Sega finally lifts the online-lid on Wii's most anticipated game....

Last night, Sega held a press event to showcase The Conduit's online features to the gaming world. The FPS has been looking great in single-player demoes, but multiplayer was the area where High Voltage's finest was keeping silent. Until now.

First off, following speculation, High Voltage has toned the maximum player count down to 12 from the previous 16. This decision was made to keep the performance of the game running at its optimum. Secondly, Wii Speak will indeed be used in online matches. However, due to the prospect of overwhelming noise from 12 people, players will only be able to hear up to the 6 closest people at one time. It's not been confirmed whether the friend system will play a further part in voice chat restrcitions.

Then there are the range of modes. High Voltage have seemed to excell themselves in this area. Here's the run down of all the different multiplayer modes:

• Free for All - Quick and dirty match. Players fight until a winner reaches a pre-determined kill count.
• Marathon - Fight until the time limit ends. Player with most kills wins.
• Three Strikes - Fight with only three lives.
• Last Man Standing - Speaks for itself.
• ASE Football - Similar to 'tag'. Fight to get control of the All Seeing Eye. The person who holds onto it for longest wins.
• Bounty Hunter - Players are challenged to to take out specific 'targets' (other players), but get penalties for killing the wrong people.
• Team Reaper - One of the team modes. You can play Free for All or Marathon as two teams, or play "Shared Stock", where everyone's life count are part of a group 'pool'.
• Team Objective - This is basically capture the flag. Can be played with either each team having their own ASE (acts a the flag), or having just one ASE on the whole map.

Amusingly, press were promised to be able to go hands-on with the multiplayer at Sega's event, but Nintendo's own servers had gone down shortly before the connection was attempted. Sega were forced to focus on the details as hands-on was strictly off the table.

Don't forget to check out the trailer for The Conduit's shiny, new online mode. There's a surprising amount to glean from it; as well as kickass explosions.