Gaming The Conduit Bombs In UK

[yumms]

http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p...p&ct=110032

It debuted at #32 in the top 40 chart. Even Mad World came in at #29..and that was a giant bomb. Oh Well at least Sega tried.

 

[BlueStar]

This chart has it at a slightly better 29
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uk-chart...er-roars-to-top

Guess it's a combination of awful boxart, dull looking game and mediocre reviews. Can't say I wanted it to set the world on fire.

 

[GeekyGuy]

Not sure how much I trust these charts, but it will be interesting to see what SEGA says about sales in the next few months. I became less interested in the game the more they revealed of it. That said, I am still holding out hope for what they'll do next with this franchise. So, I hope they do well enough to justify a sequel. I have my reservations, however, about High Voltage as a whole. After playing a couple of their WiiWare offerings and seeing a couple of the other projects they're pimping for Wii, I'm starting to get the impression they are in a similar boat as Renegade Kid. That is to say, they are a talented bunch when it comes to tech, but there is hardly a single original idea bouncing about internally.

 

[Veho]

Is it just me or does that alien thing look like one of the hunters from Metroid Prime Hunters (I forgot the name)?

 

[BlueStar]

I'm not sure what to make of weekly and monthly charts for a game that's only been out three days by the way. On the one hand the other games it's up against have all been selling units for the whole month/week while Conduit has ony been selling for three days. On the other hand, I don't think games which don't get into the top 20 on their first days sales break the top 20 at all in general.

Not sure how I want this to do, it would be nice for developers to think they can bring these types of game to the Wii and be succesful, but then we don't want them to think they can shovel out generic crap like the Conduit and Wii gamers will lap it up just because it's not a mini-game collection.

 

[Ess_uk]

I feel for SEGA. How the mighty have fallen. I blame Sony myself grrrrrr bad Sony, Bad SONY!!!!

 

[Sir_Shaggy]

To be fair that list ends at the week of July 11th and the release date for UK was July 10th. For 1-2 days in sales being at spot #32 is pretty damn good. Also July isn't a hot month for gaming sales. I'd say the game will do just fine.

 

[bytor]

Well I'm very impressed with the game myself, it's been very harshly reviewed imo. Any game that has just about everything bump, gloss or diffuse mapped, advanced particle effects, real-time reflection and refraction, focus blur and HDR lighting effects on a console without pixel shaders combined with fully customisable controls and HUD, and a very entertaining and addictive online multiplayer deserves at least 7/10 if not 8+.

The user reviews everywhere that I've seen average out as 8.5/10 which is about fair to me.

This has already sold very well for a new IP in the Staes for its first two weeks (over 156,000) and is already halfway to making a profit assuming that it's budgeted around the same as House of The Dead Overkill. The Conduit will sell over 1m without a problem and will make both High Voltage Software and Sega a shedload of money.

 

[Satangel]

Well I'm very impressed with the game myself, it's been very harshly reviewed imo. Any game that has just about everything bump, gloss or diffuse mapped, advanced particle effects, real-time reflection and refraction, focus blur and HDR lighting effects on a console without pixel shaders combined with fully customisable controls and HUD, and a very entertaining and addictive online multiplayer deserves at least 7/10 if not 8+.

The user reviews everywhere that I've seen average out as 8.5/10 which is about fair to me.

This has already sold very well for a new IP in the Staes for its first two weeks (over 156,000) and is already halfway to making a profit assuming that it's budgeted around the same as House of The Dead Overkill. The Conduit will sell over 1m without a problem and will make both High Voltage Software and Sega a shedload of money.

Let's hope so!
I really want some more online games, a shooter or something else.

 

[bytor]

It wouldn't surprise me if Sega have already done a deal with High Voltage on both Gladiator AD and The Grinder dependant on sales of The Conduit. The Grinder is looking absolutely fantastic so far and they've only worked on it for a few months. There's another year to 18 months worth of dev time to go yet and by the time it's released it'll be awesome.

 

[X D D X]

It sold pretty well in the US, 94,000 in the first week i think. Lets hope sales are steady so we get a sequel.

 

[bytor]

Yup, I think this'll have plenty of legs and despite the dodgy reviews I think word-of-mouth will do it a lot of good. I'll be very interested to see how it's done after a month in both territories. I haven't had as much fun online since I played the PC SKU of Halo 1 years ago. A great deal of fun and very addictive.

 

[FlatFrogger]

TBH I haven't even seen it advertised in the UK, unless the game is first party or grade A shovelware it doesn't tend to get advertised.

 

[dinofan01]

Wait. Your claiming it bombed becasue it hit the top 40 chart in two days? That doesn't make sense. Give it a whole month before you claim anything a failure.

 

[Bladexdsl]

yep conduit it a huge flop

 

[manias]

yep conduit it a huge flop

no, it doesn't mean that

it means it doesn't meet expectations. A huge flop doesn't reach the top 40

 

[Bladexdsl]

no it is a flop

a. it's another boring run and gun
b. it looks bad not even close to how much they bragged it would. mp3 looks better even!
c. gameplay is boring and the enemies AI is incredibly stupid

the only thing that is perfect is the controls.

3 flops in a row sega sonic UN, mw and now conduit.

 

[bytor]

They didn't brag that it'd have 360 quality graphics, just that it would boast graphical effects you'd expect to see on the PS360. And it delivers. Just about everything is bump, gloss or diffuse mapped, advanced particle effects, real-time reflection and refraction for water and weapons (check out the surface of the alien weapons and the scopes on the human ones), focus blur and HDR lighting effects. Although the art style has a lot to be desired there is absolutely nothing wrong with the visual effects themselves. A more appropriate art style would have been better but as it is it's the best looking game on the Wii.

As for the enemy AI try it at harder difficulty levels. On the default difficulty level the AI isn't great to start with but gets better as the game progresses making the game quite a challenge at the end.

And I can't see any problem with the run and gun aspect of the game if you choose to play it that way, but not taking the time to look for the hidden items and listen to radio broadcasts is a mistake imo. It gives the story more outline and is quite a challenge, those bloody data discs are difficult to find imo.

 

[Pacmann]

Yes, the game sucks indeed.
Already deleted it... next!

 

[Hadrian]

Chart numbers dont really matter, one weeks number 29 is another 40.

I expected this to not do so well elsewhere for the following reasons:

1. Many of us played the US release, wasn't into it and didn't even want to keep it let alone buy it.
2. Our press didn't take to it like the US press did.
3. Bad word of mouth.
4. The delay, had they released it earlier it may have sold a bit better.
5. SEGA didn't advertise it much, House of the Dead Overkill did fine over here because it was advertised. I didn't even know this was out until I saw the dump. The Conduit could have done a lot better because it was rated teen and wasn't lambasted by the press here for having naughty language.
6. A lot of Wii gamer that don't buy games online, buy from supermarkets. I've not seen this game at any at all.

I really don't see this game as being one with legs, I think the first week sales (the actual FULL week sales) will be the highest.

They didn't brag that it'd have 360 quality graphics, just that it would boast graphical effects you'd expect to see on the PS360. And it delivers. Just about everything is bump, gloss or diffuse mapped, advanced particle effects, real-time reflection and refraction for water and weapons (check out the surface of the alien weapons and the scopes on the human ones), focus blur and HDR lighting effects. Although the art style has a lot to be desired there is absolutely nothing wrong with the visual effects themselves. A more appropriate art style would have been better but as it is it's the best looking game on the Wii.
No its not, it has some good techin there but the overall design is mediocre, HVS aren't very good at design. The backgrounds were a lot worse than games like Resident Evil 4, Zelda TP & Metroid Prime 3. Two of those were Gamecube ports.

QUOTE(bytor @ Jul 14 2009, 06:06 PM) As for the enemy AI try it at harder difficulty levels. On the default difficulty level the AI isn't great to start with but gets better as the game progresses making the game quite a challenge at the end.

I played it first on the hardest difficulty, its nothing. Its just a drone shooter with the most laziest ideas for padding the game out. This isn't 1999, there is no excuse to simply trap a player in one part and bombard them with enemies. I swear even Serious Sam's enemies were more clever than these.