The Conduit: Giving the Wii a Chance




Posted by maian

So, I first read about this game on Zeldauniverse.net, actually, and haven't taken time since to look any other articles up about it. I thought it was interesting, but I then saw footage today on IGN's main page, and I may be a believer.

[url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/]ZU Article[/url]
[url=http://wii.ign.com/objects/142/14248157.html#aboutThisGame]IGN Page[/url]

Basically, High Voltage, maker of several crappy licensed games (I'm assuming they're crappy) such as Kids Next Door, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and Ben 10 decided they were sick of making stupid games, and wanted to give the Wii a chance of having an awesome game. The developers admit they play the 360 and PS3 way more, despite knowing the potential Wii has. So apparently, they're trying to make this amazing game that will set the standard for 3rd parties, and possibly even Nintendo. They say themselves they're trying to create Nintendo's Halo, although I seriously doubt that'll happen.

So, thoughts? I didn't think much until I saw footage today. It looks pretty solid, and the graphics certainly aren't bad for Wii. The game is a futuristic FPS, set on Earth from what it looks like. The graphics have potential to get better, as it's pretty early in development. Anyway, I liked what I saw of the footage. Kind of reminds me of Perfect Dark in some ways, and it looks really smooth. On IGN's homepage, the jump is labeled with "It's finally here, and it kicks ***". Due to the lack of an actual article, that's all IGN has to say, apparently. I have hope for it, but I seriously doubt it could be "Nintendo's Halo"

Oh, and I guess they're trying to incorporate a good online system, too. The article states they've already succeeded in having 16 player matches with no lag.

This COULD be an awesome game, and it COULD open up some developer's eyes a little bit. But, it's got a long way to go. There's probably a 90% chance this game will look awesome, but fall short of actually being so.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

At least they seem to be trying their best... but man, that game really shows how rough the system is, doesn't it? Yeah, early footage, but the mechanics and what the developers are excited about really screams 2003. It could've done with a better art style too. Like, Metroid 3 wasn't so hot looking, but the art direction made the game visually appealing, sans graphical power. That's what these developers need to look into. A unique art style. Then maybe you can ignore the ****ty AI and bad aiming.




Posted by maian

Yeah, I would agree with that. But I guess we also haven't seen much. I read some interesting stuff about it in an IGN article. Apparently they custom built a specific engine for it designed to bring out the best of Wii's graphical power.

Even if it doesn't turn out to be extremely good, I think it's awesome that at least one third party developer is stepping up to the plate and legitimately trying to create a really good experience on Wii. Good controls, online, graphical power, they're trying to please the fans. >_>




Posted by Speedfreak

Crappy art is crappy, will probably be a sub-par game. Nice engine and animation, though.




Posted by BLUNTMASTER X

Reminded me of Perfect Dark. Nothing in the trailer really interested me, it was very much 'been there, done that'.




Posted by Speedfreak

Just saw a video showing how much you can tweak the controls. It looks like they're putting so much effort into it, it'd be a shame if it didn't turn out that good.




Posted by Ant

Yeah the controls video is what interested me most in this. Why every FPS doesn't on the Wii doesn't do this is beyond me. Is it really that hard to implement? Regardless, if the gameplay is as fun as it will hopefully be easy to control, then I'm on board.




Posted by Speedfreak

They have been since...the last Wii FPS, which was a while ago!




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out pretty good and ends up not selling at all.




Posted by Drewboy64

the art does suck.

But man, this game looks amazing. Quickly becoming a must-buy for me.




Posted by Speedfreak

[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;865138]I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out pretty good and ends up not selling at all.

You reckon? I'm too fearful to get my hopes up. 16 player online with voice chat though...




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Well, I'm not getting my hopes up either... but these guys do seem to be trying their hardest. Whether that's good enough (considering the other games they've made) maybe not. But even if it is, it doesn't seem to be they type of game that will attract too many people. I mean, Metroid has a big name behind it and even that didn't sell amazingly (took about 4 months to reach a million.)

Curious about multiplayer though. Hopefully lag doesn't ruin it.




Posted by WillisGreeny

What's nice about the company making this game is that they've developed many tools that could later be bought by other companies. How many games adopted the Unreal engine? Even if this game blows, the engine itself could be adopted and changed by other developers.

Well, this engine is no Unreal engine, but I'm sure it's doing a lot of sophisticatingly graphical stuff for such limited hardware.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Unreal Engine sucks anyways. Why developers use that for their online games I'll never know.




Posted by WillisGreeny

Um, pretty much everyone has bought a license to use one of the UnrealEngines: Atari, Activision, Capcom, Disney, Konami, Koei, 2K Games (Bioshock), Midway, THQ, Ubisoft, Sega, Sony, Electronic Arts, Square Enix. (Wikied)




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Hey, I'm just saying it sucks for multiplayer games. The hit detection is sever-side which is always a bad thing.




Posted by O.T.L


Quoting Vampiro V. Empire: I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out pretty good and ends up not selling at all.


happens a lot these days, people don't want to risk their money on something that isnt a known title.

Could be the economy or lack of fun games that people don't buy unkown games, could be both. This game looks good to me, it could be nintendo's Halo you never know.



Posted by Speedfreak

[quote=Iron Koala;865271]Um, pretty much everyone has bought a license to use one of the UnrealEngines: Atari, Activision, Capcom, Disney, Konami, Koei, 2K Games (Bioshock), Midway, THQ, Ubisoft, Sega, Sony, Electronic Arts, Square Enix. (Wikied)

The Unreal Engine for Wii isn't the same Unreal Engine for everything else. The Wii gets UE 2.5, a terrible engine that only does the most of basic effects. It powered garbage like Red Steel. I doubt Epic could even get bump mapping working on it properly. Conduit's engine totally wipes the floor with UE 2.5 from what I've seen, there's pretty much any effect you could name bar parallax mapping and the performance seems pretty excellent too.

EDIT: Aparantly High Voltage aren't signing on a publisher yet despite 10 of them knocking at their door, they want to finish the game so no publisher will screw it up. They have balls, you have to give them that.




Posted by WillisGreeny

[quote=Speedfreak;865391]The Unreal Engine for Wii isn't the same Unreal Engine for everything else. The Wii gets UE 2.5, a terrible engine that only does the most of basic effects. It powered garbage like Red Steel. I doubt Epic could even get bump mapping working on it properly. Conduit's engine totally wipes the floor with UE 2.5 from what I've seen, there's pretty much any effect you could name bar parallax mapping and the performance seems pretty excellent too.



I never used the words Unreal Engine and Wii together, nor did I say Conduit should use the Unreal Engine. The Unreal Engine I was thinking of in comparing the Conduit's engine would be the 3rd edition, which I doubt the Wii can handle. I was saying Conduit's engine could eventually be used by other companies, just like with the Unreal Engine.




Posted by Speedfreak

Ah, fair enough, my mistake.

Epic are really stupid for not making a proper UE engine for Wii, though. It just goes to show how little they understand the market, they could make truckloads by making good graphics on Wii easier.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Thank *** they're not. The last thing that systems needs is horrible "realistic" looking games. Wii developers should stick with interesting graphical styles.