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Thread: Ten things I rather quite like about wipEoutFusion

  1. #1
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    Default Ten things I rather quite like about wipEoutFusion

    As you can probably imagine, this thread is meant partially as a riposte to the '10 things i hate about wipeout fusion' thread, and partly in jest, I don't know if I'll be able to think of 10 proper things that I liked in Fusion, so there may be some scrounging going on but lets get started Roman Numeral stylee:

    I. The second version of the F.E.I.S.A.R. design, I can't remember the specific model number, but you know the one I'm talking about, it has the classic FEISAR lines, the sleek fuselage, the externally mounted engine exhausts (taken from the original FEISAR from wipE'out"), the most important feature that makes it look infinitely superior to the third 'canonical' variant of the FEISAR is the swept back winglets. The third FEISAR looked like someone had bolted two giant surfboards to the wings, or like a Snowspeeder rip-off, and the fourth version horribly re-inforced this Snowspeeder appearance. The second version though is a work of art, blending the seminal 2097 body shape with the original FEISAR's external engine design - bootifuw' as they say where I live.

    II. The soundtrack. Fie on those who deny the brilliance of the music in Fusion, I've seen people mention it and I get the feeling that it's merely a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Fusion has some of the best music to grace the series including two of my absolute fave electronic songs in our outside of wipE'out" - Papua New Guinea by FSOL and Sick by the Utah Saints.

    III. The locations. This doesn't mean the tracks themselves, which due to the cocked up physics are pretty much all for the bin IMO. I'm refering to the settings, Mandrashee, Vohl Square and Cubiss Float in particular are some stunning locations to just cruise in the 'time trial' mode to take in the scenery. If it weren't for those bloody awful tunnel sections I would add Temtesh Bay, it had fantastic potential, but was sullied by the mine complex with those fracking doors! Katmoda 12 was the only outright dissapointment for me in terms of the settings, going to the moon is a bad idea cause it has to be spectacular or it just won't work, Katmoda 12 felt like a wasted oppurtunity to me.

    IV. The playlist creator. A must for future wipE'out" games, especially when there are duff songs in there, like the vast majority of purE's soundtrack to me, I appreciate the ability to turn them off, but the ability to arrange the songs I do want to hear would be a welcome addition, indeed it was welcome in Fusion and I don't know why it was dropped in purE.

    V. The art gallery. I love art galleries in computer games, absolutely love 'em. Can't get enough of the concept art and renders. And the concept art at least shows us that as far as the ship designs go - it could have been much, much worse. Could have done with some more 'intermediate' renders of designs that were rejected during development - the pics are still floating around the net, including a really nifty looking Van-Über/Auricom cross-breed.

    VI. Erm, ah... Oh yeah! The ability to turn weapons off, sure it was available in 2097 single race, but in a game as ludicrously biaseed in favour of weapons as Fusion or purE this was an absolute godsend, as was the ability to remove localised damage, a most ridiculous concept for craft with sci-fi energy shields to fall apart at the seams when their 'shields' are nearly full.

    VII. Err... Hmm... Well I guess the fact that the advertising was at least trying to be subtle, I don't even notice the Kappa adverts now (Eugh, I'm gonna have to wash the fingers that typed those words). What I meant was in comparison to purE Fusion had ssomething approaching integrity when it came to Sony whoring the IP out to companies completely unrelated to the game's content. Can anyone say 'Coca-Cola-teams'? Please not in front of any small children of course.

    VIII. The challenge mode. I'm serious I enjoyed those challenges more than I did the Zone mode, except the Tigron and G-Tech ones, those heffers just don't turn a bend. In any case I think the challenges should make a comeback, just maybe with less of the weapon ones, bloody annoying those were.

    IX. Clearly scraping the barrel here but nearly there, erm... I guess I liked that they at least tried to shuffle the team lineup a bit, I know all the AG-5Y5, Qireж, Assegai, Icaras and Goteki-45 fans will scream heresy but no company lasts forever, I mean look at the current F1 team lineup - do you see Jaguar anywhere? Or Lotus? (If either has gone back to F1 since I stopped watching the dreary thing then I'm pleading ignorance in advance). Obviously they could have done it in a more sensitive way, like having teams you could actually stomach replacing the old ones - Tigron and G-Tech were hardly of the same stature as Qireж and AG-5Y5 were they?

    X. Hmm, I really don't know about a tenth thing that I can honestly say I liked about Fusion, If I can go back to the craft design again and bring this full circle then I would have to say I loved the Van-Über and EG.r designs, the EG.r really should have been resurrected for purE I think the design was that good, certainly better than the aborted-MiG stylings of the Tigron. As for Van-Über, they suffered a bit to much from the Episode I design school and sill retro Messerschmitt like features - especially the canopy, but a very original layout. the early version of the ship (which may have been an early Auricom aswell) looked perfect for wipE'out".

    If you had the patience to read all of that then I award you a cool headband and salute you.

    Anyone want to add anything on the somewhat neglected good features of Fusion are more than welcome to reply, Or just any comments/shouting-down/heresy posts aswell. It's all good.

  2. #2
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    Particularly agree on 2 (music), 3 (locations), 5 (art, tho Pure`s gallery is MUCH cooler) and 7 (the sponsorship point). The one I most support is your point about the music. IMHO Fusion`s soundtrack beats any other wipeout soundtrack. If the game had been a classic we would now be talking about all the classic music tracks it featured.

    I would add that zone mode was awesome and better than Pure`s, but I can`t come up with much else as you really have scraped the bottom of the barrel: so much you are now digging deep into the ground and heading for the centre of the earth If anyone can come up with an original list of 10 more they should get a prize. Speaking of which...... I now claim my free headband.

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    Ten things I like about Wipeout Fusion:

    • The soundtrack
    • Challenge mode
    • Zone mode
    • Excluding the open areas, flip pads and doors the course design is good
    • Handling of the ships
    • Leagues (should've been longer though)
    • The locations
    • Upgrading
    • Huge jumps
    • The graphics

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    oVerCaffeinated: how can you like the handling on fusio?, its terrible and lie trying to control a rally car on ice! (imo )

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    Well to be honest, it is almost identical to pure's IMO, just the camera doesnt tilt when the ship does.

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    yes i have noticed that too, that is why i prefer the handling on 2097, but also what i mean about the handling in fusion is the way the ships are locked to the floor at a certian height

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    Pure`s handling and physics are nothing like Fusion`s, particularly at the faster classes. They simply can`t be compared, imo. At Phantom class Pure is wild and contains flying, aerodynamic, bouncy (whatever you want to call it) elements in abundance. here is an old thread about it, and I particularly agree with the first post.

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    Quote Originally Posted by username
    oVerCaffeinated: how can you like the handling on fusio?, its terrible and lie trying to control a rally car on ice! (imo )
    Well if you compare to 2097, yes it's ****, on its own though I like it. I'm glad they tried something different.

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    well you do make a good point on trying something different and if it were on its own, i must say

    and i agree with what you said bout the fusion handling being:

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    definitely agree with handling : too much glued to the track.

    Only zone mode rocks and lunar is right fusion's zone is a way better than pure's.

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    Well, I'm all for a little equality, so if we rip on Fusion's handling mechanics then purE deserves some ripping too.

    Everyone on this board is sooo happy that SL gave us back the 'floatiness' of the craft, the physics of how they bounce around and generally behave more like aircraft than cars. This is worth praising, but we should never conflate the physics engine with the craft handling, the handling has been preserved almost exactly from Fusion just by playing and comparing the two side-by-side as I have done. At first I thought they both understeered compared to in wipE'out"/2097/w3o, they cannot make the same lightning fast turn-in as on the earlier games. Later I realised that they also oversteer, that is the back will on any turn sharper than about 10 degrees slide out towards the outside edge of the track (much worse on Fusion, it's been toned down for purE)

    So basically the craft in Fusion and purE have the amusing characteristics of being able to both understeer and oversteer at pretty much the same time - in other words not steering at all really. This wouldn't annoy me so much if it weren't for the excessive effect that weapons fire has in both games, Fusion is just a nightmare with the weapons on, purE may have removed the frequency at which you get hit by enemy fire, but it has in turn increased the effect it has on your race. In all previous wipE'out"s (Fusion included) you'd get hit by a missile, slow down a bit and be on your merry way, the immense acceleration of your craft would soon rocket you back to high speeds. In purE, I have been hit by missiles that have slowed me down so much I have actually stopped and started moving backwards!. What kind of BS is that? The fanboys will say it's realistic physics, but I rather doubt being hit from behind in an aeroplane by a missile could cause the plane to go into reverse!

    Further to this every craft in purE has the acceleration of an old priest in a skoda after being hit by any weapons fire. This to me kills the flow of the race and is a major reason why I've stopped playing purE so much as I used to when it first came out.

    P.S. nice to see a discussion but try and focuss on the topic a bit more - this is meant to be good things about Fusion, we've got a million-and-on rant threads, my first post was a rant thread about Fusion. Anyway, headbands for all
    Last edited by Seek100; 25th February 2006 at 05:03 PM.

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    1.
    The locations.
    Really. Most people hate them (bad building design etc) but I just love them. Maybe the best ever. Now you would add a few other effects (lighting, refelctions etc.) and it would look even better I'm sure (look at Pure, there they used these effects and windows and glass look better).

    2.
    The tracks.
    The tracks have a really good track design IMO. They're too wide most time, but the track have cool curves, nice jumps, open sections (god, I want them back) and parts that can be oppened with special pads etc. - that Iisdamn cool.

    3.
    The speed.
    WipEout Fusion is fast. Maybe the fastes WipEout ever. And I like that.

    4.
    The multiplayer mode.
    Sure it has alot of slowdowns because the PS2 has hard to work but all in all it' a really good multiplayer mode I had alot of fun with in the past. Okay, now with online gaming it's maybe an old thing, but when the game was released and the splitscreen multiplayer was the standard and online gaming was a really new thing (wasn't it?). And for a splitscreen mode it's a really good one. I don't like the multiplayer weapons though (because the AI can't get them) but - one more good point about multiplayer - it was on/off turnable in the options, like many other things, so this is no problem.

    5.
    The Pad-, symbol- and logo-designs.
    The pads are the best of all WipEouts. The weaopn symolds are also very well designed. And the logos are IMO very good looking as well.

    6.
    The effort put into details.
    The tracks are so damn detailed. At every corner there're new things to look at, if lamps, boards or what ever. Every time I'm looking at the tracks in Time Trial I see new things. Even when the game is now years old. I love details so Fusion is a feast for my eyes.

    7.
    The huge number of tracks.
    Yep. There are more than 40 tracks and yes I like most of them and I still do my races on most of the tracks. Especially for custom league it's wonderful to have that many tracks because it brings alot of variation to the game.

    8.
    The flexibility.
    The games does have that many modes and options that you can customize it as you want and even when you've made a race a thousand times you can still change the energy of your craft, disable weapons or do what ever to make a whole new experience. I want to see that in the next WipEout again. Definitely.

    9.
    The soundtrack.
    best ever.

    10.
    EG.r

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    I respect your opinion about the track designs and upgrades, though I may disagree with them myself, but there are not more than 40 tracks, there's 7, IIRC. That's quite different from 40. Different sections don't count, they just aggravate with those stupid laser-fence things that spin you round 180 degrees.

    I agree with you very much on point 10, I can't believe they chose Tigron over EG.r for purE...

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    IMO there are 40 different tracks because sections do count. YOu can't say (for example), that mandrashee 2 and mandrashee 3 are that identic that you can call them one track.

    Btw: there're alot (little) things more I like in Fusion that I notice when I actually play the game. Like the different colored trails and or the huge number of stripes on the tracks that are passing by very fast and thereby give you a better speedfeeling. I also like that some ships have more than just one exhaust engine.

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    hmm 10 things

    1) Van Uber
    2) Seismic Fields, well they looked very very cool! Plus they didn't always deal out mega damage, can't understand why sometimes they do little to what appears like no damage then there was the case of the long straight on my fav track where I managed to eliminate one ship and get another two smoking, they had decent health as well
    3) Katmoda 12 version 3, maaaaan that long straight section was fast and I loved the way the camera just dropped down so quickly
    4) The ability to see how much health the enemy had, although it sort of felt like cheating
    5) The weather on Cubiss Float I found it harder to pilot when it started to snow which I enjoyed
    6) The scenery, coming off that huge drop on Florion Height version 3 you get a nice look about at the circuit below, sweet, Cubiss Float was also nice
    7) The graphics, crisp and smooth loved them
    The sound track Big Groovey Funker, Sick and Papa New-can't spell the last part
    9) Custom league, 7 straight races on the tracks I favoured most without interruption and the tables it gave you at the end which showed who finished the race and who got eliminated, it was nice to see my Van Uber at the top and then to learn that a Tigron had had its face blown off
    10) Er, did I mention Van Uber?

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    fusion had a handful of point to point tracks right? that's something I could definitely appreciate

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    not sure if I can find 10, but here I go:

    1) EG.r craft design and logo design. all the other ship designs and team logos, as well as the F9000 league logo I thought were pretty uninspired, but EG.r had something cool about them.
    2) Florion Heights 3, forward and reverse. Forward had this absolutely lovely jump at the end, and reverse had the same jump turned into a very cool climb, followed by a wonderful long sweep downhill. Also Florion Heights was one of very few tracks with a rather well-made open section.
    3) Missile rear lock-on. Oh how I would love to have that on xLink
    4) The setting of Alca Vexus. Valparaiso was one of my favorite 2097 tracks, jungle and stuff, so I really dig the Inca-temple/jungle setting of Alca Vexus. The tracks there were some of the best in fusion, too.
    5) Papua New Guinea. I know this has been mentioned before, but you just have to adore how great this song is.
    6) Sections of tracks with no rails on either side. Fusion introduced them to the series, and I am glad they kept them for purE.
    7) Custom League - most important new idea! I wish it was possible in purE, and I sure hope it will be in the next (online) wipEout!
    8 )Transparent pieces of track. Would be especially cool on tracks like Sol2, then you could see people passing under/over you!
    9) The open section on Vohl Square 3. Maybe not really fitting for a wipEout game, but it just felt cool, very gritty and chaotic.
    10) ...man, now I am running out of things to like about Fusion... uuuuuhm, oh yes! Almost forgot! The extra cool animation before the start showing how the ships would come up from the hangars below the grid! I was wowed first time I saw it! Please bring that back for the next wipEout!

    well, well, there ya have it

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lion
    fusion had a handful of point to point tracks right? that's something I could definitely appreciate
    All the tracks are circuits as far as I'm aware. I think the gold challenges are point to point but taken from the circuits, or they could be one lap, can't remember

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    according to the wikipedia page they are set at "devilia" and were part of the challenges.
    I bought fusion mainly to fill a gap. time spent playing it was minimal to put it mildly (mainly because my flatmate owns the ps2, and it's used near exclusively for GT4)

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    Seems you are correct. There are apparently three Devilia courses that are point to point. They pop up when playing through League mode and they are one on one races to unlock new pilots. The only time you can race on Devilia is in League mode and once you complete the race you can't race on it again unless you start a new game So the last time I raced on those courses was probably 4 years ago. No wonder I forgot about them I think I'm gonna have to start a new game and see how good they are. Apparently it's a wide course that keeps getting thinner and thinner

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