As we near the one-year anniversary of WipEout Omega Collection Sony celebrates with two bold moves; adding VR support to the futuristic racing title and making it absolutely FREE – assuming you already own the original package that assembles all the tracks, hovercraft, and race modes from the entirety of the WipEout franchise. While we never reviewed the original game when it launched last June I have personally put countless hours into WipEout Omega Collection and was eager to see if VR was going to add more to the experience than it would take away.
After all, VR could only detract from a perfectly locked 4K, 60fps presentation on the PS4 Pro, right? But Sony didn’t settle on a quick and easy port. No, this is a substantial upgrade meant not only to add immersive VR support but make it just as good as the screen experience while doing an impressive job of minimizing motion sickness. Starting with that core 4K experience certainly helped when downsampling to the PSVR’s 1080p stereoscopic display, both in maintaining a locked 60fps that easily adapts to the PSVR’s 120Hz screen as well as super-sampling to eliminate jaggies. Motion blur is permanently disabled in VR to maintain a crisp image and lighting effects have been dialed back to create a more realistic and non-gamey environment.
The end result is astonishing, and while it doesn’t achieve the sparkling quality of a traditional 4K image, the minor technical sacrifices are quickly forgotten once you immerse yourself in the cockpit of your favorite futuristic race craft. There are so many quality of life features built right into WipEout Omega Collection starting with the game auto-detecting whether your VR headset is turned on and launching into VR mode automatically. Easy-to-find menu options allow you to customize the game to your playstyle and tolerance for motion sickness. You can choose Near and Far chase cams or put yourself right into a gloriously detailed cockpit complete with a 3D rendered driver from the neck down – you provide the head.
Other options allow you to change your FOV by darkening the cockpit canopy on either side, which can improve performance and minimize peripheral motion sickness. Perhaps the most beneficial option is the ability to lock your headset to either the race craft or the track. Locking to the craft means your view will tilt and skew madly during a race while locking to the track keeps your view level with the track by creating a free-floating gimbal for your cockpit allowing the engine pods to rotate independent of your seated view. I’d like to think this is how they would design these crafts if they were real. While I didn’t get sick with either system I found the game much more difficult to play with craft-lock, and once I settled in with the track-lock view I was soon besting my previous track records.
Yes, VR can actually make you a better racer. The level of immersion VR offers along with the realistic sensation of speed and direction had me shaving seconds off my previous race times turning bronze and silver medals into gold. It might be difficult to appreciate the level of detail that went into this VR upgrade; especially at 300kph, but you’ll definitely want to take a moment to “smell the roses”, even if it’s just taking a moment before tapping X to start the race. Look around and notice the gorgeous texture details on your ship or the lively animated crowds who cheer from the stands or take in the cityscape or landscape of your track location. There is so much detail present and such a greater sense of scale when you’re actually in the cockpit. Even the photo mode is a joy to use in VR.
The developers take into account some of the more twisty and curvy tracks and warn you before a race that you might get sick and even suggest some pilot assists or VR options to improve your experience. Fast lateral motion like extreme drifting or the 180-flip move in the Eliminator races have a bit of ghosting and can churn the stomach of even the most seasoned VR veteran. You can pause the game at any time and adjust the VR options to find what works best.
So at the end of the day just who is the VR update for WipEout Omega Collection targeting? If you already own the game a free update likely won’t get you to drop $200 on a PSVR, but if you already own a PSVR then this is a pretty convincing reason to jump into WipEout Omega Collection for only $40; a fantastic racing game that can be enjoyed in or out of VR. And for those who already have the game and the PSVR…why are you still here? Start downloading that 5GB update patch and get ready for the race experience of a lifetime.
