Zone of the Enders 2: PAL Special Edition version!

[Grall]

I wish I had the cash to buy this game right NOW, but I don't, so I have to make a topic about it asking specifically what differs from the other, non-SE versions.

It says new battles, better graphics, new movies and dialogs n such on the rear of the box, but still, what does that MEAN? I would kinda have to play the US version first to compare them... If the improved graphics consists of four extra polygons on Anubis' left leg I'd never know it unless I saw the US version first for example.

Help me out here guys, okay?

*G*

 

[zurich]

I wish I had the cash to buy this game right NOW, but I don't, so I have to make a topic about it asking specifically what differs from the other, non-SE versions.

It says new battles, better graphics, new movies and dialogs n such on the rear of the box, but still, what does that MEAN? I would kinda have to play the US version first to compare them... If the improved graphics consists of four extra polygons on Anubis' left leg I'd never know it unless I saw the US version first for example.

Help me out here guys, okay?

*G*

AFAIK, graphics are the same, but some levels/boss fights/music are remixed.

 

[marconelly!]

I think it's not just remixed, but has some brand new levels. Not sure though. Also, no idea what (if anything) might be improved in the graphics department.

 

[Phil]

being a PAL resident, I'll probably have it soon.

Before I buy it though, how bad was the framerate in the NTSC version? I once watched the full demo (about 17minutes of gameplay) and did not see one slow down - yet I heard the final game had some framerate problems at various places. Is this true and how bad is it?

if anyone has played the PAL version, how does it compare? More consistant framerate?

thanks in advance... cheers!

 

[zurich]

This was discussed in another thread. Some of us (me included) say 50/50 full framerate/slowdown, others are more optimistic and say 80/20. There are some parts where slowdown is absolutely unavoidable, others are largely dependent on how you play the game. I like to go bonkers with the subweapons and such, which I suppose causes the framerate problems. If you play the entire game with the sword (heh), it'll be mostly smooth.

 

[London Geezer]

when is it out!?!?! WHEN!!!!???????

should have been the 29th (i think)....

they said there would be a "graphical demo" (which sounds cool, imagine a demo where u can play around with the gazillion particles this game is throwing around... cool), new mission (YEAH RIGHT) and other things... better graphics sounds just PR to me, since there is no way they would re-write some parts of the engine to make the game look prettier JUST FOR PAL GAMERS... i mean come on... if they do, then i'll be impressed...

 

[rabidrabbit]

I hear it is in the shops today (26th Sept) at least here.
Tough decision, should I buy Z.O.E.2 or Soul Calibur 2 for the weekend.
I already bought Dark Cloud 2 a week ago, should have saved and bought both of these instead.
DC2 is ok game, some might even say great, but the dungeons are a bit repetitive for me.

 

[Grall]

It was out in stores in Sweden yesterday, and the place where I saw it are actually strict with release dates too...

You should be able to find it in London without too much hassle I think if we got it here.

The box was nice and heavy by the way. I just saw I got some cassssh on my bank account so I'll rush downtown and buy it in a bit.

Let you all know later what I think of it... Know you'll be waiting for it with baited breath coz you know I'm so irresistible! Haha, just joking.


*G*

 

[London Geezer]

SOOOOOOOOOO gonna get ZOE2.... Soul Calibur 2 can wait..... i've had every singe fighting game released on PS2 (well, the decent ones) and now i NEED to see this baby in action (talkign about ZOE2)...

 

[rabidrabbit]

SOOOOOOOOOO gonna get ZOE2.... Soul Calibur 2 can wait..... i've had every singe fighting game released on PS2 (well, the decent ones) and now i NEED to see this baby in action (talkign about ZOE2)...

Oh yes, those particles turn you on, if I remember correctly
The OPSM2 ZOE2 demo was good, didn't notice any distracting slowdown, and the particle effects really are something, so are the graphics as a whole.

But the controls and camera are a little awkward as in first ZOE, but as I accustomed to them in ZOE quickly, they shouldn't be problem.

Guess I'll do the same, get ZOE2 now and SCII later.

 

[London Geezer]

SOOOOOOOOOO gonna get ZOE2.... Soul Calibur 2 can wait..... i've had every singe fighting game released on PS2 (well, the decent ones) and now i NEED to see this baby in action (talkign about ZOE2)...

Oh yes, those particles turn you on, if I remember correctly
The OPSM2 ZOE2 demo was good, didn't notice any distracting slowdown, and the particle effects really are something, so are the graphics as a whole.

But the controls and camera are a little awkward as in first ZOE, but as I accustomed to them in ZOE quickly, they shouldn't be problem.

Guess I'll do the same, get ZOE2 now and SCII later.

yeah... now "particles" turn me on... u know when something wrong when u actually get turned on by "particles"...

in the demo there was a bit of slowdown, funny enough only in situations where u least expect it (not many characters, no fancy effects)... but yeah it was there...

 

[Grall]

yeah... now "particles" turn me on... u know when something wrong when u actually get turned on by "particles"...

Ok, so not particles, but how about that cock-pit, huh?

So I've played the game a bit now. Alright, who am I kidding? I played the first level until the first boss and kicked her butt (on easy, and took 75% damage while doing so because the controls are a bit fiddly initially and I didn't get my shield up quick enuff when she hit me with her little missiles. I don't have everything figured out just yet, particulary close-range stuff...

Ok, first impressions... Graphics. Let's just say that anyone claiming to be unimpressed by this game is flat-out LYING, okay? Particles are simply mmm grrr! Amazing! Backgrounds and models... Well, the backgrounds may be a bit simple, it's really not anything you focus on. It's been action pretty much non-stop so far. Textures in the first level are very bland, but hey, snow n stuff IS bland! The explosions and lasers and everything else's really cool however.

I saw a bit of texture aliasing on the big ship hovering in the distance, but that's just because it's got these lights/windows on it and they sparkled a bit. Haven't managed to notice anything during gameplay (action too thick). Deinterlace filter works just fine in this game, no flickering to speak of. Certainly not during gameplay.

Slowdown... Well, there was some, when blowing up a squillion of those little robot fighters all at once and the snow and debris all flying around at once. The big golden beam attack didn't slow anything down by the way. EE+GS impresses the heck out of me I have to say.

Sound is nice. What can I say? Thumping soundtrack, things go bang. I like the neato little touches like when you finish charging up a burst attack there's a little 'bing' to tell you it's hot and ready to be served to the waiting customer...!

Jehuty itself is an awesome model, especially in the cinematics with all the glowing bits, but the uhm...thing...sticking out of its groin... Must be an example of Japanese humor I guess.

It's been fun so far. Now I gotta play some more, the level inside the ship will hopefully have more varied textures so I can check that out too.

Oh, and yeah, the MGS2 tearing thing is visible here too. Not sure why. Bug in their graphics engine? You have to look for it, but it IS there. Only seen it in the cinematic sequences so far though.


*G*

 

[Grall]

So, I've played the game more now. Boss robot kicked my...cock-pit.

Biggest gripe I have so far (and it's a pretty big one) is the mother-CAMERA.

Who programmed this piece of ? I want to bash him over the head with an iron skillet for doing such a piss-poor job. Didn't anyone NOTICE during playtesting how bad the camera is?

Some complained about the camera in Mario Sunshine, well it is a masterwork in comparison to this thing.

Okay, it works pretty well during battles whenever you have an enemy locked, but when it's time to move around between battles (especially amongst girders or other narrow places) the weird camera behavior becomes utterly annoying.

Second biggest gripe is basically irrelevant, because who cares about THAT in a robot shooter game?

What am I talking about? The plot, of course.

This game has what I consider to be some of the LAMEST DIALOG I HAVE EVER HEARD. The exchange between the first and second runners is just amazingly bad really. "Give me back Jehuty or else!" "No." "Okay then, you keep it." ...? Stuff like the second runner is upset by ADA blowing up Jehuty in a suicide attack, not because he'd die too, but because IT would "die" just makes me go all over again, doesn't this guy have any sense of self-preservation? There are some other truly corny moments before this as well.

Who wrote this ? Is it this bad in the Japanese original also, or is it just a really horrible translation?

Oh yeah. The lipsynching's pretty awful too, but I guess that's to be expected. Anyway, the plot is really entirely irrelevant. Did Ikaruga need a plot?!? You control a big giant robot that blows stuff up for crying out loud.

Slowdown isn't bad in the PAL version, and when it does happen the game doesn't really SLOW DOWN, the framerate dips, but the responsiveness is still there. It's not as if everything lurches over into slow-motion mode. However, most of the time it's perfectly smooth and fluid.

Had the camera not been as GOD-AWFUL, this game would have been a lot more enjoyable between battles. I suppose you're not just MEANT to fly around and have fun... *Cough* Searching for that lost guy hiding in a cargo container is more like torture actually since the camera frequently makes me face looking AWAY from the direction I'm travelling in...

Oh well. Still enjoing myself overall, and the graphics are totally kick-butt!

This game should exercise even VU0 fairly well I guess.


*G*

Edit: so there's auto-censoring in place on this board now? What's up with that, we're adults, right? (Anyway, even assuming we weren't, would swearing turn a kid into a bloody murderer?). Censorship is wrong, and an expression of moral panic. As if anything in this world would get better from me not being able to type the F-word.

Heck, the board even censored "W T F", what's up with that? I can't even PRETEND to swear now? That's the silliest thing I ever saw.

Can I say fcuk then? In case it was censored, I just typed Foxtrot Charlie Uniform Kilo. ...Hmmm. Now THERE'S an idea...! Phonetic spelling! I'll get around this stupid commie censorship one way or another!

 

[zurich]

You can use the right analog stick to control the camera if need be!

 

[Grall]

Yes, I can, but that is horribly slow. It takes like ten seconds to spin a complete revolution, besides, I prefer "pilot" controls for starters. Also, the game will override you once you reach specific points on the map and sometimes confuse the heck out of you...

*G*

 

[Phil]

Got the game too, so I'll post my impressions a little later... so far, it's AMAZING! Wow... slowdown is basically what Grall said, quite rarely and bearly noticable. The particles are sooooo impressive.

And the camera, love it during combat, but it's a bit difficult at times. I'll probably get used it though a bit later (as in part 1).

 

[zurich]

Hmm, perhaps Konami tweaked the code for the PAL release, cause in the NTSC release the slowdown is anything but 'not noticable'

Did you guys get the special boxed edition? Lucky bastards!

 

[_phil_]

also love the HDRI FX on light sources,and the frame buffer video effects of some enemy weapons.

 

[Grall]

Hmm, perhaps Konami tweaked the code for the PAL release, cause in the NTSC release the slowdown is anything but 'not noticable'

Maybe they tweaked the code, but most of it probably comes from 50Hz updates vs. 60Hz.

Did you guys get the special boxed edition? Lucky bastards!

My game came in a standard DVD box. It does say "Special Edition" down along the bottom though!

There sure are some neato effects in this game, sure. The "warp-in" bubbles are nice (a bit of render to texture magic I assume), the particles roolz, and the smoke clouds look great too. Very anime-esque I have to say! I battled the first boss for quite a while just so I could see her "golden shower" attack and it is bloody fantastic!

Faf, can you take these effects apart you think? How are the homing lasers made, alphablended gouraud-shaded polys, or tons of overlapping particles? They bend so smoothly, I haven't been able to see any polygonness to them at all.

Chap, why haven't you crapped all over this thread yet, huh, and Lazy8, aren't you going to explain to us how DC could do this at least as good just like you tried with with MGS2? Hehe, just kidding you guys.


*G*

 

[chaphack]

Chap, why haven't you crapped all over this thread yet, huh, and Lazy8, aren't you going to explain to us how DC could do this at least as good just like you tried with with MGS2? Hehe, just kidding you guys.


*G*

You called?

As for slowdowns, 50hz might be a good reason. Another possibility is that you are early on in the game whereby you have yet faced some major ass slowdowns. Actually your first boss battle(that fembot whatsher name) has slowdowns whenever she goes LASZERWHAMMBOOEE! Maybe it is the combination of 50hz + "slow-motioning"(instead of usual flippity up-downs fps) that you have yet "encountered" slowdowns. It is obviously present in the NTSC version. No doubt about that.

The most impressive part about ZOE2 is the particles/framebuffer effects. Very nice very smooth. Not to forget the many simply textured polygons. The rest of game looks o-k. Very average textures, seem to be more "boring"/"monotonous" than ZOE1.

Gameplay wise, its fun at first, but the senseless bashing gets hoho after awhile since the AI is very predictable. Actually there isnt much AI, ZOE2 is more like your oldie games, pattern-based. Not a problem if you go into ZOE2 expecting your usual pattern-based shooter/fighter. But as a modern 3D action-adventure game, the AI just doesnt grow on me IMHO. The 10mins-4mins game-cutscene does hampers the flow of the game too.

I certainly do wish for a bigger longer livelier, continuous stages rather than one almost-barren area -> load -> another almost barren areas. It be more interesting if the mech can move to and fro large areas back and forth freely. I love the enigne, would be real cool if ZOE2 has much more exploration and interesting/larger areas. But too bad Konami decided to limit the game to just arena battles.

Overall i give ZOE2

9 for graphics - does what PS2 does best -> crazy framebuffer effects + plain shaded polygons aplenty, the rest of the game is o-k.
7.5 for audio - typical heavy metal but the sound effects are quite weak, PDO weak.
7 for gameplay - fun for awhile but gets repetitive with uninspired AI and stage designs.
7.5 for replay value - has some hefty extras but the pattern based AI might happen the challenge + freshness of your every next replays.

Overall 8 - good "old school" action game but it needs a bit more to qualify as an new school 3D action game.