On their most recent release list mailed to journalists, Electronic Arts Germany listed the upcoming ´Crysis Maximum Edition´ as a Wii exclusive, prompting some bewilderment in the community. This is an error on part of the company. I have just spoken to a representative and they were not even aware of the mistake.
The official press page of Electronic Arts Deutschland lists the title as a Windows game. Just for reference, here is the release list and the entry in question.
´Conduit´ developer High Voltage Software has more big plans for Wii. In a video interview with French site Nintendo-Master, the studio's Eric Nofsinger announced "two big ones" to be announced at E3.
Our goal with 'The Conduit' was to make a game that was the most graphically impressive for the Wii. Our goal with these upcoming games is to do some things that are very, very rare, even on the 360 or PS3. Some of things we are doing with the sheer number of enemies on-screen and things like that, are very impressive. We've got a demo we'll be showing there where the average number of enemies on the screen at any given time is 65 and then it goes up.
Here is the video interview in full.
Previous titles by the studio may only include ´The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy´ and the frankly appalling ´Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude´. But Wii-exclusive ´The Conduit´, to be released in June, clearly shows that they have entered another league, both in terms of immersive gameplay and extraordinary graphics. Here is the most recent trailer for the game.
We have gotten used to some studios talking up the Wii's graphical capabilities. In 2007, Epic Studios revealed that a licensee of their Unreal 3 technology was porting it to Wii. It is still unknown which studio and what kind of project are attached to this attempt.
Just over a year ago, Factor 5 president Julian claimed that the Wii engine he is working on will deliver no less than their PS3 engine used for ´Lair´:
We're almost done with the engine and it does everything that the PS3 did and then some, quite frankly.
In April of 2008, High Voltage Games claimed that Wii games can look as good as Xbox360 or PS3 titles:
Most of the games on the Wii look like crap. We want to change that, so we've invested heavily in our Wii tech over the past year. (...) With Conduit, we are trying to make a Wii game that looks like a 360 title.
Will they deliver? If all the games mentioned above can match or surpass ´The Conduit´, then the answer is a clear yes. But whether there is a market for these games is the question far more relevant to the console's long-term portfolio. Source: Nintendo-Master (French) Thanks to: Kombo
Bloober Team, the subsidiary studio of Poland-based ´Sadness´ developer Nibris has finally launched their website, announcing three new games and dishing out information on their various in-house graphics engines.
For a start, Bloober Team claims to be an approved developer by both Nintendo and Sony, currently seeking Microsoft approval. The studio also claims to be developing four titles and has apparently developed two graphics engines.
No screenshots are available on the site. Instead, the studio shows three pieces of artwork for ´Last Flight´. Here is one of them:
Interestingly enough, the website seems to make no mention of parent studio Nibris, although some images are shared between the websites and Nibris links to Bloober as a "befriended studio".
While the site looks professional, it also contains some spelling mistakes and awkward use of English.
It seems also worthy of note that the studio appears to concentrate solely on digital distribution. It seems that they will not release any games on physical media.
I know some of have been waiting for my in-depth analysis of Nibris for some time. While I must apologize for the time it took me so far, it is coming along and will be published as soon my little son gives me some time off. I estimate that it should be done within the next four weeks. Source: Bloober Team
