Resident Evil 5 was officially announced on June 2005, but it was shown to the public for the first time only two months later in a CG trailer. Capcom created another trailer for the game in 2007. Even in the last year of the development Capcom was still moving things around. For example, the crash site of the helicopter was originally a fully playable section, not a series of QTE.
For more informations, check the Resident Evil 5 Beta Analysis
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Cry On was an RPG in development at Mistwalker for the Xbox 360 that was officially cancelled in December 2008: “AQI decided to cancel the project after analyzing the current market environment and forecasts for the future”. Only a handful of artworks and concepts were ever officially shown from the project and unfortunately, no gameplay of any sort was ever shown to the public. The game’s character designer was Kimihiko Fujisaka.
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Thanks to a transcripted interview that we can found on QJ360, we are able to read some interesting details about the game’s story and gameplay: The game’s setting is meant to resemble the Middle Ages, with a heavy focus on machines, including transportation air craft. The people of this time period place tiny “Bogle” creatures on their roofs to act as a protecting charm. The Bogles, were once powerful giants who lived alongside humans, but are now given the name “Soulless.” Recently, humans have decided to revive them for war purposes using a special skill that transform them into giant form.
The story begins when main character Sally is given this special skill from her father, the King. The Bogle that she takes into her company is different from other Bogles in that it can speak human languages.
You take control of Sally, starting off the game with your tiny Bogle riding on Sally’s shoulder. The game will require you to cross mountains, climb trees and engage in other activities difficult for a little girl. Once you’ve collected a particular item, the Bogle will transform into a giant, and end up placing Sally on his shoulder.
One of the concepts of the game, Sakaguchi reveals, is to let players experience the difference in traveling through the world as Sally and as the Bogle. The scale, playable character and perspective will change as you play the game, switching off between Sally and the Bogle.
Each time the Bogle transforms, the resulting giant will be different. Sakaguchi gives a hint at what we can expect, suggesting that you can use a stone to destroy the surroundings, then attach the fragments to the Bogle, making it bigger and giving it a different shape. This change will happen in real time. Sakaguchi wanted the Bogle’s design to differ with each transformation in order to avoid giving it the image of a robot, instead giving players the feeling that they’re dealing with a mysterious, living creature.
Gameplay will take different forms depending on which character you’re controlling. Sakaguchi wants to give the game more of a puzzle/RPG focus when playing as Sally, as he doesn’t want her to wield a sword. The action will come when players use Bogle.
Even when playing as the Bogle, Cry On isn’t a pure action game. The game is focused on the scenarios which are being crafted by Sakaguchi himself. Sakaguchi mentions a couple of possible situations: saving people as part of the storyline and using Bogle to raise a ship out of the water.”
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Akila (also know as Project X) was an early prototype for a new XBOX 360 third person action game / hack & slash (with 4 players cooperative mode) that was created by New Pencil as a pitch to show to Z-Axis in 2005, to impress them enough to publish and fund the full game. Even if the game could have been fun, it seems that New Pencil did not find any publisher interested in Akila and the project was later cancelled.
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SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is an action video game based on the television show SpongeBob SquarePants. The game has been released for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Joel has made us to notice about a beta video that shows some differences from the final game:
1. The green arrows that are shown when targeting an enemy are replaced by a white glove pointing at them in the finalized version.
2. A purple collectible is shown when an enemy is destroyed that is not in the finalized version.
3. Various sound effects and soundtracks are missing.
4. A playable character (Sandy) has a completely different animation for sliding down tracks by doing it on her tail.
5. Another playable character (Spongebob) is shown with less-finalized attacks, showing his “bubble moves” with less detail and they are more rounded in shape.
6. A non-playable character (The Flying Dutchman) is shown in a different area of a level and he looks somewhat different (since he is a ghost character he has a glow effect in the finalized version that isn’t in the beta).
7. There is a smoke effect that I do not recall seeing in the finalized version.
Thanks to Joel for the contribution!
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Project Overkill is a shoot ’em up game developed and published by Konami in 1996 for the original Playstation. The gameplay takes on a 3d-esque isometric view, in which the player chooses one of four mercenaries to lead through the levels. [Infos from Wikipedia]
My friend optiK sent me a link to this video (from Asuka120 youtube channel) and I thought it was neat: it is in fact from a pre-alpha build and most of what we can see in this early footage was not in the final game.
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