I played this at a friend's place and I was prety pleased (not quite impressed yet, they still need to get better movement patterns or actual AI, and decent land controls) but, is it just me or do the controls not feel as smooth and fluid? I hope that wasn't changed to accomodate Classic Controller play. They're just, stiffer, somehow. Though I didn't play Endless Ocean again to compare yet. To do the roll you also have to shake the controller really hard and it doesn't always work. You do the same to touch animals/fish too. Though double tapping B to U turn works nice. Then in many screens you now press - to "go back" when B would have worked just as well and is more comfortable to use, imo. Overall the game seems as good as the first, in different ways, so it's a definite buy. I just wish it didn't have all these minor issues. You better get it all right for Endless Ocean 3, Arika (and please, more sandboxy like the first game this time)!
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The Official Endless Ocean 2 thread: A humpback whale is about to ram us!
- Thread starter gamingeek
- Start date
phisheep
NeoGAF's Chief Barrister
Agnates said:
I think a lot of this is about getting accustomed to the controls. I remember it took me a good few weeks to get EO really smooth, and there are enough control differences (some obvious, some very subtle) here that you're back on the learning curve.
I hope you're right. I really liked EO controls. Turning and pitching seemed iffy in the sequel. What's the difference between normal and expert control anyway? I fiddled around with the options a bit but I didn't understand what, if anything, was different. Maybe that with expert it was easy to go upside down but I'm not sure. The looking around controls on land or when surfacing are pretty bad too, only turning when your cursor is to the edges of the screen (or beyond), and only to one direction, either vertically or horizontally, even if you point a corner. Stiff. Still, good game where it matters (more) and I hope it sells well and we get a sequel. Thanks, Nintendo/Arika.
At first you are limited by your oxygen supply. I was quite frustrated because my first dive were only 10 minutes or so. Now with my diver level increasing and a better equipment I can last half an hour and still having some time.
But yeah, I think you'll be able to dive for a very long time in very wide area after a while
But yeah, I think you'll be able to dive for a very long time in very wide area after a while
More impressions.
I found that at zoom points (previously known as focus mode points) you can not only pan the camera into and out of the screen and left and right, but by using the d-pad left and right you can also zoom in too.
So unlike the first game you aren't in one persistent ocean. So far I've seen two mini-oceans. On the plus side you can explore a larger area without having to stop and rise and then move the boat and dive again.
So far though there has been only one great location, that being Valka castle. I have fond memories of many great locations from the first game, like mermaids cave, marige atoll and more, so it's going to take some doing to beat that.
After playing for several hours last night I can say that there is vastly improved sealife variation in terms of species. And jeez, the number of fish models they can now display on screen at once has quadrupled which is really a sight to behold.
I have started doing stuff outside the main story, salvaging items, doing guided tours, photo requests. There is tons of stuff here. The log book isn't the easiest thing to use, it's not like the old email system where it tells you if you've read it, tells you if you've done it etc.
So, as for Endless Ocean 1 comparisons, I think I will only be able to appreciate this sequel once I've done the main quest. You see the first game's simplicicty and elegance is what made the artistic, beautiful experience. There were barely any distractions, you had that excellent operatic score.
Here there is just so much to DO. So many tools and items and quests and story and distractions and even Valka castle was designed as a light dungeon, sort of. Also at the start of the game your air tank is very limited until you upgrade so instead of zoning out and exploring, often I've been caught out and run out of air and had to re-surface.
Also unlike the first game you can't just pick your favourite in game track (or SD card track) and have it loop in the background. The game chooses what music it wants to play, when and where. And so it often leaves you in gurgling silence, which is tiresome.
Also, once I was savaged by 5 sharks at once, whoa, you know its a shock since the first game had no danger. I pulsared them one by one and passed them, but then they came back and attacked. Seems the pulsar only has a temporary effect on sharks.
Also I have discovered Deep Hole which seems to be an abyss like area. I have to upgrade my tank before I can check though
I found that at zoom points (previously known as focus mode points) you can not only pan the camera into and out of the screen and left and right, but by using the d-pad left and right you can also zoom in too.
So unlike the first game you aren't in one persistent ocean. So far I've seen two mini-oceans. On the plus side you can explore a larger area without having to stop and rise and then move the boat and dive again.
So far though there has been only one great location, that being Valka castle. I have fond memories of many great locations from the first game, like mermaids cave, marige atoll and more, so it's going to take some doing to beat that.
After playing for several hours last night I can say that there is vastly improved sealife variation in terms of species. And jeez, the number of fish models they can now display on screen at once has quadrupled which is really a sight to behold.
I have started doing stuff outside the main story, salvaging items, doing guided tours, photo requests. There is tons of stuff here. The log book isn't the easiest thing to use, it's not like the old email system where it tells you if you've read it, tells you if you've done it etc.
So, as for Endless Ocean 1 comparisons, I think I will only be able to appreciate this sequel once I've done the main quest. You see the first game's simplicicty and elegance is what made the artistic, beautiful experience. There were barely any distractions, you had that excellent operatic score.
Here there is just so much to DO. So many tools and items and quests and story and distractions and even Valka castle was designed as a light dungeon, sort of. Also at the start of the game your air tank is very limited until you upgrade so instead of zoning out and exploring, often I've been caught out and run out of air and had to re-surface.
Also unlike the first game you can't just pick your favourite in game track (or SD card track) and have it loop in the background. The game chooses what music it wants to play, when and where. And so it often leaves you in gurgling silence, which is tiresome.
Also, once I was savaged by 5 sharks at once, whoa, you know its a shock since the first game had no danger. I pulsared them one by one and passed them, but then they came back and attacked. Seems the pulsar only has a temporary effect on sharks.
Also I have discovered Deep Hole which seems to be an abyss like area. I have to upgrade my tank before I can check though
Agnates said:
Yeah like Phisheep said it takes some getting used to. Make sure you change the controls to expert in the options. It makes the bounding box much tighter. Also on land controls work better in the first person so press 2 to go into that mode.
Using B to go back is preferable, having to press minus annoys me. However I find using the B double tap to u-turn works find and rolling works great too. Can you actually touch fish in this game? How?
oracrest said:
Seems like it and the loading is very fast too.
Equip the feeding tool and instead of pressing A just shake the controller hard. He'll poke with his finger. It seems to do absolutely nothing for most species but I guess some will like it and unlock the trivia then. How do you do the roll? I found I need to shake the controller too hard to make it worth it. Unless you're supposed to do a specific motion that I didn't figure out, so it only activates when I do it by chance while shaking.gamingeek said:
& some of what I said in my last comment. Ie, I hope you're right etc.
Agnates said:
Thanks, Agnates and Phisheep
I roll by holding down B and giving a moderate shake of the remote.
I posted a whole load of my new pics here.
http://thevgpress.com/forumtopics/e...s-page-13_318_17.html&perPage=20#comment56171
Got the game yesterday and now I finally had some time to try it out. I loved the first game and after about 1,5 h I am sure I will love the sequal as well. My first impression is that there is much more to do and the story is developed beyond the barebones narrative of the first.
Seems to me Arika tried really hard to improve on every aspect of the original and so far I like the results. I am playing Dante's Inferno on my 360 at the same time. Talk about contrasts
Seems to me Arika tried really hard to improve on every aspect of the original and so far I like the results. I am playing Dante's Inferno on my 360 at the same time. Talk about contrasts
My friend has trouble saving photos to his SDHC. They work fine saved in the album, and his SDHC is functional for other games (WiIWare etc), but trying to save or move a picture to SD in Endless Ocean 2 just brings up a message saying the SD card inserted cannot be used. Don't tell me the game doesn't support SDHC or something...
One cool thing I noticed is that not all the guide requests are your standard: show me this fish, show me this area.
I got a GTA like guide mission from a character and this was outside the main story, just in the guide requests and I had to salvage something, find something and defend
Then play the guitar and get a tune. All with a mini-story inside it.
Nice.
I got a GTA like guide mission from a character and this was outside the main story, just in the guide requests and I had to salvage something, find something and defend
someone from sharks.
Nice.
Played 12 hours today.. almost at the end of the story.. need to sleep now >_>
I tried the online mode with a friend. One nice point is that you can open the gate and then forget it until the guest arrives like in animal crossing. Like in the first, the available area are the ones unlocked by the host but each player keep their equipment so my friend had to go back to the boat while my air tank was still half full. Wii speaks works nicely and it's fun to send souvenir pictures after the dive ^^
I tried the online mode with a friend. One nice point is that you can open the gate and then forget it until the guest arrives like in animal crossing. Like in the first, the available area are the ones unlocked by the host but each player keep their equipment so my friend had to go back to the boat while my air tank was still half full. Wii speaks works nicely and it's fun to send souvenir pictures after the dive ^^
Fantastical
Death Prophet
Actually going to buy this one. This looks really cool.
Too bad about the custom soundtracks though. Oh well, that's what my iPod is for.
Too bad about the custom soundtracks though.
Oh well, that's what my iPod is for.
sublimit said:
I was mauled by 5 great whites.
You don't get turned into a bloody dismembered mess, but you do get kicked back to the surface when your air (life bar) reaches zero.
It's makes things pretty tense when you want to salvage an item and there are sharks circling close by.
Gillian Seed
Banned
Reading this topic just made me preorder this game. It looks like a very fun and relaxing game to enjoy.
Gillian Seed said:
You'd think so but no. Oh sure when you're just swimming around filling in the map and messing about it's fine but when you're 1 fish away from completing a quest or in the middle of some deep cave or structure and you only have 3 bars left AND YOU'RE GOING TO DROWN OHGODOHGODOHGOD. Actually I don't know if you can actually drown but hearing the warning beep on the oxygen tank go off is as terrifying as the Sonic drowning music.
Reknoc said:
:lol:
WTF?
I don't think you can die. I've been kicked to the surface a few times though. The sharks and danger, on the one hand I appreciate it as a new dimension to the game and it does have some interesting gameplay scenarios. But it can be annoying when you have more than a couple of them, moving very fast and the IR turning of the game isn't exactly geared towards being a shooting game.
I can't really get a good picture of a great white yet either damnit.
gamingeek said:
Yea the turning feels really clumsy I can't quite put my finger on why though, I think it might be because the game just holts if the pointer goes off the screen instead of carrys on turning.
The character customisation is pretty basic (so far) but it's still pretty neat, decided to dress my guy all in red of hopes of him swimming three times faster... unfortunatly that means having the oxygen tank made in Britain which is more likely to drown me
hamzik said:
Just goes to show how much they've improved the visuals, you can see the scales on that fish up close.
Reknoc, the turning is fine for me and the same as the first game, it's only when it comes to facing off with many sharks and the pulsar gun that its a problem. Because the sharks are so fast they often skirt behind you.
Well it's probably something I'll get used to. I never played the first one since I couldn't find it much cheaper than what I bought this one for. Just feels abit off and requires more restraint on my pointing than I'm used to playing Wii games.
Edit: I dunno why but I chuckled alittle when you gave the first item for the shop lady (nancy?) to translate and she says "the internet solves everything" or something along those lines. Can't help but feel I'm basically paying her to do a google search. :I
Edit: I dunno why but I chuckled alittle when you gave the first item for the shop lady (nancy?) to translate and she says "the internet solves everything" or something along those lines. Can't help but feel I'm basically paying her to do a google search. :I
That didn't do it for him guys, photos still cannot be saved to SD. He also has the same problem in The Crystal Bearers where you press a button at any time to take a photo then choose if you want to save to SD. Freshly formatted to FAT32 16GB SDHC. Running games through CFG USB Loader, the last non-beta version. Could it be some bad CFG USB Loader setting? I'll tell him to try playing from the disc and see if that works but if anyone has any ideas feel free to share them.Agnates said:
The Hermit
Member
oracrest said:
The air suply limits exploration... I was pissed of at first, but after a while you kinda "level up" and you almost forget about air supply.
My first impression of the game was " EO was so much better than this pseudo adventure crap" but it gets much better and it has a lot of the original feeling...
I only really miss the custom ST
The Hermit
Member
selig said:
You either choose to go to the boat or, if you run out, you automatically go. You never die in this game aparently (at least so far).
Baiano19 said:The air suply limits exploration... I was pissed of at first, but after a while you kinda "level up" and you almost forget about air supply.
I only really miss the custom ST
Yeah the custom soundtrack is the only minus for me. Other than that, after little more than 4 hours with the game, I think this beats the original on every level.
The limited air supply sure can be annoying at fist but after you level up a couple of times the problem is gone. I took a 12 minute dive and still had some air left when I surfaced. Free exploration is where this game shines even if I really like the story that this time around is much more fleshed out and the adventerous elements are a welcome addition.
What I miss the most is the music.
In the first game once you unlocked a track you could choose what to listen to before the level loaded and the game played it in a loop. In this game I get a bit of midi and then silence.
Bloody silence.
I hope Nancy sells me an underwater MP3 or something later, damnit.
I took some more pics:
Here: http://thevgpress.com/forumtopics/e...s-page-13_318_17.html&perPage=20#comment56319
In the first game once you unlocked a track you could choose what to listen to before the level loaded and the game played it in a loop. In this game I get a bit of midi and then silence.
Bloody silence.
I hope Nancy sells me an underwater MP3 or something later, damnit.
I took some more pics:
Here: http://thevgpress.com/forumtopics/e...s-page-13_318_17.html&perPage=20#comment56319
Mekere said:
Well thank f*** for that.
It's great that its still there, but I'm doing everything, I want to savour this game so I put off playing through the story as much as possible, doing peripheral stuff.
Now I have the dilemma, to rush through the story to get the jukebox, or play through as normal and not get it for ageeeeeeeeeeeeeees. Damnit.
Well, actually "beating" the game is not really that bad. The story still goes on
You still have new equipment to buy, quests to do, all the team around you.. in a way I would call the the second half of the game more than the after-end. I wouldn't even be surprised if there was a second ending Actually, I was waiting for this part, more sandbox like the first one. I am almost telling myself "Great, now I can really begin to play "
With Jean Eric telling us to work a little harder because we need some money to.. well repair some stuff ^^
You still have new equipment to buy, quests to do, all the team around you.. in a way I would call the the second half of the game more than the after-end. I wouldn't even be surprised if there was a second ending
Actually, I was waiting for this part, more sandbox like the first one. I am almost telling myself "Great, now I can really begin to play "I'm 15 hours in. Amazing game.
Improved:
-graphics (textures, lighting, particle effects, draw distance, shadows on land)
-animals on screen quadrupled
-much shorter load times
-no invisible walls
-animation
-day/night cycle (sunrise, noon, sunset, night)
-there's much more variety
-diverse locations
-sell and buy things
-more interesting side missions, quests, assignments etc.
-the multi sensor gadget is pretty cool. The radar detects four different kinds of material
-the Aquarium is so much better in the sequel
-ride and steer dolphins (Koopa shell fast swimming!)
There's less clipping among larger animals and during rides (hands). The game feels more polished.
Also: EO2's private island + custom reef + boat >>> EO's boat
His swim and barrel roll animation looks a bit weird at first. It's supposed to be less robotic/stiff and more "realistic" looking, I guess. Controls feel pretty much the same. I'm not sure whether they tweaked sensitvity and turning speed.
You can look around (press 2) with the pointer while riding larger animals:
Sorry about the size.
Barrel roll: hold b/press + and quickly move the cursor left to right/right to left (not much force needed):
Minor nitpicks:
-I can see why there's no turning speed, bounding box or pointer sensitivity customization, but why did they remove the option to adjust the brightness/transparency of the cursor? It makes no sense. smh
-no custom soundtrack
-Hayley Westenra
Improved:
-graphics (textures, lighting, particle effects, draw distance, shadows on land)
-animals on screen quadrupled
-much shorter load times
-no invisible walls
-animation
-day/night cycle (sunrise, noon, sunset, night)
-there's much more variety
-diverse locations
-sell and buy things
-more interesting side missions, quests, assignments etc.
-the multi sensor gadget is pretty cool. The radar detects four different kinds of material
-the Aquarium is so much better in the sequel
-ride and steer dolphins (Koopa shell fast swimming!)
to escape from attacking sharks!
There's less clipping among larger animals and during rides (hands). The game feels more polished.
Also: EO2's private island + custom reef + boat >>> EO's boat
His swim and barrel roll animation looks a bit weird at first. It's supposed to be less robotic/stiff and more "realistic" looking, I guess. Controls feel pretty much the same. I'm not sure whether they tweaked sensitvity and turning speed.
You can look around (press 2) with the pointer while riding larger animals:
Sorry about the size.
Barrel roll: hold b/press + and quickly move the cursor left to right/right to left (not much force needed):
Minor nitpicks:
-I can see why there's no turning speed, bounding box or pointer sensitivity customization, but why did they remove the option to adjust the brightness/transparency of the cursor? It makes no sense. smh
-no custom soundtrack
-Hayley Westenra
SDHC card function works fine here. (8GB)phisheep said:
jesusraz
Member
Thanks for linking to my reviewgamingeek said:
Seems that I'm the only one scoring it so high (other than Famitsu). I really hope it enters the UK chart pretty high up the Wii Top 40 on tomorrow's Chart-Track UK update. Have people seen many TV ads for it?By the way, you know that lovely, serene title screen song, 'Carrickfergus' by Celtic Woman? I'd never heard it before...However, I had heard this recent song by Scooter numerous times. Imagine my surprise when first loading up EO2 and hearing a peaceful, calm version of the main sample in an upbeat dance track I'd been listening to for months!
EDIT: Here's the original version by Celtic Woman, for those that like it so much!
jesusraz said:Thanks for linking to my review
i guess we should be happy that they´re reviewing the game at all *remembers how certain websites refused to give EO1 a score because of not being a game*
The above gifs look stunning. Cant come out in Europe soon enough. Btw. now that several people finished the game, you should be able to answer this: Is there a really deep location like the abyss from eo1 again? The creepy darkness was one of my favorite places in the game.
My Endless Ocean 2 review is now up too. Gave it a 8.5/10, had a ton of fun with it.
Totally forgot to mention the private reef! So much stuff in this game to do and collection it skipped my mind! :lol
The little fish and the crayfish in the hole as a couple that work together is the cutest thing in the game.
Totally forgot to mention the private reef! So much stuff in this game to do and collection it skipped my mind! :lol
The little fish and the crayfish in the hole as a couple that work together is the cutest thing in the game.
phisheep
NeoGAF's Chief Barrister
In case anyone is interested, here's my initial review
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/wii/review/R139383.html
Put it up on EU launch day, so it is very much a first impressions thing - leaving any more detail until I've played a LOT more!
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/wii/review/R139383.html
Put it up on EU launch day, so it is very much a first impressions thing - leaving any more detail until I've played a LOT more!
The private reef is a very nice add. I go and trim/arrange it every time I have a dive request in the atoll. I'm having fun trying to make a nice décor out of it
Btw, what it the use of the wave breakers and other ugly stuff? I tried to put one in my garden once but fish seemed to ignore it and it's horrible to see >_>
Btw, what it the use of the wave breakers and other ugly stuff? I tried to put one in my garden once but fish seemed to ignore it and it's horrible to see >_>