10 Things I hate about WipEout 3

[Lance]

"Thank GOD it was done away with in HD, or it would have simply RUINED the experience."

mm... Just possibly an overstatement.

[G'Kyl]

Most certainly one! ;)

As a matter of fact, I remember that after having played WO3 for a while I got used to the then new system and actually started anticipating from where I'd be hit after a "Warning". Kind of made me more aware of the other contenders, which I can't say was a bad thing. I still prefer the announcment of what's being shot at or laid out for you, but not having to make the ever-so-slightly distracting look at the HUD icon was sort of a relief, too. :)

Ben

[xEik]

I'm not sure whether it would work well or not but I'd like to try this:
-Female voice tells you what you picked up.
-Male voice tells you what is being fired at you.

[eLhabib]

I don't see why you need to be told what you picked up. That's what the weapon icons are for, no? 2 voices would be confusing imo.

[Lance]

I appreciate not having to look at the icons; that way I can concentrate fully on controlling the ship.

[rdmx]

Maybe pickups on the right speaker, incoming on the left? Preferably a male and female voice to distinguish as well.

[BulletWraith]

so I've finally started playing this game, had it for about a year but now I have friends that like AG racing and we've spent the last week and a bit unlocking ships and tracks and playing eliminator.
multiplayer is prettymuch the only reason I play the game as I don't have two PS's for two player XL/2097

anyway here goes:
a. the controls and feel of the game blow compared to 2097's handling
b. the craft stats are to hard to read
c. the Quake lacks the H@&*Sht factor of 2097's
d. the warning you get when someone fires on you, I prefer being told what weapon is going to hit me so I know weather to use my shield/cloak/Lexus/boost to avoid it
e. the lap counter bugs me as it's a little annoying to see what lap I'm on
f. the crafts, well most of them look really wussy, especially Qirex, they don't have the edge to them that they had in XL which made all WO's after 3 absolute Pansie's, I'm up for a gay frolic as much as anyone else, it's just that I like my craft solid gritty and industrial looking, cyberpunk even
g. the load save thing being so close together( I saved over my all my challenges last week which wasn't so bad as it was early days, but I'll have to get another memory card to make sure I don't lose my game)

thats about it, it can't compare to 2097/XL in my eyes but it doesn't have to, I'm enjoying it for what it is and I do think it is a masterpiece, it doesn't feel like a replacement for 2097, it just I dunno
sometimes at the arcade I feel like house of the dead and sometimes I feel like time crisis
both are great, sorry didn't know how else to put it, just that's how I feel about XL/3

-zershen

[DawnFireDragoon]

i love that comparison.

for me:
time crisis - 2097/XL
house of the dead - 3

the two games are awesome, part of the holy trilogy from the glory days of psone wipeout. they are two very different games, but i have a lot of love for both. though 2097 was and still is the best wipeout, i still enjoy 3 a lot.

[willsgb13]

ok, the only thing i'd agree with is the lack of track preview. it never bothered me before, but a picture of the track as you select it would indeed have been nice. others things mentioned though >

- the intro. this is aesthetic taste. it's not particularly awe inspiring but it is cool the way the music builds and segues into the team banners.
- the menu, besides the lack of track pictures, is fine, perfectly readable and so what if it's minimalist?
- no turbo... i'm pretty sure there was one, may be wrong, but i'm sure there was one besides the shield energy boost

a lot of the things mentioned like hyperthrust, wall bounce, being shoved by opponents etc. are simply matters of competition and skill and putting thought into what you're doing. a few of the weapons like the shield may have been a little redundant due to the properties of others like cloak but that's not nearly enough of a problem to spoil the game in any way, as far as i'm concerned anyway! the other things mentioned like track design and environments and weapon notification, lap display, sounds etc. are either opinions or trolling i can't see fault in anything in this game, to be honest.

having played wipeout, 2097 and pure extensively and having a distinct respect and love for these games individually that rules out favouritism, 3 is still right among these and has a special place in my childhood, and still retains a huge amount of quality both playable and visual even now in my opinion. it still looks great besides slight graphical texturing overlaps at high speeds and the occasional glitch like on manor top at the 90 degree turns, where both opponent ships and i have been trapped before. all part of the fun of the game though for me. the racing physics are brilliant and the track design excellent and well designed to test a whole spectrum of abilities with the necessity of winning each track with each ship. and the 4 challenge modes were an exceptional way to pile all your experience into genuinely challenging and frantic races for prizes.

it has my favourite soundtrack, every track infiintely listenable and simply perfect for the game and its vision of the future and of the racing - xpander but the others are brilliant too, no weak tunes either -, and i like this comparison below that highlights and describes in appropriate viscera the style and atmosphere of the tracks of 3

I have got 2097 (though I played it after Wipeout 3) and I didnt think it was darker. The tracks had much richer colour schemes and ran through lush environments of ice and jungle as well as the darker city tracks. I just felt that the whole theme, the atmosphere of Wipeout 3 was moodier and yet more mundane, tracks like Stanza Inter felt like they were weaving through the heart of gritty future urban citites, from the dark reds and gungey greens of Stanza to the industrial influences of Terminal and Hi-Fumi. Similar tracks in 2097 to me felt optimistic where WO3's were self-consciously decadent.

Just my opinion, though.

an opinion i share, and nicely illustrated.

cheer up you miser bastards, wip3out is teh winz

[WolfKill01]

Beautifully said willsgb13. I couldn't agree with you more. Personally, wipeout 3 has been my favorite wipeout so far. It was fast, beautiful, and the tracks made you feel as though you were a part of the futuristic soceity. I still play it to this very day.

OH, and welcome to the forums.

[willsgb13]

thanks wolfkill! i also played through it very recently, a matter of months ago. perhaps the lack of medal awards for tournament and time trial make them a little redundant, just to slip another possible complaint into an appropriate thread for such commentary, but overall 3 was

also, you don't see track previews on pure either. although perhaps such a feature would benefit both games then

there could be a monotony in doing the same 8 tracks with the same 8 vehicles for a total of 256 gold medals, but then the spread of qualities in each craft and the high quality both visual and environmental of each track, not to mention the at once challenging and speed friendly track design made for an experience that failed to get tiresome, IMO. eliminator was good, and missed in subsequent entries. the challenges were also excellent, especially the combo challenge. the final few, with assegai and icaras on manor top and terminal on phantom i believe, were insane a great, frantic and memorable challenge to bookend your wip3out experience and prove yourself as a genuine expert in the mechanics and techniques of that tournament

any challenges to any of that? if anyone has any, give it your best shot, that's what this thread is surely for

[SonicChaos]

I think the game was amazing and I loved it. as far as being monotonous for making you do 256 runs is not necessarily true. You learn to use each craft and what they can and can't do. It makes you more well-rounded with each craft and I think that's a good thing. You may discover strategies you might not otherwise think of.

Track previews might have been a better idea so you knew what you were getting into, doesn't make it a bad game, it just would've helped a bit.

The Challenges were fun and I loved doing them, even if some were frustrating at times.

Eliminator was fun and I'm sad to see that no other version had it (save the upcoming HD expansion). It was deathmatch done wipeout style and I would spend hours playing it.

While people say XL/2097 was the best one in the series, i have to say I enjoy playing this one more than XL. I'm not saying it's superior, but I personally find myself coming back to 3 to get that tenth of a second faster.

[willsgb13]

of course, learning each course meticulously is essential when you require a gold medal even with ships like feisar, goteki and auricom in 3.

i have to say though, i've been playing pulse in the PSP recently, and it has reintroduced eliminator, to great effect pick it up, it's fantastic

[SonicChaos]

I do not own a PSP nor will I ever own a PSP. If I can find a good price on a fully backward PS3, I might get that and put HD on it. I want to be able to play my WO3 on my PS3 and not drag out my PS1 all the time.

[willsgb13]

apologies, lance

sonicchaos, what do you mean a fully backwards PS3? one that can play PS and PS2 titles as well? not sure one exists, but then i'm no authority on the PS3. i would quite like to play HD at some point. question, does HD play like pulse, or is it more reminiscent of pure in gameplay style?

going to give 3 a spin on the weekend. 3 on multiplayer would be exceptional.

[Rapier Racer]

Was the US launch PS3 not capable of PS1 and 2 emulation? They had the PS2 chips did they not. How they play PS1 games in comparison to say the Euro launch PS3 I don't know

I've never heard anything about the PS1 emulation being different on the b/c capable consoles, all the focus was on PS2.

[Darkdrium777]

All the PS3 consoles have the same backwards compatibility with PS1. It's all software driven. At least as far as I know.
The backwards compatibility issue only affects the compatibility with the PS2, where you have three options: most is compatible, a lot is compatible, or zilch.

[SonicChaos]

All models have PS1 compatibility but some have none, software, or hardware compatibility. The newer PS3's DO NOT have PS2 compatibility AT ALL. They dropped it for unknown reasons. If you check the wikipedia article it lists the models and what they have and don't have.

[willsgb13]

i have a working PS and PS2, so i guess that's cool.

i do plan on getting a PS3 at some point, however. HD would be one of the main titles i would get it for. far more likely to if another wipeout appears on it as well.

back to wip3out then? i'm trying to think of complaints. perhaps the comparative redundancy of the tournament mode in it, and the very tentative and restricted nature of the first foray into multiplayer the series took - edit - without needing more then one TV, PS and copy of the game as i believe wipeout and 2097 required? other then that, besides the lack of a course preview or screenshot, i'm not bovvered; quite magnificent.

edit - another complaint, your opponents never use quark, quake or plasma to my knowledge. this is unfortunate, especially on eliminator. doesn't detract much from it, but it's still a shame.

here's a question for the thread too; does the special edition iron out or solve any of the complaints listed in the thread?

[SonicChaos]

It added new tracks and nothing else.