The zombie hunting, vampire slaying co-op FPS from High Voltage Software is no longer a Wii exclusive.
High Voltage Software just disclosed to IGN that The Grinder is not a Wii exclusive anymore and will be available on PC, 360 and PS3 too. Is that a testament to what the team achieved with the game's graphics on Wii? Perhaps.
The game will be shown at GDC in March and the folks at HVS seem pretty excited about it, saying that both the single player and co-op modes have been fleshed out and that the Quantum3 engine has improved.
So, we'll have to wait until March to see more of the game, which apparently is to be released in Halloween... 2011.
You can read the entire interview here.
February 4th, 2010 at 18:53 || Total Comments: 1177
I applaud HVS for having the guts to push this game a full year back, and really take it to grand scale.
They've gone back and done concept art all over again to really make the style pop this time around.
They deserve to take this game beyond where Hunter: The Reckoning and The Conduit went.
Sméagol Says:
February 4th, 2010 at 19:07 || Total Comments: 34
It's too bad, but after the shutdown of the developer of Cursed Mountain.. If this'll make 'm more money (so they can continue to make games), fine by me. I'm actually not really looking forward to the gladiator game, this however.. I'm a fan of L4D, and I thought The Conduit was great too (well, good enough at least), this seems right up my alley. Probably 'll buy it for the Wii, just for support, unless there's a real significant difference in content.. Wonder how'll it do on the other consoles though.. Halloween 2011 is a long wait, there sure'll be plenty fps games released for the other platforms. It may be the only one for Wii though :D (besides Red Steel).
Azmol01 Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 03:35 || Total Comments: 921
Completely understandable after The Conduit flopped, but how well will this do on the PS360, those consoles are swamped with top-drawer FPS games and by 2011 will anyone care for The Grinder in what will be a hugely crowded market.
Benedetto Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 03:45 || Total Comments: 338
2011 is long time away. this game wouldn't be top notch if it were released last year -not for PS/360 anyway.
Morgan_E Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 03:55 || Total Comments: 17
So let me get this straight. A less-than-successful third party is taking a game that's essentially a 1st person twist on Left4Dead and releasing it towards the end of the life-cycle of the current gen consoles.
Their reason? The Conduit was an over-hyped piece of garbage and they think selling an unknown FPS shooter to a two consoles whose market is already flooded with them will produce good sales.
HVS are truly in a league of their own when it comes to making sense. I'd say the same for them making crap games too but hey, it's the Wii we're talking about. May I be the first to say "Goodbye HVS, we won't miss you"
Yulaw Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 03:58 || Total Comments: 165
What Morgan said. High Voltage have got a 'high' opinion of themselves after the whole Conduit thing. Which as we all know, was pants anyway.
I didn't care much for that game or this one, so I couldn't care less
Morgan_E Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 03:58 || Total Comments: 17
The funniest comment was that they're proud of over a million hours of gameplay from 350,000 sold games. That's like, what? 3 hours per copy? For a game which strongly pushes it's online gaming that's absolute garbage. If it were 10 million hours, then I'd be impressed.
Darkflame Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 05:56 || Total Comments: 1073
Highvoltage made a fantastic Wii engine, thats far more then most did. They also gave basicaly everything Wii owners were asking for in terms of controlls and online.
Yes, they didnt have the expirence, and their art-skills wernt that great.
But cant you see they are better then 90% for trying?
I'm much more willing to support a company that trys because they are going to get better and better with each game released.
Compared that to most company's that already have people with the skills, but cant be arsed to do anything interesting with it.
". Probably 'll buy it for the Wii, just for support, "
Not for the controlls?
The Wii is still the best for FPS controls, and I dought that will change even after the other systems have their motion controll stuff.
D_prOdigy Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 07:01 || Total Comments: 1674
I think it's understandable on their part (and I even suspect publisher mentality had a big bearing in this decision).
But they're going the right way about it as much as they can now. I'd be dubious if it was still planned as a release for the end of 2010, but the fact they're spending so much time on it should give us hope that it will be an all-round full effort on all consoles.
People should know by now that High Voltage are fans of the Wii. They understand the needs of the gamer, and they know more than most other developers they won't be able to get away with dumping a rushed port on us.
The only reason my interest has waned is because it's so far away. I'll keep an eye on it, and providing the quality is there, I'll buy it (on Wii).
Morgan_E Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 07:28 || Total Comments: 17
"The Wii is still the best for FPS controls"
I dispute that point. Personally, I find the twitchy IR and less-than-perfect-unless-you-spend-ten-minutes-tweaking-it approach to camera control to be less than inspired.
I had no problem playing Time Splitters 2 back in the day and now when I go back to games like that I feel like a retard because one half of my brain shut down after I purchased my Wii back in 2006. I can no longer work with dual analogue controls and seem to struggle completing even games on other consoles at even easy difficulties these days (Left4Dead being the prime example)
Tealovertoma Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 08:33 || Total Comments: 426
Isn't that testimony to how well the FPS Wii controls work?
Also, I've had no "twitchy IR" problems with the titles I've plaed.
Hellfire Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 10:08 || Total Comments: 822
Some of you are just plain ol' jaded and disgruntled because Conduit didn't match some ridiculous expectations out of a developer with a mediocre track record.
First of all, like Darkflame said they made a much bigger effort than most devs. This has to count for something, sure the games aren't great but their mentality towards the Wii should be an example, they are enthusiastic, they work hard and they listen to the fans.
Now imagine you work on a "small" self-funded game made by an indie studio, yet more ambicious than most big dev's efforts that gets picked up by Sega sells 350k copies and turns profit and that they see people played your game more than a million hours. How could you not be satisfied?
If you stopped being so aggressive towards everything for a moment because "oh lawd I'm on the internet" and looked at things with perspective you'd realize these guys deserve some respect, even if their games aren't all that great.
First of all, no twitchy IR from where I stand and your case is that it's bad because you go back to dual analogs and you can't use them? Seriously, what the hell, isn't that proving that's because you got used to the IR controls which provide much more precision and sensitivity? It's like saying "damnit electricity sucks, I went back to living in a cave with only a campfire and I feel retarded."
Last of all, think for a moment, while 360 and PS3 SDKs are expensive it's natural a company would like to venture into developing for all platforms, sticking to just one isn't usually financially stable and since they're up-porting, the development costs are much smaller than developing ground up on 360/PS3, so it could pay out if they sell a few on the other platforms. It's a risk of course, but that's business. This is a perfectly viable decision. There is a reason why some people other than clueless analysts have defended up-porting.
You call it less than successful they say otherwise, and since they're the ones that count I'm taking their word for it. You say the end of a console cycle in 2011, the console manufacturers say otherwise, so I guess I'll also take their word for it. Even if it wasn't the case, I'm not sure that standing still for one or two years in fear that a console is reaching its end is very smart.
Darkflame Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 10:26 || Total Comments: 1073
Well put.
As for IR based FPS controlls; Its both faster and more accurate. Its not supprising people cant get used to sluggishness of other controlls.
(even if they do mostly have auto-aim helping a bit).
I'm still not sure if Wii controls beat a mouse and keyboard, but certainly in terms of "how fast you can turn your character and aim at someone" it beats dual analogue.
And thats what all controllers should have as their goal; Represent what the player wants to do as fast and as accurately as possible.
Sumo73 Says:
February 6th, 2010 at 02:29 || Total Comments: 359
This game is going to be released at the end of Oct 2011 which for me is ages away so I'm not bothered about this game right now.
@Darkflame> When developers use Wiimotion plus more and can realise that adding by a left and right handed option in the game is worth doing (which very few do) then and only then will I say that it's better for FPS.
Pod Says:
February 6th, 2010 at 08:25 || Total Comments: 1177
Morgan: Do expect less than 20% of Conduit owners to play it online. That makes the figure closer to 15 hours each.
Also, HVS employs over 150 people. The Grinder is not the only game they will be releasing between now and Halloween 2011. They'd be out of commission.
They're releasing Tournment of Legends this May, and I'm willing to bet they're announcing new games at E3.
Solitanze Says:
February 7th, 2010 at 02:16 || Total Comments: 1813
Betrayal was bound to happen after Conduits spectacular failure on Wii. 100% no purchase now, hopefully the game bombs...
Morgan_E Says:
February 7th, 2010 at 04:52 || Total Comments: 17
Pod: I think the claim of 1 million hours includes single player time too so the bearing on online play is even worse in that case and shows how truly disappointing the game was.
Personally I dragger myself through the entire game (once) which took me about 5 hours and that was only because I made myself play it for having paid a lot of money for it. Still at nearly £8 per hour I'd say that's less than value for money and it looks like on average the game worked out closer to £12 per hour which is just horrible.
I'm glad to hear they made a profit out of it but I come from a time when I've seen games companies "promise the world" for a platform well over twenty years ago and whilst their effort was technically impressive their catalogue of nearly ten games were less than good. So I'm just watching the whole routine again and hence expect nothing better.
For those arguing over Wii controls for FPS games. Sure they're fast but it's taken devs nearly the entire lifespan of the console to finally achieve performance slightly better than dual analogue but try keeping a steady aim from more than 5 meters away and you'll know what I mean.
D_prOdigy Says:
February 7th, 2010 at 09:04 || Total Comments: 1674
The million hours thing is only from the people whose Wii is connected to the internet, since that data is pulled from the Nintendo channel.
Pod Says:
February 7th, 2010 at 16:20 || Total Comments: 1177
Why would you have to aim from more than 5M away? You can always move the sensor bar closer without much trouble, buy a wireless one, or even make one yourself.
And for "slightly better than dual analogue" well, that's a taste-thing. For me it is infinitely better than dual analogue.
Mubhceeb Says:
February 8th, 2010 at 07:12 || Total Comments: 15
Award for the most retarded comments in one feature. Screw the doubters, I'm looking forward to this game.
Morgan_E Says:
February 8th, 2010 at 07:27 || Total Comments: 17
Award for most rose-tinted-fanboy-Nintedo-can-do-no-wrong in one feature. What is up with Wii gamers? Don't you guys realise when people talk about the Wii having a great catalogue of software they mean the Gamecube back catalogue?
Surely the idea of paying nearly £40 for a complete controller setup should provide enough proof that Nintendo are doing nothing more this gen/ than milking gamers out of their money.
MotionPlus is an obvious bust which is why Miyamoto is trying to save it and and has essentially lost one sales of Zelda which used to be one of my favourite first party franchises until it hit the Wii.
Still I guess a large collection of light-gun games goes to prove any people will buy any old shit these days and pay top dollar for it.
Pod Says:
February 8th, 2010 at 15:29 || Total Comments: 1177
Yes, they controllers are way too expensive, and that is my primary gripe with Nintendo these days.
But let me get this straight; you're not buying Zelda because you are angry with Nintendo, yet you complain about the light-gun games that others buy.
Go eat your sour grapes elsewhere, 'cause that mopey face isn't winning you any favors here.
Mubhceeb Says:
February 10th, 2010 at 08:22 || Total Comments: 15
Well Morgan_E what ill informed gibberish. If motion controls are such a failure why are other companies striving to replicate the technology for their consoles?
Maybe your problem with the Wii-mote is an inability to master it.
As for the Wii only having a catalogue of 'on rails' shooters.
I've 30 Wii games in my collection and they embrace a multitude of genres, from FPS's like Call Of Duty-Modern Warfare, Beat Em' Ups like Tatsunoko Vs Capcom and Sports Titles like Virtua Tennis 2009, to name a few.
So get your facts straight, before posting more nonsense.
TBA
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