Numbers:

Multiplayer özelliğine sahip bilimkurgu tabanlı bir FPS oyunu daha sizlerle arkadaşlar. keyfini çıkarın

The Conduit was released on June 23rd in North America, as of September 30th, The Conduit has sold 270,000 units in the Untied States and European regions.

Six weeks ago Nintendo released the Nintendo Channel update, and for 6 weeks, the game play data wasn’t updated.  The great news is that the game play data has been updated and hopefully that will continue on a weekly basis.  Because there was a six week gap with no reporting, some assumptions will be taken.

The Casual/Core games that were being tracked are back and updated, but now also with Amazon.com’s sales rank to go along with it:

Number of hours increased from September 14 through October 26:
EA Sports Active increased of 64,739 hours during the past 6 weeks.
Punch-Out!! increased 120,904 hours during the past 6 weeks.
The Conduit increased 211,123 hours during the past 6 weeks.
Wii Sports Resort increased 917,043 hours during the past 6 weeks.

Being that the data wasn’t reported for 6 weeks, I’ve just done a simple average of increases per week for the games shown:
EA Sports Active had an average increase of 10,790 hours per week.
Punch-Out!! had an average increase of 20,151 hours per week.
The Conduit had an average increase of 35,187 hours per week.
Wii Sports Resort had an average increase of 152,841 hours per week.

Things of interest:
The Conduit is still second in game play hours reported, but as shown on Amazon.com’s sales rank, The Conduit is in last place in sales.
Wii Sports Resort crossed the 2 million hours played mark and is still selling extremely well on Amazon.com.
I think EA Sports Active is a great example of a game marketed almost entirely toward the new “casual” market on the Wii.  EA Sports Active has sold more than The Conduit and Punch-Out!!, from the numbers available, and the sales rank on Amazon.com reflects that, but still EA Sports Active has the fewest number of game play hours reported, I think reflecting the “casual” user base that is buying the game.

Are you still contributing any of the hours of game play associated with these games?

Rating: 6.5 Out of 10

The Conduit was predicted to be one of the best FPS games that was released on the Wii to date. This game did have great controls and some nice visuals but I believe it was not the best one that the Wii has to offer. The levels in the game are monotonous with a generic art story and design. The difficulty in the game is very uneven and invisible bombs are always frustrating. Lastly, no one likes respawning enemies. Overall though, if you are looking for a new FPS, you can try this one, but I wouldn’t recommend a buy in my opinion.

Pros:

+ Great controls

+ Technically impressive visuals

Cons:

- Monotonous levels

- Respawning enemies and invisible bombs are frustrating and cheap

- Generic art design and story

- Uneven difficulty

Extras:

# The Conduit Cheat Codes

Wii Sports Resort crosses ONE MILLION!
Another week has passed and this week Wii Sports Resort has crossed one million total hours reported playing since it’s July 26th release!
I’m keeping the data reported more simple and streamlined this week.

Wii Sports Resort increased by 14%, or 153,928 hours, in total play time hours.
The Conduit increased by 5%, or 31,252 hours, in total play time hours.
EA Sports Active increased 5%, or 10,102 hours, in total play time hours.
Punch-Out!! increased the least percentage in play time hours, increasing only 4%, or 19,652 hours, in total play time hours.
(All percentages rounded to the nearest whole number.)

Are you playing Wii Sports Resort still or have you moved onto other games?

Well a lot has been said about the conduit, but its hard to begin, I’ve never written a review of a game but this isn’t supposed to be one.

The Conduit was a game that I had been looking forward to for a long time, it was the sort of game I have wanted to play on Wii since it’s release. The build up to it was long and HVS did a great job of keeping the game in the public eye during its development. We were promised a lot of things by Eric Nofsinger, he seemed to have tapped into what the Wii core wanted and was telling them that HE was going to deliver, but did he?

Eric Nofsinger with Cliff Bleszinski

The single player campaign had its highlights, the story was a bit hear nor there, though based upon conspiracy theories what else could we expect. I couldn’t help but feel a bit of Perfect Dark influences throughout, and of course I’m talking about the N64 original. The story for what it was did help to carry you through the game and gave some sort of reason why you were doing what you were doing, what I would have hoped for was a bit of cut scene flair rather than just some shadowy character talking to you. The story again did end very abruptly, here I was ready for a big fight against the person I was chasing but all of a sudden, that’s it. Game over, see you next time. I cant help but feel a bit short changed by that as I don’t quite feel as though the game had an epic defining moment of boss fight. There were different bigger aliens to battle but none of them felt like a boss or mini-boss, as my tactic was to hang onto the supercharged weapons found in cavities opened by the All-Seeing-Eye and used them on the bigger enemies. One thing that’s good is the difficulty rating, do you want a challenge, well put it to its highest setting and lets soo how well you fare!

Now onto the graphical prowess that was touted, well overall the game looked well, the weapons were the best modelled ones I’ve seen on a Nintendo system and they had some great aura’s for when they were being charged, but my problem is that it didn’t feel as though HVS gave as much care to the rest of the games visuals. What was evident was the lack of a graphical style, I think that The Conduit would have been more pleasing if it had an overall art direction. Now I’m not saying it has to be like Madworld or Okami, but, as I’m sure this example has been brought up before, look at Metroid Prime. The theme in that game is throughout and looks amazing because of that. Or even look at the new 360 game with its own art styling, Borderlands, I think this game looks amazing, and the weapon design to fit in with the design theme and art style is simply beautiful. There were also a few cheating moments like for example looking out of some of the windows to see a texture of the skyline right in front of the window so close that it wasn’t fooling to the user that it was the skyline.

The controls are the pathway for every game in the future, everything is customisable. If it wasn’t for this the game would have suffered big style, the approach for the custom features aren’t confusing in their depth and easy to adjust for yourself as you please. I found it laudable when a review of The conduit slated the game for its controls failing to realise that it was customisable and then later claimed that their version was pre-release without this feature, when it has been in every copy since it’s first appearance at E3.

Review Demotivational Poster

The multiplayer, this is soooo worth it, I cant believe how great the multiplayer is…

when I finally connect to a match that is. I love playing online and it feels great when you get to the 20 kill streak mark with 1000%XP from then on out. The maps are wide and varied, I personally could have wished for more open maps with a sniper rifle and spots to sniper from! But that’s my personal preference. Wiispeak works well when I have a friend online that also has Wiispeak. The predetermined weapon choices are great and varied match types offer a LOT of variety. Although there are quite a few improvements I would want to this. These would be a faster connection time, several times it has taken until the last 20 seconds of the countdown until my system found a match. A lobby system that you can invite friends, and join a public match, you can change match type from Team to Free for all and vote to kick others out from the match. Why the vote? Because of the cheaters. I was loving the online until recently when I encountered massive cheaters who were using unlimited health cheats and unlimited ammo/no reload cheats that totally ruin the match experience! And a voting system to kick users is a quick and easy way for players to combat cheaters. There are also a few glitches that occur now and again where you spawn into a new match and none of the buttons work but when you move your courser to the edge of the screen you can see your character spinning on the spot.

Well overall, this was a great beginning to a game that should be improved upon for a sequel. Improvements I would suggest center around getting more artists to refine the style of the game and design, and also maybe hire the technology person from DICE who designed their Battlefield online system as it is the most flawless system I have ever experienced through Bad Company and 1943. Ok well I’m off to play more online, hopefully I won’t encounter too many more cheaters!

The Conduit is, in my opinion, a good game and worthy purchase.  The graphics and controls are top notch, and the single-player is worth a run through,  but a few things hold it back from having that truly addicting online experience.

If only The Conduit's online was as addicting...

1. Put more incentive on ranking.  The experience gaining system on The Conduit is great.  The more kills you get the more XP you get per kill,  and that little white skull is almost as almost as addicting to see as the Call of Duty franchise’s little yellow five.  The problem is there is no incentive for ranking other then a new little symbol,  and even the symbol is only seen in the opening lobby.  The Call of Duty franchise uses unlockable weapons and perks to keep gamers interested, as not only are you having fun playing the game and ranking, but new content is being added as you go.  The Conduit’s Halo like take on online doesn’t work with the unlockable perks and weapons,  but why not have players unlock skins, colors, and armor for their online character instead?  The game’s online experience comes with every skin and the full color spectrum unlocked for customizing a character model.  It would of been much better to start players with only one skin and the primary colors then slowly add news skins and less common colors once certain ranks where achieved.  More elite skins would also of separated more skilled players online, just like the symbols do for the lobby.
2. Connect the single player to the multiplayer.  What’s the point of beating the game on the hardest difficulty if your hard work isn’t shown when you take the game online?  Online incentives for single player achievements would encourage players to get that 100% and increase the replay value of the game.  An example may be having your name be displayed in different colors online depending on the highest difficulty you beat the game on.
3. Add set gameplay matches for people to join.  The Conduit’s voting system works great for private and casual online matches,  but too often players get stuck playing on the same map with the same weapon set and with the same rules.  The SMAW Bazooka is a fun weapon to use, but not when everyone is running around with one in a twenty minute match.  In the Wi-Fi menu players should have the choice to either join a lobby where voting will take place, or to join a lobby with preset game rules where the map, weapon set, and mode complement each other and lead to a skill based, balanced match.

We need more incentives!

With a few major tweaks Wii gamers could finally have a truly addicting online experience.  While The Conduit was good,  it wasn’t good enough in the online category.  Overall the package was better, but online wise I had a more fulfilling experience playing Call of Duty: World at War on the Wii.  While the CoD franchise on Wii still lags behind The Conduit in many aspects it does online right.  This is one reason Wii gamers should keep their eyes on the port of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare coming to Wii this Holiday season.  It promises a more optimized engine,  more customizable controls, and most importantly the complete online experience from the original.  Including game modes and challenges (both of which were not fully included in the Wii port of CoD:WaW).  The only hit the game takes is a player cap of 10 (this is two more then CoD:WaW and two less then The Conduit).

Can the upcoming Wii port succeed where The Conduit did not?

Hola de nuevo después de más de 6 meses, en los que sintiéndolo mucho no hemos podido actualizar el blog por algunos problemas personales que nos han mantenido alejados del mismo, durante este tiempo, pero sin más dilación volvemos a la carga con las principales novedades de Nintendo en el E3 de este año, entre otras cosas:

WII

Como bien pone hay arriba, empezaremos hablando de las novedades de nuestra querida consola de sobremesa WII, de la cual en el E3, no habido mucha sorpresa ya que la mayoría de juegos presentados eran los conocidos o  muy esperados ( Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wii Fit plus y Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers), aunque también hubo alguna muy grata sorpresa “por lo menos para mí”, como fueron el Metroid Other M (Un gran regalo para los hardcore, y el Resident Evil DarkSide Chronicles). Hablemos de ellos ahora, más detalladamente.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 y New super mario bros Wii.

Estos son los dos nuevos juegos de Mario para Wii, de lo cuales hay que reconocer que parece que no se han partido mucho el coco para hacerlos, ya que no muestran mucha diferencia con sus respectivos antecesores. Pero como la historia nunca han sido el punto fuerte de los juegos de Mario(Mejor dejar eso a Link y a su princesa), aunque ya sabemos todos que estos juegos destacan por sus jugables y divertidas plataformas, no por ello facilonas,y por lucir muy bien en Wii sobretodo el Galaxy,cuya primera parte es íncreible.

Lo seguro es que estos dos juegos nos den horas de diversión, en solitario con el Mario Galaxy ( Vamos a reconocerlo el 2º player no hace mucho) y con los amigos en el New Super Mario Bros (Seguro que éste, no sacará muchas risas).

‘Os dejo estos dos videos, pero que sepáis que hasta 2010 no vais a poder disfrutar de estos juegos,aunque puede que se adelanten’

Wii Fit Plus y nuevos accesorios WII.

Bueno el Wii Fit, es uno de estos juegos que a los hardcore no nos emocionan mucho, pero a la gente que le gusta mantenerse en línea desde su casa con un entrenador personal propio sí, pues esta bastante bien con nuevos minijuegos que te ayudan a ejercitar todo tu cuerpo y  entretienen bastante, pero no deja de ser un Wii Fit 2.

A parte de esto Nintendo también presentó dos accesorios más para la Wii, los cuales fueron el Wii Motion Plus y el Wii Vitality Sensor. El Motion Plus agudiza al máximo la sensibilidad de la consola, haciendo así la sensación de juego más impresionante, pero de momento el único juego que hace uso de él es el Wii Sport Resort, aunque en el futuro juegos como el Zelda o el Red Steel 2 harán uso de él ( Os imagináis usar la espada maestra como si fuese vuestra…bueno aunque aún hay que esperar bastante ya que del zelda de Wii sólo hay un artwork) y el Wii Vitality Sensor se encargará de medir las pulsaciones y la tensión en juegos como el Wii Fit Plus y otros de salud, ( El cual me parece un accesorio que no es para  consola si no para una farmacia, pero bueno cosas peores hay).

Metroid other M y otros juegos.

La gran sorpresa del E3 2oo9, fue el Metroid other M, el cual se sitúa después de la gran triología para GameCube y Wii, con bellos gráficos, y con una jugabilidad que mezcla 2D, con primera persona, y una 3ª persona como en un Tomb Raider, nuestra cazarecompesas rubia favorita oculta en ese gran traje de última tecnología vuelve mejor que nunca, con un título que promete engachar desde el primer momento a una gran aventura en el espacio, llena de acción y horas de juego como sus antecesesores, y cuidado porque el viaje no va hacer fácil.

Aunque todavía no sabemos mucho más sobre el juego lo esperamos con ansias para el 2010.

También se dieron a conocer otros juegos que aunque no vengan de mano directa de Nintendo tiene muy buena pinta como son el Final Fantasy de manos Square-Enix, que promete ser una buena aventura gráfica siguiendo los paso de acción real de los anteriores Crystal Chronicles en GameCube y NDS, el Resident Evil DarkSide Chronicles que sigue el modo de juego de Umbrella con motor gráfico preparado para asustar y The Conduit desarrollado por sega, en un ambiente futurítico aprobechando a tope el multijugador y por último de la mano de Ea Games aterrizá en Dead Space el terrórifico juego ambientado en el espacio quSsFcXZe no luce nada mal en wii.

NINTENDO DS.

Wii no fue la única en recibir novedades, la pequeña portatil de Nintendo la DS, también tuvo bastantes y nada decepcionantes.

The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks

Aunque ya se sabía de su existencia antes de E3, un Zelda siempre es bien recibido, y más uno que explota todas las utilidades de la Nintendo Ds. Todavía no sabemos de que va a tratar el nuevo Zelda, pero Link surcara todo el continente con un tren cuyas vías podrás elegir tú con el lápiz táctil, la temática del juego no ha cambiado mucho a parte de lo del el tren, Link seguirá yendo de templo pasando puzzles y venciendo despiadadas bestias pero esta vez con la ayuda de gran solado de hierro, Link también contará con nuevas armas como un látigo al más puro estilo Indiana o una especie de rama con hoja que sirve de ventilador.

El juego seguirá un estilo gráfico a lo Wind Waker de GameCube aprovechando la consola a tope, como nos tiene acostumbrados la saga en Ds. La fecha de salida se espera que sea diciembre de este mismo año.

Mario con Luigi y versus Donkey Kong de nuevo en DS.

Otros dos juegos presentados en el E3 fueron el Mario y Luigi Bowser’s inside story el nuevo juego de los hermanos en RPG que tal como dice su nombre ( para los que esten muy bien en inglés, viene a decir algo así como la historia del interior de Bowser)se juega dentro de Bowser, en sus entrañas, el  juego seguirá la mecánica de los anterios Mario y Luigi pero con otra historia; el otro juego es la 3ª parte(creo) de Mario VS Donkey llamada Mini March Again un juego que continua la guerra de Mario y el cada vez más acabado Donkey Kong que desde su grandes juegos en la Super Nintendo y Nintendo 64 no ha vuelto a sacar nada bueno ( por el bien del gorila, volver Rare).

Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSiver

Estas son las dos “nuevas” ediciones de la multimillonaria saga Pokémon, pongo nuevas entrecomillas porque se trata un remake de las antiguas ediciones Oro y Plata sacada por el 2001 en América y en Europa, y en 1999 en el país del sol naciente.

Estas ediciones traen unos gráficos renovados al de sus antecesoras obviamente, y algunas nuevas características como son un edificio de minijuegos, un nuevo aparatito tipo tamagochi para entrenar a nuestro Pokémon en cualquier lugar  y algunos eventos desbloqueables a través de tener ciertos Pokémon que nos permiten llenar la tan inmensa Pokédex, para los Pokémaniacos este juego es uno de los grandes, ya que se esperaba este Remake desde hace mucho tiempo, porque estas ediciones estan clasificadas como la mejor de la saga incluyendo dos regiones para explorar (Johto y Kanto)  y ahora más de 493 pokémons para capturar. ¡ Hazte con todos,… y no mueras en el intento!

Golden Sun y Kingdom Hearts

Para acabar con buen sabor de boca, hablemos de dos los RPGs más esperados de Nintendo DS, los cuáles son Golden Sun DS, juego que debutó impresionando con gran historia y calidad en la pequeña de 32 bits GBA, teniendo un par de años después la 2ª parte Golden Sun La edad perdida y ahora el Golden Sun 3 con escenarios en 3D y con impresionantes invocaciones de los dioses, hasta 2010 no podremos jugarlo, pero podemos ir viendo videos para hacernos la boca agua, y el otro juego el Kingdom Heart, el cual empezó en la segunda plataforma de Sony, y ahora va a la pórtatil de Nintendo, después de pasar por GBA y la PSP, el juego parece que sigue su línea si defraudar a nadie y los nintenderos deseando que la 3ª parte sea para la Nintendo Wii.

Bueno GRACIAS por leernos y espero que no nos ocurra otra vez lo de los 6 meses, bueno un saludo y espero que volváis aquí.Chao

Escrito por: Tor

]]> http://lemonmanx.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/time-to-kill/ Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:40:02 +0000 lemonmanx http://lemonmanx.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/time-to-kill/

Well folks, its Metroid Prime Trilogy time!! I’ve been eagerly awaiting this. However, due to NAL being jerks (see: MPT releasing down-under in October in standard casing), I have made the decision to import from the good ol’ USA. Much like I did with Brawl, I have gone through PlayAsia. I can’t wait! Currently it says they are prepping the order, so I will have to wait several days no doubt.

So, how can I kill the time? I’m finding ways, replaying Phoenix Wright 1-3 and enjoying some puzzling puzzles in Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. Those games alone should keep me going another few days. Should they fail, I am also trying out C.O.R.E. But between you and me, C.O.R.E. so far has been nothing but rubbish. So bland and boring and unimaginative. So I dont’ know how much longer I’ll be able to sit through that. I finished the Conduit, it wasn’t too bad. Very open ending, and without a sequel it would be a failure of a story line in my opinion, what with the complete lack of closure and all.

However, I haven’t felt compelled to go back to it because I’m so far behind everyone online, and there is no option to play people at your skill level. So for the most part, playing online involves me getting in, then grenade raped while my opponent hops around and it gets quite tiresome eventually. Especially on bland levels with no customisable weapon sets. Come on, Conduit 2… prove me wrong.

Also. Keep an eye on WiiLoaded. Entering phase: reload………..

It’s time for that segment you all love and look forward to, Leave it to Kero! Umm… yeah.

So no blogs in fifteen days. Wanna know why?

NOTHING HAS HAPPENED.

Nada. Niet. Zilch. Zippo. Cero. Kyo.

Well, nothing really of interest to all two of my readers and definitely nothing of interest to those strange fellows out on the intarwebs.

Firstly, I’ve been spending a reasonable amount of time playing The Conduit. I’m now level 17 or so out of 24 on the online. I can pwn ‘most everyone with pistol headshots. It’s a lot of fun.

I’ve also been helping my dad restore our other wooden boat, a dayboat-ish sized dinghy called a Miracle. It’s mainly involved crawling inside tight spaces and ruining t-shirts, but it’s also involved monotonous scraping down of bits of wood. Actually, ‘monotonous’ is a pretty good description for the last fifteen days.

My main ray of sunshine recently has come from watching the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, which is beautiful and brilliant and just plain would have made me cry at some points had I not lost that ability. It may look like a cartoon about catching cards to a mere onlooker, but it’s actually deep and all about human relationship and different kinds of love. In fact, I often got annoyed when the cards got in the way of the relationships.
The characters are all beautifully crafted and the viewer gains an emotional investment in every one, whilst even the weirder relationships (young student-teacher, cousin incest, gayness) are only used to help explore the way that love affects the lives of everybody.
Anyway, it’s really, REALLY fricking good (as good as FMA in my opinion), but only if you watch the Japanese version. In the dub most of the relationships are removed, Tomoyo gets the really, really stupid name of Madison, and you don’t get the awesome music.

Oh, and Li is also awesome.

One side effect of this is that most of the CCS fans are girls, so I’ve been going onto the girly side of the web. It’s weird, but manageable.

(I probably like CCS for the same reason that I liked Twilight – some kind of deep-seated feminism.)

Oyasumi-nasai!

The original Red Steel was a bit of a let down but Ubisoft are promising to rectify those niggling issues for Red Steel 2. To prove they’re serious and to give us a glimpse at how the game will play, Jason Vandenberg lends his tones to a walkthrough video showing a new location, some new combos and a ninja…What we’re shown is a segment of a cut-scene moving into a check point half way through a deserty-looking level. The new cell shaded art-style is doing wonders for Red Steel 2 and the Wii for that matter as its looking great with fluid movements.

What we’re all interested in seeing is the sword fighting what with the new Wii MotionPlus on clicked into our Wii remotes. After seeing a few enemies getting blown away with a shotgun, out comes the blade and the slashing begins causing me to sigh in relief – it looks fun, real fun! Then comes the ninja who is smart and deadly, blocking your attacks and dodging bullets. You hear Jason say “every games better with ninjas in” and in this case he’s so right.

After the disappointment of The Conduit, Red Steel 2 has reignited that flame for FPSs on the Wii. A flame that I hope still burns later this year when the game is released.

Action has recently been taken regarding the influx of hackers and cheaters on Sega’s recently released The Conduit.

Initially online players were finding themselves competing against other players who were able to produce infinite ammo and infinite health, now the situation has gotten even worse. Thankfully both Sega and High Voltage have decided to issue the ‘banhammer‘ to any such players found abusing or cheating throughout online matches.

Source

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No that’s not my video.  Ironically I had to deal with a hacker earlier in the day (forgot his/her username) that wouldn’t die at all despite being bombarded with direct grenades constantly by me and my teammates, but I digress.  You can check out my experience on the map if you’re really interested!

Anyway if some of you may not know, The Conduit hacking community has moved a bit beyond invincibility and stuff.  They’ve even found a way to mess around with the multiplayer maps.  I first entered the area on accident when I really didn’t feel tired.  I entered a game on the Bunker map at 12:13 AM Pacific Time.  I found myself in a strange map that I’ve seen before in the video.  I was pretty excited to try it out.  Anyway the game ended and I decided I wanted to really test it out this time.

So Bunker was chosen again and went to the same map.  The hacker who did this was xJohnXX.  I know this for sure because he was speeding throughout the level and when our team started to get ahead in the score may coincidentally started spazzing out.  I can’t believe hackers have so much control over this game.  My controller was spinning and I was constantly shooting things.  I held B and everything was alright, sort of.  If I were to ever let go I would start spazzing out again but holding B basically let me do anything normal with the exception of shooting.  So I resorted to grenade spamming (which I had an unlimited amount of in this game).  I usually aimed for the non-hacker on the hacker’s team, every time the hacker started to get close to death he would cheat and run away) and I was pretty successful.  Eventually our team of 3 had dominated with a score of 21 to 20 when the hacker decided to end the match at 12:26 Am Pacific Time.

Anyway I just wanted to point this out.  I would hope HVS blocks this guy though.  He ruined any fun I could have possibly had that night/morning.  >:(

I do have to say the map was enjoyable despite being so barren and plain.  I can see large firefights being pretty fun here if only the hacker played fairly (even though I suspect he was holding back) and there were more players.  It’s way more fun than Bunker which is the only map I dislike in the game.

UPDATE: I decided to try to play again after finishing up this post.  It’s currently 12:47 AM Pacific Time  and I’m going back to the same map and hacker with more players this time!  The game’s free for all despite me choosing Worldwide Team Reaper again.

1:00 AM.  Still playing.  The time has frozen at 6:27.  I’m currently last.   I’ve shot the hacker twice and it’s pretty fun right now.

1:22 AM Pacific.  In the lead.  I have the least amount of deaths.  Catching up was just the problem.

1:30 AM Pacific Time.  I quit with 60 something deaths and 115 kills.  First place still.  I enjoyed myself but I should be heading to bed.  The hacker was spazzing out for a majority of the match he was fourth out of five places when I left.

Of things of note:  Grenades are no longer spammable.  I guess you get infinite grenades at the cost of no shooting or risk dying from not being able to control yourself.

Anyway it’s been fun.  I take back my harsh words earlier.  It was just fun practicing my shooting.  I actually got really good at using the SCAR thanks to this.  I do hope I run into the map again and I’m just allowed to do some mindless killing with no time limit or something.  Anyway time to head to bed.  It is now 1:34 AM, Pacific Time.

Aside from suffering from swine flu, spelling things with an “x” and dissecting the career of Orson Welles, the Game On lads met up again this weekend to discuss all things gaming. It’s the GameOn Podcast!

Topics in this weeks show include:

- GI Joe – Xbox 360
- The Secret of Monkey Island – Iphone/Pc/360
- Hawx – Xbox 360
- The Conduit – Wii
- G-Force – Xbox 360
- Call of Duty: World at War – Map Pack 3
- Battlefield 1943 – Xbox 360
- Wolfenstein
- Halo ODST
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Borderlands
- The PS3 Slim

The Wii has become a sort of mecca for shovelware, lackluster forays in minigames, and other throwaway adventures that are nowhere near the $30-$50 you might be spending. First-person shooters are very hit-or-miss on the console as well, which is why I was pleasantly surprised upon taking notice of The Conduit, one of the system’s most solid offerings. While it isn’t breaking the FPS mold and it certainly isn’t turning the genre on its head, it offers some decidedly fantastic gameplay that you can’t argue with since the Wii sorely needs a title like this to even begin to stand up to heavy-hitters like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This futuristic tale places you in the shoes of one Michael Ford, who while fighting through a dilapidated Metro tunnel, happens upon an enormous conduit of sorts deep within the heart of the structure. After taking out numerous aliens that happen to be surrounding it, he takes a step within the conduit, only for the viewer to be taken almost a week back in time to witness the events leading up to this one. Ford is asked by the leader of the strange Trust organization, John Adams, to recover a missing Trust prototype that was carted off by a terrorist known only as Prometheus. Michael Ford is tasked with ensuring that the ambush on Prometheus in order to recover the prototype and capture the terrorist before he can cause any more harm. However, as you probably imagined, the story goes deeper than a simple “catch-the-terrorist” operation. The plot is revealed between gameplay, so it’s a bit awkward in that regard since you’re half-playing, half-learning about the in-game world. You might lose interest in what’s actually going on early on since it’s a bit hard to keep up with the storyline when it jumps around and is told in interstitials.
 
As far as gameplay goes, you’ll be gallivating back and forth throughout a myriad of different locations, including subways, hotels, banks, and even short jaunts outside (shock and awe!). To do so you’ll utilize a very impressive control scheme that relies on both the Wii remote and nunchuk in order to create a very firm FPS control system that works quite well. Sure, moving and aiming is still a bit of a chore as you would expect (think a more polished Red Steel), but The Conduit has done a fantastic job of making a very playable Wii FPS. If it weren’t for the fact that you’re required to keep your arms moving while playing you might forget you’re playing a Wii game. Unfortunately, grenades have been mapped so that you must pretend to toss one via the nunchuk and those throws are VERY hit-or-miss. You’ll need to high-tail it out of the vicinity when tossing a grenade, because they often land so close to you and their explosions are so potent you’ll likely be taken along with the blast.
 
There aren’t any puzzles to speak of save for some simple hide-and-seek with artifacts on the walls with the prototype or some very simple navigation anomalies, so as far as gameplay goes, this is a very vanilla shooter. It doesn’t do much to reinvent the genre, but for the Wii it’s quite impressive as it’s completely playable. It feels just like a “real” cinematic experience that you might find on one of the ‘bigger” consoles, something that the system has been sorely lacking. Despite its rather mundane run-and-gun aesthetic, The Conduit does remain quite entertaining, and I declare that a very big accomplishment.
 
The graphics are pretty impressive for a  Wii title, but nothing particularly standout in the realm of beautiful eye candy you might be spoiled with on your fancy PS3s and Xbox 360s. Still, you can tell that some hard work went into making this title something the devs could be proud of, to herald as the Wii’s one “true” first-person shooter experience. You’ll take note of some particularly impressive level design, though the aliens (the Drudges) are admittedly lacking in the awesome department. They’ll rarely change throughout the game and you’ll begin to realize exactly why the aliens were named such. The voice acting is actually top-notch, and you’ll find that the rather bland story interstitials are given new life by charismatic voice actors who clearly were interested i the project and making it the best it could be.
 
The Conduit also features some very intense multiplayer mode that supports Wii Speak, but only between friends. As you can imagine this severely cripples the amount of real involvement you can experienc within multiplayer scuffles since you can’t even communicate with them. At least these offerings are robust, and shootouts are fast and furious versions of the actual campaign. However, even though the game is still relatively new, it’s difficult to find enough players to be matched up with consistently. This is a problem that always seems to plague newer or lesser-known games, even on the Xbox 360 or PS3, and since frankly the Wii is not an online system, it should have been omitted entirely since it will become relatively useless in a matter of time.
 
All in all, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by The Conduit and most of what it had to offer, save for a few rough edges and banalities that could have been easily avoided. If you’re looking for some great (albeit generic) FPS action on a Nintendo console, The Conduit is a great choice. We can only hope that future FPS titles for the system adopt the superb controls and tightness that are lacking in most of the other games in the Wii’s library.

A lot has been said, written, and typed about hardcore third-party sales figures on the Nintendo Wii. While numbers for such titles may not rival that of the cutting-edge systems, we may not be seeing the complete picture. It is no secret that development costs on what is basically a last-gen console “retread” are exceptionally less expensive than the current-day process. Also, it seems that today, software sold is NOT considered successful until it reaches the 500,000 unit mark. Could these facts be causing a misinterpretation on the part of gaming and enthusiast press?

According to VGChartz.com, House of the Dead: Overkill sold almost 235,000 copies in 10 weeks(keep in mind that the site does not track past that point). The game reached it’s sales pinnacle in week two with over 44,000 units moved worldwide. This suggests that, even with a Metacritic score of 78, gamers were paying attention to the reviews of major sites and publications. The score is actually decieving as well, for ratings on the lower end are from less reputable sources, possibly searching out controversy.

Example number two is MadWorld. Released on March 10th 2009, the game pushed roughly 260,000 through retail to the consumer in two and a half months. Gamers definitely had their eye on the title, as it’s week one sales were in the neighborhood of 65,000 copies. An old-school “beat ‘em up” with an artistic flair, MadWorld was extremely popular with the mainstream gaming press. It did break the Metacritic 80 percent barrier(by one point), but again, how many of the lower reviews are credible?

Maybe the largest hardcore Wii experiment to date, The Conduit, blasted onto the gaming scene  June 23rd 2009 selling 83,000 copies here and abroad in it’s first week. There was no question that High Voltage Software, the game’s developer, had the spotlight aimed their direction. The Conduit had boasted lofty lighting and particle systems, along with the most-intuitive first-person-shooter controls since Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The title has slowly fizzled out to a measly 8,000 units moved in it’s sixth week at retail, culminating at a total of 200,000. With a Metacritic score of 69(eek), it seems that most trustworthy reviews are in the 80’s and 70’s.

So, what does the bulk of this information mean exactly? These signs point to the fact that there IS still some segment of a core gaming audience on Nintendo’s tiny white console. SEGA, who published each of the games above, must believe that this is case. But as far as SEGA, Headstrong, Platinum Games, and High Voltage are concerned, do these sales figues warrant sequels? There is still much that we do not know. How many of the units moved at retail were at a reduced price point? Regardless, gamers’ support is crucial. Do you think that the Wii needs more hardcore software? If yes, then ask yourself this: how many of these titles have YOU purchased? Voting begins with YOUR gaming dollar. Do not let that vote go unheard.

This weekend, I will be in the “killin’ NAZIS” bussiness! And bussiness will-be-a-boomin’. Call of Duty: World at War’s latest Map pack (number 3) has the best Zombie map yet! Switching on the main generator is merely the beginning. Using the teleporters, activating electrified barriers, and SUPER-supersizing your weapons make this latest add-on A MUST BUY. Did I mention the additional new maps? BoSox/Yanks series and Entourage this weekend too.  James S.
PSN/Gamertag: elSCIENTIFICO

This week I’ll be going through the new episode of Qore primarily to watch the lovely Audrey Cleo tell me what’s out on Blu-Ray this month to plan my home viewing for the next couple weeks.  Other PS3 activities include going through the long list of demos I’ve downloaded the past two months that I haven’t even touched, some hopeful progression in The Show 09  and Hot Shots, and the online issues with Fat Princess have been addressed so it’s time for me to dive face first into some cake.  In the theatres, I’m going to check out 500 Days of Summer for the 2nd time and hopefully catch another feature called “Adam”.     I’m also in week 2 of my EA Active 30 day challenge for the Wii and immediately after a work out I usually pop in the Conduit to try to get the hang of these motion controls for an FPS.  As always my now usual addiction to Rock Band Unplugged always applies.   Sean C.
PSN/Steam: shonathan

Heya! This weekend I feel like partying!!  … Mario Party 8 (Wii) that is! Hehe. Then I think I’ll throw down a little on WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 09!  Game Girl Tess

Was the Wii just a fad whose popularity has come and gone? If so, it was a lot faster than anyone expected. When the Wii first came out, personally, I was not that excited about it. Then I got a chance to play it. I admit I found Wii Sports to be quite entertaining. But only when played with a bunch of friends. Playing by yourself? Not so much. The motion control system was very creative and worked like a charm (However charms work). But I kept thinking to myself, what else is there? What else can Nintendo do to stop me from saying: This is just a gimmick.

They can stop me from saying that by making more quality titles to utilize their motion control technology of course! To some extent, they did. But was it enough? Were these games fun? Funner than Wii Sports at least? In my opinion, no. Not at all. Especially the third party titles.

Being a huge fan of the original Mario Kart growing up, then playing it again on the DS (which was an absolute blast), I finally gave in and got Mario Kart for the Wii to play with my little nephew during his summer break. I thought it would be fun to relive some of the great Mario Kart memories and make new ones. Unfortunately, I only played it once with the Wii’s motion controls and never played it again. In fact, I’ve put it up for sale on Glyde.com in order to get some of that money back to put towards Wii Sports Resort instead. (Wii Sports seems to be the only games worthy of the motion controls) For me, playing the Mario Kart on Wii would have been a better experience if I used the D-pad controller most experienced gamers are so used to.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said recently in this Wired.com article:

“Consistently, big time titles will be released in the marketplace for this hardware,” he said. “When that stops, to reinvigorate the console, or to put it another way, I think the current decline in hardware sales is due to the fact that there aren’t many big titles (at the moment).”

I am not about to argue with Mr. Iwata here, but I do think there are bigger issues with the Nintendo Wii that is the direct result of the drastic drop in sales, other than the lack of big titles. And no, we can’t blame the economy for everything.

For one, I think the whole motion control frenzy of the Wii, has lost its luster. The gimmick is wearing off and it shows with the newest hyped up title for the Wii, ‘The Conduit’. Wasn’t that game supposed to bring the FPS genre to the hardcore Wii gamers? The hype was definitely there. But it seems The Conduit didn’t sell as much as it should have, even with decent reviews. Why is that? It was a big title, right? So was it due to the motion controls? Are gamers over it already? If so, should Microsoft and Sony re-think their future motion control ventures?

Many gamers are used to using the D-pad controllers and aren’t all caught up in the motion control craze the game industry has just begun getting into. If Nintendo increases it’s processing power of its console, brings back the awesome Mario platform games of the past and truly creates a next generation entertainment system without the gimmicky motion controls, I can see it being more successful. Indeed, it can be argued that the Wii is already a success. It blew the competition out of the water for many months. But for how much longer? Sales are hurting now and Nintendo is finally feeling the pain. And ask yourself this question. Ask your friends as well. Are you playing the Wii as much as you used to? I am not.

My last point about the Wii is this, and it’s probably the most important for me. The Wii can be fun to play… sometimes. But it’s not a console that I like to play by myself. The Wii is at its greatest when played with a bunch of friends and/or family. And how often do you get the chance to do that? More often than having the opportunity to play it by yourself? Probably not. If you have Wii parties all the time, then I assume you are happy with your Nintendo Wii investment. For other gamers like myself, who do not have 3 or more people to play with at any given time, the Wii just can’t compare to an Xbox 360 or PS3 entertainment investment. Besides, can we really afford all these Wii injuries?

So what is it? Why is Nintendo hurting so bad right now with sales? Is it the lack of big name titles? Or are gamers getting over the initial buzz of the Wii motion control controls?

Please express your opinion, as I have done in this article, in the comment section.