Trent Petronaitis sinks his teeth into the Conduit- been one of the big players this holiday season, is it really something to pick it up?
Lots of people for the past year have been following High Voltage’s FPS for the Nintendo Wii console- explaining it to be the god send for the system and what more will bring a flourish of good titles to the system.
This game was said to be the end all of the casual market on the system- and showing the world that yes the Wii can do high graphic first person shooters. It’s graphical engine which High Voltage developed from the ground up was said to be breathe taking and the best stuff the Wii can do- and even close to braking the Wii in terms of how awesome the graphic engine is.
So we saw the screenshots and looked at the footage- and thought “well this looks alright†some jumped off the idea, some jumped so far they could glide home. The fact is people responded to these remarks.
Fast forward to when the game is released, people pick it up to see how well High Voltage has done their mission. Has the game they set out to develop work?
I was originally going to pick up the collectors edition- but due to the cost and the fact the retailer I was getting the game from ran out of copies- I voted for the much much cheaper option of just the retail game. No big difference anyway- just a fancy art book in a cardboard box.
The first thing I did like all people was hop straight into the multiplayer. It was here where I spend most of my time with this game- and where I learned the most about the flaws and the pros of this title.
Multiplayer is online, and there is no local multiplayer. I can’t remember the developers reasons for this. I think in the end it was a time problem. But the fact of the matter is- that is a big bummer. Because multiplayer is the only thing this game has going for it.
Reading forums I heard that this single player mode was the dreaded beast of the west- something to avoid and for the most part very boring and liquefied in a bad B grade movie plot. I took the step to play this single player and found that the story line is indeed a B grade movie style plot. Which makes no scene and over all squishes the game down with it. It feels like Halo crossed with Half Life gameplay wise and in this day and age isn’t something to be proud of making it just another generic first person shooter experience. And for those who rallied up when the Australian version of Medal of Honour missed out on its online- unlike that title the single player experience isn’t worth two cents.
Lets go back to the Wi-Fi experience, playing with everyone is like all online titles- you get some people who are respectful and in team environments back up your advances on the other team. But you also have people who are Halo-tards. I was playing online in a team environment for the first time and this fucker was taunting his kill first thing I thought was “oh great team play is full of halo-tardsâ€.
Fear not because team play has another side, a side which is like CTF and the best part is its separated from the Halo-tard team play mode. You have some pretty funky CTF style missions as well. One of them involves just one “flag†(which is a ball) that plays pretty awesome- after I got the hang of it.
Friend play is pretty awesome- but to bad its not local or like Mario Kart- 2p local and Online at the same time. Now that was shit awesome. So sadly The Conduit doesn’t take prize there either- as been the best Wi-Fi game on the Wii.
Playing the title online feels very restricted by what Nintendo has put in place- at least the title does have Wii Speak support which sadly only works for friend matches. 
Every so often I play online and get loaded out of the level or I can’t find anyone in the search or the search finds someone, kicks them out then I’m playing against myself online? The hell. This experience alone makes it feel like your playing a beta product – or at least online isn’t debugged enough.
Weapon sets are another pretty dodgy problem in this game. You have “halo esk items†in a few of the sets which do crap all damage- but if you can master them and learn your timing they do epic damage. It seems to me that these are stupid weapons. In fact lots of the weapons are riddled with reloading issues, varying degrees of to much or to little power etc. I just hate loading up a Wi-Fi match to find some idiots picked one of the sets with these horrible weapons.
Now earlier I talked about how High Voltage prised this game as possibly the best graphics on the Wii- no it doesn’t even come close. While the engine they have developed is impressive, overall its pretty weak to a few other titles out there. If they say their close to reaching the Wii’s potential with this engine then they need to really reshape how their engine works because other titles a few from Nintendo and even Ubisofts Red Steal look equally as good or better. Overall graphics are pretty over-rated by both the developer and the fan base.
Music I do have to say the score for The Conduit is impressive. Though the game lacks variety in its music and thus then again is lacking.
Overall the game is one of High Voltages first original IP’s and while it stands- it doesn’t stand tall. For those without any other titles they could play (meaning those with out say an Xbox or a good pc) the game is a great first person shooter for the Nintendo Wii. But otherwise its holly title with a few good pointers which puts it with the rest of the crowd making it just another first person shooter.
Score: So-So
Its a type of game which you must like it to get into it- remove all its flaws and take it like it is. Over all it feels like your playing a beta game.
Articles - By Trent Petronaitis at 9:52 pm
A new article series for my own personal blog. its called Talk’n about Random shit I don’t understand but still anyway or TARSIDUBASA for short. Our first article is about video game prices. The article ends with tears as I realise my idea isn’t going to save the world.
Now lets talk about prices, and this amazing growing amount of people wanting stuff for free and of course the lovely predicament of payed goods having cheaper prices.
Now this morning I was catching up on the latest Video Game news- more specifically the Nintendo side of the coin, which seems to be the most active around now. What was the news? Pokemon Dungeon is heading to WiiWare, the price point? 1200. Now in some ways that’s not to shabby, depending on the content included. Now these games originally appeared on the DS, they hit prices around $60AUD RRP. Which means, for 1200 Nintendo Points, if the game is the same quality of the DS versions, you should be getting one hell of a deal.
On this site is a nice section of comments posted by the users. You know what the biggest complaint in these comments? Apparently 1200 is way to many points to pay for this. Now in some ways I agree, defiantly the WiiWare service is more basic quality compared to the garbage on retail releases. This then lowers the expectation of what an average price point should be. Also the fact that even from Nintendo they haven’t seemed to have hit the nail on the head on how the service should work- meaning the quality is debatable again.
So it be a price to large to sallow and if it was on the DS- it would be acceptable (as it would be about $18). So why does this cheapish price feel to large on the WiiWare service?
I believe it is because the highest the price can go is to close to this price. Which means for people still not following- to the average consumer eye, this doesn’t seem cheaper then the retail product. Also because of the appearance of past downloadable titles- it feels like a less of a product for more. Which means for most customers, they see this as in fact while its cheaper then if it was a retail release, they are seeing it as a rip off because its got the appearance of a lesser product and is close to the highest price point on the service.
Okay so we have covered downloadable systems, lets look into the same philosophy used on retail games.
X game retails for $100AUD RRP. This means that the recommended retail price is $100 and this usually is the highest retailers will set the price. X game is on special for lets say $20 off. The game is now $80 AUD this means that its cheaper than the $100. Now usually this would be a point that people will see this as a reasonable price considering its cheaper than the $100. But slowly people have got the pespection that the big 3 are money hungry bastards who don’t give a shit about them. Which I say for the most part is true.
Now once this $80 mark becomes the “reasonable†price point- while the games are still $100 AUD RRP. The customers see this $80 as the RRP which means they are now looking for deals cheaper than this point. Which means a retailer selling X game for $50 AUD RRP will be considered a great deal by many.
Now we are in the phrase especially with the Wii that this price point for the “hardcores†(is this problem with those people who buy Imagine and Bratz games?) where $50 is now considered the RRP or close to it by the consumer eye. When it in fact is still and always has been $100 AUD RRP.
Now lets assume that the point I raised in the last paragraph is true (that this “cheaper is better†ideal is only from the hardcoreâ€) because the games that are been picked up are Bratz and Imagine games- that means that the developers see these as the only ones selling. Which means that the “hardcore†titles will be still a high price point for longer because its not selling as well- and when its time to shift stock it will be dropped only then. Which means for the most part sales will be contrasted on the “casual†titles which go down to the prices “hardcore†find acceptable.
I don’t even know if I’m still making sense here.
Lets look at this say there is 54 million Wii consoles each owned by separate households. Now if a developer made a game which everyone must had, and swiped the market and it was only priced at $1 AUD RRP. Now if everyone owned this title- that means 54 million sales and that means that the publisher sees 54 million (before it all goes away and they are left with nothing).
Now if the same title was at $100 and only 1 million people bought it and it wasn’t a “must have title†or no one picked it up because of its price (remember people in a shop look at something if its $1 and the rest is $100 for the most part when its a game- if it looks appealing then they’d pick that shit up) so that means about 100 million? Dude I just fucked up my argument.
My point was going to be along the lines that cheaper games means happier people and more money to support more of your titles and then something like you still get money from the title? Fuck just go digital distro already and leave all the people out of it and you would still get a good amount. :/
July 14, 2009
News - By Trent Petronaitis at 5:57 pm
I love it when I announce a crazy new design has been made, uploaded, and hated by all. Because I do it so often. I thought !1 was awesome- and it was. Until I got bored and made this new design- for the most part for the new 5xxt, then I was like. Why not implement it across the board. So here it is on trinest.com (green) and 5xxt (blue). I just need another site to make (red) the colour 
Both designs have been converted from raw HTML developed in NotePad to a WordPress theme for use on trinest.com and 5xxt.com
The theme during development was called “Project Soil†and was designed using the default colours which 5xxt’s theme now has. Which means it was developed using blue- not the traditional green my designs have used.
The plan is in the end to develop 5xxt as a video game fansite, which we are looking for people interested in writing a few articles. Trinest.com the plan is to remove slowly more and more posts about “the latest game†as a review, but more posts relating to random crap and video game wise- more impressions rather then reviews. Essentially trinest.com is going “off the recordâ€.
July 8, 2009
I love doing mini reviews instead of big cinematic reviews for games. This is just an in focus essentially with a few points I’ve noticed while playing.
Another Code Wii came out in UK on the 26th June. And since then like the original DS title has picked up a niche following. 8 working days later my copy imported from the UK arrived at my door.
So first impressions are its very cinematic compared to the Nintendo DS titles made by Cing. The animation and graphics are quite sharp for the Nintendo Wii and overall give an impressive feel to the game. Lost graphic wise is the chapter title screens. These are very plain and the font looks pretty cheesy.
A few chapters in the story so far is pretty complying and like the past games from Cing on Nintendo platforms quite interesting to see where it leads.
The title however isn’t as focused on puzzles, and the puzzles which are included can get repetitive and boring. But while that’s true for the most part- there are some interesting gems in there.
The soundtrack is mostly quite lobby music like Another Code DS and Hotel Dusk. But the tracks seem to be much more longer and more thought seems to be placed in them. They are of quality that a remix of them played on a Piano or a up-beat techno version would be impressive and loved.
Score: Thumbs Up
Overall is a purchase worthy sequel with some impressive quirks and pros which keep the player coming back for more. It shows that the style of game can be done on a console- but in some ways I wish it was a DS game, then I would have something to play while on long trips.
My copy of Another Code R: A Journy into Lost Memories arrived today. Here are some happy snaps of what is in the box and the box.
