I was never a particularly huge fan of the WipeOut series throughout it’s fairly long running history on the PlayStation consoles. Fun as the games were, they always felt a bit too generically arcadey without much substance to keep me hooked.

As such, Wipeout the Omega Collection would never have been on my radar had it not been for the VR update that was patched into the game a short while after it’s initial release on PS4.

Being a fairly recent adopter of PSVR, I thought I’d park my indifference and give it a shot. And boy – Wipeout is definitely something else in VR.

For the uninitiated, Wipeout is a futuristic arcade combat racer, where players pilot ultra high speed hover ships along a variety of neon courses as they ostentatiously twist, weave and loop towards the checkered flag.  You participate in a variety of race types while the techno thumps away, adding an additional shot of adrenaline to an already white-knuckled experience.

In combat focused races, players can collect one-shot powerups that they can use either offensively or defensively to give themselves an advantage. The premise is simple, but it all works well.

The Omega Collection is an anthology of sorts, bundling 3 full games as independent campaigns into one slick package, all accessible from the Home Menu – thus providing an exhaustive amount of content for you to peel your way through. Bang for your buck this certainly is.

I didn’t bother with the game outside of VR. Once the headset was on, it became immediately evident that this was a mandatory way to play to the game for VR owners.

Even the Menus look stunning, hovering in front of clinically white and crisp “block mesh” environments, set to the sound of techno music and the esoteric warbling of hover ship engines as they whiz past. Definitely a striking introduction in VR and 360 audio.   

I strapped in for my first race. Loading.  A little nervous, a little giddy. Then the grid lit up and the scale of the environment was staggering. It’s one thing to stare through a window into this world, it’s another thing to be enveloped in it. The conceit of scale was quite remarkable and the sense of immersion palpable. I just sat there, admiring the view for a solid minute before activating the start timer.

3-2-1. I hit the gas, and was so unprepared for the level of precision and speed I’d experience, I over corrected on the first bend and ploughed straight into the embankment.

It’s interesting that outside of VR, you become accustomed to not having a realistic sense of depth and therefore compensating accordingly. You have to play differently in VR.

The controls are simple.  X is throttle, with the left and right triggers providing left and right “air brakes” to manoeuver through corners. The square button activates weapons and perks you collect via power-up “pads” placed along the course.

VR famously has a pretty ubiquitous relationship with motion sickness, so one would assume that of any game, Wipeout would almost certainly be the one to make you lose your lunch. But there are a huge variety of comfort options set from the Main Menu that help mitigate this, such as being able to keep the cockpit of your racer parallel to the track, or rendering visors to the cockpit windows in your periphery, essentially narrowing your field of view.

All this meant that once I had found my “VR legs” after the first few races – I was able to play extended sessions without any discomfort. Quite the achievement for a racer that is famous for it’s insane dynamics.

Wipeout in VR has surprisingly sharp visuals for Sony’s budget-end headset, particularly the latest two game remasters in the Collection, with some quite stunning lighting and post effects on display. Some of the weapon particles are gorgeous, and when there’s a lot of action happening at certain choke-points during races, it’s like you’re trapped in a fireworks factory accident.

So I played through a variety of racetypes through all campaigns, and had enormous amounts of fun doing so. Wipeout has found a new fan in me, thanks to the Omega Collection and the marvel of VR. For anyone that has, or is thinking about getting a Playstation VR headset, definitely consider Wipeout Omega Collection for your VR games library.

If my word isn’t convincing enough, there’s a free demo on the PlayStation store that will do the trick.

The post Wipeout Omega Collection (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Back in the day I was fast on the side of one of the biggest schoolboy debates there was: F-Zero or Wipeout. For three console generations Nintendo delivered fantastic hovercar gameplay, culminating in the almost perfect F-Zero GX. It was so good in fact, that the famous Shigeru Miyamoto explained there would be no successor until they could find something new to add to the game.

Yet despite Nintendo’s insistence that the genre was essentially solved, Wipeout continued to tinker with the formula. But it too has been silent for many years now with the closure of series developer Studio Liverpool, and in its place have come a number of independently-developed games, from Fast Racing RMX to Redout, Formula Fusion and original Wipeout clone BallisticNG. Fans are clearly nostalgic for these games, and it seems that Sony has heard and listened.

Remastered by Clever Beans you are given three games to choose from: Wipeout HD (originally on the PS3), Wipeout 2048 (originally on the PS Vita) and Wipeout Blitz (originally on the PS X). There’s lots of Wipeout. The three games are relatively integrated with no loading in between selecting them, so it is quick and easy to switch between each of them as the mood takes you.

This is a full remake, not just an upscaled HD port, leading to true 4K and a very smooth 60FPS experience on PS4 Pro. Lighting has been vastly improved, textures and models have been completely revamped, and performance is exceptional. While for a PS Vita game Wipeout 2048 looked exceptional at release, the additional power of the PS4 has been used to brilliant effect, including a doubling of the performance to 60FPS. It looks like a game developed natively for the console, and in general is one of the best looking games available for the system. Track layout seems exactly the same, but the huge change in resolution, textures and lighting change the experience of actually driving on the tracks, always for the better.

In terms of gameplay nothing much has changed. Beyond the tracks, weaponry, ship characteristics and handling all remain the same. But as a remake, Wipeout Omega Collection reminds us of all the improvements made to the genre since when the games first came out. This is the danger of a remaster of games significantly iterated on in the intervening years since the original release. It’s a double-edged sword: any changes to the original core gameplay would be looked down on as meddling in a past classic, but leaving the games as is leaves the remaster feeling a little dated. Any extra changes would also mean a longer development cycle and most likely a higher retail price. That said, in absolute terms, these games hold up extremely well, and are still excellent to play.

One thing they haven’t changed though is the excellent soundtrack that stands up today as one of the best in video game history. The soundtrack was always one of the best parts of the game, it ties the package together, giving it the drive and urgency that makes these games simultaneously stressful and exhilarating.

For those without a history with the franchise this collection can feel a little confronting. There’s no tutorial or onboarding of any kind. Some sort of introduction to the game would have been beneficial for people unfamiliar with how the games work, or those who simply haven’t played in the many years since the last release. The controls are relatively intuitive, but understanding what the pads mean and how the weaponry and each race type works would make the experience much friendlier to new Wipeout gamers.

The Wipeout Omega Collection is remasters at their best. It takes excellent games and only makes them better. With significantly improved visuals and rock-solid performance, it introduces these three excellent games to a new generation of console, and by extension, gamer at an extremely reasonable price tag to boot. It’s really hard to fault anything in this collection. While the games themselves feel a little dated compared to newer additions to the genre, they remain in many respects the benchmark for hover racing. Now it’s your turn Nintendo, I can only dream of a F-Zero remake with this collection’s level of care, attention and quality.

The post Wipeout Omega Collection (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NOW CLOSED – WipEout all over again. A blast from the past! The iconic and groundbreaking WipEout is back, having first debuting on PSOne as a launch title, PlayStation have collated all of the titles in to one, fully remastered for old and new PlayStation 4 gamers.

A name synonymous with PlayStation, WipEout is the rapid combat racer that defies gravity and defines generations, known for its blistering speed, iconic music and pure multiplayer mayhem, WipEout has starred on every PlayStation format .

Featuring all the content from WipEout HD, Fury and 2048, WipEout Omega Collection packs in 26 reversible circuits, 46 unique ships, a ton of game modes and some new and classic music tracks.

Thanks to our good friends at PlayStation New Zealand StG has TWO Physical Games for PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 4 Pro up for grabs.

To Enter our WipEout Omega Collection PlayStation 4 Digital Code Giveaway you need to Correctly Answer the below Question:

WipEout was a foundation futuristic racing title for the very original PSOne. What year did the first WipEout game release?

A: 1995

B: 1998

C: 2000

You can give us your Answer by placing a Comment below, hitting us up on Facebook, Tweet to us, or Email Us.

* Winner(s) will be randomly selected from those that Comment below / Facebook Comment / Email in accordance to the above Question. Winner(s) will receive a Physical Disc Game for WipEout Omega Collection for PlayStation 4. Competition ends on the 22nd of June 2017. WipEout Omega Collection game for PlayStation 4 has a G Age Rating in New Zealand.

The post Enter to Win WIPEOUT OMEGA COLLECTION on PlayStation 4! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.