Age rating:

3+ (PEGI)

What is it?

Futuristic racing game, with lots of lovely weapons.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £22.99

Yep, every penny.

Why?

Like anything in life, practice makes perfect. So given that Wipeout Pulse is the 8th incarnation of the futuristic racing series does the same analogy hold true? I’m pleased to say it does. Everything that was good about Wipeout Pure has been built upon in Pulse with the following additions:

• More tracks - 12 new ones
• More teams - 12 teams in total
• New Mag-strip track surface - Tracks can now have loops and super sharp turns.
• New weapons - Repulsor, shurikens and cannon
• Team loyalty system
• Adjustable AI difficulty
• Custom soundtracks
• Custom ship skin creator - via wipeout-game.com
• New tournament structure
• Photo mode - Take your own pretty pictures, as I did for this review
• On-line racing

Yep, on-line racing is there for the first time. Now I get my butt kicked on-line as well as off line and I can see just how slow my times are via the wipeout-game.com site Yay, I think. It is a welcome, if slightly overdue addition to the series.

The adjustable AI (easy, normal and hard) opens up a lot more of the game to most people. In the previous games, increasing the difficulty by increasing the speed resulted in few people actually completing all the tournaments. Now, at least, the Wipeout tourist setting (aka easy) allows you to experience the whole game. However, it doesn’t prepare you for the harsh reality of on-line racing though. For that set the difficulty to hard. Well, technically you need an evil setting (aka human) to be fully prepared.

It’s not all sugar and spice and all things nice in Pulse. To my mind the balance of time trials to races during tournaments is a bit off. There are simply too many time trials and not enough races. I like races, time trials are just boring. Also enough with the Zone races. I know this was quite a cool addition to Pure but Studio Liverpool had gone a bit OTT with the number of Zone races you have to complete. Tons of them, again with the boring.

It seems Sony have decided to start squeezing every last drop of coin out of Wipeout. How? Well, the previously free downloadable content for Pure now costs money in Pulse. These expansion packs vary in price from £1.99 to £3.49 (4 have been announced - Mirage and Icaras are available now). It’s another case of micro transaction infestation.

Finally, it’s a Wipeout game without any CoLD SToRAGE music. Bad, bad, bad. At least I can now create a customised soundtrack (something also available in Wipeout HD) with lots of my own CoLD SToRAGE tracks, so it’s not all lost in a savage pit of mire.

In summary: The best Wipeout game so far on any system.

Screenshots:

Wipeout Pulse is available now on PSP

Popularity: 12% [?]

Age rating: 3+ (PEGI)

What is it?

Arcade style rally racing.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £39.99

Yes.

Why?

I almost need to review Sega Rally twice. Once with the standard 360 controller and once with the set-up that Sega provided us when we visited them in August. Why? Well, playing Sega Rally whilst sitting in a Sparco racing seat, with force-feedback steering wheel (and pedals) I was in driving heaven. It’s perfect. You can feel every bump as your car drives over all the track deformations and as it power slides around another lovely corner.
Continue Reading

Popularity: 21% [?]

There’s a new Sega Rally (a.k.a. Sega Rally Revo) coming out this September 28th, 2007. It’s good. We’ve played it.

The Sega customer relations people gave us lots of info - some of it propaganda and some of it plain truth. We’ve filtered out most of the propaganda for you. Here’s what you need to know:

1. It feels like the original arcade game:
   The designers have preserved its fast, close-racing experience - all through the race you’re convinced that if you cut the next corner a liiiiittle bit closer you’ll be in the lead. They’ve also kept the HUD style close to the original arcade design, with the addition of a map. In terms of graphics, the artists seem to have signed up to the Blue Skies Campaign. Yay for happy games! This has not gone unnoticed by the organisers at UK Resistance.
2. It’s a casual rally:
   Colin McRae’s DiRT prides itself on being an accurate recreation of rally driving, right down to letting you adjust your car’s limited slip diffs. Sega Rally… doesn’t. They’ve kept the arcade version’s track notes that warn you of approaching hazards but there is nothing on the level of real-life pacenotes. This is a pure high-adrenaline racing game designed to let you thrash your friends in a quick 5-minute challenge after a night out. Or be thrashed, but that would never happen to you, right?

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Popularity: 21% [?]

Age rating: 12+ (PEGI)

What is it?

It’s a rally game. Think Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo but with lots of mud (and car damage).

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £39.99 from play.com

Yep.

Why?

Car damage and speed, the 2 essential elements in any decent rally game. Fortunately Colin McRae’s DIRT has tons and tons of speed and shed loads of car damage. When I was belting down the 3rd stage of the Rally of Wales in my Lancia Delta S4 at some hideous speed, it really felt like seat of the pants stuff. Then I screwed my entry to one of the corners and whoops-a-daisy, the car performs a perfect barrel role in mid air. Back on all 4 wheels, minus 1 door - which I wasn’t using anyway - I managed to finish the stage.
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Popularity: 14% [?]

Age rating: 12+ (PEGI)

What is it?

Off-road driving game. Think WRC but with more vehicles.

Is it fun?

Yes, but frequently irritating as hell.

Is it worth the money? £39.99

Yes.

Why?

I have some mixed feeling about this game. At times it makes me feel like “I am a driving God”. Seconds later it turns round and exacts its revenge for my skillful driving by shattering my race position, all because the lady loves milk tray. Sorry, I meant to say, all because I just hit a tiny rock or grazed another competitor’s vehicle resulting in my vehicle hurtling to its doom. Or I get repeatedly splatted by large trucks which all drive like they are auditioning for Duel. Bye, bye race win. Hello last place. Continue Reading

Popularity: 20% [?]

Age rating: 3+

What is it?

It’s a car racing game where you get speed boost in exchange for driving into oncoming traffic.

Is it fun?

Yes but not as much as Burnout 3, you spend more time skipping though the reward movies/menus sometimes than actually driving. At least that’s how it feels at times.

Is it worth the money? £34.99

No, unless the online mode has something fantastic going for it, save yourself a wad of cash and get Burnout 3 instead. Continue Reading

Popularity: 19% [?]

Age rating: 18

What is it?

Driving, kill-em up through the medium of cars, bikes, trucks, guns, emergency vehicles and even a helicopter!

Is it fun?

Yes, apart from the frequent annoying bits.

Is it worth the money? £29.99

Yes, if you like GTA games, otherwise try before you buy, and yes it’s most definitely an 18 rated game.

Why?

It’s all about stealing cars, shooting/stabbing/beating up anyone, doing anything you want in a totally free roaming environment and the bad guys are the cops! Continue Reading

Popularity: 29% [?]

Age rating: 3+

What is it?

Futuristic racing game with weapons

Is it fun?

Yes, it`s totally fantastic…but sometimes incredibly frustrating (usually directed at your own inadequate reactions)

Is it worth the money? £27.99

Yes, yes, yes!
That’s even before you take into consideration the free downloadable extra content! Yay :-)

Why?

WipEout Pure takes the best bits from the previous WipEout games, jazzes up the graphics, adds more weapons, more music, more speed and leaves you with a fantastic racing game for your PSP. Continue Reading

Popularity: 23% [?]

Age rating: 3+

What is it?

A driving game

Is it fun?

Yes, apart from the music (which is terrible)

Is it worth the money? £29.99

Yes

Why?

Worth the cash just for the crash mode Continue Reading

Popularity: 13% [?]