Sony

Cool Boarders: Sold Out [PS2 – Cancelled]

Cool Boarders: Sold Out  is a cancelled game that was in development in 2002 for the PlayStation 2, by Idol Minds. The Cool Boarders series is a snow boarding racing simulator, that was initially developed by UEP Systems for the original PlayStation in 1996. In terms of gameplay, Cool Boarders: Sold Out was probably going to be similar to the previous Cool Boarders games, but it’s a different game than the japanese-only Cool Boarders: Code Alien.  Some 3D models from the game, created by Jason Stempel, are saved below, to preserve the existence of this lost project.

Tech. Notes on the Character Models:

“Concept Artist Jason Burch provided front and side orthogonal concept sketches and it was my responsibility to match the exact likeness of the illustration style and character silhouette.”

“Each character was constructed for use during gameplay and IGCS so each had an articulated face with work, eyes, brow, mouth, jaw and hair joints and also articulated finger control.”

“Modeling and texturing of each character ranged from 3-4 days”

Thanks to Superannuation for the contribution!

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echochrome [Beta – PSP / PS3]

As we can read from Wikipedia, Echochrome  is a puzzle game created by Sony’s JAPAN Studio and Game Yarouze, which is available for PlayStation 3 and PSP. Gameplay involves a mannequin figure traversing a rotatable world where physics and reality depend on perspective. The world is occupied by Oscar Reutersvärd’s impossible constructions. This concept is inspired by M. C. Escher’s artwork, such as “Relativity”. At Siggraph 2007 Art Exhibit Sony shown a beta / concept version of Echochrome, with a nice level-debug editor.

Post by The Monokariba (AKA Monokiba), thanks to bruto77 for the video below!

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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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Crash Tag Team Racing [Beta – PS2 / XBOX / GameCube / PSP]

Crash Tag Team Racing is a racing game developed by Radical Entertainment and  published in 2005 by Sierra Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox and PSP. A beta E3 demo of Crash Tag Team Racing was shared online by ePiX in april 2012 and Stranno posted an interesting comparison between the final version and the beta.

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Strider [Cancelled – Xbox 360 / PS3 / PC]

Strider is an action game that was in development for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC by Grin, the same team behind titles such as Terminator Salvation, Wanted and the cancelled Wanted 2 and Final Fantasy Fortress.

Not much it’s known about this unreleased reboot, apart that the project was dropped after the release of Bionic Commando in 2009, probably due to the game’s commercial failure and Grin’s financial difficulties that eventually bankrupted the company. In the gallery below we can see some preliminary concept arts made by Grin Barcelona, the Spanish division of the Swedish software house.

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