10 things i hate about wipeout fusion

[Sausehuhn]

Besides the pilots (and maybe the menus), there is IMO nothing cartoonish with Fusion.
I have to say that every WipEout after Fusion looked much more cartoonish in-game than Fusion does. In terms of realistic-looking WO3 and WOF are probably the most believable.

And yeah, even WOHD looks cartoonish on some tracks. Too much color. Too much neon. Things that next-gen graphics can't fix

[RJ O'Connell]

I was under the impression that next-gen graphics were too brown and glarey.

But that's another story.

I wanna add the wall-grinding trick to the list, it's up there with the Infinite Hyperthrust cheat and Piranha II in Wipeout 64 in terms of "LAME WAYS TO GO FASTER!"

[ACE-FLO]

Paul Cheung, most despicable character they coulda hoped to find ... they wire him up to some techyshit, and voila - he's the new kid on the block with an EG-R - the new ship on the block.

Wipeout Fusion was for me, the game I loved for all its imperfections. And boy, it weren't the best, but being able to fire backwards in 2player split screen, was its saving grace for me... I like Carnage.

however, the thing I hated most was the single player mode. So boring!

[XpanDrome2097]

Wipeout Fusion for me is the black sheep of the saga....every time am playing with this game I feel the same impressions:

- The ship design is poor, some of they looks ridicolous for that I want in a WipEout game (Tigron ship is awful in the look as his characteristics !);
- The full-powered ships are nasty!!!! They just can't be looked (the powered G-Tech is a punch in your eye, only Feisar, Van-Uber and EG-R can be looked....full powered Xios? Star Wars is coming in (it's totally different from the original)!)!!!!
- The idea of the pilots? Good, but some of they looks stereotyped!
- Tracks with different variations: wonderful, but this sound me like a steal from Ridge Racer saga, isn't it?
- Some ships are futile: G-Tech looks good but has an horrible handling and a nasty acceleration, Van-Uber an excessive low shield and Tigron....ehm, for me Tigron is .
- For me can't exist a Wipeout game without AG-Systems and Qirex !
- VERY IMPORTANT: The game bugs are in an excessive number, sometimes I feel frustrated 'cause the bugs makes me a loser....

But in generally, I don't hate Fusion, because it must be viewed as an attempt to change the game base, to make the "next-gen" Wipeout game at its time (WF was coming out in early 2002)....but some objects was going wrong....for this reasons i like Fusion with all his imprecisions, and the Feisar ship in this chapter feels wonderful.
Join the F9000 League!

[shindubhe]

i just picked it up for $2.50 i had it years ago and with all the bugs i still really enjoyed it.

[Koleax]

I really liked Fusion. The handling was different, but once you get used to it, there's much to be appreciated, particularly the track design. You don't often get a chance to appreciate the track design because you're trying to get through it as fast as possible, but Fusion was easy enough that you could try imagining the whole thing, even the parts that were blocked off, and see its complexity.

But this thread is about the bad stuff, so I'll list what I can think of.

1. Menu music -- a little blippy for the wipeout style, the beat is all wrong, and that's just the beginning.
2. Ship design -- particularly ugly, roundish blocky-looking
3. The QUAKE -- ugh, really, we couldn't carry over the same style from before? Do you remember the first time you saw the quake and how awesome and inspiring it was, XL lifting up the track like it was a carpet? A devastating concrete carpet wave of pure destruction! But Fusion had a little oddly trapezoidal-shaped shockwave thingy.
4. Menu font -- default was all lower case, not a fan of that.
5. Cheats -- there was a menu for cheats... what do you say to that? Thanks?
6. Plasma bolt -- sounds like it was bought at a garage sale.
7. Pit -- slowing down through the pit lane, as if the pit lane is supposed to be safe
8. Doors -- Doors. They open and shut. In a race. I confess to not getting this.

Actually this point highlights something that I rather did like about Fusion. It was the feeling that I was racing where I ought not to race and that this was a challenge I was meant to handle. I felt the simultaneity of freedom and danger while in those open spaces, like the feeling that comes through maturity.

During the whole game I was feeling like this wasn't a wipeout game, and when I accepted that, then I accepted the experience as a deviation. As long as this wasn't the direction the entire franchise would take, I was fine.

[Kyonshi]

8. Doors -- Doors. They open and shut. In a race. I confess to not getting this.

Exact same thing for me.

Temtesh Bay is the worst, most stupid and crappy track ever created in a WipEout title. What the ****ing hell were the developers thinking??!?

I admit i loved Fusion in abstraction of all the other points you brought up. Even if the ship design was more bulky, i loved how you could improve your ship performances and shape with money. The soundtrack is actually awesome and @$$-kicking! Maybe its not your cup 'o tea afterall The missing floating effect of previous titles didnt bothered me overall, even if i never really agreed on removing it.

But when i got to Temtesh Bay... omg. I was instantly disappointed. I almost stop playing it on a daily basis like i was before getting to this piece of **** of a track Its really something when you stop playing a WipEout game because of one track... I tried over and over again to get over it and play despite this, but its way too ridiculously frustrating to continue at Phamton Class...

[Koleax]

The music in-game was alright. Someone mentioned that the music didn't seem to fit the game, and I agree at first, but it's one of those things that grow on you again. Besides, I already liked some of the artists.

At first I was especially disappointed by the music because two of the songs, "Funny Break" by Orbital and BT's "Smartbomb" were already in another PS2 game, "FreQuency" by Harmonix, the guys who eventually went on to make "Guitar Hero." "Funny Break" is great and I don't listen to Orbital enough, but I'm a pretty big fan of BT, and I just had to think... Smartbomb, again? Still, I liked it. When I think of Fusion music, I think of its version of Smartbomb and that shattering sound effect that BT no doubt spent hours writing in C++ just to get it right.

The Temtesh Bay doors are not fun at all, but on the outside that's actually one of my favorite tracks. The red stripes, those long steep hills, and that blinding sun through the dust the racers in front of you kick up in the open area? That was brilliant. One of those "holy sh---! was not expecting that!" moments.

The sun effect was always cool to see in Fusion. It was strategically placed so that you would see it at certain parts of the track, yet didn't feel artificial. Looks great on an old CRT.

[Sausehuhn]

The doors are annoying, yes. But only because they are too slow at Phantom. Once you got the hang out of it (short break) they are nice places to drop bombs behind
Temtesh bay in general: Track 1 is a pure speed sesation, track 2 is wonderful once you know all the possibilities you get through the splitted tunnels and track 3 is fun to race as well with its huge heights and lows and sharp turns.

And the sourrounding is awesome. Rusty and technical

[Kyonshi]

Sure, Temtesh Bay has beautiful scenery - without the ****ing doors, yes!

You wanna give me challenging track layout? Give me something like Spilskinanke, Manor Top, Megamall, Valparaiso, Silverstream, Odessa Keys, Vostok Island!!!

[Lance]

Hm.. Spilskinanke, major goodness.

[Koleax]

9. Missile lock -- The missile would actually lock on target immediately, so you didn't have to wait for the animation to finish. This at first seemed a minor bother, providing only temporary confusion, but now I'm firing missiles in Wipeout HD without waiting for them to lock on and it's proving a difficult habit to unlearn.

[blackwiggle]

I really hate the loading times for FUSION .

They pissed me off before I got used to the quick loading times of HD and are slower than all previous Wipeouts,well so it seems to me.
A game killer ... I wouldn't mind this game again if it was a download version for the PS3 with quicker load times......they could put it online multiplayer I think???

And like others ,I quit playing the game at Phantom speed at Temtesh Bay due to the glitches within that track.

[Gusto-Pastel]

I think the only things that really irritated me were the bugs, like flying full speed into a dodgy part of the wall only to end up outside the track, being quaked off the track across the finish line and missing a lap as a result, grinding along a wall into one of the laser thingies that block off different track routes and spinning around spontaneously... and the whole upgrade system. It took me about half the campaign and a lot of frustrated losing to figure out that I was meant to upgrade my ship, and then once I had a fully upgraded Piranha the game was just far too easy. For replaying I ended up having to downgrade to Jann Shlaudecker's craft at 75%. Some of the weapons were pretty pointless too (flamer?), and the gravity bomb was just plain spammy.

Otherwise, I felt the game was pretty damn awesome and I played the **** out of it for a number of years, the 3 routes on each track was a cool idea (gives a total of 42 different tracks including reverse), the music was great, the new teams could have been a bit more loveable (I ended up only playing as FEISAR, Tigron and Piranha) but on the whole they were okay storywise, and of course, we had the birth of the Zone mode.

[plasma_king]

Ten things I disliked about wipeout fusion. These will all have doubtless featured in my other posts, but seeing as this is the proper link! Here goes...

1 - The idea of 'natural terrain' track sections. Controversial? Some (in my opinion crazy) people apparently thought they were good. I just hated the cave in Cubiss Float and the rubble field in Temptesh Bay so very, very much.

2 - The cartoony characters - They don't fly the ships and deserve the glory... I do damn it! : D

3 - The endlessly bopping menu music, and that really annoying noise that plays when you navigate the options. It sounds like the cry of a sick cat having its back half crushed by an anvil!

4 - Some of the stupid weapons: the Grav-Stinger, oh my god that thing just drove me mad; the Stealth field, passing through other ships completely and being immune to lock-ons and damage is a bit too god like for me; the grenades, somehow manage to hug the track and bounce when upside down and pointless when compared to rockets.

5 - The 'super' weapons. I found that only the FEISAR multi-missile was of any real practical use in a race (possibly the black hole too, but seriously? A black hole weapon? Its just too far out for me). The control jammer was also a bit pointless as you could simply switch your mental control mapping with enough practice.

6 - The fact that you (at least as far as I know of) couldn't unlock the crazy track you race the guy on in the league system. Is is Devilia?

7 - The move away from the dark, techno-apocalyptic settings to bright and cheery sunshine land.

8 - The lack of distinct speed classes and the introduction of money to upgrade your ship. Its just not WipEout.

9 - Potentially controversial. The ships all looked a bit whack if you ask me... especially in an intermediate stage of upgrading.

10 - The bias in AI weapons damage. Am I the only one who found that a single shell from the otherwise rather pathetic proton cannon fired up your ass by the computer often resulted in major engine failure, wall riding and multiple race position losses?

I think it's fair to say that since none of these features made it into subsequent titles there must have been a similar consensus at Studio Liverpool! However, I'm looking forward to a lively debate now...

[OneAVGNFan]

10. Visible damage on the ships
9. The speed glich on Kamoda 12 course 3
8. Piranha's superweapon
7. VanUber's very poor shields
6. Only the secret area is for 1:1 racing duels
5. Proton cannons and gravity bombs
4. Tigron replaces Qirex:-
3. G-Tech replaces AG-Sys and their ships are the worst ever.
2. Zone Mode (crippled with no recovery. I'll stick to HD) (aware that I'm a minority on this)
1. Some of the open segements on the track (Cubulis Float 2 and 3 and Temesh Bay 2 and 3)

[Koleax]

10. The siren warning as your ship implodes. So loud and obnoxious. Does it have to alert the people down the hall from me?

[OneAVGNFan]

I am with you about that.

[OBH]

you know i cant even think of 10 thing i hate about fusion.

Besides glitchy tracks, and the TERRIBLE idea of making all fully upgraded ships a dull grey colour i loved it.

[omega329]

I don't know if anyone's noticed this, but AIs can shoot through walls.
Seriously, go to the challenges, play the first G-Tech one, and park underneath (behind if possible) one of the drops other than the first one, I've been killed waiting there before now, completely out of sight from the enemy.