Sony promised a 1080p, 60fps Wipeout for quite a while, before it was released. By most press accounts, prior to its release it looked amazing.  We’d seen several “near complete” previews of the game and fans of the series were salivating in anticipation, but instead of buying and playing the game, fans were forced to wait… and wait… and wait.  We weren’t even given a reason for the delays at first, which eventually shifted to the official word of the delay being due to very technical problems nobody has been able to resolve. Was that all there was to it?

Keep reading for the rest of the story…

As it turns out, we now know Wipeout HD’s hypnotic pulsing colors and frantic frame rate caused the game to fail automated epilepsy testing.  While nowhere near as impressive as actual human epilepsy testing, this still gave the game a bit of notoriety as it presents a very real health risk.  While Sony Liverpool claims they didn’t alter their vision of the game to pass certification, some changes were made that allowed the game to eventually pass the testing process.  To date, I’ve not seen any (real) reports of epileptic seizures caused by the game but the threat of losing control of your body from playing a video game is why this story made #53 on Sarcastic Gamer’s Top 100 Gaming Moments of 2008.

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