We wanted to touch base with you all to share some information about the impending release of the 2.10 update for Wipeout HD / Fury that’s coming soon

The 2.10 Update makes some small improvements to front-end functionality and addresses some minor issues with the audio. In addition, small issues that could affect gameplay or scores in the Eliminator and Detonator game modes have also been corrected.

Changes have also been made so that any adverts shown during loading screens will not adversely affect the loading times of the title. As many of you know, the functionality to display adverts during loading screens was first introduced in the 2.0 Update and originally didn’t function as intended, leading to extended loading times in some areas of the game.

This issue has now been resolved and we understand that a new advertising campaign in Wipeout HD is expected to launch across a number of European territories soon (no word yet on what is happening in North America). In the meantime, a range of PlayStation-specific ads will be making an appearance in the coming days.

Wipeout and in-game advertising and sponsorship have gone hand-in-hand since 1996, when a now famous energy drink appeared in the seminal Wipeout 2097 and over the years many brands and products have been associated with the series.

It is our hope that by adopting this approach to dynamic advertising, it will be possible to create new associations in a unique way. We have therefore focussed on ensuring that the advertising is embedded as sympathetically to the overall experience as possible.

Finally, we’d like to remind everyone who hasn’t experienced the awesome adrenaline-rush that is Wipeout HD Fury, that the game is now also available on BluRay across Europe and that a Wipeout HD + Fury Expansion bundle is available to download from the PlayStation Store.

I’m Joey and I’m the European Product Manager for WipEout HD Fury on Blu-ray.

I’m really excited to tell you that we will be releasing a Blu-ray that contains both the core WipEout HD game and the explosive Fury expansion pack for €24.99 as well as a digital bundle at the same price on the PlayStation Network!

For the first time people without access to the PlayStation Network can experience the thrill of piloting an anti gravity racer at speeds of over 600KPH!

The Blu-ray will contain:

• 28 reversible tracks
• Two campaigns (HD and Fury)
• 26 Individual Ship models
• 8 game modes (4 available for online play)
• Online ranking and Badge System
• 51 Trophies including a coveted Platinum trophy!

Now about those game modes:

• Single Race
• Time Trial
• Speed Lap
• Zone Mode
• Detonator
• Eliminator
• Zone Battle
• Tournament
• Playable online

The Eliminator game mode will allow you to release all that pent-up aggression as you use the full arsenal of WipEout weaponry to destroy your opponents. Forget those racing lines; this is all about destruction, with the victor being the first to reach the target score!

Zone Battle is about risk and reward! Acceleration is automatic as you swoop over zone pads to fill your zone bar. Your choice is whether to use the bar to increase your speed and boost your ship ever closer to the target zone or absorb it to replenish vital lost energy. Warning, avoid the ‘zone barriers’, obstacles left on the track by your opponents as they boost towards the target zone, hitting these can literally destroy your hopes of victory!

Detonator mode introduces a brand new ship model to the game that will test both your piloting skills and your shooting accuracy as you accelerate through as many as 14 stages. Score points by destroying the mines that have been strewn along the track and take out the bomb on each stage to earn additional points. The more accurate you are the more points and bonuses you will score!

Have a look at the screens below to see what WipEout HD Fury is all about

See you at the track!

To find out more about this title, visit PlayStation.com

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.

Zone Battle, our 8 player version of Zone mode, was a bit more difficult to get right as it went through several iterations and name changes. We started with just a one on one duel mode, which was basically a split screen version of Zone which you played until one person lost their entire shield. The initial idea of the zone bar was to speed up the other player so they go faster which hopefully meant they would crash more often and be destroyed sooner than if they were travelling slower. Unfortunately this idea didn’t really work as we had hoped and we returned to the drawing board. As we wanted the game to be played online with up to 8 players, we had to come up with an idea that didn’t have people sitting around waiting until everyone else had been eliminated, so we introduced the idea of racing towards a target zone which meant the race would end at the same time for everyone.

With this in mind the zone bar was changed to increase your own zones so you can reach the target quicker. To add a bit of variety we wanted some obstacles on the track which is where the zone barrier idea came from. Every time you use your zone bar to boost you leave a zone barrier on the track to try and slow down your opponents. This means that players have to constantly look out for the barriers and try to avoid them or use up their zone bar to shield themselves. I think it turned out very well and hopefully people will enjoy playing it in the Fury expansion pack!

Other stuff that I was working on was the new ship, track and campaign cell selection screens for the new front-end, and also the HUD’s for the new modes.

Finally I hope everyone enjoys this expansion and please don’t hate me too much, it’s not really that hard to Beat Zico….

A WipEout track is set in a utopian environment populated by stunning, cutting edge architecture enhanced by contemporary graphic design. This aesthetic is created by designing architectural forms that are influenced by abstract sculpture, structure in art and science, futuristic architecture, mecha detailing and contemporary product design.

To create the WipEout aesthetic our concept artists use a fluid design process that involves creating abstract shapes in 3D and bouncing work around the team from artist to artist to evolve and clarify the designs. This results in bold, abstract 3D structures, which are rendered and painted over with architectural detailing and placed into the context of a WipEout environment.

These concept images use the structures as set pieces, trackside furniture, tunnels etc and give the production team an idea of how they would look in game:

The positioning of objects in a WipEout environment is created by a design process called Dynamic Composition. The results can be likened to a piece of music providing the track with a visual melody, rhythm and harmony. This process involves sectioning the environment along the track to provide the fundamental flow of shapes that creates an interesting rhythm for the player. It includes strategically adding set pieces which provide focus for the player and then populates the track to create an enhanced game experience. The result is a dynamic environment that emphasises the feeling of speed and movement as a result of the rhythmic pattern of structures around the track and also focuses the players’ attention on set pieces.

WipEout Fury is all about the use of bold structural shapes which define the architectural forms. These structures are oversized so they register with the player as they accelerate past at high speed and their striking shapes become associated as icons of each track. Interlocking modular shapes & overlaid layered surfaces make best use of the lighting by allowing shadows to play over the structures, and sunlight to glint through the gaps. This gives the impression of a highly complex and richly populated environment which is enhanced by the use of hyper-real gleaming hi-tech surfaces.

That’s it from me! But here’s Tony (Games Director) and Paul (Producer), after the jump, with answers to some of your questions from the WipEout Fury ship update last week.

Hello everyone,

Myself and the WipEout team have noticed that you guys have a lot of questions about the forthcoming WipEout HD expansion pack, Fury. Here are the answers to the questions that we are currently able to answer.

Suzzopher: “Any idea on a launch date?”
A lot of people have asked us this and it’s lovely to hear that people are so keen to play Fury. I am happy to say that it is in the final phase of QA testing at the moment. Once this is completed we will be in a position to announce the release date here on the PlayStation Blog.

JacktehKnife: “I was wondering if they plan to introduce Home Game Launching in the future?”
Yes, we are looking into adding in Home Game Launching. We will have more news on this in the near future.

Brave9zero: “Will the new add-on modes (Zone Battle ETC) be playable in Split-screen?”
Hi Brave9zero. Of the three new game modes only Detonator is single player only. Zone Battle and Eliminator are tremendous fun in multiplayer both online and in split-screen. We routinely play Eliminator mode here in the studio just for fun. The carnage is unbelievable especially now that players can turn their ship around and attack opponents head-on. You’re going to love it.

Apolloeye: “With the new cockpit designs will you still be able to see the pilot in photo mode?”
Yes you will be able to check out the pilots using photo mode. We’re looking forward to seeing the shots you all take.

koolkid201: “Will there be any new HUDS coming with Fury?”
There are new HUDs for the new game modes. We had to design these from the ground up to ensure that the pertinent information is relayed to the player clearly. These HUDs are always used in the new modes regardless of which of the HUDs you have selected in the options. The reason for this is that it takes a lot of graphic design work, implementation and many, many iterations to get a HUD right. We simply didn’t have the time to make new game mode HUDs for the existing HUD themes nor did we have time to create any new cross-mode HUDs like those in the original release of HD.

silvio6silvio6: “If the ships are made from “new technology”, why not add new weapons too?”
We would have loved to have added new weaponry but the difficulty with doing this is that it would have unbalanced the game play. When developing a Wipeout game, perhaps the trickiest aspect to get right is the difficulty balancing. By its nature when you add randomly picked up weaponry to a race pretty much anything can happen and trying to make the game fair to the player while maintaining a challenging difficulty curve is very tricky indeed. Our design teams do amazing work in this area. So, if we had added new weapons to the new ships existing races would have been thrown out of whack, especially for people racing in the older ships.

- Paul & Tony

Our main aim for the new WipEout Fury ships was to modernise their visual look whilst keeping the DNA of each existing individual team. On previous WipEout games, a key feature for ship design was its dynamic straight edge and triangular silhouette. For PSone and PSP this key element was the best way to achieve a great design without using a huge amount of polygons.

Our approach for the Fury ships was to keep the dynamic straight edge design but add to it by dividing the ships body panels up into three main layers. This new addition to the ships allowed us to overlap, interlock and weave the main ship panels together to achieve a more complex look.

By taking this approach it allowed the designs to show gaps, grooves and negative windows of space that were in-turn filled with real time PS3 self shadows. This made the ships appear lighter and more hover like without reducing the ships scale or bulk.

To evolve the designs further we replaced the nut and bolt element to the WipEout HD ships by building clean simplified inter-locking mechanical shapes. This suggested fewer components in the ships build. Also it gave the ships a tailor-made look and also suggested that the ships parts had been created with new and advanced material.

When viewing the ship design side on, the body panels have been purposely angled forwards to help create a dynamic appearance even when stationary. As a result the ship’s profile fights against the horizontal lines of the track’s surface which helps communicate the notion of an antigravity spacecraft.

To help identify the Fury ships within a race we added a second layer to the cockpit. This gives the impression of extra pilot protection. Well also placed a blue emissive tint to the cockpit glass which adds energy, notion of power and focal point to the core of every ship design.

That’s it from me! Hope you enjoyed reading about what I do I understand that we’ll have another update for you on WipEout Fury next week by another member of the team here. In the meantime, have a great weekend.

Just a quick update form the WipEout HD team: our artists have been mucking about with the game’s photo mode and have taken some frankly beautiful shots of the new modes, ships and tracks you will be playing in the forthcoming Fury expansion pack. They were so good, we just had to share them.

See all 10 new images over on Flickr.

Let us know what you think! We’ll have more info for you about the expansion pack soon.

Thanks,
Paul

I’m Tony Buckley, Game Director for WipEout HD and I’m pleased to announce that the team here at Studio Liverpool have been busy working on a new expansion pack for your favourite anti-gravity racer.

And what’s more, it is set to be given its first public showing at this week’s E3 expo, so if you’re lucky enough to be attending, make sure you stop by and try it out!

The WipEout HD Fury expansion pack will increase the content of your current game with 8 new tracks, 13 new ship models and 3 new game modes, 2 of which will be available for online play! In addition there will be new trophies to attain, a re-styled front-end and a selection of new & improved multiplayer functionality!

The Eliminator game mode will allow you to release all that pent-up aggression as you use the full arsenal of Wipeout weaponry to destroy your opponents. Forget those racing lines; this is all about destruction, with the victor being the first to reach the target score!

Zone Battle is about risk and reward! Acceleration is automatic as you swoop over zone pads to fill your zone bar. Your choice is whether to use the bar to increase your speed and boost your ship ever closer to the target zone or absorb it to replenish vital lost energy. Warning, avoid the ‘zone barriers’, obstacles left on the track by your opponents as they boost towards the target zone, hitting these can literally destroy your hopes of victory!

Our Detonator mode introduces a brand new ship model to the game that will test both your piloting skills and your shooting accuracy as you accelerate through as many as 14 stages. Score points by destroying the mines that have been strewn along the track and take out the bomb on each stage to earn additional points. The more accurate you are the more points and bonuses you will score!

Just like the original WipEout HD, all the new content will be released in glorious 1080p resolution and will run at a smooth 60fps.

Take a sneak peek at a selection of screenshots.

Remember, Wipeout HD is available exclusively from PlayStation Store so check it out in readiness for the release of the Fury expansion pack coming this summer!