Cut Down In Their Prime 88
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."
I hope part 2 covers the games from "A.I." (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I hope part 2 covers the games from "A.I." (Score:1)
Re:I hope part 2 covers the games from "A.I." (Score:2)
worst case scenario... platformer. *shrugs*
never overestimate the intelligence of film execs.
I think you missed what I was saying. (Score:4, Interesting)
The point is, if they cover them, we'll get a chance to see.
Re:I think you missed what I was saying. (Score:1)
Re:I hope part 2 covers the games from "A.I." (Score:2)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/07/09 [penny-arcade.com]
Re:I hope part 2 covers the games from "A.I." (Score:2)
Apparently the early development was done at Microsoft, so maybe this is where the ideas for the XBox games ended up?
Re:I hope part 2 covers the games from "A.I." (Score:2)
I think they were cancelled when playtesters expressed confusion over why David always falls down that goddam hole, and why his neck stretches as he levitates out of it -- ONLY TO FALL RIGHT BACK DOWN THAT FUCKING HOLE AGAIN!!!
I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2)
Undoubtably having a space combat game that uses -real- physics would have been awesome (none of this "ship drives like a car" stuff)
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:3, Interesting)
If your sensors (or your tactical person) was better than the enemy's, and you detected him before he detected you... you'd do some kind of a springloaded launch that didn't release any radiative energy. You'd wait for the missile to get a nice long, long way from you
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2)
That's pretty similar to the state of Battleships before Carriers made them obsolete. Battles (what few of them there were) were fought over the horizon, using what little intelligence they had to try t
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Tales of Known Space [amazon.com]
Protector [amazon.com]
World of Ptaavs [amazon.com]
These books feature the slow (less than the speed of light) space travel and long distance space combat discussed above. Generally, the entire Known Space series is quite a good read, IMHO.
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2)
I would highly recommend it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033034032 8/qid=1142634482/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_3_4/203-2662547-9 848710 [amazon.co.uk]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033035143 5/qid=1142634382/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/203-2662547-9 848710 [amazon.co.uk]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033035145 1/qid=1142634447/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/203 [amazon.co.uk]
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2)
David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series of books tries to have 'realistic' space combat; their one concession to the fact that it probably wouldn't work is to invent a 'hyperspace' to get from star system to star system, and 'gravity wedges' to allow for high acceleration within normal space, but it's all very internally consistant.
The battles themselves play out as anywhere from submarine/ASW warfare to 'the wall of battle' which basically involves two walls of really big ships flying past one another wh
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Lasers (esp. xray or gamma ray) would be great weapons, but, unfortunately with not-so-great range. Beams lose focus, so at long distance you would have effect more like searchlight than death ray. Even more for ion beams (electrostatic repulsion of same-charge ions).
Nukes are crap in space. No blast wave to speak of, so only effect would be from radiation - must get very close to be effective.
So you still would have to get quite close to the enemy to actually hurt them. Or rely on dropping mi
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Lasers lose focus because of the optics. Bigger and better optics are the answer. Start at 20 meters or so in diameter. That plus our best tolerances should be enough for a range of 500 miles or more (a couple thousand would be better..) So they won't fit on anything smaller than a battleship. So what. 1GW of power for 10s would do damage to anything, even spread
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Then it's a kinetic weapon. Has to be aimed very well and assume that the enemy doesn't change course. I'm not too sure on the impact it'd have on the hull and it would be an energy transfer weapon, i.e. impact energy <= energy drained from your power supply. I'd be more partial towards explosives accellerated with chemical reactions (i.e. conventional weapons), they are more space efficient and can be fired rapidly
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Traveling at 1/2 c or better. Good luck with the dodge. And it is then just a very fast stream of gas, most of the effects on the target will be the same as charged particles. Heat, and lots of it. Better than a laser, as mirrors won't do squat. Of course it has to be aimed well, just like the laser would. But dodging it would be almost as hard as dodging the laser. As for the energy cost, any space-based warship will have fusion/fission or better power. Chemical explosives will
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
And I'm not sure if gas pressure wouldn't cause neutral gas clouds to disperse over distance if you want to give them enough mass to do any signific
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2)
"If you cause heat emissions the enemy will
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
I meant "small" compared to today's linear accellerators which are measured in kilometers. I doubt you could mount a 7 kilometer weapon in your ship, at that size you could fill it up with shells or missiles and just bombard 'em in the old fashioned way.
You would need lots of stealth spaceships scattered throughout the system, so the enemy never knows where your se
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2)
Oh. Today's linear accelerators are optimised for high energy research. 0.9 c and more. While that would make aiming easier, it would be useless here, the power and efficiency is way too low. We need hundreds of millions of joules, not 0.25 joules worth of 30GeV particles. The design parameters here are very different. 200-500 meter long acclerators should be more than enough.
"In space you could accellerate to yo
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Space combat in it for capital class ships was somewhere between a US Navy battleship and submarine warfare. Basically you had no accurate control over what your targeting computer would lock onto, and anything but a guided missile was relatively inaccurate. This style of gameplay could also still be enjoyable - I remember a couple of submarine games back in the early 90's that were like this.
Mind you, IMHO the physics engine for full 3d ve
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2)
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Check out "Independence War" (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Check out "Independence War" (Score:1)
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:2)
Re:I had been looking forward to the B5 game. (Score:1)
Not sure... (Score:1)
Re:Not sure... (Score:1)
Re:Not sure... (Score:1)
Apparently their "prime" was after conception? (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Re:Apparently their "prime" was after conception? (Score:4, Informative)
One reason I would have liked to have seen for about half of those games: "It was turning into yet another also-ran FPS, we wanted to work on something unique". The Bab5 game is a real loss though, although it looks like it would have been Wing Commander with different actors, I think it could have done really well.
Golden Sun 3 (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Golden Sun 3 (Score:1)
The company is still working on games, I think the rumour is that they're making an RPG for the Revolution console. Another rumour says it's related to Golden Sun but not a direct sequel.
Re:Golden Sun 3 (Score:1)
Fallout 3? (Score:1)
Re:Fallout 3? (Score:2, Informative)
What makes these games so special? (Score:5, Insightful)
So quite seriously, what is it that makes these games special?
Re:What makes these games so special? (Score:2)
sorta like watching a car crash in slow motion...as far as the game goes - there wasn't anything interesting about it that i could see, yet another generic first person shooter developed with a licensed engine (ie a mod basically)...
another of these the world doesn't need...
fallout and xcom
Golgotha (Score:1)
Crack dot com
Never came out, but I was looking forward to it
Re:Golgotha (Score:2)
Re:Golgotha (Score:3, Informative)
Unfortunately, Crack dot Com was a victim of poor project planning [loonygames.com], 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 u
Heh, the REAL Ultima Online (Score:2)
Daikatana2 and SimsVille (Score:2)
I seem to recall hearing about SimsVille, and think it was when SimCity was still fairly high on the lists, think maybe it died off when people stopped buying much in the SimCity line, and started becoming way more interested in things like Sims and Sims2 lines.
Oh well, way too many releases right now to worry about what never happened.
Re:Daikatana2 and SimsVille (Score:2)
The Sims is not really a simulation game. It's more like a cybernetic dollhouse for grownups. Aside from the name and the reuse of some of the basic technology (graphics mostly), The Sims doesn't really have much connection with SimCity and other Maxis simulation games. Which is just as well -- I always found the underlying models for the simulation games unconvincing.
Babylon 5: Into the Fire (Score:2)
Howver, for those that still want to fly a 'Fury on their PC, there's this:
http://ifh.firstones.com/ [firstones.com]
I believe there are some B5 Freespace mods as well.
Re:Babylon 5: Into the Fire (Score:2)
It was depressing to see the game canned, there were unofficial remarks that it was nearly done. Boxes printed and all the included junk was there too, that was where the "hologramed" mousepads came from.
Earthbound 0,2 (Score:1)
Re:Earthbound 0,2 (Score:2)
http://starmen.net/mother3/ [starmen.net] (Mother 3 GBA)
Re:Earthbound 0,2 (Score:1)
Even if Earthbound 2 comes out for the GBA, and even if it has the same plot that it was going to have originally on the N64, it still wont be the same.
Huh? (Score:2)
You need evidence that the GBA can't display 3D graphics on par with the N64? Or what exactly are you asking for?
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
Lets face it, as far as plot goes there just ain't that big a difference between the two (or even between the two of them and "The Legend of Zelda" for that matter). I think it's very hard to argue honestly that there isn't a difference between the two experiences. I think it is clear that the original poster thought the difference in gameplay experience between a 2-D Earthbound, and
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
OoT could've been done in 2D. Sure, it would've been a bit different, but not all that much.
Polygons don't, 3D does (Score:2)
Oh, polygons by themselves don't. A three-dimensional word, however, that's a different story. What's the difference between the GBA version of GTA and the PS2 version of GTA? Same story, same action, same options. Not same game at all. Mario can jump on mushrooms whether you're playing Super Mario Bros or Mario 64, but surely you won't claim that there's no difference.
No mention of URU Live? (Score:2)
After 6-7 years in the making, UbiSoft cut the funding to Cyan while it was in its beta stage, still in the proloque before its main launch, after 10,000's of copies of the single-player/client portion of the game had been sold. Like many others, this was more a case of it being cut down before it even had a chance to reach its prime, though...
It had a ton of potential, and now that the platform requirements and broadband issues are more inline with what more and more people have on their desktops, perhaps
My biggest disappointment (Score:5, Informative)
Sadly, Freespace3 was one of the many casualties of Interplay's death.
Cut down in its prime (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Duke NukeEm Forever (Score:2, Funny)
Xeno* (Score:2)
Re:Xeno* (Score:2)
Duality (Score:1)
It was going to be an FPS for the Mac (maybe PC too?) and the team included the guys that did Marathon Infinity. The setting was going to be a cool alien religous world. It had a pretty gritty look to the whole thing. At the time I was totally psyched because the story looked cool and it was going to be one of the first true 3D FPSs for the Mac at the time.
Unfortunately after some nice looking screen shots, the project was cancelled and the studio dissolved. I think it was lack of money, but I'm not sure
PREY getting released??? (Score:2)
OK, perhaps this just shows how out of touch I am with gaming news, but I was totally expecting Prey to be one of the examples on the list, not a footnote about games to be released soon.
I thought Prey started development a little after Quake 2 got released, and was supposed to have a "revolutionary" 6 DOF game engine that they were making in house. Unfortunately, someone de
Re:PREY getting released??? (Score:1)
The game I always mention... PROPELLER ARENA (Score:2)
Re:The game I always mention... PROPELLER ARENA (Score:1)
Sierra (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Halo (Score:3, Informative)
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.
All that wasted effort (Score:2)
I guess I'm asking for a lot, to take an example from another fie
The Lost (Score:1)