New Wii shooter - The Conduit

[Reginald]

Woke up this morning full of the joys of Spring (well, actually I have a cold, but that's not the point), and I sat myself down at the computer with a bowl of Coco Pops and browsed various news sites. When I got to my usual Nintendo news hang-out, I glanced over the news that seems to interest me less and less every day, what with the Wii and DS having so few new good games at the moment.

Then a new title caught my eye, "The Conduit in development for Wii," and underneath it had a little synopsis of the news story telling me it was an FPS. Now, I was one of the few who loved Red Steel and quite enjoyed both Call of Duty and Medal of Honor on the Wii despite all three of them being a little flawed and I really enjoyed what little I played of Metroid Prime 3 and yet, since then we have had little to no shooters at all. Odd for a console that nearly every developer and gamer in the world once said "That console would be perfect for FPS games." So naturally I jumped at the chance for a new FPS.

So I opened the link and read:

Revealing exclusively to IGN, the team have built a powerful graphics engine, named Quantum3, from the ground-up primarily for Wii, and has taken inspiration from other known Shooters on the system for the control schemes.

Kerry Ganofsky, CEO and founder of High Voltage Software, states that;

"We think it's a real shame that publishers and developers aren't taking advantage of the technical possibilities of the Wii platform. Most Wii games don't even look as good as the later day PS2 titles and that's a real slap in the face to consumers. "We believe that third-party developers need to step up to the plate and deliver. The Wii platform is capable of a lot more than what consumers have seen so far. We're hoping to raise a new bar."

Eric Nofsinger, chief creative officer of the team, echoes some of THQ's more recent statements by saying;

"Most of the games on the Wii look like crap. We want to change that, so we've invested heavily in our Wii tech over the past year. We have real-time normal mapping, reflection and refraction, post process full screen effects, real-time shadows, projected lights and textures, specularity and fresnel effects, emissive and iridescent materials, interactive water, morphing, and much more all running with a rock solid frame rate on the Wii. Our goal is to be the most technically innovative Wii developer on the planet.

"There is this pervasive and cyclical argument that Wii consumers don't want mature titles, when there aren't those types of products available to them. And even more frustrating is the claim that Wii consumers only care about great gameplay. Of course they care about gameplay, but we believe if given the choice, they would want great graphics as well. It's just a cop out, With Conduit, we are trying to make a Wii game that looks like a 360 title."

At the moment however, the game is unfortunately without a Publisher.

Every new line made me smile. This developer has obviously either listened to people like me, or shares the same views. I'm no graphics whore, but I want games that immerse you and don't look as bad as PS2 and occasionally even Dreamcast games. And I want better gameplay. Four out of every five Wii games are weak mini-game selections these days and it's about time we had another game!

Then below the text was a video from IGN showing the technical capabilities of the Quantum3 engine. Watch the video below before moving on otherwise it will spoil this story.

LINK

Looks great right? Or certainly almost as good as the Wii can offer especially with a little bit of refining etc. Reminds me of the Source engine as seen in HL2 without all the fancy new effects.

At this point, as you can imagine I am a little excited. A new FPS with graphics like that coming to the Wii? Sign me up!

Then below the video is a little screenshot gallery. They are all thumbnails so not clearly visible at that level. So I click the first one. It's some concept art; nice! (N.B. Pictures are from IGN despite the news source being elsewhere. Pics are better quality from IGN)

Then there was some more nice looking concept art. Then I came to this image:

And this one...

Then this one...

WHAT THE ****?!? I DIDN'T KNOW THEY STILL MADE N64 GAMES?!

I can tell you all now that if the Wii doesn't buck up its ideas before too long it will be the first Nintendo console I have ever unplugged before the end of its life. If it wasn't for Brawl being just around the corner (one assumes, it hasn't even got a release date over here yet) and my desire to buy No More Heroes, I may have given up already.

Those screenshots are a travesty. I would have been embarrassed by them 8 years ago at the start of generation six. And yet they look like that halfway through generation seven? They've got to be leaked shots of when they were developing on the Gamecube or something.

Jeez.






/rant

 

[Warbie]

Cheer up and buy MK Wii. It's awesome with the wheel

Maybe get Metroid too. I thought Red Steel was an absolute bag of shite that controlled horribly, but MP3 is sublime to play. The control method makes it a truly unique experience (needs to be played on advanced mode) that is so chilled and satisfying that I defy anybody who's sent time with it not to fall in love. Just walking and jumping around is a joy in this game - something it's never been with a m&k.

 

[Sam]

Maybe get Metroid too. I thought Red Steel was an absolute bag of shite that controlled horribly, but MP3 is sublime to play. The control method makes it a truly unique experience (needs to be played on advanced mode) that is so chilled and satisfying that I defy anybody who's sent time with it not to fall in love. Just walking and jumping around is a joy in this game - something it's never been with a m&k.

MAYBE?

There should not be a maybe in that sentence.

 

[StardogChampion]

Well done on choosing the worst screens.

I could do the same for the 360:

OMGOTH DO TEHY STILL MAKES THE PS1 GAMZ??? WHATWHAT? I is going to unplugs it soon !!1

I'm no graphics whore, but I want games that immerse you and don't look as bad as PS2 and occasionally even Dreamcast games.

Just sell your Wii now and we'll be one graphics whore down.

 

[Shoes_Buttback03]

I hope this is good. But from my experience with this console only Nintendo can make a good Wii game. (Destroy All Humans is the Exception)

 

[Reginald]

Sure, every console has some games that look rubbish. But the Wii already has a lot. And when a company professes to make a game that looks almost as good as a 360 game then comes out with this, it's not so promising for the future of the console.

If they did away with the lighting effects that a good looking game doesn't really need, they could get a higher polygon count out of the weapons (which look graphically similar to those in Perfect Dark on the N64). I would rather less-realistic graphics if I got a draw-distance further than two houses down the street and no slow down that was the probable side-effect from the fancy graphics.

@sea: Yes, they look alright. But still far worse than what we should be seeing at this stage. Doom 3 looked better than that which was on the original XBox...

 

[Irksome]

Woke up this morning full of the joys of Spring (well, actually I have a cold, but that's not the point),

Dude, same thing here. I have a ****ing cold too.

 

[Reginald]

Black on the PS2

Halo 2 on the XBox

Metroid Prime 2 on the Gamecube

Red Steel on the Wii

Perfect Dark on the N64

The plain and simple fact of my whole argument here, is not graphics (although is a contributing factor), it's people's underestimation of the console. Because it doesn't have the same power behind it as the 360, PS3 and the PC and because it is similar to the PS2 and even the PSP, people see it as an excuse to develop lazily. Not to a point of glitches etc. but to a point of non-interest. The Wii gets franchised rubbish, minigame collections and shoddy ports from the PS2/PSP. They are a quick way to make money because half the kids in places like the US and UK have them and apparently don't know the difference between good games and bad ones.

I reckon the reason this game doesn't have a publisher yet is because the company have said we are making a Wii exclusive game that is going to have OMGWTF-awesome graphics and will require a budget to match. Why would a publisher spend that much on a Wii game when it could go towards a big guns project on one of the other consoles.

This game may come up trumps when it finds a publisher. They may give it the funding it needs to look better and I will still follow it to check on its progress. But as it stands at the moment, anything special attempted on Wii so far has either failed or been godawful. For example, look at Sadness, a game that was supposed to be released in Spring 2008. It was going to be an FPS for the Wii shot entirely in black and white with no guns, just melee weapons and things like candles and ropes to solve puzzles. The developer cancelled three of its currently in development games to fund their big project. Then they got a publisher and it all looked good. Then the publisher dropped them because they were spending more than the allocated Wii budget which Nibris say was a lot less than the other consoles. Now the company has practically folded completely because no one funded their game.

The Wii development world is in a sad state in my opinion and I'm just sorry I chose this game to be the conduit of my fears.

 

[Tyguy]

looks like crap

 

[Eejit]

Game ain't finished yet, dawg.

 

[Sedako]

But from my experience with this console only Nintendo can make a good Wii game. (Destroy All Humans is the Exception)

What? Destroy all Humans for the Wii was absolute shit.

 

[Tyguy]

just because the Wii wasn't built primarily with graphics in mind does not give it an excuse to produce shitty games that look like they are for the ps2.

 

[i am HOLLYWOOD]

What? Destroy all Humans for the Wii was absolute shit.

i was about to say. . .

what destroy all humans did you play? That game was rubbish.

 

[Shoes_Buttback03]

i was about to say. . .

what destroy all humans did you play? That game was rubbish.

I enjoyed it and that's all that matters.

 

[StardogChampion]

just because the Wii wasn't built primarily with graphics in mind does not give it an excuse to produce shitty games that look like they are for the ps2.

"The Wii" doesn't sit in a room building games for itself.

And it's not much more powerful than the PS2 anyway.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Yeah, this doesn't look great, but if it controls well, runs well, and has an engaging story and/or gameplay, then the graphics can be sub-par imho.

By the way, Nibris never actually had much done on Sadness, just some ideas and concept artwork. Recently they've licensed the Gamebryo engine, though, and a screenshot or two have been leaked, so all is not lost for them. Still no publisher as I take it, but they're still trying.

The very mention of this game invokes in me a very palpable sadness. ;( I really want this game to see the light of day.