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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]
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]
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%
Joystiq goes hands-on with Nintendo's Media Summit line-up
The embargo on play sessions has lifted and Joystiq has let loose some write-ups for games that were present at Nintendo's big Media Summit last week. They've spent quality time with The Conduit, Animal Crossing: City Folk and even Call of Duty: World at War, to name a few. So we suggest you hit up this link and get to reading!
Joystiq hands-on: The Conduit
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Hands_on_with_The_Conduit_at_Nintendo_Fall_Media_Summit_08'; In terms of playable software at Nintendo's Fall Media Summit, none received as much attention from attendees as High Voltage Software's The Conduit – and for good reason. The game already had some buzz behind it going into the event, but our anticipation for it reached new heights upon watching a developer walkthough of the latest build.The Media Summit version of The Conduit showcased a never-before-seen Cold War bunker level, and High Voltage's staff was eager to show off tech like depth of field, normal mapping, newly implemented high-res textures, and a number of other things that had us saying, "This looks really good for a Wii game ... but how does it play?" The answer to that question can be found after the break.%Gallery-33787%
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%
From The Conduit to Call of Duty: New screenshots from Nintendo's media summit
click to embiggen While we can't talk about what we played at today's Nintendo fall media summit in San Francisco (embargoes lift Monday), we were able to snap plenty of pictures from the event, including The Conduit, Dead Rising, Call of Duty: World at War and Animal Crossing. More galleries after the break.%Gallery-33462%
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.
Joystiq live from Nintendo's fall media summit
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Live_coverage_of_Nintendo_media_summit_DSi_Punch_Out_more'; We're live in San Francisco at Nintendo's press event – sure, they're going to go over last night's Nintendo announcements like the DSi, Play for Wii, and Punch-Out but maybe ... just maybe there's something else in store.12:14PM: Reggie has taken the podium. He's announced the DSi as a "third trier" platform and is talking about its built-in NVRAM. He's talking about the DSi Shop, the first two titles to be offered are "re-tooled" versions of Brain Age 1 and 2. The DSi features onboard image editing software that can be used to composite photos taken by both cameras in real time. Music player will support AAC format and allow pitch / speed manipulation. Various audio effects can be applied in real time.12:20PM: Opera browser runs faster than previous DS browser, Wi-Fi is "faster." Reggie just announced that the DSi will not see release until "well into calendar year 2009" citing strong U.S. sales of current DS hardware. He's talking about Wii storage now; confirming that SD card will be used for additional storage, saying that transferring between internal NVRAM and SD card will be dramatically faster.12:24PM: Reggie says that significantly more Wii systems will be shipped into retail this holiday season versus last year. He can't say how many, and anticipated the question of will it be enough? "Ask me in January." Har. Har. Cammie is at the podium now to talk about software. Take note, folks: She's smiling! Punch-Out!! is on-screen. Cammie calls it a "re-introduction" of the classic title. Video is rolling! Little Mac is showing off in toon-shaded glory. King Hippo and Glass Joe plus a female boxer appeared in the video. Looks like it plays just like the original titles ... but what's that? Cammie says that Punch-Out!! is fully motion-controlled.
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%
Update: Nintendo will NOT publish The Conduit
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Nintendo_will_publish_The_Conduit'; [Update: Whoops! Looks like Ms. Dunaway misspoke – The Conduit is not an "exclusive first-party shooter" ... it's an "exclusive first-person shooter." D'oh! Still no word on a publisher but we've got an email into the cats at High Voltage. Our original post is tucked safely below the break.] Gallery: The Conduit
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!]
Wii Warm Up: Who's getting WiiSpeak?
With the buzz around a $69.99 Animal Crossing bundle that will include the peripheral, we were just wondering how many of you are actually looking to pick up the device? Can't wait to chat with your friends while fishing or digging holes? Could care less about WiiSpeak? Or are you planning on getting it for The Conduit?
