Wipeout HD Failing Internal Epilepsy Tests |
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by the hammer of Ryan Hewson! |
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I won’t lie to you; when the Sony E3 conference came and went with nary a sign of Wipeout HD, I was dialling up my best henchmen. The game had already been delayed at least once before to add features, a laudable goal to be sure, but let’s go already, you know? So the E3 disappearing act was not well-received, especially with no word on exactly what the cause was. Eurogamer managed to get a quote out of Sony that described a very tricky technical problem, one that “no region has been able to solve”.
That particular wording made it sound like the bug was possibly related to networking. As it turns out, thanks to CVG’s persistence, we now know that the sheer quantities of awesome pouring out of the screen might literally do something bad to your brain.
Snippit:
Imagine our surprise when we were told that the game had failed epilepsy tests and has to be re-engineered as a result before it can be released to the public.
CVG has been told that WipEout “fails the epilepsy tests so much that it has to be re-engineered.” All that speed and flashing lights zipping past your eyes must be too much to handle.
No further details were available, such as how long this re-working might take but we’ve contacted Sony and are still awaiting an official response on the status of WipEout HD and when we can expect to see it launch on PSN.
Obviously Sony has sent out beta code to the various dev houses in each region, to see if one of their hotshots can solve the problem – perhaps with some postprocessing or filtering – rather than go back and re-build large parts of the game.
Is it bad for me to wish I could sign a waiver and buy the seizure version?





Jim Squires on 22 Jul 2008 at 2:14 pm #
I’d kill a small hobo to play the epilepsy version. It must look fucking stunning (in so far as that it stuns your nervous system).
Dan Zuccarelli on 22 Jul 2008 at 3:06 pm #
I’d kill a large hobo to play the epilepsy version.
“The game so awesome just looking at it could kill you” could be plastered all over the box.
Dr. Cossack on 22 Jul 2008 at 8:42 pm #
Wow. Honestly, wow. This is the first time that I hear about something like this.
Peachey on 22 Jul 2008 at 9:10 pm #
Uh, hello?! An epilepsy test?! How, exactly, does one conduct an epilepsy test? Do they put kids with mild epilepsy in front of the screen, and depending on how many succumb to Grand Mal seizures they either green-light the game or send it back for flashing lights tuning? Then after they’ve tuned the game (well after sending the first batch of kids to the hospital after experiencing life threatening seizures) they bring some more kids back to see how many of them have seizures.
Pppppppfffffffffffft. Seriously guys, there’s a reason why this is the first time you ever heard about something like this: IT’S BULLSHIT!
swiftwulf on 22 Jul 2008 at 9:59 pm #
Im sorry but this reminded me too much of the Jonathan Coulton concert I went to. Here’s a clip from the show and you’ll understand why. http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Lao22ylbxM
Ryan on 23 Jul 2008 at 12:12 pm #
Peachy: here is a link to one such common tool used for testing –
http://www.hardingfpa.com/
and here are the sort of things they look for
http://trace.wisc.edu/peat/
Peachey on 23 Jul 2008 at 9:26 pm #
Here’s the thing: If there’s a test that shows you what will cause an epileptic seizure, then shouldn’t that test be able to diagnose the problem with the game such that it can be easily fixed? I suppose my over-riding point is that the excuse that it’s failing internal epilepsy testing is still weak regardless of the test itself. Furthermore, since epilepsy is still a disease who’s precise mechanics are largely unknown, how accurate can the tests really be?
Then again, maybe I’m just pissed I ate crow.
TheBBPS.com (Bits, Bytes, Pixels & Sprites) » New Releases on 22 Sep 2008 at 11:26 am #
[...] Besides, Wipeout HD hits this week, which will hopefully be so awesome it gives me a seizure when I play it! [...]
TheBBPS.com (Bits, Bytes, Pixels & Sprites) » Happy Wipeout HD Day! (here have a free wallpaper to celebrate) on 25 Sep 2008 at 9:56 am #
[...] on the ‘ol PS3. We’re been waiting for what seems like forever, and I for one am damn ready to risk seizures to play this damn [...]