You'll wish you had a bigger television.

I've bought my fair share of games for the PlayStation, both great ones and complete duds. Wipeout XL (the predecessor to Wipeout 3, natch) was the reason I bought a PlayStation in the first place. Anti-gravity racing, and beats? Are you kidding? I'm there!

So when I heard about Wipeout 3, I was geeked. Seriously - everything was better about this. Most of the soundtrack was done by DJ Sasha; one track, Xpander, was good enough that I went out and bought the cd single of it (the full version is like 11 minutes in length). Music by Underworld (and I geek for Underworld). More vehicles to race. Better tracks. Secret tracks, even. I'm so there.

The first thing I can tell you about this game is that the interface is so well-designed, it's frightening. It was a joint collaboration between the Designer's Republic (http://www.thedesignersrepublic.com) and Kleber (http://www.kleber.net). Monkeys could navigate it; it's THAT self-explanatory. (I'd suggest the website, which emulates the game, but it's no longer available - or at least it wasn't when I tried it.)

It's pretty much your standard racing game, in terms of how you play. Race against other people, get the gold. Get enough golds, you get more available vehicles and more tracks. There are four different levels of racing, which basically determine how many laps and vehicles you race against.

Clear an entire level (get the gold in every track with each vehicle) and you get a "prototype track"; the two that I got were sweeeeeeeeet. These are the tracks that didn't make it, I guess - but were damn cool to play; it's almost as if they were monochrome.

But for those who don't know, it's not just racing - you've got weapons. Force walls (walls that appear that knock your opponents back); missiles, mines ... these are just a few of the weapons you've got at your disposal. You're also armed with a booster of sorts - however, this depletes your energy. There's a sort of "pit stop" at one point in each track; maneuver your vehicle over it as you go through and you power up.

So imagine - you're racing along to an Underworld instrumental, laying mines as you take this one turn, shooting a couple of rockets into the engine of your competitor - just to go over the hill, make the checkpoint, and hit the boosters to get into first place and hold it til you get the gold. It's sweet.

Now only if you had a bigger television.