10 Things I hate about WipEout Pulse

[Frances_Penfold]

I think the reason that Nintendo created the Blue Shell is because there is, otherwise, no way to target the leader once he/she has attained a noteable lead-- red shells tend to peter out over a intermediate distances. The forward-pointed weapons in Wipeout behave the same way-- they really don't reach that far, so you can only impact a lead racer that is beating the competition by a second or two.

NOT that I am suggesting that a "Blue Shell" would be appropriate for Wipeout-- I just have a new understanding for the race design in Mario Kart having played online matches in a game that doesn't help the back players. It's really a different experience

[zargz]

Perhaps SL concluded that tracks become too littered with bombs and mines if there isn't a clear time duration assigned to these.

I think so and I totally agree with that. racing through a junkyard of bombs in pure is not fun.
Even from the last place .. Especially from the last place

But I am curious to know the effect of making the duration somewhat longer, e.g., long enough for a last place racer to create bombs that would affect the next lap for the first place racer.

a couple of times I catched a bomb from the last guy .. I'm guessing the selfdistruct timer is set to about 8 sec?

It does seem like there needs to be some sort of equaliser for those at the end of the pack. Anyone who gets an early lead has a serious advantage in Pulse. The bomb timing is just part of that.

when somebody wins really badly over me on a normal race and does so repeatedly
and I feel it was the weapons, not only bombs and mines that stop you
but also boost and AP that help you (him/her) forward
you know, sometimes you feel you only got shite pickups
then I start a No Weapons race to see if it really was the weapons
That's equalising enough for me

P.S. I know the issue with having to wait 50secs before the next track loads has been said many times before, but I actually don't mind it - seems a perfect opportunity to go a make a nice cup'a before the next race.

yeh, and after several cops of tea it's time enough for taking a leak!

[Medusa]

Well I haven't even finished the game but here's the things I hate about Pulse:

1. Barrel rolls are still polluting the game and it feels like a lot of the magstrips are just there to prevent so many BRs. Hence I dislike the fact there are so many magstrips.
2. In eliminator mode, eliminations are called "Kills". This really pisses me off because one of the great cornerstones of the supposed Anti-gravity racing philosophy always seemed to be its "peaceful" message hovering around in the background (until Fusion, gag.). Despite quakes missiles bombs, blah blah blah, there were always these nicey-nice sayings in the background ("Let's be friends!" even PIRANHA said "Feed me" not "I bite", lol). Maybe I just read way too much into these things. It just really irritates me that war talk has pervaded wipeout. Kills. Come on. Give me a break. If the announcer can say "Contender eliminated" instead of "Kill" during a race, the announcer can say "Contender eliminated. 7 eliminations remaining" during Eliminator mode.
3. The "Welcome to Wipeout Pulse" at the end of the intro and all of the speech during the track intros. It just feels wrong to have that much speech in a wipeout game to me.

But that's it! Only 3 things I hate! Amazingly well done!

There's just one minor dislike I have to mention: the name "Leech Beam". Just sounds disgusting. If anyone has ever had any experience with real leeches they'll understand why I really wish it just could have left as the "Energy Drain". Ewwww....

[lunar]

Intriguing..... do tell us about the leeches sometime.

I see your point about "kills", but I don`t think Halo culture has got too much of a hold on Wipeout yet. There really isn`t anything I hate about Pulse. It`s better than Pure in the BR-aspect, but there are still too many. But I quite like the way the mag strips reduce the number of them. The only things I hate are the cheaters, the bug in race times and the inconsistencies in comparing times on wipeout-game, and these things are all not completely about the game itself.

[Roadster]

I'm a bit of a Wipeout noob, but I loved Pure so this was always going to be a definite purchase. There are just a few niggles, though:

1. I'm still not sure about the idea of having Black and White runs, it makes each of the tracks lose their individuality a bit. In fact, I would much rather that SL had just concentrated on twelve tracks, picking only the best version of each track. Especially since we'll be getting more tracks through downloads anyway.

2. The Race Campaign is a good idea, but it could have been implemented better. Forcing players to play in modes they may not like, in order to unlock more events, is not good game design in my opinion. Even worse is the way the speed classes have been spread out - I'm only on Grid 7, but I hate having to play a Venom event after, for example, just completing a race on Rapier. Each grid should have stuck to a single speed class, obviously increasing as you go further into the campaign.

3. Choosing the difficulty of AI. I understand this is to help novice players, but it means that almost all of the single race gold medals will be ridiculously easy to get (on Easy). It would have been better if there was a system where you get more points by completing a race on Hard, which gives you more of an incentive as it allows you to unlock more grids (and tracks) quicker.

4. The bugs and glitches. Hasn't been a major issue for me, admittedly (I've had that HUD glitch once, and the game's crashed on me a couple of times), but still, Pure had a few of these too and I'm disappointed that the sequel isn't more polished like I expected it to be.

5. The menu is nowhere near as slick as the one in Pure. In fact, it's all a bit bland and generic now, and there's really no need for scrolling statistics and useless tips on the loading screen - reminds me of EA games. Having said that, it does function pretty much perfectly, and the reference manual was a great inclusion.

6. Photo mode is not as flexible as it could have been. You should be able to move the camera and zoom in/out on all the view modes. not just one or two.

7. Um... the voice on the intros is annoying.

Really struggling to think of anything else. Frame rate is not an issue when playing in 333mhz, it's mostly smooth as silk then, and loading times have also been improved. It's a superb game, they seem to have thought of pretty much everything for the sequel.

[infoxicated]

3. Choosing the difficulty of AI. I understand this is to help novice players, but it means that almost all of the single race gold medals will be ridiculously easy to get (on Easy). It would have been better if there was a system where you get more points by completing a race on Hard, which gives you more of an incentive as it allows you to unlock more grids (and tracks) quicker.

But you do get more Team Allegiance points if you complete events on Hard, so there is sort of an incentive to make it more of a challenge.

[Roadster]

Yeah, that is true. You only get slightly more though, right? I stick to Hard, anyway, it's more of a challenge (and more satisfying) that way.

Also, I've noticed that the loyalty points bar is pretty big. What else is there to unlock, apart from alternative ship skins?

[omega329]

//Roadster:
you'll see when you get to 100,000...

only really two bad things,

1) The "welcome to wipeout pulse" at the end of the intro, I HATE this, more than outpost 7 on phantom, more than getting out of bed on a Monday, more than... well wipeout fusion, and thats saying something! I think it spoils the whole intro and kinda takes away from the cool, slick, speedy racer that wipeout pulse is.

2) the dissapearing letters and digits on the HUD, i can live with the other glitches but this one really affects my racing style, I drive/fly differently when in first place than compared to last. Its a bit annoying coming across another ship when all you have is a autopilot.

[Au_Xtr3me]

My only big problem with Pulse, is that Zone mode looks like someone got carried away with bloom effects, making it impossible to read the HUD, and see some parts of the track.

[Asayyeah]

making it impossible to read the HUD.

There's other modes where you can 'read' the HUD & being more comfortable with the speed.
Seriously speaking : test no HUD for zone and you ll get there eventually

[Au_Xtr3me]

Does that work for you?

When I tried I got frustrated at not knowing how much shield, what zone etc.

I should give it a shot.

(PS a fair bit off topic, but how do you redeem bad reputation? as you can see mine isn't top of the morning)

[Sausehuhn]

If you can't see the HUD you may do even better times because you're only focusing on the race, not on the HUD. In Zone mode you will lose your energy sooner or later anyway - knowing how much energy is left won't give you more of it, eh? At least in Zone mode the HUD distracts you from the race.

Well, that is my experience

[Asayyeah]

Spot on 100% Max

[mdhay]

Don't kill me, but online. I just can't stand it.Not because of the cheaters, but because WipEout is just one of those games that doesn't work online - much like Metal Gear.

Don't get me wrong, I (kind of) like it, but I don't see handheld games working online. PS3, yeah, but I am just mad about online games. I guess I'm lucky enough to have Single Player, unlike Warhawk.

[Dogg Thang]

Wow, that's a fairly sweeping notion. You don't see handheld games working online? I can't see why not. Pulse works online just fine. Animal Crossing worked online. Mario Kart worked online except for the poxy snaking. Metroid Prime Hunters worked online. Each had their quirks but no more than any big console online game.

[sakerbax]

things i hate about pulse are:

too much waiting time between online races
no replays (photo mode of ai driving seems pointless)

but the one that really really bugs me is
having to reload the entire map to restart a race,, cmon wasn't there a way to reset the positions without dumping all the loaded map data and having to make us wait for loading again?

on time trials it's something that makes me take a break way sooner than i would on another game..

[Frances_Penfold]

My experience is that load times and UMD use are reduced, for both Wipeout Pure and Wipeout Pulse, if you turn off the music-- check off every song in the list and turn the music volume to 0%

Don't kill me, but online. I just can't stand it.Not because of the cheaters, but because WipEout is just one of those games that doesn't work online - much like Metal Gear.

Don't get me wrong, I (kind of) like it, but I don't see handheld games working online. PS3, yeah, but I am just mad about online games. I guess I'm lucky enough to have Single Player, unlike Warhawk.

Wow, sorry to hear that-- perhaps if Wipeout Pulse was online ONLY it would be a problem, but for me, it's a perfect system-- an online enabled futuristic racer that I can play almost anywhere, with minimal hassles (no need to mess with Kai, for example). I probably split my time about 60/40 between offline and online play anyway.

[Au_Xtr3me]

I posted this somewhere else; but one thing that was not so obviously missing that slightly deterred realism was...

The lack of SUPERSONIC flight. It would be especially cool if you break the sound barrier and can't hear any of the sound (except music). It would be even cooler if it did the cloud effect of breaking the sound barrier. AND everyone else behind hearing a sonic boom!

Of course if would be a short experience but it would be exhilarating.

Edit: speed of sound is approx. 1200kph

[sakerbax]

maybe in zen speed when u hit a thrust pad at full speed =)

[Asayyeah]

Please newcomers stay on-topic, your ideas could be developed elsewhere.

My experience is that load times and UMD use are reduced, for both Wipeout Pure and Wipeout Pulse, if you turn off the music-- check off every song in the list and turn the music volume to 0% .

On zone mode one thing i find quite annoying is the mini screen-freezing when a new music track loads, especially when you reach high zones.
That's the reason why i am using your way, Frances, and no more freezing.

On a side note, before adopting this solution , i was racing Moa therma white to reach the 70's and found a DJ mix of strictly 12 min; i only selected it into the playlist : so every attempts i did , i was thinking : " stay alive till the end of the music : come' on " ( 12 min = 72 zones of 10 sec ).

Now i need a longer mix