This Sucks

I never played a Wipeout game before Wipeout HD, but I am a fan of the F-Zero series. Wipeout HD is not dissimilar to F-Zero. It feels more floaty than F-Zero, but it’s not that far off. Another difference is the presence of weapons, but in my experience so far they don’t screw with the game balance too much. There’s no Mario Kart blue shell on your ass every time you get the lead crap going down. At least not on the Novice difficulty. Maybe I’m speaking too soon, being a total newbie to Wipeout and only having played HD for an hour or so. Oh well. This game has a very slick style, from the menus to the design of the vehicles and tracks; and being rendered in 1080p at 60fps doesn’t hurt either. The main motivator for writing this blog entry was the screenshot function, so here’s some screenshots I took (click to expand one then use the next/previous links).

I’ve written about Burnout Paradise before (and I still get hits from people searching Google for “burnout paradise sucks” every day, despite my writing in the title that it’s a good game), I just started playing it again yesterday after a long break. They’ve added some significant (free) stuff to this game since I last played it. The most recent (and most significant) additions being motorcycles, weather effects, and a day/night cycle. The weather and day/night cycle add a lot to the game’s atmosphere, the transition periods of dawn and dusk are especially pretty. Motorcycles are a weird addition to Burnout. They have no boost, and they don’t crumple up in a cool fashion when crashed. Instinctively I want to say they don’t belong in a Burnout game but they’re fun to drive and they add a little variety to the gameplay. And it’s a free addition, why complain about it. Burnout Paradise has only gotten better since the last time I played it, and I think developer Criterion is pretty awesome for supporting the game like this.