The Fallen [PSX PC – Cancelled]

The Fallen is a cancelled action adventure game that was in development in 1995 / 1996 by Sensory Deception and it would have been published by Psygnosis for the original Playstation and PC. Sadly just few screenshots were found by Celine in CD Consoles magazine issue #19 and Edge magazine issue #33.

Below you can read the story / setting of the game, as announced at E3 1996:

The Lords are the law enforcers of the future, maintaining their own brand of vicious law and order in cities across the U.S. The Fallen are their prey, the drop-outs from society who fall foul of The System and want to find their own way without rules. When the two meet, only chaos can follow.

Play Lord or Fallen in this huge and minutely detailed strategic adventure which takes you from coast to coast across America and offers so many real-life options, you’ll think you’re there. And with bribery, corruption, gambling and violence all on the agenda, there might not be the place you want to be.

Some of the promised features:

  • Unique characterisation system introduces realistic characters capable of complex interaction.
  • Fully textured real-time 3D graphics.
  • Non-linear structure allows the player to dictate the action strategy.
  • Huge array of fully interactive vehicles, weapons and special objects.
  • Combat includes hand-to-hand fighting, vehicle ramming and use of futuristic weapons.
  • Multi-player options (PC version)

Even if we don’t know much about the project, from this description it seems that the gameplay could have been somehow similar to a futuristic Grand Theft Auto. The Fallen was cancelled for unknown reasons, maybe because it was too ambitious for 1996.

If you know someone who worked on this game and can share some more info or media, please let us know!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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Alien Breed: Conflict [PC / Dreamcast – Cancelled]

Alien Breed: Conflict (aka Alien Breed Action, ABC, or ABA) is a cancelled FPS in the Alien Breed series that was in development by Team17 in 1999 / 2000 for PC and Dreamcast. It was meant to be a follow-up to Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds, published in 1996 by Ocean Software. Sadly the development was cancelled as the size of the project was a bit overwhelming at the time.

We can read a short preview of Alien Breed Conflict on Computer And Videogames, but sadly only few screens are available:

ABC is a darkly futuristic, real-time 3-D strategy game. The player takes control of a small band of special operations soldiers as they fight for the freedom of their people. These guerrillas carry out dangerous missions behind enemy lines using guile, cunning, stealth and strategic abilities. Missions, including assassinations, strategic destruction, information retrieval and prisoner rescue, will be attempted by the player as he develops his skills of tactical combat.

You’ll get to develop your own characters with the skills you desire, deploy your units with predefined orders, command multiple groups, define your own tactics and select your weapons of choice.

The singleplayer missions in the game are said to be vast. Team17 will also focus strongly on multiplay and will run dedicated servers to save player stats and rankings.

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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Rocket Boy [32X/Mega CD Saturn – Cancelled]

Rocket Boy is a cancelled platform game that was in development by Rocket Science Games for the Sega Saturn in 1994 / 1995. Players were able to explore a full 3D world set in a weird / fantasy galaxy, with the goal of finding a way to return home before the parents of the main character were back for dinner. As written in an article in Wired 2.11 (page 108), Rocket Science decided to cancel this project because it was too similar to other platform games of its time:

The trend toward more literate games means that some projects well along the Rocket Science pipeline have had to be scrapped. “We saw some things at the Consumer Electronics Show very similar to our Rocket Boy and DarkRide, so we’ve put those on hold,” says Caldwell. “But we still have Wing Nuts, a World War I dogfight game, in the works.”

In 1997 Rocket Science had to close down due to financial problems and Rocket Boy vanished forever with them. Celine found a pic of the game in Cd Consoles magazine issue #5 and Rod_Wod found one more in another magazine! These images are likely concept artwork and not in-game.

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

UPDATE:

On Mega Force issue 36 there is an article about Rocket Boy. The project initially was planned for Sega Mega CD (and 32X combo) and featured pre-rendered graphics which were very popular at that time. The game was an action/platform with an isometric view similar to SegaSonic the Hedgehog. Added “real screen shots” images in the gallery with the scanned article.

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Sorcery [PSX – Cancelled]

Sorcery is a cancelled fighting game that was in development for the original Playstation in 1997 / 1998 by Sony Interactive Studios America, later renamed to 989 Studios (Sony’s San Diego team). Players would have been able to choose between many fantasy characters that used fighting moves and spells to battle their opponents.

The first concept of Sorcery was much different from the playable prototype, as originally 989 Studios wanted to develop an ambitious multiplayer RPG, with a big overworld, quests and huge cast of characters. Because of the limitations of the PSX hardware and for economic reasons, Sony ordered the team to scale down the project to an arena fighting game (which was seen as more profitable / less risky).

As their own project was killed and because 989 Studios had no experience with fighting games, Sorcery went through various development issues that lead to its final cancellation after 2 years of work.

More info and screens can be found at The Playstation Museum!

The original concept would have worked great in today’s on-line environment. The scope, which started out as a split screen, was to run around a large world, setting magical traps, using magic to detect and find your opponent, then finally tracking him down and combating him, kept getting whittled down further and further until it devolved into a magical arena fighting game, where opponents would stand across from each other in very small (fits on a single screen) arenas and dispatch each other with spells and counter spells.

Thanks to Stone and baphomet for the contributions! Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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Cold Winter [PS2 – Beta]

Cold Winter is a FPS developed by Swordfish Studios and published by Vivendi Universal Games in 2005 for the Playstation 2. The game uses the Karma physics engine, allowing for interactivity with items in the game world and for ragdoll effects. Using a small inventory menu, some weapons and tools can be constructed, such as Molotov cocktails and lock picks. Originally the item creation system was more complex, but they had to scale it down for time and development issues. A previously announced Xbox version was later cancelled. [Info from Wikipedia]

Destructor1890 noticed some differences in the early 2003  screenshots:

  • Kim’s 3D model was changed
  • Andrew’s 3D model was changed
  • The HUD was different
  • Some scenes were not used in the final game

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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