E3 2009: Wipeout HD Fury Impressions

From the Vault — originally published June 8, 2009. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.

One of the biggest true surprises of the E3 2009 for me was stumbling upon the playable Wipeout HD expansion in the Sony Playstation Network show floor area. I truly stopped dead in my tracks when I saw it. I spent quite a bit of time with it and was fortunate enough to get a walk through of the new content from the game’s Director Tony Buckley.

The Wipeout HD Fury add-on is a HUGE expansion. The expansion damn near doubles the size of the game. The Fury pack adds 8 new tracks, 13 new ship models and 3 new game modes. Two of these game modes can be played online. The theme of “Fury” is aggression. The “Fury” menus are black with red highlights and it all looks pretty bad ass. The HUD has also been slightly redesigned to fit the aggressive aesthetic. I was told that nothing has been removed so the old HUD options should still be intact. When you boot the game up you are given the option of playing the old campaign or a new campaign of Fury modes. The new campaign is chock full of events including the sorely missed eliminator and includes the new Detonator mode. The Detonator mode is like zone mode with weapons. You shoot mines as you travel faster around the track.

Speaking of tracks the expansion includes 8 new tracks some of which are from WipeOut Pulse, and Pure. I played on Talon’s Junction and a few others and they all looked great running at 60fps at 1080p. Seriously. Not many games look this good. I could not play all of the new tracks because they were not unlocked though I was able to try all the modes. I was told by the game’s Director that all of the ships received some refinement in handling but nothing too severe that would change the overall feel of any ship.

A huge mechanic that was added in WipeOut HD Fury add-on is the ability to flip your ship in the opposite direction. At any point in the match you can hit a button to flip your ship so that you are facing other ships head on. You can then fire rockets or other weapons at enemy’s that were behind you. This is a great example of the aggressive aim of the expansion and allows for some great moments. I claimed to be a huge fan of the game but hit so many corners while playing. Partially it was the pressure of playing in front of the games producer and partially because I needed to set my custom controls. After being jokingly chastised (all in good fun) for changing the controls I felt more at home with the game. Apparently Tony Buckley plays with default controls. I prefer low sensitivity, bumpers for air brakes and the D-pad for controls though I think I will try the default again.

I did inquire about how the split in content of those with and with out the expansion will be handled online. The answer is that if you do not have the required content for a tournament or race you will get a message informing you you cannot join because you do not have the required update. I did kick myself later that day for not thinking to ask about saving replays. I walked away from playing the expansion happy with how bad ass it is. If you like WipeOut you do not want to miss this.

Check back later today for the videos I shot of the game.