Microsoft

Tornado Alley [GC/XBOX/PS2 – Cancelled]

Tornado Alley is a cancelled action game that was in development by Atomic Planet in 2002 / 2003 for the Playstation 2, GameCube and Xbox. As we can read from the official press release, in the game the player would had to take control of one of the most powerful forces of Mother Nature, a Tornado, and guide it to do as much damage as possible, without running out of wind power.

To keep the twister alive we would had to follow the contours of the landscape, watching for thermals and building up the power of the cyclone with the right balance of warm and cold air. Cars and trailers could have been picked up to give ammunition to the vortex, to be churned around inside before being spat out with huge destructive force. Probably the gameplay would have been somehow similar to Katamari Damacy and Thornado (DS), but even with this interesting concept, the project was never released for unknow reasons.

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Doom 3 [PC/XBOX – Beta]

Doom 3 is a science fiction horror videogame developed by id Software and published by Activision. The game was first shown in Febuary 2001, as a tech demo showing of id’s newest graphics engine. The game has had many cuts and changes during its long development cycle. One of the most noticeable differences is the changes the demons went through, throughout the games development. In this screenshot you can see the  original model for the Hell Knight, because of it bird shaped head it is often reffered to in the doom community as the Birdman.

Here you can see the 2001 Doom 3 macworld video showing off the Birdman  in 2001:  skip to 4:50 for Doom 3. 

Driv3r [PS2/XBOX – Beta]

Driv3r (also known as Driver 3) is an action /sandbox game developed by Reflections Interactive and published by Atari, released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004. Slayermaggot81 has linked us to the Driver Madness Forum, where they found many screenshots and a video (from Spetrikbob YT channel) with some beta differences.

Before the game came out, it was meant to be called Driver 3 and not Driv3r. If you have the videogame ‘Stuntman’, go in the Bonus section. There’s a preview of Driv3r, an the title at the end is ‘DRIVER 3’.

Stuntman came out in 2002, Driv3r came out in 2004 and they needed 3 years from the first idea to the release of the game. That mean they started making the game in 2001. So this video from Driver 3 in Stuntman can only be from 2001 or 2002.

In the beta videos and screens we can notice:

  • A yellow car that isn’t in the game (Miami)
  • The graphics are much better
  • The Ocean Drive looks different (Miami)
  • How can you have a so hight view of Istanbul ? Even with the film director it isn’t possible to go as high. Or is it a Cutscene … ?
  • The Sun looks different
  • The night looks better
  • Tanner looks different
  • Different and removed cars
  • Calita wearing red clothes and has a different hair cut
  • Miami looks different
  • & more…

Original Driv3r trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fgim9EkL10

Note that it was known then as “Driver 3″ and features Tanner in alternate clothing to the final game. It seems to be the same suit worn in Driver 2.

Thanks to Slayermaggot81, Martin Bigg and Vicente for the contributions!

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Objective Force: Commander [XBOX – Cancelled]

Objective Force: Commander is a cancelled action / car combat game that was in development by Dynamic Animations Systems in 2002, for the original XBOX.  The game was shown in playable form at E3 2002, but later it vanished from the release list, maybe because they never found a publisher interested in the project. Objective Force: Commander was set in the near future, following the missions of a group of Texas rebels against an evil mega conglomerate energy company. The player would have been able to command an entire squad of tanks in real time, by issuing orders to friendly team AI to complete the game’s missions and win over the other teams. Single player mode, multiplayer VS and coop modes of play (including Xbox Live) were planned.

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