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games

wipeout pulse

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After patiently waiting several months since the European release — which is becoming more and more frequent — I finally picked up my copy of Wipeout Pulse when it came out on Wednesday, much as I picked up Wipeout Pure and the PSP on their release date nearly 3 years ago. Briefly revisiting the series: I’ve owned every PlayStation-based game since the original (which essentially means all of them, given the 64 version was a rehash of XL). The original was inspiring at the time, if difficult and simple. XL perfected the ship controls and the difficulty level, pushing the speeds into the stratosphere with the introduction of Phantom class. It also was, for me at least, the high point of an important aspect of the series: the soundtrack. FSOL, Prodigy, Fluke… top of the line. Red Bull branding was amusing. Wipeout 3 offered a huge variety of tracks and teams, keeping most of the controls right, but fell somewhat short on the soundtrack – Xpander excluded. But then, the PlayStation 2 came along, and soon after, Wipeout Fusion with it.

Though my first few minutes with it were exciting and the graphics were stunning, Wipeout Fusion just felt… wrong. The teams, the ships, the tracks, the characters… they all felt like something completely tangential to the original Wipeout culture of the first three games. The soundtrack was decent, but what really made me drop the game was the new controls. It felt more “Ridge Racer” than “Gran Turismo”, as if you were on rails or something, with no physics to speak of.

I wasn’t alone, apparently; Wipeout Pure was heralded as just that – Pure, a back-to-basics formula that tried to ride the success of the original three games. At that it excelled, and even outdid its original goals in many ways. The ships and tracks and visuals were far better than I expected for a PSP game, and seems to still be a benchmark title as far as graphics go. The soundtrack wasn’t quite what I was used to, or expecting, after all the comparisons to the original three. This was more reflective of where the edge of electronic music had moved in the years since Wipeout 3’s release than some attempt to be different.

Pulse takes the excellent groundwork laid by Pure and builds on top of it instead of trying to reinvent the game. In this way, it’s not unlike the XL to 3 upgrade.

The first big change in Pulse is that races have moved from sequential championship to a a-la-carte sort of progression system. Gold medals yield you 3 points, silver 2, and bronze 1. You can pick your races from a ‘grid’, where a variety of types of races (traditional, time trial, zone) are available. This makes sense in the context of a PSP game because, as I mentioned in my Final Fantasy review, it’s important that one be able to pick up and put down the game on a short-notice basis without losing progress.

One addition is a ‘loyalty’ system, where one gains points on a per-team basis for completing races, perfect laps, and so on while using that team’s craft. I have yet to see what this actually does, but I think it is a nice way to reward players’ allegiance.

The one thing that really should have been in Pure, but simply wasn’t practical at the time, was Internet racing. While Pure had ad-hoc Wi-Fi play, it is very rare to run into someone else who has a PSP, let alone a copy of Pure, let alone having both at the same time you have your PSP. Internet play was among the things SCEE wanted to put into Pure originally, but the implementation details caught up with them and made it impractical. Now that the PlayStation Network is well-established, it’s much simpler to implement the kinds of online features that really should have been in Pure – online play, ranking, etc. Playing online is a blast – it’s simple to get started, and not too laggy from my experience. There aren’t too many English-speaking players online at 03:00 CST, but I’d imagine that during better times and as the game sells, this situation will get better.

Download packs were made available for Pure in relatively large numbers after its release in Europe. It was even worthwhile content – new tracks, new teams, and so on, for free. With the ability to play online on the PlayStation Network comes the bad news – downloadable content seems to be a paid affair this time around. There have only been two packs released so far, with two more coming in the next two weeks, and they cost about ₤3.49. This seems a bit steep for one new team and two new tracks, but maybe there are other things included, and maybe the US pricing will be lower.

Other little things, like picture mode and custom MP3 playback, are nice, but wouldn’t sway my purchase of the game either way.

Wipeout Pure is by far the most played game my PSP has seen, and Pulse looks set to take that record for itself.

games, reviews

further (far from) final fantasies

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Though it has been out for a few months now, it has been difficult for me to get my hands on the re-release of the original Final Fantasy for PSP until a few weeks ago. Needing some quick and simple entertainment for my downtime during finals week and growing tired of my PSP collecting dust, I picked up a copy, and I’ve been delighted with what I found.

I didn’t read anything about it beforehand, but I figured a classic I never had a chance to play the first time around was worth picking up. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the graphics had been essentially redone. The art style is kind of cartoony, but perfectly matched with the PSP’s screen characteristics and size. In addition, the battle scenes have some interesting 3D-ish effects for spells, attacks, and so forth. Some of the map environments also have some overlay environment effects like fog or fluttering embers. They’re nothing excessive – just something nice to keep you involved.

Square also took the time to add a few pre-rendered CG cutscenes. I don’t know how much they really add to the story, but I suppose when you have a whole UMD to fill with a game that originally fit on a 256 kilobyte cartridge, you feel the need to add things like that.

Being able to save your game at any non-battle point is also a part of what makes playing this game so enjoyable. It’s very easy to pick up knowing you can quit essentially at any time and not lose any progress. The Memory Stick gives you plenty of slots for saves, too.

So far, I’m only about two-thirds done with the game, but it has gone quickly, and it has seemed a little too easy. This is surprising given my previous difficulties with later Final Fantasy games (VII, X, and XII… and XI, which will probably never end and so doesn’t really count) and the number of online guides that claim the first is one of the most difficult games of the series. It’s possible that the difficulty has been reduced for later releases of the game, or that the level-grinding I did at the beginning of the game is paying off (which is a strategy I’ve never been wise enough to use in prior games). The story is also a bit thin, with basically no player-character development and sparse environments. But, this is to be expected from a port of a 20-year-old game, and isn’t much of a deficiency when you’re playing it casually on a portable system to begin with; it may, in fact, be an advantage, since storytelling can get in the way of a quick pick-up game.

All in all, though, I haven’t used my PSP this much since launch and the release of Wipeout Pure. It’s solid and entertaining, and for those of us who have suffered the drought of quick games like this in the few years since launch, it’s refreshing. With Wipeout Pulse on the horizon for the next few months, it’s a promising time, but depending on Sony’s timeline for the PSP, it may be too little too late for their first attempt at a portable system.