BallisticNG - Classic Wipeout-inspired AG racing

[sesselpupser]

I'm quite surprised there's not a thread on this already.

Does this remind you of anything...?

BallisticNG is a Steam Early Access game that's more than just a little bit inspired by Wipeout, Wipeout 2097 and/or Wip3out, down to the fact that as much as I wish I was good at it, I'm not. You can even port the ships from the Wipeouts into BallisticNG somehow, believe it or not! There's no multiplayer yet but it's already in a surprisingly playable, if unsurprisingly rough, state. And I bet it'd run on a toaster.

Also it's free, so there's that. I'm pretty sure @MeanElf, @Brend, @Robin. and the other guys from the Wipeout HD/Fury thread would be into this.

Edit:

 

[Brend]

I'm quite surprised there's not a thread on this already.

Does this remind you of anything...?

BallisticNG is a Steam Early Access game that's more than just a little bit inspired by Wipeout, Wipeout 2097 and/or Wip3out, down to the fact that as much as I wish I was good at it, I'm not. You can even port the ships from the Wipeouts into BallisticNG somehow, believe it or not! There's no multiplayer yet but it's already in a surprisingly playable, if unsurprisingly rough, state. And I bet it'd run on a toaster.

Also it's free, so there's that. I'm pretty sure @MeanElf, @Brend, @Robin. and the other guys from the Wipeout HD/Fury thread would be into this.

This is so close to convincing me to buy a gaming PC. There's something truly magic about the physics that really captures the older WipEout games more accurately than even the later WipEout games themselves. I've only played a really early build that was posted on the WipEout Zone forum yonder back but it's good to see its still progressing!

 

[LeGeNd-1]

There seems to be quite a lot of AG racers lately. Formula Fusion, Fast Racing Neo, and now this. My only experience with WipeOut was getting HD/Fury for free from the PSN Apocalyps3 way back, and safe to say I suck It's amazing to look at but I'll stick with wheels thanks

BTW, any connection with BeamNG from the name?

 

[Huks]

A modern Wipeout successor? On Steam? For free? And it's already been out for a month? How on Earth have I not heard of this until now? I'm not the biggest Wipeout fan (only got Wipeout 3 and I suck at it, totally different from any other driving game I've ever played) but I'm getting in on this right now.

Anyone know if the developer is in any way affiliated with the original Wipeout developers, or is it just a dedicated fan with a good eye for detail? If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was an outright port of the original engine. It looks that accurate.

Also, the negative Steam reviews are hilarious. git gub nubs

 

[MeanElf]

Thanks @neema_t but I just don't have the cash for a gaming PC - hell, my laptop (yup, laptop and not tablet) is a Windows 7 OS. The game looks good though and I'll bear it in mind should I get that far. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[JohnBM01]

Just what the world needs- ANOTHER anti-gravity racing game! Tell you what... I like this! It's the best WipEout not named WipEout! I almost sort of look at this game as a "thank you" game to people who enjoy the WipEout series. For most people, it's F-Zero and WipEout as the best futuristic racing game series of all time. I can imagine people re-making their favorite ships and their favorite teams from WipEout games. Or (as I somewhat tried to do), make your own WipEout style team. Yeah, I once tried modeling my own 3D ship in the style of some of the WipEout ships. I didn't complete my model(s), but you can't go wrong with the classic teams- FEISAR, AG Systems, Auricom, Qirex, and of course... Piranha A. Don't forget about the likes of Goteki 45, Tigron, and Xios International.

Anyone who may know me know I love WipEout XL/2097 as my favorite. So you know I'll be bumping some old school beats from that game if I played around with this BallisticNG package. You got to have that hard-hitting electronic dance music to go with a game like this.

If BallisticNG catches fire, this is almost certainly going to make the folks from [the former(?)] Studio Liverpool be brought to shame for taking on their Formula Fusion project.

 

[JohnBM01]

You know, I forgot to mention some of the classic tracks from my previous post. Since this is mostly based on inspiration from the first three WipEout games, a lot of the tracks could be based on the old style courses. Further development would probably mean we could see some of the more insane courses that have loops and multiple routes. We might even see some courses look more like the insane courses from and after WipEout Fusion. This is a great project nonetheless.

 

[sesselpupser]

Thanks @neema_t but I just don't have the cash for a gaming PC - hell, my laptop (yup, laptop and not tablet) is a Windows 7 OS. The game looks good though and I'll bear it in mind should I get that far. Thanks for the heads-up.

Have you tried running it on your laptop? I can't imagine it needs much in the way of resources, I mean the models are simple, textures are low resolution and it's not really drawing all that much (you can see the crazy pop-in in the video). I imagine all you really need is a computer and a controller to play it with.

 

[nick98]

WipEout spiritual successor.
On PC.
For free.

WHY DO I NOT HAVE A GAMING PC AAAAAAAARGH

 

[MeanElf]

Have you tried running it on your laptop? I can't imagine it needs much in the way of resources, I mean the models are simple, textures are low resolution and it's not really drawing all that much (you can see the crazy pop-in in the video). I imagine all you really need is a computer and a controller to play it with.

I will certainly give it a go 👍

 

[sesselpupser]

I will certainly give it a go 👍

Let us know how it runs, and what your specs are. I strongly doubt anyone needs a 'gaming' PC to run this!

 

[Huks]

I just thought of something while playing this earlier today.



The modding support means that you can add any track you want into the game.


Any track.


Who's going to be the first to mod the Nürburgring Nordschleife into the game?

 

[MeanElf]

...Who's going to be the first to mod the Nürburgring Nordschleife into the game?

That would be a pretty good AV track, albeit a bit linear with regard to elevation changes. Nice idea though; I'm sure plenty would play it.

 

[JohnBM01]

There aren't too many memorable courses from my WipEout experience that I wouldn't mind seeing re-made for this game. Or at least, can't remember exact names of certain courses. Memorable tracks to me include the following:

* Mega Mall (Wip3out/WipEout 3)
* P-Mar Project (Wip3out/WipEout 3)
* Florion Height - Course 3 (WipEout Fusion)
* Mandrashee - all courses (WipEout Fusion)
* Alca Vexus - course 3 (WipEout Fusion)
* Vohl Square - Courses 2 and 3 (WipEout Fusion)
* Temtesh Bay - Course 3 (WipEout Fusion)
* Katmoda 12 - Course 3 (WipEout Fusion)
* Anulpha Pass (WipEout HD/Fury)

It would be best to model courses in the form of the original courses rather than try to make modern courses being raced on by futuristic machines. So for example, you are probably better off making your own unique course rather than try to make a futuristic version of Yas Marina Circuit. Just about everyone who has some WipEout experience will likely have their own favorites they'd want to see re-made for this BallisticNG.


One thing I thought about with this game is that there used to be another futuristic game I remember playing at an arcade once called "Ballistic" or something like that. This futuristic racer was nothing inspired by WipEout, but it was a fairly decent futuristic racer. The game even had a Houston track! I almost kind of thought about that game when I saw the name "BallisticNG." However, both games are MUCH different from one another.

 

[Rallywagon]

Awesome! For the rest of the night, Prodigy will be playing in my head. I was a huge fan of the first 3 games, and the jet moto series. Glad to see the genre still flying along.

 

[MeanElf]

Let us know how it runs, and what your specs are. I strongly doubt anyone needs a 'gaming' PC to run this!

Indeed it does work fine on my laptop, though it doesn't like using a controller. Another oddity, it seems to favour the Xbox controller button configuration, which I found to be odd seeing as the game is based in part or at least inspired by a PS1 title

Anyway, here are the specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium
SP 1
Intel Core i3-2350M @ 2.3GHz
6Gb RAM

As I can never get on with the WASD style of gaming, I probably won't be playing much of this unless I can get a controller to work.

 

[sesselpupser]

Indeed it does work fine on my laptop, though it doesn't like using a controller.

What do you mean by that? If you mean the controller doesn't work at all, you need to select it in the options but if you mean it kind of does, kind of doesn't work then you might have a driver issue. My DS4 works perfectly with InputMapper, at least I assume it's my fault I keep crashing and not the controller's.

 

[MeanElf]

What do you mean by that? If you mean the controller doesn't work at all, you need to select it in the options but if you mean it kind of does, kind of doesn't work then you might have a driver issue. My DS4 works perfectly with InputMapper, at least I assume it's my fault I keep crashing and not the controller's.

I was using a DS3 and hadn't got around to trying a DS4 yet. The DS3 did nothing, even after selecting it. Direction arrows and keys worked fine though.

 

[sesselpupser]

@MeanElf Oh I see, that could be a directinput vs. Xinput issue, unless you're already using a wrapper to convert it to Xbox controls, in which case I have no idea.

 

[Rallywagon]

I have yet to see a PC game that uses anything other than an Xbox style controller config. That said, software wise, they are pretty much the same. Same amount of buttons and joysticks. Just different in hand. I might like to urge gamers to move off the DS3 and that really bad driver software found on the web. Either new gen, or PC based controllers are best.
I'll be digging into this game once I get back home later this week.

 

[Aphelion]

OH my god i want this right now.

 

[Aphelion]

I'm sad that this thread hasn't gone anywhere. The game is a lot of fun, the physics and everything are excellent.

I've managed a 2:14 with the mtechp1 on the "Aciknouae" circuit in the zen mode time trial. Without course cuts or anything. Took quite some time.