GamePro Slammed By Angry Gamers Over The Conduit Review

Media outlets have a new reason to fear the ire of angry Nintendo fanboys, and this time it’s not related to Mario, Zelda, or any other Nintendo properties.  Rather, the problem stems from certain inaccuracies, or shall we say, disagreements that gaming publication GamePro posted in its recent review of the Wii’s blockbuster FPS title, The Conduit.  And it essentially has little to do with the score.

Many of the most reputable review sites and publications scored the game around the 80 percent range – we scored it at 8.5, IGN gave it an 8.6, Nintendo Power and GamesRadar gave it an 8 – and GamePro actually followed fairly closely giving it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

So what was the problem?  Aside from admittedly reviewing the game without even touching the online multiplayer mode – a feature which garnered the most praise from the gaming press – GamePro criticized The Conduit for “terrible motion controls” and “unimpressive graphics,” two features that other gaming publication lauded.  For instance, G4, which scored the game lower overall than GamePro at 3 out of 5 stars, still praised it for “engaging, responsive controls” and “slick visual effects.”

Other portions of the review involved simply a lack of understanding as to the game’s available functions.  GamePro complained that mapping melee attacks and grenade lobbing to motion controls was a terrible idea, the publication apparently being unaware that those actions could be set to non-motion sensing buttons.  To make matters worse, the magazine erroneously stated that “You make a throwing motion to toss a grenade and how hard you swing dictates how far it flies.”

In fact, the default motion controls only dictate if a grenade is thrown, and those controls can be adjusted to respond to either light or heavy motion sensitivity.  Where a grenade gets thrown depends entirely on the location of the cursor, a fact that developer High Voltage explained to us during our hands-on preview at E3.