I have long been a fan of the wipEout series, the idea behind the game, the music, and the presentation have always appealed to me. It has been six years since the series has appeared on a home console system, and three since it last appeared on the PSP. With wipEout HD coming out this year on the PS3 as a downloadable game, the series is poised to have a very good year.

Let's take a look at how the eighth title in the series holds up, shall we?

What is wipEout?

You play the role of an anti-grav racing pilot who races for mega-corporations, and you race through futuristic cities and tracks doing hundred of kilometers an hour. You can attack other racers with weapons obtained by driving over glowing Xs on the track. Win by any means necessary!

The Setup:

The game's menus have the same futuristic style of the previous wipEout games, which is a good thing, as this is a style that appeals to me. There is a ticker at the bottom of the screen that displays things you've done in-game, like that you've raced X number of laps or used X team X amount of times.

The main screen presents you with a the following choices:

Race Campaign – You'll most likely spend the bulk of your single player time here in the Grid. The Grid consists of 12 groups of events and 4 Phantom groups of events, which is the highest speed and most dangerous league.

Racebox – Racebox is where you can design your own Grids, a series of races that you create and then complete. A good option if you really like one type of event or just want to practice.

Multiplayer and Sharing – I bet you can guess that this does, but if your mind is drawing a blank, this is where you get online to race or share a limited copy of the game with a friend so you and play together.

Wipeout-Game.com – This takes you to the game's website where you can download skins you've made for the game at the same website on your computer, and upload your stats.

Profile – This is where you can view your stats, change your profile name or online tag.

Options – Various options for the game, including the Soundtrack option.

Extras – A copy of the manual stored on the UMD, credits, and play the intro again.