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The Heartbreak of Canceled Games
Gamespot has a piece running today revisiting some of the late and lamented game titles that never made it out of the development phase. Though the article covers all genres, there are a depressing number of canceled Massive titles on the list. From the article: "You'd be hard pressed to find a game whose cancellation caused Xbox owners to shout "D'oh!" louder than True Fantasy Live Online. The ambitious game was slated to be the system's first MMO and it was being crafted by seasoned Japanese developer Level 5, whose resume includes such gems as Dark Cloud 2 and Dragon Quest VIII. The game had all the signs of being one of those special landmark titles for a platform--more than just a seminal moment in the console's software library. The game's ambitious use of Xbox Live, which would have been the most extensive use of the service in a game ever, was more in line with the level of sophistication seen in a PC game. Unfortunately, it appears that Level 5's ambition was what led to TFLO being shelved. The game's scope and rich experience presented a sizable challenge for both the developer and Microsoft within the given time frame."
What article like this is complete without:
Sam and Max 2 I feel cheated looking through that article without seeing S&M there.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
One word: :'(
"Quoting yourself is stupid." -Me
Don't get me wrong, Halo was a great game, but way back in the day when Bungie was first talking about Halo, it was going to be this massive multi-genre game, having elements of an FPS, RTS, space sim, and possibly even RPG (though that was probably just hype admitedly). I can remember Battlecruiser3000-esqe usenet threads (minus Derek Smart of course) talking about how this game was going to revolutionize gaming as we know it, immerse you in a fully realized game world, make you toast in the morning and walk the dog.
Then all of the sudden, it was just another FPS. Well that turned out to not be quite true as Halo was anything but run of the mill, but you can't help but wonder what kind of game Halo would have been had the Bungie guys not got bored of Starcraft.