Friday 15 June 2018

Wipeout Playthrough in HD


With Wipeout fever being at an all time high here at the Junkyard - and with our Youtube channel sitting idly for a couple of weeks - I thought it timely to join our fellow enthusiasts of futuristic racing and show how beautifully this game in particular looks when running at a higher internal resolution.

I'm not the best Wipeout player in the world - far from it. In fact, the very first time I played it I positively hated it. I kept hitting the walls and slowing down, and couldn't figure out how to properly navigate the course.

Many years later, during my first time collaborating with the 'Yard, I gave it another shot, this time making the effort to understand the gameplay. It's actually pretty simple once you get to grips with it. You accelerate, you turn and, when trying to navigate a really tight corner, you use your air brakes for sharper turns. The trick is in understanding when - and for how long - to use the air brakes, since a split second too soon or too late will send you crashing against the nearest barrier.

It requires reflexes and finesse, and when you immerse yourself in it and pull off a good run it's incredibly satisfying. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see how quickly the old reflexes came back to me, almost a decade after playing it for the last time. Silverstream still kicked my ass, and I'm nowhere near beating the Rapier class, but I still managed to pull off a decent run.

And the graphics are reaaaaally sweet, minus some unavoidable glitches. We could really use an Omega Collection for the older titles. Too bad the series seems to be a Sony exclusive nowadays :(

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