Review: Wipeout Omega Collection on PS4 offers three games of racing fun

The Wipeout series started back in the PSOne days and put futuristic racing games on the map. Now a new collection has arrived on PS4 called the Omega Collection and the series has never looked this good before.  The Wipeout Omega Collection includes three games in one package and all of them have been remastered perfectly for the PS4 console. The collection includes the PS3's Wipeout HD and Wipeout HD Fury, plus rounding out the package is the PS Vita's excellent Wipeout 2048.  All three of the games already looked good on their respective older platforms, but the Omega Collection's extra coat of paint makes them shine really well. All of the games run at a smooth and solid 60fps and run at 1080p. If you own a PS4 Pro console, you are lucky because 4K support and HDR is added too.  It's great that this collection is 60fps because it makes the action smooth and responsive. Fast racing games are usually hard to play, but the solid framerate allows you to see where you are going at all times. Not to mention the level design is immaculate. The futuristic architecture in the levels is something you would see in Star Wars and it's amazing to look at.  The levels are not just linear either because there are multiple paths for you take. Some paths are better than others because they may provide you with more speed pads to help you gain the lead. There is even one level where you are on top of a building and there are no walls to protect you. If you fall off, you will crash your ship and have to start over again and again! It's not just the level design that is great, but the gameplay is fast and frantic too. Standard races have lots of speed pads on the ground to boost you while you can collect a ton of other items to aid you as well. These items include the likes of missiles, rockets, mines, a machine gun and more.  Aside from standard races, there are also time trial events and battles. Time trials allow you to race on your own to beat a certain time while in the battle modes you are supposed to kill as many vehicles as you can see. Battles are really fun to play especially if you are playing with some mates both offline or online.  What I like about most in this collection is the wealth of content. This game offers 26 tracks and around 49 different vehicles for you to try out. It also adds three separate single player campaigns for you to complete with loads of events. All of this is capped off with a fun multiplayer mode that is available both offline and online.

As great as this collection is, it's not perfect. I noticed that Wipeout HD and Wipeout HD Fury are not as fluid as 2048. For some reason, the PS3 games in this collection felt slower than 2048. Not to mention the graphics and level design were not as pretty. 2048 is the clear standout in this collection.  The other thing that bothered me slightly is how long it takes to unlock new ships. It can be a little difficult to gain new ships since there is a spike in the difficulty curve midway through the game. Being stuck with slow ships to race with all of the time is not really fun... Despite the minor flaws, the Wipeout Omega Collection is still awesome and is a must-buy for anyone that is a fan of the old franchise. These games look and play great on the PS4 and hopefully this means we will see another true sequel in the near future.  Verdict: 8.5/10