Hi everyone! This is Zico Liu, programmer on WipEout HD; you all might remember me from the “Beat Zico” trophy. Before I talk about what I’ve been up to on the WipEout HD Fury expansion pack I would just like to let you know that the pack will be available from PlayStation Store on Thursday 23rd July.

The pack will be priced at £7.99 / €9.99 and will provide three new race types – Eliminator, Zone Battle and Detonator, 12 new tracks, 13 new ships, 6 new music tracks, a redesigned menu system, a new campaign to complete as well a host of new trophies to win. Oh and let’s not forget the additional ranks for you to achieve online. We are really excited about the content and hope you enjoy all the new features.

Also, on Tuesday 21st July, we are releasing a free update to the existing game. If you boot up WipEout HD at around 5pm GMT, you will be prompted to download the update. It will add a number of new features and tweaks to menus of the game including a brand new statistics section, new redesigned ship and track select screens and some new community/online features.

Now let’s get back to what I’ve been up to since HD was originally released. I’ve been busy working on the new game modes, mostly Eliminator and Zone Battle but also a bit on Detonator.

Eliminator mode was relatively easy to get in since it was taken from WipEout Pulse but we wanted to make it even better. Someone came up with the idea of having the 180 degree flip, which allows you to flip your ship, fly backwards down the track and fire your weapons at on coming opponents, like the Quake, which I know some people missed being able to do like they could in Pulse.

We also didn’t want people doing all the hard work of reducing an opponent’s shield, to then have someone else steal the kill and you receive nothing. So rather than the straight forward kills system seen in Pulse we have introduced a points system where you are awarded points for completing laps, inflicting damage and getting the kill. The winner is the first player to reach the target score.

Playable as both a single player game as well as online we are really pleased with the end product and hope that players will enjoy the new mode.

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