New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

Twisted Metal Black 2: Harbor City [PS2 – Cancelled]

monokoma
19-01-2009
5 Comments

Twisted Metal: Black is the Playstation 2 chapter of a series of car combat games, created by Incog Inc. In 2003 TM: Black was to have a sequel titled Harbor City, though it was never officially announced and the project was later scrapped.

Details on the Twisted Metal Black 2: Harbor City were revealed in the PlayStation 2 port of Twisted Metal: Head On: Extra Twisted Edition. It was originally planned the levels of Harbor City to be greatly expanded and inter-connected with one another, giving a greater feeling of a single, complete world rather than stand-alone levels. Other than car-combats, Harbor City was going to have human characters in 3rd person, for more “personal” fights.. a bit like a GTA game, but with more emphasis on multiplayer deathmatches.

According to bonus material on Extra Twisted Edition, the project was scrapped because of the deaths of six key developers in a plane crash. However, some claim this to be a hoax as no proof of this happening has arisen from another source. [Infos from Wikipedia]

Four levels of Harbor City, albeit without the interconnection or interactiveness active, were included in TM: Head On, as a bonus feature entitled Twisted Metal: Lost, but those were just a small part of the original game. An upgraded version of  the Harbor City concept is currently in development for the PS3 by Eat Sleep Play.

Thanks to Cyrax151 for the contribution! Thanks to Miles for his help in preserving more images from this lost game!

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Unseen News

Interesting infos about the Zelda 64 development

monokoma
18-01-2009
No Comments

zelda64interviews

Thanks to GlitterBerri and her translations, we can read a series of interesting interviews about the development of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, with informations on some of the changes that were made. You can check the full interviews in here. Huge props to Glitterberry as always! Here are some highlights:

At the beginning, there was only Hyrule Castle.

In the beginning we put in so many trees, but they were becoming obstacles so we gradually removed them and in the end the wilderness disappeared.

For a long time Hyrule Field had nothing, it was terribly uninteresting. Of course, while you were trudging along in that wide empty plain we had planned to introduce effects such as wind, temperature, and atmosphere.

Absolutely, there were people suggesting “playing the ocarina is too tiresome, let’s make it automatic.” I was undecided as well, but when I went to examine the situation, I found the complainers were happily playing the ocarina too.

It’s also possible to call the horse with the ocarina.
In the beginning you used a reed pipe, but it was too much trouble so we eventually changed it to the ocarina.

I changed the ranch girl Malon into a songstress, so the horses were attracted to her because of her song. However, this didn’t really suit her dialogue at the time. Originally we had her singing alone in the middle of the ranch, but halfway through we changed it so she went to the castle, but then she didn’t sing anymore.

The story in Ocarina of time isn’t actually original, it deals with the Sages’ Imprisoning War from the Super Famicom’s ALttP.

Beyond that, at first it wasn’t a window Zelda was looking through, but rather a peephole. But then someone asked “why would there be a peephole in a castle courtyard?” Sadly, when we asked the the mappers to change the peephole to a window, I think we made one cry…

We also put material from one dungeon in others, no sense wasting what can be used again. It was easy to forget which devices were made for which dungeons.

We tried to put in lots of rupee-filled treasure chests at first, but people ended up getting annoyed wondering why there were so many rupees in a place where they were totally useless.

I, personally, really like the Forest Temple. It was the very first dungeon we designed in Ocarina of Time

We’d been fussing over how Link should open a treasure chest for 3 years. [..] We actually had some better ideas for the treasure chest, but we couldn’t fit it in this time. Maybe in the near future…?

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Star Wars Battlefront 3 [Cancelled Free Radical Version / Proto – Xbox 360 / PS3 / PC]

U64 Staff & Contributors
18-01-2009
9 Comments

In 2006, LucasArts announced an agreement with UK-based and now shut down developer Free Radical Design. Although no further announcements were made about the game, it was well known that FRD was working on Star Wars Battlefront 3 for next-generation platforms.

Several issues including delays and “communication problems” made LucasArts cancel the project and leave Free Radical Design without funding. As a result, the studio had to close in December 2008 as publishers showed no interest in either buying or investing into FRD.

While Star Wars Battlefront 3 will be finished at Rebellion Studios, the other FRD game (TimeSplitters 4) will probably not appear in the near future.

In April 2012, more screens and videos from an alpha version of Star Wars Battlefront 3 Free Radical version were shared online by Past to Present Online

Also as we can read from PC Gamer:

Betagames have found remnants of a Battlefront project in the form of images stashed away on the Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City disk. That seems like an odd place to leave some spare files, but Raccoon City developers, Slant Six were rumoured to have been working on the third game in the Battlefront series for a while. The files include a variety of pro-quality loading screens and some odd bits of texture work, including a hideous image of Luke Skywalker’s face stretched out on a 2D plane. Eeeugh.

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Microsoft, Xbox 360

The Dark (Condemned) [X360 – Beta]

monokoma
17-01-2009
1 Comment

Condemned: Criminal Origins was originally known as The Dark, quite far into production. Under this name, the game was largely similar but differed in several key areas. The player character was known as Agent Cross, and the game appeared to follow him on a Government-sanctioned investigation, or investigations, rather than acting as a rogue on the run from the law. Although Cross possessed the supernatural leanings of Thomas from the final game, he could actually use various magical spells. For example, a spell could be uttered to pull a gun from an enemy’s hands and bring it to you through the air, and another spell saw doors and other obstacles break in front of you, seemingly negating the need for a fire axe.

The forensic tools used by Cross also differed, as the detection and collection tools were typically one individual item – the UV light, for instance, could illuminate clues and then be used to physically swipe across them, to take samples.

While playing the game, various bonus contents are unlocked, which can then be accessed from a special menu. Content includes concept and production sketches and paintings, work-in-progress animation, video from motion capture sessions, and a rather lengthy video showcasing a complete level from an early version of the game. [Infos from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Neodiffer for the contribution!

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