The Grinder is a cooperative first person shooter where a team of four people fight hordes of enemies, similar to the popular game Left 4 Dead. Instead of solely zombies, The Grinder will feature several different types of monsters, most notably, vampires, werewolves, undead, and slashers. Because the origin of these creatures is unknown, players will be tasked with determining what caused this major outbreak of monsters.
Like Left 4 Dead, there are four different characters with diverse backgrounds. Doc is an underground doctor that is interested in how the monsters function. Hector is a greedy and arrogant bounty hunter. AJ is an urban explorer looking for revenge after surviving a slasher attack. The final character, Miko, is a Japanese assassin. After encountering and killing a werewolf, she seeks more thrill and danger; something her assassin job was no longer providing.
The Grinder is intended to be a very violent game featuring a variety of weapons. More traditional guns will be present, such as the .45, an SMG, the AK-47, as well as the pump-action, 12-gauge shotgun. Other more non-traditional weapons will be present, but those have yet to be revealed.
Movies such as From Dusk Till Dawn and John Carpenter's Vampires inspired High Voltage's weapon choices. Dead Alive and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 apparently also had an impact on the title. According to High Voltage, the blood and gore level sits somewhere between the two. Industrial bands such as Skinny Puppy and Coil have helped inspire some of the ambient music for the game. According to High Voltage, the music helps create a tense and ominous mood. Upon arrival of a wave of enemies, more frenzied high-paced music will be featured.
As mentioned earlier, the game's centerpiece is its online cooperative mode, which will be shown at E3. High Voltage intends on including Wii Speak functionality, leaderboards, and their own version of an achievement system. For those without online access, the game will feature local split-screen co-op. The game can also be played through by a single player. The rest of your team will be controlled by AI, with the ability for human players to enter or leave the game at any time.
The game will feature multiple branching paths in each of the stages, giving the game a unique feel with each different path taken. Like in Left 4 Dead, the game will also have a scaling AI system that adjusts according to player performance. The game can control which enemies will spawn, the number of each enemy type, and each location they will spawn from.
Like The Conduit, The Grinder will also feature fully customizable controls. High Voltage also intends to gauge players' typical set up in order to provide the best possible standard control scheme.
In the testing phases of the game, High Voltage boasted that they were able to instance 65 highly detailed enemies on the screen without adverse effects on the framerate. This is accomplished through use of the Quantum3 Engine and another new technology. the Imposter and Instancing system.
According to HVS, with the Imposter and Instancing system, "[they] are able to take a single enemy and replicate him over and over again." Furthermore, "[they] can also scale, color, and otherwise modify each instance
allow[ing] [them] to get an unprecedented number of unique enemies on screen at once at a fraction of the cost to do it otherwise."
The Grinder is currently slated for a holiday 2010 release, but still has no publisher.
So its Left 4 Dead with werewolves and ****?Thats fine with me because last I check L4D never came to Wii, so if the closest thing we can get is a high production knock off with a twist, then bring it on.
Despite the fact that HVS is most defintely not Valve, I'm somewhat interested. Although this seems a bit too copy-catty
Maybe we'll be lucky and Grinder will have vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, terrorists, and alien zombie nazis.
Maybe we'll be lucky and Grinder will have vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, terrorists, and alien zombie nazis.
Just need big bugs, dinosaurs, and killer robots. I don't think High Voltage Software has robot killing in any of there games yet. They gotta hit that sooner or later!
Maybe we'll be lucky and Grinder will have vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, terrorists, and alien zombie nazis.
Just need big bugs, dinosaurs, and killer robots. I don't think High Voltage Software has robot killing in any of there games yet. They gotta hit that sooner or later!
Giant crabs is what they need.
Hmm...it's got split-screen, but is it for four players? If so, then regardless of how it compares to L4D, I'll buy it.
Hmm...it's got split-screen, but is it for four players? If so, then regardless of how it compares to L4D, I'll buy it.
The interview confirmed 4 players online.
Oh, sorry ... I misinterpreted the question.
I highly doubt you'll be able to do 4-player local co-op. That just seem like too much for one system to handle (not to mention it'll be impossible to see anything)!
I'd more than settle for 2-player local co-op with another 2 online.
Maybe we'll be lucky and Grinder will have vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, terrorists, and alien zombie nazis.
Just need big bugs, dinosaurs, and killer robots. I don't think High Voltage Software has robot killing in any of there games yet. They gotta hit that sooner or later!
Giant crabs is what they need.
Joke all you want but atleast Agent Ford in the Conduit HAS HAIR
And he's not a space marine, he's a secret agent. 10 years ago that would be generic, but it's been out of style so long it's distinctive again.
I'd be content with the latter, but if it could be done on the N64, then why the hell can't it be done now?
I'd be content with the latter, but if it could be done on the N64, then why the hell can't it be done now?
You're likely referring to competitive matches, not cooperative ones.
In GoldenEye you had up to 4 people running around a stage. In Perfect Dark you had maybe 10 or 12 characters at once (including bots) at most.
If The Grinder is shooting for 60+ enemies on screen at once it's going to get nuts if they have to do that 4 times on the same television.
This thread will not be derailed into PC vs Console gaming shenanigans.
Realize the first one was only a 10% warning and not a big deal.Where can someone see their warning level?
PS, in case other forumers are wondering the way I would have liked to see you handle this Morari, it would have been like this...
Realize the first one was only a 10% warning and not a big deal. Decide how badly you wanted to discuss mouse vs controller. If you really wanted to talk about it, search the forums for a relevant thread to bump and if that fails make a new thread in General Gaming.
I hope The Conduit is really good and sells really well because, dammit, we need SOMEBODY other than Nintendo to actually treat the Wii with some respect.
PS, in case other forumers are wondering the way I would have liked to see you handle this Morari, it would have been like this...
Realize the first one was only a 10% warning and not a big deal. Decide how badly you wanted to discuss mouse vs controller. If you really wanted to talk about it, search the forums for a relevant thread to bump and if that fails make a new thread in General Gaming.
Not likely. Some jackass would have probably just warned me for resurrecting an old thread then.
To play devil's advocate for a moment, why should a publisher bother when all they need to do is jump on the mini-game/brain-training/exer-gaming bandwagon and make money hand over fist over our less discerning gamers?
To play devil's advocate for a moment, why should a publisher bother when all they need to do is jump on the mini-game/brain-training/exer-gaming bandwagon and make money hand over fist over our less discerning gamers?
Could be cool -- online co-op is definitely unmined territory on Wii.
But I'm a little concerned with how blatantly derivative this project is. In the IGN interview, High Voltage basically comes right out to say "we're making Left 4 Dead on Wii". I guess I'm glad that someone's doing it, if Valve has clearly passed, but where's the creativity in this company? They've already been criticized for The Conduit having too little personality and originality, and then their next two projects are what they are...
But I'm a little concerned with how blatantly derivative this project is. In the IGN interview, High Voltage basically comes right out to say "we're making Left 4 Dead on Wii". I guess I'm glad that someone's doing it, if Valve has clearly passed, but where's the creativity in this company? They've already been criticized for The Conduit having too little personality and originality, and then their next two projects are what they are...
It's kind of lame and is of no interest to anyone who owns multiple consoles but it's a sound business strategy.
Oh, sorry ... I misinterpreted the question.
I highly doubt you'll be able to do 4-player local co-op. That just seem like too much for one system to handle (not to mention it'll be impossible to see anything)!
I'd more than settle for 2-player local co-op with another 2 online.
I'd be content with the latter, but if it could be done on the N64, then why the hell can't it be done now?
I don't game online. Straight up, I don't. That might change as I get older, but for right now, I play multiplayer with my friends in the same room. Oftentimes we go back to Goldeneye or Perfect Dark if we want a four-player first person shooter experience. I think Timesplitters, Halo, and Metroid Prime 2 are the only games I can remember recently with four player split-screen. (Oh yea, and Red Steel. Big deal...)
Screen size shouldn't be an issue unless it is HD (which the Wii is not). I remember playing Goldeneye on a 13 inch TV and I was happy. I don't see any issue with playing any split-screen multiplayer game and it pisses me off a lot that there is a lack of quality in four player split-screen first person shooters.
I don't get why so many people care about online when there's something like five games per system that get any kind of consistent play.
I was thinking about getting We Love Golf a while back, but one of the secret characters is only available through online play. How many people play that now?
I bought Condemned 2 back when it was on sale at Best Buy. There are achievements tied to the online multiplayer that had NO ONE playing it.
It's just stupid to me. Give me my damn split-screen gameplay back.
Thank god for Mario Kart...
