My Thoughts on WipEout 2048

Happy Holidays, fellow pilots.

I (finally!) finished all the single player events on WipEout 2048, and I figured I'd share a few thoughts on the game from the perspective of a long-time pilot.

The Intro: Love the positivity and "history lesson" it provides. I agree that it'd be neat to see the "ball racers" get a game of their own. One of my favorite intros of the series. But I think 2097/XL still wins in that.

The Gameplay: I admit I don't like how the gameplay has changed. I don't like how weapon pads have been divided into offensive and defensive ones. I miss the older physics models. And worse yet, I seem to have trouble knowing where I'm going. I don't know why, but the walls of the tracks seem to be SO MUCH HARDER TO SEE in 2048 than in any other installment of the series. Not sure why. Zone mode is the exception to this. As I can see fine, there.

Racebox: It needed to happen. It didn't. 'Nuff said.

World-Building: This is where I feel that WipEout 2048 excels. Being a huge sucker for WipEout lore, 2048 made me ridiculously happy. I loved seeing the birth of our beloved sport, and even the origins of Altima VII. (A fitting final track to bring the series full circle, imho.) But all the adverts, pilot interview videos, news tickers ("Belmondo calls for standardization" "Will Pir-Hana leave the sport?"), etc, really make 2048 feel like it could actually be real. And it did so in a more effective way than any previous entry in the series.

All told, not a bad game, but one that could have used some more tweaking. Would tell Sony to shut up and take my money if they got it working on the Vita TV...

I just hope we'll get to visit that world again in the future... Still hoping Sony will give Firesprite the nod eventually...

Keep flying, everyone.