Out of Control!

It hasn't escaped my attention that reviewers these days can't seem to mention a new FPS title without mentioning "Call of Duty" in the same sentence. Don't get me wrong, I love the CoD games and the amount of hours I have clocked up online with these games is frankly obscene, but I think enough is enough.

I've heard a few comments on The Conduit's reviews in the last few weeks and a couple of them mentioning CoD, and having now played the game for myself, I can see that these comparisons are frankly ridiculous. Let's make one thing clear, anyone with half a brain can see that this game was never intended to go up against CoD, in fact I don't think High Voltage could care less about Activision's franchise. Never in Call of Duty have I heard a seductive female voice say "respawn in 3...2...1", there is no Middle East in The Conduit, no sand, no nukes and no marines. This is old school fragging plain and simple, this game almost pays homage to the likes of Quake and Unreal Tournament. I mean, if you're going to compare FPS titles it should be done like for like, would they compare Forza Motorsport to Outrun?? I highly doubt it!

But here's the problem with games on the Wii, if a developer releases a party or 'family' game it gets bad reviews due to it being "yet another party game", however if a developer releases a more serious type of game it gets the "this game isn't right for Wii and is better on PS3 or XBox due to the graphics". You're basically damned if you do and damned if you don't!

Let's cut to the chase, yes The Conduit is linear but then so is CoD, yes the graphics aren't as good as a 360 game but it still looks great so who really cares, yes the storyline isn't exactly original but then neither is a war game set in the Middle East with nukes and an evil dicatator!!!

It's about time reviewers got out of their CoD rut that they seem to be stuck in and see things for the way they really are. The Conduit is old school fragging at it's best, it's time to embrace it not slate it!

Club Nintendo Never So Good

But not in Europe.

We always get the shitty end of the stick. Even after the launch of the new Nintendo website and the arrival of Stars to Wii Points, the Stars Catalogue is still full of crap. If it's not crap, there has been the odd thing worth getting, then it's out of stock. Permanently. We get crap stuff! It's probably the stuff that Club Nintendo Japan laughed at during a board meeting and tossed into the bin only for the cleaner to come along and say, "Hey, why not get rid of this stuff in Europe and America! They'll love it. They love all our stuff." Well we don't. We want the good stuff.

I heard a while back that Nintendo would be releasing Wii compatible SNES Pads. OMG! I remember thinking. I WANT ONE! Finally I could play SFII on the VC just like I used to on my SNES. It's an inspired idea by Nintendo. There can be no SNES playing Wii owner that wouldn't want one. The release date is April 4th 2008 but of course the SNES Pad is only available from Club Nintendo Japan. You can cast a weepy glance at Nintendo of Japan's Club Nintendo site here.

There is a glimmer of hope for the rest of us though. A small chance that you can get yourself your very own SuperWiiNES Pad. Play Asia are going to be taking pre-orders very soon.

If Club Nintendo Japan is The Emperor then Club Nintendo Europe is the beggar. It's not fair [/stamping feet]. Why can't we have this cool stuff over here!? We want it! Envious much? Come and moan on the GameOv3r Forum.