Microsoft, Xbox

DOAX: Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball [Beta – Xbox]

U64 Staff & Contributors
28-07-2011
No Comments

DOAX is a title most people don’t take very seriously, and I guess that’s fair in a way. Regardless of the nature/content of the game, I was curious to find out if there had been any interesting changes during the course of its development. While browsing the image archives of such sites as IGN.com, I stumbled across a few screenshots that depict early versions of certain items, etc.

Anyone who is familiar with the interface of the retail version of DOAX should instantly notice slight differences in the look of these early menus. It isn’t incredibly unlike the ones we have now, but the icons for the items/bikinis appear to be 2D as opposed to the 3D rotating models that appear in both the icon view and the main window of the final. The names for most of the items are quite different from what we see in the final game as well, not to mention sold at a drastically reduced rate than we are used to now (the devs must’ve had a VIP membership at Zack Island). For example, the “camisole” bikini is shown in one screenshot, and is listed at $900. Certainly a more realistic price than the released version (in a twisted way), as this same bikini is sold as “Ariel” in the final at a whopping $80,000… although, assuming that the Zack Island currency is based on yen, then the former price would have been a bit silly.

Anyway, it seems like at this stage of the game the developers were simply labeling the bikinis by type or style. Maybe they were cheaper just to make testing easier, or maybe there really wasn’t much of a reason at all. An entirely unused item can be seen in one screenshot, labeled as “cat ears.” Interesting that this was intended to be a separate accessory, because ultimately the devs instead included them as additional pieces to specific bikinis. In other words, they cannot be worn unless the player equips their character with a bikini like the “raccoon.” Regardless of this fact, the original cat ears accessory still remains unused because the color and exact texture is not found for ears as an addition on any bikini.

So, it’s safe to say we got shafted with the released version of DOAX, right?! Nah, just joking… it really isn’t much different.

Article by Trebla Yevrah

Images:

 

Microsoft, Nintendo, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

Crash Bandicoot: Landed (2010) [Cancelled – Xbox 360 / PS3 / Wii / DS]

U64 Staff & Contributors
25-07-2011
17 Comments

Crash Bandicoot: Landed 2010 is a cancelled game in the Crash Bandicoot series, which wasn’t even officially announced but some info leaked from the people who worked it. These info were soon removed from their websites: Crash 2010 was meant to be a 3d Adventure / Action game in developement by Radical Entertainment. It was cancelled due to layoffs by Activision in February 2010.

Many information were leaked after the cancellation but left unnoticed until August 2010, when they were found by some users in the Crash Mania Forums. There is a short gameplay / cgi footage and also some concept art. Crash Mania members made a petition to make activision continue working on the game but it was unsuccessful, partially due to abuse of the petition (ie. obvious sockpuppetry). A new petition has been started, and has so far not suffered these problems.

Recently, an fx demo was leaked by someone as a demo reel video. The owner of the reel video said that game would not be continued because of Activision. When the fans added the video to Youtube, Activision started removing them but many of these are still available.

Console Game!
Crash Bandicoot 2010 (Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii)
Design and implementation of character locomotion and weapon/combat using proprietary software
Open World Mission Design
Game Systems Design Documentation
Weapons/Tools
Interface
Game Economy
Boss design

Another video with items was found, in which we can see some interesting stuff about the canceled game!

  • Frogzooka [Suck]
  • Boombat [Blow… Away]
  • Glow Top [Stun/Light]
  • Fertilizer Gun [Shoot]
  • Bottle Rocket-Launcher [Ending/Surf]
  • Jet pack
  • Jet ski

Post by MotweraCity

Videos:

DS Footage (Developed by Renegade Kid):

Pictures video for similar visually done game (CTR 2010):

Also Effects Video in this link: http://landinkent.blogspot.com/p/game-fx.html 

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Cold Fear [Beta – XBOX PS2 PC]

U64 Staff & Contributors
25-07-2011
3 Comments

Cold Fear is a 3rd person shooter horror title developed for the PS2, Xbox, and PC. Developed by DarkWorks, published by Ubisoft and released in 2005.

Development:

Cold Fear didn’t start as a horror title, based on information and speculation, darkworks was working on several new projects with several publishing and developing houses. In 2003 when DarkWorks was working with Capcom thier project: Lost Mantis/USS  Antarctica was canned. In 2004 DarkWorks worked with Namco U.S. on a new title. The game was Time Crysis Adventure. However the game, much like Lost Mantis, was canned, but not before Ubisoft stepped in and took over the project. TC: Adventure evolved into the game Cold Fear. There are several Concept Art images that remain of Time Crysis: Adventure. You can view the Concept Art below:

Alpha Stage:

Prior to the games release Cold Fear orignally looked more detailed and gritty. The enviroments showcased in these screenshots are different in the final version – similar but different. The main chracter in this build was not from the USCG (United States Coast Guard) but part of the Navy Seals and was involved in the operation that invaded the russian ship at the begining of the game.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE THE SCREENSHOTS)

 

Tom Hansen Background

In the alpha build, Tom Hansen was a 29 year old captain of the navy seals – he wasn’t part of the USCG (United States Coast Guard). It can be assumed that – much like the final version – the navy seals was wiped out. Making Tom Hansen the last survivor on the russian ship. It’s possible that Tom was the leader of that Navy Seal group.

 

Playstation, Sony

Popcorn (Short Fuses) [PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma
21-07-2011
6 Comments

Popcorn is a cancelled action adventure game that was in development by Eighth Wonder in 1997 / 1998 for the original Playstation. In the nineties Rare was one of the most prolific developer on Nintendo platforms. So it was quite a shock when in 1997 a small number of employees (game designer Oliver Davies; software engineers Oliver Norton, Steve Patrick, and Jeff Stafford; and two artists, Christopher Gage and Adrian Smith later replaced by Andrew Wood and Jemie Hemming) left the company to form a new studio called Eighth Wonder funded by no other than Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Nintendo main competitor at the time.

The deal had SCEE committed to publishing the new development house’s first three titles, with an option to pick up the next three. The first title in the work by this promising studio was an action/adventure game named Popcorn (also known as Short Fuses) that was similar to a 3D Bomberman clone but with puzzles and exploration elements.

Popcorn featured six world themes, each with three levels and after you beat the boss of each world you could progress to the next one and use the boss as a playable character (more than 10 playable characters including the hidden ones were planned such as a knight or a female ninja). The games was said to sport nice lighting effects, high resolution graphics (512×240) and a consistent framerate at 30 FPS.

At E3 1998 the game displayed under the Sunsoft booth so it is likely that Sunsoft would have been the american publisher. However as often happen with very publicized deals that involve many projects, Eighth Wonder are believed to have experienced a number of internal problems and, by 1999, the studio no longer existed relegating Popcorn into obscurity.

Thanks to Celine for the scan! (Console+ magazine issue 78 and Edge issue 60)

Images: