Is it just me or does Wipeout Fusion look more ''Old''?

[polybius81]

It's just that all the ships in the game look very Rusty. And some of them have open tops. Why is this?

[Jonny]

Ha, I think noone knows "why it is". But we can speculate.

[Ace3000]

It's because Fusion had a different design studio (Good Technology, as opposed to The Designers Republic).

[TheConzio]

Yes, they wanted to make the ships look worn out, as if they had been raced with for years.

[Jonny]

Just look at the start screen in WipEout 2097...a very rusty Qirex.

But not every ship in Fusion is rusty, for example the stage 2 and 3 ships and I guess even some stage 1 ships are new. (Actually I can´t find any rusty ship in Fusion...)

[keg_11]

Yes, they wanted to make the ships look worn out, as if they had been raced with for years.

Like a lot of the futuristic feel of the Noughties. A more "realistic" future.

[Rossriders]

I can't say for why some ships have open tops, as stated by everybody else, it's all but outright stated that these ships have been run in one form or another for years. Granted some ships having been run longer than others. It would make some sense storywise as the game itself starts 4 years after the start of Fusion and chances are even a year or two prior to the start of the F9000 during the F7200, a number of teams were probably doing pre-season testing to prepare for this new class.

Just my two cents for what it's worth.

[Xpand]

But the F7200 and F9000 are like what, 40 years apart? Doesn't that seem too much of a far future to plan for? It's not like the league jumped from F7200 to F9000, there had to be F7300, 7400, 7500, etc in between. I reckon that was just a mindless change in design by the studio responsible for Fusion. If I had to justify it within the game's universe I'd say it's a consequence of the excessive usage of weapons, putting shields before aerodynamics and beauty. About the open cockpits, beats me, probably to avoid canopy ejection failures and pilots dying with crushed skulls.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

Your post just made my day

[Jonny]

The open top thing is like with LeMans Prototypes, there are cars wih and without a roof.
And Xpand, I would bet 5€ that the League was directly upgraded from F7200 to F9000. Best example the upgrade of the F3600 to F5000. There were only 5 years preperation.