Beta + Cancelled Xbox 360 Video Games - Page 21 of 76

We Are The Mods is the cancelled spiritual sequel to The Warriors, the cult classic beat ’em up based on the 1979 movie of the same name. We Are The Mods was in development in 2006 by Rockstar Toronto, initially as a Playstation 2 project, but soon Rockstar decided to move it to the Xbox 360 as one of their first games for the 7th generation of consoles.

We Are The Mods would have not been a direct sequel, as it abandoned the movie setting to create its own one, set in 1960s England during the mods and rockers brawls. As we can read on Wikipedia:

“Mods and rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early/mid 1960s to early 1970s. Media coverage of mods and rockers fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youth, and the two groups became widely perceived as violent, unruly troublemakers.”

The game was never officially announced by Rockstar and it was unveiled only because of leaked assets in 2011. Some details were also found on the same developer’s website:

“The project had begun as a PlayStation 2 spiritual follow-up to the earlier hit ‘The Warriors‘, but part way through the development cycle Rockstar New York asked us to switch Mods from a Sixth Generation to a Seventh Generation development, changing from the PlayStation 2 to the Xbox 360 as the primary development platform. Much of the content here reflects that change, with Mods being the first Seventh Generation project the team had worked on. It was a learning experience for everyone involved. The game was similar in design and style to “The Warriors” but set in 1960’s England at the height of the “Mods” vs. “Rockers” era.”

After a while the project was canned, possible because Rockstar Toronto had to help with development on Manhunt 2, that was seen as a more profitable game for the company.

After We Are The Mods leaked on major gaming websites such as Kotaku and CVG, the original game page on the developer’s website was removed. We found a few more developers who worked on this cancelled sequel, but unfortunately it seems Rockstar don’t want them to unveil anything more on their lost project.

Only a few 3D models and early assets are preserved in the gallery below, to remember its existence.

Microsoft, Xbox 360

Legends (Pandemic Studios) [Xbox 360 – Cancelled]

monokoma

19-04-2018

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Legends is a cancelled third person action RPG planned to be released on Xbox 360, which was in development in 2006 / 2007 by the original Battlefront team at Pandemic Studios. The game would have merged cover-based third person shooting in a series of floating sci-fi islands, with usable vehicles for combat and exploration, randomized dungeons and rare loot ala Diablo plus a quest system somehow similar to what at the time was used in MMORPG such as World of Warcraft. You can imagine Legends as a lost precursor of Borderlands (which was later published in 2009), taking the classic RPG loot formula into a more action-oriented shooter.

As far as we were able to gather about this unreleased project, the Battlefront team at Pandemic worked on it for about one or two years, with at least a prototype / alpha version of the game running with many placeholder models and images.

We can assume Legends was not seen as a priority project by Electronic Arts, when they acquired Pandemic Studios in late 2007 / early 2008. In the end Legends was canned to switch resources to more marketable IPs. In 2008 they released Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, and in 2009 The Lord of the Rings: Conquest and The Saboteur, before EA decided to close down Pandemic Studios in November of the same year. Other still in development Pandemic games were also cancelled: Mercenaries 3, The Next Big Thing and Batman: The Dark Knight.

Only a few prototype screenshots, missions designs and mockups are preserved in the gallery below, to remember the existence of this lost game. If you know someone who worked on Legends, please let us know!

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Microsoft, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Zone of the Enders 3 (Enders Project) [Cancelled – PS3, Xbox 360]

Damiano Bacci

28-03-2018

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Enders Project (also know as Zone of the Enders 3) is a cancelled game which seems to have been planned for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (and possibly also for PS4 & Xbox One) by Hideo Kojima and Konami. The game would have been the third chapter in the popular Zone of the Enders game series, but it was scrapped at a very early stage in development.

Zone of Enders, the series

The first Zone of the Enders is a third-person shooter / hack and slash type of video game set in 2172 where the player assumes controls of a mecha (known as Orbital Frame) called Jehuty. His mission is to free Jupiter’s colony Antilia from the military force BAHRAM. Its sequel, Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner (know in Japan as Anubis: Zone of the Ender), followed the same style but improved on many aspects, introducing more enemies, abilities and a more immersive environment. ZOE 3: Enders Project was conceived as a direct sequel to Second Runner, without taking place on futuristic colonies but rather in an “ancient civilization”.

“Unofficial announcement” of ZOE 3

The game was ‘announced’ on 25 May 2012 during a Zone of the Enders HD Collection preview event held at the Shinjuku Wald 9 theatre in Tokyo, with many Kojima Productions’s employees and ZOE developers, including Hideo Kojima himself, Yoji Shinkawa (mecha designer and illustrator for the series), Noriaki Okamura, Shuyou Murata, and Nobuyoshi Nishimura. As 4gamer reported, it was not an official announcement, rather a presentation of details about a future project for ZOE, experimenting with different concepts and models.

Quote from andriasang.com:

As detailed at Famitsu.com, Kojima indicated that the game is currently in an early prototyping phase. Producer Ryosuke Toriyama and other key staff are currently conducting tests on what can be done using the internally developed Fox Engine, explained Kojima. Toriyama took the stage and revealed that he and his staff are at the state where they’re making models (real models) and converting them into Fox Engine assets.

Microsoft, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Full Impact (thq) [Xbox 360, PS3 – Cancelled]

monokoma

22-03-2018

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Full Impact is a cancelled car combat game that was being developed in 2010 by Juice Games (AKA THQ Digital Studios Warrington / UK) for the Playstation 3 (PSN) and Xbox 360 (XBLA). The game would have been somehow similar to the Destruction Derby series, with players using cars to destroy their opponent by driving around in arenas at high-speed.

There would have been different gangs to choose from, each one with their own style and car-type, somehow like in Twisted Metal. Players could also been able to fully customize their vehicles with new parts, colors and decals, before destroying them during missions.

Only a few images remain to remember the existence of this interesting project. As you can see it looked really promising. Many different arenas would have been available to play in, set in such locations as a demonic amusement park, a shuttle launchpad and many more.

Unfortunately Full Impact was never completed. THQ decided to move the team to other projects using more popular IPs: Red Faction Battlegrounds and Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team, both released in 2011 for PSN and Xbox Live Arcade. Juice Games also worked on many other cancelled games and prototypes, such as Split Shift Racing, Project FUUB, After Burner and Stormbirds.

This string of failed projects can attributed largely by the shifting focus of the company, and THQ’s own goals during the time after purchasing Juice Games in 2006. With the studio itself undergoing a transition away from boxed retail products and moving solely into digital goods, Juice Games was also undergoing its transformation into THQ Digital Studios Warrington.

Shortly after releasing their two digital games, THQ Digital Studios were then closed down by THQ in June 2011 due to “lackluster sales of Red Faction: Battlegrounds”. Talking to Eurogamer, an inside source who worked at the studio claimed that THQ had cancelled several projects over the years, and that they “struggled to find an idea THQ were happy with”.

Thanks to Andy for the contribution!

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Microsoft, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Project X (Activision) [Xbox 360, PS3 – Cancelled]

monokoma

01-03-2018

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Project X is a cancelled third person action game for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, which was in development around 2005 / 2007 by Z-Axis studio (later known as Underground Development) for Activision. The game was never officially announced by the company and it’s just one of many more unreleased games (such as Call of Duty: Devil’s Brigade) the team was working on, before Activision decided to close them down in 2010.

Only a few screenshots and a short video remain to remember the existence of this lost game. By looking at these, we can assume the game would have been somehow similar to other action games with super-powers like Prototype and Infamous. The main protagonist was able to morph itself into different forms of elemental energy, for example a body of ice or fire. By switching elements it would have been able to easily kill different kinds of enemies of the opposite element.

It seems only an early prototype was developed before Activision cancelled the project, maybe to switch the team to work on the PS3 version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

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