For the sixteen years, I honed myself. I inhabited a fragile case hurling through a world of neon and concrete, but I would survive it one twisted track at a time, pulse racing.
I familiarised myself with Sol 2's skyway, a track suspended in the endless blue of the atmosphere, suffused with a sunlight that seemed only to grow softer and brighter with the passing years. I forced myself to acclimate to strange, magnetised tracks, and the vertiginous sweep of the hundred foot drop that was the first right turn on Modesto.
This was the first time in years I looked at a videogame and thought, "This is beauty."
Over the years, I developed a level of intimacy I imagine few will ever know. I learned which portions of which tracks might be used in confunction with which ship's engines to whip into a jump that bisected tracks, cutting total times in half. The ground would sprawl below, the ship clipping awkwardly here and there before being flung to the ground, miles ahead of the competition. This was real racing.
I learned to dodge incoming homing missiles, first at low speeds with tricky shunts of air brakes, but later, as it chased me down a straight at half a thousand kilometers an hourlike some unshakeable predator, with a sharp deceleration on the way into a corner that would send the red swirl of its contrail glittering past me as it ricocheted down the track.
Sure, she's showing her age now, but I'm sure she'd make the Kessel Run in like... super few parsecs.
As bombs blossomed into hemispherical gushes of light and smoke, I'd whip through and cross my fingers in hope that there'd be nothing in there to collide with, bursting through to the belt of neon and sunlight on the other side. The exhilaration was unmatched.
Studio Liverpool has closed, so I suppose I've played my last Wipeout game. I'd have felt sickened by the news, but I left my stomach in that sharp left bank in the tunnel that runs beneath the aquarium on Vineta K, only the bluest band of sunlight filtering through to the track below to fall in waves and ripples across the track.
I spent years learning to time the flips to the rear view in the heartbeat after the pilot-assist issued the warning of "MISSILE" to make some effort to jink between the spreading projectiles, only to find that the last race is ended.
I was an anti-grav racing hero. Trained for years for a sport I would never live to see.
It was never to be. It was too beautiful, too pure.
Ohh dangggg wipeout HD.....for the PS3, dang I remember that :O (though of course there was the entire series before that, but I do remember the PS3 store version quite vividly....I think when I just got it). Good stuff.
And SirJolt ballin' it up. You're really good at writing >.<
Jolt, once again, your writing is awesome my friend. There a few games in my past that I think, had they ever been given a chance, could have been deep and complex e-Sports.
I got the first wipeout when the original Playstation came out. It's basically the reason why I became an electronic dance music fan. The second game , Wipeout XL was groundbreaking. It featured popular artists as part of the soundtrack (underworld, prodigy, chemical brothers!), as well as a red bull sponsorship (back in 96!), and external design work from Designer's Republic (you have these guys to thank for all the cool symbols related to the pick-ups and team logos). I dabbled in the other wipeouts, and I'm just happy that there are some people here that love the series like I do
I never really got into Wipeout's, got the HD pack for free when Sony gave away some free games after they had those security issues. I did pick up a Vita last week and downloaded the game other day, might be good fun on that.
On October 01 2012 14:46 Stratos wrote: I was a hero on this + Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiTWIDbD8Q4
damn
Thats like the only game I ever saw my mother play, whole family competing for top times was awesome.
Never understood the attraction past the original one on PS1 (or at least the first one I new about, pretty sure someones going to rage at the idea of me not knowing other versions ^^)
hooooly nostalgia bomb i never knew the name of this and had basically erased it from my memory but this mustve been one of the first games ive really played. damn I remember crashing almost every time whenever there was a tunnel
that reminds me that i actually dreamt of you tonight sirjolt haha you and eoin were at a party with some of my friends and i introduced you as someone from TL and you were like "i dont even know why everyone likes me so much"
On October 01 2012 19:11 DKR wrote: Never understood the attraction past the original one on PS1 (or at least the first one I new about, pretty sure someones going to rage at the idea of me not knowing other versions ^^)
I got the newer PS3 version for free as a result of that PSN security breach fiasco, pretty decent game.
hooooly nostalgia bomb i never knew the name of this and had basically erased it from my memory but this mustve been one of the first games ive really played. damn I remember crashing almost every time whenever there was a tunnel
that reminds me that i actually dreamt of you tonight sirjolt haha you and eoin were at a party with some of my friends and i introduced you as someone from TL and you were like "i dont even know why everyone likes me so much"
This is insane, I played this too, and had completely forgotten it D: I think I played it on the ZX Spectrum though, where all the really racers spun (through a tape deck).
(Last night I dreamt a gopher and a platypus dug up my lawn, it was super weird )
LOLOL I played this game with my friend a year ago all the fucking time. Holy shit the hardest speed is fucking imposssssible. I mean what the fuck! But damn did we have fun wiping out so much. So difficult using a console controller.
I already PM'd SirJolt the MAN'S anti-grav racing game.
The hardcore music. The perma-death of other drivers. The absolutely over-the-top courses.
One of the few racing games (I play a shit ton of them) that your vehicle speed translated to your screen very well...when your car was going 1500 km/h it looked and felt like you were controlling something going 1500 km/h
Not a chance. Comparing Wipeout with F-zero is like comparing F1 with Nascar.
Faster Cups in F-zero are like playing the game in fast foward, all move faster, including your turns.
Even in the first Wipeout, your ship turns the same in every class but it got really harder and harder to control at those faster speeds. Wipeout is the only racing game i've ever played where you really can't hold the acceleration button (at higher classes)
Oh and the music, yes. F-Zero have some amazing music for a videogame, classic good videogame music.
Wipeout went beyond regular videogame soundtracks and went for top class dj's.
I'll just put this out there in case, I'm not sure Sony is going to simply let go of Wipeout. While Studio Liverpool is gone and I also mourned it's loss, Sony has already announced they are going to continue to support Wipeout servers, and I believe teased that they may continue the franchise.
We'll see what happens when a new studio takes it up, but I still spend much of my PS3 time not on my 60$ games, but on the beautiful Wipeout.
Thank you, thank you for this article ;___; I don't know how I managed to miss Studio Liverpool closing down, but it makes me so sad. Every single time that I think of consoles, I insta-nostalgie about my wipeout 3 (wip3out)
EDIT:
*sigh* I guess I am going to drive 600km soon, to fetch my PS1 and Wip3out, as well as PSP with wipeout pulse. :D
On October 03 2012 11:19 Wyrm_uW wrote: I'll just put this out there in case, I'm not sure Sony is going to simply let go of Wipeout. While Studio Liverpool is gone and I also mourned it's loss, Sony has already announced they are going to continue to support Wipeout servers, and I believe teased that they may continue the franchise.
We'll see what happens when a new studio takes it up, but I still spend much of my PS3 time not on my 60$ games, but on the beautiful Wipeout.
Yeah, I had heard about this, but the sense of continuity being broken still worries me tremendously. A lot of what made Wipeout what it was was that continuity from Psygnosis to Studio Liverpool.
It's only so bad because I don't think we could even see an indie version of something quite similar show up, given that I'm not sure how indie devs would go about licensing the calibre of music that's been such a huge part of the game...
On October 03 2012 22:44 Masamune wrote: off topic but sometimes I wish SirJolt would whisper sweet nothings into my ear before I go to sleep. It's dat voice and accent
This shouldn't be considered off topic, as it comes up in most of my conversations regardless of topic.
As much as i hate almost every other blog on TL (aside from the Guitar blog), this one is outstanding. I still remember buing a PS1 in summer 1997 will all my savings and enjoying the demo of WipeOut 2097.
Also, WipeOut HD/Fury is always close to giving me seizures on my huge TV screen.
EPT
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