are no nodes for time trial, single race, zone, or any other mode than the campaign and speed lap. The dedication to the nodes is what I meant by Studio Liverpool dedicating the front end to a lost cause that hindered usability for the end user.

Is the game missing anything?
*) The ability to play any track in any mode (e.g. Racebox mode) at ease (or at all - Altima C class against bots? TT? Combat? No chance).
*) Controller customisation. In most previous WO games I've played, there were extensive options that allowed the user to change the function of each individual button. No such ability exists in 2048, there are 3 simple presets.
*) Reverse tracks. For the last 3 WO games I believe, there have been reverse versions of each track.
*) Stats. What the hell happened to the stats? The 7 listed stats are so limited and lacking in relevant detail as to be worthless in 2048.
*) Online leaderboards. This is one of my biggest complaints: only the top 8 times on each track are available. I think this is one of the biggest problems in 2048's front end - there is simply no depth to it at all. I like simplicity, but only to an extent - when you forego content as basic as this in favour of keeping a clutterless front end, you have problems. There's no way around it.

Any bugs?
Not sure how common this is, but I've heard of other people experienceing this: connection to the PSN drops out very frequently, even over a stable connection to the internet. This happens even when playing, pausing the event and can be incredibly frustrating, especially as signing into the network is something that apparently has to be done manually each time, i.e. going to options to allow connection to be prompted and it generally being in-your-face.
On my first (and only, so far) multiplayer game I blew up as soon as the word "go!" appeared and was booted from the game, only then to be told my connection for whatever reason was dropped.

What sucks
Primarily, just the fact that so much stuff that would typically be thought unmissable, is missing. And the PSN bug. And Empire Climb is very bland...

Secondarily, I would have to say Combat mode. To highlight, I spent a significant portion of my time with the game on one combat event just to get elite - the only event in the game i had difficulty with, and it was purely because it was based entirely on luck with which weapons you got and how much health enemy ships still had.

Combat plays a large part in the campaign, and there is no way to avoid it in multiplayer besides leaving the lobby and trying again. It's just random nonsense, and IMO, it isn't WipEout. It isn't racing. It's something for the masses, and this is something that reflects in the design of the game as a whole. While there is enough content here to appeal to the more pure WipEout enthusiast, I feel 2048 is a knife edge that just gets the gameplay balance right - this time - but with the problems in the front end design, it's pushed to the negative side when it comes to online multiplayer.

Tertiary? I'd have to say the way things are unlocked. It's not bad per se, but personally I'd have liked to have unlocked all the ships (I still don't have them all) by the time I finished the campaign on Elite, and the A+ events should be part of the campaign rather than just unlockable nodes.

In summary
The actual part of what makes WipEout good - the racing gameplay - is here, and is as good as ever and even takes a new spin on things that actually works out well. There are a lot of problems in 2048, but none of them actually affect this core attraction. (Well, apart from the PSN bug...)

If SL support this title with patches, it could end up being a good package. Right now, it's just a good game wrapped in a sub-par package.

kurdt_the_goat
4th February 2012, 01:22 AM
Can you clarify the racebox complaint? I'm not at all concerned if i can't play every permutation the game puts up... but can you choose to time trial any track on any speed? Though even then, i'm only really bothered if you can't choose the fastest speed!

lanceurdehache
4th February 2012, 01:32 AM
Nice review,

they forced you to play Combat or Racing event in multiplayer ? wow i loved Eliminator in WipEout HD/Fury but forcing people to play a specific event is bad...

When you are voting for the 2 track does it is one Racing and one Combat or they are forcing you to choose between two track for a specific event ?

Does the game have the same problem as Motorstorm Apocalypse ?, because in that game, you were waiting as long as you were playing because between each race you haved to vote the track, pick your car, bet on someone

And A+ event are probably optionnal in the campaign to make the game more accessible

Does the AI want to win or make you loose ? because in Wipeout HD they want to make you loose because they were cleary keeping their weapon for when you overtake them and using them on you and not the other AI that is in the front of him during the entire race...

amplificated
4th February 2012, 01:57 AM
Clarified the menu-node-racebox relationship.

I'm not sure about multiplayer much, I never got to vote on anything, and the only events I seemed to be joining on retries were combat - which multiplayer campaign node you touch could and at least in some cases almost definitely would affect what gamemode you will be playing though. The first node is all I have available while the PSN is still giving me problems however, and its requirements are ambiguous and could be applied to combat or single race events.

Never played a Motorstorm game.

The AI bots in A+ are tough. Below that, I think the AI has been quite tame compared to HD's Elite "AI".

love9sick
4th February 2012, 01:59 AM
Just like Wipeout HD, I couldn't care less for combat, eliminator, zone, and that shooter in HD events stats. Novice for all those events it is just to blow past them. Who cares what the leader boards are for combat in wipeout? lol not me. All that matters is lap times and time trials when it comes to competition. Only top 8? man, you will never see me there :( when it comes to global. Maybe Liver Pool will patch the menu? one can hope. I really like the NEAR thing, I wanna see someone beat my time who lives near me hah. +1 on the write up, really appreciate it!

and I still don't get how you are supposed to play time trial lol, even after everything I have read. Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to get the game to see. Can I run 99 laps on a track over and over again for lap times?

F.E.I.S.A.R
4th February 2012, 03:49 AM
Any differences between the Altima VII of WipEOut 2048 and that of the first WipEout outher than the skillcuts?

JABBERJAW
4th February 2012, 03:51 AM
@ kurdt, no you cannot. It is a horrible front end, you do not get much at all in the terms of fast time trials. It is really bad

@ amp. I played some mp, you vote on two different choices for each node, sometimes like combat on one track, or race on another. I think each node always keeps the same two choices, although i could be wrong on that. I find it stupid that there are no real races yet, meaning the goal is to win a race. The goals are different for every person, man I just want to be able to race, as you say in a racebox type setting. There is NO choosing track, speed, mode option.

Coaster1235
4th February 2012, 07:36 AM
So after finishing the singleplayer campaign SL obviously expects you to move to multiplayer campaign and never touch sp campaign ever again. So the mp campaign is basically a lottery? Picking a node is your only way to remotely influence what you might be playing? Does the ad-hoc have more hope of being competent? (sorry if this is too multiplayer-oriented)

leungbok
4th February 2012, 08:21 AM
The goals are different for every person, man I just want to be able to race, as you say in a racebox type setting. There is NO choosing track, speed, mode option.

As for the offline, an online campaign is supposed to unlock stuffs, let's hope those stuff will reassure us a bit ;)

G'Kyl
4th February 2012, 08:24 AM
I'd have to rank combat higher on the negative side. It's ridiculous, useless actually, if you're looking for fun, tactical combat action. The way it's implemented it has nothing to do with clever racing or picking opponents apart. There's a pack of racers - and they're always racing as a pack - and you can't tell ships apart, and all you have to do is get the ****ing weapon, somehow shoot in the right direction, get the next weapon, shoot again and so on. Firing backwards became almost useless. Reason 1 is the pack in frOnt of you, Reason 2 is due to the button/stick config you can't look back while accelerating. And yes, I agree, it gets ridiculously random in one particular event towards the end.

There's many, many good things about 2048. Combat, however, and its annoying prominence during the campaign is among the worst things WipEout I've ever raced. And I did like Fury's eliminator a lot!

JABBERJAW
4th February 2012, 11:04 AM
@ coaster, no, adhoc is worse at this time. I don't have hope for this if WE don't contact SL about the very serious problems. I don't think it will get changed unless people are really upset about it

leungbok
4th February 2012, 12:23 PM
Do your advancements on online campaign unlocked more choices for ad hoc ?

Asayyeah
4th February 2012, 12:50 PM
Thx Amplificated, very good review :+
Online looks terrible : it could be an epic fail if they do anything to patch it but I doubt :
I fear the dlc is already done, matching the existing specs of the game, and working on a patch reorganising the whole online set up is just too big for only 2 or 3 people, because the whole team has already moved on a new project.
Pure speculation from me I hope

lanceurdehache
4th February 2012, 03:39 PM
I dont think the DLC is already done, because usually they say what it is or what it would be when it is near completion or complete, i dont know why but i m expecting a DLC pretty much as big as Fury, i dont think they had time to make the DLC because the game was made in 18 months too and with the lack of the custom control and racebox, it is clear that they did not have time to polished the game. They already confirmed that they were working in custom control, i hope they are gonna do a racebox too.

trk_rkd
4th February 2012, 04:39 PM
sounds promising, menus do sound silly but i'm sure i'll end up loving everything else. wipeout has always been by far and away my favorite.

Mad-Ice
4th February 2012, 06:14 PM
.......They already confirmed that they were working in custom control, i hope they are gonna do a racebox too.

Where did you get that info from?

I really hope your right! And if DLC will be as big as FURY I am so happy: custom controls, racebox offline and online, new tracks and maybe even Zombie Mode, that sounded so much better then Combat Mode.

Here's hoping!

lanceurdehache
4th February 2012, 08:35 PM
http://us.playstation.com/livechat/wipeout.html


Comment From Aaron Jean
Will there be options in order to customize the controls?




Unfortunately no. There are the 3 pre-set configurations at the moment.

G'Kyl
4th February 2012, 09:12 PM
Which is not confirmation, it's simply stating the status quo. Sounds like they're working on it though, but they can't/don't want to confirm anything just yet.

love9sick
4th February 2012, 09:40 PM
Why do I always miss these live chats. Annoying how the same questions were asked over and over again.

JABBERJAW
4th February 2012, 10:35 PM
At Leungbok, no, nothing else can be chosen. I might say it isn't done, since it does not make sense, but the other stuff doesn't make sense either.

leungbok
4th February 2012, 11:29 PM
A+ challenges all completed in elite (altima's the easiest), nothing more unlocked from this. I can unlock 3 ships increasing my rank (rank41 = auricom speed, rank45 = auricom fighter, rank50 = pir-hana prototype).
Look forward to euro server's launch to unlock more stuff on online campaign.

JABBERJAW
5th February 2012, 12:25 AM
You could play the shortest track speed lap for 10 hours straight and unlock the rest :)

F.E.I.S.A.R
5th February 2012, 03:16 AM
Anyone notice any differences between the Altima of 2048 and Altima of WipEout 1?

lanceurdehache
5th February 2012, 04:08 AM
Which is not confirmation, it's simply stating the status quo. Sounds like they're working on it though, but they can't/don't want to confirm anything just yet.

He could have simply ignored the question if he didn t want to sugest they were working on it but he didn t


Why do I always miss these live chats. Annoying how the same questions were asked over and over again.

They choosed the question, they simply answer the easiest one so it would have no impact if you were there

kaori
6th February 2012, 06:06 PM
A+ challenges all completed in elite (altima's the easiest), nothing more unlocked from this. I can unlock 3 ships increasing my rank (rank41 = auricom speed, rank45 = auricom fighter, rank50 = pir-hana prototype).
Look forward to euro server's launch to unlock more stuff on online campaign.

I doubt more and more about unlocking grids for Time Trial and Single Race (or Combat). I thought if we have that for the Speed Lap mode, it's because the Near challenges are speed laps !

JABBERJAW
6th February 2012, 10:02 PM
A+ CHALLENGES

These are supposed to be a challenge, but here is why they are quite crappy, and way to difficult to beat. Now if Sony is reading this, do not make the tracks easier in the next version, just calm down your evil AI a bit

1) at any point you get near the lead, EVERY SHIP smashes your ship, you go from wall to wall, really freaking fun. They abide by no physics model, therefore you cannot move them more than 1 millimeter. New players may throw the vita through the TV screen, resulting in them having to buy a new VITA and brand new SONY TV

2) at any point you pass any ship, they all shoot just you, you go wall to wall, really freaking fun. New players take the game out and smash the cartridge into oblivion, eliminating any resale of the game


3) at any point you hit a CPU ship with a weapon, you may pass them, but guess what, they abide by no slowdown physics, like they had a turbo saved every time, which reading the previous posts, that's not the case. Upon them immediate catch up, you are smashed by ships or weapons ( read results above)

1a,2a,3a). All above items cause the framerate to drop below 20, and the inability to steer ( read results above)


If you aRe superhuman, or lucky, you can get by and hit an skill cut to get a quick lead, but don't touch a wall or ( read results above). If you do get that lead, the framerate is fine, but NO mistakes of any sort can be made. This should be a really fun mode, but all the ships there really makes the framerate bad, and lessens the enjoyability significantly. Online should be good, BUT not if they force you to take up to 8 players with no choice.

That being said, if a racebox is implemented, and you can set the amount of players, 2-4 should play extremely good

lanceurdehache
6th February 2012, 10:16 PM
Does the Elite AI are mostly use the skill cut or they are mostly using the "Standart" route.

I hope the AI is not worse than WipEout HD...

JABBERJAW
7th February 2012, 12:16 AM
They do both. You need to insist on driving straight, and it seems you need the right ship on some of these. There is going to be significant differences in times in this game

Darkdrium777
7th February 2012, 01:24 AM
New players may throw the vita through the TV screen, resulting in them having to buy a new VITA and brand new SONY TVThe solution to this is to not play next to a TV :g

Bleh I hate cheating and frustrating AI. HD's wasn't that bad once you got used to it (if you were able to) but it was horrible for lots of people.
I have to ask honestly: is this an overreaction or is it really like you say? (I mean the cheating bit, not the framerates bit.) Have you tried every trick in the book?
By that last point I mean that the focus is on weapons in this game. Tried using the maximum amount of weapons once in the lead to defend yourself? Mom always said to eat your greens.

JABBERJAW
7th February 2012, 02:13 AM
You can beat it, I just started playing a few days ago. The cheating is preposterous, and you have to make NO Mistakes on the last lap, not a one. Using an autopilot on the last lap helps, where the ships cannot push you around. You can definitely hold a lead, but you really need to race perfect, which is difficult where the skill cuts are tough. I wouldn't want to play this over and over going for records. oh, you know, the framerate when all the ships are onscreen in the beginning makes getting any lead extremely difficult.

Stardragon88
7th February 2012, 02:40 AM
Since the A+ missions seem to all be 10 lap races, one thing I did was go all out on the offensive weapon pads in the early laps. The rubberbanding AI seems to work both ways and if you're sitting at 8/8th place they seem to slow down a little for me, so you don't suffer as much skipping turbos and autopilots for weapons.

10 laps takes long enough that you can actually kill a couple or more of the cpu ships. Getting 1st or 3rd out of 5 ships is much easier than 8, and less of them trying to ram you in the last lap when you finally overtake them. Hoarding autopilot for difficult sections is really clutch too.

leungbok
7th February 2012, 05:51 AM
I hope the AI is not worse than WipEout HD...

IMO it is !
Like on HD AI is fast, shoot you with evil precision, but in 2048 all AI ships are racing with one second of difference between the first and the last. You can pass from first place to last one in half a second. When you try to overtake you better have a shield ready to be deployed ! ;)
Skill cuts and BRs as much as possible to keep the lead and as Al said, don't hit walls !!

love9sick
7th February 2012, 07:44 AM
So I am guessing there is a selection for Novice-normal-elite again? Are you guys talking about the Elite Ai in 2048?

Temet
7th February 2012, 07:51 AM
From what I know : 2048 season is easy, and it's getting harder with 2049 season and 2050 season.

leungbok
7th February 2012, 08:26 AM
Let's say AI is novice in 2048 season, normal in 2049 and elite in 2050 and A+ challenges.

Stardragon88
7th February 2012, 10:08 AM
Anyone had any luck with that.. particular combat race on Altima? :brickwall It's absolutely ridiculous, I wonder if someone made a typo setting the elite goal. I don't think any other mission has that much difference between elite and pass clears, and no quakes either.

leungbok
7th February 2012, 11:52 AM
Take auricom prototype, stay in the pack, hit absolutely ALL the yellow weapon pads, fire immediately and absorb cannon. A bit of luck helps also ! ;)

JABBERJAW
7th February 2012, 12:45 PM
No difficulty choices. There are no options

newtype
14th February 2012, 05:14 AM
Anyone care to comment on how robust the in-game, stat-tracking functionality is?

JABBERJAW
14th February 2012, 11:09 AM
It's not robust, think opposite

newtype
14th February 2012, 02:35 PM
It's not robust, think opposite

Thanks for the quick response. So, I take it it's not on par with Pulse?

amplificated
14th February 2012, 03:07 PM
*) Stats. What the hell happened to the stats? The 7 listed stats are so limited and lacking in relevant detail as to be worthless in 2048.

From the original post.

JABBERJAW
14th February 2012, 04:35 PM
Just the top 8 for that event, no laps nothing. They improved the gameplay immensely, and completely neutered the entire front end, ALL the stuff from pure/pulse/ HD

Temet
14th February 2012, 05:13 PM
Yeah, finally they really did a big jump backward for 2048, nice vision of a prequel SL, love it :+