Outstanding controls aren’t enough to save this generic and often frustrating shooter.

Score: 6.5 / fair

Get the full review at GameSpot

A lot of parents feel that video gaming is a bad thing for children. They say they spend too much indoors doing nothing, that it rots their brain, that it stunts their mental growth. You see all the negatives of video games played out in the media. They blame everything wrong with an abnormal kid with tons of underlying problems solely on the effect of video games. None of that is fair at all. Nothing could be further from the truth (ok, except maybe the staying inside part, but hey, there are worse things). I’m sure that in reality you don’t really think someone who hauls off and shoots their classmates is really the way they are because they decided to play a video game, do you? Video games just really aren’t that bad for kids.

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We get another look at the upcoming Wii-exclusive sequel to Dead Space.

Touting its third-party collaborations, Nintendo used this morning’s E3 conference to talk more about three of its upcoming Wii titles: Sega’s The Conduit, Capcom’s Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, and EA’s Dead Space Extraction. Unfortunately, Nintendo said nothing new about the latter, save for airing a very short trailer.

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Nintendo shows a quick glimpse of The Conduit in trailer form during its E3 2009 press conference.

The Conduit may be reaching shelves in a matter of just a few short weeks, but that didn’t keep Nintendo from touting its upcoming arrival during its press conference at E3 2009. Nintendo saved its more mature games for last in a schedule otherwise packed with family-friendly fare, which made us more excited than ever to see what this alien shooter has in store for us later this month. Unfortunately, all Nintendo showed off was an incredibly brief trailer. It didn’t tell us anything new, but it sure looked pretty–and pretty dramatic.

“It’s time to go to work!” These were the words that began the trailer, which was full of first-person alien shooting, lasers, and creepy aliens that looked not unlike those of the Metroid Prime series. Firefights took place across a variety of environments, most notably the interior of a spacecraft. Another voice-over proclaimed: “The city is doomed–you’ve got to hurry,” and the trailer ended with these words splashed on the screen: “The truth. Must. Survive.”

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The Conduit is one of the Wii’s few first-person shooters, and we managed to score some time on its 12-player multiplayer mode.

After only a single round of playing The Conduit’s multiplayer mode, it’s clear that it’s been heavily influenced by the Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye. This is no bad thing, but in terms of look and feel, Voltage’s upcoming Wii first-person shooter feels very much like a spiritual successor to the Rare classic. Thankfully, the feature set is completely 2009, with 12-player online multiplayer, seven maps, unlockable player skins, and voice support using Nintendo’s WiiSpeak peripheral. In fact, it could be said that The Conduit is the most feature-packed online game for the Wii so far. We went hands-on with the game at Sega’s office in London, and had a chance to speak to developer High Voltage to find out more.

A 12-player online FPS for the Wii? Oh yes!

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