The launch of PSP and Wipeout Pure was such a great time! so many hours put into this and later on Pulse. Really hope these make an appearance on the new consoles again, but they fit the handheld so well, absolutely stunning visuals for its time.
I remember going to the store as a kid and looking for PSP games to buy. I spotted wipeout and thought I’d give it a chance cause space ship racing sounded cool. The case said Wipeout pulse, but when I got home and inserted the UMD disc, it was Wipeout Pure 🤣
WipEout Pure's intro really sells the idea that it's a return to the Purity of the sport that Pierre Belmondo helped to pioneer, no longer is it the dark and dingy atmosphere of the F9000 league and its corporate overlords, but a faithful return of what made the sport so popular with fans. That and I find it cool that Great Britain broke away from FEISAR to resurrect Icaras.
I have to point out that having the classic tracks in a "cyberspace" environment kinda makes sense in the context of the lore. In the time between Fusion and Pure, AG Racing disappeared because the corruption of those in charge of the F9000 league was exposed. And because the world economy relied heavily on AG Racing, when the races stopped, the economy went under. It's not outside the realm possibility that the land that the classic tracks sat on was reclaimed for some reason if the subsequent riots due to the global economic collapse didn't destroy the tracks already. But you're right, it's hard to recognize them in this form.
I don’t think that The Designers Republic was involved in Pure. I think they only worked on the first three PlayStation WipEouts. But Studio Liverpool did do a good imitation of TDR for Pure.
Yeah, came here to say this. TDR dropped out after 3 and never returned due to Sony asking them to pitch for work on Fusion. John Machin and a few other internal Sony devs were responsible for what ended up being a really passable imitation of TDR's style - in fact I'd say out of all the games post original trilogy, Pure captures the visual spirit of Wipeout the best :)
Man this brings me back to a specific time in my life. I had dropped out of university a couple of years prior, had built up a lot of debt I quit my crappy delivery job, started driving a forklift at a warehouse at night. I'd be there 3 years till I went back to a different college, completely different program. My brother had given me a PSP for Christmas or my birthday. At lunch and smoke breaks I'd sit outside and play the heck out of Wipeout Pure, jamming to the music. The air inside was terrible, I didn't really fit in and didn't like the job very much. So it was a pleasant respite. I need to dig out my old PSP. Wonder if my saves are still good...
This was pretty much THE racing game I played on PSP, it was excellent! I got my PSP in 2006 with this and SWBF2 and man, the hours I poured into this was crazy. This and Mario Kart DS were all I played sometimes.
Fair review! Pure was my first WipEout and made me a lifelong fan, eventually leading me to playing all the other ones in the series. Glad you mentioned the DLC too, the sheer amount of (free!) new tracks and ships that came with those was incredible. Looking forward to the next one!
dont know if anyone else said this but the designers republic were only involved with the first 3 games :0 the art direction and design teams were all in house at this point
Wow, totally sympathetic and down to earth speech, Informative too, and I love that small analogy at the start and how naturally that review flows. That's a sub from me, keep up the good work and hopefully more people will see your channel! ❤
In pure, the AI speed is +25% in the first lap then normalize in the proceeding laps, if you are good you can leave the opponent behind for 10+ seconds at lap 4 phantom class with one last lap to spare and increase the gap
Pure was my first Wipeout I play, and for portable size looks very neat with some futuristic looks, with absorbing weapon instead pit, and the atmosphere just look neat Manage to complete this game until Ascension with Feisar, too bad this game can't fully enjoyed cause DLC
This game is one of the very first I’ll be buying on UMD for my first ever PSP, which as of writing this, is out for delivery. This system is literally perfect. It can do just about anything you desire, has a stellar library of original or exclusive games, and best of all, you can take it anywhere you go. It’s just amazing, and I’m kicking myself for never buying one during its shelf life.
Man I gotta agree. I played Pure after HD Fury, Pulse and 2048 (in that order) and while I do enjoy how floaty and slippery Pure feels and that it doesn't use MagLock (which is way too overused on HD Fury), the AI behaviour really sours my experience drastically, like I thought HD Fury wasn't aggressive enough with the weapons and that Pulse was too aggressive with them and yet too easy once you get the hang of it but Pure's goes full throttle with their weapon spam behaviour so much so that it really feels like getting podium really comes to getting lucky with the weapon RNG than skill and I hate that since it makes it feel way too stop and go. And on the other hand the ships deaccelerate too much while feeling that the thrust is too slow even on the highest thrust ships. Also funny that you didn't mention the Triakis' bug (or did you?) In the end it really is a shame cuz the music is both a really weird but fascinating collection (one of my fav tracklists in the series) and I really dig the ship stat distribution better since them having only 5 points instead of 10 makes the ship feel less homogenious than Pulse/HD (but especially Fury since the Fury ships really feel way too similar between one another)
3:43 WOAH, HOLD ON Fusion was supposed to have Side-Shifts?! Alright, adding that to the Fusion Remake plans right now. Yeah, for years I’ve been wanting to remake WipEout Fusion.
I remember when the PSP came out. I wasn't originally going to get one even though I REALLY wanted the new Wipeout. Then I found out the office where I worked, they would do Wipeout tournaments during lunch. Immediate buy and glad I did, because it's still my favorite in the series. After the super tight handling in Pure everything else feels just a little bit off. Personally I could also just concentrate just a little better on handheld vs. controller and looking at the TV. Still have my PSP, the Pure UMD and all the US DLC and have to break it out every once in a while.
I love Wipeout Pure. Unfortunately it's too easy for me at this point, even the Special Edition with enhanced AI. But I think it has the best race tracks in the entire series
8:58 I never knew it had DLC!!! I've been playing this game since like 2014 and never tried it. How do I get access to it? I have a PSP street so I can't connect it to the internet
