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Wipeout 2048 is a racing game for the PlayStation Vita, and is the eighth installment in the Wipeout series of anti-gravity racing games from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. It is one of the launch titles for the console and the last title developed by Studio Liverpool before its closure on 22 August 2012.

Development[]

AGRC

Official logo of the Anti-Gravity Racing Championship

First demonstrated to the press before E3 2011, Wipeout 2048 is one of the first games for the successor to the PlayStation Portable. The game makes use of the new input methods of the console, with the touch-sensitive screen used for firing and absorbing weapons, and the rear touchpad used for acceleration; it also features optional tilt control improved from Wipeout HD using the accelerometers and gyroscopes. The microphones can also be used for voice-activated weapons.

For multiplayer, the game features cross-platform online racing, with the press preview allowing players from the PlayStation 3 version of Wipeout HD/Fury to play the HD/Fury tracks against those on the handheld console.[1] Online multiplayer is based on the campaign structure, featuring missions that each player must undertake, such as sticking to the top tier of the course or finishing in the top half of the leaderboard; these missions allow novice players to progress as well as unlock new content.

Setting[]

Wipeout2048

2048 in city environments

Wipeout 2048 is set in the near future, and relative to previous games, takes place much earlier in the Wipeout timeline, as the new sport of anti-gravity racing is beginning to emerge, making it a prequel. As such, dedicated racing tracks are yet to be built, and so races take place in city streets. Set in Studio Liverpool's interpretation of New York City in the near future, races are three-tiered, with lower levels showing off architectural details, while higher levels show off the modern, futuristic elements of the city. Tracks are also wider than previous entries, which the team hope will allow for greater use of combat.[2]

Campaign[]

Main articles: Single Player Campaign in Wipeout 2048 and Multiplayer Campaign in Wipeout 2048

The game campaign is separated into a single player campaign, where you contest in the first three seasons of Anti-Gravity Racing, and an online campaign, where the player competes against other players in online multiplayer game while completing a series of objectives.

Tracks[]

2048FeisarS-Sol

A FEISAR Speed ship cruising on Sol

In a similar circumstance to Wipeout 3 and Wipeout Pure, all tracks in Wipeout 2048 are situated in a single location. In this case, they are all in the New York City-inspired Nova State City.

Teams and Ships[]

2048FeisarChrome

A FEISAR Speed ship in the chrome skin

All four original teams make an appearance in Wipeout 2048, along with a precursor to the Piranha team, Pir-hana. Each team has their own strengths and weaknesses, based on the stats of their ships.

For the first time in the series, each of the teams has a ship made with specialty in a particular race type. There are a total of 20 ships in the game, divided into four classes: Speed, Fighter, Agility, and Prototype.

List of ship classes[]

Speed Class-icon
  • Speed: These ships are the fastest of all ship classes, but they tend to be difficult to control and have poor health and weak firepower. They can't pick up Quake and Bombs because of their small, lightweight figure, which in turn also means that they can carry only one Rocket and three Mines.
Fighter Class-icon
  • Fighter: These ships have high health and firepower, but are nowhere as good when it comes to speed and handling. They can't pick up Mines, which defeats their purpose, not to mention the fact that their weapons loadout is already heavy. So it makes sense that they fire three Rockets and use Bombs instead of Mines. Also, when using Missiles, they can lock on faster than other ship classes.
Agility Class-icon
  • Agility: These ships have superior handling compared to other ship classes, but are not particularly fast, especially on the straights, and their health and firepower is somewhat average. They can't pick up Bombs, whose weight can interfere with their handling, but they can fire two Rockets and drop four Mines to make up for that.
Prototype Class-icon
  • Prototype: These ships are special in that they possess unique features and can only be unlocked by completing Prototype Challenges that become available as the player ranks up. While based on one particular ship model, each individual prototype ship has strengths and weaknesses that distinguish it from all other ships, even its base model. Some prototype ships may even feature and/or lack certain functionality compared to regular ships as well.

List of teams and ships[]

2048 FEISAR-icon
2048 AGSystems-icon
2048 Qirex-icon
2048 Auricom-icon
2048 Pirhana-icon

Weapons[]

Weapons in 2048 are grouped by weapon pad types. Yellow pads grant an offensive weapon, while green ones spawn a defensive weapon or an assistive item. These pads add the strategic elements to the game, allowing one to decide which kind of weapon to pick up, depending on the condition. Please note that some campaign events include restriction on which weapons can appear in the race.

Yellow Pads[]

  • Missile
  • Rockets
  • Cannon
  • Plasma
  • Quake

Green Pads[]

  • Mines
  • Bomb
  • Leech Beam
  • Shield
  • Turbo
  • Autopilot

Music[]

The final soundtrack for Wipeout 2048 consists of a total of 14 tracks by international artists.[3]

Downloadable Content[]

On 19 June 2012, Studio Liverpool released the expansion to Wipeout 2048, the Wipeout HD/Fury DLC.[4][5] This expansion includes all content from the original Wipeout HD/Fury on the PlayStation 3 to be playable for the Vita version with the same graphics as 2048. This DLC is also meant to complete the collection of ships and tracks for the Cross Play mode. The DLC can either be bought separately (HD or Fury packs) or bundled together. However, as a Cross-Buy DLC, for those who have already purchased the HD/Fury full game on the PS3 will receive both packs for the Vita or vice versa for free.

Trophies[]

Main article: Trophies in Wipeout 2048

Reception[]

Wipeout 2048 received generally positive reviews, with a Metacritic average of 79.[6]

Re-release[]

On 4 December 2016, during PlayStation Experience 2016 in Anaheim, California, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that 2048 will be remastered for the PlayStation 4, along with HD and Fury, in the Wipeout Omega Collection.[7][8][9]

Trivia[]

  • Although this is the last standalone title of the Wipeout series developed by Studio Liverpool as of February 2012, it is chronologically the first in the Wipeout series.
    • 2048 was originally intended as a reboot of the series, but has since been retconned to follow with the rest of the series' continuity. As a result, there have been a number of paradoxes from within the series' timeline.
      • This game features weapons capable of destroying ships, experimental "super-weapons" (as seen with the Qirex Prototype's miniguns), barrel rolls, the ability to side-shift and absorb weapons, as well as Mag-Strips, all before they became available in the previous entries (2097, 64, Pure, and Pulse respectively), meaning they were banned when the AGRC ended in 2050, which also led to no race season in 2051 due to Pierre Belmondo's calls to revise and standardize the regulations before the F3600 League began the year later.
      • Also, while this game may be the third title in the series whose League set in a single-location, as opposed to racetracks set in different countries, 2048 is actually the first in the series' storyline to do so, followed by Wipeout 3 (Mega City), then Wipeout Pure (Makana).
  • The intro shows the evolution of racing from the pre-war era to modern motorsport, then onto the AGRC days with vehicles using FEISAR's colour pattern. However, the company would canonically not exist until 2036.
  • Fictional vehicles from MotorStorm: Apocalypse make brief cameos in the same intro's 2025 scene, such as the Patriot V8 XR, the Wulff DT566M, and the Ozutsu Blacksun J-GT.
  • Upon closer inspection, ships in Wipeout 2048 have gearboxes equipped as in modern automobiles. While the ship shifts gears, the game camera shakes a little. Ships may have "infinite" gears, however, due to the fact that they continue to shift gears even when running at top speed, most likely resembling the CVT system. There seems to be no explanation for this, although this is absent in 2048 mode in the Omega Collection.
  • The sounds of the ships in this game seem to be significantly different compared to past titles, where the ships are implied to be turbine-powered. It may be possible that the ships here may use an unspecified and alternative power-plant (likely hydrogen fuel cells) before the ships became accustomed to turbine-based technology.
  • Ships in this game return to the dual-thruster design from the first game.
  • This game (including the 2048 mode in the Omega Collection) as well as Fusion, are the only titles in the series to have a statistic relating to the weapon power of the ships, and have noticeably different weapon damage characteristics (in all other games, it shows that all the ships' weapon power are the same).
  • The HUD in the game is reminiscent of the first game and 64, where the speedometer is not shown and is only represented by five bars, making it difficult to tell how fast the ship is going. In theory, however, A-Class would be slightly faster than Phantom class in the the far future, which may also suggest that part of Pierre Belmondo's revisions of regulations meant that ships in the later F3600 League would be made slower to ensure the pilots' safety.
  • There are some cut content and features that were planned to be added into the game, but eventually shelved, likely due to time constraints, such as a "zombie" mode, a possible combat mode focusing on eliminating ships rather than points for causing damage, as well as weapons/items such as the "Autoshield" (which may explain the Autopilot activating a shield when used), and the return of the Repulsor and Shuriken from Pulse.
    • Another piece of cut content includes an augmented reality "museum" feature using the PlayStation Vita's AR technology.

References[]


All Wipeout Games
1990s: WipEout2097/XL64Wip3out
PS2/PSP: FusionPurePulse
PS3/Vita: HD (Fury) • 2048
PS4: Omega Collection
Mobile: Merge
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