Reviews
WipEout HD  Viewing page 1 of 1
Graphics WipEout HD is technical marvel. The game runs at a smooth 60 FPS at all times and supports a native resolution of 1080p (that’s 1920 x 1080). What does that mean? It means that if you’re running the game at a lower setting, then you’re doing the visuals a great deal of injustice. Of course, that’s not to say that the visuals don’t look superb at lower resolutions. It’s just that the ship/environment textures and the lighting are meant to be displayed at 1080p, and it is then that you realize how beautiful the game truly is. Easily amongst the best looking games on any platform today, no doubt about it. Explosions, sparks, and other visual bells and whistles are also superbly executed, and it all adds up in making the game look as spectacular as it is.  All that, and I haven’t even mentioned the visual madness of the Zone mode yet. While I’ll be talking about the mode itself in just a bit, it has to be said that the visuals go absolutely bonkers in what eventually turns the levels into one massive music equilizer. At first, it’s the tracks themselves that light up with equilizers. Later, when you reach a higher Zone level, the buildings and environments start turning into massive equilizers that react to the music that’s playing at the back (yes, that includes your custom music!). This screen shot from 1UP perfectly describes what I’m talking about: Music The music in the game is nice, with all the Techno and Jazz stuff, and gets the job done. But frankly, who even cares? This thing lets you use custom soundtracks and the game actually modifies your songs to give them a slight Techno-ish feel while they’re playing, highlighting certain aspects at times. It can’t really be explained, has to be heard to be understood. Also, when you’re going through long tunnels, the game adds echo to your track. How cool is that! And it doesn’t just end there. During jumps and roll maneuvers, your music is modified into a Techno riff for around a second or so, and it sounds cool! It’s like listening to an entirely different piece of music altogether. Couple this with the crazy visual effects from the Zone mode, and you begin to wonder how that news about this game causing seizures might actually be true!  Gameplay The most important part of any game. Without it, all the awesome audio/visual brilliance is useless. Thankfully, the game plays just as good as its other elements. The ships control extremely well, with no framerate hiccups to worry about. You’re provided all sorts of pick-up weapons, ranging from simple lock-on missles to other that result in unique and twisted-looking results. The tracks are all well made, and let you keep a brisk pace througout the race. There are several fun-to-perform loops, jumps and roll maneuvers throughout the tracks. The game gives you an incentive to perform these maneuvers, as you’re rewarded with boost a boost recharge that can really turn things around in tense situations. It’ll definitely take some time for you to be able to unlock everything this game has to offer. From hidden levels to ship skins, the game gives you lots of incentives to keep playing. And even then, if playing solo isn’t really your thing, you can play split screen against a friend on the same console, or head online to compete in 8-player races, complete with voice support.  As for the modes, there’s the single-player campaign mode. In this mode, the game throws its different race challenges at you. This is where you unlock most of your stuff. Then there’s the racebox mode, that lets you choose what game type you want to play. There’s single race, time trial, tournament, speed lap, and zone mode.The first three are self-exlanatory. Speed lap pits you against a ghost of your previous lap record. The Zone mode is the visually insane mode I talked about earlier. The object is to limit the amount of damage your ship takes from banging into side wall, and at the same time, progress into further Zone levels. Though, the further you go, the faster (and visually insane!) it gets, and that’s the catch. Last but not the least, there’s a photo mode that lets you capture your favorite moments and add blur and other effects to them. Once you’ve taken a snapshot, it’s saved your HDD, from where you can copy it off to another location or set it as a wallpaper.  Having stated all the good stuff, there are a few little drawbacks. One of the areas where this game seems to lack, is the limited set of features for the online mode. A bigger variety of match types for the game’s multiplayer will do wonders for it, and will certainly go a long way in increasing its replay value. Here’s hoping this can be amended via a downloadable expansion in the future. The other drawback that I feel is that the game lacks any new levels. All the levels are re-done versions of ones from previous PSP and PS2 game. There really should’ve been some new tracks, especially for those who’ve already played the PSP and PS2 games. But then again, that can also be fixed via a downloadable expansion. So here’s hoping that it comes soon (and doesn’t cost much!).  Overall All in all, at $20, this game is a definite steal! It is download-only, so you may have to empty up some space on your HDD, though it isn’t really that big of a download to begin with (998 MB). Get this game, even if you aren’t into racing games. The Zone mode alone will get you high over your favorite music track. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Value/Worth
| Our Rating for WipEout HD | ||||||||||||
|
| 1. No cursing or swear words: Use proper language to express yourself. 2. No flooding or spamming the comment system, abuse will result in a ban. |
Comment #1 | Posted by: baadshah90 on (28/09/2008 13:35)
nice game and nice review as well.
gud
Comment #2 | Posted by: nasir91 on (29/09/2008 18:06)
Nice review :). Thanks from Norway :D.
25-09-2008
