The Conduit Comments by Oli Welsh

"shoot the same handful of clichéd enemies over and over again with poorly differentiated, unrewarding weapons, in repetitive and characterless locations, according to the whim of a meaninglessly threadbare and generic plot, and unburdened by considerations of strategy, tactics, options, or anything that might stir the most wavering half-mast of a raised eyebrow of interest."

like COD4 then?

@ Mappman

Like yourself I'm one of those people that thinks that 7/10 is a reasonable score and makes a game worth picking up. Where as a score of 5/10 means the game is likely not good enough to warrent my attention. Let's face it who want to play an average game when there are a fair few good ones out there. Reviews at about 7/10 can generally means the game is good but lacks that special somthing to raise it above the rest. From reading most other sites review score statements they are of the same opinion.

That takes me back to my point which was that no matter how balance or reasonable and accurate people think this review is there are a large number of reviews that put the game firmly in "it's not bad" category. My pointbeing read more than just one review to get a "balanced" opinion and then add a little bit of your own freewill and go ahead and buy a game if you are still interested. Worst case is you have to return it :D

Anyway, I know I probably wont buy it now as I was expecting better things from the game. Regrdless of the score spread I mentioned, the majority of reviews have given the single player section a rough ride.

Oh by the way....I love my Wii. Tiger woods 10 is Awesome!!!!!!! :D

Who gives a fuck. It's not like there's a shortage of FPSs.

Half-Life 2's Combine suggests seamless integration and sleek, powerful technology

Nah, makes me think of farmers.

@ Plewt, "Because counting Virtual Console games sure is fair? Please."

Actually, I didn't count any of the VC games or round-ups, so please go back in your hole.

World of Goo was released last year but fair enough, you said reviewed this year.

It wouldn't be the first software house to create a great engine for FPS but put it in a bad game. Isn't it true that they want to license this tech to other companies to make games? If so, there is hope of a great FPS for the Wii yet...but if the samey enemies/locations is due to memory demands on the console that it can't meet otherwise, that's a damn shame. In that case we might have to wait for the other console's motion controllers before we can point to some game and say dual stick FPS is dead because we have this now.

I love all the Wii fanboys.

You all spout forth about how people don't like the Wii because they are ignorant or haven't given it a chance. Did it ever occur to you that the majority of people ripping it actually have had one/played it and JUST DONT LIKE IT?

I've had 2 Wiis, since I made the mistake of buying one at the start when I actually thought Nintendo might cater to people who actually like decent games. Then I bought another one when A SMG came out. Sold it again because the number of decent games doesn't justify owning one.

No-one is arguing that the Wii isn't a capable platform, but you see the problem is it has been bought primarily by people who don't actually want to play the same types of games that come out on 360/PS3 - devs see this and, as another guy said, they don't bother to develop these games often and even when they do only a few are AAA.

Anyone who seriously tries to argue that the Wii has a larger number of good "traditional" games than either PS3 OR 360 is an idiot and should really stop typing before they make themselves look even more stupid.

The Wii is lost, it had potential but now that the fanbase consists of people who play games in a 30min burst two times a day and dont actually like gaming - it's a lost cause because devs will make what the fanbase want, and sadly that fanbase wants the gaming equivalent of pop music.

Casuals can flame me all they want but I really don't care as your opinion of me based on gaming really doesn't matter to me.

I know its still popular for the "hardcore" to hate on Wii, and the conduit is considered fair game seeing as it is a title in a traditional core genre ...but really, people, be reasonable.

5/10 isnt a bad score, and if anything The Conduit is as much a proof of concept that the system can do some great controls for the fps genre. The fact it seems to be a stereotypical story does it no favours however.

Now, as for the killzones and halos of the genre ... they also have pretty uninspired stories. If you disagree with this then you need to start reading books. But those games are obviously popular, even though they are essentially the same core game as they were 6 years ago, albeit it with more bells and whistles.

In any case, the FPS genre has stagnated over the past 3 years due to over-exposure, and even a compelling, AAA Wii exclusive FPS would fail to ignite the gaming world's passion in the same way Halo did 8/9 years ago. And with 90% of the self appointed hardcore vehemently anti-Wii, even if it did outdo Halo, it "wouldn't count".

Ill give it a go though, it could be fun.

@collymilad
"Anyone who seriously tries to argue that the Wii has a larger number of good "traditional" games than either PS3 OR 360 is an idiot and should really stop typing before they make themselves look even more stupid. "

-------------------------------------------------

Depends how you define traditional. If you let it include actual, traditional games on VC as well as the new retail releases, then the comparison is certainly valid. A lot of new games out today on PS3/360 dont even compare favourably to older classics except in terms of visuals. If I had to choose between say, one of today's Wii VC/Wiiware releases - lets say Gradius Rebirth - and a recent PS3/360 "hit" - let's say the most recent high profile one - Prototype - I know which one I would choose and it would certainly not be the latter.

@Plewt: How about Red Steel 2? That looks pretty good.

PatAU: Since when is 5/10 not a bad score?

To siro: 5/10 is average. As far as Im concerned that means it does some things right and some things wrong. In some cases (not necessarily this one) a 5/10 game can be much better or much worse than the score indicates. It depends on whether the reviewer has an axe to grind, or if they are being overly generous.

In any case, the best way to find out if a game is any good is a playthrough of a demo.

Perhaps, but there's too many must have games coming this fall for PC (my only other platform). I don't find it worth it to hold out just for a single game with such competition.

@Collymilad: Sold it again because the number of decent games doesn't justify owning one.

I can understand someone saying that there's no justification for buying a console when there aren't enough games they like on it but to sell it? That doesn't make sense because generally you're making a loss on the console and games. I guess you must be strapped for cash. I still have my Saturn and Dreamcast and there are no new games for them but they are both still worth having around.

@Sniper_Fox

Nobody here has done that so stop having tourrettes.

Other crap game for the wii!! There will be no Zelda this year or the next with luck it will be a crappy trailer...

the WII is just not a suitable machine for these type of games neither its target audience or hardware.it is just not a level playing feild when compared to the 360/or ps3 and if this game had appeared on those platforms it would not have passed quality control or would have been the lowest scored game on the systems.just because its on WII and theres not many fps on WII does that mean reviews have to score accordingly?

Well I've got it and, for what's it's worth, I think it's very good.

I'll admit, it doesn't hold a candle to the FPS games available on 360 and PS3... but it's not on those consoles. IT'S ON THE WII!

And the Wii doesn't have many FPS. The Conduit might be basic by any standard, but for the Wii it's impressive. The single player is fast and fun, and the multiplayer is ambitious for a system with such crap online functionality.

To score it a 5/10 because there are better options available on other systems misses the point entirely. The Wii crowd should eat this up.

That's a poor argument. And why bother compare to another platform when you can see it's poor just by comparing it to Metroid Prime; a game that would be great no matter which platform it was on.

That's one game though, without any online functionality.

I have two mates specifically with Wii consoles and nothing else. I tell them about the matchmaking and online fun to be had with Halo 3 and the concept of online multiplayer blows their minds. As if it's some kind of voodoo. These guys are casual gamers.

If I show them the Conduit... online... with 11 other people from around the world... they will piss themselves.

The Conduit isn't bad.

It might be generic and very retro in its approach, but it's still fun. Great controls, solid visuals, fun albeit short solo campaign and a really good online component with a ton of options to mess with. You can't really argue with that. It'll be £20 in a couple of weeks. A steal for Wii owners.

The argument about the Wii not having the target audience for this game has been addressed recently by Bethesda - you may recall the news article.

There's no denying that a proportion of Wii gamers are looking for games with high production values and long play times. I mean, here we are typing out these posts. The question is, if all the potential customers of a game like this actually buy it, will it profit? Is there mileage in developing these games, or is there a slow net trickle of these players to the other consoles as they get disillusioned by the paucity of third-party titles with high production values?

We are STILL waiting for a third part game that we can use to say 'Look, other-console-owners! The Wii can do it too!' This game does it from a tech perspective, but I just wish they went the extra mile with story and artwork and what have you. Like I've said, if those missing elements could not be included due to limitations of the console, like memory, then the game is lost.

:(

How can Conduit score 5/10? When Red Steel scored 6/10?! Surely Conduit cannot be worthy of such a low score for just having a bad single player, considering Red Steel had nothing going for it at all.

They may have the technology, but lack a proper art director.

exactly what i expected

+ good controls
+ nice textures
+ decent multiplayer

- Awful art direction
- derivitive
- very simple level geometry
- dull repetitive single player campaign

Overall, good enough by Wii standards, but doesn't hold a candle to other current gen fps's

I'Ve seen a few "maybe the Wii isn't capable of more" comments, please keep in mind the thing DOES outperform all last generation consoles. I doubt the lack of enemy variety is a result of memory limitations since the Wii has more RAM than even the XBox and that had some pretty varied games. I think any inadequacies in The Conduit can be attributed to developer failures. HVS hasn't been much of a quality developer in the past and everyday architecture simply doesn't look good in videogames (hell, it still looks like arse on the 360) because it doesn't lend itself to interesting sights. Doom 3 had a scifi environmnt where every surface was a demonstration of normalmapping, The Conduit has boring boxy architecture which consists of tons of flat surfaces that aren't improved with any amount of shaders. Same problem FEAR had which also looked like arse IMO.

For anyone wondering if it'll sell, IT WILL. Why? There's a significant demand for a Wii FPS. Red Steel sold 1 million units and that was near launch! Whenever an FPS is released on WiiWare it shoots up to the top of the sales charts almost immediately.

Its funny.

All the complaints made in this review could be made against halo 3.

I dont see how it can be a failure on the developers part when it's technically the most well rounded third party game on the system.

>Other crap game for the wii!!

Why do 360 owners always rush into threads like this to proclaim "another crap game" for the wii... while blatently ignoring all the crap games on their platform?

>but doesn't hold a candle to other current gen fps's

Well that's going to be hard isnt it.. considering the other platforms seemingly ONLY have fps games...


Am I the only one in the world who finds fps games boring btw?

Well, there's the Half-Life kind which I love and there's the Halo kind which I hate.

Why don't people just play FPS games on the very PC that your posting comments from? Rather than moan about what was a very cheap console, not being good enough to do them.

Very harshly reviewed imo. Any Wii game with such an entertaining online multiplayer combined with graphical effects that, until Super Mario Galaxy was released, were thought impossible on the Wii hardware - bump, gloss and diffuse mapping, advanced particle effects, real-time reflection and refraction, focus blur and HDR lighting - deserves a higher score imo. User reviews and opinions rate this game between a score of 8 and 9, and I agree.

I haven't had so much fun playing a game online since playing Halo 1 on the PC many years ago. The multiplayer along with the hidden radios, data discs and alien writings give good replay value. Good to see that overly harsh reviews such as this haven't done the sales much harm, it's sold 160,000 units in 2 weeks in the States, and I can see this going platinum without a problem.

None of those techniques were thought to be "impossible" on the Wii, because Factor 5 had done them on the Gamecube 6 years previously.

I'd also LOVE to know where you're getting those sales figures. NPD isn't available 'till the 12th, as anyone betting on the sales figures at GAF knows.

I have two mates specifically with Wii consoles and nothing else. I tell them about the matchmaking and online fun to be had with Halo 3 and the concept of online multiplayer blows their minds. As if it's some kind of voodoo. These guys are casual gamers.

Eh? You can pretty much go online with the Wii without even thinking about it. Even my parents can play Mario Kart online. Sure the system doesn't hold a candle to LIVE, but the likes of Grand Slam Tennis are pretty epic online games, it's as easy to spend an evening playing online on that as it is playing single player.

The online for Mario Kart doesn't stand up to the level of community support seen in... say... Forza 2. Although it's just one other example of a Wii game that has the functionality.

I'll show The Conduit to those guys and it'll warp their shit. I bet.

LOL at the playstation generation of gamers in here thinking thinking that they are actualy hardcore gamers


The hardcore console gamers, who was gaming before sony made gaming the latest fad amongst the mainstream sheep, want our consoles to be full of great platformers, RPGS, adventure games, action adventurer games and fighters. Now the wii don't have many games in those genres admitidly, but the 360 and ps3 ain't exactly brimming with great games in those genres. The only genres the ps3 and 360 are excelling at are generic shooters ( which are best on the pc ) and racers. If anything, all the 360 and ps3 are doing is taking pc'ish games and dumbing them down beyond belief while milking people with map packs or yearly updates, and all you fools lap it up like good little soldiers.


Overall, this has been the most dissapointing gen of consoles in history. Sony, ms and nintendo have gone casual. Its just nintendo have targeted new gamers, while sony and ms have targetted the sort of gamer who ten years ago would of been classed as the lowest form of gamer.

segagod... WTF

Wastelander: Some sites have posted VGC numbers for some reason but at least that way we have a comparison value to point out just how wrong VGC was when the real numbers come out.

I think the Wii online works better for casual gamers than Live because with Live you have to spend money and if you don't go online regularly it's not worth the money. I don't have a Live subscription because I only rarely go online but on the Wii I can just play instead of worrying if I'll use it enough to warrant spending 60 Euros on it.

Live sub is £40 quid for every minute of every day for a whole year.

Considering how well the service holds up, it's a steal.

And if you're wireless, and who isn't, it's always on. If you're on, it's on. Friends etc. Nice.

@segagod : Totally agree with you .. right up to the "lower form of gamers" comment. But it is true.. modern gamers like easy "non-hardcore" mainstream shooting games. They lap up stuff like halo 3 and bioshock and because they have blood and guts - they are considered "hardcore", and they dismiss stuff like mario galaxy for being "kiddy" or "not-hardcore" because it has cartoony, brightly coloured graphics.

The mario platformers (and metroid games for that matter) have (imho) always been the perfect example of a "hardcore" game. In that they're hard, and take skill and practice to be able to master them.

(unlike bioshock - for example - where you're not even punished for death! How to play bioshock : "run into room guns ablazing, die, respan, repeat until bad guys are dead" - exciting stuff!)

>I think the Wii online works better for casual gamers than Live because with Live

I hadnt considered that until now. I hardly ever play wii games recently. But i've played online longer on my wii than any other platform (smash bros, mario kart and animal crossing)

But that's probably because i dont get along with generic fps games, so there's not much on the other platformers for me to play. That said, i have really enjoyed fallout 3 - but i think that's mainly because it's done something NEW with the genre (a fps crossed with rpg)

Vampire did that. STALKER did that. Off the top of my head.

I have a crap pc.. neither of those ran on it :-)

I *DID* try stalker though.. but it was like playing half life 3 on a wii.

Was hoping this was gonna help the wii establish itself in the shooter genre alittle more but nevermind, What I do find funny is that they criticise its difficutly for the fact it doesn't do much to dynamics, a.i and so on yet seriously what does the change in difficulty do in gears 2? Just alters enemy damage.......wow and yet it is not picked out. Constantly I see smaller developed games getting criticised in this way while the same part in big named games gets ignored just because people seemed to get brainwashed by its title and establishment in the industry. Ain't saying gears and that are shit, just wish there was a consistency in all reviews across the board on all games instead of reviewers and gamers falling for the hype of the next big game.

@ Gearskin: "It might be generic and very retro in its approach, but it's still fun. Great controls, solid visuals, fun albeit short solo campaign and a really good online component with a ton of options to mess with. You can't really argue with that."

Indeed. If its entertaining, its worth a go.

One thing I am finding lately is that a LOT of the big epic games always end up falling flat at the end. Resistance 2, Halo 3, Halo 2, Gears of War. It has been a long time since a game has either surprised at the quality of its writing/ending, or met expectations. A few games that have done so include Portal, Beyond Good and Evil and Oddworld Stranger. None of which were hyped with $40 million marketing campaigns.

Live sub is £40 quid for every minute of every day for a whole year.

Considering how well the service holds up, it's a steal.

Yes but I'm not sure if I'd use the service enough to warrant the price. I don't play online much even on systems that are free to play so I have no idea how much XBL would add to my gaming.

Of course people get defensive when there is somebody taking a dump on the console in every review thread. It's the same thing with the other two platforms. They feel they need to justify why they play on the Wii, which they shouldn't have too, but again this is the internet.

Salaminizer - ""shoot the same handful of clichéd enemies over and over again with poorly differentiated, unrewarding weapons, in repetitive and characterless locations, according to the whim of a meaninglessly threadbare and generic plot, and unburdened by considerations of strategy, tactics, options, or anything that might stir the most wavering half-mast of a raised eyebrow of interest."

like COD4 then?"

Yeh, totally agree mate :D

I'm still gonna pick this up, the review scores are all over the place for this game ranging from a 4 to a 9 and I was one of the few who actually enjoyed the shooting parts of Red Steel!!

The controls may be good but playing the wii dictates way to much how you sit and your playing posture when you play games like this. But im happy in the end cause its more ammunition for the argument that an innovative control scheme does not make an innovative game.

Well put, Segagod