After shilly shallying for the past three years, Psygnosis have finally finished the third instalment in the WipEout series. Hey, and it's not half bad, either...
St3ve Bradl3y

WipEout. WipeOut. Wipeout. Grrr. How many different spellings have you seen? Actually, the orthography is always the same, it's just that folk seem determined to stick a capital letter in there somewhere. This time around, Psygnosis have gone and stuck a '3' where the 'e' should be. To give it that futuristic look, one imagines.

Whether such frivolous grammar causes hackles to rise and dander to 'up', you simply cannot deny that the result of Psygnosis' efforts is a victory for common sense - Wip3out is back and it's better than ever. The first in the series appeared at the PlayStation's European launch back in 1995, but while some 50 per cent of the early adopters bought it, many were heard to mutter that it was far too difficult for its own good, particularly in comparison to Namco's exquisite Ridge Racer. WipEout 2097 appeared a year later and addressed the original's faults - this time you didn't grind to a halt if you so much as scraped the sides. Oh, and it had the finest two-player link-up option known to man.

A cursory glance at the screenshots of the latest incarnation reveals, well... nothing really. Wip3out looks like WipEout 2097, which looked like WipEout, but be in no doubt that the visuals have been improved. The shebang's in glorious high resolution and it looks sensational. Lead artist Nicky Westcott has been retained from the original, as have Designers Republic, who produce all the natty logos.