PlayStation may be more synonymous with hyperrealistic third person stories nowadays, but in the ’90s and ’00s there was only one title on anybody’s lips whenever Sony announced a new console:WipEout.
The cult racing game married innovative 3D graphics with blistering sci-fi races and an iconic pumping soundtrack that was ripped straight out of Hacienda and Cream. As a Liverpudlian myself, WipEout is a huge part of my city’s gaming DNA, and many of its developers are still a core part of the local development scene.I spoke to Psygnosis alumni Nick Burcombe and Gary Nicholsabout House of Golf 2 just the other month, and it’s the former who kicks off the first interview in WipEout Futurism: The Graphics Archives.
WipEout Futurism is a heavy hardback book that tells the history of the iconic series, from its conception in a dim Wirralian pub to its cancellation and the closure of Studio Liverpool. The story is told through interviews with developers, but the focus here is on graphics design, to the extent that the developers' insights almost feel secondary.
WipEout has always been a good looking game. The original still holds up now. Sure, it’s a little pixelated, but the clever art direction and dazzling design ethos mean that it has aged like a fine wine. This makes it even more incredible to pore over the classic designs in such crisp detail on the thick pages of this book.
WipEout Futurism has everything you’d expect. There are dozens of pages dedicated to Darren Douglas' concept art, for example, which is vivid and original enough to inspire a sci-fi game, novel, or movie even today. There are pages of logos for the in-game teams, the Anti-Gravity Racing League, while glossy silver pages separate each section. Of course, there are screenshots, so many screenshots, a reminder that everything you see on the page was implemented perfectly into the racer. The only thing it’s missing is a musical element, a QR code to scan so your phone lays The Chemical Brothers or The Prodigy. No matter, I can navigate to my WipEout playlist myself.
However, there are some unexpected secrets hiding within the square pages of this gargantuan book. As well as tracking down developers for the inside scoops on how decisions were made or how many beers they had drunk before coming up with certain ideas, there are scans of faxes, printouts of ‘visual symbolism’ which are pages of potential logos for in-game corporations.
Graphics designer Michael Place admits that they’d pick logos of obscure companies from Japanese logo books, changing them a little before adding them to the game. Looking at the designs, I’m not sure the knock-off Atari logo would have made it past even the most lackadaisical legal team, but I’m not sure legalities were at the forefront of many minds during WipEout’s development.
A personal highlight from a journalist’s perspective is the rejected covers of Edge magazine reproduced 1:1.
Much like the game it covers so adoringly, WipEout Futurism oozes style. There’s plenty of substance in these pages too, but like the WipEout games of yore, this text will be remembered for its beauty rather than how well it handles corners. Come for the juicy development gossip, stay for the stunning imagery. Just make sure to blast those Chemical Beats while you do so for the full experience.
