Sega

Sega was showcasing three major releases for the Wii, The Conduit, House of the Dead: Overkill, and MadWorld. The Conduit is a first-person shooter that is designed around the Wii-mote style of control, similar in presentation to Red Steel. It seems that developers are still having a tough time getting an accurate translation from mouse and keyboard to Wii-mote, as aiming and moving was a little erratic. We were constantly correcting and over correcting our movements, almost as if the sensitivity was turned too high or movement acceleration was on. Graphically, the game looks pretty good for the Wii platform, as textures and models are both sharp and clear. The Conduit is set for release sometime this spring exclusively for the Wii.


House of the Dead: Overkill is the latest iteration in the venerable series and it seems to follow along identical lines to previous outings. As an on-rails shooter, you guide the protagonist from room to room blasting Zombies and trying to stay alive, all while making split-second shots to get power-ups scattered throughout the levels. Headshots are almost instant-kills, and some power-ups give you special abilities, like a slow-motion effect that makes it easier to aim in pressing situations. HOD also uses the motion sensitivity of the Wii-mote to allow you to pull off melee attacks, should any zombies get a little too close for comfort. House of the Dead: Overkill is scheduled for release on February 10th on the Wii.


MadWorld is another Wii exclusive game brought to us by Sega that features ultra-violent combat and a stylistic approach to graphical effects. The game is played in a black and white shaded world, with the exception of blood which is displayed in bright red contrast. MadWorld looks fantastic, both in terms of graphical style and game play. We didn’t get the opportunity to play it firsthand due to the long lines, but watching others play through the level on demo was pretty telling. You can use the environment to execute foes in pretty creative ways, such as impaling enemies on road signs or dropping huge spike cages on top of them. They even have neck breaking finishing moves which has the bad guy’s heads spurting blood and facing the wrong way, which is a pretty gruesome sight. A lot of the action is also accompanied by colored phrases, like ‘splat’, similar to the 1960’s Batman TV series. So far, MadWorld is looking pretty fantastic and we can’t wait to get our hands on it when it gets released in March.