The Conduit slips to summer News

"Developer High Voltage has also made bold claims in the past, and believes The Conduit will break the casual stereotype of the console and establish first-person shooters on it."

It won't though. Not really. It could be the best FPS ever and people will still think of it as the best FPS ever that happened to be on a casual players console. I'm still having it though.

I'm definitely getting this. Ever since I played Metroid Prime Corruption I've considered the nunchuk and wii remote to be an awesome controller for FPS games, almost as good as keyboard and mouse. :P

The previous release date was in June so the spring to summer part doesn't really say anything. A clarification, if possible, would be nice.

*sigh*

Another reference of hardcore = FPS and casual = everything else. It's a silly connotation and one that really doesnt help anyone.

'Core gamers' want much much more than first person shooters. We want games with depth, games that require a little thought, but most importantly games that require more that just waving one's arms about and vainly hoping you made the correct shape in the air to 'win'.

The Conduit sounds good, and if I can get a positive hands-on at a friends house or in a game store I'll seriously consider buying it.

But please, lets drop this rediculous 'hardcore only want shooters' notion.

'Core gamers' want much much more than first person shooters.

Wii owners are not drowning in fps games exactly.

Some hardcore games:

Rome: Total War
Counterstrike
Street Fighter (or Guilty Gear, or whatever)
Supreme Commander
Quakeworld DM
Baldur's Gate
Starcraft
Ninja Gaiden

@Plewt

"Wii owners are not drowning in fps games exactly."

No I agree, and I'm not saying I dont want a decent FPS or two on the Wii, but the devs clearly think there's nothing for core gamers on the Wii, so an FPS will keep them satisfied. That's simply not the case.

It's welcome, but it's nowhere near enough. Deep RPG's, strategy games, air combat games, beat-em-ups, and so many other genres are completely absent from the platform. These are things that core gamers want as well as shooters.

Yes indeed but I think Nintendo are more responsible for that argument (and situation) than the small studio behind this game.

@Plewt

"Yes indeed but I think Nintendo are more responsible for that argument (and situation) than the small studio behind this game."

Again I agree with you, but the more the myth is perpetuated the greater the chance it will taken as gospel and the less chance these missing genres will ever appear on the Wii.

It's welcome, but it's nowhere near enough. Deep RPG's, strategy games, air combat games, beat-em-ups, and so many other genres are completely absent from the platform. These are things that core gamers want as well as shooters.

And, in a capitalist society, the potential of pleasing the smallest userbase for an integrated leisure electronics platform is important because...?

@Stompy

"And, in a capitalist society, the potential of pleasing the smallest userbase for an integrated leisure electronics platform is important because...?"

If it wasn't important then Reggie wouldn't be making so many noises about pleasing core gamers at E3, and if pleasing only the largest demographic possible was the sole driver for our capitalist society the PS3 and 360 would no longer be supported.

The world isn't as black-and-white as that, thankfully.

Ashenshuger - You are right, but the truth is that fps's ARE the most popular choice of games for those people that like to call themselves 'hardcore'.

The PS3 and xbox are basically judged on their fps's. Arguments between their 'hardcore' owners tend to centre around Halo, Resistance, Gears and Killzone. I dont like it but its the truth.

If High Voltage can get just some of these people to take a gamble on the conduit and the game sells well, then it can only be a good thing for future games on the wii.

And its not all doom and gloom on the Wii anyway. Its the only console thats had a decent amount of point and click games on it for generations, and that can only be a good thing.

@Plewt - The Conduit is still down for a June release.

I wanted to like this, technically it looks quite good, but the setting and art design are just as generic as say killzone 2.

I think it will be a solid but by the numbers shooter you have played a million times before.

@Stompy
And, in a capitalist society, the potential of pleasing the smallest userbase for an integrated leisure electronics platform is important because...?

(Random numbers will be used for the sake of argument.)

Well, for the sake of argument, let's say that the "hardcore" (or "smallest userbase") comprises 10% of the users. Now lets say they buy 90% of the new games because they, by definition, buy and play more games, are more inclined to track games during development, are more likely to want a game as soon as they come out and so pick them up new at launch. Conversely the other 90% of users only buy10% of games.

Now do you see why the numerically-smaller user-base is important? This is often the case with consumer electronics, after the initial investment in hardware a smaller "hardcore" group can be more profitable than the larger "casual" group. To put it another way, do you think that the people who occasionally rent a DVD are as important to the manufacturers of DVDs as the people who build their own libraries of DVDs?

I used to share a house with three friends from uni we played Mario Kart Double Dash all the time. To my knowledge the other three never played any other game on the 'Cube, they simply had no interest in anything else, Mario Kart was what you played on Nintendo, they didn't know or care what else was coming out and one of them was a "hardcore" PC gamer.

Actually I tell a lie, I played Soul Calibur versus the "hardcore" guy once or twice. Kicked his ass too. ;)

the milkman- gears of war is not a first person shooter.

@Robg
What you have listed there aren't just "hardcore games" but "games with an unsupportive, patronising, elitist community and inpenetrable lexicon".

Not that that's always a bad thing, I'm probably a politer, more friendly member of several of those communities (especially CS and Street Fighter!)

Unfortunately terrible game design and cheap execution has drilled into everyone's heads that the Wii can't handle anything more complicated than the mindless dribble that populates the release charts. When the system has it's capabilities played in it's favour it's a joy to use.

I think the only thing preventing it from being taken as seriously is the real lack of consistent online infrastructure. If Nintendo would stop doing parent's jobs for them and just concentrate on making a community like Xbox Live and PSN then it would be a massive step in the right direction.

Where's smelly in this thread? I've got my popcorn ready for the show of his Wii defense involving a brown FPS.

"I think the only thing preventing it from being taken as seriously is the real lack of consistent online infrastructure. If Nintendo would stop doing parent's jobs for them and just concentrate on making a community like Xbox Live and PSN then it would be a massive step in the right direction."

I'll take a supersize one of these ^ please. To go. Hold the mayo.

No downloadable demos and no online infrastructure worth a damn are reasonably large factors for me not being interested in the Wii as a single player gaming platform.

Kotaku's impressions last night weren't exactly glowing... They sai it really needed much more polish and balance, combat got old fast, and the ASE puzzles barely even were pzzles at all... Apparantly their online multiplayer debut was a shambles...

http://kotaku.com/5213564/the-conduit-pr...

Personally I was never impressed, I've seen better graphics (though not textures) on PS2 games, and 4 year old xbox games, (and graphics was its major selling point...) combined with gameplay impressions and it's a day 1 ignore for me, unless something magical happens in the next 2 months...

Yeah that preview was a bit disheartening but while I don't think the game will quite live up to expectations some of the criticism seemed a bit off to me, especially the complaints against control and combat getting old quick.

You can pretty much customize the controls any way you want and why would the combat get old any quicker than other fps's; seems more like the previewer simply doesn't like the genre.

The puzzles do look a little gimmicky but hard to judge only given one example. In the walkthrough videos that's out there it didn't look quite as bad but again it was only that one puzzle.

@Coin-Op

It's the retards like you and not the Wii owners who are constantly making a big deal about the Wii graphics.

@Plewt: "[...]and why would the combat get old any quicker than other fps's[...]"

Combat can get old very quickly if the encounter-, level-, weapon- and/or enemy design is bad or boring. It's not just about shooting, it's how good the shooting is.

I've thought everything but the engine for this game has looked mediocre since I saw it the first time probably, and I would really like this to be good since I want some more good "hard core" games (not that most any shooters are that nowadays) for the system. But what we get is Mad World and this, none of which appeal to me. I hope other, seemily more competent FPS developers gets their hands on the Conduit engine.

Seems what she meant by that was the balance in difficulty.

I always considered fps games to be the perfect example of a "mainstream" game.

but then i dont understand all these pigeon holes.

To me after years of research - it seems the two categories are thus:

Hardcore : Stuff people who moan on gaming forums like - but rarely buy - if they play them, its usually because they pirated it.

Mainstream : Stuff which everyone else buys.

@Coin-OP : "Wii owners need to accept they are never going to see graphics on the system that will make them say wow. (snip to remove all the other fanboy wank fodder) Trying to trumpet the Wii as a console that can handle good looking FPS is like a one legged man saying he can run fast."



So what you're basically saying - is that the ONLY thing that makes a FPS worth buying is its graphics? Well that says a lot about THAT genre doesnt it?

Or maybe it says a lot about your choice in games? i.e. if you're more interested in looking at the pretty pixels than having actual FUN playing?