Arc Rise Fantasia - more screens

Some more nice screens for you, hopefully we'll get a trailer soon as well. Looking like a good pick up in the future if it comes to the States.

Arc Rise Fantasia - new screens

This is looking like a big RPG coming to the Wii in Japan. Nice art direction, nice graphics and probably a good soundtrack..... now it just has to come to the United States for us RPG fans. I also might add that this game is looking better graphically already than Tales of Symphonia does on the Wii thus far (I'm still hoping that Tales is a great game by the way).

The Conduit: more screens

Some more screens of The Conduit have popped up and I'm happy that at least in these screens High Voltage is showing off a different level than the one we've all seen before in the city. Remember that the game is still unfinished and that a lot of the textures on walls and on the ground are still being worked on. That being said, a lot of the textures on the walls in these screens look pretty good as they are.

Disaster: Day of Crisis opening movie

My other video I posted didn't seem to work, but this one is ok. This is looking like an Epic game and I can't wait to see more.

House of the Dead: Overkill screens

As you can see, this game already has some of the best graphics yet seen on the Wii. Yes it is a shooter that has a predetermined path, but the detail and lighting is still very good and it is all running in real-time.

Mega Man 9 gameplay video

Who is playing this game right now? Awesome 2D gameplay and very fun, but pretty hard huh? Enjoy the ass kicking since most games these days just "let" you win without much difficulty to stop you. 2D gaming FTW....

Monster Hunter 3 more screens

This game looks amazing, some of the bottom screens are very low res but the top are a much better representation of how the game looks. Monster Hunter 3 should now be one of your top most wanted Wii games is it not? Hands-on play testing will begin at TGS on October 9th in Japan.

Monster Hunter 3 scans, updated details

- takes place on a new, unexplored island
- forests, caves, underwater environments
- full control over your character when swimming
- go fishing and use your catches as ingredients
- there is an air gauge while swimming
- use torches to light up dark areas
- new monsters
- old monsters will be revamped as well
- underwater monster is the main monster of the game. This monster can survive outside of water as well
- 4 player online
- city acts as a lobby for meeting with other players
- the city in single player has more buildings to visit, and different paths to take
- appearing at TGS

Link

Finally we got some pictures of Monster Hunter 3 from Capcom for the Wii. It has been over a year since we've seen anything concerning this game and now we finally got something. If you look really closely (dark scans) you can see that the level of detail in this game is amazing. I thought that the levels shown alone in the pictures were CG at first but after seeing the other pictures with the characters, I can see that this might be the best looking Wii game yet (sorry Conduit). See Capcom? Effort..... too bad Dead Rising isn't being treated the same way by them.

Tenchu IV gameplay video

This game is looking like a lot of fun to me, it is using a first person sword attack mode that you see later in the video that is similar to Red Steel but it seems to fit this game a lot better. I'm also liking the many different executions you can perform. I have a good feeling that this will eventually come to the United States since most of the other versions have in the past.

Disaster: Day of Crisis gameplay video

This game looks like it has a lot of different types of ways to play control wise. Driving, shooting, running and even rescuing people are all possible. The game definitely looks exciting, but as with most games that try to do a lot of different types of gameplay most times a lot things don't work (Red Steel, Alone In The Dark) so I'm hopeful that Monolith Sofware and Nintendo can get most if not all parts of the game working well in the end.

New interview with Eric Nofsinger (The Conduit)

The Conduit is one of the most anticipated Wii titles at the time. First Person Shooter with conspiracy theories and space aliens is already praised by game medias. Graphically it has been called almost 360-matching title and the huge amount of features raised the expectations even higher. The lead designer Eric Nofsinger gave KonsoliFIN an interview, and the readers had a nice opportunity to ask few questions from Eric, too.

What is a typical day for you at High Voltage?

LOL, typically my days are full of meetings, trying to nail down all the details of an issue and get everyone on the same page, be it the way an enemy behaves or the music in a mission, etc. But this leaves the other designers free to actually work on the details, which in turn has given us the great game that we have so far.

There has been a great response from Wii gamers all over the world, after The Conduit development was revealed to the public. Did you expect that when you were starting to develop the game?

No expectations like that. We did hope that people would like our game but the sheer amount of praise and interest has been very gratifying... and scary. It's a lot to live up to, but we're trying.

The conspiracy-theory storyline with elements like "all-seeing eye" sounds fun! How the story came up, and are you familiar with David Icke's reptilian conspiracy theories?

LOL, our story has evolved just as the game has. We started with a lot more politics in the story, but dropped that in favor of concentrating on fewer characters. We also drew upon all sorts of conspiracy theories like Mr. Icke's. So yes, we are familiar with him and his work, among a host of others.

Was Wii the first platform that you had in mind for The Conduit?

Absolutely; we chose the Wii because the console is not being used to its full potential. We feel its control scheme is perfect for shooter gameplay; however there are few "good" FPS games out on the platform. Also, we know that the Wii is capable of much better graphics than most games on the console are using.

Can you tell some elements and features, that separates The Conduit from other FPS games available for other systems?

Well, the Wii has the unique motion-sensitive controls that make it the best platform for FPS games; this means we have weapons and gameplay that makes use of motions and movements that other games cannot. We also have some interesting puzzle-solving going on with our All Seeing Eye (ASE) device that allows players to reveal invisible hazards, secrets, and enemies. And last, but not least, its NOT set during World War II, LOL.

Will the story continue - any talks of a sequel yet?

There is talk of a sequel, but we won't know more about this until we finalize a deal with a publisher.

What is the main reason that game developers and publishers haven't put out more FPS games for Wii, in your opinion?

The main reason is probably the due to the success of casual games like WiiSports. That opened up a brand new market of gamers that didn't have the same level of expectations that hardcore gamers have. So publishers naturally saw a way to make some easy money, but unfortunately pushed aside the type of players that had sustained them for so long.

Do you plan to keep the Quantum3 Engine exclusively for High Voltage, and have there been an interest from other dev studios for it (especially the ones developing for Wii)?

A few have contacted us, yes. But we are not a middleware company, so there are no current plans to license the engine.

Since High Voltage is a pioneer of paying attention to this genre on Wii, we are already wondering and hoping if you have more titles coming up for Nintendo consoles (also for DS)?

We have other Wii titles in the works, absolutely.

What about your WiiWare titles?

Gyrostarr and VIP Casino Blackjack are already out and available. We are still working on Animales but aren't sure whether to make this another WiiWare game or maybe a full blown Wii title.

You allegedly said that "most of the games on the Wii look like crap" - could you recommend Wii titles for KonsoliFIN readers, that look great?

Well, we really like the style of Super Mario Galaxy and of course, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption was very visually appealing. We also like Resident Evil 4, though that was a port from Gamecube.

Your first video game console and the most favorite, of all times?

Personally, my first video game console I ever played was the Nintendo 64. First I ever owned was an Xbox. But I would say my favorite is currently the Wii.

Finally: Here are some KonsoliFIN readers' questions concerning The Conduit:

How is the online play implemented in the game?

We have 16 player online, with the standard modes - Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag. We also hope to offer online LAN multiplayer.

Besides online-multiplayer mode, is there a split-screen local multiplayer or co-op modes available - and can you tell us more about the levels?

We unfortunately cannot do split screen as our graphics are too expensive. We have some possible co-op options we are looking into.

We have nine single player levels that cover all sorts of exciting areas in Washington D.C. For example, you'll get to fight at the White House, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Library of Congress.

Are there different difficulty levels to choose from - and how long the game will approximately be with the easiest setting?

Yes, we have three difficulty levels. We estimate about 8-10 hours of gameplay on the Normal setting, so a bit less perhaps on Easy.

Since the platform for The Conduit is Wii, people are expecting a lot from controls. Can you tell us something about how they work in the game?

We've worked long and hard on our controls, drawing from the success of games like Metroid Prime 3 and Medal of Honor Heroes. The biggest feature is that our controls are totally customizable. You can adjust sensitivity or bounding box sizes on the fly IN GAME, so you can immediately see how they feel. Also, we will let you remap your button layout, so you can put features on the control or motion that you want. We realize that every player is different and we want to embrace those differences.

When can you reveal the publisher?

Hopefully within two or three weeks.

Any plans of downloadable content?

No plans for downloadable content, as the storage capacity on the Wii is not that large. We'd rather you use that for our WiiWare titles, LOL!

Thank you a lot, any other message for gamers?

Just to say "Thank You" to all of you for your support and interest in our game. We always hope that what we do will reach people and it's very gratifying to know that we have. So thank you all!

Link

That is too bad about no split-screen multiplayer, but if LAN does work out then it will be a non-issue for me. Any guesses as to who will be the publisher? Only 3 weeks until they make the announcement.....

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Wii walkthrough

This is the video we've been waiting for, a walkthrough with the developer on how The Force Unleashed works on the Wii. From what I've been hearing, the PS3/Xbox360 versions of the game are really more like tech demos compared to the Wii version which feels more like a complete game. Nice to see that Lucasarts is really taking the Wii seriously and making what might be the best version of game released.

Tenchu IV screens

The last 2 screens are from in-game cut-scenes. The character detail is pretty good, and from seeing the gameplay videos recently it looks like a lot of fun also.

The Conduit: yet another video

Just when you thought you've seen all you can see on The Conduit, more videos pop up and this time by Game Reactor. Hopefully March of '09 will be the time it's released and not later if it's delayed.

Congratulate me, I'm Married!

Yep, I finally got Married to my girlfriend Viviana on August 30th. I won't be posting too many things for the next week or so but rest assured that I'm keeping up on all the goings on in the world of Nintendo and the Wii.

Disaster for Wii lives! How many of you are excited for this game after the new details and 70 screenshots were released by IGN recently? I for one am really excited for the game and it looks a lot better than the last time we got to see the game in action (about a year ago?).

Let me know in the comments section.

Thanks for all your support guys!