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The Official Endless Ocean 2 thread: A humpback whale is about to ram us!
- Thread starter gamingeek
- Start date
But the house was burgled last night. 
Email ad here from the banned site.
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Email ad here from the banned site.
http://**********.com/wp-content/photos/udners.jpg
I gots it today!
And played all of 15 minutes.
It's glorious. Talk about upping the stakes. All the awesome stuff you see in the trailers happens within the first few minutes of the game.
The characters are facing you and talking in a group, there is tons of dialogue which even in the first few minutes brings the characters to life.
Oh the graphics are a definite step up, about 30% more detailed from what I can see. Bloody hell the opening lagoon type section has like 4 times as many fish in that scene than the lagoon in the first game.
The only thing that bugs me is so minor. I'm used to pressing -(minus) to auto swim and here they've switched it to + (plus)
I would be playing the hell out of this game if I could, instead I'm having to deal with post - burglary fallout.
And played all of 15 minutes.
It's glorious. Talk about upping the stakes. All the awesome stuff you see in the trailers happens within the first few minutes of the game.
The characters are facing you and talking in a group, there is tons of dialogue which even in the first few minutes brings the characters to life.
Oh the graphics are a definite step up, about 30% more detailed from what I can see. Bloody hell the opening lagoon type section has like 4 times as many fish in that scene than the lagoon in the first game.
The only thing that bugs me is so minor. I'm used to pressing -(minus) to auto swim and here they've switched it to + (plus)
I would be playing the hell out of this game if I could, instead I'm having to deal with post - burglary fallout.
Seems that there are a few unwelcome changes, the focus mode doesn't allow you to zoom really far in now but you can zoom in a little and pan around by pointing the remote which is better.
But when you click on a fish in normal mode you lock on for info but pressing + doesn't seem to zoom in anymore so you can't get a good look at smaller fish.
Also from what someone has told me you can only enter focus mode at glowing points, not on any surface like in EO1.
But when you click on a fish in normal mode you lock on for info but pressing + doesn't seem to zoom in anymore so you can't get a good look at smaller fish.
Also from what someone has told me you can only enter focus mode at glowing points, not on any surface like in EO1.
Have you tried using the camera to zoom in? There are many close up shots of small fish taken by users. Maybe they just made zoom only available with the camera for extra "realism" or something. How's the story? I kinda got the feeling it sucks from the trailers, and hope it's not bad enough to sour the experience...
Agnates said:
I haven't tried it yet. I have a feeling that the close up shots are from the focus mode though.
Story is awesome so far, the first few minutes are better than the whole story of the first game.
You start off like a cool TV episode which starts at the end and then you go back to the beggining to see how you got there.
I don't want to spoil things for people but, well the trailers show a huge congregation of whales.
Oh yes. And then its not one woman on a boat assing about. You have a team and actual characters and it seems like each one has back story/motivation coming. Cutscenes seem much better directed too.
Totally going to want to go swimming with some of you.
I'll bring my speedo.
Ended up around 30hrs iirc. And I never found the treasure ship either, heh. I was highly skeptical at first, and it didn't grab me until about 5 hours in, but then something just clicked. It became this dulling, lethargic experience that was genuinely unique in gaming. I've played Arika's other underwater games and they were uniformly terrible, but my love of the natural world + the quality game design make the Endless Ocean series a treat.
I'll bring my speedo.
gaminggeek said:
Ended up around 30hrs iirc. And I never found the treasure ship either, heh. I was highly skeptical at first, and it didn't grab me until about 5 hours in, but then something just clicked. It became this dulling, lethargic experience that was genuinely unique in gaming. I've played Arika's other underwater games and they were uniformly terrible, but my love of the natural world + the quality game design make the Endless Ocean series a treat.
phisheep
NeoGAF's Chief Barrister
gamingeek said:I gots it today!
And played all of 15 minutes.
It's glorious. Talk about upping the stakes. All the awesome stuff you see in the trailers happens within the first few minutes of the game.
The characters are facing you and talking in a group, there is tons of dialogue which even in the first few minutes brings the characters to life.
Oh the graphics are a definite step up, about 30% more detailed from what I can see. Bloody hell the opening lagoon type section has like 4 times as many fish in that scene than the lagoon in the first game.
The only thing that bugs me is so minor. I'm used to pressing -(minus) to auto swim and here they've switched it to + (plus)
I would be playing the hell out of this game if I could, instead I'm having to deal with post - burglary fallout.
Tough with burglary there. I've been done twice, and it wasn't pleasant.
Just wanted to stick in a quick word about the difference between the two games, since I've spent about 6 hours with EO2 now.
Agree with everything said about the number/variety/graphics/detail of the environments and creatures. There's a few places where it seems to me that the animation may have taken a bit of a step backwards to accommodate the graphics, and maybe a few framerate issues - but only in isolated places.
Beyond that, they are very different games - and I'd suggest any comparison is nowhere near as easy as saying that this one is better.
EO's main theme is discovery and the eternity of the ocean - life just carries on regardless of what humans get up to. The plot, such as it is, takes a firm second place to the natural world activity - and there is much more of getting up close and personal with the fish.
EO2 is the other way round - the main theme is the adventure - the human activity, to the extent that sometimes the fish are more of an obstacle course than they are their own thing.
I suspect which you prefer is going to be a very personal choice. For me, for example, I find the one-shot identification rather perfunctory compared with the touchy-feely aspect of the original.
There are some big advantages of the EO2 approach for nearly everybody. You'll never, for instance, find yourself accidentally without night-diving equipment for the whole game as you could with EO - and that sort of fixed plot point makes the game much easier to navigate fully. Similarly, the non-random treasure collecting and the record of where fish live enormously simplify the collectathon aspects - I'd imagine that very few people got anywhere near completion of the first one.
On the other hand I'd guess that EO, being a lot less text-heavy after about the first hour is going to be far more accessible for younger children and probably more engrossing for those approaching the game from an exploring/marine biology rather than a gaming angle.
That's just initial impressions for now - there is a whole heap more game time to go!
Oh, and gamingeek - much thanks for the tip about auto-swim. I had not noticed that there was one at all, so my finger hurts ...
fry - unused account
Neo Member
I'm curious to hear about everyone's online experience with this sequel. The original implementation was a little disappointing as it didn't appear to sync marine life for both players.
Can't wait for this one. Ordered it from Amazon yesterday. Anybody know how to check for sure if I got the WiiSpeak bundle? My email conformation doesn't say anything about it but the link says included in the box... I could call them but I doubt I'd get someone who knows enough to tell me what I need to know.
Played 2 hrs of Endless Ocean 2.
Awesome so far. There is so much stuff to do over the first game. This time it's not an artful experience, it's more of a "game" type game. You are always doing something, using tools, searching for items, exploring and you are driven on by the story which is a hell of a lot better than the first, with multiple characters and tons of dialogue, lots of cutscenes, even action moments.
For instance
The GG character is hilarious too. He cracks me up whenever he appears.
Everything is pretty elegantly refined too, for instance now you can move whilst having the map on screen and it elegantly fades whilst you are moving and goes solid when you stop so you can see exactly where you are going when looking for a marker. This is a feature a lot of games could and should use.
You can also pan and zoom into focus points. You can't zoom when just clicking on a fish in normal gameplay but by using food you get the same effect as they swarm about you. Very cool.
The camera works as it ever did and you can easily move the photos over to SD card which moves files like Windows explorer, deleting the data from the wii hard drive and moving it to sd card in one go.
One thing that has bothered me is that there is a distinct lack of music. In the first game you get a new tune in each dive spot and then you can choose which track to listen to, which plays in a loop.
So far in this game its all the in game compositions which play for a little while then leave you in gurgling silence.
I did just have to stop a section where a proper operatic tune was playing and it was just as good as the Westernra from the first game.
Oh yeah the loading is really fast compared to the first game.
Anyhow this game is different from the first, I would say that its good because now both games compliment the other. If you want the artistic zen like experience of chilling and appreciating the beauty of the ocean, that's in the first game. For people out there who wanted a more structured "game like" approach with tasks, objectives, cutscenes, achievements, items etc, then this is that game.
But, if you want to diverge from the story you can still chill and explore, but the temptation to use your cool new toys to scan the ocean bed for salvagable items, or shoot fish with a pulsar gun, might prove too strong.
Awesome so far. There is so much stuff to do over the first game. This time it's not an artful experience, it's more of a "game" type game. You are always doing something, using tools, searching for items, exploring and you are driven on by the story which is a hell of a lot better than the first, with multiple characters and tons of dialogue, lots of cutscenes, even action moments.
For instance
this fricking lengendary Great White shark called Thanotos guarded the entrance to this underwater castle and you had to use the pulsar gun to fight him off.
The GG character is hilarious too. He cracks me up whenever he appears.
Everything is pretty elegantly refined too, for instance now you can move whilst having the map on screen and it elegantly fades whilst you are moving and goes solid when you stop so you can see exactly where you are going when looking for a marker. This is a feature a lot of games could and should use.
You can also pan and zoom into focus points. You can't zoom when just clicking on a fish in normal gameplay but by using food you get the same effect as they swarm about you. Very cool.
The camera works as it ever did and you can easily move the photos over to SD card which moves files like Windows explorer, deleting the data from the wii hard drive and moving it to sd card in one go.
One thing that has bothered me is that there is a distinct lack of music. In the first game you get a new tune in each dive spot and then you can choose which track to listen to, which plays in a loop.
So far in this game its all the in game compositions which play for a little while then leave you in gurgling silence.
I did just have to stop a section where a proper operatic tune was playing and it was just as good as the Westernra from the first game.
Oh yeah the loading is really fast compared to the first game.
Anyhow this game is different from the first, I would say that its good because now both games compliment the other. If you want the artistic zen like experience of chilling and appreciating the beauty of the ocean, that's in the first game. For people out there who wanted a more structured "game like" approach with tasks, objectives, cutscenes, achievements, items etc, then this is that game.
But, if you want to diverge from the story you can still chill and explore, but the temptation to use your cool new toys to scan the ocean bed for salvagable items, or shoot fish with a pulsar gun, might prove too strong.
phisheep said:
Agreed, this is like the adventure version of Endless Ocean, no longer just chilling.
It's more exciting but not as peaceful. Which is both a good and bad thing.
Get me your friend code, you have to try to connect to WC24 via the gate on nineball island to get your code.
Also there seem to be achievements in this game, titles which are weird. I've never been into acheivements so I dont see the point so far.
Also for people who haven't played the game yet, there seems to be the main story, then quests which are the equivalent of the emails of the first game. Then there are secrets logged, for instance if you come across some rocks you can't move (with human effort alone - hint hint) then its all logged and you can go back like metroid I assume to enter new areas, get new treasure etc.
This is much more of an adventure, exploration game than the first.
Great pics. So you can't zoom with the camera then? The fish textures look so detailed this time, much better than the first game where the small stuff were almost single color affairs. How is this game selling? I hope it becomes a cult hit like the first one, I really hope Arika get to develop another sequel, maybe with a higher budget so they can redo the parts of the engine and gameplay that aren't so good. From the sounds of it I guess I'd prefer a sequel to be more similar to the first game than the second and go for extra realism with the AI simulation and lack of pulsar guns etc. But I'll definitelly get this! How do octopus species look in this one? They were pretty bad in the first and didn't show in realistic locations, crawling on rocks etc, but casually swimming. That's the kind of stuff I hope they improve in a sequel.
Agnates said:
Oh yeah you can zoom with the camera to take pics by using the D-Pad.
Octopus look as stiff and bad as the first game.
Some fish look better than others, but there are hundreds of species so I can't bemoan that too much.
One thing I'm still trying to work out is the quick turn. In the first game you gave a swish of the remote to do a quick turn and in this game you do the move to avoid a shark about 20 minutes in. But during normal gameplay it doesn't seem to be working. I must read the manual.
HQ Pics
Here:
http://thevgpress.com/forumtopics/e...essions-page-13_318_16.html&perPage=20#editor
Some culled and re-hosted from the Wii emulator thread, pics courtesy of JADS.
Here:
http://thevgpress.com/forumtopics/e...essions-page-13_318_16.html&perPage=20#editor
Some culled and re-hosted from the Wii emulator thread, pics courtesy of JADS.
Brainiac 8
Member
Is there a logbook that logs in the fish you have found with info and all that like in the first game? As much as I loved EO, I partially used it as an education guide to marine life for my daughter.
Thanks.
Thanks.
phisheep
NeoGAF's Chief Barrister
Brainiac 8 said:
Yes, there is.
It doesn't has as much information about the fish as EO did - there is only one chunk rather than three, and it seems a bit lightweight on fish behaviour - but it is there.
All 78 pages of it.
Rather neatly, it also shows you a map of where the fish can be seen so you can easily find it again. Saves a lot of memory work.
Great, it's Friday \o/ Tonight I'll be able to begin my Endless ocean-o-thon. Just being able to play one hour or two made me sad and kinda frustrated.
About the pulsar, I feel like that even if I keep curing fishes sicks ones are always coming back. Is that the case, or is it just me being unobservant?
About the pulsar, I feel like that even if I keep curing fishes sicks ones are always coming back. Is that the case, or is it just me being unobservant?
The US gameplay/trailer is out
http://kotaku.com/5464506/endless-ocean-blue-world-gameplay-is-all-wet
http://kotaku.com/5464506/endless-ocean-blue-world-gameplay-is-all-wet
Monkeylord
Member
Hopefully my copy is waiting for me when I get home.
Shame about the no custom music, I stumbled accross a perfect EO track the other day - "The Death Of Optimus Prime" from Transformers: The Movie.
Guess I'll just have another reason to play EO1
Shame about the no custom music, I stumbled accross a perfect EO track the other day - "The Death Of Optimus Prime" from Transformers: The Movie.
Guess I'll just have another reason to play EO1
Metroid Killer
Member
Really looking forward to this game. I loved the first EO and played over 80 hours. I didn't even manage to find all the creatures(not even the giant octopus ), but I was kinda burnt out once I had played 70 hours.
But now I'm defintely craving some more scuba diving adventuring, and it sounds great from your impressions so far.
), but I was kinda burnt out once I had played 70 hours.But now I'm defintely craving some more scuba diving adventuring, and it sounds great from your impressions so far.
CUBED 3 review
http://www.cubed3.com/review/802
"Arika has taken the core of the first Endless Ocean and developed the idea for Adventures of the Deep so considerably that it has easily become one of the exemplar products on Wii, full stop. Its serene, peaceful nature lulls players into the world, whilst it is the great depth of content within that keeps players gripped for hours at a time. This is certainly an experience that should not be missed out on"
9/10
http://www.cubed3.com/review/802
"Arika has taken the core of the first Endless Ocean and developed the idea for Adventures of the Deep so considerably that it has easily become one of the exemplar products on Wii, full stop. Its serene, peaceful nature lulls players into the world, whilst it is the great depth of content within that keeps players gripped for hours at a time. This is certainly an experience that should not be missed out on"
9/10
Metroid Killer said:Really looking forward to this game. I loved the first EO and played over 80 hours. I didn't even manage to find all the creatures(not even the giant octopus
Shoot. Really? It's not uncommon, just dive the abyss a lot, try day and night.
Metroid Killer
Member
Nah it's ok, I'm done with EO and would rather spend my time on EO2 now.
phisheep said:
Awesome, that's definitly something to look forward to then, had to stop because the game was almost too calming and I'm pretty tired after having my dog wake me up at stupid o'clock.
When I got the Paladin title all I could think of was the old Penny-Arcade comic.
Some great music so far but when I'm diving and nothing plays all I can think of is Jolly Roger Bay music from Mario 64... except when that old man is talking to you then I think of The Bends by Radiohead.
Monkeylord
Member
My copy turned up today... bliss!
I can confirm that there is an Abyss type area. It's a bit barren though, no frilled sharks yet . Something will happen in there that will make you go WOW though. Don't click the following link, it contains spoilers
. Something will happen in there that will make you go WOW though. Don't click the following link, it contains spoilers