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.