I've played it

[yawnstretch]

So I had about 15 minutes play-time yesterday and played through 4 different tracks.

Sony staff were super strict about photography so I'll just describe my experience in words!

The vita feels nice. The analogue sticks are a little sensitive/delicate but they have a nice rubber coating and I was able to race intensively with no problems at all. The screen appears to be about twice the psp's size but it's not of course - the extra details afforded by its much higher resolution certainly help.

The framerate seems solid and smooth but when there was a lot of action on screen the distant foreground resolution drops. It's a new kind of sacrifice but considering what you're getting in exchange it's probably worth it.

Couple of niggles:
Ships still bottom out even if you pull the nose up on jumps.
The missiles look like they're from HD which doesn't match the timeline for 2048 (they have that red twirly particle effect)
Barrel rolls

Sadly I couldn't hear the music or sound effects clearly because of background noise at Gamescom.

Level design is awesome. Ships look great. The game really feels like it is set at an early time period - just with more detail than we've seen in most other wipeout games. The scenery is incredibly dense with some nice layering effects when transparent tracks twist and swoop under themselves slightly (this is most visible in a track called Sol). This means you can anticipate a dip in the track unlike a solid track where you would have to reach the dip to see what's next.

The touchscreen stuff actually works much better in practice than I anticipated. You can very quickly choose your game mode by jabbing at the icons on the screen like an iPhone. The touchscreen was very fast and responsive.

It feels like a new wipeout. Yes, some features have carried over from the last few iterations but the level design really feels fresh. It doesn't have the "rehash" feeling of many of the last few recycled tracks in pulse, pure and HD. I think the tracks are what makes this game shine.

I'm very tempted to import a Japanese PS Vita but I'm concerned about the location based limitations an language/region locks etc.

I had a decent session and got a good feel and a taste for the game. Sadly this means I'll be craving 2048 for the next while with no relief!!

[UB3R~JKP]

Lucky man!


I wish I had a shot like you but since you are now CRAVING to play it...maybe that's a better thing.

[Perforu]

Can you tell something more about the game physics? It's pretty much rethorical question as from the videos it seems the physics are exactly as in Wipeout HD (glued to the track, no flying and no sliding through the turns- does the contact with a 'wall' reduce your speed as in all recent wipeouts? I hoped that they would at least come back to 2097/XL style in this particular physics feature). Damn, since the day WO HD came out I was hoping that next WO game will return to the roots (2097 / XL).. sigh. Am I the only one who feels bad about it?

[yawnstretch]

The default controls of the demo console were bizarre.

Right trigger was accelerate, left trigger was airbrake. Square was air brake. X was fire, circle consume and triangle was change view. This meant I wasted about 4 minutes on my first track trying to figure out what to do. It was a distraction but I over came it thankfully because of two things.

I tend to avoid airbrakes in all wipeout games. I consider them a form of weakness only to be used as a last resort Secondly, the tracks were VERY wide so I either fell off a wall-less track or I didn't hit a wall at all. The feisar ship was quite nimble thanks to the analogue stick and I would say it responded similarly to Pulse. The game was set to something like Flash speed so I was able to avoid most walls. One of the tracks had a divide with a red target-like texture (probably intended to warn people away) that I didn't anticipate and hit face first. It took the ship a while to get going again and cost me a few positions.

I agree that the physics are still not perfect - for me the main problem is that the ships don't bounce when you land a jump - they just smack off the ground and keep going - I'd prefer it if there was a gentle bounce without the sparks. It makes the game feel too much like fzero and less like something fun (like an arcadey Sega Rally).

Physics of the recent wipeout games have improved since Fusion (I also hated playing wipeout 3 personally) but I think the original wipeout and 2097 anti-grav feeling is not fully back yet. I would compare the feeling to ice skating rather than trampolining. Ideally you want something in between.

That said - I really enjoyed playing it and got "in the zone" very quickly. I felt the analogue controls allowed for very smooth cornering and the camera movements added to the swerving feeling whilst turning which helped to pull me into the environment even more.

[Perforu]

Thanks for the insight on physics. You confirmed what I've been able to see from the videos. Why don't they serve hardcore fans as well and add a "2097 physycis enabled" feature, that would be absolutely fantastic.. I miss flying through the stages so much. All 'new' wipeouts are pretty much like an arcade car racer, you're glued to the floor and you could easily swap the anti-grav ships models with cars or add wheels to the existing ships- noone would notice since the physics are of an arcade racer. Guess real anti-grav is dead.

[Oryx Crake]

Now hold on a minute HD gives you a lot of air if you know when and how to utilize it especially on phantom. I'm not sure I think they should make it more "flying" than that or the actual track walls would be there more as an after thought than a hindrance, especially if the tracks are wider.

About wall hits, the ones in the latest instalments haven't been perfect but I don't want to go back to wall hit=dead stop because that is simply unrealistic, not even modern cars do that unless you put something solid right in front of the bumper.

so what I am wondering about is how responsive are the controls? cause when you look at videos of people playing, they very seldomly do barrel rolls even if you know they should be able to, which can mean 1 of 2 things, the ones playing in the videos arent all that good (the most probable option) or the controls are unresponsive enough that it becomes hard to do stuff like barrel rolls and sideshifts.

[Sausehuhn]

[…] how responsive are the controls? […] which can mean 1 of 2 things, the ones playing in the videos arent all that good […]

From the videos I’ve seen, they’re barely using the air brakes, thus they’re not familiar with the controls thus I guess they don’t know about barrel rolls.

Even with WOHD a lot of people are not making barrel rolls or sideshifts.

Of course, that does not answer the question.

[Oryx Crake]

true enough sau just thinking that the beta could be laggy in that department I guess.

[UB3R~JKP]

Thanks for the insight on physics. You confirmed what I've been able to see from the videos. Why don't they serve hardcore fans as well and add a "2097 physycis enabled" feature, that would be absolutely fantastic.. I miss flying through the stages so much. All 'new' wipeouts are pretty much like an arcade car racer, you're glued to the floor and you could easily swap the anti-grav ships models with cars or add wheels to the existing ships- noone would notice since the physics are of an arcade racer. Guess real anti-grav is dead.

Hmm, don't know what racing games you play, if they had WO's physics I would be appalled.

[Perforu]

Well, that's an exaggeration of mine. But new wipeouts definitely feel MUCH less floaty than 2097 and it's the main reason why I put WO 2097 over all it's newer iterations. This and the fact that in 2097 you can have a wall contact which doesnt slow you down (I liked the sound of it too). If you played Wipeout 2097 extensively, you would know what I have in mind when I'm saying that in HD you feel like you're glued to the track.

[yawnstretch]

The physics are pretty good to be fair.

I wouldn't want the ship stopping point blank when I scrape a wall. If you've played a track like Arc prime on pulse you can see how much the track design impacts the bounciness of the anti-grav. Here's a video showing some nice bounciness at rapier speed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqykID91Dms

As I only played the 2048 tracks once I can't comment much on whether there were enough bouncy moments, but there were some little gaps in the sol tracks that acted like tiny jumps and unfortunately the ship didn't bounce much on impact.

[Autechom]

I know exactly what you mean, Perforu. Since 2097 was my first WO, I will always have a special connection to it. But that doesn´t mean I didn´t get used to newer Wipeouts. When Pure came out I was just happy to see that Fusion was history : )

[Perforu]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about collision with a wall, I'm talking about contact with a wall. If you just slightly touch the wall in WO 2097 your speed won't drop and you'll hear a grinding sound. I liked this feature. Once you touch a wall in pulse/HD your speed starts dropping the very moment you come in contact with a wall and that sucks in my opinion.

And I can appreciate new Wipeouts, it's just that with each new WO game I feel a bit disappointed. Good that I still have a neggie and a PSOne.

The physics are pretty good to be fair.

I wouldn't want the ship stopping point blank when I scrape a wall. If you've played a track like Arc prime on pulse you can see how much the track design impacts the bounciness of the anti-grav. Here's a video showing some nice bounciness at rapier speed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqykID91Dms

As I only played the 2048 tracks once I can't comment much on whether there were enough bouncy moments, but there were some little gaps in the sol tracks that acted like tiny jumps and unfortunately the ship didn't bounce much on impact.

[Perforu]

Yeah I guess you have to come from Wipeout 2097 era to know the difference and appreciate it, probably for many users here HD/ Pure / Pulse was a first Wipeout game ever. As mentioned earlier, I can appreciate new versions, but a holy grail is a 2097 physics + new graphic engine.

I know exactly what you mean, Perforu. Since 2097 was my first WO, I will always have a special connection to it. But that doesn´t mean I didn´t get used to newer Wipeouts. When Pure came out I was just happy to see that Fusion was history : )

[UB3R~JKP]

I love 2097 but to be honest, I prefer HD. Although that's just an opinion.

[Darkdrium777]

Great. Now you must invent an inception machine of some kind and give your memories to us so we can "play" it as well.

No pressure.

[Perforu]

huh, I'm not attacking anyone.. and definitely not blaming anyone for being too young to have experience with 2097 / for not bothering to go back to 2097. I'm just saying that after many many hours spent with 2097 all new wipeouts physics seem not so fun.. and probably most of guys here which appreciate the new physics would agree if they played 2097 extensively earlier.
I just dream of some sort of add-on, like a DLC to enable different physics.. (as I can imagine there won't be such a feature in 204.

[Oryx Crake]

Ah I get you perf the small small scrapes in 2097 that seemingly almost make you go faster yes? if so then yeah I loved those too

[Medusa]

So is it the same type of "floaty" that HD has? Because HD is definitely more floaty than Pure or Pulse ever were, just not close to WO/XL/W3O floatiness (which to me also is the definition of heaven). Or is it closer to Pure and Pulse?
Assuming that you could tell in just a few minutes of course! Congrats on getting your hands on 2048!

[trackripper]

No, Pure was very floaty. Sliding about all over the place. HD feels grounded and somewhat nicer to race on as you have more control over exactly what your ship does and where it goes.

On another note: WAI ARE SHIPS FLAT AND UGLI?