Splatoon 2

[Flabyo]

Ok, just over two weeks to go until Splatoon 2, and so time this got a thread of its own.

We just had a Nintendo Direct that basically sums up all the modes, weapons, and characters that will be there at launch. It's a good primer for people who haven't been following this one obsessively like I have...



They're doing a Splatfest demo on the afternoon / evening of Saturday the 15th, probably using a patched version of the test fire demo that some of you will have already downloaded.

In the US it's 3pm till 7pm Pacific, here in the uk it's 5pm til 9pm BST.

Really looking forward to this one now, the first game was my favourite 'wind down after work' game for some time until Overwatch took over, but that game is a bit too stressful now so this is well timed

[James]

Looked excellent! Seems like there's a lot of interest in it too, so perhaps a semi-regular Cane And Rinse Game Night game?

[ratsoalbion]

I'm in(k)!

[Suits]

Seems like there's a lot of interest in it too, so perhaps a semi-regular Cane And Rinse Game Night game?

I think Dezmond has already mention the possible intentions of a few organised C&R sessions.

Sounds awesome .

[Flabyo]

Be interesting to see how the app for team chat / party management works out. The semi casual 'pairs' and 'squads' thing could be great, but only if it's very easy to ad-hoc join online friends.

The fact this side of it is going to be the paid service come the new year makes me think this is probably a 'live beta' for it, so expect it to be a bit rough.

Also, everything we've seen so far makes my theory about the plot of the single player mode this time out still work... someone has been very conspicuous by their abscence from every piece of promotional art and video...

[Suits]

I very much hope that I'll be able to utilise some of my pretty much now redundant Turtle Beach headsets with Nintendo's solution.

[Flabyo]

The awkwardness of the setup, based on the Hori thing we saw some shots of, appears to be how you merge the game audio with the app audio into the same headset. If you don't mind having the audio for the game coming out your TV while you wear a headset to chat, I suspect pretty much anything that connects to your phone will work.

[James]

Yeah, I'm hoping a standard set of phone earphones (with inline mic) will work, to be honest. Single ear in, and game audio through the TV, as you say.

[Suits]

Hmmmm, I have a wireless set of the TB500X's or something like that.

I wonder if I could potentially have a wireless set up some how by leaving my phone by the dock or something.

I'll have to have another look at that schematic drawing and see how the TB's connect again...

[dezm0nd]

Watched this out of pure chance of me being in the front room at the time and glad I did. Looks like a more complete game than I was expecting.

Cane and Rinse game night, anyone?

[seansthomas]

Watched this out of pure chance of me being in the front room at the time and glad I did. Looks like a more complete game than I was expecting.

Cane and Rinse game night, anyone?

Yes please! Bloody love Splatoon and have never played a game with voice chat before.

[chase210]

Team ice cream clearly won that Splatfest.

[Flabyo]

Hah, no. I was on cake and we won more than we lost

[Flabyo]

Cake apparently won in Japan...

I enjoyed that. The supers feel less swingy now, the levels are more complex than before as well.

Ultimately though it’s more evolution than revolution. If you never played the WiiU game then this is a no brainier really, but it’s not _that_ different than before. If they’d plugged it as a Splatoon dx like they did Mario kart I think people would be less critical of it.

[Suits]

Didn't play last night, as I was too chilled and was enjoying the Zelda DLC.

I think I only played about 10 hours of the Wii U version so this is coming along at a good time for me.

Looking forward to getting properly into it this time round.

[seansthomas]

Cake apparently won in Japan...

I enjoyed that. The supers feel less swingy now, the levels are more complex than before as well.

Ultimately though it’s more evolution than revolution. If you never played the WiiU game then this is a no brainier really, but it’s not _that_ different than before. If they’d plugged it as a Splatoon dx like they did Mario kart I think people would be less critical of it.

I was critical when I saw the initial reveal but subsequent Directs have calmed that. It's launching with a lot of content (maps, Salmon mode, new campaign, better super weapons) and DLC support for 2 years should see some fun additions coming. Hope it'll be its own thing when it's complete in 2019.

Also think as a genre, shooters rarely reinvent, rather refine. You get the odd exception like Titanfall but many are reskinned carbon copies.

Does totally look more like a 1.5 version than a sequel in its launch state.

[Flabyo]

It's also one of those where when you look at it it doesn't *seem* like the engine is pushing more than it was on the WiiU. It's only when you compare screens that you realise overall poly count is much higher now. Way more detail and it still locks at 60fps. (also runs in a higher resolution, though its variable scale rather than locked at 1080p). The shader used for the ink is more 'gloopy' as well, for want of a technical term)

Splatoon 1 launched with none of the ranked play modes at all, and didn't get all three that will be in Splatoon 2 until quite late on. If the pace of adding new things matches the first game it'll be a sound investment. I guess what I'm saying is that if you played the first one and weren't keen, this isn't really going to change your mind.

There's some odd things in there that I suspect will change. For example, I'm not sure why they're making Salmon Run a mode you can't play whenever you want with pick up groups (apparently for private games you *can* play the mode whenever you like).

I did see a few people wonder about the pretty long match making times in this event. If they're using the same sort of system they used in the first game then I expect the match making for normal (non-ranked, non-splatfest) play to be a lot quicker. Splatfests are region locked and it also tries to match you with the opposite faction, so there's a smaller player pool to pick from resulting in longer waits. The normal open play turf wars match making was way faster in the first game, I often saw a lot of JPN players when I played that.

[James]

It's also one of those where when you look at it it doesn't *seem* like the engine is pushing more than it was on the WiiU. It's only when you compare screens that you realise overall poly count is much higher now. Way more detail and it still locks at 60fps. (also runs in a higher resolution, though its variable scale rather than locked at 1080p). The shader used for the ink is more 'gloopy' as well, for want of a technical term)

I feel like Nintendo's artwork has a lot to do with this. SM3DW, MK8 and Splatoon (BOTW too, I understand) made much better of the Wii U than could have reasonably been expected, visually. Though the technical side of why this might be the case obviously evades me.

[SnakeyDave]

Enjoyed, but was not blown away by Splatfest. Similar to how I felt about the original Splatoon to be honest. I love the concept, style, how tangible the ink feels, the way you switch between shooting and swimming. Only Nintendo could approach such an overpopulated genre and have a genuinely fresh take. But...if I'm being harsh it sometimes felt a little like a mode that should be a better shooter than a game in its own right.

It doesn't feel like there's that much to it and with matches at only 3 minutes there's little time for ebb and flow, or the kind of emergent fun that these games thrive on for me. This is exacerbated by little quality of life stuff- no changing class mid-game feels like a startling omission. A couple of hours is negligible for a multiplayer game though so I am still curious to see what the reception of the full game is like.

Judging solely by the Splatfest it's not for me, but seems like it could be the perfect entry point into the shooter genre.

[Suits]

What are people's thoughts on the motion aiming vs the more traditional twin stick control
Scheme ??

I feel I'm naturally more comfortable with the twin stick but keep hearing that once you crack the motion it's wonderful and people swear by it.