Playstation 2 (PS2)

The Big One [PS2 – Cancelled]

The Big One is a cancelled action adventure / open world sandbox game that was in development by Melbourne House for the Playstation 2 in 2004 / 2005. After releasing Transformers on the PS2, the same team got started working on Transformers 2, but after only a few months this sequel was canned:  Atari was starting to go through its financial troubles, and as a result they sold the Transformers license back to Hasbro to gain some money.

As we can read on Wiki News, Bruno Bonnell, then-head of Infogrames/Atari, had an a idea for a game that involved natural disasters and aliens having weapons that could cause earthquakes. The project was given to Melbourne House to make, that started to brainstorm different game designs and gameplay around natural disasters, while the art team went ahead and built ‘look-and-feel’ concept arts for destructed environments.  This new game was going to be based on the great  Transformers 3D engine, so the coders started updating it where necessary.

After some thoughs, they decided that the game would have followed a number of different characters in the aftermath of “The Big One”, the biggest earthquake to hit San Francisco. Similar to Raw Danger / Disaster Report 2, players would have been able to do different tasks depending on the character (one of which was a firefighter, as seen in the video below) and then the available area would open up and allow to freely explore the city (in a “Prince of Persia Sands of Time” style. to climb in and out of broken buildings) and to help more people (or leave them to die).

Melbourne House had an idea for a “karma system” based on the good / bad actions of the players and their interactions with the NPCs, but they did not have enough time to finish its design before the cancellation.  The Big One would have included physics puzzles (for example you had to use crates and rocks to stabilise a tettering bus before rescuing the driver) and heavy use of fire, water and destruction-related effects (smoke, debris, etc).

The game had potential, but sadly only an early prototype was done and the apartment level seen in the video below was just a tech / art demo that had gameplay forced on it for demonstration purpose. When Atari’s Eden studio was working on Test Drive Unlimited for the Xbox 360 launch, Atari decided that to offset the risk of the launch title, they would have Melbourne House port TDU to PS2 and PSP, instead than to keep working on a tricky project as The Big One. TBO was cancelled and TDU PS2/PSP was the last game from Melbourne House before they were bought out by Krome Studios in 2006.

Thanks to TN for the contribution!

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Hirelings [PS2 PC – Cancelled]

Hirelings is a cancelled fantasy platform game that was in development in 2000 by Cinematix Studios for the Playstation 2 and PC. As we can read on MobyGames, Cinematix was founded by Jong Yoon and Ben Cooley in 1993, and has released only two PC games: Total Mayhem (Published by Domark in 1996), and Revenant (Published by Eidos Interactive in 1999). After those titles, the studio was working on Hirelings and Renegade Zero, but neither of them was ever released. Cinematix had to close down after a while, probably for economic issues.

Thanks to derboo we were able to preserve some images from the game, found in Korean mag PC Power Zine (October 2000 issue) and from Cinematix’s old website though the Wayback Machine.

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Silent Space [XBOX/PS2/PC – Cancelled]

Silent Space (a.k.a. Space Force / Space Wars) is a cancelled Sci-fi RTS that was in development in 2001 by Crytek, originally created as a prototype for PC, but later planned for Xbox and Playstation 2 too.  This project was in the works along with Engalus (a cancelled FPS) and X-Isle (which evolved in Far Cry) in the early days of Crytek.  When the game was announced, Faruk Yerli (president of the studio) told to GameSpot that:

Currently we are in negotiation with some publishers. We know that the game would be fantastic, but you surely know that without funding no game could be finished. We believe that Silent Space could break the limits of other space games, and we will soon announce the future of all of our projects.

It seems that they never found a publisher interested in Silent Space, and the project was soon canned.

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Extreme Wakeboarding [PS2 – Cancelled]

Extreme Wakeboarding is a cancelled sport game that was in development in 2002 by Wild Child Studios for the Playstation 2. As we can read on Wikipedia, Wakeboarding is a surface water sport which involves riding a wakeboard over the surface of a body of water. The rider is usually towed behind a motorboat and the sport was developed from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. The gameplay would have been probably similar to the Tony Hawks’ skateboard games, but “on rails” as the player needs to follow the motorboat.

Extreme Wakeboarding was never released, maybe because Wild Child Studios did not find a publisher interested in the project. Sometime later the studio had to close down. Another wakeboarding game, Stomped Wakeboarding, was in development by Indie Built (aka Microsoft’s Salt Lake Games Studio) for the XBOX, but it was cancelled too.

Thanks to Userdante and Mihapsx for the contribution!

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I:5 (Insomniac) [PS2 – Cancelled]

Codename I:5 (aka “Girl with a stick”) is a cancelled game that was in development by Insomniac Games, between Spyro: Year of the Dragon (2000) and Ratchet & Clank (2002). As the name of the project suggests, it was going to be the 5th game from Insomniac studio, but after some time they decided to stop the works on it, as it was not much fun to play. I:5 was never officially announced, but  they talked about it in one of their “The Full Moon Show” video podcasts, in which they even shown some footage of the prototype. The game was meant to be an action adventure / RPG, inspired by Zelda / Tomb Raider, in wich the main character was a girl with a stick as a weapon and magic powers, exploring a fantasy /prehistoric world. Huge props to Insomniac for sharing some info on their lost game!

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