Wipeout Pure (stylised as wipE′out pṳrE) is a 2005 racing video game developed by Studio Liverpool and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable. It was released as a launch title for the platform in North America and PAL territories, in March and September respectively. The sixth installment of the Wipeout series, following Wipeout Fusion (2002), the game takes place in the year 2197, exactly 100 years after the events of Wipeout 2097 (1996), and revolves around players competing in the FX300 anti-gravity racing league.

Developed by Studio Liverpool, production of Wipeout Pure started in August 2003 and lasted until early 2005. Throughout development, the team created entirely new user interfaces and other algorithms which sped up the development process in time for the PlayStation Portable's North American launch. The game received positive reviews from critics upon release. Reviewers unanimously praised the graphics, track designs and general aesthetics, but some noticed occasional frame rate fluctuations.

Gameplay

thumb|left|250px|From left to right clockwise, the interface displays lap time, current weapon, [[speedometer, shield strength and number of laps.]]

Wipeout Pure is a racing game which is set in the year 2197, exactly 100 years after the events of Wipeout 2097, and revolves around players competing in the FX300 anti-gravity racing league. Players control anti-gravity ships which are owned by racing corporations (effectively referred to as 'teams' in-game). There are a total of eight teams featured in the game, with one ship available for each. Every ship has different characteristics, for example each ship has variations in handling, thrust, maximum speed and shield strength. Each craft is equipped with an energy shield which absorbs damage sustained during a race; energy is lost whenever the player's ship collides or is hit by weapon fire. If the shield runs out, the player's ship will explode and is consequently eliminated from the race.

Region differences

To compensate for the delay of the launch in Europe, both for the PSP and its games, Studio Liverpool added a few new features to the European version. Wipeout Pure supports game sharing which allowed owners of the European version the ability to send the demo version over Wi-Fi to other PSP owners who do not own Pure. This gives said players the ability to have up to 8-player games with only one copy of the game (but limited to the demo tracks). Another feature added was the playable demo for Fired Up and a MediEvil: Resurrection movie demo. The Fired Up demo also supported game sharing for multiplayer with up to 7 friends who didn't own a copy of Pure or Fired Up, but only on the "Junkyard" and "Arctic" levels. Finally, the European release contains four exclusive tracks then-available via download. These are named the Omega League. Aside from the American, European, and Japanese versions, there are two more versions: a Korean version with downloadable content support but no available downloads, and an Asian version which includes no download feature. Also, there was a demo for the game, which came bundled with the UMD release of the 2005 film, Stealth.

Development

Wipeout Pure was developed by Liverpudlian developer Studio Liverpool. Pre-production of the game began in August 2003 and full production occurred in October of that year, with only two staff members working on the game at that time. The team received development kits for the PlayStation Portable in August 2004; by this time the development team had grown to twenty people. Dave Burrows, one of the original two staff members who conceptualised the game, reflected in a retrospective "post-mortem" that the studio had to learn from their previous mistakes with their predecessor, Wipeout Fusion. Burrows cited that one of the principal difficulties the development team faced was that the team's artists and designers were "fighting almost all of the time"; designers would first design a track for the game, then pass it over to the artists whilst the former were still making adjustments to it. Burrows also recalled that the developer's editing kits required many hours worth of "tweaking", which ultimately did not result in a smooth workflow.

The graphics were the most praised aspect of the game. Ryan Davis of GameSpot said that the visuals were "gorgeous" and breathtaking to look at, both in ship designs and details of the tracks. Davis noted that the game never remains at a "solid" 60 frames per second, which can cause occasional fluctuation. A reviewer of GamePro similarly praised the visuals as breathtaking, stating that the "beautiful" panoramic scenery defied the notion of usual graphics displayed on a handheld console. Ryan O'Donnell of IGN considered the graphics to be the strongest aspect of the game, saying that its courses, weapon detail and ship designs were "beautiful", but he found that occasional framerate issues kept it from "perfection". Daniel Chang of GameSpy opined that the visuals were "well-crafted as any video game or feature film". John Davison of 1UP stated that both the game's presentation and graphics were stunning and "absolutely beautiful". A reviewer from Edge similarly praised the aesthetics as "beautiful" and dynamic. Andy Kelly of GamesRadar stated that the visuals were well-designed, although he noticed some frame rate drops.

Critics also viewed various aspects of the gameplay favourably. Davis said that the high-speed gameplay was "incredibly engaging" and artistic on both a visual and technical level.

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • Wipeout Pure website