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PSN to Gamers: Let’s Be Friends
WipEout HD Preview Hype

Sony’s PlayStation Network has a lot of ground to cover against the success of Xbox LIVE. I probably should have warned you to sit down before reading that, but while you absorb the shock I’ll also mention that the sky is blue before continuing…

While reviewers and gamers alike are anticipating that LittleBigPlanet will add life to a barren landscape, Sony has mysteriously left several franchises out of current plans. Titles like Twisted Metal, Syphon Filter, Jet Moto, and Colony Wars are just some of the legacy series that would thrive on that network. Only Warhawk was given the opportunity, and as well as it works I can’t help but wonder how great the originally planned single-player campaign could have been.

The real task of breathing life into the PSN first has fallen on veteran Studio Liverpool, who will bring a landmark series to the PSN with the anticipated release of WipEout HD scheduled for 2008. And it can’t come soon enough.

The WipEout Series was my introduction to Sony’s PlayStation. And at the time futuristic anti-gravity racing made perfect sense for capitalizing on the entire idea of video games. I’ve no idea how many nights we’d get back from clubs with our brains lit like a 24/7 Neo-Tokyo and run through tracks of WipEout XL. Mastering the speed and control of those ships was the new elite of gaming while Fluke and The Future Sound of London broke haunting and hypnotic rhythms from the speakers. Funny to think that somewhere lesser beings played GoldenEye.

In its prime WipEout was a series of contradictions, plastered with the hyper-individuality of designs provided by the Designer’s Republic, where every logo-littered corner reminded you that your identity was a market stock, a commodity to be traded and sold even while uniting you with other players. Every ship was tailored to an identity, working physical design in sync with corporate philosophy. But for gamers WipEout was about the potential for a state of perfection, for the truly hardcore to enjoy before so many future titles would open the market up to the more banal scene of generic casual games. Mastering the tracks of any of the first three instalments, learning the racing lines and cutting your lap time by mere seconds to advance, this was every bit the evolution of the gloried shooter days, of cold hands, quick reflexes, and bullet pattern memorization.

But then WipEout Fusion released on the PlayStation 2 and the promise of moving further into the future ultimately failed. With the determination to show off new hardware, the spirit that had carried the series so far had been lost. Much like films of the time, the target audience was treated to generic flash that lacked substance and given a game that seemed to parody pod racing. And even while both entries on the PSP have since gone a long way to healing that epic hurt, I’ve been cautious in the waiting game for a true console instalment. Although that isn’t quite what we have here, what is coming deserves the hype I’m giving it.

WipEout HD is not a new title, but a high-definition revision. Sony’s official line is that the game will take the best of the PSP versions and serve it up with new additions, all of it running at 1080p and 60 frames per second. Expect the improvements of WipEout Pulse to factor in large with the return of Mag-Strips for those gravity defying loops along with new weapons (though the plethora available already suited me fine). But as great as all that will be the key feature from Pulse will be the continuation of leader board rankings and online competition where you can often find me if you look hard enough, still trying to figure out how players like KANDANG and Asayyeah get those times so low!

The secret is precision control, so thank dark pagan demons that Sony has the distinct advantage of a functioning D-Pad over the competition. For you kids and kittens that’s the little black buttons to the left that work in the up, down, left, right persuasion.

So go check out the trailer. Let the sound envelope you while the visuals take you back to when a game sought to burst your retinas and get ready to enjoy a title made for network play.

TRAILER: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/31649.html

Posted in Commentary, PlayStation 3 |