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The Conduit finds publisher, rumored to be Sega
Now that we've all recovered from Nintendo's first-party / first-person gaffe, we've received word that The Conduit may have found a spiky blue publisher. First off, the facts: developer High Voltage has told IGN that it has "decided on" a publisher for its space-themed first-person shooter for the Wii and that it will be revealed before the end of the week.As to whom it might be, IGN also notes that Sega has recently hosted a folder labeled "The Conduit" on its public FTP site (it has since been removed). While that seems like a pretty incriminating clue, we remain doubtful until we see an official press release. Fortunately, we don't have to wait much longer. Gallery: The Conduit
Rumor: Sega to publish The Conduit
Even though we find it strange that High Voltage is reluctant to reveal The Conduit's publisher, one thing is certain: we can't stop talking about it. Maybe this was High Voltage's cunning plan all along: refuse to reveal some incredibly minor, trivial detail about your eagerly anticipated game, and drive bloggers crazy with curiosity. If so, it totally worked with us.Now, new evidence in this long-running saga suggests Sega will publish the game. Specifically, evidence that ... no longer exists. NeoGAFfers claim to have seen an empty folder named "The Conduit" on Sega of America's press site, only the folder has now been removed. Adding further credibility to the NeoGAF sighting is Nintendo Everything, which screencapped the site before the file was taken down. As usual, no official confirmation means this is classed as rumor for now, but Sega publishing the game seems plausible.Source: Folder spotted!Source: Folder screencapped!%Gallery-25003%[Thanks, Skizz-Nutt!]
The Conduit presents combat fail
If you woke up this morning thinking, "Man, I just want to watch a bunch of dudes and creatures fall over in a sanitary and blood-free way," you have come to the right place. The video above hardly deserves the name, but it's hilarious and so worth a play. What's fifty seconds, anyway? Especially when you get to watch the bouncing bloodless bodies of The Conduit. Nothing goes with coffee like animated corpses! Gallery: The Conduit [Via Gamekyo blogs]
High Voltage Hot Rod Show 'basically finished'
Even though it's the most recent High Voltage game to be revealed, there's a good chance High Voltage Hot Rod Show will beat both The Conduit and Animales de la Muerte to market. In an interview with WiiWare World, producer Josh VanVeld has revealed the game is "basically finished," and discussed the racer in quite a bit more detail.The games that influenced Hot Rod Show are enough to make us excited for the project; VanVeld namedrops the likes of R.C. Pro-Am, Micro Machines, and Racing Gears Advance (while criticizing the likes of Excite Truck and recent versions of Mario Kart for "losing some of their focus"). In Hot Rod Show, close quarters racing and the long-forgotten art of memorizing tracks will be the order of the day. Typically for a High Voltage game, loads of attention has been paid to the controls. VanVeld reports that we can use a horizontally positioned Wii Remote (as in Excite Truck), the Classic Controller, a GameCube controller, or add a Nunchuk and use the thumbstick for steering.After the disaster that was SPOGS Racing, there's definitely room on WiiWare for a cheap, well-made racer that can be enjoyed with friends (VanVeld says four-player splitscreen "could be the best experience you'll have with the game"); we can easily imagine High Voltage Hot Rod Show being that game. %Gallery-34273%
Wii Warm Up: The Conduit between High Voltage and stores
Let's all lay out our guesses: who's publishing The Conduit? With a cast of voice actors whose names some people may actually know, it seems that High Voltage has come into a bit more money. We assume, then, that their publisher is someone big enough to hire some voice actors.It's also someone whose name is big enough that spending months holding out in anticipation of a dramatic reveal makes sense. At this point, does anyone here think it's someone other than Nintendo? If so, who and why?%Gallery-25003%
Firefly's Badger leads The Conduit voice cast
The Conduit may still lack a publisher, but what it does have is a sad little king of a sad little hill. High Voltage announced that it has cast Firefly's Badger, Mark A. Sheppard, as the voice of Mr. Ford, the lead role in the upcoming Wii-exclusive shooter. The Conduit is the latest line item on the British actor's resume, following work in Battlestar Galactica and In the Name of the Father, though to us he'll always be a petty thief with delusions of standing. The game's credits will include another Sheppard as well. William Morgan Sheppard, whose voice can be heard in such games as Metal Gear Solid 2 and Escape from Monkey Island, will voice John Adams, while Olympian man-cake, Kevin Sorbo, will take on the role of the title's bad guy, Prometheus. There continues to be no word on what company will bring The Conduit to store shelves in early 2009, though with High Voltage forking over enough cash to secure Hercules, we have to believe an announcement isn't far off.[Image credit: RavenU]
High Voltage enlists Hollywood voice talent for The Conduit
High Voltage just shot over a press release informing us that they've got a couple of notable individuals lending their voice to the upcoming Wii FPS, The Conduit. The voice of the main character. Mr. Ford, will be done by Mark A. Sheppard. Not familiar? He defended Gaius Baltar!Another Sheppard (father, to be exact) is also in on the project. William Morgan Sheppard will be voicing the character John Adams. William has done plenty of video game voice work before, as well as TV and film. Third, but certainly not least, is none other than Hercules himself, Kevin Sorbo. He'll be voicing the bad guy/terrorist dude in all of this, Prometheus. %Gallery-25003%[Via press release]
High Voltage announces new WiiWare racer
It would appear that High Voltage made a pretty penny or two from their last WiiWare release, Gyrostarr, as the company has announced they're working on a new game for WiiWare. Titled High Voltage Hot Rod Show, this game will be hitting WiiWare this fall and features a "unique stunt system" that gives players "multiple ways to build boost." The game will utilize the company's Quantum 3 engine technology and has support for up to 4 players via local split-screen, features 5 racers, and has 6 different tracks.After checking out the trailer above, be sure to hit up our gallery below, which has screens from the game, as well as some promo art and wallpapers!%Gallery-34273%
A whole bunch of videos from The Conduit
Aside from some new screens, as well as a video walkthrough of the entire first level, we've not seen much on The Conduit lately. Well, today brings us a bounty of fresh videos, so those of you who have been jonesing for a fix on High Voltage's upcoming shooter, look no further. Hit up the video above, then head past the break for several more. %Gallery-25003%
Spoil the first level of The Conduit for yourself
IGN has posted footage of the entire opening level of The Conduit, a generous fifteen minutes of action in which hero Mr. Ford takes down enemy marines, shoots up bipedal "Drudge" warriors, and charges down corridors. Then some more corridors. And then even more corridors. Seriously: there's a lot of corridors in this. A lot of conduits, even.Navigating this entangled web of hallways (go past the break for the second half of the level) culminates in a showdown in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which the naughty Drudge have reportedly "defiled." Oo-er. Being really patriotic and everything, Mr. Ford isn't too pleased about this, and let's them know about it. It all looks very pretty and suitably packed with action. And corridors.%Gallery-25003%
Six of our favorite Media Summit videos
You've already had the chance to examine scores of wonderful screens from new Wii games announced at the Nintendo Media Summit. This new post is dedicated to displaying thousands of more screens (squashed together to create videos) of some of the bigger titles that have been shown at the event.We settled on placing Nintendo's official Punch-Out!! trailer at the top of this post, but could have easily led with some truly fantastic Sin & Punishment 2 footage, an impressive tech demo of The Conduit, or Yuji Naka's wacky-looking Let's Tap. Instead, all of those (and more) are past the break, and need to be viewed right now. Before you go, though, one final note: if any game released this year has a funkier soundtrack than Let's Tap, we'll be gobsmacked.
Nintendo to publish The Conduit [update]
Click for more screens. Update: It turns out our skepticism was warranted. Cammie did mean to say "exclusive first-person shooter." Okay then, back to waiting on who will publish this game.During the fall media summit, Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway has called The Conduit an "exclusive first-party shooter coming to Wii." Could this mean Nintendo is publishing the game? Sure, and, frankly, we all expected as much. But, it could just be a slip of words. Maybe she meant first-person shooter? We're going to try and stay optimistic about it and just go with Nintendo publishing the thing, because we'd like to see that. If she did just mix up her words, expect an update from us.%Gallery-25003%
Pew pew! Conduit screens to liven up your morning
Click for more screens. Whichever way you swing on The Conduit, we can all agree there's a refreshing lack of pretension about High Voltage's game. Simply put, it is what it is: a technically great shooter in which players can tear through some of the best Wii environments we've seen, blasting the heck out of bipedal alien scum (and the odd human). If No More Heroes was an edgy, knowing indie flick, The Conduit is the Wii equivalent of the flashy, special effects-filled summer blockbuster you'd enjoy with friends -- and that's why we love it. Leap through the nearest wormhole and hit the gallery for ten fresh screenshots.%Gallery-25003%[Via Go Nintendo]
High Voltage doesn't like Friend Codes either
Click for more screens News flash: High Voltage isn't a big fan of Nintendo's cumbersome Friend Codes system. The developer behind The Conduit recently replied to an email about the latest news that the game could support the system, stating that High Voltage feels "the same way" about Friend Codes and that if "there is any possible way for us to get around this system," they would. In fact, they even point to the system in Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 as "ideal," and if Nintendo allows them a similar exception as they allowed EA, they'd go for it.Well, here's to hoping we don't have to put up with Friend Codes, but we honestly don't see why the game wouldn't. Nintendo isn't going to openly admit their system is broken, after all, and allowing High Voltage to incorporate their own system could be a slight admission of such.%Gallery-25003%[Via Nintendo Everything]
High Voltage announces controls contest for The Conduit [update]
Click image for more screens Update: High Voltage just dished out a press release that talks about 16-player online gaming and WiiSpeak. It's been tucked past the break.High Voltage has announced that they're holding a contest having to do with their upcoming game, The Conduit. They're asking fans to come up with their own control schemes for the game and submit them, with the winners getting their scheme put into the game. Sound exciting? We think so!Head past the break for the full details on the contest.%Gallery-25003%
The Conduit: No DLC, friend codes look likely
Now that we've all agreed on our hatred of friend codes, will The Conduit be lumbered with them? High Voltage's Rob Nichols suggested it would in a recent Nintendo Radio podcast, admitting that the studio will "probably" have to use the dreaded digits. Though this isn't outright confirmation and we shouldn't take to the streets in anger yet (Nichols' colleague Tony Mecca promises that High Voltage is considering "every other option"), the general tone of the transcript is rather downbeat. We look forward to grumbling with you, dear reader, at future Game Nights.In other news-we-kind-of-expected, the pair confirmed that the game won't feature downloadable content. A double blow, then, depending on whether you view DLC as a boon or a burden.%Gallery-25003%[Thanks to all who sent this in!]
The Conduit gets MotionPlussed
Wii Sports Resort might not be the only title to showcase the Wii MotionPlus when the dinky add-on launches next spring. GameSpot went hands-on with The Conduit at PAX 2008, and revealed that the shooter will feature MotionPlus support. The Conduit is currently set for a March launch, so has this new information also inadvertently dated Wii Sports Resort and the MotionPlus?Whether it has or not, MotionPlus for The Conduit is Pretty Big News -- so much so, that we're afraid it may overshadow some of the other eye-catching details in GameSpot's report. These include: In the final game, High Voltage hopes to have a completely customizable head-up display, in which any HUD element can be dragged and dropped to different parts of the screen. There will be nine missions in total, with the singleplayer campaign lasting "about ten hours." Cut scenes won't be used; rather, the story will be developed through news or radio broadcasts, much like the Half Life series. Some projectiles can be guided using the cursor, which sounds a lot like the Nikita launcher in Metal Gear Solid, automatically making it ZOMGAWESOME. %Gallery-25003%[Via Go Nintendo]
Taking control of The Conduit
So The Conduit looks and sounds extraexplositastic, but how will it play? Answer: probably really nicely. First-person shooter controls are something the Wii has excelled at -- both Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 boast buttery-smooth gameplay, and The Conduit looks no different.This video, narrated by lead game designer Rob Nicholls, talks us through everything we'll be able to meddle with in the game's control settings. Tweakable stuff includes turning speed, running speed, cursor sensitivity, the ability to turn while your cursor is off-screen, and the auto-center settings. The best bit of all, though? Adjusting your dead zone as you play. Very nifty.
GC 2008: Piping hot trailer for The Conduit
Not every Wii fan is an FPS person, and thus we may not be as fully attuned to the nuances of what makes an FPS badical, but we can recognize good Wii graphics when we see them, and we think that The Conduit is looking pretty great. This trailer, released for the Leipzig Games Convention, is all fancy atmospheric lighting effects and dudes (and alien dudes) getting shot up.We're a bit troubled to see slowdown in the trailer, but that happens in every FPS running on a system that regular people can afford. It hardly detracts from all the blowings-up.%Gallery-25003%
The Conduit to be showcased in Nintendo's PAX booth
A justifiably enthused High Voltage Software sent out a press release today announcing that not only would their FPS The Conduit be presented in the expo floor at this year's Penny Arcade Expo, but that it will be shown in Nintendo's own booth. "We are incredibly honored to be featured there at Nintendo's booth," said Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger. "It's a fantastic opportunity for us to receive input and feedback directly from other gamers."Could Nintendo be publishing The Conduit? Or are they just using The Conduit as an attraction, to get the super-hardcore PAX crowd over to Nintendo's booth so they can play Wii Music? We also wonder why, if The Conduit does have a publisher, High Voltage hasn't said who it is? The identity of the company releasing your game isn't the usual teaser material.%Gallery-25003%
