Slashdot Mirror
Cut Down In Their Prime
Gamecloud has a piece looking at some worthy games that never made it to market for one reason or another. The one that hurts the most for me is Microsoft's canceled, but intriguing, Norse MMOG Mythica. From the article: "Date of Cancellation: February 2004. Microsoft Games Studios decided to get into the MMORG genre with this fantasy themed game that was announced with much fanfare in April 2003. This game, with a Norse mythology theme, was going to have more of a single player experience than most MMO games. However, less than a year later Microsoft decided to shut down development of Mythica with the team all laid off as well."
Very little is widely known about the two games that were going to be made from the movie A.I., except that they were both supposed to be launch titles for the original X-BOX. My guess is that they were cancelled because the movie was not doing well. That's unfortunate, because apparently the games were going to expand upon the universe glimpsed in the movie, with completely different storylines.
Get off my launchpad!
In fact, I had been planning to upgrade my PC so that I'd be able to play it.
I know they shot the live footage needed for the game. I'd still love to see it get released, especially since some of the cast members are no longer with us.
It would still be a great game, though they could probably bump up the textures and polygons by a lot now. They could probably use the models from the show more or less unchanged now.
There was also another Sam and Max game for the XBox that was cancelled, that they fail to mention.
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
The litany of reasons for the cancelled games:
That's almost all financial troubles and projections -- "Our studio is strapped for cash and can't follow through," or "We don't think there's a market." Aside from the Sims title, the absence of "We got halfway there and decided it just didn't work that well" from the list is conspicuous.
Another indication of how much like movie producing the games industry has become. Indies strapped for cash that can't follow through, big studios making projections about market space...
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Well, the third Golden Sun doesn't, and probably never will, exist. It definitely tops my list of games never released.
Of course, since this is talking about games that got started, announced, and then cancelled, the much anticipated Golden Sun 3 doesn't quite fit.
><));>
Other than the fact that some of them have big names attached (Bab5, X-Com, Dikantana*cough*), the article doesn't give us a good reason to have wanted these games over the hundreds of others that have never made it out the door. Experience with games that have made it out the door, has shown that that only a small number of them are ever actually worth investing time and money into. Those that are blockbusters or cult favorites usually have something exceptional about them, such as powerful storylines, intense gameplay, or amazing engines.
So quite seriously, what is it that makes these games special?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
They were set in the universe, but telling completely different stories. So they weren't film conversions. Remember the fake websites and stuff that came out before the movie? There were apparently going to be tie-ins with some of that "history," and so forth. There could have been humans vs. robots taking over cities and the world (pick either side), etc.
The point is, if they cover them, we'll get a chance to see.
Get off my launchpad!
Sadly, Freespace3 was one of the many casualties of Interplay's death.
Well, if you are looking for games or, even better, series that were cut down in their prime, then I think the Freespace series deserves mention.
In terms of space sims, both Freespace 1 and 2 are each easily near the best, if not the best, in the genre. I was disappointed when a Freespace 3 didn't materialize. I guess space sims just aren't that popular.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
I am still waiting for it...... so I can play it on my Phantom Console :)
Here's the source code to it. It's still possible to finish if you can generate enough interest in the idea.
:-(
Unfortunately, Crack dot Com was a victim of poor project planning, and Golgatha showed it. It was always one of those "cool ideas" that was never quite fleshed out into something playable. While larger companies can manage to survive such poor planning through deep pockets, it's the kiss of death for smaller ventures like Crack dot Com.
It's too bad that companies always feel such pressure to follow up one success with others even when they're not ready. Had CdC taken more time to develop the technology and concepts they wanted before plunging into a 30K/mo burn rate, they might have become a big player in the industry.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I seen something a while ago about Bethesda picking it up: http://www.nma-fallout.com/fallout3/ It's apparently in pre-production according to the FAQ, I am really looking forward to it as well. I think they are the perfect company to develop it.
For space combat with realistic physics that's not taken to such ridiculous extremes.
Proud member of the American Non Sequitur Society. We might not make much sense, but boy do we love pizza!
Half Life for the Mac. Goddam Sierra.
I still refuse to buy any of their product, in protest. I'll steal it, but won't buy it. Goddamit.
--
$tar -xvf
If we're talking about potentially great games that never made it to market, how about the original Halo?
You know, the one that was developed entirely by Bungee and was nearly ready for release before they were bought out by Microsoft. Let's call it Halo(PC) for simplicity.
After the acquisition, pressure was put on Bungee to put out an XBox flagship since MS had nothing at that point. To fit in the enormous memory limitations of the original XBox compared to a standard PC, great wads of the game (geometry, textures, levels etc) were cut out and the original game was shelved never to be seen again. And Halo(XBox) was born. People flocked to it in droves since it was supposed to be this great revolutionary game, and left wondering, quite rightly, what the fuss was all about.
When Microsoft was kind enough to announce Halo for the PC, Bungee wasn't allowed near the original PC game they'd written. No, instead they ported the XBox version (rather poorly) to the PC. So Halo(XBox[pc]) was created. And the PC gamer says "This plays better on my friends XBox" and goes out and buys an XBox himself, forgetting his clunky old PC.
So yes, I would like to see Halo(PC) one day. I know it's not going to happen, but maybe after MS is split up by [insert future reigning superpower here] in 2015 we might see something.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife