Topic: High Voltage Software...I don't get it.

^That grey corridor thing reminds me of Halo. Can there possibly be even more than 75 % of all enviroments of self-similiar grey corridors in The Conduit? If so, then it's even worse than Halo and i'm truly glad that i didn't buy it.

well i love th conduit its better then perfect dark and goldeneye imho but i think it is behind halo 3

faron, it's not all gray. sometimes it's beige, or bluish-gray, greenish-brownish-gray, and when they're really shaking things up, pinkish-gray.

Awesome games but I'm not sure I like the looks of the top down The Grinder, it might be because the Hunter games have a good RPG foundation... still probably going to be a good game.

About The Conduit looking bland, in HVS' defense most of the levels were based in real places and they replicated the looks of the places quite well, the water is the best looking part of the game though... just wow at it. Other than that the last levels were the best, they looked noticeably better, played better and the story moved better. If Conduit 2 keeps up the momentum of the last levels then it should be quite good(maybe not great) and the first level of Conduit 2 looks pretty awesome(it should be on Youtube).

@romulux
High Voltage even said in a recent interview that they're going to focus a lot more on the game design on Conduit 2, since they already have the engine in place. Last time, yeah, they did spend most of their time and energy into the engine, which is why the game turned out a little bland in the end. I thought the engine was fine, I didn't see any problem with it. They just need to improve the level design. And the online-crashing bug of course. THAT was annoying.
I actually liked the Conduit, it was fun for me. That's probably because I don't have an Xbox or a PS3.

That is probably why. The Conduit is an alright Wii game, but if it was on the Xbox/PS3 competing with Halo, Gears, and even (although I hate to say it) CoD it wouldn't be any where near as popular. The Conduit makes those generic and gray FPS's look like the best things in the world. That is why the Grinder is top down on those systems because HVS knew they wouldn't stand a chance in the FPS category.
I like it when 3rd Party Wii games turn out great but I just don't see HVS accomplishing that task after their other Wii failures.

I'm still going to wait for a review, but I think I'll be taking Conduit 2 over 007 and Black Ops.

I'm not sure I'll get it, odds are I won't or later down the line for cheap after the first because developer promises are just media hype and more often than not the honesty is blurred in the middle. As for the above post, COD Black Ops I'll get it one day, used, as Activision until they get rid of the backstabbing disease running the company is on my no buy list.

if you're talking about actual, identifiable landmarks, they make up about 5% of the game. the underground bunkers, sewers, and subways are fictional creations and for obvious reasons we can assume the pentagon and white house levels aren't accurate replicas, so i don't think the "it sucks because it's real" excuse holds up.

as a side note, "realistic" games only look good when they're cutting edge, because when the next system comes out the standard for "real" is raised and old games no longer qualify. the best looking games of their time are often the ones that age the worst down the road, since they're based on showing off technical capabilities that become totally obsolete.

the conduit has the misfortune of being a new game that's already obsolete; in fact, it was obsolete 5 years before it even came out when the 360 launched. the wii isn't on the cutting edge like the HD systems are, so trying to impress people with realistic graphics on it makes about as much sense as going back to develop the most technically realistic possible game on the n64... no matter how well you do, it'll never look good by the new standards.

that's why most great wii games have the emphasis on art direction front and center ( it's also why i think the wii has the truly best looking games of this generation). for all the "last gen" stuff, it's art-heavy games will look great a decade from now while empty realism of the HD systems will be trash. high voltage seem to have gotten everything backwards by making the worst possible combination; an artless game that looks like trash already.

that's why you shouldn't excuse them for making something bland but realistic, because time has proven again and again that even convincing realism doesn't amount to much in the long run.

I think Oregano's point was that even with some technically fictional locations and altered design of real places, they couldn't make the art style of Washington D.C. too unrealistic or players would complain about desecrating the look of such a iconic city.

The only game HVS has done that I liked was Harvey Birdman and even with that it's just because it was basically a few episodes of the series ported to an Ace Attorney game. (The Street Fighter cameos in the jury box cracked me up though)

Does Conduit 2 show the best of HVS? I mean I have enjoyed the game but for a game that was pushed back again and again, to only come out still with bugs/glitches and frame rate issues. I like to have hope in the company that they will learn to make something original, and I'm looking forward to their 3DS project, but as a bargain bin buy.