I picked up Fusion yesterday...

[Kscorps]

...for 5 dollars. Anyway I don't know why you guys don't like Fusion very much, it's just done a bit differently than some of the other Wipeouts. One thing I don't like is how the ships handle differantly. This is wipeout not some other racing game!

[eLhabib]

And that's also the major concern most of us have with Fusion.
Personally, I also think that the logo design, ship design, and overall presentation are heavily flawed, but your mileage may vary.

[RJ O'Connell]

You just answered the question in your post.

The handling feels nothing like any other installment. It was done partly in response to novice players who felt the learning curve was too steep. Sadly it just alienated the veterans. Plus, the PAL version was so bug-loaded it was almost unplayable, even in the NTSC game which was delayed because it didn't have a publisher for so long there were still some odd glitches.

However, it introduced some new teams that can co-exist well with the "elite eight" of Wipeout 3 (and have), it had one of the most immersive backstories, and it was a very ambitious game in general. Shame it didn't execute as well, it would have kept the franchise on the PS2 or at least become an instant classic. :/

Oops, seems like someone answered your question before I did XD Hi eL.

[Kscorps]

Well they sure as hell made it accessible, I talked my brother into playing multiplayer today and he owned at it within 5 minutes. On the other hand, I sucked due to my familiarity with Pulse.

[RJ O'Connell]

Yes it is very novice friendly, and with two-player split screen it's a good multiplayer game for any skill level.

[KevInCal]

I never have understood in the slightest the mass dislike for Wipeout Fusion. I think it's a really good Wipeout game with awesome speed, graphics & music. The controls seem a little different from the previous Wipeouts, but nothing that hindered my experience much at all... That said, why isn't Wipeout Fusion in the Records section!?

[rdmx]

Too hard to keep track of - upgrade levels, etc plus the bugs which made you respawn at the finish line kinda prohibit good record making.

[RJ O'Connell]

The only way I know of would be an "all or nothing" approach - either leave the ships at stock (Vector) or 100% upgraded (Phantom) and either way Piranha would own all the top times. (Not that I'm hating on Piranha in any way )

Just tried it with the neG today, definitely an improvement.

[flashbax]

When u get enuff credits u can unlock all the other pilots just by upgrading the first ship of each team...just something to do when your bored lol..I like fusion TBH the big bulky ships r something diffrent and the sound tracks a cracker

[Medusa]

I'd love it if it was called simply "Fusion". I dislike it because it does not fit the title "Wipeout" that it carries. Zone mode good. Game mode fun and easy, but not wipeout. Therefore bad.

[RJ O'Connell]

It's definitely as fast as WO3 at Phantom (greyscale prototype) class.

[Kscorps]

Some series have their black sheep, and this was WipEout's black sheep. WipEout 2097 is to WipEout Fusion as Zelda 1 is to Zelda 2. All series have these.

[KevInCal]

Hmm, I wonder does the hate of Fusion have something to do with the fact that the PAL version is MUCH more buggy than the NTSC version!? That's what I heard anyway. I've played my US NTSC version of Fusion a LOT and have hardly noticed any bugs etc... The only thing I really notice is at the start of the race when the camera pans over the ships, it's kinda jerky. It doesn't bother me.

[RJ O'Connell]

That would also be a factor.

Now I'm glad it took so long for the game to find a publisher here - SL could work out the bugs, such as the dreaded "starting grid system epic fail" bug where your PS2 melts if you don't skip over the starting grid sequence.*

*It's not quite that bad.

[Lance]

I suspect that the behaviour I've heard of where it seems the racecraft feel like they're on noiseless steel spheres rolling on glass at a constant fixed height above the visible surface might have something to do with it. If it ain't floaty, it ain't WipEout. It's F-Zero instead. I've played a computer sim of the original F-Zero. It was horrible. I hated the feel of it. No float, no low-flying airplane feel. Blech!

[RJ O'Connell]

They still pivot from the rear unlike any game made after Pure. So it's not quite like driving a car without wheels.

[JABBERJAW]

The game itself shows you your race time, but there are no records kept in game of your best times, which is assinine. Also, (possible spoiler you, (stop reading if you don't want the game completely wrecked) It is faster to ride the walls around a corner than to make the corner perfectly, and with only 3 laps, the control does not get bad enough to make is slower. In my tourney, I put the lap count to 5 to make racing correctly a neccesity, but we did not have time to play fusion at the end.

[Sausehuhn]

[...]rolling on glass at a constant fixed height above the visible surface might have something to do with it. If it ain't floaty, it ain't WipEout.[...]

You mean just like in WOPure and WOPulse? Lance, since WO3 there was no WipEout game that brought back the old school feeling. The ships do not turn at the back anymore, the ships do not change height if you press up or down, the ships do not press down their rears at hard turning. That's all gone.
To be honest: Pure and Pulse do - IMO - not differ that much from Fusion as anybody says.

I still don't understand why the ship's turning point is now at the center and not at the back (where the engine is). And the float is all gone as well. It's more like one-time-bumping after a jump, crashing the nose into the track surface once to gain the standard height again.
Pure and Pulse do not have the track-lock (except for Magstrips, that is) so the ship can do jumps. But that alone does not make it feel floaty.

WOHD vids looked more floaty. And I hope the game really is.

[Lance]

I never said that I think that Pure and Pulse are WipEout.



.... Better than Fusion? Okay. ....

[Sausehuhn]

Hah! I know you didn't
Anyway, here's a graphic which is self-explanatory.