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Endless Ocean, official quiet long river thread (Amir0x approved)

:Motorbass said:
can't wait

flippera71ea7me8.jpg
WTF?
 
I got this after all the GAF hype last week. At first, I was worried I had fallen for a trap and that the game wouldn't be all that it's hyped up to be.

Well, it's not OHMIGOSH GREAT, but it's pretty fun and relaxing, just like you all were saying.

I was worried that I'd get bored not having objectives, but GAF was right. All the different email tasks keep me entertained.

Right now, the only diving buddy I have is the bottlenose dolphin, but I think I got a mentally retarded one. He gets lost whenever I dive, doesn't respond to the whistle if he's off-screen, and his only trick is the front flip.

Strangely though, when I dive, there's some other smaller fish that keeps finding me and following me around and getting all those "happy sparkles" things that usually comes when you pet them. Has anyone had that happen?
 
I would have preferred this title on PS3, Afrika-style with some gorgeous underwater graphics. If the purpose is immersion, graphics do matter.
 

Gagaman

Member
greendublin said:
I would have preferred this title on PS3, Afrika-style with some gorgeous underwater graphics. If the purpose is immersion, graphics do matter.
I believe there is a PS3 game like Endless Ocean coming out at some point. It was called 'Aqua' something or other..
 

kottila

Member
nakedsushi said:
Right now, the only diving buddy I have is the bottlenose dolphin, but I think I got a mentally retarded one. He gets lost whenever I dive, doesn't respond to the whistle if he's off-screen, and his only trick is the front flip.

The dolphin is usually busy with marking where the really small fish are or finding items.

They all do more tricks. Do a different motion than the waggle (click A or the grab) and move the marker to another body part (the head or the two different flippers)
 

Vitani

Member
I bought this preowned for £15 on Saturday and wow! I'm really enjoying it, and so is the wife & son, so chilled, so relaxing.

It's a shame you can't send your photos to the Wii's message board, but that's only a minor flaw on a generally awesome title. Oh and it's a nice distraction from trying to get that bloody annoying "Luigi star" on Mario Galaxy.

PS. Is it just me, or is there a subliminal message in this game that makes you feel tired? I started playing around 7 o'clock and by 9 I was sooo sleeeepy! Or is it just *that* relaxing?
 
I made some long MP3s for diving a couple of days ago. I'll post a couple of them up and maybe some more later.

This is mix consisting of pieces from the Battlestar Galactica Season 1, 2 and 3 soundtracks by Bear McCreary and Richard Gibbs.

BSG Mix #1
1. Season 2 - Pegasus
2. Season 2 - Roslin And Adama
3. Season 1 - Passacaglia
4. Season 3 - Temple Of Five
5. Season 1 - Wander My Friends

This is a mix of tracks from Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' and 'Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk'.

Jeff Buckley
1. Opened Once
2. Hallelujah
3. Dream Brother
4. You And I
5. Nightmares By The Sea (Alternate Version)

http://rapidshare.com/users/O3NQPU
Folder with all the mixes I've posted so far.
 

adg1034

Member
Mr. Pointy said:
I made some long MP3s for diving a couple of days ago. I'll post a couple of them up and maybe some more later.

This is mix consisting of pieces from the Battlestar Galactica Season 1, 2 and 3 soundtracks by Bear McCreary and Richard Gibbs.

BSG Mix #1
1. Season 2 - Pegasus
2. Season 2 - Roslin And Adama
3. Season 1 - Passacaglia
4. Season 3 - Temple Of Five
5. Season 1 - Wander My Friends

Perfect call on the BSG music. I just got the game today (bought it from PepsimanVsJoe, A++, would buy again), and I'm just waiting on my SD cards to get here before I get the full experience (I got 2 2GB cards for $25). The in-game music goes well with the gameplay, though. Petting fish is oddly charming.

At this point, I already have 3 mixes put together, ranging from ~14 minutes up to 30. #1 is Finding Nemo, where I put all the atmospheric, non-action-scene tracks I could find together with Audacity. #2 is my super-ultra-mega Bioshock/Metroid/Legend of Zelda mix, containing Bioshock's main theme, Welcome to Rapture, and Empty Houses, Zelda's Dragon Roost Island and the WW sailing theme, and a whole bunch of Metroid Prime and Metroid-inspired tracks. Last is my favorite- LOST. Locke'd Out Again, Parting Words, Oceanic 815 (all from S1), Hurley's Handouts, and Bon Voyage, Traitor (S2 tracks).

Besides the Ecco soundtracks, anyone have any recommendations for other awesome ocean-appropriate musics that would go well with my new game?
 

CTLance

Member
Scrubking said:
When you're riding the animals how do you switch the camera view?
Press 2 to cycle through I think three camera angles. Works when diving too - it switches between first person and third person view.
 

Scrubking

Member
CTLance said:
Press 2 to cycle through I think three camera angles. Works when diving too - it switches between first person and third person view.

Thanks. Now I get to enjoy my rides a lot more.
 

SovanJedi

provides useful feedback
I have a slight problem with this game, and I think it stems from something I've never realised until playing it.

See, I was enjoying it fine and dandy, and in fact I was actually looking forward to playing it every time I came home... And then last night was my first ever nighttime dive, and tonight was my first time down in the Abyss.

I don't know why, but I was suddenly so goddamn frightened of it all... The huge blue/black expanses of empty watery space around me with all sorts of unrecognizable shapes flitting just out of visibility, no sign of the surface, seabed or any kind of walls or coral around... I could feel a welling sense of despair rising within me at every consecutive minute of doing it. And all the time I was trying to calm myself down, saying "It's only a game, a slow-moving game where nothing actually kills you and they're all only on their set patterns and look you can even see the polygons in some of them, and ooh listen to the lovely lady sing the most hypnotic tune you've ever heard, la la la" but all that would evaporate the moment you turn around within this unending void and see something either dark, huge or both slowly float past you, completely unseen from the water or the darkness before.

I know I probably sound like an absolute wimp by saying this, and I can only agree. But after playing countless Resident Evils, Silent Hills and Fatal Frames, this has to rank among the scariest games I have ever played.

Maybe if I force myself to play it more often I'll get over it. Maybe. I love this non-game to bits otherwise and I would hate to stop experiencing it because of something so ridiculous as this.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Hmm, didn't even see this release coming. Judging by the impressions, it looks like an interesting experience. I probably should have bought this the other day instead of Umbrella Chronicles, which is turning out to be kinda meh. Ghost Squad is much more fun.
 

Scrubking

Member
SovanJedi said:
I have a slight problem with this game...

One time I was diving near the Right Whale and I decided to explore other stuff so I left it. While I was floating along I completely forgot about the whale and when I turned around I saw this huge gaping mouth suddenly coming right at me. I jumped out of my seat.
 

MWCShay

Member
SovanJedi said:
I have a slight problem with this game, and I think it stems from something I've never realised until playing it.

See, I was enjoying it fine and dandy, and in fact I was actually looking forward to playing it every time I came home... And then last night was my first ever nighttime dive, and tonight was my first time down in the Abyss.

I don't know why, but I was suddenly so goddamn frightened of it all... The huge blue/black expanses of empty watery space around me with all sorts of unrecognizable shapes flitting just out of visibility, no sign of the surface, seabed or any kind of walls or coral around... I could feel a welling sense of despair rising within me at every consecutive minute of doing it. And all the time I was trying to calm myself down, saying "It's only a game, a slow-moving game where nothing actually kills you and they're all only on their set patterns and look you can even see the polygons in some of them, and ooh listen to the lovely lady sing the most hypnotic tune you've ever heard, la la la" but all that would evaporate the moment you turn around within this unending void and see something either dark, huge or both slowly float past you, completely unseen from the water or the darkness before.

I know I probably sound like an absolute wimp by saying this, and I can only agree. But after playing countless Resident Evils, Silent Hills and Fatal Frames, this has to rank among the scariest games I have ever played.

Maybe if I force myself to play it more often I'll get over it. Maybe. I love this non-game to bits otherwise and I would hate to stop experiencing it because of something so ridiculous as this.


I thought I was the only one. I have a huge phobia with the ocean, I used to have recurring nightmares as a kid and now I cant go near the ocean. I was going to rent this game but once I saw the screenshots from the abyss and the darkwater I kind of decided against it. Im not scared of most "normal" things, like heights or spiders, things like that.

But I scared to death of the ocean, hell I live in california now from oklahoma and I can get anxiety attacks if I drive by the ocean at night.
 

Bildi

Member
SovanJedi said:
I know I probably sound like an absolute wimp by saying this, and I can only agree. But after playing countless Resident Evils, Silent Hills and Fatal Frames, this has to rank among the scariest games I have ever played.
I'm one of these as well.

In reality I get uneasy diving in the ocean when I can't see the bottom. Honestly, when you're swimming out from the mainland and get to the bit where the ocean floor suddenly falls away and disappears, I find that area really scary and get I quite uneasy. I really don't like swimming out into the vast expanse of water.

In Endless Ocean, the first time I was dumped in the ocean above the Abyss, I got the same feeling. I looked around and could see some things swimming far below, but the first thing I did was swim down until I could see the bottom. Then when I got to the edge of Abyss I found it unsettling as well.

It actually reminded me of the uneasy feeling I get in survival horrors (which is why I love them so much). I was actually going to post about it here because I was amazed how atmospheric EO can be. But then I never got around to it.

However, it did get better with time. After an hour or two, I felt far more comfortable swimming around in those deep areas. In the Abyss, try turning off the music or changing to some nice music. If I remember right, it's pretty creepy music which probably doesn't help.
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
ahh, the abyss..

that place has lots of charm.
 

Innotech

Banned
SovanJedi said:
I have a slight problem with this game, and I think it stems from something I've never realised until playing it.

See, I was enjoying it fine and dandy, and in fact I was actually looking forward to playing it every time I came home... And then last night was my first ever nighttime dive, and tonight was my first time down in the Abyss.

I don't know why, but I was suddenly so goddamn frightened of it all... The huge blue/black expanses of empty watery space around me with all sorts of unrecognizable shapes flitting just out of visibility, no sign of the surface, seabed or any kind of walls or coral around... I could feel a welling sense of despair rising within me at every consecutive minute of doing it. And all the time I was trying to calm myself down, saying "It's only a game, a slow-moving game where nothing actually kills you and they're all only on their set patterns and look you can even see the polygons in some of them, and ooh listen to the lovely lady sing the most hypnotic tune you've ever heard, la la la" but all that would evaporate the moment you turn around within this unending void and see something either dark, huge or both slowly float past you, completely unseen from the water or the darkness before.

I know I probably sound like an absolute wimp by saying this, and I can only agree. But after playing countless Resident Evils, Silent Hills and Fatal Frames, this has to rank among the scariest games I have ever played.

Maybe if I force myself to play it more often I'll get over it. Maybe. I love this non-game to bits otherwise and I would hate to stop experiencing it because of something so ridiculous as this.

I felt similarly at first. Not a sense of dread, but really more like "I know the giant squid or some deep water thing is going to pop out of this blackness and catch me unaware. So I kinda crept slowly along the sides of the abysssal walls not wanting to venture out into the middle, because I KNEW thats where the big one is. Then it seems almost as if thats how they planned it, the music rose to a crescendo (Benedictus) and there it was, the goddamn giant squid shooting out of a cave above me. It scared. the . SHIT. out. of. me. But after the initial encounter with the abyss I was ok. And then I ran smack dab into the mouth of the sperm whale :lol
 
Mr. Pointy said:
I made some long MP3s for diving a couple of days ago. I'll post a couple of them up and maybe some more later.

This is mix consisting of pieces from the Battlestar Galactica Season 1, 2 and 3 soundtracks by Bear McCreary and Richard Gibbs.

BSG Mix #1
1. Season 2 - Pegasus
2. Season 2 - Roslin And Adama
3. Season 1 - Passacaglia
4. Season 3 - Temple Of Five
5. Season 1 - Wander My Friends

This is a mix of tracks from Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' and 'Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk'.

Jeff Buckley
1. Opened Once
2. Hallelujah
3. Dream Brother
4. You And I
5. Nightmares By The Sea (Alternate Version)


The BSG mix is ace; I had all of those individually on my SD card but I just used your mix now.

I gotta tell you, I've only had this game for a couple days, but I was swimming around tonight, when "Wander my Friends" started playing, and I saw my first whale swim overhead... it was an awesome moment.
 

Bildi

Member
Innotech said:
So I kinda crept slowly along the sides of the abysssal walls not wanting to venture out into the middle, because I KNEW thats where the big one is.
:lol I was an Abyss wall-hugger as well when I first went down. Then when I was at the bottom, I turned around and right in my face was that freaky goddam big-mouth shark.

Scared the crap out of me.
 

Innotech

Banned
Bildi said:
:lol I was an Abyss wall-hugger as well when I first went down. Then when I was at the bottom, I turned around and right in my face was that freaky goddam big-mouth shark.

Scared the crap out of me.
I think its testament to the fact of how despite this game being SD and lower res, it is in fact VERY immersive and believable. Going out into the vast expanse made you feel VERY vulnerable even though you knew it was just a game, and nothing in it would harm you. But honestly I felt more anxiety in this game discovering large creatures and new areas than I ever felt in RE4 or Condemned. Its a whole different, more realistic feeling. And it is AWESOME.
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Innotech said:
I think its testament to the fact of how despite this game being SD and lower res, it is in fact VERY immersive and believable. Going out into the vast expanse made you feel VERY vulnerable even though you knew it was just a game, and nothing in it would harm you. But honestly I felt more anxiety in this game discovering large creatures and new areas than I ever felt in RE4 or Condemned. Its a whole different, more realistic feeling. And it is AWESOME.

seconded. arika hit the nail on the balls. this is the second game in my gaming career that makes me go 'wow! this game got it so right, imagine the possibilities on the next gen of hw..' (the first one was soul calibur, and ironically it has not advanced one bit since those days).

frankly, i'm so excited about the next title by these guys, on whatever platform it may be, that i could just as well pre-pay it right here right now.
 

NotWii

Banned
I just got the night diving equipment, how long til I get the deep sea equipment?!
I wanna explore the abyss already!
 

stewacide

Member
The Abyss and the area above it (w/ the circling sailfins) are the best in the game precisely because you can't see the bottom, and the scary, disorienting feeling that gives.
 

Philia

Member
I finally got this in the mail and so far I love it!

I had played Everblue 2 and Treasures of the Deep and the Ecco the Dolphin series before this. So I was anticipating this game to fulfill my love for the underwater genre. When I heard about how boring or slow or quite simple (PET pet pet) it was, I was thrown off quite a bit. I kept thinking, no way... there's no quests (according to some)?

Now I have seen it for myself, LOL what the fuck are you guys talking about. There's STUFF to do.
 

Innotech

Banned
Wii said:
I just got the night diving equipment, how long til I get the deep sea equipment?!
I wanna explore the abyss already!
it just gives you a deep water air mixture. YOull get it fairly quickly.
 
Bildi said:
I'm one of these as well.

In reality I get uneasy diving in the ocean when I can't see the bottom. Honestly, when you're swimming out from the mainland and get to the bit where the ocean floor suddenly falls away and disappears, I find that area really scary and get I quite uneasy. I really don't like swimming out into the vast expanse of water.

In Endless Ocean, the first time I was dumped in the ocean above the Abyss, I got the same feeling. I looked around and could see some things swimming far below, but the first thing I did was swim down until I could see the bottom. Then when I got to the edge of Abyss I found it unsettling as well.

It actually reminded me of the uneasy feeling I get in survival horrors (which is why I love them so much). I was actually going to post about it here because I was amazed how atmospheric EO can be. But then I never got around to it.

However, it did get better with time. After an hour or two, I felt far more comfortable swimming around in those deep areas. In the Abyss, try turning off the music or changing to some nice music. If I remember right, it's pretty creepy music which probably doesn't help.


You are playing Metroid prime, but under water and you are not killing anyone. Just exploring and feeling despair when you look around you and see how incredibly beautiful the ocean is, yet a very dangerous place to be.
 

Innotech

Banned
norinrad21 said:
You are playing Metroid prime, but under water and you are not killing anyone. Just exploring and feeling despair when you look around you and see how incredibly beautiful the ocean is, yet a very dangerous place to be.
I think I understand what youre getting at. Like MP, this is a very atmospheric focused sort of game. the environmental design and attention to detail is a large part of why the game works so well.
 

mr jones

Ethnicity is not a race!
Could you imagine if someone made a survival horror game that is mostly underwater?

The kind where things CAN kill you - sharks, rays, killer whales, jellyfish, extreme depth, running out of air, apparatus failure, etc. Having to explore some underwater labyrinth, only to find something rather unpleasant...

What would be cool is, that they wouldn't really market the game as an underwater horror game, because there would be plenty of stuff that is just pleasant exploration. But if you truly want to explore... down THERE... then abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Its the unknown, the slight movement in the darkness, that's scary. I think this could be a great opportunity if some developer takes advantage of it...
 

SovanJedi

provides useful feedback
mr jones said:
Could you imagine if someone made a survival horror game that is mostly underwater?

The kind where things CAN kill you - sharks, rays, killer whales, jellyfish, extreme depth, running out of air, apparatus failure, etc. Having to explore some underwater labyrinth, only to find something rather unpleasant...

What would be cool is, that they wouldn't really market the game as an underwater horror game, because there would be plenty of stuff that is just pleasant exploration. But if you truly want to explore... down THERE... then abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Its the unknown, the slight movement in the darkness, that's scary. I think this could be a great opportunity if some developer takes advantage of it...

Hell I think I'd be petrified of that.

Also, there're giant squid in the game?! Oooohhhh boy, I'm not looking forward to that. :\ That fucker must look evil when it comes out of the darkness towards you. Thankfully it's not the colossal squid that's just been discovered with the razor hooks on the end of its tentacles...

Whatever, I'll keep at it though. Like others said, it will probably get better, and I do love the game despite what appears to be an previously unknown case of aquaphobia on my behalf. I really dig these nature shows about the underwater life and it's been worth it already just to swim alongside the Wight whale.
 

Bildi

Member
I hope we get to new page soon so I don't have to see that dude hugging the dolphin every time I open the thread.

Innotech said:
I think its testament to the fact of how despite this game being SD and lower res, it is in fact VERY immersive and believable. Going out into the vast expanse made you feel VERY vulnerable even though you knew it was just a game, and nothing in it would harm you. But honestly I felt more anxiety in this game discovering large creatures and new areas than I ever felt in RE4 or Condemned. Its a whole different, more realistic feeling. And it is AWESOME.
Yeah, it's a pretty immersive feeling. I kept thinking "be reasonable, nothing can hurt you" but the atmosphere created by all that water just doesn't go away.

I don't really know why that is, but I think it's just that there's such an incredibly vast area out of which some pretty big things can emerge. In a FPS or something, even if you're playing in a dark level, you know it's just going to be things running along the ground towards you.

Plus Endless Ocean taps into the feeling that you get in reality very effectively. It's impressive stuff.
 

SovanJedi

provides useful feedback
Bildi said:
Yeah, it's a pretty immersive feeling. I kept thinking "be reasonable, nothing can hurt you" but the atmosphere created by all that water just doesn't go away.

I don't really know why that is, but I think it's just that there's such an incredibly vast area out of which some pretty big things can emerge. In a FPS or something, even if you're playing in a dark level, you know it's just going to be things running along the ground towards you.

Plus Endless Ocean taps into the feeling that you get in reality very effectively. It's impressive stuff.

As I've theorized with myself, the difference between things jumping out of you in creepy dark corridors in FPSes or survival horror games is just their one dimensional function. At the end of the day Tyrants, Pyramid Heads and the like are all mean and vicious but were ultimately thought up by some twisted mind as the ultimate danger in this environment. In terms of survival horror, there isn't much else outside of the big rock hard fellah trying to hunt you down (i.e. Nemesis) They're pretty grotesque and hardy and can snap you in two if they want, but by the end of it you get over them and it ceases to hold any sense of grandeur. They have no purpose in life, they do not exist outside of this closed environment you're running around in, most of them probably couldn't even function in reality. They serve one use only, and that's to scare you.

With this, you have enormous animals that could just as easily kill you if they so chose to (in their natural habitat of course, not in the game) and some similarly freaky creatures that would not look out of place in a survival horror game. But not only are they real life animals, but THEY have their own fears and survival instincts as well, whether it's being hunted by other, possibly even larger creatures or natural environments killing them off. There is always the sense that whatever big and potentially dangerous thing we know about, there might be something even worse out there, like a living-fossil Megalodon or the aforementioned colossal squid... or there may be nothing at all, and just existing there as they are would drive them to insanity without any social order or function in their life.

I suppose, if I could get even further into psychological bullshit more (feel free to skip this if you're bored, unless you already have) it's possibly my own idea of Hell itself - to exist in a completely dark and sad void, with no idea of what may or may not be out there, beyond your sight or reach, cold, seperated from purpose and function and no grasp on whether you're looking up or down. Or even if you are actually looking at anything at all. An entity like the Devil is a Something you could, given time comprehend. "Nothing at all" is the worst kind of incomprehensible fear I could imagine.

...Maybe I think about these things too much. Or that Sambuca I had earlier went straight to my head. Excuse my ramblings in any case.

Anyway, I dived back down in the Abyss today and I think I'm coping with it better now. Some of the things I feared are now the things that calm me, like the sperm whale. Plus today I found the whale shark, and that thing is just plain awesome. I want to see one of those in real life.
 

Innotech

Banned
SovanJedi said:
As I've theorized with myself, the difference between things jumping out of you in creepy dark corridors in FPSes or survival horror games is just their one dimensional function. At the end of the day Tyrants, Pyramid Heads and the like are all mean and vicious but were ultimately thought up by some twisted mind as the ultimate danger in this environment. In terms of survival horror, there isn't much else outside of the big rock hard fellah trying to hunt you down (i.e. Nemesis) They're pretty grotesque and hardy and can snap you in two if they want, but by the end of it you get over them and it ceases to hold any sense of grandeur. They have no purpose in life, they do not exist outside of this closed environment you're running around in, most of them probably couldn't even function in reality. They serve one use only, and that's to scare you.

With this, you have enormous animals that could just as easily kill you if they so chose to (in their natural habitat of course, not in the game) and some similarly freaky creatures that would not look out of place in a survival horror game. But not only are they real life animals, but THEY have their own fears and survival instincts as well, whether it's being hunted by other, possibly even larger creatures or natural environments killing them off. There is always the sense that whatever big and potentially dangerous thing we know about, there might be something even worse out there, like a living-fossil Megalodon or the aforementioned colossal squid... or there may be nothing at all, and just existing there as they are would drive them to insanity without any social order or function in their life.

I suppose, if I could get even further into psychological bullshit more (feel free to skip this if you're bored, unless you already have) it's possibly my own idea of Hell itself - to exist in a completely dark and sad void, with no idea of what may or may not be out there, beyond your sight or reach, cold, seperated from purpose and function and no grasp on whether you're looking up or down. Or even if you are actually looking at anything at all. An entity like the Devil is a Something you could, given time comprehend. "Nothing at all" is the worst kind of incomprehensible fear I could imagine.

...Maybe I think about these things too much. Or that Sambuca I had earlier went straight to my head. Excuse my ramblings in any case.

Anyway, I dived back down in the Abyss today and I think I'm coping with it better now. Some of the things I feared are now the things that calm me, like the sperm whale. Plus today I found the whale shark, and that thing is just plain awesome. I want to see one of those in real life.

This game honestly maskes me want to play Aqua on Ps3 and see what that experience is like. but somehow, Im not sure if it can match the masterfully balanced gameplay of this. Im sure the develop will make some breathtaking atmospheric visuals, but EO itself is more than its visuals, its a complete experience, even despite the more limited hardware.
Im still anxious to see how that title works out though.
 

Insaniac

Member
Need some quick impressions: wi-fi co-op with a friend, how enjoyable was it to explore with your friend? Are there any limitations compared to single player?
 

Amir0x

Banned
I thought Aqua looked fantastic.

Actually, playing Endless Ocean REALLY makes me want to play Aqua, a game like this with even better visuals makes me mind giddy with anticipation now.
 
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