Meo

I agree. Nomura is a good character designer; but he has become increasingly creatively bankrupt. His obsession with Sony is almost obscene. How he has so much power over the company, and how do the shareholders put up with that is something that baffles me. True, his creations and style are already a part of Square, and, arguably, the games he has worked on are the ones who are the most recognizable and the ones who sell the best; but that doesn't mean he should have the freedom to make decisions that could prevent the company of maximizing profits. My guess is that Wada and the board are probably afraid of doing something to piss him off. DS has had great support from Square, true. But you could argue that they didn't really envisioned the phenomenon the DS became, as back then when DS was released everybody was spelling doom to Nintendo. High quality and high budget titles like Crisis Core were still going to PSP without even knowing who would win. Crystal Chronicles was announced for DS right from the beginning, sure, but it was mainly a way of showing support without total commitment. Regardless, it was a situation that was much easier to handle as there wasn't as much financial risk. Wii, on the other hand, was riding on an enormous hype wave generated by E3. It was a turning point when every single piece of news about the PS3 was a bad one. Unlike DS, you could see (even without the full picture) that the console would be sucessful. Square (and pretty much every other third party) now have to deal with the fact that they ignored the market shifting, when they were hoping the fad would go away. I find interesting that Crystal Tools now has support for Wii; Crystal Bearers obviously doesn't use it, as the last time it was shown it was already in an advanced state of development (or so it seemed), and changing pipelines would be impratical. Rewriting those tools for Wii... could have been just a damage control measure, as now they have a cross-platform engine that suports all machines, including the market leader. But they wouldn't do it if they hadn't something that justified the investment... something, probably big. I suspect Square will shed some light on that matter soon. Yes, I agree. The reason I want them on Wii is, above all, because of the production values. Square games (nowadays) might not have the deepest gameplay but they sure know how to impress someone with its presentation. Their games ooze quality, they are elegant, and above all they make sure that you know they have a pretty big budget going for it. And I think that's the thing that the Wii needs the most now, even if it is just to show all the other third parties that there is a need for those games among the Wii userbase, and that they can be sucessfull.

I didn't made it clear in my post, but I was really talking about Marvelous itself, I was saying how they deserve sales for the resources they have been putting on their projects for Wii. My mistake. Only Cell and Blu-Ray can give Nomura's belts and zippers the detail they deserve. Interesting how fast they were to let go of Nintendo in the N64 days for the new market leader... and how slow they are turning around now (or at all). Old grudges die hard.

I completely agree. These guys have been focusing so much on Wii and putting so much resources on it (compared to other third-parties), that they deserve sales, regardless of technical achievements. And its also a slap in the face of Square-Enix... I still can't believe how moronic their support to Wii is, I mean... Chocobo, Soul Eater? Sure, they are supporting it, but it still isn't enough, specially when they are bleeding money into other platforms who aren't market leaders. Well, I remember reading on Famitsu, I think when the game was revealed, that they were still working hard on improving the visuals, so till its release it still has time to improve. I'm hoping that it runs at 60fps, though. Nice.

CG looks good, but I thought the game itself would look better then it does, specially after seeing the first screenshots. Art style is cool though, very colourful. Are they going to show a trailer for this at TGS?

Formatted today, so I decided to give a new look to XP. It will have to do while I don't buy a mac.

Exactly what I was trying to say some pages ago. That, and those roof textures (and gun)... Yuck. Apart from that, the new Depth of Field effect in scope mode looks really good. Still expecting to see which publisher picks them up.

I like the way the name of the characters are in the boxart, just like a movie poster. It goes well with it's description of a movie-like experience. If this is the cover art for the European version though, I just hope they change the font color to white. Apart from that, the image is cool. The game was announced in E3 2006 and we still have yet to see more than a few seconds of footage and some screenshots. They should start releasing some videos so we can have a clearer idea of what to expect.

Piccolo is now a vampire. This shit is going to be so bad. In an awesome way. (and will also rape my childhood)

In a world, without is voice...

So awesome. I just love when PS2 games (released in 2002) are ported to Wii and scheduled to be released in 2009. And better yet, awesome patented blob shadows!

fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap Do want. Hoping they show us a trailer at TGS.

German NoE page updated: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nintendo.de%2FNOE%2Fde_DE%2Fgames%2Fwii%2Fdisaster_day_of_crisis_9381.html&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en

Well, if the video running on the TV is real or not I don't know, but that box above the TV is part of the Wii development kit.

... You didn't read my other post and my response to Emasher, did you?

Yes, I concur:p. And yes, I only have a Wii aswell.

I already said in my other posts, I didn't complained about the image quality of the screenshots, or its lack of technical prowess; I said I found the art style generic. That as nothing to with screens vs. motion. Actually, in my opinion, Perfect Dark was a game that had, and still has, a great art direction, regardless of how much cliché the characters were:p. It was not only technically impressive for its time (with an abysmal framerate), but it had an style that it was his own; meaning, it was easily identifiable as being Perfect Dark. The same thing could be said for the Zelda games; there is an art style which is specific of each game (and the franchise) that makes it recognizable and unique. As an example, I played through "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" and I only remember a few selected parts of it; but if you asked me something about the dungeons of Twilight Princess there is a very good chance I remember. Even specific rooms inside a dungeon, which is a testment to its art design. The details in the textures, the details in geometry, the characters, the surrounding environment, the sound design; all these elements have a symbiotic relation that makes something unique. And that's something I'm not feeling in this game. As an example, I swear that the sounds from a charging shot in this game are exactly the same as in Prime games: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/248948.html This is one of those things I was saying; I wouldn't be able to recognize this sound if it wasn't unique. The same goes for it's visuals, in my opinion; there isn't a single element (that I've seen) that tells me "this is mine!". When I look at the guns, the game that springs in my mind is, precisely, Perfect Dark; specially the gun were you insert the ball (which is the ammo). If you remember Perfect Dark, you'll see that there is a gun which you get on the final levels, that's exactly like this one, at least in its concept. Of course, I only remember this gun because its design was unique at the time. I understand that not all games need to be the most original or innovative, to be a good and enjoyable experience, and admitedly, I have yet to see everything this game has to offer, but from what I have seen from screens and videos the game seems to be a "yet another shooter" without it's own soul. Not that it makes a lot of difference, since there are so few FPS's on the system, as Hellfire said. Of course this is all an IMO post; it isn't meant to be an attack to all the people that find this a very good looking game. God I've been spoiled by Okami.

I agree. When I said that MoH:H2 had fully customizable controls I was actually talking about the pointer, and nothing else. I believe The Conduit let players choose each function for each button. So yes, indeed the later is more customizable. I see where you are coming from and I agree, but understand I never actually criticized the gameplay itself; only the art design. Actually, I'm pretty sure the game will play well; and all the previews and hands-on point to that. All the shooters I've played on Wii give a ridiculous sensation of being much better than they actually are; and by that I mean that the controls really add to the experience, making a game that otherwise would be considered "lacking", a good one (MoH:H2 being one of those games). Either way, I only criticized the game because of its art, which I happen to find generic and unworthy of so much "fapping", nothing else.

I did; that's why I said that their effort is commendable in the first place. Wii isn't exactly flooding with FPS, true, but there are some. Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is actually one of those games that, despite not being very ambitious and original, is very good due to its controls. It's still a generic looking game, but very fun to play. Again MoH:H2 provided fully customizable controls, you could even ajust the bounding box of it so it had zero delay on turning. Using GC costumized engines on Wii isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the hardware is fairly similar; actually, it gives the advantage of creating something rather quickly while having the time to improve the engine to accomodate new requirements. You gave the MP3 example; that's one of those games that, despite running on an improved GC engine, still look better than The Conduit; not by it's technical prowess but by its intelligent use of art, mixed with high resolution textures, subtle bloom and geometry, and some shader effects. I also would argue that Resident Evil 4 looks better than most Wii games; dare I say, even better than The Conduit; and that's a Gamecube game running on a machine with 24 MB of RAM. But does it dictate the plain textures? Or the alien models (arguably) similar to some that appear on the Prime games? I don't think the location limits the art style but rather influences it. "Black" also had environments similar in style to Washington; it still manages to look better than this. As I said in the first place their effort is impressive, specially when they used their own money to develop it, and are trying to implement online modes and making sure this is a meaty game; but that doesn't mean the game should be considered visually impressive. My two cents, of course.

They already said the game is running at 30fps. http://the-conduit.webs.com/interviewqsandas.htm Meanwhile the newer builds were said to have some dips from 30fps, but they promised that, when it launches, the framerate will remain steady at 30.

This game looks bad. There, I said it. It might have profficient technology, but I can't believe this game is getting this much attention. I think this is just lowering expectations. Their effort is commendable, I'll give them that; they developed their own engine, and they are making this game only with internal funds. But everything about this game screams generic. Except for an over-used bloom, can people honestly look at this last batch of screens (and all the others) and call it "good looking"? I look at this game and the only thing that comes to my mind are those freeware FPS's floating around the Internet. And there are people who look at it and call it "almost a 360 game!". Shit, the weed I smoked must have really messed up my head, I must be seeing things. They became a symbol of hope, of effort, in a time most of the third-party games on Wii were (and still are), subpar. As I said, their effort is commendable. And it seems that the game has good controls. But to consider this an "impressive, good looking game", and receiving awards for best looking game on Wii... Oh Factor 5/Capcom-teams-with-high-budget-and-not-ports-or-spinoffs-teams, how I miss you.

Well, I don't know how they're going to implement it (the HDR), but something along these lines would work quite well: Shadow of Colossus Making-Of It's fake HDR, but it works and looks good. As an off-topic, I think it's impressive how much the PS2 was pushed by this game, and how much it was pushed during it's last days. I remember being very impressed with the motion blur on this game. I can only hope to see Wii being pushed as hard as the PS2, in it's late life. That said... I hope they release a trailer soon.

Some new engine details. http://wii.ign.com/articles/897/897888p1.html A trailer would be nice.

Currently I'm playing on my LG M228WA 22", Wii with component cables at 480p. Some crappy pics: <3 Super Mario It doesn't have the best scaler, that's for sure; but it's decent, considering how much it cost. Ironically, Wind Waker and F-Zero GX still look better on it than most of my Wii games.

Want this. Badly. One of the best partnerships they've ever made, and they don't even talk about it on their conference. I blame WiiFit.

This certainly looks... awkward. I see the quirky style they're trying to go for, but I'm with Shino on this one. Happy to see Nintendo supporting and publishing these kind of games... But, but... Where is my F-Zero WX, Nintendo??