Microsoft

Halo 3: ODST [X360 – Beta]

Bungie initially conceived ODST as a small side project to produce in the lull between Halo 3s completion and Halo:Reach. Instead of featuring recognizable characters such as the Master Chief from previous games, the developers focused on the ODSTs. Story director Joseph Staten penned a detective story utilizing film noir settings, design, and characters. Composer Martin O’Donnell abandoned his previous Halo themes to create a quieter, jazz-influenced sound. During development, the game grew in scope to that of a full-sized game. [info from Wikipedia]

When Bungie decided to make a new Halo game after 3, they tossed around alot of ideas and concepts, such as another game where you play as Master chief, or one focusing on the Arbiter. Eventually they came across the idea for a game where you play as an ODST, they went through several concepts of what it would be about, some early concepts for the ODST idea were a game where you’d play as a ODST squad that would follow alongside a Spartan. Another one was about going back to Waypoint. They reused alot of cut ideas from Halo 1,2, and 3 in ODST such as these cut Pelican models cut from Halo 3: 

Necessary Force [Cancelled – Xbox 360/PS3/PC]

Necessary Force is a cancelled action game that was in development at Midway Newcastle. The game was supposed to be open-ended, with the player that would have been able to choose how to approach the mission. Unfortunately, Midway Newcastle shut down in august 2009 and the project had to be shelved. A preview of an early playable demo can be found on the EDGE website and, as we can read, the game sounded promising:

[…] the developer’s demo room is the result of only three months’ work, yet there is plenty to see, and in remarkably stable, consistent form. […]

As a police officer assigned to this beat, you’re looking at a clean-up operation, which due to the game’s construction will play out literally. As you eliminate criminal activity to make these streets safer, we’re told, they will transform. The ubiquitous graffiti will be scrubbed away. Boards will be removed from windows. Entire buildings will be replaced with shiny new constructions, putting a shop, say, were once there was a tumbling-down tenement.

Thanks a lot to Sam Chester for the help in preserving some screens of the models that he created for the game!

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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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