Beta + Cancelled Sony Video Games - Page 94 of 222

D-Jump is a cancelled platform / action game that was in development in 1997 / 1998 by Ubisoft Paris, planned to be released for the “next gen consoles” Dreamcast and Playstation 2, and also PC. It seems that the project was canned after 1 year and half of development, but there are just few info available. Derboo was able to find an article about D-Jump! in PowerPlay magazine issue 8/1998, in which we can see a couple of target renders. As we can read at IGN:

Starring a nimble “Rastafarian” lead character, D-Jump! blends action and platforming elements with a storyline based on time travel. Players must traverse several time periods to unlock the mystery of why their character is slowly turning into wood. Originally scheduled for release as a launch title for the PlayStation 2, D-Jump was later cancelled for unknown reasons.

For more information read this Gamespot article.

Thanks to derboo, Jorge and Isatis_Angel for the scans and to Nattie for her help in preserving more screens from their lost game!

One of the below scan is from Games Republic issue3.

UPDATE:

Seems that while the main development version was for PC, initially the game could have been also planned for N64.
A preview with more real-time screenshots are in fact found in GamePlay 64 issue 9.
I’ve added to the gallery a couple real-time screenshots that show the game in a much late state of development with the bright and cartoony style (and some other renders/concept arts).
Additionally I’ve added a brief trailer below.

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Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony

God of War 3 [PS3 – Beta]

monokoma

17-11-2010

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God of War 3 is an action adventure developed by Sony Santa Monica and released in March 2010 for the Playstation 3. As we can read on wikipedia, God of War III was first discussed by Cory Barlog at a God of War II launch event: Barlog expressed an interest in adding a cooperative mode, but sadly this was not implemented in the final game. An ending was also removed, as we can read on Kotaku:

Senior Producer Steve Caterson says in response to questions of whether any content from the game had been cut, “Probably the hardest cut was we had a whole kind of epilogue at the end planned that we just never got…just didn’t get…maybe later!”

And the original trilogy’s story was meant to be a little different:

“What David Jaffe talked about doing was — and I’m not sure how it would happen — basically, you destroy Greek mythology and then Norse mythology is right around the corner”, Asmussen told GamePro. “That’s the next thing that Kratos would go after. It becomes clear at the end that he’s going to become this harbinger of death across different mythologies in the world and maybe carry the series on from there.”
Nutty. For what it’s worth, God of War II’s Cory Barlog has something else in mind entirely. “Cory Barlog talked about Kratos becoming Death”, says Asmussen. “He pretty much becomes the Grim Reaper at the end of the game and his blades become sickles. They’re both incredibly good ideas, but you need a director to be passionate about the story and understand it intimately. If I had used Dave or Cory’s idea, I wouldn’t have been as passionate about it.”

1UP shared a video in which Sony Santa Monica’s Stig Asmussen and Steve Caterson talk about features cut from the final version of God of War 3, with the first footage of the three-way Kratos / Zeus / Gaia battle originally planned for the game’s ending. Also, an old article on CGSociety website revealed that the developers though about making God of War 3 a first person shooter.

If you can notice some beta-differences in the early GoW3 screenshots, please let us know!

Thanks to Robert Seddon for the contribution!

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Others, PC / MAC, Playstation, Sony

Starship Troopers [PC PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma

15-11-2010

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In 1997 / 1998 Spectrum Holobyte was working on an action game based on the Starship Troopers license, that would have been published by Microprose for PC and Playstation, but it was later cancelled. This project was really different from the 2000 released Starship Troopers game, that was instead developed by Blue Tongue. The producer of the 1998 version was named Simon Finch, who is not in the credits of the 2000 game. In 1996 Microprose / Spectrum Holobyte signed a contract with Sony over the development of several games based on Starship Troopers, but in the end only one was released.

The first in the series of four games is in development under the MicroProse brand for Windows 95 which will be followed by a Sony PlayStation game console version. […]
“As we build our merchandising program for the upcoming theatrical release of Starship Troopers, we felt it would be natural to develop a thrilling multimedia game based on this high action film,” said Scardino. “Through our new relationship with Spectrum Holobyte, we are confident that they will create an innovative game which will appeal to the consumer marketplace.”

As we can read at Economypoint:

Although the [Starship Troopers license] purchase was celebrated at that time of MicroProse as large success, MicroProse drew the enterprise downward. Mismanagement and bad firm politics affected additionally creativity and work of the developers. One had to accept larger losses than before. 1997 were temporarily stabilized the financial situation by high incomes, but they came too late, in order to still save the enterprise. The enterprise was bought up 1998 by Hasbro Interactive, which fired thereafter the flight simulation team already briefly.

It seems that Hasbro decided to cancel Spectrum Holobyte’s Starship Troopers game for economic reasons.

Thanks to derboo for the scans!

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Playstation, Sony

Pac-Man Ghost Zone [PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma

14-11-2010

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Pac-Man Ghost Zone is a cancelled platform game that was in development in 1996 by Namco Hometek for the original playstation. This would have been the first 3D Pac Man game to be released for home consoles. Ghost Zone was previewed in various old magazines and it seems that it was even shown in some form at E3, but after a while Namco decided to kill the project for quality reasons. As we can read on the Playstation Museum:

We built a playable demo and even though there was some fun gameplay, the game just never felt right. The environments all felt too much the same and it was lacking a sense of grandeur found in other games like the recently released Mario 64. Japan must of felt the same way too – when we flew to Japan and presented it to Namco president Nakamura-San, he was very displeased. As a result, almost the entire team – save 1 designer (myself), 1 programmer (Gil Colgate) and 1 artist (Neil Strudwick) – were fired and we had to start again on what eventually became Pac-Man World.”

Thanks to Celine for the scans! (GamePro #100, Console+ #78, GameInformer #53)

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Playstation, Sony

Thrasher: Skate & Destroy [PSX – Beta]

monokoma

13-11-2010

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Thrasher: Skate and Destroy is a skateboarding game developed by Z-Axis and released in 1999 for the PlayStation. Pcloadletter noticed various beta differences in some old screens and videos. Different HUD, some tricks do not register (nollie tricks especially), different start screen with 3 characters only and no multiplayer and many more.

A beta demo of Trasher: Skate and Destroy seems to have been leaked online, its a combination of the early build/hud but with the (almost) final menus. All the character photos are here with one selectable at start. You can see a short bio instead of the stats. Also one of the three levels unlocked.

As Pcloadletter has wrote in the U64 Forum:

The coolest part I found is the camera control. Pressing L2 + a direction changes views on the fly; up = overhead, right = regular chase, down = far/wide chase and left = first person. Sometimes switching on the fly will crash the demo but its interesting to play in first person at least. I’m not aware of that in the final game at all.
Its weird because many advanced tricks are available but not some of the default basics. L1 is the control for certain grinds (missing) nollie tricks (missing completely), wall rides (these work), and manuals (incomplete). Manuals do not score points or register and have glitchy animations. If you move it cancels out and will in a short time on its own regardless. So far only the nose manual will work on a downslope or landing in a pipe. L1+x is used to switch stance or revert. A difference is a missing hud logo with only a text indicator of “switch”. Also if you hold R1+L1+x you will do a unique trick where the board switches but you hold position. This was removed from final, its kind of cool even if pointless. […]
In the courthouse level itself many textures are different and the lighting seems darker or maybe its the popup. Some logos are not on ramps and there is a missing trash can from final. If you try to exit the gates (different texture from final) the menu type is weird. […]
There is also a text file on both demo and final called OPTIONS.txt. They look like they related to debug but I don’t really know. The only difference from final is the first option for ztuneDebugPrint set to NO. In final it is set to YES. The dates are 7/27/1999 and 10/20/1999. It was released 10/31/1999. I don’t know if that relates directly to the build of the game but 3 months pre-release would be believable with all the differences I noticed already. […]
Comparing the text visible in hex editor has revealed some minor differences. There is no reference to the passwords, secret character Beesuit Guy, or character stats (but all descriptions are present in final form). The memory card functions are incomplete but 1/3rd present. From some general text there appears to be a test level called “gametest” in a missing map area called “Debugville”.

Thanks to Pcloadletter for the contribution!

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