simultaneously hypnotic and exhilarating. tries to convince you to become addicted to sugary energy drinks (the kind that is krating daeng mixed with bubbly water). unlike its sole contemporary at the time, it's less about going up to an absurd speed on a flat plane and more about finesse and the maintenance of your momentum while weaving your way through tight, undulating courses. floaty (duh), yet precise no matter your input device.

less than a year after a solid, but frustrating and flawed first outing, psygnosis clapped back with 8 circuits, pit/health strategy, one new team, and the most important addition, scraping - slightly forgiving collisions that don't bring you to a halt every single time you touch a wall. track memorization and ship acclimation are paramount to success at all speed classes. thankfully you're provided with the resources to put the necessary practice in, and every "event" is just a single race. i'm still enamored with the physics in the PSX wipeout games, from the seamless accumulation of boost as you glide over pads, to the perceived weightlessness until you have to throw up one (rarely ever two) of the air brakes. i could lap any given circuit here for hours on end (and probably have done so for like 5 of them), and still enjoy each and every corner as i just wooosh through them.

wipeout in general is an acquired taste, and the way it functions can come off as a bit idiosyncratic to those accustomed to kart racers, expecting something like "the britbong Jumping Man Kart of Formula Zeroes" from it. some might even jump to a hardline assumption that it isn't a racing game at all because it has combat. placing first and flying clean should be the priority of any player in wipeout Extra Large (because 2097 is a Large number). i tend to remember more about the tracks in the second wipeout compared to the third, but both are truly unparalleled as anti-gravity racing games (a tribute act notwithstanding). just about every other anti-gravity racing game just feels like a vehicle that's stuck to the ground, dependent on your imagination to believe what you're feeling is suspended in air. wipeout, (sans fusion and ESPECIALLY the psx trilogy) in comparison, actually feels like you're piloting a craft through the air.

it's floaty, because it should float.

There was a brief period when a bunch of adult-oriented games came out to capitalize on The Sims-style gameplay and this was one of them. 7 Sins star you as a man who is trying to strike it rich and get laid at the same time. While there’s no overlying story other than this there’s just barely enough here to keep you playing, but most will quit after just the second level.

The game is comprised of mini-games that are pretty crude and rude, and what these are for will be revealed in a bit. Your main goal is to invite women to an area to talk to you. You wander areas different areas and sit down with them, or engage in that activity, and try to reveal their sensitivities through dialog. Different icons represent these and you have to use trial and error to figure them out. There is rating bar that’s broken up into six pieces that represent your relationship status with that female. Once you reach the top of a piece you can engage in an advancing dialog to further the relationship.


Different types of dialog represent things like macho-ness, sensitivity, being cool, showing off, being intellectual, funny, etc. When a chick doesn’t like what you say they’ll respond in that manner, and you also have three different meters to watch out for: Lust, Anger, and Stress. If you reach the peak of any of these you freak out and run out of the area and wind up dropping the meter of any relationship you were working on. This can be frustrating because you then have to go back and wander around everywhere trying to increase that meter again.

You can play mini-games to decrease these meters, but some are specific and some decrease them all. These range from peeing on bugs, jumping sheep over a saw, ogling boobs, viewing upskirts, or just some that decrease the meter without a mini-game. If you do these they are sins so if you make at your sins you must do something to repent which is an angel icon. This can be done by eating a salad or just engaging the icon in a dialog with a chick.


This doesn’t sound too bad, but it is when you have to get up and move to a different spot to engage in the same dialog you just did five minutes ago until you reach your peak then you can get laid. Even this has mini-games involved, but after you play each one a few times you’re done. The animations are horrendous and the graphics are terrible, and the game uses Simlish type speech. Animations range from goofy things too awkward humping. Even with the nude patch, this game isn’t very interesting since each woman looks the same and there’s just no character or charm to the game. Sure it’s fun for a couple of hours, but after that, you get sick and tired of the game.


It wouldn’t be too bad if you could fly through the game, but even in the second level woman take forever to get high up enough to bring home and your meters fill up so fast that you have to play a mini-game every 5 minutes and it gets so repetitive and stupid. Do everyone a favor and stay away from this game unless you’re a real pervert or just plain bored.