Ten things I rather quite like about wipEoutFusion

[Seek100]

Indeed, though I found Devilia to be increasingly annoying, especially against Tigron, but some point-to-point should be brought back for proper racing in the next wipE'out".

Also eLhabib mentioned another feature I really liked - the underground pits and those bizarre contraptions that come up above the craft just like in the wipE'out" 1 intro back in '95, I was really disappointed when that wasn't in the (original) game, then they kind of forgot about it in 2097 and w3o, was nice to see it finally implemented in Fusion. Shame that SL have basically done a complete U-turn on everything in Fusion, giving us a lame w3o-esque soundtrack (there are 1 or 2 gems amongst the dreck), lame w3o-esque craft design (too rounded and integrated, I was VERY disappointed with the new FEISAR ).

It's an expected reaction I suppose given the mass bashing the fans gave Fusion for several years. To me however, it's like saying vegetarianism is evil because Hitler was a vegetarian. Utterly non-sensical to discard the good things Fusion brought to the table, while seemingly preserving the bad (excessive weapons use and power and bizarre handling of the craft which doesn't go well with the old-skool 'floatiness').

[fusionfrenzy]

I get what your saying, but it is easy to understand the designers' fear of keeping any fusion ideas given the backlash it got. And I put the lack of old school floatiness in Pure down to a lack of development time, and the glitches which may have ensued had they tried to replicate it (bring back the invisible ceilings!). Also remember that that's all they can do, replicate it- I read on the site somewhere that SL no longer possess any of the programming code for the first 3 wipeouts.

[Lance]

SL never had the code for WO3 since the game was done at the Leeds studio. [ R.I.P.]

[exarkann]

reverse firing quakes. 'nuff said

[lunar]

Reverse firing quakes give too much advantage to the leading ship, imo. In multiplayer it would just make the game less competitive. The great thing about a forward quake, from a gameplay point of view, is that it can level the race again (although it hardly feels great when you`re on the receiving end of it). If someone wants to reverse quake they should at least have to earn the opportunity by flying well, then take a chance by turning round.

[infoxicated]

SL never had the code for WO3 since the game was done at the Leeds studio. [ R.I.P.]

Yes, they do - all of the Leeds data is on the servers at SL - that's where I got those track wireframes from. That reminds me - I actually have some more to put up.

Things I like about Wipeout Fusion:

1. The quakes look great.
2. The missile lock on was better than Pure's.
3. Mandrashee 3 with full upgrades - mindblowingly fast.
4. EG.R - best looking ship in Fusion, for me, and the team identity is one of the best.
5. The artwork gallery - simple idea that gave an insight into the concepting process for the game.
6. Florion Height 3 end of lap jump... whoah!
7. Katmoda 3 inverse loop - first time anyone goes off that I guarantee they'll have butterflies in their tummy.
8. The vertical hairpin under the waterfall at Alca Vexus.
9. Animated air-brakes for the first time.
10. That, despite its flaws, it sold well enough for them to continue with the franchise.

[Lance]

really? cool. i thought that it was stated by Colin or somebody that none of this was available and that was the reason that the 'classic' tracks from earlier versions could not be reproduced directly but had to be imitated from scratch.

''I actually have some more to put up.''
i look forward to seeing the extra wireframes.

[fusionfrenzy]

I was also under the impression that that was the reason the classic tracks were different.....interesting.

Anyway, the things I liked about fusion:

-Custom Tournaments. Why on earth were these not put into Pure? Imagine the fun mixing Delta, Gamma, Alpha, Classic2...and so on. Selecting them seperately through Single Race just isnt the same.

-The soundtrack. Truly amazing.

-Super weapons. Yes, I liked them, despite their insane overpoweredness, no-one can deny the pleasure of unleashing Super Missiles/Orbital Lasers on struggling lasties as you overlap.

-16 Opponents per race.

-The graphics- they were pretty amazing.

-Mandrashee course 3, sooo fast.

-Zone mode. Pure's just doesnt touch it- it is brilliant.

-Challenges; they were difficult but enjoyable and rewarding.

-Van Uber. Loved using the craft despite the lame physics in fusion(hated the shield it had though).

-The fact that there was more to do on Fusion than just race or do time trials. They tried to do something different- if Pure had Challenges, maybe a progression-y bit seperate to the Alpha, beta stuff, and so on, but had the gameplay of Pure we know now, it'd be perfect.

[Mobius]

Without repeating what has been metioned, here is what I liked about it.

- The weapon icons (speakign of which, i made a silly little trading card game witht hem years ago...i might dig it up one day.)

- The website, I never played a demo of the game, due to the fact only got the ps2 on the day Fusion launched, all i had to go by was the content on the website, and IMO, that was one of the best games websites I have seen. It really made me want the game.

- The scenery, wip3out was very modernist, fusion, was modern-futuristic. Lovely.

- The inversions. I had always dreamed of it happening in a wipEout game, and it did, over time i eventually found out that it had wrecked the steering system so the chances of loops returning is next to none, but i still really enjoyed them at the time.

Finally, looking back on it, I love that fact that SL went almost Kid A on the franchise, even thought most of ideas were not the best, the fact is Fusion was in wipEout terms so experimental. I have no idea if this was the idea or just due to the fact that there was another build of Fusion apparantly scrapped before the version we now play and controvercially talk about. Also the fact it can process and huge environment and still be at 60fps most of the time is bloody impresive.

[Sausehuhn]

a few more things:


The history.
This game features that much history, it's nearly unbelievalbe. Just look at all the in-game informations when you chose a track or a ship - and then again the website: this is even better (and features a very nice design, actually better than the in-game design).

The authenticity.
For me Fusion is the most authentic WipEout ever. The sceneriey, the buildings, the starting grids, the track design, the details, the ship's damage, the history and all the other things make this game to the most believable WipEout ever.

The variety.
Even when Fusion just features 7 ( or with Devilia 8 ) different surrounding areas they are totally different and one-of-a-kind. Everyone is something special.

Some things about the handling.
Yes. There are things I really like about the handling. I like that you don't slide down at steep turns - that is in Pure. To me it feels unbelievable that you slide down at such a turn when you're flying with (more than) 500km/h. Or that your ship's nose doesn't go up when you land after a jump - unlike to Pure - is good as well. I would like bumping, but this isn't in Pure as well, so Fusion is better at this point.


I'm sure there're a lot of other things as well. I just had a 7-race-custom league yesterday and enjoyed it very much, so for me the game is still a really good game.

[Mobius]

Well, I randomly was reading the interviews on b3ta and i found out this game has had quite a high profile fan.

None other than gamimg legend Jeff Minter.

Click here for the interview. Its about halfway I think.

[JABBERJAW]

I liked that every weapon could go backwards as well. I hate when you have "evening up" weapoons. It's no different than computer assistance. You got the lead and should be rewarded.

Graphics are quite good, especially on the alca tracks

zone mode is way better than pure's zone(while it is still good)

[lunar]

A forward quake is completely different to computer assistance. It takes skill and timing to make a quake really work for you, in Pure. There are no weapons which enable the chasing ship to automatically even things up again. And then take an example of a hypothetical reverse quake in action: the race starts, it`s close, one guy gets a turbo and takes a two second lead. Then he gets a quake, he fires it backwards: game over. Firing a quake backwards would just makes the gap bigger, the game less competitive and therefore less fun. If the leader is reeled in by a well executed forward quake it gets close again and it`s more fun. therefore forward quakes = good, reverse quakes = bad. If the leader has reverse quakes on top of bombs and mines it would just make a lot of races pointless. Bombs and mines are plenty to reward you for flying faster. There is skill in deploying them accurately, whereas a reverse quake is just going to hit anyone in the face and stop them. There`s no point having a game where the leader only ever stays infront and gets a bigger lead. It has to be balanced, at this moment in the evolution of wipeout it is pretty balanced, and reverse quakes would just unbalance it in favour of the leader. You can`t fire bombs and mines forward, so you shouldn`t be able to fire quakes and missiles backwards. If you want races to just be a sequence of time trials where the object is to be the fastest in the first ten seconds, get a reverse quake and end the fun, then fine.

Fusion may have some things going for it, but the weapon balance isn`t one of them, imo.

[JABBERJAW]

However, racing good you get no good weapons, even wipeout xl had reverse firing missles. A quake is a cheap way to catch a multiplayer opponent, getting rewarded for racing poorly. Either way, really it would be unfair now that you say that. The thing I hate about quake in pure is that it hits you even if you are high in the air and nowhere near the track. That should definitely not happen. I say it's cheap because it requires almost no skill and travels very far(in multiplayer). Hey though, at least they don't have that BS leader weapon, now that's a bad weapon.

[fusionfrenzy]

That leader weapon (Hunter Missile, btw) was only available in multiplayer anyway, probably to even things out between the owner of the game (in 1st) and his languishing mate. So it doesn't really count as a negative against Fusion.

[exarkann]

9. Animated air-brakes for the first time.

actually, w3o has them too.

and about the backquakes, i dont know about you all, but i dont get a quake very often. i think that kinda balences it out, its rare.

oh, the other day i found out the a backquake cant cancel out a normal quake.

[Asayyeah]

little off topic : i must say with a little experience on Kai now, that leader has got a kind of weapons luck. Most of time he gets turbo or AP or great defensive weapons such as mines & bombs. I ve noticed than someone who is the leader with 3 sec on Lap1 , has got around 90 % chance to win the race in phantom. A forward quake in phantom is not really THE ultimate weapon : someone ahead of you from 3.5 /4 sec won't be hitted by your quake.
I had one day 5 quakes on a race ( sol2 ) , i know basically it's pretty rare but sometimes it comes very often. Last night i had 3 quakes on the first lap of Citta Nuova and fired 2 backward : we were 4 in that race ( 3 triakis and a tigron ) tigron blew up .

Back on topic : As everybody knowsFusion introduced a real new mode for Wipeout : Zone.
Oddly enough we had thought on a similar mode with my 2097's mate Sleh. And when Fusion has been realeased i kept more than 500 hours addicted to zone mode. ( even not finished the game at 100% ).
Fusion is what it is but for me it is The game which symbolizes perfectly the unlimited speed and i only love it for that.

[lunar]

I agree with you Al, about forward quakes. They are a cheap weapon in principle, and I used to be very anti quakes, but I`ve reconsidered as in Pure they don`t have as much effect on the leader as you would think and they do lead to a lot of fun. Missiles, rockets, plasmas and disruptors are all also difficult to use against a guy who is more than a couple of seconds ahead.

Arnaud`s point about the leader advantage, even with quakes, is right, imo. But of course you have to earn that lead so it`s not really unfair. I wouldn`t want it changed too much. As you say the leader should generally have some reward for flying well. It would be awful if the leader could never get away, just as it would if he could never be caught.

One good (perhaps the only good) innovation in Fusion`s weapons was the grenades, I think. They weren`t too effective and brought in a little variation. I wouldn`t mind seeing them back in place of the disruptors or as an alternative pickup to rockets sometimes.

[JABBERJAW]

The only good thing about the hunter missle in wipeout fusion was that you could turn it off Actually that was great about fusion was that you could turn off any weapon in multiplayer mode, although it was still hard to even ships out because you couldn't choose the same ship.

[username]

yes, i also like the way you can select your faivorite weapons only. a very useful feature i think, i wish you could do it in pure multiplayer (but only the host psp could choose, the slave psp's would have the same weapons)