Interviews

Talking WipEout Pulse with Sony Liverpool (part 2)

It's time to tackle customisation, team design and the return of the Eliminator mode

Talking WipEout Pulse with Sony Liverpool (part 2)
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PSP
| WipEout Pulse

WipEout Pulse is one of our most anticipated PSP games for Christmas, so following on from our part 1 of our interview discussing some of the changes the Sony Liverpool development team has made since the handheld debut of WipEout Pure, we now delve into more details of Pulse with producer Paul Tweedle.

Pocket Gamer: One of the modes that's returning is the combat oriented Eliminator. Why did you decide to bring it back? Paul Tweedle: It's FUN! Really that's it. With Pure we tried to get back to racing predominantly and scale down the combat. We wanted to put the emphasis on skilful piloting of the ships but there's no denying that blasting the guy in front with a missile on the home straight and nicking first place is a tremendous rush, and we like it, so we re-introduced Eliminator mode. Players can go wild with the weapons and then enjoy the more race orientated modes, too. That's not to say there is no combat in the other modes because there is – lots of it – but when compared to Eliminator mode, it's more toned down. We have three new weapons in the game and two are solely for Eliminator mode. It's chaotic and ace! How did the Mag Strips that you can lock to for a rollercoaster-like ride come about? It's just trying to add to the game experience without fundamentally changing it. On the surface of it adding Mag Strips may appear to have been an easy thing to do but, let me tell you, it wasn't. It radically alters the game's physics and the way in which the ships and weapons interact with the scene. It caused a lot of headaches but we felt from the start it was important enough to include so we battled with it and we won. Mag Strips add an extra dimension to the tracks. There are sheer drops, inverse banking and loops. It gave the designers true freedom to go a little wild. Don't get me wrong, the new tracks are not like rollercoasters – the Mag Strips have been used sparingly. It's definitely not a case of, 'Look everyone, here's a new feature'. It's quite discreet and they don't even appear on about half the tracks. But they are fun. You're going to like them. There are some new racing teams as well. How do you go about creating these? A lot of a team's identity comes from the name so once we've got that we're trucking. A little known fact is that the new, downloadable team, Mirage, spent a great portion of the development time known as Mantis but it was hard to come up with a viable backstory and, particularly, a logo that would work on the PSP screen so we changed it. After the name is decided, though, our talented graphic designers conjure up a team style sheet which includes the logo, mottos, billboard ads (which we use a lot in-game to help build the feeling of a tangible world) and even t-shirt designs. This is then used to apply the identity to the ships and Bob's your uncle. Also, while we don't really have a plot as such in the WipEout games, there is an over arching 'history' which we maintain. You might see a team disappear only to make a dramatic comeback in a later game. Equally while new teams emerge, some existing teams merge together. It keep everything fresh. You've thrown in player customisation options, too. There are some other sweet little extras. Players can easily import their favourite MP3s in to the game (take it from me racing along to The White Stripes is terrific). You can also stop the action to take a screenshot from any angle with our imaginatively titled, Photo Mode. It works kind of like bullet-time in the Matrix movies. The action stops and you can rotate the camera. It really shows off how gorgeous the game is. And not to forget the user created content we've managed to add. Using the grid creator, you can create your own grid of events, set the medal targets and then challenge a friend to beat you by sending it to him over wi-fi. How difficult was it to include these type of features? I'm sure the programmers won't agree but if we're honest it was relatively easy. The way the game is put together makes it simple to add elements that are housed on the Memory Stick Duo. This was always the way we intended to make WipEout Pulse because it worked so well for Pure but we just kind of upped the ante. Having MP3s in game is hardly a new thing and we're not claiming it is but for a game where music is intrinsic to the action Pulse benefits from it more than most. WipEout has always been synonymous with the latest in music so why not give players the opportunity to play DJ? I mustn't forget to mention the ship customisation tool, though. It's going to be great. We messed about with it in the office – which is all well and good – but we're all dying to see what the games-playing public come up with. If you're at all artistic, anything is possible. Our thanks to Paul for his time. WipEout Pulse is due for release in December and you can find more information at Sony's official website.
Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.