I for one, accept Wipeout Fusion. Thoughts?

[Ruuku]

Okay, it's time to come out of the proverbial closet.

I like, maybe love, Wipeout Fusion!
It may not have the best art style, teams or gamemodes, but you have to admit it had interesting concepts.

Ship upgrading kept each team fresh to fly, you could tweak them however you want and the look and feel changed every time you pressed circle and mucked around. The superweapons weren't completely OP like I thought they would be, and I find I actually don't mind some of the ship designs.

I think it actually has a better sense of speed than HD, and its definitely a sight seeing 12 or so engine flare sets all alongside you, it gives you the feeling you aren't alone on the track, these people are chasing you and they want that title!

The tracks at least took some skill for me to learn, like a throwback to the PS1 Wipeouts, I find with the short tracks of the PSP era onwards I am quite quick to adapt, this game gives you a fair bit of challenge remembering when to begin turning in, and where the grav stinger might have been dropped.

And hey, the music wasn't bad either! Smartbomb, Bolt Up, Krushyn, all okay songs. Albeit kinda slow, and there were flunkers in there.

But yes, Fusion did have its flaws, I can't see below me from a huge jump, sometimes the weapons feel like they aren't doing anything ironically, the rubberbanding can get nuts after a while, and there are a fair share of bastard tracks. And of course, a little bit of height variation could have been well received, for now it is just a horizontal Wip3out/2048. The camera angle is a bit stiff, and some ships completely outclass others.

But the some things still irk me though:

I can't emulate it at full speed, I have to underclock PCSX's EE to get it to run, and that induces the interlacing thing

The Auricom in this one isn't the best looking, nor is it the lightest, but I still use it.

The walls are quite sticky, and the freeform sections affect the handling somehow. Do they do this in Wipeout 2048?

And lastly, a huuuuge bug in which a contender's Gravity Bomb may send you FLYING out of the track, although sometimes I do get respite with a reasonable respawn. This may be due to my emulator however.

To prove my point, I have actually bought Wipeout Fusion for Christmas, and I'm eager to play it at full speed alongside my other presents

EDIT: I thought I'd like to mention this is one of the games where I have been eliminated the least. Wipeout HD's Elite AI has a habit of utterly annihilating you with ramming, rockets and general bastardry, Fusion's isn't nearly as violent! although they do have a habit of just appearing in front on you on the finish line.

[DDD113]

Agreed with absolutely everything. I also emulate Fusion, although it runs at about half speed, lol , but I still love it like the rest. I think you hit the nail on the head there, Ruuku, and I disagree with none of it.

Edit: You should join this group: http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/group.php?groupid=90

[mannjon]

I didn't like the handling personally, it made all the ships feel clunky and slow. Mastering the control on Fusion was much more difficult than any other game (except maybe the original wipeout). Even the FEISAR seemed to handle sluggish, even with the silver ship upgrades. But aside from that one defect, its probably my 3rd favorite in the series behind HD/Fury and wip3out.

The game is a better experience on the actual console, I've owned the game for many years now, and I still play it often. It is a pretty difficult jump backwards from HD, but for the most part I don't understand why people dislike this game so much.

The music quality was definitely there. The graphics were as good on the PS2 as HD/Fury is on the PS3. The tracks were innovative and exciting. The upgrade system was something that I would still like to see in a future Wipeout game. Additionally, I liked the obstacles on the tracks (rocks, trees, etc); they could bring that back to a future game too. At the very least, I like the discontinued ships, especially Tigron. Oh yeah, SUPER WEAPON!

[Mike458]

I think why people hated Fusion was because of A, the handling modeling - a heavy craft was INSANELY hard to get round a track and get a perfect lap, B, the real backstory behind it (Overtel corruption, EG-R, Xios, G-Tech, and Tigron), and C, the insane carnage. I personally like this game a lot, especially because it really improves your reaction time (Dodging almost CONSTANT weapon fire), and it helps with craft control (I personally flew a Tigron with all the engine upgrades added and no handling/stability parts added. It was a bastard to fly, but it helped me pilot some of the hardest tracks in all of the Wipeout games with ease. I totally agree with you, even though I HATE those stupid gravity bombs!

SUPER MISSILES FTW!

In Fusion, I fly a Stage 2 upgraded FEISAR LS-59 (LS-50340 version), piloted by Daniel Johnson.

[mannjon]

Yeah I seem to recall that I stuck with a Van Uber until I got to the EG-R, and then I upgraded to the Xios before staying with the Pirhana. I preferred the bald chick for the better stats (can't remember the name). That was a hard one-on-one to unlock too.

I unlocked everything and fully upgraded every ship, but I never beat all the challenges. Weapons challenges for the Van Uber were insane due to the worse-than-Icaras shield strength. I also struggled with TT challenges for the Auricom. The ship strengths were definitely overshadowed by the weaknesses in Fusion.

[Rossriders]

I suppose one reason why I've been facinated with Wipeout Fusion was that it could have ended up my first WipEout game or Wip3out (although it's going to be some time until I can FINALLY buy WipEout HD Fury as my first WipEout game), that and in a sense, what kept me at least curious was how some people reacted to this game.

Between everything else I've been sidetracked with, been also taking my own look at Wipeout as a whole in regards to art, be it level design, color schemes, graphic design, ship design and so on.

All things considered, while a lot could be said about Fusion, so far it seems for being supposedly one of the 'weaker' of games, it still has quite an art style that in a way defines it just as much as every other game has done so in some way.

I also find it interesting from a lore perspective because it's a time when Overtell took over, and events from that still have some far reaching effects even into the FX-350/400 (2206/07 onwards), including the existence of EG-X.

It also makes for some intersting fan-fiction matereal...I'm still trying to work out some fan-art among other things.

To me, I find it as yet another interesting chapter, and I may end up doing quite a lot of fan-related work in regards to Fusion alone. But we'll see.

[Rachel Johnson]

To this day I adore this game. I still create fanart of it and still continue the old fan comic based on it too.

I loved that they had awesome backstories to everything and had pilots. To most Wipeout is 'just a racing game', but I felt these touches made it more personable and I got attached. Much like with the original pilot set. Handlibv for me was not an issue, it was all down to spending time and getting used to each ship. But, hey... I am a Feisar (Daniel Johnson - Full upgrades) through and through, so after 100% completion I didn't need the other ships unless I was challenged.

[DDD113]

100% completion You can't ignore a display of skill like that, on any WipEout game. It's nice to see that so many people still enjoy Fusion after the initial negative reception. It was really the first incarnation of the skillcut, too, with the Turbo Jump in Alca Vexus, leading later to the bridge skillcut in Anulpha Pass and the countless skillcuts in 2048. Overall, it was a necessary step in the evolution of the series, and it may always be the most iconic, whether famous or infamous.

[mannjon]

So I have a questions for all the Daniel Chang fans out there.

(Please don't take this the wrong way, I mean no offense!!!) Did you guys actually make it to the end of the game with a FEISAR, or were you unable to unlock the other ships and had to stick with it?

I personally didn't find FEISAR useful after Van Uber unlocked, but everyone has a different strategy. I find Sarong's Piranha the hands down best ship of the game, but it is also the last ship to unlock and the hardest to fund/upgrade. I'm planning to go back and do another play through, but I was wondering if there was some other reason than personal like of the FEISAR for using throughout the game.

I liked Xios a little, EG-R somewhat, Tigron a little, and Piranha A LOT.

[Rachel Johnson]

Daniel Johnson, do you mean? Chang was AG Systems.

And, after unlocking challenges with the teams, yes. I completed with Feisar. I never needed the other teams. ( I only played as other teams if challenged in multiplayer by my brother. ) As I say, 100% completion. It's impossible to do that without using the other teams anyway.

My reasons? Despite swooning over Daniel, I enjoy the handling and feel most suited to the ship. I judged my team in this one with how well I could use the ships, as I was ALWAYS Qirex in previous games. Since there was no Qirex, I had to find another team. I was pulling off the most perfect laps, best times and (oddly) the most eliminations with Feisar.

If I was ever to go insane and switch to another team I'd go Auricom. I have a soft spot for that greased up brick.♥

[DDD113]

"Swooning over Daniel" is no joke! I enjoyed your comic strip, it was quite amusing. Mr. Johnson has a lot to juggle.

[mannjon]

Talk about a brick... I wish they'd bring back good ol' Tigron Enterprises! Interesting you talk about your Qirex loyalty. I was team loyal to Icaras from wip3out, which failed to make an appearance in Fusion. My second choice was actually Assegai, which ALSO failed to make an appearance. So in theory, my 3rd favorite is actually my favorite for Fusion.

Do you recall what the super weapon was for FEISAR? I just started a new game this afternoon, and I usually stick with FEISAR until I can unlock Uber-EGR-Xios-Pirhana, so I stick with FEISAR for about the first 30% of the game. I think I recall the FEISAR super weapon being among the easier challenge sets to unlock. Is it worth it you think?

[DDD113]

FEISAR has the super missiles. They could be better, but could be worse, so I would unlock them and wait for EG-R

[Rachel Johnson]

I loved super missiles. I'd harass a Van-Uber until it smoked and blast them with supers just for pure overkill. That or use them as a victory celebration. Nose up, blast blast blast.

I am ashamed to admit that I hadn't played Fusion for years until a couple of months back. No fault of my own though. I used to play on my brother's copy. I managed to find my own copy recently for incredibly cheap, so now I'm back to 0% and working my way up.

[Xpand]

I liked the concept behind Fusion and its visual aspect. But the gameplay was horrid. It felt so detached and unresponsive, unlike all the other WO games.

[DDD113]

^^ That is true. If the tracks would have been a little less wild and the handling would have been looser, like the first 3 games, Fusion just might be one of the most popular WO games.

[Jonny]

The tracks are okay for this 16 years. Actually I like them most.
But the handling is to different.

[PureSpeed7]

This is my favorite game in the series! well... tied with HD Fury. I love it and still play it! I fly a Piranha Swift Killer 6.0

The only problems with this game to me is the stupid Piranha super weapon and the fact that some ships completely out class others.
The stupid Piranha super weapon does more damage to YOU than the target! useless!
Lastly, I end up usually over lapping Feisar in races as well a van uber and other ships. Sometimes the game lacks challenge.

[stin]

You are a swiftkiller?

stevie

[Rapier Racer]

Piranha had a stupid super weapon though, the penetrator (sounds dodgy haha) it does more damage to the bloody Piranha than the ship your attacking! Breaks off the nose and screws up the handling.