Well, then I suppose I gotta be honest, too;
My interest in WipEout as a series
ends with WipEout Pulse. It ended about three weeks ago, to be exact, because that's the last time I played the game. Admittedly it was on shaky ground with Pure because I just didn't like the handling progression or the barrel rolls in that, but my love for the series is now gone completely. The Euro Convention this year will be my last tour of duty with the game, because after that I wont have a whole lot of reason to play it.
I didn't get into WipEout over Barrel Rolls and the complete weapons saturation that it's become, and those are the reasons I'm now not into it. I'm not going to continue to play the series just because the name WipEout is slapped on the front cover.
WipEout HD marks three games in a row with barrel rolls and - assuming it plays like Pulse - four in a row where weapons have dictated the gameplay. How can I continue to pretend that it's my favourite gaming series when it's been eight years since a version came out that I truly loved playing?
Truth is, I cant. I might as well be running a Manic Miner fan-site, longing for the days before Miner Willy moved into that mansion and it all went to hell, keeping up the vain hope that there's some way back.
Maybe one day in the distant future there'll be a version that has more in common with the
racing game I liked to begin with than with Crash Team Racing. But I'm not going to fill the gap barrel rolling and reverse quaking as if it's all I ever wanted WipEout to be.
The fact is there are plenty more games on the shelves - so many that if there's a game mechanic that's pissing me off then there are lots of other games I can play instead. That applies to WipEout as much as it applied to Madden when they made it too arcadey and I quit playing that after six years solid.
Don't sweat it, I'll keep the site up, pay the bills, do the moderating, all that jazz. But the WipEout that I love and the WipEout that people who are voting "yes" love are totally different things.*
*It is worth mentioning that the outcome of this poll has no bearing at all on WipEout HD.