Wipeout Pulse
Wipeout: Pulse takes gaming to new heights with great single player and multiplayer PSP racing thrills in futuristic racing machines with a few weaponry surprises thrown in.
Ratings: Graphics & Audio: 20/25, Gameplay: 21/25, Creativity 23/25, Fun 23/25
Total: 87/100
The racing is fun but very difficult to master and the weaponry and simple attacks may be in the favor of the AI but it is not so over the top that it dominates the gameplay. The main theme in Wipeout Pulse is the futuristic racing in almost uncannily familiar Pod racer vehicles but this game was originally out way before the Star Wars pod racing scenes hit the big screen.
The original Wipeout was a great PlayStation game and the newest release for the PSP is also a great antigravity racing game as well. The games simple style and yet differing track layouts as well as the ability to add weapons and attacks to other drivers make it a nice driving game but adds so many different aspects over regular car or more earth bound driving games.
The fun here is not the driving or flying along and racing other concept antigravity vehicles but in the mastering the craft your flying to make the timed runs. Yes, flying others is part of the challenge but just trying your skills at this game will test any driver as you add an additional factor over driving games in the airbrakes and sheer speeds you are travelling.
Wipeout: Pulse adds the speed as a major factor and cornering is more like road rally sliding to make the corners and not slow down your vehicle enough to matter. The slide around sharp turns allows you to maintain at least a respectable speed and still keep you in the race. The game has a few different game types in the main Race Campaign Mode where you have to unlock higher levels of races by completing time trials and races against others.
You also have a Racebox mode where you can customize the race type, speed class, weapons ability and AI difficulty for the race. This race type is a choice between a single race, head to head, time trial, speed lap or a couple of other types and the other racing settings are pretty much self explanatory. The Racebox mode allows you to set up a racing circuit like you want with your own settings so you can enjoy the racing type how you want to play.