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Full Throttle Sequel Cancelled
Thanks to IGN PC for their article indicating that LucasArts have cancelled Full Throttle:Hell On Wheels, the partially completed PC sequel to the classic point 'n click adventure. Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts said: "We do not want to disappoint the many fans of Full Throttle and hope everyone can understand how committed we are to delivering the best quality gaming experience that we possibly can." The official Full Throttle sequel homepage has been removed, although its Google cache is still available.
Ya I have heard rumors that the brilliant people behind Full Throttle's humor and storyline were not involved with the Full Throttle sequel. If this is true, then had LucasArts released this game, they would've been "pulling an Accolade". As some of you no doubt recall, Accolade released the dismal Star Control 3 as a 'sequel' to Star Control 2 without involving the original creators. Hence, Accolade was just exploiting the brand name to make money off crap. If the Full Throttle sequel was indeed crap, then LucasArts thankfully did the right thing and canned it.
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Game companies should never try to sell sequels without the genius of the original creators behind it
"However maybe they can reuse the current gamess assets (designs, models, textures) and make it into a 3D adventure game, like Monkey Island or Sam & Max..."
Ugh. Please, no. The 2D artwork is amazing in those games, you'd lose that even on modern 3D hardware.
I think these types of games are due for a comeback any year now. 3D is getting to the point where there aren't going to be any more radical advances. Eventually enough polygons with enough textures with enough lighting effects will be available. Honestly, I think that's happening today. We're getting some brilliant 3D artwork out of today's 3D games, the 3D hardware becoming less and less of a bottleneck. What then? We're going to revert right back to having a good story. I think Episode II (be that Star Wars or the Matrix) has illustrated that.
A quote from Tim Schafer, creator and director of the original Full Throttle, from mixnmojo.com (THE Lucasarts Adventure Fansite):
"I heard they just couldn't go on without the emotional support of Tom Sarris. I mean, Tom was the person Ben Throttle was based on. Not a lot of people know that. So I guess they finally just realized there was no way to do it with out him."
Wow. Post something that's not a "me too" post or a "oh i miss this game" post, and it immediately gets modded down.
Maybe I should just have said "ditto"?
Honestly, there's a lot of people who didn't like the frustrating nature of those games. There's a reason why that style of game is rarely seen these days! I have karma to burn, though, and will not be afraid to stand up and say this.
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