Playstation 2 (PS2)

Gran Turismo 2000 [PS2 – Beta]

Gran Turismo 2000 is a very early tech demo build of Gran Turismo 3: A-spec with up-dated graphics from Gran Turismo 2. It features one drivable car, the Mitsubishi Evolution V GSR ’98, and only one track, the Seattle Circuit. With a time limit of only 2 minutes, you won’t have much time to look at the picturesque sunset. Gran Turismo 2000 is considered very rare and and is a valuable game.

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Starcraft Ghost [XBOX/PS2/GC – Cancelled]

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StarCraft: Ghost is a military science fiction stealth-action video game under suspended development by Blizzard Entertainment. Part of Blizzard’s StarCraft series, the game was announced in 2002 and was to be developed by Nihilistic Software for the Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 video game consoles. Several delays in development caused Blizzard to move back the release date and the game has not yet materialized.

Nihilistic Software ceded development to Swingin’ Ape Studios in 2004 before Blizzard bought the company, and plans for the GameCube version were canceled in 2005. Blizzard announced in March 2006 that the game is on “indefinite hold” while the company investigated seventh generation video game console possibilities. Subsequent public statements from company personnel have been contradictory about whether production will be renewed or planned story elements will be worked into other products.

Unlike its real-time strategy predecessor StarCraft, Ghost is a third-person shooter, and was intended to give players a closer and more personal view of the StarCraft universe. Following Nova, a Terran psychic espionage operative called a “ghost”, the game is set four years after the conclusion of StarCraft: Brood War and covers a conspiracy about a secretive military project conducted by Nova’s superiors in the imperial Terran Dominion. Very little of the game’s storyline has been released; however, in November 2006 after the game’s postponement, a novel was published called StarCraft Ghost: Nova which covers the backstory of the central character. [info from wikipedia]

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The Last Ninja 4 [XBOX/PS2 – Unreleased]

In 1993, John Wells, created a series of previews, music and a map for one level of a fourth game which he tried to convince System 3 to make. System 3 turned him down. Many years later, probably around 1999, the idea was rekindled. Originally set for an early 2004 release, the game was shown at the E3 2003 Expo in Los Angeles, but has since been delayed. Released screenshots showed a game looking very similar to Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden, also in development at the time (released in early 2004).

The game has also been said to be cancelled at least twice, only to return to development, and the development company (still System 3) does not seem to give much information in regard to the development status. Current rumours surrounding the status of the project indicate it has again been canceled. – [Info from Wikipedia]

[Thanks to Andy Lindfeldt for these screenshots!]

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Orchid [XBOX/PS2 – Cancelled]

Orchid was an Action Adventure / Beat ’em Up that was in development by Argonaut Games and would have been published by Namco for the original Xbox and  Playstation 2. The project started with a cell shaded  graphic design and the gameplay was pretty nice from what we can see in the videos below, but two months before the game was cancelled the developers were asked to make it look more “realistic”. The whole team worked a lot and tried their best to change the game, but unfortunatly in the end Orchid was never released.

Thanks a lot to Franck for the contribution!

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The Lost [XBOX/PS2 – Cancelled]

The Lost was an action adventure/survival horror game co-developed by Irrational Games (the makers of Bioshock) and FXLabs. Set to be released in 2002 for the Playstation 2 and Xbox game consoles, The Lost went through several phases of development hell until it was cancelled.

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The Lost was heavily inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, particularly Inferno. The setting was present day, and the main character was a waitress/medical student named Amanda Wright. Amanda was a single mother who has lost her only daughter, Beatrice, in a tragic car accident. Desperate and suicidal, Amanda made a deal with the devil. Selling her soul, she was given the chance to plunge into the bowels of a concentration camp-esque hell in an attempt to rescue her daughter’s soul. The only aids she had in the bowels of hell are Virgil, a strange reptilian creature who Amanda must free from an enchanted sword, and four hellish beings called the Entities.

Each Entity was playable, with their own special abilities.

* Shadow: A thief-like character, Shadow specializes in stealth and deception.
* Light: Adept in defensive spell-casting, Light can also provide healing spells.
* Corruption: An emaciated mage that performs powerful, offensive spells.
* Instinct: A sword-wielding character that is best used in close combat.

The Lost’s development period had always been relatively rocky. Playable models of the game had been described as unstable, with a jittery framerate. The developer chose to retool the graphics engine in mid-development. Also, Crave Entertainment changed The Lost’s traditional publishing model to a budget game model. Eventually, legal problems amassed, and the completed game was canceled.

In March 2008 it was reported that all development and rights to The Lost was acquired by FXLabs, who later released the game for Windows PCs in India under the title Agni: Queen of Darkness. Agni is thought to feature redone art but keeps basic plot and gameplay elements intact. [Info from Wikipedia]

Chentzilla has gave us some more informations about these The Lost /Agni connections: “There are 4 characters in Agni (plus some more whom the heroine carries within her, but they are not playable). They look different from the ones in The Lost, but have similar abilities. Many other aspects of the prototype are also there, like Irrational’s trademark cameras and turrets (though the design is also different from ‘normal’ turrets and cameras, and from what we have seen in the beta videos as well).

Some things that were promised were cut, like the ability to spend skill points at will, but I actually think that a good thing – sometimes it’s better to simplify the game. Much worse are bugs in scripting – you can simply get stuck in several places, forced to reload an earlier checkpoint (yes, the save system is checkpoints-only). It’s possible that some of the ideas of The Lost ended up in BioShock too.

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A comparison video for Shadow/Ghayab character in The Lost/Agni (published as Inferno in Russia).