Wipeout Pure

Wipeout Pure is a racing game which is set in the year 2197, exactly 100 years after the events of Wipeout 2097, and revolves around players competing in the FX300 anti-gravity racing league. Players control anti-gravity ships which are owned by racing corporations (effectively referred to as 'teams' in-game). There are a total of eight teams featured in the game, with one ship available for each. Every ship has different characteristics, for example each ship has variations in handling, thrust, maximum speed and shield strength.

Each craft is equipped with an energy shield which absorbs damage sustained during a race; energy is lost whenever the player's ship collides or is hit by weapon fire. If the shield runs out, the player's ship will explode and is consequently eliminated from the race. However, the player may replenish energy by absorbing weapon pick-ups.

Wipeout Pure was developed by Liverpudlian developer Studio Liverpool. Pre-production of the game began in August 2003 and full production occurred in October of that year, with only two staff members working on the game at that time. The team received development kits for the PlayStation Portable in August 2004; by this time the development team had grown to twenty people. Dave Burrows, one of the original two staff members who conceptualised the game, reflected in a retrospective "post-mortem" that the studio had to learn from their previous mistakes with their predecessor, Wipeout Fusion.

Burrows cited that one of the principal difficulties the development team faced was that the team's artists and designers were "fighting almost all of the time"; designers would first design a track for the game, then pass it over to the artists whilst the former were still making adjustments to it. Burrows also recalled that the developer's editing kits required many hours worth of "tweaking", which ultimately did not result in a smooth workflow.

Wipeout Pure received positive reviews upon release. It holds an aggregate score of 88% from Metacritic based on 53 reviews.

The graphics were the most praised aspect of the game. Ryan Davis of GameSpot said that the visuals were "gorgeous" and breathtaking to look at, both in ship designs and details of the tracks. Davis noted that the game never remains at a "solid" 60 frames per second, which can cause occasional fluctuation. A reviewer of GamePro similarly praised the visuals as breathtaking, stating that the "beautiful" panoramic scenery defied the notion of usual graphics displayed on a handheld console.