WipEout HD patch at 5pm today

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 April, 2009

Multiplayer upgrades including ranks.

Sony has announced that it will patch WipEout HD to version 1.30 at 5pm GMT today, 8th April, introducing a raft of multiplayer upgrades.

The most significant of these is the new ranking system, which gives you 50 ranks to progress through, with experience accrued from finishing positions, speed class and the rank of your opposition. There will also be a new podium screen.

However, just because you didn't finish in the top three doesn't mean you didn't race well, so there are also a total of 33 badges to earn in recognition of race performances, regardless of finishing position.

There are more options when you fire things up, too. You can watch races in progress in a new spectator mode, featuring four camera angles and a choice of ships to watch, and the game makes more effort to bring you together with friends.

For instance, there's an invite system for getting your friends involved, or vice versa, and you're also informed about ongoing races involving your friends.

When setting up a game, you can also specify whether it is to be public, friends-only or invite-only, and there are new setup options: toggles for HUD weapon hints, barrel rolls and pilot assist, and a new maximum laps limit of 20.

Look out for all that to go live at 5pm GMT according to Sony UK.

UPDATE: See it for yourself in our WipEout HD 1.30 patch screenshot gallery.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Scimarad #1 3 years ago

    Wipeout HD is definitely one of those games that rewards a lot of practise. I found that trying to beat the times of people on my friends list was just the motivation I needed:)

  • Zebula77 #2 3 years ago

    Good news. Shows that they're working on it. But of course what I REALLY want is more tracks! :D Maybe some re-jigs of classic ones. Especially from the first three. Some killer track designs in those. Maybe the ability to use Playstation Eye somehow? ID-photos for online rankings for example. Could be cool.

  • Ryze #3 3 years ago

    Sounds good.

  • Ninja_Tino #4 3 years ago

    Took me over an hour and a half to Gold Time Trial one track. Was worth it though. So very worth it.

  • Widge #5 3 years ago

    Good stuff. Game needed multiplayer tweaks.

  • Doctor_What #6 3 years ago

    It's a good game, very slick, but waaaay too hard. It's fun to race, yet getting pounded every time when you're only a few hours into the game doesn't make you inclined to go back to it.

  • Moz #7 3 years ago

    Sounds cool

    Can we have a new set of tracks now please.

  • 3william56 #8 3 years ago

    God, please patch the race difficulty the same way all the other modes were adjusted. Leave the elite level where it is for the lunatics, but please go look in the dictionary for the definition of "novice". Strangely, it doesn't include the words "perfect laps still leave you in last place". Time trials and speed laps are spot on since the last patch. Races still suck, which is a small problem for a racer.

  • f01re #9 3 years ago

    I should imagine this patch comes in the lead up to paid for new tracks as dlc...

  • chessboxer #10 3 years ago

    I haven't played this since the last patch came out as it's so bastard hard. It's one of the only racing games I fail to master :'(

  • Les #11 3 years ago

    Haven't played this yet (though it's been on my HDD for a few months already), too little time...

  • Burkey123 #12 3 years ago

    This is a great game but I will echo the calls of it being way too hard.

  • Razz #13 3 years ago

    I love this game. It just keeps giving. Can't wait fot the update. ^_^

    Have to disagree with the comments on the difficulty. However I'm a special case, I accidently changed the difficulty default to elite early on. I got all the way to Hard Rush before I'd noticed that i'd been gold hunting on the highest level! :D I've got all but a few ELITE Gold medals now. I'm still not as good as most of the EG regs at online multiplayer though :( They're hardcore racers :(

  • Gormless #14 3 years ago

    It needs the PTT voice sorting out, just make it so it is always on Sony with the option to mute

  • Porco #15 3 years ago

    To those who find it difficult. Do you have pilot assist on? I find that you go quite a bit slower with it on and it's hard to keep up in races.
    Better not to use it.

  • elhozzo #16 3 years ago

    where it is, where is it ? or have I confused GMT with BST again ???

  • banjo21 #17 3 years ago

    Just freezes at loading screen now.

  • Weebleboy #18 3 years ago

    Yup, same thing here :(