BallisticNG

Wip3out used to be almost a religion to me. I'd come home after school and run time trials over and over on Phantom class with AG Systems, trying to shave off seconds off of my records. It was a very particular feeling when you managed to get into the zone. I obsessed over the soundtrack as well as The Designers Republic and their work with the series. It still gives me goose bumps to think about going through the cherry blossoms on P-Mar Project as Underworld - Kittens peak.
Ballistic NG feels like someone scanned my brain for wipeout memories and fed them into a game generator. My whole muscle memory kicked in immediately on starting the first race. The team has accomplished an amazing feat, nailing the feel almost flawlessly. The soundtrack manages to perfectly capture wipeout's airy, turn-of-the-millenium techno/drum-n-bass that I didn't even know how much I missed. And when the nostalgia kick settles, there's still a ton of new ways to race with twists on the old formula.
If you never had the pleasure of playing classic wipeout, this is a tight, fast, stylish racer that is very rewarding to master. And if you did play back in the day, welcome back because this is it. This is Wipeout.

200 character summary
BallisticNG is a blistering fast futuristic racing game with optional combat, split screen and online multiplayer, A lot of gamemodes, Over 100 campagin races and the ability to tweak everything.
Gamemodes & Gameplay 10/10
The game has a lot of gamemodes, You have the campaign which is for a single player only but it offers an insane challenge with 100 races and 2 expansions with 10 races each, In the campaign you level up to unlock new ships and liveries, You play several gamemodes in the campaign but you can play them all outside the campaign in custom races.
There are the obvious gamemodes like Race and Time Trial, But we also have speed lap, which is just an infinite mode to practice a track, Survival in which your ship will just go faster and faster and you have to survive as long as possible. Knock Out in which every lap the last place gets eliminated. Eliminator in which you have to kill all other ships using weapons. And finally Upsurge which is a bit like survival but against another player where you can annoy eachother. You can play every one of these gamemodes in Online for 16 or Local splitscreen for 2 players.
Exclusively for single player there are also Precision runs, here you lose if you hit a wall, but there is also a timer, It is crazy. The game has a very high skill ceiling, It is easy to pinball from the left to the right wall and back, You have to steer and to drift you also have to use your airbrakes. The game is full with nasty corners and the insanely high speeds don't help here. Especially in survival when you pass Hyper Zen it gets crazy.
You can tweak a lot of stuff in the menu, There are 3 different handling methods and a bunch of options which let you slide more or not at all, Direct steering and some more. The game has a funny stats screen, great Leaderboards,
Graphics & Soundtrack 9/10
The game has great graphics, Some things in the tracks feels a bit PS1 era but in HD, And the ships are a whole lot more detailed, I think it is a nice fit, Still There is a lot of detail to the tracks, And everything changes depending on the gamemode and your speed. In survival the whole track is one big visualizer for the background music, It looks pretty cool.
I personally love the graphic style, But even if you don't like the graphics, There are a ton of mods available, and you can even set custom sounds for everything. It truly is a modders paradise. The UI also looks amazing, Sometimes it is not really clear which buttons to press, I mean everything is on the screen, But the futuristic UI might get in the way of usability from time to time. But you will get used to it pretty fast.
The soundtrack is also nothing less than great, it fits the game perfectly, It has a great mix of tunes to listen to while you are flying at hypersonic speeds. It is a little too futuristic for my taste, But traditional instruments would not exactly fit the game very well.
The game also has a retro mode, Which makes it look a lot more like a oldschool game, Especially the colors, blocky graphics and the short draw distance make it feel you are playing this game on a PS1, It is a cool extra, but I do prefer the modern game, Which also seems to run better for some strange reason.
Performance & Support 7/10
The intro of the game has a bunch of graphical glitches, but these are all gone when you reach the loading screen and don't appear anywhere else in the game. It runs between 80 and 120 fps depending on the level. I had no bugs, or crashes, And it has a ton of settings to adjust.
Endgame & Replayability 9/10
I or anyone will probably never get endgame, But the game has a great replay value, You can play anything and adjust everything, You need to unlock some ships and liveries, But all tracks are available from the beginning, You can even cheat and unlock everything in the menu if you don't feel like playing the campaign, You can also replay any campaign mission anytime you like. The game has an insanely high skill ceiling and the mod support makes this game one to have installed at all times.
Workshop
The game has pretty amazing Workshop support, You can add ships and tracks to the game. It has a little under 1000 entries but it all looks good, I even saw a complete Sonic R level remade with the help of this game, it is pretty amazing.
Conclusion 9/10
BallisticNG is surely a must have, Especially if you like futuristic racers like Wipeout, Then this game is your dream come true. It is not a traditional racer, surely you can accelerate and steer, but really making use of all the ships abilities requires a bit more than that, It is a very challenging experience with a lot of customizability and gamemodes. I don't think it is for everyone, But it is very reasonably priced, It is always worth a try, Because there is a lot to love.
Follow my Curator Page for more Reviews like these
Game Info
# of players
Single Player, 2 Players Local or Online up to 16
Steam Cloud Save
Working fine
Controller Support
Yes, Xbox One Bluetooth Working
Achievements
Insane, just forget it
FPS on Ultra 1080P
80 - 120
Ram Usage
2GB
Installed Size
2.4GB
Launch Command
gamemoderun %command%
Issues
Intro screen glitches
Operating System & Hardware
OS
Arch Linux
Kernel
5.5.8
DE
Gnome 3.36
CPU
Intel I7-6800K Hexa Core @ 4.2 Ghz
GPU
Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 (Nvidia 440.64 Drivers)

Wipeout XXXL. If you're into futuristic hovercraft racing with the classic Psygnosis feel/gameplay you found your huckleberry friend.

If you've played Wipeout (especially Wip3out), you know that series is the gold standard of anti-grav racing, and dare I say racing in general, games for the PS platform. Comparison made, this game is so close to that level of excellence that I can't tell the two apart aside from the titles. The description reads that this is a love letter to Wipeout, I disagree, this is the long lost twin who managed to get a doctorate in PC platform gaming. A track editor, workshop for custom craft, and all of the physics goodness, plus VR capability. I mean, I looked and looked at other games like Pacer and Redout, but when I quit out I was like, "Yeah, but it's no BallisticNG."
Sure, the graphics may look a little dated, but the gameplay...hoo the GAMEPLAY...locks you into the cockpit and throws away the key. I've only recently started playing this beauty, but it's in my favorites list and I think it will probably stay there for a long, long time. The maraschino cherry on this beatuifully decorated cake is the price tag. If you like a challenge, if you liked Wip3out (and similar games in that series), look no further. You've reached the promised land, and it is good...no...it's great!

I thought I needed a new Wipeout, then I learnt that BallisticNG exists.
I don't need a new Wipeout any more.

It's borderline unbelievable that this game is:
- so cheap
- so close to classic wipeout perfection
- only made by two guys
- open to steam workshop so you can build and import custom ships and tracks
- not recommended more highly on here
For anyone who has been looking for a Wipeout fix without a Sony console, this is absolutely it.

the best homage to wipeout possible, especially with the great workshop dupport