shooters

Is The Conduit the Wii's best shooter?

One of the bigger pushes for Nintendo's Wii console recently has been The Conduit, a sci-fi first-person shooter from Sega. Looking past the hype, we put it to the test--hoping to find out if the popular Wii is actually good for something other than casual, party, and kids' games.

As with the recent Ghostbusters debate, our CNET editors' gaming roundtable gives conflicting opinions below, and we naturally want to hear what you think in the handy comments section.

Jeff Bakalar: We're really impressed at how customizable the game is. In addition to completely changing the controls around, you have the option to move around individual HUD (heads-up-display) items at your leisure, so you can build the presentation that's right for you.

Control-wise, the game performs very smoothly, just how you'd want a first-person-shooter on the Wii to play. It's refreshing to see a game like this built from the ground up specifically for the Wii--you'll notice little things like rack focusing and other camera tricks that aren't seen in most Wii games.… Read more

Two fun games go on sale: iPhone apps of the week

Everybody loves a bargain. With the iTunes App Store, it's getting to the point that apps go on sale almost every week. Of course, app sale prices can be either good or bad, depending on your perspective. If you bought that fancy game for $9.99 a few weeks ago only to find out it went on sale later for $1.99, you can't help but feel a bit cheated. But it also gives you the opportunity to swoop in and grab apps you wouldn't ordinarily buy.

This week's apps are both games and are both … Read more

Old-school shooter mayhem

PewPew is a free 2D shooter game with classic vector graphics, a bouncy trance soundtrack, zero back story, and the kind of spare, single-minded gameplay that serious shooter fans will love. The controls are gratifyingly simple: a virtual, 360-degree thumb joystick on each side of the screen, one for moving, one for shooting. PewPew currently only has two levels/modes, both played in a tight arena: "Dodge This," which only uses the movement joystick, as you zoom around picking up spinning boxes and avoiding enemies; and "Assault," which uses both joysticks, as you weave through and … Read more

Solid Snake on the touch screen

Metal Gear Solid Touch Lite is a three-level preview of the full-length Metal Gear Solid Touch, which reenacts the story of console hit MGS4: Guns of the Patriots, finally pitting Solid Snake against Liquid Ocelot on the iPhone and iPod Touch. As you might expect from such a high-profile title, this arcade-style shooter shows excellent production values (particularly the audio), a fairly tight and satisfying firing interface, and plenty of breathless backstory.

You face off against a variety of combatants, including PMC mercs and some friendly targets that you need to avoid shooting, and you just swipe your finger to … Read more

Take to the skies in WWII

iFighter Lite is a fun, free, one-level preview of the upcoming game iFighter, a vertical-scrolling arcade shooter in which you pilot a WWII fighter plane against wave after wave of Nazi tanks, planes, bosses, and other ground and air targets. iFighter's interface lets you control your plane in one of three ways: with a touch directional pad, swiping touch controls, or simply by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The accelerometer-based controls are by far the best--and they're arguably an improvement over even the controls of iFighter's stand-up arcade predecessors, allowing for quick and precise movements as … Read more

More than a salad shooter

A salad shooter seems like a good deal if you need plenty of sliced vegetables for your salads. You might even see a use for it to slice up vegetables for soups or other dishes. But in general, a salad shooter seems a bit limited. Not so with the Presto Professional SaladShooter. The professional-grade salad shooter comes with several processing cones that you can switch out when you want to grate cheese, slice fruit, or even chop nuts. It also has a larger capacity than the typical salad shooter: you can slide a whole potato into the Presto Professional SaladShooter … Read more

2D zombies are still scary

Zombieville USA is a 2D, side-scrolling arcade game in which you use a variety of firearms to kill an endless supply of zombies across a series of increasingly treacherous levels. The running, zombie-killing part of gameplay is very straightforward: you tap on arrows on the right and left side of the screen to move, and you tap the bottom of the screen to shoot, occasionally ducking into houses to avoid zombies and collect money and ammo. Even with its cool, cartoony graphics (including some whimsical gore, of the flying-eyeball and bits-of-brain variety), Zombieville USA can get a little repetitive--especially playing … Read more

Time is of the essence

Time Crisis Strike Lite is a fun, free preview of the first stage in Time Crisis Strike, an iPhone and iPod Touch adaptation of the classic arcade game series, in which you fight against the forces of the evil mercenary Wild Dog. Like its stand-up arcade forebears, Time Crisis Strike is a "rail shooter"--a first-person shooter in which you are moved from one static fight scene to the next--but instead of pressing a metal pedal to take cover, you tilt your iPhone or iPod Touch forward to duck and reload (or you can change the settings so … Read more

Play Unreal Tournament III Black for free this weekend

Have any plans for the weekend? Yeah, I'm talking to you. If not, here's a suggestion: how's about some online Capture-the-Flag action (or Deathmatch action, whatever floats your boat) on Unreal Tournament III Black. Oh, and it's free. OK, so it's for the PC only and doesn't apply to the PlayStation 3, but it's still a pretty cool deal and it's something to do.

Whether or not you have the game, it's all good. The free weekend includes the game, the Titan Pack expansion, and the 2.0 patch. Now, all … Read more