"I want to be a little fishy, yes I do, yes I do, yes I do..."
As an owner of Forever Blue on the Wii, I got excited about this when seeing the early trailers in HD. I wasn't going to pick it up, for financial reasons, but curiosity got the better of me, and I figured I could part with Forever Blue to assist with the cost if needs be.
It's a stark contrast to the aforementioned Wii title, probably because of the resolution more than anything. I'd originally thought that Forever Blue looked pretty good because the resolution is not so obvious for a game with a mostly blue palette, but after booting this up, the difference became immediately apparent.
Another advantage the PS3 offers is in the audio area. Even in the introduction, the surround sound was showed off extensively, with shoals of fish circling around you resulting in an instant feeling of being surrounded by these little buggers.
Then the next big difference became apparent - you don't swim in this game. Rather, you pilot a small sub. It's kind of cool, since you can access all the functions like the aquatic library and logs while you are underwater, but it loses a little of the adventurous feel that Forever Blue has. You feel somewhat less humble and vulnerable when you are in a vehicle, unfortunately. It does mean you can move around a little more quickly, though, which will probably be appreciated when I am further in the game and the area I can visit has opened up substantially.
Adding aquatic life to the library is also significantly easier than Forever Blue. Thankfully you don't have to pet things endlessly to win their affection - you just click them to lock on, then click again to pick their info. This will probably be tricky for faster fish, but it seems adequate so far, and removes an unnecessarily frustrating element.
There is a relatively interesting story going on at the same time -- some guy has gone missing and you have to find his logs and work out what has happened to him. At first, your sub's computer is unwilling to tell you anything about the situation, but as you discover logs, the computer offers more information and you can dig further into the mystery.
Apparently it's a remake, but I'm not sure as I've never played the original PS games, but anyone craving for an HD underwater experience should definitely pick this up. The language barrier may be slightly large, but if you just want to look at the scenery and the wildlife, I should imagine there isn't much that will hold you back.
As an owner of Forever Blue on the Wii, I got excited about this when seeing the early trailers in HD. I wasn't going to pick it up, for financial reasons, but curiosity got the better of me, and I figured I could part with Forever Blue to assist with the cost if needs be.
It's a stark contrast to the aforementioned Wii title, probably because of the resolution more than anything. I'd originally thought that Forever Blue looked pretty good because the resolution is not so obvious for a game with a mostly blue palette, but after booting this up, the difference became immediately apparent.
Another advantage the PS3 offers is in the audio area. Even in the introduction, the surround sound was showed off extensively, with shoals of fish circling around you resulting in an instant feeling of being surrounded by these little buggers.
Then the next big difference became apparent - you don't swim in this game. Rather, you pilot a small sub. It's kind of cool, since you can access all the functions like the aquatic library and logs while you are underwater, but it loses a little of the adventurous feel that Forever Blue has. You feel somewhat less humble and vulnerable when you are in a vehicle, unfortunately. It does mean you can move around a little more quickly, though, which will probably be appreciated when I am further in the game and the area I can visit has opened up substantially.
Adding aquatic life to the library is also significantly easier than Forever Blue. Thankfully you don't have to pet things endlessly to win their affection - you just click them to lock on, then click again to pick their info. This will probably be tricky for faster fish, but it seems adequate so far, and removes an unnecessarily frustrating element.
There is a relatively interesting story going on at the same time -- some guy has gone missing and you have to find his logs and work out what has happened to him. At first, your sub's computer is unwilling to tell you anything about the situation, but as you discover logs, the computer offers more information and you can dig further into the mystery.
Apparently it's a remake, but I'm not sure as I've never played the original PS games, but anyone craving for an HD underwater experience should definitely pick this up. The language barrier may be slightly large, but if you just want to look at the scenery and the wildlife, I should imagine there isn't much that will hold you back.