Microsoft

Project Velocity (Octane) [Xbox – Cancelled]

Project Velocity (aka Octane) is a cancelled racing game that was in development by Visual Science for the original Xbox (and maybe for the Playstation 2?). It seems that this prototype would have been a new title in the Need for Speed series, but there are not many info about it.
As we can read at Past to Present:
Way back in 2007, Gamerfreak1727 leaked a title he found on a debug Xbox called ‘Project Velocity.’
It seems to be an early version of one of the Need for Speed Underground games, with references to the ‘Underground’ race style. The issue being, the build date seems to be around January 20th, 2006, almost a full year after Need for Speed Underground 2. It is possible that it is a prototype for an unreleased sequel, or even one of the other spinoffs like Need for Speed Carbon, but I am not 100% certain where it would fall. Any NFS fans who want to chime in, feel free!
Thanks to Megamoto85 and Borman for the contribution!

Videos:

 

Final Fight: Streetwise [Beta – PS2 / XBOX]

As we can read on Wikipedia, Final Fight: Streetwise is a beat-’em-up produced by Capcom, released in North America and the PAL region for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2006. It is a spin-off of the original Final Fight developed by the American team of Capcom Production Studio 8 (the developers of Final Fight Revenge and the Maximo series). You can play as Kyle, the brother of Cody from the original series. When you find that Cody is in trouble, you must roam the streets of Metro City until the mystery is solved. Final Fight: Streetwise is a third-person game that stays true to its beat-’em-up roots but adds light role-playing elements and minigames to the fray as well. A respect system has been added so that your decisions affect how characters in the world react and relate to you.

However, the game had a lot of beta elements such as:

  • Combo Bar
  • Journal Image
  • No BGM play
  • Different Loading screen (Which it appeared as Loading text instead the turnable disc)
  • Different logo
  • Respect Logo changed
  • Doesn’t had Kyle victory pose
  • Had a Episodics

At the beginning, Cody did not have a white band in his hand. And he said a lot of curse words. Also, Kyle’s introduction was also different:

“The bloodly like a motherfu**er is me”

Also, after Handsome Bob sent some gangstas to kill Kyle, they said:

“That’s HIM, he fuc*ked Bob up, GET ‘HIM!”

Instead this

“That’s HIM, he messed Bob up, GET ‘HIM!”

Capcom removed a half of the cutscene in the opening. Also there was no slow motion effect. Combo Bar was removed before release. Journal Image is replaced as the “Journal Updated” text. A couple of IGN Gameplay videos have some beta gameplay we never seen before with all differents above. Dialogues bubbles are different too, they used some kind of Transparent Space instead Sharp Metal Box. No BGM added, possibly they aren’t licensed with Funkareem yet, so Fatti Sotto wasn’t add yet. Different logo of the game also shown in some trailers and IGN & GameSpy’s gameplay. Also at the Barfly, It had the Point hand instead the Arrow.

Before Streetwise entered development, Capcom was producing another title, Final Fight: Seven Sons, which featured a different story and characters, a different gameplay system and cartoonish, cel-shaded graphics, that was later cancelled in favor of Streetwise.

If you find more beta differences in the videos below, please let us know!

Post by Thomas Christian

 

Jason [PS2 XBOX – Concept / Cancelled]

Jason was one of many game concepts done at French studio Darkworks in the early 2000s, plannet to be developed for the Playstation 2 and Xbox. There are not many info available on the project, but that it should have been set in a sort of Norse mythology, with viking boats, warriors and demons to fight. However, the title never entered in production as no publisher was found. Instead, work on Time Crisis Adventure was started, a project that seems to have been later evolved into Cold Fear, Darkworks’ survival horror that was released in  2005 for Playstation 2, Xbox and PC. Sadly only few artworks remain to preserve this game, archived in the gallery below.

Thanks to Dawok for the contribution!

Concept Art: 

The Bloody Magic [XBOX – Cancelled]

The Bloody Magic is an RPG that was in development by Sky Fallen Entertainment in 2003, for the original XBOX. In the game we would have been able to play as a magician, with more than 12 different specialized fields of magic, to fight the bad guy or to join him to destroy the world. Multiplayer was planned too, with coop and versus.  The game was later released as “Dawn of Magic” on PC, but the XBOX version was cancelled.

Thanks to Markgreyam for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

 

Time Crisis Adventure [Xbox – Cancelled]

Time Crisis Adventure is a cancelled Xbox game pitch that started at Darkworks in 2003 after Capcom abandoned their other project, Lost Mantis. Time Crisis Adventure was a collaborative work with Namco US. In 2004, for unknown reasons, Namco dropped the title. However, Darkworks found a new publisher (Ubisoft) and it seems that they changed the game to release it as Cold Fear on both PS2 and Xbox in 2005 – with no references to the Time Crisis franchise.

Thanks to Warkdo for the contribution!

Images: