The Conduit - Official Thread

[thas]

Originally Posted by vashivihan

yes it incresses your stats etc. damage you can take, jumping ability and such

Where are you getting that from. No link needed, I'll take your word for it.

[vashivihan]

Originally Posted by thas

Where are you getting that from. No link needed, I'll take your word for it.

i remember it reading somewhere. i think it was in an interview or the manual that they gave out. long time ago

Offline Multiplayer Confirmed

PREVIEW:

The Conduit is a game that we have heard much about without the ability to ever play extensively. High Voltage Software, the developers of the title, showed the game on a random station in Nintendo's booth, and although its debut was low-key, the game seemed to be getting attention: the line to play was longer than almost any other title from Nintendo.

"You want to know about the publisher, don't you?" Rob Nicholls, the game's designer, asked when he saw my media badge. He had effectively read my mind and answered in turn. "We're not ready to officially announce anything, but things are in the works. Look for the word in the coming month."

Nicholls also hinted at a rough development timeline for the title, as well. "We've got about six months to go for tightening the title," said Nicholls, pointing out the release window of Q1 2009 in the press materials. "We're going to ship with a full single player campaign and both offline and online multiplayer. We're also working with Nintendo now on getting LAN play working [via system link]."

The Conduit is already easily the best looking Wii game, at least from a technical level. It's hard to ignore the stellar particle effects, real-time lighting, fluid animation, fast-paced action, and screen-filling boss. While some of the texture work is relatively low resolution, and the environments themselves were in need of more post-process lighting effects, the game could easily be confused with an Xbox 360 title. But the real question is, how does it play?

The Conduit exhibits many lessons learned from past Wii first-person shooter titles. The game gathers what companies like Retro Studios, Ubisoft, and EA have learned with regard to bounding boxes and IR aiming on the console, and offers the most competent FPS control on the platform yet. This is spearheaded by an unbelievably vast amount of customization options. Players can jump into the menu and then adjust a ton of sliders and settings to refine the control for themselves. This is all done within the actual game engine while playing, as opposed to static menus, so you can get a feel for the changes you make instantly.

"The Wii was made for first-person shooters," said Nicholls. "Some studios have had success with the formula, and High Voltage Software is taking it to the next level." It was hard not to agree with him as he showed off some of the more creative elements of the gun play, including some sweet weaponry. One weapon, called the De-Atomizer, shoots a two-plasma-ball sling. You tilt the remote to add spin before shooting, and the first ball attaches to the enemy while the second one wraps around it and explodes on contact with the first.

The Conduit pushes the technical boundaries of the Wii

Sadly, as tight and highly customizable as the aim control is, other uses of motion control doesn't fare quite as well. The floor demo didn't use very much motion control at all, and what few motions there were also had corresponding buttons for those not interested in waggling the controller. The melee attack required a forward-thrusting motion, for example, but it proved to be less than reliable while disrupting your aim. The ability to just press up on the d-pad to perform the same motion was welcome, but better motion control would go a long way towards making The Conduit a more complete, Wii-pushing package.

Nicholls admitted that there was much tweaking to be done. "We've been drilling normal [non-media] gamers to get a feel for what works and what doesn't," he said. "We're looking to make the controls not just functional but fun, too." And drill he did. I listened intently as he polled the gaming public about their experience with the game and listened carefully to the feedback, especially the negatives. Without dismissing a single criticism, Nicholls made note of the problems and rewarded gamers' honesty with buttons and shirts.

The Conduit is an exciting game, as it shows that there is so much untapped potential in the Wii. It's a little disappointing to see that the technical innovation with the title wasn't matched with control innovation, but it's clear that the team is now focusing on tightening up the final product before its release—which, judging by Nicholls' comments, could be sooner than we thought.

LINKAGE

[Shoko]

Damn, you beat me to it.

[thas]

Does that mean splitscreen or some other type of multiplayer?

[Boethiah]

Originally Posted by thas

Does that mean splitscreen or some other type of multiplayer?

It could mean LAN. But it's probably split screen.

[DaRkDiAbLo]

yeah does this mean splitscreen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zapasant93]

hey, medal of honour.


was this so ****ing hard?

[Gam3rFr3ak]

Originally Posted by Boethiah

I second the motion. Nintendo can't even make a headset without making it something over simplified. Just give us a headset...

i agree....i like the idea of a headset more than wii speak

[vashivihan]

Originally Posted by zapasant93

hey, medal of honour.


was this so ****ing hard?

oh god not this again

1) it wa EA
2) moh:vanguard had split screen
3) mohh2 had online
4) none of them were made specifically for wii
5) mohh2 made by people with no past console experience.

as for offline, it can only be splitscreen versus or splitscreen co-op. i see splitscreen versus being there more

[DaRkDiAbLo]

dWOO HOO YEAH IM SO EXCITED! Oh my god! im so pumped, just one more thing i want them to surprise me with!!! ONLINE splitscreen... hey it could happen, they surprised us with offline, online could happen.

[Nihilism]

Didn't I say HVS would listen to consumer demands? Offline split screen is delivered.

[rockkybox]

Originally Posted by Nihilism

Didn't I say HVS would listen to consumer demands? Offline split screen is delivered.

[sarcasm] yeah but it meant ruining this thread, turning it into a hate thread, full of haters; was it worth it?

[DaRkDiAbLo]

Originally Posted by Nihilism

Didn't I say HVS would listen to consumer demands? Offline split screen is delivered.

yeah but we all were really pulling for ONLINE multiplayer, or atleast i was, i don't know about everyone else but i really wanted online... and it may come, we'll just have to wait and see! :P

[Nihilism]

Originally Posted by DaRkDiAbLo

yeah but we all were really pulling for ONLINE multiplayer, or atleast i was, i don't know about everyone else but i really wanted online... and it may come, we'll just have to wait and see! :P

I'm not well versed in the technical aspects as to how implementing split screen online deters the Wii's processing of the game, but I'm theorizing that the Wii hosting multiple players for online play would mean processing twice as many interactions between the local Wii and other players connected to a server. Therefore, it would create a heavier load on the system's hardware and a subsequent FPS drop. I think this is evidenced in the fact that Mario Kart Wii has 4 player split screen offline and only a 2 player split screen online. So, if MKW can only get 2 players online, then it's unsurprising if The Conduit, with its astronomically superior graphics, can't manage the same feat.

[DaRkDiAbLo]

Originally Posted by Nihilism

I'm not well versed in the technical aspects as to how implementing split screen online deters the Wii's processing of the game, but I'm theorizing that the Wii hosting multiple players for online play would mean processing twice as many interactions between the local Wii and other players connected to a server. Therefore, it would create a heavier load on the system's hardware and a subsequent FPS drop. I think this is evidenced in the fact that Mario Kart Wii has 4 player split screen offline and only a 2 player split screen online. So, if MKW can only get 2 players online, then it's unsurprising if The Conduit, with its astronomically superior graphics, can't manage the same feat.

...what...

[Frog]

I think that means splitscreen. If so I will be really happy!

I emailed them a couple of times explaining why the original Halo got so huge. A large part of it was both splitscreen multiplayer and LAN gaming. I also used this as a reason why Golden Eye was huge.

If they want to be the Halo/Golden Eye of Wii it has to have...

1. Great offline splitscreen multiplayer
2. Great online multiplayer

And of course it would be great if the game has...

1. LAN multiplayer
2. Bots for mutliplayer modes

[DaRkDiAbLo]

oh i just had an idea!!!!!!!! i doubt this will happen, but what if the multiplayer since the havent specified anyhting, but what if u can have up to 4 players! doubt it since it would be hard but it would be cool!