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Originally posted by One, Two, Middlesboogie:
I love it to bits, and the only game that could possibly beat it is WipEout Fusion.
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And that's exactly what's happened. This month's OPS2M came with a playable demo of Fusion, and it is beyond excellent. I really don't know where to begin... I'll start with the graphics:
The graphics are, quite simply, gorgeous. There is no pop-up whatsoever, and the animated billboards display their advertisements slickly and seamlessly. The background is every bit as detailed as the foreground, and there's no fog or mist or anything which is often used to hide shoddy graphics. The sky actually looks real! The backdrops are fully 3-D, not just 2-D skins draped behind the action, and they are packed full of skyscrapers, giant satellite dishes, more billboards and everything you'd expect to find in a city in the year 2160.
But even if the graphics were as poor as the first WipEout, I'd still adore this game, because this game is speed personified. The demo features Zone Mode instead of a race, in which you control a ship on permanent accelerate, with no means of slowing down. Every 10 seconds the ship gets faster, until you get to Zone 30. But you lose shield ebergy every time you hit something, and the object is to get as far as possible before your shield is worn away to nothing and your ship explodes. I've managed to reach Zone 24, with two perfect laps! *is smug* Points are awarded for how far you go, how many perfect laps you get and how many speed boosts you hit. Getting a big score rewards you with a code you can enter on the
official site. I entered my score, and I'm 29th in the International League! There are only 28 individuals worldwide who are better than me at WipEout... not bad, eh?
Even when the ship is hammering away at over 1500 kph, there's no graphical slowdown of any sort. The demo circuit has an off-road area where you can create whirling duststorms, and presumably, in normal race mode, smash up all the boulders with weapons. I also noticed that some of the forks in the track were blocked off with electric barriers... I can't wait to get the full game and unlock those extra routes!
If you have a PS2 or are getting one soon, buy this month's issue of OPS2M! (not to be confused with PSM2 , which is pants)
The demo is on both the UK and US editions of the mag. As I stated in my
Fusion topic, a PS2 without this game is like a gun without ammo.
Do check out the official site (
http://www.wipeoutfusion.com ). It's stuffed to the gills with very cool downloads and information (my personal favourite being that 92% of Anti-Gravity pilots cannot pee if a scientist is watching them!), and it provides a backstory of what happened in previous WipEouts (some of which is quite funny). When the game is released (December), you'll be able to order it and other merchandise on the official site as well.
[ November 11, 2001: Message edited by: One, Two, Middlesboogie ]