What did you think? Pretty cool, no? What’s really interesting about WipEout 2048 and the direction the team at Studio Liverpool took with it, is that it takes place in the not too distant future and serves as a precursor to the events that take place in the original WipEout on PS one. And because of that it differs from WipEout experiences in the past.

Races are now multi-tiered – one minute you’re barreling through the busy streets of Nova State City and the next you’re scrambling for first place up the side of a building. The world in which WipEout 2048 takes place in is grittier than what’s come before it simply because we’re entering into it when the sport is still at a nascent stage.

Teams are finding their feet, sponsorship is there – yet not as rife as it is in later seasons – and there is a lot of money at stake on the part of investors desperate for the sport to succeed and capture the world’s imagination. Not to mention competition from rival sports hankering after audience numbers and, in turn, capital. It’s raw; it’s real (ish) and its WipEout like you’ve never seen it before.

So, there you have it – a quick glance of the streets of Nova State City and motorsport metamorphosis in the year 2048 with Graeme and Lee. Let us know what you think of it in the comments, and in the meantime have a look at the clean version of the intro below presented just as it is in the final game, winging its way to you in a little over a month on PlayStation Vita.

Starting next week, Vita Hill Social Clubs are opening in five of America’s great cities, and we’ll be holding grand opening meetups in all of them:

Tuesday, January 17th

Chicago (click here to RSVP)
1444 N. Milwaukee Ave
Your host: Jeff Rubenstein from PlayStation.Blog

Miami (click here to RSVP)
749 Washington, Miami Beach
Your host: Rey Gutierrez from PlayStation.Blog

New York City (click here to RSVP)
154 Stanton St.
Your host: Sid Shuman from PlayStation.Blog

Wednesday, January 18th

Atlanta (click here to RSVP)
800 Peachtree St.
Your host: Rey Gutierrez from PlayStation.Blog

Boston (click here to RSVP)
579 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge
Your host: Sid Shuman from PlayStation.Blog

All meetups start at 5.30pm local time, ending at 8.30pm. Attendees will feast on free food and beverages, have unfettered access to a dozen PS Vita titles, and enter for chances to win PlayStation prizes. PlayStation.Blog’s design guru Rey Gutierrez even whipped up a special T-shirt for the occasion, which will go to the first 100 people to show up to each meetup. So, you know, don’t be late.

These new Social Clubs are opening in addition to the existing location in San Francisco. We’ll also be opening Social Clubs in Austin, TX and the L.A. area soon. Click here for all locations, addresses, and hours of operation.

Be sure to RSVP to let us know you’re coming (ATL BOS CHI MIA NYC). Hope to see you next week!

That’s why we’re going to be fanning out across the country to give loyal PlayStation fans the the opportunity to go hands on with the PS Vita months before launch, through a series of Vita Social Clubs. And for people in the San Francisco Bay Area, that opportunity comes knocking this Thursday with the grand opening of the Vita Hill Social Club. We’ll be bringing the food and the beverages, but most importantly, we’ll be bringing the Vitas. Dozens and dozens of them. Bring extra hands!

The Vita Hill Social Club will give you the opportunity to play tons of PS Vita games, including UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet, Little Deviants, WipEout 2048, ModNation Racers, Reality Fighters, and Hot Shots Golf in a relaxing setting. We’ll also be raffling off a few things… maybe even a PS Vita (correction: yes, we will).

Here’s what you need to know:

Date/Time
Thursday, Dec 1st, 2011 from 5:00 – 9:00pm Pacific Time

Location
Vita Hill Social Club
1694 Union Street (at Gough)
San Francisco, CA 94123

RSVP Here

Not in San Francisco? Don’t worry, we’ll be opening up PS Vita Social Clubs all around the US in the near future. We’re also set up in several malls across the country right now. We’re planning more meet-ups in January – many in cities we haven’t been to before – so stay tuned.

In the meantime, see you Thursday, San Francisco!

If there’s any game series that’s synonymous with PlayStation, it’s Wipeout. This fast-paced combat racer has appeared on every single PlayStation console, and now it’s preparing to make the jump to PS Vita with Wipeout 2048. We recently interviewed producer Michael Pulst, who gave us a tour of the new control options (front and rear touchscreen as well as motion controls), gameplay refinements, and multiplayer support between PS Vita and PS3. Read on for highlights from our interview.

PlayStation.Blog: What are longtime fans likely to notice first about Wipeout 2048 on PS Vita?
Michael Pulst, Assistant Producer: We’ve made the tracks a little bit wider. Wipeout has always been known for its intense, hardcore racing; in the past games, you were not only fighting the other players but you’re also fighting the track. It was so hardcore that it actually turned some people off. It was a barrier to entry, and the team recognized this. By making the tracks a bit wider, you’re able to concentrate more on the race and fighting off the other players.

But because Studio Liverpool has been making Wipeout for years and years, they understand its core gameplay extremely well. So even though it’s a little bit easier in terms of its difficulty curve, this is very much Wipeout to its core.

PSB: Tell me about the tiered racetracks. How many paths are there on the tracks in Wipeout 2048?
MP: Not only do we have multiple vertical levels on some tracks, we have multiple track paths. In one of tracks, Sol, you’re racing down a skyscraper — it’s extremely fun. At one junction, you can either break to the left or the right; if you go left, you’ll get six speed pads before you reconnect with the main path. If you go to the right, you pick up items and weapons that might let you take out the racers who took the left path. So it adds a bigger strategy because you can choose your approach. If you suck at taking tight, twisty turns, you’ll learn to take alternate routes that tend to be less direct but offer speed pads or item pickups.

PSB: Have there been any tweaks to item pickups or weapon functionality?
MP: In previous Wipeout games, there was one item pickup pad that offered both offensive and defensive items. In 2048, the item pads are split up between offensive and defensive, so you can be a bit more strategic. If you’re in first place, you can focus on picking up items that are useful to you.

PSB: Wipeout 2048 uses almost all of PS Vita’s hardware functions. Tell us how 2048 taps into PS Vita’s hardware.
MP: For starters, we support the motion controls — you can tilt to the left or right to steer. I like steering this way at times, particularly in the cockpit camera view. The thing with motion controls is that they’re extremely accurate, which can be a double-edged sword at times. But I guarantee that by the time you take the third lap in the game, it’ll click.

We also support the rear touchscreen for acceleration, while the front touchscreen is used for firing and regaining ship energy. What’s great is that we support hybrid control schemes, so if you’d rather use the X button for acceleration, you can. You can use any combination of tilting, buttons, and touch to control the game. We don’t force you into one specific control scheme.

PSB: And how does PS Vita’s camera tie into the multiplayer mode?
MP: We support up to eight players online. When you begin the race on PS Vita, the game takes a photo of your face. At the end of the race, your face gets beamed to all the other players — kind of a glory moment!

PSB: Perhaps the most technically impressive feature is the crossplay support with the PS3 version of Wipeout HD Fury. What are my options in terms of crossplay?
MP: Not only will PS Vita players be able to play 2048 with other PS Vita players, they will be able to play Wipeout HD against PS3 players using Wipeout HD tracks and ships. And the number of PS Vitas and PS3s doesn’t matter for crossplay. It can be seven PS3s and one PS Vita, seven PS Vitas and one PS3, or any number in between.

There are so many people who own Wipeout HD, so you get immediate access to that community and you can experience tracks and a gameplay style that’s unique. When you’re playing Wipeout HD cross-play on PS Vita, you are able to use motion controls and touchscreen features as well, if you like.

The game focuses on the birth of Anti-grav racing and the Liverpool Studio team is keen to focus on how the architecture of the futuristic city shapes both look and gameplay. I caught up with Graeme Ankers and Stuart Tilley out in the sunshine between presentations.

It’s fantastic to see a new WipEout game on its way, particularly one that is looking to take the series in a new direction. We already know that it will support cross platform play allowing Vita and PS3 players to go head-to-head online and I’ve just learned that the soundtrack – a vital ingredient in the WipEout DNA – features new remixes of Underworld and Leftfield tracks from the original game, as well as a new track from Deadmau5.

Can’t wait!

As a fan of arcade racers and an evangelist for all things fast, my face melted off with a recent build of Wipeout (working title) specifically built from the ground up for NGP.

Game director Stu Tilley promises the biggest Wipeout experience to date; with 10 new tracks, 20 new ships, new game modes and weapons. My favorite feature and new to PlayStation, is cross-platform-gaming. Load up your copy of Wipeout HD Fury on your PS3 and you’ll be able to race up against seven NGP opponents in online multiplayer sessions. You can mix and match the number of PS3s and NGPs racers however you like, bringing the world of Wipeout seamlessly together with the power of PSN.

Learn more details in the video above, which also showcases how Tilley and his team took advantage of NGP’s touch technology, dual cameras and built-in six axis motion controls. Sure, the NGP may be the new kid in town, but it’s doing fantastic things with one of PlayStation’s legendary racers.

In other news, we’ll be opening the doors of the new Observatory space this Thursday, July 8th, for the PlayStation minis event. Challenge your friends to a battle of wits, memory, and luck over a board consisting of a grid of glowing tiles. Flip the tiles over to reveal a variety of minis images; reveal two matching tiles to score a point. To keep things interesting, we’ve riddled the board with random tiles hiding bonuses and traps (such as a tile that steals points from your opponent). You can even hide traps of your own, weakening your opponent and securing the spoils (which, of course, come in the form of a highly-collectible reward). Elsewhere in the Observatory you will find the pool-esque FreezeBall game, which rounds out the exclusive PlayStation minis event.

In terms of other events to keep you busy over the upcoming weekend, we’ve just received a report of an imminent outbreak of red scorpions in the Sodium Hub:

“Coming heat waves are predicted to cause numbers of red robotic scorpions in the Sodium Hub to swell! Experts predict numbers will reach their peak this weekend. Do your part to keep the Sodium Hub safe by donning your stomp boots and keeping the red scorpion menace at bay over the coming days. Remember, the more red scorpions you stomp the greater level of upgrade you’ll earn for your stomp boots. And that’s not all; each progressive Stomp Boot upgrade will increase the number of points awarded to you for stomping red scorpions when worn!”

As far as updates to the PlayStation Home Mall go, Just Cause 2 clothing and furniture items (including Rico and Tom Sheldon costumes) will be released alongside new Lockwood/Sodium clothing items (new stilettos for the ladies), the mega-popular Trigger Happy-in-the-Box game from the Midway space will be made available for use in your clubhouses and personal spaces (available at a discounted price of $0.49 for those of you who have purchased the Midway Bar Key – likewise, if you purchase the Trigger Happy-in-the-Box game at its full price of $2.99 you will get a discount on the Midway Bar Key), new Monkey Island 2 items will appear in the LucasArts store, and our friends at LOOT will release the new LOOT Mobile Internet Browser item, which allows you to access the Sony Pictures Emporium website from your personal space. Does your avatar have a shirt you want to sport on your next night out? Use the LOOT Mobile Internet Browser to access IRL versions of some of your favorite in-world items.

Last but certainly not least, we want to invite you all out to our nightly Featured Game parties to play the latest and greatest PS3 and PSN games with your friends in PlayStation Home. To participate in a Featured Game party, simply go to the Gamer’s Lounge between 4:00pm and 8:00pm PDT (7:00pm and 11:00pm EDT). Once at the event, insert the Featured Game into your PlayStation 3 and either set up your own game launching session or join someone else’s. (Pro tip: Make sure to add people you meet in PlayStation Home to your friends list so that you can find one another in the game lobby). Over the course of the next week, we’ll be playing some awesome multiplayer games – from ModNation Racers (Friday, July 9th) to the new Fat Princess DLC (Tuesday, July 13th). Come on out and join us!

See you in Home!

Thanks in the main to the guys and gals over on the forums at fansite WipeoutZone, we know what they liked and disliked about our previous offering, wipEout Pure. With Pure we wanted the racing back at the forefront and we wanted it to be the best, purest racing yet, while striking a balance with the combat elements. We think we largely achieved our goals.

With wipEout PULSE, we wanted to take that even further. We completely overhauled the AI such that each and every race is now competitive from beginning to end. There are no crude catch-up techniques going on this time, we’ve worked and worked on it to ensure that each race is as tightly contested as possible. We developed a system whereby the AI would “learn” the circuits. We’d set the AI off and running at the end of each day, doing lap after lap after lap (literally hundreds per night); all the while they would make tiny adjustments to their racing line until they knew the circuits very well indeed. Truly it almost feels like you’re racing against human beings at times.

One of the main complaints of the series as a whole has been the lack of any sense of progression through the games. We thought long and hard about this and completely threw out the old notion of making the player play through the tracks systematically speed class by speed class. The design team came up with Race Campaign which throws a staggering variety of races at the player from the very start. We think you’ll really get a bang out of it.

We tried really hard to get infrastructure (online) racing into wipEout Pure but, being a PSP launch title, we just ran out of time and it became unfeasible so this was one area we wanted to get sorted right away for wipEout PULSE. Not only that but we were the first title (in Europe at least) to support the new PlayStation Network login system which means that you can now use the same login that you use for your PS3 on your PSP. You’ll be racing against someone on the other side of the world within 10 minutes of booting the game up for the first time which is just awesome.

Coupled with this, we’re fostering an online community over at www.wipeout-game.com where you can upload, directly from the game, all of your records which will be added to the global tables. There are some European players who are already better than most members of the development team. Good luck, you’ll need it ;-)

We dedicated a lot of time and effort to give you, the player, a way to stamp your personality on the game. You can log onto the site and give your favorite ship a bespoke paint-job with our Ship Customization Tool which allows you to paint directly onto a 3D model. Some of the results the European players have achieved are breathtaking. We can’t wait to see what you guys come up with. Along with this is the ability for the player to create his or her own custom Race Campaign. You choose the events and the targets, and then you can send it to a friend directly via Wi-Fi from your PSP to theirs.

I think I’ve rattled on long enough, but it would be remiss of me not to mention the fact that we also have some great download packs coming your way very soon indeed. More teams, more tracks, more Race Campaign, more fun! The folks at GameVideos.com go into a lot of details about many of the things I’ve mentioned here – it’s definitely worth a viewing.

Thanks for reading and, most of all, for playing.

Hello everybody – I’m the SCEA Producer for wipEout PULSE on the PSP. I just wanted to give you a quick update on what’s currently happening with the franchise from the very talented SCEE Liverpool wipEout team.

I want you guys and gals out there to know that this will be the biggest installment of the wipEout franchise to be released to date on the PSP.

There are some screenshots below that I’d like you all to see, it will be interesting to know what your thoughts are.

We plan on having a specific website available that will allow everyone world-wide to have access to in order to get different information regarding the different tracks that are available. Also, we will have a unique ship customization tool that will be available for the first time in the wipEout franchise on the PSP. Players will be able to design their own skins, logos and basically give their ship its own unique identity.

We’re currently in some of the final stages of development, and I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to update you all with regards to some more of the cool features that will be available, and also news on the 8-player Infrastructure Mode.