Microsoft

Saints Row [Beta – Xbox 360]

Saints Row is an action-adventure open world video game developed by Volition Inc. and published by THQ. It is the first title in the Saints Row series. The development of the game began at around 2004 or 2005 and was originally named “Bling Bling” which in it’s sequel, it has a certain store with the exact same name. Thanks to a certain person down in the comments who said this, The game was originally for PS2 and PS2 only at the time it was in the making.

So in the video below, you can see many beta differences between the gameplay such as:

  • Saints wearing green
  • Beta Logo
  • Shop Hold-Ups
  • Beta Rim-Jobs

Post by The Monokariba (AKA Monokiba)

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(Will research more on Saints Row’s beta.) 

Specs (Tim Schafer’s Kinect Adventure) [Xbox 360 – Prototype]

Over the last few years Double Fine has released some fantastic games. But it looks like one of the more interesting games did not see the light of day. The game, called “Specs” was going to be an interactive Kinect adventure that features a strange variation of the good / bad mechanic. Your two hands controlled you decisions. Your left hand controlled “hate” while your right hand controlled “love”.

It seems there were also other different emotions as well such as fear and trust. Holding your hand over objects in the environment would change the way the story progressed depending on what hand you used.

Sadly the game was only really a test of what the Kinect could do, and will probably never be released to the public. Information of this game was also very hard to come by, which is why I have only been able to fin d a limited number of pictures and a small amount of relevant information on Kotaku:

“Specs were to tell the story of a cursed, sentient artifact, which was the persona, that controller that gets passed on from character to character. In the video above, you’ll see an early prototype where only the emotions of love and hate were implemented followed by a later one where gestural input makes more emotional prompts available.”

Post by Liam

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Beyond Good & Evil 2 [Cancelled – PS3 / Xbox 360]

Beyond Good & Evil 2 is the sequel to Ubisoft’s 2003 action adventure, which was released on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. Pre-production started in 2007, just like the original title by a team at Ubisoft Montpellier. Michel Ancel returned as lead designer after his Rayman 4 concepts evolved into a minigame collection.

Even though a short teaser was shown at Ubidays 2008, the title was put on hold in summer 2009. The team was dissolved, Ancel started work on Rayman Origins, while other members of the team moved onto other project at Ubisoft (Tintin, different prototypes).

However, in 2009, a short trailer was leaked showing what the team envisioned for the game. Two years later, Ancel presented this trailer at a conference together with various artworks and another video with in-engine footage.

The current fate of the title is unknown. Michel Ancel revealed that current generation consoles are not powerful enough to realise the team’s vision for the game, implying a next-generation release. While both he and Ubisoft deny that the game is cancelled, only a small team (if any) is currently working on it.

Special Thanks to BGEMyth.net, Twitter user Alltpweek, and Gamersyde.com.

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Star Wars: Battlefront [Beta – Xbox / PS2 / PC]

Star Wars: Battlefront is an action game developed by Pandemic Studios and LucasArts, and released on September 2004 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Development for Star Wars Battlefront began at Pandemic Studios in 2002. Greg Burrod, executive producer on Battlefront stated “We wanted to create an online shooter title for the Xbox, PS2, and PC which would allow for team strategy and would feature battles and worlds from every one of the six Star Wars films.”

A beta version of Battlefront was released as an extras DVD for one of the trilogy sets. It’s quite interesting and has a lot of ideas that were not in the final version. The build date is February 03 2004, 8 months before the final version was released. Also, the HUD was different and the graphic was still unfinished.

Stranno posted a video and some comparison-screens between the beta and the final version on the Assembler Games Forum!

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Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks [Beta – PS2 / XBOX]

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is a beat-em-up developed by Midway LA (formerly Paradox Development) and published in 2005 by Midway for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. In april 2012 a beta version of Shaolink Monk was shared online in the Assembler Games Forum, and Stranno noticed a few differences with the final version: textures, effects (water, lights) and some background changed like “the pit” level. In the E3 beta demo the moon is really shiny, in the final you can actually see the moon and there’s an UFO (?) flying around.  The final enemy in the demo is Baraka (you cannot finish it), in retail there is one ogre-boss-like generic enemy, this Baraka fight comes in the next level, the monks academy. Options menu was reworked and there’s no aspect switch.

A sequel, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks 2 (Fire & Ice) was in development for the Xbox 360, but it was soon cancelled.

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