Ten things I rather quite like about wipEoutFusion

[eLhabib]

Fusion is 60 frames??? you sure?

[RJ O'Connell]

Yeah, at least over here, I'm guessing it maxes out at 50 in PAL regions.

[this space reserved for Part II of my ten things I like about Wipeout Fusion]

[Xavier]

I'm getting heavily into this game now that I have an American PS2 on which to play it -- and I love it! Just a beginner still; I'm 23% of the way through, so here are my 2.7 items:

1. Controls are quite a bit easier than the first two games; you can jump right in and finish first within a few practice runs. I hated having to press up on the control pad to gain speed all the time when playing Pure; here your ship is naturally in the most aerodynamic position. Ship customization means that you can iron out deficiencies in your chosen ship without having to give it up entirely. As I understand it, the rival ships only upgrade themselves after each 25% of your own upgrades, so if you're at 22% or 47%, you've got a leg up, right?

2. A good variety of objectives -- I love how they brought this back in Pulse -- so you don't get stuck on one difficult course that blocks you from everything else. I'm struggling with the heinous Vohl Square course and all its multiple paths, but there are challenges to do, and arcade mode gold medals to get, so it's never boring.

2.3. My girlfriend is into this game! She never showed any interest in any of the other racing games I've played, particularly F-Zero GX (on which I've logged many hours), but she loves this. She races Florion Heights 1 over and over and over (and has beaten my times; gah) and is really getting good! She had no idea that the "open" sections were unheard-of in other Wipeouts and doesn't mind them in the least. Now if I could just get her into racing in the leagues, she could make some money for me...!

[Wip3ou7]

hmm is that a tiny icon of AG ships zipping around a little brown track?

[RJ O'Connell]

Mandrashee 1?

(It's a great track, that wasn't a pisstake.)

[Kiwi_Stig]

Indeed, though I found Devilia to be increasingly annoying, especially against Tigron, but some point-to-point should be brought back for proper racing in the next wipE'out".

Yeah it usually takes me three or four goes to beat my opponent on Devilia. What I usually do is when I get a turbo, I save it until I get to the last straight stretch before the line, then I hit it, and depending on how close behind my opponent I am when I hit it, I can usually balst past them across the line...

Max, you brought up a point I recently noticed that bothers me about the more recent wipEout titles: track lenght. One thing that Fusion definitely did right was reeeeaaally long tracks. Nowadays most laps are completed in under half a minute, which is a SHAME, for crying out loud!

Hey, I've done a lap of Florion Height Course 1 (F) in 28 seconds (flat I think)... Mind you, it's smaller than the standard shopping trolley wheel (ok, interesting comparison lol) and has what, 5 corners? And I think from memory I was in a fully upgraded FEISAR.

[Sausehuhn]

[this space reserved for Part II of my ten things I like about Wipeout Fusion]

I would like to read that part sometime

[RJ O'Connell]

I plan on publishing part II alongside the release of a live-action Wipeout movie...ok, not really, but I've been inactive for a while and I'm now JUST getting back into playing Wipeout and posting here. I'll try and remember what 6-10 were and post needlessly long write-ups about it soon.

[Cyberio]

Ten things I like about Wipeout Fusion:

• Tracks and locations
• Soundtrack
• Return of the pilots characters
• Three versions of each track.
• Earning money to upgrade the ships.
• Very nice graphics, showing (not all) the PS2 potential.
• Like W3O, enabling/disabling checkpoints and weapons when i want.
• Spanish Pilot (seems mexican, but it's ok)
• Custom playlists, of the game soundtrack.
• Going under the sea in one track.

I know some people who doesnt' like this game, i think this is a great game, with so many tracks and ships, actually, i didn't unlock everything yet, i have to finish this one sooner or later.

[Velocitar64]

I agree with Cyberio's post.

[Harvai]

Picked this up a few months ago after years of searching, and it's nowhere near the train wreck I heard it would be. Been giving it a fair belting and I reckon it's a pretty damn good game. On to my list then:

1. Soundtrack. IMHO best W'O soundtrack there is.
2. Atmosphere
3. Long tracks. Feel like going for an afternoon drive at 1000+ kph?
4. Graphics. Nice to see a Wipeout game on the PS2
5. Upgrading ships. The four versions of each ship are ace.
6. There's a track that runs around and through Ayres Rock!? Hell yeah!
7. Beating pilots on a specific course before you unlock their ship.
8. Extra details on ships (Airbrakes, some have what looks like a rudder)
9. More than 8 ships per race. Makes for more competition.
10. Mandrashee. Just...damn.

[AG-wolf]

Wipeout Fusion is love :3 I need to sit back down with it sometime and list ten specific things I like about it, but as a whole, I dont have any complaints except the strainge ship physics and the occasional track bugs. At least the NA version had bug fixes the European one didn't get.

[stoneygate]

Yes, Mandrashee, it looked and played great and now I wish I had a PS2 to enjoy it all over again!

[reventon94]

Lots of things i liked:
- Track Length
- 16 ships in 1 race, and still 12 ships in 2 player (which still beats most games)
- Challenges (especially the elimination ones, with plasma bolts - they were fun!)
- Zone
- Points for eliminations
- ^ This provided a great variety in game tactics
- Custom league (any number of races 1-7, from 42 tracks - awesome)
- Ship upgrades
- Sense of Speed
- Handling
- Proper Shortcut routes
- You have to beat a new ship to use it (on a completely new track as well!)
- 2 player: This game had the best 2 player ever imo. You could customise the race options SO much, it was just amazing. Me and brother did so many tournaments together, becuase there was so much variation. We could do 1 lap sprints, or 10 lap survival (without pits and respawns of course!). We could just have superweapons on as well!!! We could even change our ship energy levels! Furthermore, when ever you changed the number of laps, weapons or energy levels, it meant you were playing the game in a whole different way because it completely changed the tactics that you would use. You could go for eliminations; for surivial; for victory - anything. It was difficult to know what to do, because if you got 6 eliminations, then that gave you 12 points - the same as you'd get for coming first, with no eliminations.

[ACE-FLO]

What he said!!! Seriously, the only thing different is - I raced two player with friends.... other than that I give the same reasons!!!

---

Edit: I might actually pull Fusion out and play it again, I really loved this game! Too late today, but will do over the weekend I think.

[Aeroracer]

I cant really remember it much but i know it was a good game.

Things i liked were....

1.The pilot that was just a chinese head stuck onto a computer.
2.Papau gineua music track

[NightArh]

Papua New Guinea Future Sound of London rocks!!!

[ACE-FLO]

I cant really remember it much but i know it was a good game.

Things i liked were....

1.The pilot that was just a chinese head stuck onto a computer.
2.Papau gineua music track

re: Pilot Head - Paul Cheung? EG-R ruled in Fusion.

am I mistaken, or was the EG-R the only ship able to 'side shift' in the game?

Fusion had the best soundtrack out of all the wipeouts... let's not forget the darkly menacing tune by Intuative - "Way Seeker"

Night, thanks for the tunes!

[Aeroracer]

I think your right on all counts. I remember the ship had a really uniques sound to it.

[ACE-FLO]

Yep, almost like its' Airbrakes were hydraulic powered/dump valve sound like... Tssst tssst sound! I loved it actually. I also learnt the Push/Pull style of Airbraking with the EG-R ship here in Fusion (where else lol).