Battle Rigs (AKA Construction Derby) is a cancelled vehicular combat game that was in development by Rage Software Sheffield around 2000 – 2001, planned to be released for the original Xbox and PC. At the time the team was mostly known for their work on Gun Metal and Incoming, proving their skills with first person and third person shooters. In Battle Rigs players would have been able to build their own sci-fi tank / spaceship to fight in single player and online multiplayer deathmatches.
While Battle Rigs was never officially announced before being canned, former Rage developer James Sutherland found a playable prototype of their lost project and shared one screenshot on Twitter.
Caravan is a cancelled “Funny Adventure Shooter” that was in development by Parallax Arts Studio around 2004 – 2005, planned to be released on PC. The game was set in a fantasy middle east world, somehow similar to the Arabian Nights, but with a more comical point of view. While at the time Parallax Arts shared some screenshots and footage on Caravan’s official website, today those files seem lost forever (were uploaded in Flash and Archive.org did not save them properly. If you are able to restore those files, please let us know!).
At least some details on the game’s story can still be read:
“Caravan is the adventure of a young sluggard hopelessly fallen in love with a beautiful princess. The game starts at the moment when a fugitive Genie penetrates into the fellow’s head. The Genie has managed to escape from a wicked Magus, a fire-worshipper, who illegally catches magic creatures and turns them into slaves. Having found a refuge in the main hero’s mind (this is the only way for a Genie to feel safe from the Magus and his supernatural servants), the Genie offers a bargain to the fellow. The deal is the following: the Hero has to destroy an alchemical laboratory and set Genie’s friends free. In exchange, the Genie will help him to marry the Princess.”
Burgers Wars (AKA “Burger Warz” or “The Great Burger War”) is a canceled first person arena shooter that was in development around 2004 by Amped Labs, planned to be released on PC and Mac. Up to 128 players would have been able to play against each other in colorful arenas, to decide which fast-food burger brand would win the “Burgers Wars”. As we can read from their old website:
“Burger Wars is a fast action, multiplayer online first person shooter. In the year 2033 two competing burger franchises, McBozo and Burger Clown are in an all out global war as they battle for supremacy in one of the worlds last free market enterprises. Team based play tactics are involved and 3 game types, Team Death Match, Capture the Flag and Assassinate the Clown are supported. It runs on PC, Mac and Linux. It can handle up to 128 players per server, and its spoof humor is a guarantee for some side splitting laughter.”
“In each game type a score point is made by “nutralizing” your opponents. A point is awarded for each “nutralization.” Several unique weapons are available to help you. When an opponent is “nutralized” he or she will drop weapons ammo and a score burger. “The score burger is worth an additional 10 points. As you gather score points your character has the ability to use more weapons. Your character can grow over time and his or her score is maintained on the game server or cluster of game servers. The objective is to obtain all the weapons and keep the highest score. As new mod packs and weapons are available your player will be able to maintain his or her own inventory and trade weapons with other players.”
“In 2003 the first human was cloned. Despite world wide pressure to ban cloning and genetic experiments on humans the fast food industry creates its very own human clown mascot. They altered his genes to have fiery red hair, bright red lips and very pale skin. His genetic “fathers” included splices from a former actor who became a California Governor, an olympic athlete, an opera singer and a famous magician. He was put to work at an early age. He was very enthusiastic and worked very hard.
Mc Bozo is a ruthless money hungry capitalist who is too cheap to hire a mascot so he does his own advertisements. He is fat, lazy and greedy. He started out as a police officer and was corrupted by smugglers when he began accepting bribes. After serving time in prison for his crimes he was released on Parole and began selling hamburgers as a street vendor. “
“In 2031 only two occupations still employed human workers. The vast majority of the workforce had been laid off in the great depression of 2019. Cheap automation, rapid inflation coupled with the devaluation of the new global currency, and the latest human occupation software upgrades for Japanese ASIMO humanoid robots were to blame. Of the remaining two human occupations, one was civil service, which required a minimum of 3 PHDs, the other was fast food. When times were tough the application process for a fast food worker could require a two year wait. Hours were long and competition between the fast food restaurants was fierce. Price wars reduced wages, and layoffs were rampant. Finally the stress of modern life became too much to bare for the fast food workers and they began attacking each other.
At first it was simple… like a brick tossed through a window. Graffiti sprung up on the buildings such as “Die you scum sucking McBozo devil worshippers!” and “Rot in Hell you Burger Clown bastards!” Soon the attacks became more open and personal. One McBozo worker was beaten by Burger Clown employees, dipped in a vat of McBozo sundae sauce and wrapped in toilet paper. The violence was captured and broadcast via infravision on all local neural network stations. Shortly after, on October 31st 2033, an angry mob of McBozo workers dragged a Burger Clown employee into the street, forced him to eat seven pounds of uncooked French fries and set fire to his head. That was the last straw! It was outright war!”
While the game was officially announced on many gaming websites and a playable demo was also released, Burger Wars and its developers just vanished sometime around 2005. We can assume Amped Labs were not able to complete their project without support from a publisher. They were also working on another game titled “Rise of Power” but it was also cancelled.
It seems the game was playable at E3 1998, but we were not able to find any footage yet. Unfortunately there are no details about what happened to the project, it just vanished and then forgotten by everyone. We can speculate gameplay was not food enough to rival Diablo and Activision just decided to kill the project.
If you can find more screenshots or videos from this lost game, please let us know!
Warhound is a cancelled open-ended FPS that was in development by Techland (the team behind such titles as Call of Juarez, Dead Island and Dying Light) in 2007, planned to be released for Xbox 360 and PC. The game was quite ambitious for its time, offering RPG-like mechanics, fully destructible environments, usable vehicles, roguelike elements and freedom of choice on many aspects of your character’s development. Players would take the role of a mercenary: you would have been able to freely explore each area and resolve missions as you please, choosing how, where and when to complete each objective.
You could image Warhound as a mix between Crysis, Far Cry and Dead Island. As we can read from the (now offline) official website:
“Warhound is an open-ended First-Person Shooter (FPS) set in modern times. In the game, you will play as an ex-Delta Force operative, now working for the world`s largest military company. In Warhound, you`ll complete a variety of challenging missions in battlefields around the world, while later uncovering a massive terrorist plot that targets the United States and thousands of its citizens.
Warhound focuses on complete freedom of choice, and as such, you will have unprecedented opportunities to pick your missions, weapons, battlefield tactics and vehicles. You will select mission start times, insertion/extraction points and the types (land, sea or air) of insertion. You will also need to keep on top of your training, finances and position in the highly-competitive mercenary market to ensure you receive only the most select missions. More successful missions equal more money, which can be used to buy new equipment and weapons for future jobs. Warhound`s innovative First Person Perspective (FPP) cover system will allow you to bring the battle to your enemies in ways you`ve never dreamed of before.”
Unprecedented freedom of choice in an FPS:
– Tackle missions in the order you choose, create your own path through each mission`s objectives
– Plan your tactics and equipment load-outs
– Buy satellite photos, recon data and other intelligence about the battlefield situation
– Pick a deployment time and location, then pay for the means of getting in and getting out
Character development:
– Train your character in several skills, including climbing, repair, and weapons proficiency
– Skills are earned and developed as in the real world – for ex., shooting ranges improve accuracy, running tracks and climbing walls boosts cover and movement skills
– Develop and use skill specializations to gain advantages in combat; new skills offer fresh opportunities for advancement through the mercenary ranks, and new ways to complete missions
FPP cover system:
– For the first time in FPP/FPS games, you’ll be able to use the innovative cover system, which will forever change your way of looking at FPS games. Use items, trees, buildings and other elements of the environment to hide from the torrent of bullets. Shoot at your enemies from behind safe covers.
Detailed and realistic economy:
– Earn money for each successful mission and by selling materials picked up on the battlefield
– Use your newly earned riches to buy weapons, ammo and new gadgets
– Invest in learning new skills
Constantly changing battlefields:
– Every mission is laid out differently each time you play it, enemy units take up new positions, post new patrols, lay traps in different locations, set up ambushes, etc.
– Enemy A.I. takes into account how you`re playing the mission, and counters with unique strategies and tactics
Interactive, destructible game environments:
– A fully interactive environment means plenty of surprises for the enemy – destroy buildings they are hiding in, set villages on fire to “smoke them out”, cause avalanches and knock down trees to clear your line of fire or to create obstacles for the enemy and cover for you
Rivalry with other mercenaries:
– Climb up the career ladder and increase your reputation among the elite mercenaries of the world
– Successful players will earn prestige among their peers, which leads to better and more lucrative contracts
Some interesting details can also be found in an interview by GGMania:
“Adrain Sikora: There are two primary unique features. First up, we have RPG elements that allow you to specify the characters specialization. This influences the kind of tasks you can undertake and allows you to choose different approaches to achieving a given goal. The second unique element is the economic layer of the game. You need to constantly keep an eye on your finances, and plan expenses ahead. Some missions will require a particular kind of weapon, equipment or vehicle, and you’ll need to buy that. We’ve also played around with various gameplay ideas and solutions, because with got the new Chrome Engine, but it’s too early to talk about that.”
“Adrain Sikora: Weapons and guns are still an open issue. We keep adding new types and models. You’ll get off-roaders, half-trucks, quads, APC’s, tanks and choppers. We’re still planning and testing other stuff. I can’t state a precise number of weapons right now, because we’re still working on it. We want to introduce some variety, but also we want to have all the usual stuff: pistols, SMG’s, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, etc. You’ll also get to use fixed guns and vehicles. We’re not planning a weapon upgrade mode, but most guns will come in different variations.”
“Adrain Sikora: We want to have classic modes, like deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and so on, with up to 32 players. We are also working on our own ranking system for online players, which will also allow you to create custom character classes. You’ll also get to use skills and choose equipment just as you’d do in single player. There’ll be vehicles in MP too.”
“Adrain Sikora: The game is 50% done at the moment. We want to release the game in Q4 2007. Warhound will be available in North America, though we haven’t chosen a publisher just yet.”
Warhound was quite hyped at the time, so many screenshots, details and footage can still be found online today. Unfortunately today the project is mostly forgotten by everyone. In the end Warhound was put on hold because the team had to focus their resources and efforts on such titles as Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and the promising Dead Island. As we can read on Engaged:
“Blazej Krakowiak, the company’s international brand manager, told us, “We reached a certain development stage and had to postpone it because of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.” He continued, “A release of an ambitious and well-received title is always a good moment to unwind a little bit and reevaluate all the options,” speaking to the recent release of Bound in Blood. “It wouldn’t be a good idea for us to discuss them right now.” Though Krakowiak doesn’t exactly confirm our suspicions on the fate of Warhound, his caginess on the game’s fate speaks volumes.”
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