WipeOut Pure is better than WipeOut Pulse

[master bruce]

I sold my Pulse about a month ago after getting all the golds on easy. Pulse was my first foray into WipeOut and it was an intense learning curve (which I posted about). But at the time I sold it, I was kinda getting tired of Pulse, it just stopped being very fun for me. While I liked Pulse, it wasn't as great a racing game as I had thought it would be based on all the hype.

Fast forward to yesterday, I needed my futuristic racing craving and bought the Playstation store version of Wipeout Pure. And within the first few minutes, I was WOWed. No wonder this version had the higher metacritic score, not only was it revolutionary at the time it came out, I think it did several things much better than its sequel.

Here are what Pure does better than Pulse:

1. Levels: the levels in Pure are so much more beautiful and majestic. There was almost not a single level that I was really impressed with in Pulse, but so far, many of the levels in Pure had me dropping my jaw at the beautiful scenery and the great feel of racing through them. The levels in Pure are much more creative and diverse. Whereas the Pulse levels felt gritty, the Pure levels felt futuristic and innovative.

2. Graphics: Ok, maybe my vision is bad, but I always had tired eyes after playing a session of Pulse. The levels were really dark so it was hard to make out turns in certain areas and I had to play in very dark places. Pure is much brighter overall, and I have no eyestrain playing it. It is a pleasure and this little minor detail makes the experience infinitely more enjoyable.

Now, Pulse does some things better as well:

1. Honeycomb progression - very cool and almost introduces a strategic element

2. menus and structure - obviously they had timp to revamp the system

3. Eliminator - spices up the experience

4. better graphics - not a huge difference, but still an improvement

This is obviously just my opinion as the experience is subjective...but I was genuinely surprised with how much I enjoyed Pure. It was kinda the experience I had hoped to have with Pulse but never quite got.

[supersocks]

I agree, definitely. But what you mean by putting graphics in both's advantage?

[Ash-Omen]

i agree with the level design, pures tracks definatly look alot more inspired compared too pulse and the tracks on pure are alot more diverse.

my only snag with pure is the AI, they can be very anoying forming weapons out of nowhere and constantly overtaking on the last straight but this could be a good thing i suppose cos on pulse i find the AI a pushover even on phantom and hard.

but overall best game is pulse imo. cos u have online play custom soundtracks better graphics and skin editor.

[Rapier Racer]

my only snag with pure is the AI, they can be very anoying forming weapons out of nowhere and constantly overtaking on the last straight

What! No way lol!! Pures AI is so poor compared to Pulse, if they are close enough to you to overtake you on the final straight you need much more practice.

[JABBERJAW]

lolll

Yeah, you can get away easier in pure, unless you cannot get near the front right away, which might make it harder(once again the barrel roll bug)

[Ash-Omen]

What! No way lol!! Pures AI is so poor compared to Pulse, if they are close enough to you to overtake you on the final straight you need much more practice.

yeah they overtake on final straight because they spawn weapons out of nowere lol. but pure imo is harder the bot in 1st on pure allways puts up a bigger fight than the rest. and on pure i notice when u get a boost start they all fly past somehow

[TearsToShreds]

All the competing ships seem to be going at an unusually high speed in the first lap. Think it's obviously meant to be that way, to make it more challenging to get first.

[Darkdrium777]

Indeed. There are some things that the AI does that would be impossible for us human player to accomplish, in both games.
That being said, the game is still beatable. Because the AI passed that first lap stops being as good, except for the first few ships... (I think in PulsE it's the first ship and the second ship that are better than the rest, while in PurE it was only the first).

[sakerbax]

I can't really understand why you selled pulse.
Wasn't there something else you could sell? Pulse was also my first WO i've already bought pure (and in my opinion it's worse than pulse maybe i got used to mag strips?) but i can't see myself selling pulse, if not for anything else, it's probably the only psp game worth playing online,

[master bruce]

I could never connect online....so it didn't have alot of replayability for me

also, the eyestrain Pulse gave me was really big deterrent for me

[Skvall]

I havent played much Pure. It feels like driving on ice compared to Pulses flying and I didnt like that at all, so I play Pulse instead.

Pulse > Pure because of that imo. Maybe Pure is better in other areas but that doesnt matter if the control of the ship is bad.

[Rapier Racer]

You want to talk about flying on ice thats what you get when you fly over a Mag-Strip not a fan of those things period.

Pure was so close to perfection! If only it had handling and air brakes a little more like Pulse that would have been super sweet.

[blixabargeld]

I feel that pulse is more "competitive" and more improved on beating the opponents in every way possible, while pure is imho based more on driving experience..
Ships in pulse are easier to handle, nor the challenge level is high enough for expert players.
On the other hand there's not a good single player mode in pure, all you have to do is collect golds single-race-after-single-race, and that could be boring for someone. (not for me )
Anyway, they're quite different to make useful to own both, they really feel "wipeout" to me in different ways.

[Skvall]

I think I will force myself to get used to the handling. Many people seem to like the game, I want to see why.

[master bruce]

Skvall, I agree with you that Pulse has better handling...but I find the level designs of Pure to be much better and more fun.

[blixabargeld]

I think that pure has better handling...

[omega329]

IMHO pulse's handling suited zone mode better than pure's, however, for racing I prefer pure's

[Sausehuhn]

After playing Pulse, Pure feels very strange, that's true.
But play it an hour and you get used to it. Actually it feels more WipEout than Pulse does because the ships slide more.
Dead-stops and roof-grinding are a bit annoying, though. But you can avoid the roof thingie (most of the time) if you know the tracks.
Overall, Pulse's handling is too direct to me and sideshifting shifts too much and turning turns to much (like if you want to correct your line you directly turn 30°).
Pure's far better at this point to me.

Then (in my eyes) Pulse never reached Pure's variety of track layouts and environments. The tracks look very similar in Pulse and don't seem that unique. There are exceptions like Vertica and Tech de Ra, but most of the tracks look rather uninspired to me (compared to Pure).

Pulse is a really good game, but, at least for me, it never lived up to the expectations. There was too much hype probably.

I just put Pure in my UMD drive again and I'm enjoying it very much (love the menus). If the game just had difficulty levels and online play.

[Frances_Penfold]

I love Wipeout Pure. A lot.

But two huge things Pulse has over Pure:
1. Online multiplayer
2. Online leaderboards

So as much as I love Wipeout Pure, it's hard to motivate myself to go back and really dig deep again.

Though if members of this community returned to Pure, including Time Trialing and online play via Kai, I would seriously consider it

[Chrono]

Not me. Pulse is for me.

For me it's all about the way the game feels, or ship control. I have fun in Pure, but Pulse is the one I get serious about.

Note: This poster finished last in Wipeout Pure at the 2008 European Wipeout Convention.