Let me just say, so I can get it out of my system, that if WipEout HD (or the next-gen PS3 game) does not have a better steering system than the thirty-year old D-pad or near 20-year old analog stick, I'm going to have to puke when I buy my PS3, and everytime I turn it on.
We're in the 21st century and the best Wipeout steering system yet invented was obsolete back in the 1900's!

Please, oh please, Sony: please do not consign us to absolute WipEout hell.
(my definition = Phantom speed wipeout which costs an entire paycheque to have the privilege of playing without precise control)