Will Wipeout HD be at Leipzig Games Con?

[eLhabib]

Alright folks, just got back to the hotel from the first day of GC. Now get yourself a glass of water, sit down comfortably and read the news: wipEout HD is at GC, and it’s fully playable. I spent about an hour with a tired Tony Buckley (poor lad had to spend the night on the airport in Frankfurt), and he showed me pretty much everything there is to see and know (I will upload the whole video interview soon-ish). I don’t have much time now, so I’ll just hit you with the hard facts.

Alternative HUDs are in, we get a 2097 and a w3o HUD to unlock in campaign. These are pretty much exactly the HUDs from the respective games, so it’s pure nostalgia here.

The reverse tracks we heard about before are indeed reverse versions of the 8 already confirmed tracks. Chenghou with magstrips looks weird at first, but it definitely works.

All ships from Pulse are back, each with 3 fantastic skins and 1 special platinum skin. To see Icaras in HD was pure wipEout porn, Icaras fans are gonna collapse when they see this.

There is NO option to disable BRs, however Tony assured me that they are guaranteed to work every time now, and also they seem to bite a bigger chunk of out of your ship’s energy, so who knows, maybe they’re not as bad as in Pulse.

Be it due to epilepsy tests or whatever, Zone Mode has been slightly nerfed. Fear not, speed and gameplay are intact, the only thing that’s forever gone are the EQ graphics on all the billboards (they’re still on the track itself though). So, meh, but it doesn’t really matter in the end I guess.

Back to the good news: Split screen works perfectly, you can choose which way you want to split, and it runs at a steady 30fps. Yes, ‘only’ 30, but dead solid. The rest of the game is in full 60fps 1080p glory, of course, and the screen tearing from the preview version has been completely ironed out. This really IS the smoothest game I have ever seen.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: the game will basically have the full functionality of the wipeout-game website’s record tables included and working live, so you always have the world record time displayed to hunt down!

Uhm, what else…
Photo mode has some nice added filters and options, there will be NO replays unfortunately, Sol 2 is a charm to look at in HD, and Tony Buckley is all ways of awesome He couldn’t say anything about the price point of HD, and he only just hinted at a September release (but I guess that’s pretty much on the spot – wipEout IS a September game after all ). He also hinted at the possibility of HD being released on BluRay at a later date, IF there is enough demand. Also, there is no additional downloadable content planned right now, since all of the originally planned DLC is now in the game right from the get-go. They will, however be supporting the game (whatever that means), and IF there’s enough demand, there might be DLC later on.

Okay guys, now I gotta take a shower and get some sleep, gotta be at the top of my game tomorrow – Tony invited me to an 8 player linked game, and I gotta perform
Read you later everybody!

[xEik]

He also hinted at the possibility of HD being released on BluRay at a later date, IF there is enough demand.

If there is a BR release my purchase is 100% guaranteed. I'm still undecided whether I will buy it if it is a PSN only release.

[meanalf]

fan-bloody-tastic, really pumped for this now......but need in game voice badly so i can rinse my mates as i rocket past them, has anything been mentioned regarding this or not ????

[kit-yun]

aren't the effects on the walls there any more? sniff, but apparently except zone mode yes? I hope because it's a sublime effect.

there are chances for September, that would be too perfect. no tearing, a very good news this info. Thanks you very much.

[meanalf]

surely all online gaming in this day and age should include the option of voice (i know its not everyones cup of tea but there is always a mute option) - so please any devs reading - if its not in, we would like it and if it is then thank you.

[Axel]

I believe this is a feature that they can add. I hope they do. But i'm just glad that we are getting a lot of info about the game. SL I get paid on the 25th Sep. Can you release the game then? I'm gonna book a holiday to cane the game that day lol.

[RJ O'Connell]

What I'd like to see next:

- SL uploading an updated version of Wipeout-Game.com
- A firm release date (duh)
- This game on my hard drive pronto.

Martin you confirmed most of our suspicion about the four extra ships, including my own (I was the first to bring it to attention that it's their worst kept secret) - I don't even like Icaras as much and it's making me want to play Wipeout Pure non-stop! The live time tables are an awesome addition, same for the extra HUDs (what about weapon icons, since there's definitely some changes between the weapons in WOXL, WO3 and HD?) and SPLIT SCREEN! I don't care if it runs 30 FPS, it's a solid framerate AND it's SPLIT FREAKIN' SCREEN WIPEOUT!

Combined with the W3O HUD, and most of us will inadvertently be scraping walls non-stop hoping for an extra burst of speed.

And voice chat would just be the icing on the cake - unless certain racers have been slurring their words from high levels of alcohol to go along with thick accents And I'd still laugh my ass off.