PS3 Fanboy

Thought playing Gran Turismo 5 in 2160p wasn't insane enough? Then how about playing it in 3D? How about combining the two ... er, we're getting a little too excited about the future here -- let's get back on track. At CES in Las Vegas, Sony had been showing off some 3D tech tie-ins for the PS3, displaying WipEout HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue running in true 3D.

Ars Technica went through the whole orgasmic experience recounting it as "one of the best demos of 3D technology [they] have ever seen." But hold your horses, folks; Sony says it's all for show ... for now. "We're not going to talk about specifications," said a Sony rep. "This is just a look at what 3D could look like if Sony decided to move in this direction."

The black shades the gent is wearing in the picture is the 3D goggles for gameplay. It's not as dorky as Ars thinks it is ... imagine wearing those horrid red/blue specs, ew! The blur screen is no doubt an effect of the 3D and, well, we're dying (as much as you are) to know what it actually was like. Guess we'll never know for quite some time.

[Thanks Julian A. and Erico316!]

Sony's just informed us that WipEout HD's been a pretty big success story. It is SCEE's best, and fastest, selling PSN download for the month of November. But SCEE's still not happy. It wants more people to enjoy the game, so it's releasing a demo version onto the European store next week. On Christmas Eve, to be precise

The demo will include a single track from the game. Once you've played that through you'll then be given a preview of all the other tracks. If that sufficiently tickles your fancy, you can buy the full version directly from the demo for a temporary reduced price. SCEE doesn't say what the cheaper price is, exactly. Only that it will return to its normal price on January 8th. We're betting this lower price and demo will persuade a good number of people, drunk on festive cheer, to part with their cash.

WipEout HD is hard. If you've played the game, you probably know that and, if the newest patch is anything to go by, the developers at Studio Liverpool have also realized this. Updating the game to version 1.20, which will happen as soon as you start the game, will make getting medals in campaign mode a lot easier. You can now change the difficulty setting within campaign mode to novice, skilled or elite, just like in other modes. This changes the medal requirements, making completing the game a much simpler experience.

It also means the difficulty ramp for the game is far less steep, as you can blitz through on novice, then change up to skilled and then, eventually elite. The medals look different for each difficulty, so you can clearly see on which mode you've completed each task. This doesn't help with the most difficult trophies, but at least completing the game is actually possible for normal humans. So, if you haven't played WipEout HD for a while, give it another go. You might get sucked in all over again -- we certainly did.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

WipEout HD has now been patched in order to fix the common game freezing problem among PSN users with over 50 friends. Currently this patch is available for the European version only, though we would expect it to go live in America very soon. The patch notes, which can be retrieved from within the game, state that your save file needs to be deleted after the patch has been installed for the fix to take affect. This means your lap times, team loyalties and other single-player stats and options will be lost.

Your trophies and leaderboard scores, however, won't be lost. If you've been sidestepping the issue by playing whilst signed out of the PSN, starting again is no doubt quite an annoyance. Don't get too upset, though, at least you can now play online with your friends. That's worth starting the campaign mode all over again, right?

[Thanks Stoo]

Maintaining 1080p and 60fps is no easy feat. In fact, many games in this generation can barely pump out 720p graphics, as seen by upscaling tricks used by titles like Haze, Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV. However, WipEout HD is one of the few games that maintains 1080p at a silky smooth 60fps. How were they able to do that?

Inside the Digital Foundry once again examined the pure pixel count of WipEout HD. What they found is interesting. The game does, for the most part, run in full 1080p. However, when the action becomes too intense, the game will downscale the resolution. It appears the PS3 figures out exactly what resolution the game needs to run at frame-by-frame to ensure the game's 60fps count is never broken. "Rather than introduce dropped frames, slow down or other unsavoury effects, the number of pixels being rendered drops and the PS3's horizontal hardware scaler is invoked to make up the difference. It's an intriguing solution that works with limited impact on the overall look of the game"

It appears the lowest resolution WipEout can render in is 1280x1080, which is still a 50% increase over 720p. The end result is something gamers, regardless of their AV tech knowledge, can truly appreciate.

[Thanks, kzin!]

Wow! Bravo to the NeoGAF forum for creating this incredible custom soundtrack for WipEout HD. While the PSN game offers an excellent soundtrack as-is, it's refreshing to have this new collection of tunes to listen to while racing down these futuristic tracks. The soundtrack was created by a very talented group of NeoGAFers: "We're a bunch of NeoGAF posters who make electronic music. Some of us veterans, some of us amateurs, but we all share a passion for videogames and electronic music."

We're offering a mirror download here on PS3 Fanboy to show our support for the project. But, make sure you check out NeoGAF for the full credits list. Download here, and check out instructions on how to use it in the game after the cut.

We're not talking the type of crashing you'd normally associate with WipEout, this is far more frustrating. Since the European PSN Store was updated earlier today we've been hearing reports of people experiencing crashes and game freezing whilst playing WipEout HD. Members of the official European PlayStation forums think they might have the answer. It seems to only be happening to the more sociable PSN users; those with over fifty friends in their friends lists.

There's no word on a fix, other than signing out of the PlayStation Network while you're playing. Obviously, this will prevent you from playing online. PlayStation Forum moderators are looking into the issue as a matter of urgency and hopefully we'll see a solution soon. We've experienced the freezing ourselves (and yes, our friends list is massive, thanks for asking), but an official cause hasn't been confirmed by anything other than anecdotal evidence at this stage.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Are you ready for the best PSN update you've ever seen? Until the US update occurs later today, that is. We had no idea it was coming to Europe, but Burnout Paradise is now available at the ridiculously affordable price of £25/€30. Definitely worth picking up if you don't have it, especially after today's trophy patch. WipEout HD makes its triumphant debut today as well, alongside Mega Man 9 and two Burnout titles for the PSP. Blimey. There are also more demos, add ons, videos and themes (including a Bioshock one which we're looking forward to seeing). Stop reading this blurb and check out the full list of content:

Playable content

• WipEout HD full game (£11.99/€17.99)
• Burnout Paradise full game (£24.99/€29.99)
• Mega Man 9 full game (£6.99/€9.99)
• Mercenaries 2 demo
  
• Beijing 2008 demo
• Mega Man 9 demo
• Burnout Legends full PSP game (£14.99/€19.99)
• Burnout Dominator full PSP game (£17.99/€24.99)

Add-on content

• Buzz! Quiz TV "Video Games" quiz (£3.49/€4.99)
• Rock Band DLC (listed after the break)
• High Stakes Poker add-on 2 (free)

There's been a lot of buzz around WipEout HD. The headlines of the game's epilepsy-inducing delay, combined with its genuinely good looks have created the perfect environment for hype to thrive. The long-delayed futuristic racer is the PlayStation franchise's first foray into the current generation, and it looks absolutely stunning. The bargain basement price point of $20 makes it an easy purchase, especially for those on the fence.

However, we wonder who WipEout HD is trying to target. There are three types of people in this world: those that love WipEout, those that are horrible at it, and those that simply haven't tried it yet. For those that love the franchise (us included), WipEout HD is perhaps, a bit too familiar. True devotees of the franchise have already played the sublime PSP games, Pure and Pulse. To find that every single track and every single song in the game comes from these two titles is a little disappointing. They're certainly great choices, but the wondrous effect of nostalgia doesn't kick in so soon -- Pulse came out less than a year ago. Instead, we're left with the feeling of "haven't we been here before?"

The second group of people -- those that are horrible at futuristic racing games -- won't find WipEout HD any different than previous iterations of the franchise. And the third group of people -- those that haven't ever played a WipEout game -- may very well find themselves displaced to the second group once they get their hands on this ferociously fast and relentlessly difficult racer. Sure, the new Pilot Assist feature will help beginner players steer away from the walls, but without the honed reflexes of a veteran, the game's learning curve is surprisingly steep.

In spite of its budget price, there are a lot of Trophies for you to obtain in the download-exclusive WipEout HD. Here's a list of all the standard Trophies, with a few hidden ones we managed to find so far.

The folks at Studio Liverpool have been quiet about the long delay of WipEout HD. While all signs pointed to failed epilepsy tests, the team has been incredibly silent about the issue. Until now. Game director Tony Buckley said that "a lot of games" fail the epilepsy test. However, he questions the validity of the exams. "The hardware that actually does the test, it's quite ... subjective," he told GI.biz. "So, you know, it's difficult to pinpoint what the actual issues are, and whether they are actually issues, to be honest."

In spite of that, the team took the issue to heart and worked on it very seriously. "We certainly weren't going to take it lightly," he noted. The team was going to be uncompromising in the look they were going for and ultimately, it appears they've succeeded. "That was our worry, that the game would suddenly look poorer as a result of it, but no, it's all gone really well."

The circle is now complete. After finding out the price for WipEout HD, and learning of the slick new details, there was only one piece of key information that was left missing; that would be a solid release date. However, now we know it: Thursday, September 25 for North America.

That's next week's PSN Thursday. Dropping a 20 note for the game shouldn't be too difficult to do. After all, you'll be foaming from the mouth to play this -- not from epilepsy mind you, but from the sheer gorgeousness of it. Go on, wipe that chin ... you're staining the carpet.

[UPDATE] Europeans, don't fret. SCEE have told us that WipEout HD will be available on the European PSN on the same day, September 25th.

One last piece of information has snuck out of the recent WipEout HD event in San Francisco. It's a small detail, but one that make or break your decision to buy the game: the price. You can stop holding your breath now, the price is almost ridiculously low. $20 is nothing when you consider what you'll be getting in the game. Don't forget, Europeans, you also get it nice and cheap too. For only $20/£11.99 you'd be mad not to pick it up once it arrives -- whenever that might be (judging from the amount of press the game is getting, we're betting it's soon!).

You should know how excited we are for WipEout HD. The long-delayed futuristic racer is coming out in the next few weeks, and will come at a budget price sure to make us all rather pleased. Although its a budget downloadable title, it's production values speak otherwise. There's going to be a lot of content, as this intial release already features 8 tracks (6 from WipEout Pure, 2 from WipEout Pulse) -- and there are variations of the same track as well, with mirroring and Zone mode.

Obviously, many people will be speaking about the game's incredible visuals: 1080p, 60fps -- almost unheard of in this generation of games. Yet, somehow the guys at Studio Liverpool have been able to pull it off while making the game look as good as it does.

Yes, there are also Trophies in the game (including a Platinum Trophy, as mentioned earlier). There will be 38 Trophies in all, some which are ridiculously easy (such as simply taking a picture in Photo Mode). Obviously, there will be some eye-bleeding Trophies to be caught in harder, faster difficulties.

For more on the game, check out Joystiq's latest hands-on preview.

If you read our preview, we said that WipEout HD's Zone mode was one of the most intense experiences we had the pleasure of racing through. Unfortunately, it appears the mode has been seriously toned down, most likely to pass epilepsy tests. In our preview, we said that the floor textures would respond to the music playing in the background, changing color suddenly when appropriate. The reactive floor textures have been removed for the final version of the game, and now Zone mode looks much more sterile. In fact, it reminds us a lot of the Zone mode found in the PSP games, WipEout Pure and Pulse. Granted, it still looks very nice. However, it saddens us to know that we may never have a chance to play a mode notorious for its sensory overload.

See a comparison video at D-Pad Magazine.

[Via NeoGAF]