From Grid to Zone

Take a look under the hood at the new components powering the upcoming WipEout Pulse on PSP.

A fixture on PlayStation since its debut on PS one, in its purest form WipEout is a futuristic racer. Taking charge of a sleek anti-gravity ship, you hurtle around tracks at eye watering G-force speeds, picking up a variety of weapons and items with which to hamper and bypass the pack.

In WipEout Pulse, the second outing for the futuristic racer on PSP, tried and tested elements, like the fantastic music, Speed pads and Zone racing, are still in the fuel mix but many new features take what feels like a familiar friend into new territory.

Firstly a new Grid system has been added to the Race Campaign. One race doesn't now lead to the next, but instead earns you points that when sufficient unlock the next Grid.

With each Grid consisting of a variety of events made up of different speed classes, Single Races, Tournaments, Time Trials, Speed Laps and Zone races, you can pick and choose what to play in order to advance.

This freedom is carried over to the new Racebox feature, a tool which enables you to create you own challenging Grids to race and share with friends.

Mag-Strips, sections of a circuit that lock your ship to the track, are another new addition. It has enabled the designers to create tracks that defy the laws of physics - twisting, inverting and looping upside down.

A new Photo mode lets you become a budding sports photographer, capturing this gravity-defying action in-game, as it occurs, or the slightly more sedate victory laps after a race.

Even familiar elements like Zone racing, where your craft continues to accelerate at ever greater speeds, has been opened up, now being available for all tracks.

Additional features that will be available in the finished version include multiplayer in both Ad Hoc and Infrastructure Modes; an online paint application with which you can design your own ship liveries; plus downloadable track, ship and music packs.

WipEout Pulse looks set to push the boundaries of this iconic game, promising to be one of the best racing experiences yet on PSP.