Conduit Developers Unveil New Roman Fighting Game

@Powerslave: That assumes that Kotaku has anything to do with journalism

@[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D: Bushido Blade 2 remains one of my favorite fighters, not because of its depth, per say, but because the matches are unpredictable.

@0xC001D00D: and low polygon models and last gen texturing and lighting and lesser audio quality.

Winterbringer

@Tenacious_Z:
..called Biggus Dickus

Why a fighter? Shadow of Rome did it right, it made the Gladatorial battles play like a contemporary beat'em up (a little bit like MadWorld) with some stuff to amaze the crowd, which is a big part of Gladiator battles.

loempiavreter

@Musika13: it looks like the best thing i saw on the wii man, all the wii games are "pretty bad" on an lcd screen 'cause the lack of antialias and low resolution

DAMN IT!!!!

When in the 300's name are we going to get a game like this for PS3/360?!?!?!
SERIOUSLY i have been waiting O so patiently for this kind of game to come out...but NOPE its gotta come out for the Wii =(

khuntilla

@Sammo21: The frost. Sometimes it makes the blade stick.

716

@Combine: LOL heh ZING! indeed.

I have a vewy good fwiend in Wome...

Tenacious_Z

@JGab: Animales de la Muertos! YES!

Tenacious_Z

uLTrAViOlEnCe FTW!!!!

FAK YEAHHHHHHH!!!

>_<

Paolo Cazzaniga

Praise the gods we may have a proper gladiator combat game! Yet I hope it is not a Wii exclusive as I do not want to buy another.

@Soleyu: Hey, it still happens today, except instead we call it the catholic church!
ZING!

@Tevor_the_Third: The fact that they even name-dropped Bushido Blade has me pretty excited. But yeah, if it's just that, reskinned but with refined motion controls (Plus!) I'll be incredibly excited.

@qhue: Wow, first a reference to A Clockwork Orange, and now a reference to Airplane! Kotaku and friends are on a roll tonight.

bornonce

If I buy this, does that mean that Lucasarts might do a squeal to Gladius?

Really, George, you have more (and better) IPs than Indy and Star Wars.

dry-roasted-peanuts

@[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D: Actually the ones that did this were the Thebans, one unit, the Sacred Band of Thebes was made exclusively of men and their lovers, they were said to be the most dangerous military unit in Ancient Greece.

The Spartans were said to abhorr the use of manlove as a war tactic and in general, how true is that is to say the least really hard to say this days.

Also the Athenians were the ones that systematized pederastery as a system to raise the youths.

Heh Ancient greece was quite the open minded place.

@okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under): You are thinking of the Greeks. Spartans didn't fuck little boys... they fucked MEN!!!

dry-roasted-peanuts

Yuck, it looks terrible in that screenshot. I know its a Wii game, but people should stop say, "oh its a Wii game, its allowed to look bad." Go and pop in some old PS3 or Xbox games that were big triple-A titles and most of them still look better than the majority of what keeps coming out on the Wii. Seriously, go play Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, I still can't believe that game looks as good as it does.

wheres shadow of rome 2 gat dang it

@dirtface: 'tis but a scratch!

@Pombar: I used to love just running around cutting the bamboo stalks down, as the precision of the cut would determine its path/slice pattern. I used to think that was so "high-tech" for a game at that time.

Indrajit

It's pretty good, the people that says it's like a ps2 or ds game, do not remember what those are like. The guy that make the conduit use normal mapping for the materiales to shine correctly depending on the light, ando some other technologies found in no ps2. And those techniques where implemented largely in DOOM3 (minus the volumetric lighing) but what the conduit is making is something the wii should have a framework for so every game looks as good as that.

David Contreras

@d3v: If so, I'm all for it. Bushido Blade was a great game.

I just hope there's none of that "BLARG, I'M DEAD" bullshit when all you've had chopped off is your left arm.

dirtface

@WildKnightblazer: Agreed, Luke is one pathetic "Journalist" if you can call him that, Kotaku could do much better. I think he would fit right in at Fox News.

@Musika13: it's a year away from completion and that screenshot was blown up. I'm not saying the graphics are going to be GOOD, but they'll be better than that, obviously.

This prove that Wii is capable of rendering chest hair, panic parents all have to rise up and walk the street!!

tingyu

I AM ON THE VERGE OF TEARS BECAUSE WHEN I SAW THAT PIC I THOUGHT IT WAS FOR A SEQUAL TO GLADIUS.

Screw you high voltage.

InHumanGamer

If they had announced it next week, it would have gotten lost in the noise ... wise choice to do it now. It looks worthy of following; it's gotten me interested.

Now, THAT, [media.wii.ign.com] , looks nex gen! Finally! Thanks high voltage!

I like the idea.. I'll wait for some videos before saying anything about the graphics :P

@[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D:

Bushido Blade with Motion Plus (assuming it works well) and a Gladiator skin would get me to buy it.

@Mezodon:

Grrrr, it is High Voltage so if history is any indicator it will be mediocre.

Frosti1icus

I looked at High Voltage's back catalog and it is abysmal. However, they must have the motion mechanism down pat to get even more investments on a new IP before the release of Conduit.

PsycheE

Yees! I love you High Voltage! Although, my parents won't let me buy it, unless it is in the bargain bin.

@qhue: ...You ever hang around a gymnasium?

@WildKnightblazer: Also, if you actually read the article, he sounds pretty positive about it.

Yes, I also address this comment to myself.

WildKnightblazer

@Komrade Kayce - Soviet Attack Dog: I could show you, but I wouldn't be allowed to upload the video here, and I wouldn't want to be the one to create a new shock site.

@Mezodon: To be perfectly fair, Luke's always struck me as equally negative/skeptical towards everything.

WildKnightblazer

@qhue: I lol'd
+1 for a good albeit easy, reference.

@Komrade Kayce - Soviet Attack Dog: A reach around, if the hero has any decency.

[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D

@Blah8: I'm honestly surprised that Luke didn't do his usual childish thing of putting screenshots through a pixelation graphic filter.

An authentic gladiator fighting game with no anime characters? Okay, now you have my attention!

Those screen shots obviously are from an early build of the game. Hopefully, High Voltage's speedy developemnt time will pump out good quality titles with both The Conduit and now Gladiators AD.

Killer7

By like Bushido Blade, does this mean we get realistic damage and deaths and no life-bars?

d3v

Dunno about this. As an avid fan of fighting games a certain formula must be followed. Just dont know if this "fits". *Looks at the tradegy of MK v DC*

curori

WiiMotionPlus in a gladitorial comat game? It's about damn time.

@Musika13: Mmm, I was like "Oh, they're making a DS game? Looks damn good."

Then I was like "Ohhh."

I want to know the other mechanics they placed in the game besides hot mutilating action. Is there any way to make your characters stronger via statpoints? Can equipment be changed?

paulrenzo

@Fadakar: rockstar knows this and tried to use it to their advantage.

maybe high voltage is trying to play the same card to get some publicity.

abort_user

Good job guys... take a 640x448 screenshot from IGN and resize it to 804x536 so it looks bad. Whenever I see this sort of negative Wii crap on here, I now just automatically ask myself "Plunkett?," scroll back up, and answer with an "of course." Never fails.

@Musika13:
Well, the pixelation and artifacting/jaggies in the particular image are probably slightly amplified due to that image being a higher resolution than the Wii actually outputs. Max resolution of the Wii last time I checked was 480p which is, at most, 720×480; that image is 804×536.
But yeah, it's still on the Wii, so I wouldn't expect anything too much better than that.

Blah8

I almost thought the pic was from Shadow of Rome

@Combine:
Yeah, I checked the IGN screenshots, and while they look good, I do agree that the character models could need some more polish.

@Combichristoffersen: Well, I think if you look into the screens more you'll find what you're looking for, mainly in the lighting and effects. Lighting looks fairly dynamic and changes with the stages, and it looks like blood will spurt and stick to whatever it lands on. Also can't tell how good their animations and whatnot are, but it seems the player models are bigger than typical models, and their animations may be improved as such.

I think however what makes a lot of the improved Wii games still look like last-gen games is the resolution. It's really hard to show off more detail at the same resolution as last-gen, so the only things that standout are lighting, effects, and stuff like more processor intensive things like more enemies onscreen and multiple instances of further enhanced AI.

I mean, did you see those Smash Bros. Brawl in 720p videos/screens? It was gorgeous, but it still doesn't look that improved over last generation when in 480p.

@[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D: I loved Bushido Blade. This has me interested at the moment.

Moral_Avenger

@Indrajit: No, I'm right there with you. Fun game, but the combat was certainly not the highlight for me.

@Combichristoffersen: If you go to IGN some of the screen shots are much better then the blown up pixelated one on top. Although I think some of the character models could do with some more refinement.

@Mit: Unfortunately this is entirely true. Rockstar is synonymous with controversy.

so wiimotionplus?

@Sammo21: KOTAKU?! THIS IS SPARTA!

TheNocturnalSun

@Mit:
The PS2 can dish out some relatively pretty graphics (God of War 1 and 2, Final Fantasy XII, Dawn of Mana, Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 etc.), but the Wii should, given that its hardware is more powerful than the PS2, obviously be able to outdo the PS2 in terms of graphics.

Am I the only one who had more fun exploring the environments in Bushido Blade as opposed to the actual combat?

Indrajit

*sigh* Can I please just have that game that was meant to be out on Wiiware killing zombie animals as little kids? All I've really been waiting for from HV (and if The Conduit is as good as everyone is saying, I may buy it but hey- I want to kill zombie animals first!)

@[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D: I'm currently not interested in this game at all, but if it did have one-shot kill mechanics it would change my mind. As you say that added a lot to Bushido Blade.

@randomrawr: There's a game called Shadow of Rome as well.

I think some people forget exactly how PS2 graphics look though, and apparently forget that the Wii is not much more powerful than a Gamecube or Xbox.

"BUT SUPER MARIO GALAXY" is a stylized game that was able to make you think it looked great, however it's not really fair to compare it to a game that's going for realistic graphics.

@randomrawr:
Well duh, I know it's a Wii game, but the Wii has better hardware than the PS2, so obviously people are going to expect Wii games to look better than first-gen PS2 games.

And ni, I wasn't thinking of Spartan: Total Warrior. [en.wikipedia.org]

@[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D:

Can't wait to see what the Wiimote and its associated motion controls are going to represent.

Man I miss Bushido Blade.

Lets face it, all we want is a game with weapons on the wii with 1:1 movement where we can slice limbs off and this is that very game. Noone could screw up such a simple yet entertaining concept.

@Combichristoffersen:
There's plenty of better shots of the game on IGN, Kotaku just had to pick the worst of the lot.

ashdown

@Combichristoffersen: Yeah, I was thinking the same. Almost like a higher res PSP game in terms of the quality. Must be a blown up version of a super small pic.

@Combichristoffersen:

It's a freaking Wii game, what do you expect? Seriously this is what is wrong with gamers these days.

To answer your question there was a game called Spartan: Total Warrior which I think you may be thinking of.

@okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under): Also, they where fellow soldiers, not little boys. It was an attempt to make the soldiers love each other, so that they would fighter harder for one another.

That's right, manlove made Greece one of the scariest B.C. places ever.

[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D

@okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under): And several other cultures.

Hey Kotaku......

ARE YOU ENTERTAINED?

@Musika13: oh was the conduit supposed to be good? i personally always thought it looked kinda meh. kinda like everything else theyve done before.

but ill give em points for not taking a shit on the wii with their software though.

abort_user

I really hope that screenshot comes from an early build, as it looks like some old PS2 game, not a current-gen game. Come think of it, wasn't there a gladiator game for the PS2, Shadow of Rome or something like that?

I wonder if they will include the little boys the fighters dittle before a good night's rest.... oh wait, those are Spartans.

@ThisUserNameIsTooLong: Don't worry-

It's not made by Rockstar.

looks like its on the wii. looks like its mature. didnt they say something about that?

well its not like i expect either game to really sell that well anyway. but at least theyre trying.

abort_user

I'm sorry, I'm not sure if it's just the quality of the screenshot from the video or whatever, but that looks pretty bad. It's so grainy and bland.

On the bright side, that sounds like an awesome concept, I would totally buy that if It turned out to be as good as The Conduit is supposed to be.

Musika13

Please, please, please have one-shot kill mechanics. I sorely miss the psychological tension in skilled Bushido Blade matches.

[ZTF]214A, 2A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 214B, 214D

So Billy...do you like gladiator movies?

qhue

CHOPPING OFF HEADS WITH MOTION SENSORS SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT MANHUNT 2 LAWSUIT! No seriously, that was real... Remember all the incredible controversy?

But this game has me excited for this system again, way to go.

ThisUserNameIsTooLong

@shimage: "And apparently they didn't get the Madworld memo."

The memo that said that Sega was very encouraged by Madworld's first sales week?

[venturebeat.com]

Do you know of some other memo where Sega is saying otherwise?

dry-roasted-peanuts

@Combichristoffersen: No it doesn't really look like a PS2 game, but it looks absolutly awful regardless. I'm really tired of reading about The Conduit and High Voltage. It doesn't matter what their engine can do when they only make ugly generic crap.

beril

Looks interesting. Honestly, though, High Voltage's record thus far is pretty poor. And apparently they didn't get the Madworld memo. I have higher hopes for the Conduit, but I might get this if it reviews well.

Why on earth did you take one of the poorer screenshots and then resize it to make it bigger?

Nice!! I'm all for more gladiator style games... and the Wii could use more third party quality support. Add this to my radar...

@Indrajit: Yeah, definitely. Something I'd then do again in Okami later. That stuff is just cool. True environmental damage is something that should have been near-perfected by now.

@Tenacious_Z:

Animales de la Muerte, actually.

Just a little correction, seeing as spanish is my first language. And yeah, what happened to that game?

gurfinki

@Combine: Don't we call it homosexuality?
Oh well...

@Mezodon: "Gladiator looks amazing for a Wii game"

lolomfgisuck

1:1 swordplay has been on the collective wishlist of Wii gamers since the motion controls were announced. It almost seems like that's what the Wii was made to do. Now that we have WiiMotion Plus coming, it's actually possible, and two player dueling is exactly what Wii gamers want.

Still, I'm disappointed. This type of game seems more like something you would expect for a launch title: a simple brawler/fighter that takes advantage of the new system's unique features.

Where's the deep, story-driven RPG that uses WiiMotion Plus 1:1 swordplay? When I heard that High Voltage was working on another Wii title, I was hoping for The Conduit set in a fantasy world: a main story with swords and sorcery, plus a robust multiplayer mode.

Oh well, I guess that was expecting too much.

bdenby

@Blah8: *cough*1080p with extra cables*cough*

Sam Scott Given

@Combichristoffersen: It's funny that you expect Wii games to look better than PS2.

Ok, this could be absolutely freaking incredible. Hopefully The Conduit earns them enough money to fund this properly, so it can live up to its potential.

...His leg looks kinda crusty.

NekuSakuraba

If it's anything like Bushido Blade, or Fight Night it should be amazing.

@abort_user: Wouldn't publicity be the last thing they want?

@Sam Scott Given:
You have your resolutions and scanning techniques confused.

The Wii's output resolution is, using the standard composite cables that come packaged with the console, a resolution of 480i, or 640x480 with an aspect ratio of 4:3 and 720x480 for anamorphic video with an aspect ratio of 16:9. This is, alternately, called SD or Standard Definition and is the standard definition rating for NTSC digital video.
Source: [en.wikipedia.org]

Some, though not all, games on the Wii have the ability to be output at a slightly smoother resolution of 480p via the implementation of component cables. 480p provides the same display resolution as 480i (720x480 maximum), though it does so by way of progressively scanned video (denoted by the "p"), as opposed to interlace-scan video (denoted by "i").
Source: [en.wikipedia.org]

Interlaced video is drawn on to the screen via two alternating fields - one containing the odd lines of resolution and the other containing the even lines. Progressive scan video draws the entire image in one field from top to bottom and, thus, tends to be better suited for video with a lot of motion and changing colors. In short, "P" is superior to "I" for modern applications such as gaming.

As I said before, the Wii has a maximum output of 720x480 for NTSC televisions, which translates to "480p". The PS3 and X360 can go to higher resolutions, such as 720p or 1080i/p, but the Wii, by itself, cannot.
Source:
[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]

I have see the emulated videos using Dolphin in which people are able to emulate Wii games on their PCs as higher resolutions, but that can only be done through emulators - not on the Wii console itself unless it is heavily modded with warranty-breaking hardware mods.

If you doubt the veracity of any of the information on Wikipedia, please note that Wikipedia itself sites sources to external websites. Use those links if you are skeptical.

Blah8

@Sam Scott Given: my mistake in the ealier posts, it's 720p with component cables, 1080p is what wii games CAN output to, but not on the current system (new wii soon?)

Sam Scott Given

@Blah8: also forgot to mention (I blame the edit button).

all wii games can even go into 1080i, yes IIIII. but ninty didn't feel the need of puttng it in the console, but if you use an emulator (dolphin) and have a High enough graphics cards, you can play wii games in 1080i, there's HD vids of it on youtube, it looks so goddamn pretty.

Sam Scott Given

@Blah8: there's an option in the wii settings. you can go from 480p to 1080p if you plug it up with component cables.

Sam Scott Given

@Sam Scott Given:
What cables are you using?!
If they can change the maximum output resolution of the Wii without touching the internals or hacking it, then tell me where to buy 'em!

Blah8