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Thread: 10 Things I hate about WipEout 3

  1. #1
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    Thumbs down 10 Things I hate about WipEout 3

    First, a bit of background:

    I started with the original Wipeout back in '95 at the PlayStation launch. I played the hell out of the demo, and I purposely timed out during the game just so I wouldn't have to face those loading screens again. I even forced my cousin to get a copy so I could see those extra weapons in Link Mode! I'm not sure I unlocked Firestar (I did a few weeks ago on my PSP, though)... but I at least unlocked Rapier.

    Then one day I came home and I saw the Wipeout XL intro, which was the coolest thing ever. It was was one of the few games for the PS1 that I was really, really looking forward to. I got good enough to beat Challenge II and earned the Piranha ship with Qirex.

    For some reason, my brother got an N64, but at least he got Wipeout 64 too. The control was kinda nice, I guess... but those new weapons sucked. I don't really remember how far I got in that game. I think I unlocked Piranha, or something.

    I had heard about Wipeout 3, but I didn't really care for it and didn't bother getting it. "Surely," I thought, "Wipeout XL was the best Wipeout game and always will be!"

    And for a long while, it looks like that was true. For better or worse, I never even heard of Wipeout Fusion (I imported a Japanese PS2 at launch, so Tekken Tag Tournament was my main), and I didn't want a PSP of my own until I saw my brother playing Wipeout Pure.

    With all this talk about PS1 games on PSP, I decided to hunt around for Wipeout 3. I paid $1 plus $5 shipping on eBay, and having now played it, that's about as high as I'd pay...


    1. Right off the bat, you have the WORST intro ever. Not just among Wipeout games, but... ever. In any game. I honestly thought my game was defective, but then... no. The music doesn't fit - certainly not inspiring (like the original), not sweat-inducing (like XL), and not pure and awesome (like Pure). I guess the team logo part was cool, but then... "Piranha" was misspelled. Seriously, what the hell?

    2. Next, you have the hard-to-read, confusing, ugly-as-sin menu. Let's be honest - it could have been done on the NES. No track previews for the sake of "simplicity?" Lame. And why can't I hit up or down on the d-pad to actually select the track and ship, even though it sure LOOKS like I can? Instead I have to hit left and right, which is... kinda stupid. Who would have thought functionality only got WORSE in the future?

    3. Then if you manage to get a race started without wanting to kill yourself, you realize that most of the tracks are also extremely ugly with their dark, drab colors. And maybe it's just my monitor, but all that darkness made the game literally unplayable as early as... well, Porto Kora (moreso, anyway).

    4. No actual lap display. Because nice, big numbers would have been too easy on the eyes, especially in the middle of the race.

    5. The ships are TOO quiet. Dammit, I LIKED that subtle "fizzzzz" in XL. There's almost none of that in 3. There's not even a sound for Hyper-thrust, so I don't even feel like I'm going hyper-fast.

    6. Crappy weapons. Force wall? Reminds me of Wipeout 1 when you'd successfully hit a ship with your rocket, only to create a huge roadblock that you'd have to try REALLY hard to avoid. Reflector? So for 10 seconds or so, I'm supposed to switch from "please oh please don't hit me omg" to "HA HA!! Hit me now! But only RIGHT NOW and for the next few seconds, and NOT with Mines!" More often than not, it seems to be there just so the computer can legitimately stop you from using Energy Drain. And Cloak? Who cares. Just more weapons I have to cycle through in order to get the not-as-satisfying Quake or the now-ugly Rockets...

    7. No ACTUAL Turbo means Hyper-thrust is required... which means as far as pickups go, the Energy Drain pickup is also the Turbo pickup... which makes Feisar suck.

    8. The voice during the race tells you the weapon YOU got. Were people actually clamoring for this? So now when I'm about to get hit by a weapon, all I get is "WARNING!" It's just not as satisfying when you stop without knowing exactly what hit you. It's as though the computer just says, "HEY, YOU STOP NOW."

    9. Really bad ping-pong effects. The slow Auto Pilot doesn't help things, either. I never realized how much I missed that THUNK from the original Wipeout.

    10. And finally, UNLOCKING EVERYTHING IS A CHORE. Unlike in Wipeout Pure, I almost dreaded getting golds in Wipeout 3 because that just meant I'd just have to slug through more tracks with ships I really don't like.


    I'll admit that the game is not all bad. Music is opinion, as always, and while I did like most of it, I can't say that it was racing music. The fact that the music stayed during a pause or restart was nice, and the loading times were nice and quick.

    (Still... I hate this game and everyone who enjoys it more than XL or Pure!)

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Triple Lei
    (Still... I hate this game and everyone who enjoys it more than XL or Pure!)

  3. #3
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    Well, that blows. wip3out was brilliant. I expected more, especially since it was the final WipEout console game that came before 2008 that is good. I'll agree about the left - right thing, I've never understood that.
    Last edited by mdhay; 6th February 2008 at 05:43 PM.

  4. #4
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    Wow...
    ...
    Wip3out was great. Both graphics and gameplay.
    I do agree with some of your points. But still it was a revolution.


    Right off the bat, you have the WORST intro ever. Not just among Wipeout games, but... ever. In any game. I honestly thought my game was defective, but then... no. The music doesn't fit - certainly not inspiring (like the original), not sweat-inducing (like XL), and not pure and awesome (like Pure). I guess the team logo part was cool, but then... "Piranha" was misspelled. Seriously, what the hell?
    1st yes i didn't like the intro, that i agree.
    2nd Piranha wasn't misspelled. In english people say "Piranah" That's why its like that i think.


    Next, you have the hard-to-read, confusing, ugly-as-sin menu. Let's be honest - it could have been done on the NES. No track previews for the sake of "simplicity?" Lame. And why can't I hit up or down on the d-pad to actually select the track and ship, even though it sure LOOKS like I can? Instead I have to hit left and right, which is... kinda stupid. Who would have thought functionality only got WORSE in the future?
    I can read everything pretty well. The only thing i can't read well is the Ship Statistics.

    The Track preview yes i agree they should have put at least an image for us to see.

    The fact that we can't go up and down while selecting tracks and ships also bothers me so i agree.

    Then if you manage to get a race started without wanting to kill yourself, you realize that most of the tracks are also extremely ugly with their dark, drab colors. And maybe it's just my monitor, but all that darkness made the game literally unplayable as early as... well, Porto Kora (moreso, anyway).
    I iz disagree. The tracks are pretty cool, Porto Kora is one of my favourites and its pretty well designed!

    No actual lap display. Because nice, big numbers would have been too easy on the eyes, especially in the middle of the race.
    err... what? lower left corner...?

    The ships are TOO quiet. Dammit, I LIKED that subtle "fizzzzz" in XL. There's almost none of that in 3. There's not even a sound for Hyper-thrust, so I don't even feel like I'm going hyper-fast.
    Actually the sound fits pretty well, and when you use the Hyper-thrust the sound changes :/

    Crappy weapons. Force wall? Reminds me of Wipeout 1 when you'd successfully hit a ship with your rocket, only to create a huge roadblock that you'd have to try REALLY hard to avoid. Reflector? So for 10 seconds or so, I'm supposed to switch from "please oh please don't hit me omg" to "HA HA!! Hit me now! But only RIGHT NOW and for the next few seconds, and NOT with Mines!" More often than not, it seems to be there just so the computer can legitimately stop you from using Energy Drain. And Cloak? Who cares. Just more weapons I have to cycle through in order to get the not-as-satisfying Quake or the now-ugly Rockets...
    Solution: press []

    No ACTUAL Turbo means Hyper-thrust is required... which means as far as pickups go, the Energy Drain pickup is also the Turbo pickup... which makes Feisar suck.
    50% agreed. I missed the turbo item in this game, bt Hyper-thrust was a good way to replace it.

    The voice during the race tells you the weapon YOU got. Were people actually clamoring for this? So now when I'm about to get hit by a weapon, all I get is "WARNING!" It's just not as satisfying when you stop without knowing exactly what hit you. It's as though the computer just says, "HEY, YOU STOP NOW."
    I don't really mind... they only use a few weapons so its predictable.

    Really bad ping-pong effects. The slow Auto Pilot doesn't help things, either. I never realized how much I missed that THUNK from the original Wipeout.
    ...?

    And finally, UNLOCKING EVERYTHING IS A CHORE. Unlike in Wipeout Pure, I almost dreaded getting golds in Wipeout 3 because that just meant I'd just have to slug through more tracks with ships I really don't like.
    Oh cmon! it was fun!

    Btw i love pure, pulse and 2097/XL more than wipeout 3

  5. #5
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    Thumbs up

    Quote Originally Posted by Alex_Se View Post
    ...?
    Well, when you go really fast and need to turn but hit the wall, you'd end up going back and forth... a lot. Just yesterday I did a Hyper-thrust on P-Mar Project (I think) and needed to turn, but I bounced off the walls, like, 5 times before I was able to go forward again. And yeah, I'm pretty sure Auto Pilot slows you down!

    Quote Originally Posted by Alex_Se View Post
    Btw i love pure, pulse and 2097/XL more than wipeout 3
    Excellent!

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    wow, i thought Wipeout 3 was one of the best

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    Surprised!!!

    I thought Wipeout 3 are awesome, yes there are tiny letters but that does not bothered me and I thought the intro are cool!

    Everybody got different tastes.

    stevie

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    Cool

    LOL, sox! Good one!

    I have to say I chuckled reading this. Almost everything mentioned was something I loved about this game. Although I prefer a dedicated turbo to the hyperthrust, it really fit this game. "Hyperthrust through the checkpoint or lose"...this is the wipeout that makes me gnash my teeth in tense nervousness as I race - it just all fits together, in one perfect game...(SE, that is. Not one glitch in the whole game!! :O)

    I find it funny how everyone notices the spelling of Pirhana A. after it was Piranha. Yet this is a video game after all. Look what they did to Icarus. And look what happened to AG-SYS after the F7200, it turned into some convertible called G-Tech, lol.

    Each to their own! I can't honestly say I hated anything about this game, other than glitches in my NA version of W3O. (But SE fixed all that.)
    I am not better than this game. I think it's the only wipeout that makes me feel inferior on its own merit. (Ie. without human competitors to show me up!)

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    a brilliantly written troll made me laugh

    there's a couple of points in there I agree with too (pirhana, menus, hyperthrust, "warning")
    overall though, I still prefer it to WipEout original, but XL/2097 just edges it out as my favourite on the PS One

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    Quote Originally Posted by Medusa View Post
    I am not better than this game. I think it's the only wipeout that makes me feel inferior on its own merit. (Ie. without human competitors to show me up!)
    I feel the same about it. Wipeout 1 has the reputation for being the hardest. Infact Wip3out is the hardest to look good at and be good at, if you play Phantom class, particularly with Qirex or Icaras.

    Others have defended it well enough. I don`t hate hyperthrust. 3 is the hyperthrust game and that makes it different.

    A few things I dislike:

    - "Ping Pong". Yes this is highly annoying, and worse in SE. But if you don`t hit the walls you don`t get the problem. It`s just another reason why this game is tough.
    - The clanging. Hitting the track wall, or the track, or other ships, gives you a really irritating tinny clanging sound, which sounds like hitting a steel drum with a small hammer and really doesn`t sound like part of the game at all. Maybe it`s meant to annoy you, every time you fail the game is telling you that you did with this sound. Not a good effect, but again it`s not really a problem if you`re playing well enough.
    - In my opinion, the tracks are uninspired in comparison to the other games. After playing through 2097 I was desperate to get this game, and after playing through it was just disapointed at the shortage of "woah" moments, the lack of jumps and the lack of fun in the tracks. I`m still disapointed with it. It`s technical all the way with little release, and little to make me smile.

    All these bad points just got worse in SE, which added shortcuts. All in all I rank this as a great game, but behind the original, 2097/XL, Pure and Pulse.

    It has great points for me too, though, which do outweigh the bad. The design and overall package is unique and quite beautiful in its own way. The front end, logos, in-game graphics and music all hang together in a way no other game has achieved. It has the best graphics of the series, is a fantastic achievment for PS1 and has a great framerate. Swooshing down the back straight of Porto Kora and into the tunnel is undescribably thrilling.

    But it all comes down to what Stevie says, everyone`s got different tastes.

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    I like most things about the game except the turbo scrape on turns sucking you into the wall. The pingponging is much worse in SE, because of the extra floatiness I think(hitting ceilings in stanza and sampa are not fun, and bouncing all over the place down mega mall sucks, although it is faster. Definitely the hardest game imo to do perfect laps on, at least on phantom for me. Not my favorite(xl,64), but the physics are there though.

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    I agree about the extreme wall bouncing (only played WO3:SE and it can be very annoying).
    And I agree about the HUD being too cuttered (even though you get used to it very quickly) and also about the somehow uninspiring weapons.
    But other than that: It's a wonderful game. The Intro and the whole menu is perfect minimalism. But that's always a matter of taste, and even though I've seen alot people not having problems with reading the font, I also know people who really have problems with reading the menu items because of that font.
    Track info? Would have been nice, but it's not necessary for me.
    I like the style of the game very much, most of it just looks so nice. So do (most of) the tracks. WO3 has a very special mood to it, always feels like future to me. Maybe not like the most beautiful and peaceful future I could imagine, but I like the theme very much

    And then there's one thing I have to praise: floatiness. Sadly the last game that really had it

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    I can only think of two things I dislike about it, the multiple wallbounce, and excessive button pushing in menus. Aside from those little quibbles, I love it. I love the mood, the look, sound, the ship designs, and the perfect physics.

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    I was completely disapointed when i discovered the handling of W3O when the game launched in France, i ve been hooked on 2097 so much and put all faith into that new wipeout thinking about a new 2097 with new tracks and new modes : big desillusion at 1st for me : i hated it ( no ilink mode only split screen available at 1st) and did not finsihed it ( shame on me cause ilink did unlocked when you finish the game ...)
    After few years, i decided to give a chance to W3O and compete agaisnt amazing scores of mister Al.
    Now after finishing it and simily-mastering it, this is one of my least fav from wipeout franchise, don't get me wrong , that is a good wipeout but handling is so different from my best all over wipEout 2097/ XL are.

    If i need to pick up a negative point, i ll say hitting ceiling like Al said on Stanza Inter & Sampa Run

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    I thought the vertical bangbang was mostly in the SE version, but not the standard PAL or NTSC versions.

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    Hate the shortcuts, the speed_for_shield mechanics and some stupid weapons - autopilot, energy wall, cloak (good for multiplayer though).
    the rest I love - the tracks design, 4 player on 2 TVs etc etc.
    wipEout is the Real wo, wo3se is the Best till there was pulse

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    "I thought the vertical bangbang was mostly in the SE version, but not the standard PAL or NTSC versions."

    The pal version had some of that too Lance, as well as a little more pingponging off walls than the ntsc version(mega mall). Although 3se was the worst for this effect. Pal was floatier than ntsc, just like xl/2097. Weird, because the J version is even a little less floaty than the ntsc A version. I wonder if xl for Japan is a little less floaty as well? Never noticed it before though.

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    I hadn't really noticed the J version being less floaty than NTSC, but I just haven't played it a lot. I like the stronger shields on Icaras. I noticed thAt.

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    I'm surprised at the level of wipeout3 hate here...
    I think it was the absolute peak of the series.

    Everyone praises 2097 but I wasn't feeling that one so much after my love affair with the first game.
    Wipeout 3 seemed to bridge the two with supreme design aesthetics and production values.

    I think the tracks are top notch and the music to me is the best soundtrack out of all of the Wipeout games.
    Whereas the other games had compilations, WO3 had a cohesive soundtrack from one DJ more or less and retained it's own identity because of it.

    I agree with the tedium at which you have to unlock everything but that's been a mainstay since 2097 up until just recently with Pulse...

    It's funny, when I first brought Wipeout3 home and played it I hated it because I hit the walls all the time,
    and I missed all my favorite tracks, but over time it grew on me and I gained new favorites.
    Pretty much every Wipeout is like that actually now that I think about it haha...
    Last edited by Animagic; 12th February 2008 at 11:11 PM. Reason: reformatted text

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    1 - Hyperthrust system, because the single turbo boost was good enough IMHO. I'd still take it over Barrel Rolls any day.
    2 - Getting rammed from behind by AI ships into walls.
    3 - The esses of P-Mar Project at lower speed settings.
    4 - Default neGcon settings are making my thumbs swell up and the ligaments in my fingers hurt just thinking about it.
    5 - Shield, Cloak and Reflector in the same game makes no sense at all. Especially when activating the Cloak also gives you shield-like capabilities (can't take damage). You should be able to take damage with the Cloak on if you run into a mine. Otherwise it renders the standard shield redundant.
    6 - Maybe the interface is TOO simplistic and bare? Not the ships, logotypes and tracks, just the menu screens.
    7 - The tiny, tiny text.
    8 - Aside from Xpander and the MKL tracks, the soundtrack isn't really that special compared to WO1, XL, or Fusion.
    9 - LS104
    10, and most importantly - How tedious is it to unlock **** in this game? Seriously, this is definitely the game's worst flaw. I would have liked to unlock tracks and ships through Challenge or Tournament - I mean, that would make sense, right? Instead, I have to run the first four tracks eight times over to unlock all the ships, and then I have to win one, two, three and four races respectively in circuits 4-7 (Stanza, Hi-Fumii, P-Mar and Manortop) to unlock the second set of tracks. FOR THAT SPEED CLASS ONLY. It's just too repetitive.
    Last edited by RJ O'Connell; 4th August 2008 at 08:50 PM.

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