PC / MAC

Thief: Deadly Shadows [Beta – Xbox / PC]

As we can read in Wikipedia, Thief: Deadly Shadows is a stealth game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive in 2004 for Xbox and PC. After Looking Glass Studios, the developer of the original two titles, went out of business in 2000, many former employees moved to Ion Storm Austin. Here they began developing the long-anticipated third part of the series, Deadly Shadows. It is the last game produced by Ion Storm before its demise in February 2005.

The idea originally was that Thief: Deadly Shadows would let you customise difficulty similarly to in System Shock, with you able to tweak how smart the AI was, what your objectives were and so on. It’s a feature which survived until the last betas, but was suddenly cut out of the final game due to the extra work it created for testers. Instead, Thief: Deadly Shadows only has the usual Easy/Normal/Expert skill settings from the older Thief games.

You can get more detail on the cut, as well as RPS co-founder and comics writer Kieron Gillen’s take on the game, in the Unlimited Hyperbole Podcast. If you have more info, screens or videos with beta differences for Thief 3, please let us know in the comments below!

Thanks to Joe Martin for the contribution! 

The Sims 4 (2014) [Beta – PC/MAC ]

The Sims 4 was officially announced on May 6th 2013, and is in development by Maxis, which will be a first since the 2004 game, The Sims 2. However a few weeks before, several images were leaked that appear to be taken from some sort of in house tech demo. These images were leaked onto SimsVIP and shown off. Judging from the following screenshots, they seem to be real, due to the official boxart posted by EA showing very similar character designs for the faces:

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Although these are thought to be of The Sims 4, it is very possible due to the lower graphics style, a console game for the sims that may be in development. Judging by the city style and design, could it be the rumored, The Urbz 2?

Official Info:

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Revealed by EA and MAXIS on May 6th, 2013, The Sims 4 is in development for Windows and Mac OS. The game will be developed by Maxis and The Sims Studio under supervision by maxis head, Lucy Bradshaw. The game was revealed to have offline and online modes, and will not require internet to play (unlike the recently released Simcity 2013). More information about The Sims 4 can be obtained on the official www.thesims4.com website. 

Croc: Legend of the gobbos (1997) [Beta / Prototype – PSX / Saturn / PC]

Croc Legend Of The Gobbos was a platformer game released in 1997 by Defunct game developer, Argonaut Games. Using the BRender engine, which was a state of the art engine capable of powering games released between generations (PS1 and PS2 gens), it took full advantage of the consoles it released on and pushed the game engine to its limits.

Recently, a beta and tech demo was uncovered by a few fans of the game on a now defunct forum, “Croc Fan Forums” , and released to a very few people. A newely formed YouTube channel called Video Game Beta Book, posted videos from both builds that leaked a few weeks ago.

These videos show many things that were changed or cut. In the tech demo, croc appears to be voiced by an entirely different voice actor opposed to His voice actor in Croc and Croc 2. Next, many level designs are different, and some levels are even entirely unseen in the final game. The main island also looks severely different.

The tech demo that leaked was dated November 1996, and appears to be a very early alpha of the game engine, that was likely released to internal testers to test physics.  In the Prototype dated March 1997, it features slightly different animations, has cut levels, and even has something not at all in the final game: Results Screen. The results screen is similar to the ending of levels on the Spyro The Dragon Trilogy games released by Insomniac Games from 1998-2000, where it shows your gems you picked up and score.

Additionally, in the tech demo Croc is more lighter than He appears in the March 1997 Proto and the final game.

Videos of the tech demo and prototype can be seen below:

 

Dreamers [Xbox 360 / PS3 / PC – Cancelled]

Dreamers is a action adventure game that was in development by Dreamgazers Interactive, for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The project was announced as in development for “next gen consoles” in 2004, but as of today (2010), Dreamers remains unreleased and probably it will never be published. In 2008 PSU had an interview with Dreamgazers President and Creative Director George Georgeadis, asking for more info about their game:

“Haha, yes we are still alive,” said Georgeadis. “However many changes have occurred regarding the company and project, changes that I am unfortunately not in a position to disclose.”

Sadly the latest entry in Dreamgazers’ Blog is from 2007 and even if their website and Dreamers’ official website are still online, the lack of news make us to assume that the team was disbanded and their game cancelled, probably because they never found a publisher.

Some more info on Dreamer’s story can be read in the official website:

Dreamers is a game about a young man in his 20’s, Jorge, who suffers from a bizarre form of narcolepsy. Characterized by sudden and uncontrollable attacks of deep sleep, narcolepsy is a disorder that is also sometimes accompanied by paralysis and hallucinations

Players would had to explore Jorge’s dreams and nightmares to heal him from his problems and find more about his past. It’s currently unknown how much of the game was completed before the development was stopped.

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F-Tank [Tech Demo – Saturn / PSX / PC]

In development by Titus Software, F-Tank was a 3D futuristic tank simulation planned for PC, Saturn and Playstation. The game main attraction was the compatibility with a Virtual Reality headset to enhance the player immersion. The VR-project was never released for these platforms, but it seems that the game evolved into “Metal Rage: Defender of the Earth“, released in 1996 for PC-Dos.

Scans from Mega Force issue 36, CD Consoles 4 – february 1995 + CD Consoles 8 – june 1995.

Thanks to Youloute for the contribution!

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