PS Vita owners, get those engines ready: WipEout HD and Fury expansion packs are set to hit PS Vita today. For the first time ever, the most jaw-dropping, adrenaline-fueled anti-gravity racers combine — WipEout HD Fury and WipEout 2048 are together at last! For those of you who are fans of WipEout HD on the PS3 we have some great news for you: WipEout HD and WipEout HD Fury have been reimagined for PS Vita and are ready to be unleashed as expansion packs for WipEout 2048. Now you can experience the freedom of WipEout HD Fury on PS Vita and compete against pilots across the world whenever you want, wherever you are.

Starting today, two new WipEout 2048 DLC packs will be available for PS Vita on PlayStation Store. The first pack is the “WipEout 2048 WipEout HD Add-On Pack” for $7.99, which includes the full single-player WipEout HD campaign mode and all of the WipEout HD online multiplayer tracks. With 12 new tracks for your PS Vita (including eight reverse tracks), 12 additional ships, and a Zone Mode Ship, you’ll be put to the test after conquering WipEout 2048. As an added bonus, you’ll have access to an additional 12 crossplay tracks outside of the original four tracks included in WipEout 2048 for simultaneous multiplayer action on your PS3 and PS Vita.

Also launching today is the “WipEout 2048 WipEout HD Fury Add-On Pack” for $7.99, which includes the full single-player WipEout HD Fury campaign mode with all 12 tracks (including four reverse tracks and four Zone Mode tracks), 24 ships to choose from, and a Zone Mode Ship. The HD Fury Add-On pack also gives you access to another 12 crossplay tracks, granting you a ton of options when racing against your friends online.

If you’d like to own both of these new DLC packs, we’re offering a special bundle package for a value price of $12.99. With the “WipEout 2048 WipEout HD Fury Bundle,” you’ll receive all 24 beautifully designed WipEout HD tracks, 12 reverse tracks, four Zone Mode tracks, all 24 ships from the Wipeout HD titles, plus a Zone Mode ship and full crossplay access.

To make this deal even sweeter, we’ve got a special promotion that will let you experience WipEout’s exhilarating crossplay action on both PS3 and PS Vita. For those of you who already own WipEout HD or WipEout HD Fury on your PS3, you can automatically download the PS Vita versions for free! And the same works vice-versa as well: Anyone who purchases these new WipEout HD expansion packs from PlayStation Store on their PS Vita can download the packs for free on their PS3.

With two full games’ worth of new expansion content, and free content for existing owners, you’d be wise to jump on PSN later this afternoon and download this great new content. We look forward to seeing you on the track!

Today, our sister company Sony Electronics announced its 3D capable BRAVIA HDTVs are now available for pre-sale and will ship to retailers later this month. There are a broad range of models available in different screen sizes, some packaged with active glasses and others without, giving consumers the option to choose which 3D entertainment solution works for them. For more information, click here.

We’re extremely excited to be at the helm of a whole new gaming experience unlike anything offered before. Starting tomorrow, the following games and demos will be available in stereoscopic 3D for anyone who owns a PS3 system and 3D television:

• WipEout HD (full game): Experience the adrenalin rush of navigating the twists and turns of futuristic racetracks at breathtaking speeds like never before.
• Super Stardust HD (full game): Experience asteroids fly past you as you navigate the deadly battleground — only a battle on a cosmic level will save the indigenous life below from destruction.
• PAIN: The stereoscopic 3D content will include the Downtown area and tutorial along with three modes, including two new modes created specifically with stereoscopic 3D in mind, Alien Toss and Ice Breaker.
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift (demo): MotorStorm Pacific Rift in stereoscopic 3D puts you in the driver’s seat of a buggy for a one track, single player race around the deadly Kanaloa Bay for a dangerously real battle against ruthless opponents.

To give PS3 and new 3D capable BRAVIA owners a sample of 3D entertainment at its best, 3D capable BRAVIA HDTVs will come with PlayStation Network vouchers to download these four stereoscopic 3D game experiences, which total more than 100 hours of gameplay.

We’re also announcing that The Fight: Lights Out will be available in stereoscopic 3D, combining PlayStation Move with 3D to deliver an immersive and realistic gaming experience unlike anything you’ve played before. This is only a small taste of the 3D experiences you can expect with the new 3D capable BRAVIA HDTVs and PS3. With new gaming experiences coming this year in the form of stereoscopic 3D gaming and PlayStation Move, as well as an expansive software line-up, the PS3 system truly does everything and continues to be at the forefront of innovation. In addition, 3D Blu-ray movie playback is coming to the PS3 this year via firmware update. Stay tuned for even more 3D news and announcements coming in the near future!

Hey all you kids out there, my name is Rita and I’m one of the artists who worked on the new Zone Tracks for the Wipeout Fury expansion pack. I’ve been asked to put together a blog post that gives some insight into their creation.

Thought Police Alert: Artistic license takes over from reason and scientific fact here, so feel free to ‘skip to the end’ if you think it all sounds like a bunch of nonsense…

1. ZONE: Intro & context

‘Zone’ is speed experienced in its purest state, with no weapons. From a poetic point of view Zone can be likened to riding an atom in a particle accelerator. The speed of the atom as it ‘rides the torus’ gets increasingly faster and faster, until ultimately it moves at such surreal speeds that it exists contiguously at all points along its path.

It becomes an omnipresent singularity along this path, a very peculiar entity with ‘mixed dimensionality.’ If we could become that little atom at that moment we would find ourselves connected to a psychedelic ‘speed-dimension.’ It would be one hell of a trip! So zone mode is all about surreal abstract geometries, and shifting landscapes of colour that create an otherworldly atmosphere.

2. Landscapes Inspired by Nature’s Fantastic Patterns

Zone has a psychedelic nature, so it was only natural to be inspired by patterns found in nature. In particular fractal phenomena and ‘humanity hugging’ psychedelic philosophies:

Fractal energy flows through everything on this planet. We see it in cloud formations, and in the majesty of epic mountain ranges: “As above so below.” It’s especially apparent in the springtime when plant forms starts to bud and bloom. Symmetries, self similarity, and branching systems are everywhere! We live in, and are all connected by a cosmic fractal-field of energy.

3. Four Sets of Geometry

There are four zone tracks, so four families of abstract shapes were created that looked/felt like they possessed a particular energy pattern. I wanted to ‘riff’ off these ‘nature patterns’ for Wipeout, so mixed them with graphic design and graffiti aesthetics in an attempt to create an otherworldly psychedelic atmosphere. Below are some of the concept shapes created for Zone 4, riffing off the patterns above:

4. Time Constraint and Technique

I was working to an extremely tight schedule. So, with such a fast turnaround I had to come up with a workflow that enabled the fast construction of objects that could be tested on the fly. I liken the resulting process to a bunch of blues & jazz musicians having an impromptu session where they hunt for different permutations on a well known jazz standard. They riff off a pattern, until that pattern becomes something else entirely, a fresh expression of something familiar. Families of shapes were ‘thrown out there’, which were then positioned alongside a tracks twists, turns and chicanes to see if they worked.

The design process was not a linear one, so it’s difficult to describe in words. Each family of shapes was triggered by the ‘vibe’ that I got from certain fractal phenomena I encountered on walks and internet surfs. Zone 4 was inspired by Cambrian creatures & fern formations. See pics above.

5. Speed Perception

When you travel deeper and deeper into the pattern of a fractal the pattern repeats its-self infinitely. It is an infinite loop, which at a very huge stretch could be likened to the enclosed loop of a track. When you travel deeper and deeper into the speeds of the zone, you enter a state of trance where you transcend reality and become like ‘that atom’ that exists contiguously at all points along its path… the pattern repeats, the pattern repeats, the pattern repeats – and “Dimensionality becomes a function of consciousness” Reference: (Ian McEwan: Solid Geometry). At these surreal speeds you become an ‘infinite loop’. A cosmic piece of fractal consciousness in a golden state of flow!

Hope you enjoy riding the zone fellow pilgrims. God-speed!

Rita

And don’t forget you can get the add-on this Thursday for $9.99, and the full game is on sale until tomorrow for $14.99!

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, July 23rd for $9.99.

The pack 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 July 21st, 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.

So there you have it! Be sure to check out the update on Tuesday, and watch out for the Fury add-on, coming Thursday July 23!

Hello my name is Marcus Tanner, Art Director on WipEout Fury, and I’m here today to give you a brief insight into how a WipEout environment evolves from concept art to production geometry.

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 emphasizes 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! Keep an eye out for more information on WipEout Fury on the Blog as we countdown to release — we don’t have an exact release date for you yet, but I understand that you’ll be told as soon as we do.

Starting off a small series of posts, I’m happy to introduce some cool exclusive information about the making of the game and the Fury add-in, coming straight from Dave Glanister, WipEout Fury Ship designer on the WipEout HD development team.

Hello everyone, my name is Dave Glanister and I’m the WipEout Fury Ship designer, here to give you a little insight into how we created the look of the ships.

Our main aim for the new WipEout Fury ships was to modernize 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 anti-gravity 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.

I look forward to seeing you all online!
-Daimion

Hello everybody,

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 the track and ship visuals in our WipEout HD Fury trailer and 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!

Hi everybody! I’m excited to bring to you news of an awesome update for WipEout HD. And perhaps the best news is you don’t have to wait long for it. Tomorrow, April 8, 2009, the V1.30 free update for WipEout HD will be available for download. The update will introduce a selection of new multiplayer features to the legendary anti-gravity racer. Check out the full details below.

Online Ranking

With over 50 ranks to progress through, there will be a new edge to online racing in WipEout HD. Your finishing position, speed class and the rank of your opponents will determine how many ranking points you are awarded as you strive to go from a Wipeout Trainee to a Wipeout Legend!

Podium Screen & Online Badges

• A new podium screen will now display the top three finishers after each online race or tournament.
• Regardless of whether you finish in the Top Three or not, every player has the chance of being awarded an ‘online badge’ in recognition of how they performed in the race.
• There are 33 badges in total, examples of which are displayed here.

Connect easily with your friends

Game invites have now been introduced to WipEout HD to make it easy for you to invite your friends to join your game or for them to invite you! In addition, you will also be informed of any friends with an active online game and have the ability to join that game instantly!

Watch races in progress

If a race has started before you have had chance to join it, Spectator mode will allow you to watch that race. Within spectator mode, you can choose from four camera angles and select which ship to watch.

After the race has been completed, you will be taken back to the lobby with the other players so you can compete with them in the next race.

Additional Options

Lastly, to provide more variety when setting up an online race, WipEout HD has added a few additional options:

• HUD Weapon Hints on/off.
• Opponents – Choose to create a Public, Friends-only or Invite-only game.
• Barrel Rolls on/off
• Pilot Assist Allowed on/off
• Number of laps (max 20)

We hope you enjoy these new features. And it you haven’t played WipEout HD in a while, now is a good time! We’ll see you online.

UPDATE: It has come to our attention that some players have encountered freezing during game loading. We have recognized this issue, have fixed it and apologize for any inconvenience. We hope you enjoy the new features that come with this update.

Internally, we decided to ensure our trophies covered four main areas – game progression, stat milestones, novelty and skill. You’ll notice these categories reflected in the actual visual look of the trophies themselves, as and when you earn them. There’s are good mix of stuff you’ll earn naturally (through playing ‘normally’), and some bespoke stuff you might have to set some time aside for. For example, you may never have thought of playing Zone Mode with just airbrakes up to Zone 50, but that’s what you’ll have to do if you want the silver ‘Airbreaker’ Trophy in your collection. Then there’s another type of trophy, which falls kind of between those two areas, like the gold ‘Beat Zico’ trophy.

Actually, I’ll go off on a little tangent here.

A few of us in the team had a long running competition with a very specific ruleset – Anulpha Pass/Forwards/Speed Lap/Venom/Pirahna. We were setting some impressive times. Every now and then someone would find a new tactic, a new line to take through a corner or another barrel roll opportunity, and shave a fraction of a second off the fastest time. We think we’ve found the optimal route now, so it’s all about a flawless execution of that line. We spent a lot of time on this competition, so we decided to make a trophy out of it. When it came to submitting the lap time, Zico Liu (one of our programmers) was top of the table, so he got the naming rights. Obtaining the gold ‘Beat Zico’ trophy is no easy task, so best of luck. Zico has since beaten his own time, and so has Stephen Taylor (another of our programmers), but like I say to them, Time Trials and Speed Laps are like punching a bag – nobody’s hitting you back. Online is where the big boys play, and I’m sure they’ll agree that that’s MY world. In fact I’d like to take this opportunity to trash talk some of our team – Ste, Zico, Tony, Col/s, Ian, Gaz, Matt/s, Sandy, James – I OWN you all.

I won’t go on about specifics and spoil them for you (although I’m sure the internet will do that given enough time), so I’ll leave it there. To summarize, WipEout HD has trophies. There’s one platinum, some gold, more silver and lots of bronze. There’s a good range of difficulty ranging from very easy to damn hard. I take my hat off to anybody that earns themselves the platinum ‘Transcendence’ trophy any time soon.

WipEout HD is available on 09/25 for $19.99. The team are very proud of this game and are just as happy as the fans to see this benchmark title finally get onto the PLAYSTATION Store. Oh, and don’t let the price tag fool you, WipEout HD is no run of the mill port. I can assure you that the PSN bar has been well and truly raised.

Thanks for your all your support and patience, it’ll be worth it.

3, 2, 1 – GO!

Drumroll, please!

Your wipEout HD thirst will be quenched on September 25. Yes, that’s right, just 10 days from today. For just $19.99, wipEout HD will be available for download only and includes the following awesomeness:

• Full HD Visuals
• 5 Game Modes – Single Race, Tournament, Time Trial, Speed Lap and Zone Mode
• Online play that supports up to 8 racers competing on a track at a time
• 2-player split screen (horizontally and vertically) offline
• 8 reversible tracks and 12 teams
• Optional use of SIXAXIS motion controls to steer your ship
• A great soundtrack remixed in Dolby 5.1 AND the option for custom playlists that allow you to race to whatever playlists you have on your HDD
• And more, including Trophy support, which we’ll outline for you in a future post – so keep your eyes peeled.

That’s it for now from the wipEout HD camp. We’re looking forward to racing with you all online on Sept 25th!