The Conduit had a lot of hype behind it. The game's development represented a certain openness to the gaming community. High Voltage saw a problem and wanted to be the first to tackle it; be the first to make a "hardcore" Wii game and realize the dreams gamers had for first person shooters. So we watched, with baited breath as the game developed, impressed along the way by the community's opinions and input. The end result? Aside from great controls, meh.

It appears High Voltage is aware of this as they updated their blog and spent quite a bit of time talking about the Conduit 2. From what they wrote they seem to agree the The Conduit had some flaws; particularly in terms of art direction and an overall lack of gravity to the game's events.

At various points throughout the development of C1 we would discover something new about the technology, build a new graphics feature, and then have to make hard decisions as to whether or not we had time to rework existing art content to take better advantage of the latest features...The result was a game that is fun to play and is solid overall, but never quite manages to excite its audience with inspired visions of a darkly futuristic world that’s being torn apart by aliens.

The post goes on to talk about the developers commitment to not add content to the game unless they are a hundred percent in love with it. They also mention refinements the've introduced to Quantum 3 engine that will further help improve the game's art work. You can check out the rest of the post via the link below.

[via The Conduit 2 - A Message From High Voltage]

Just a heads up, Sega's sky fighter arcade hit is coming to an Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 near you April 21st and 22nd respectively for an estimated $10. The current release dates apply for both North America and Europe.

To be honest I never played the arcade game myself but word on the street is that this gem is a classic, so if high octane, ludicrous combat is your game then by all means get your dog fight on when the game hits XBLA and PSN this April.

Combining more modes of play than all of our reviewed titles of February, Aliens vs Predator is all about the embodiment of the franchise, doing it justice in the videogame realm. Does it succeed, or does it blunder as many pundits have expected? (more...)

SEGA of America has announced that Obsidian Entertainment’s long awaited Alpha Protocol is hitting store shelves in North America for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on June 1st, and May 28th 2010 in Europe.

“The wait has been worth it. It is time for an RPG to go beyond fantasy and space,” said Sean Ratcliffe, Vice President of Marketing for SEGA of America. “The genre needs a shot in the arm, and renowned developer Obsidian has delivered. Alpha Protocol will be the absolute best it can be, and we look forward to revealing fresh aspects of it to the community in the upcoming months.”

In Alpha Protocol, players assume the role of rookie spy Michael Thorton and are given unprecedented control over the development of his abilities and interactions with other characters. Customizable character skill-sets, attributes and weapons all play an important role in allowing gamers to tailor Thorton to their play-style. (more...)

While we're still waiting for Yakuza 3 to land here in the States, Sega is already gearing up to release Yakuza 4 in Japan. Today, it released a new Japanese trailer for the game, but get this -- it's over five minutes long. It's packed so full it's almost too much. There's plenty of punching, kicking, running and even a little walking!

Oh yeah, it's all in Japanese too. Nevertheless, it's pretty sweet and worth watching if you've got the time.

Reports have come in of broken Facehuggers that were shipped with the Hunter Edition of Aliens vs. Predator. Sega has announced that it will replace the broken models in North America only at this time.

"It has come to our attention that some of the exclusive Facehugger models included in the Aliens vs. Predator Hunter Edition have suffered damage in transit to North American retail," the company said in a statement. "We apologize for any inconvenience and are happy to provide replacements for any customers who received damaged products."

There's still no word on if this will apply to Europe.

Remember the last few 3D Sonic games and how they were generally, well, terrible? Sega may have thought so too as it turns out that Sonic Team, the original developers that brought about both the series of 2D Sonic games that launched Sonic to super stardom and, later, the terrible string of 3D games that all but destroyed said super stardom, will not be developing the recently announced Sonic 4. That task will fall to the Osaka based developers Dimps.

Dimps, it turns out, has quite a pedigree. Apparently they had actually worked on the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS released Sonic games under the Sonic Team name. They also developed the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series on the PS2 and, more recently, helped co-develop Street Fighter IV.

Since we have had to endure 3D Sonic games the likes of  Sonic Unleashed for so long already, its about time we get this dying legend back to his element with some capable hands at the helm.

[via Kotaku]

Bored waiting for BioShock 2, or, if you're like me, is there a huge f**cking snowstorm going on outside? Then stay indoors and download the Sonic & Sega All-Stars demo. It's up on Xbox Live now. It may be a cheap racer, but if it's anything like Sega's other All-Star games, it's probably good for a quick laugh.

The full game is out February 3.

The spy espionage role playing game Alpha Protocol has been delayed yet again, moving back its tentative spring release to summer. Originally expected for an October 2009 release, Alpha Protocol has had an interesting development history to say the least - given that the game wasn't officially delayed until it had passed its retail date  - leaving us to wonder if it was even going to see the light of day.

According to MTV Multiplayer, the reason for the game's delay was to give it time for more polish as SEGA's Assistant Producer, Matthew Hickman had this to say: (more...)

The AVP demo released earlier this week. Unfortunately, it was also plagued with massive matchmaking issues. Developer Rebellion has apologized for the problems, adding that a patch has fixed up the PC version.

"Unprecedented demand for Aliens vs. Predator following the release of the cross-platform demo yesterday morning brought to light matchmaking issues on the PC platform resulting in players having to wait to join games, or even not find games at all," the developer said in a statement issued by Sega. "We're really sorry that this issue tainted a day in which we saw many people get hands on with AvP for the first time and we're hugely gratified by the positive feedback to the game."

The Xbox 360 was not affected by the issues, and a fix is also on the way for the PS3.

[via VG247]