Conduit (Series)

The Conduit is is a Wii-Exclusive first person shooter game developed by High Voltage Software and published by Sega. It was followed up by Conduit 2 which began production immediately after the first game started shipping. The first game has won multiple E3 awards for the Wii.

The story follows Michael Ford who is trying to save Washington D.C (later the world in the second game) from the alien Enlil (known to Ford as John Adams).

The Conduit
The Conduit was announced to be in production on April, 17 2008 through IGN. It was created to match gaming experiences on the Playstation 3 (Call of Duty) and the Xbox 360 (Halo). The game was a surprise because the company had usually done games for smaller audiences. In October 2008, it was announced the game had gone in an pre-alpha state. By March 2009 the game was in a pre-beta stage and in June 2009 the game was announced to have gone gold.

The Wii Motion Plus was originally supposed to be compatible with the game. But after trying to find out what use it would do and going through many confrence stages, the Motion Plus was blocked out of the game.

The game follows the adventures of Michael Ford who saves the president from his own Secret Service team. The president then allows John Adams, leader of the Trust, a government team bent on saving America, into letting Ford stop a terrorist threat, but he quickly becomes involved in an alien invasion. With help from the terrorist Prometheus Ford is able to destroy creation of the Drudge, who are not actually aliens, and obliterate the Trust base escaping in a Conduit.

Publisher
High Voltage Software had begun production on The Conduit without a publisher. After the game recieved high popularity, at least ten companies wanted to publish the game. High Voltage announced that the reason why their games had gotten bad reviews was because big publishing companies had gotten in the way.

Eventually Sega was chosen to be the publisher because it shared the vision for the game that High Voltage Software did. The announcement came after Sega put a file for The Conduit on their website.

Awards
The game had recieved three awards for E3:

IGN:


 * Best Shooter Game of E3 2008(Wii)
 * Best Graphics Technology of E3 2008(Wii)
 * Best Wii Game of E3 2008

Game Trailers:


 * Best Wii Game of E3 2008

The game won the worst box art on Gamestop.

Conduit 2
After months of speculation Conduit 2 was announced and is to be developed by High Voltage Software and published by Sega. Both online and offline co-op modes were added. High Voltage has stated that they will focus on art and story, area which were criticized in the first game. The A.S.E, which to was criticized will be worked on and more features will be added. The A.S.E will have more in common with the visor from the Metroid games.

The game starts from where the first left off. Michael Ford enters an oil derrick from the conduit he escaped Washington D.C from. The derrick's men start shooting at him. Eventually a Leviathan attacks the derrick and Ford must kill it. Michael must then gain the trust of other aliens in the world to not ally with John Adams and destroy the Drudge army.

The game takes place in: Washington D.C, which shows more damage done to the city than before; Atlantis, in which the A.S.E can be used to control giant guardians; Siberia, which has iron wolves; and the Lost City of Z, of which's purpose in the game is currently unknown.