Well I got a chance to play The Conduit for the first time today. All in all I'm very impressed but at the same time I feel resources and fillrate was wasted on certain aspects.
The first thing to grab my attention was the texture detail on most surfaces when seen up close. I think it's pretty obvious S3 Texture Compression is being used however at SD resolutions I think it's a waste. However it's not even visible unless you are very close to the surface like a wall for the rasterization process to even render it, so I don't think it's really much of a fillrate hit even in large scenes, though as far as memory goes, it could be viewed as being somewhat wasteful.
Second, I was very VERY surprised with how far they went with the water in certain areas. It looks fantastic when it's being run with a 3D wave channel. I flat out never expected to see something like that on the Wii. However the only part of the game with water to have this I've noticed so far, was at a lull point in the action, where there were no enemies about, only some kind of organic "mine" like weapons that had to be destroyed by the ASE device, but it was incredible seeing them explode and create real time 3D waves. It just blew me away. Other parts with water I've seen running what looked to be a 2D wave system (I assume this is used for parts where the CPU is alot more occupied with other tasks).
I really liked the music, very nicely done. It's nothing too special but certainly not jarring, and I actually enjoyed hearing it.
The gunplay is fun though the SCAR should've been fully automatic.
While the AI is simple, the proper design of the level coupled with good placement and scripting make the fights fun. Right now I'm at the part as you go up the steps to the Jefferson Memorial. It's proven to be quite a tough fight, but still lots of fun.
Some negatives:
As far as other things go, the geometry in the game is kind of lacking on some things, nothing terrible, but it's noticeable, especially on human enemies. There have been some framerate issues too.
I also feel that alot of energy was wasted on bloom lighting too. It's a cool effect used in demonstration, but over usage like HDR can be very annoying in practice.
Not sure about the average amount of CPU tax in the game, but some physics based objects to mess around with in the environment would be fun just for the hell of it.
Not enough different death animations. Some real time physics built into them would be cool too, but I understand the implication of it. However, seeing 4 enemies die in a row with the exact same death animation is somewhat ridiculous.
The game REALLY needs some anti-aliasing. Some scenes like the lobbies in the 2nd level are terribly jaggy.
Well so far that's just some of my opinions. The game is fun though overall, and I'm glad that someone at least wanted to try and push the system a good deal. Haven't tried it online though. As far as the whole Xbox vs. Wii thing, I think the texture resolutions on some surfaces seem to be better than anything I ever saw on an Xbox game and I never saw water with 3D wave tech on the Xbox or PS2 either, though the Xbox was a better machine at shaders I'm sure, and I think it's safe to say the Wii probably is superior in realtime with some graphics techniques, I can't see the Xbox doing Super Mario Galaxy at 60 fps. Just glad to see the Wii get pushed hard.
Anyone know if HV did a post mordem on the game yet? Also I'd like some more info on their CPU task managing.
