Our reader Ceno has helped us to identify some previusly supposed cancelled games, that where released under different names: “Dawn Of Darkness” was released in Europe as “Last Rites” for MS-DOS PC. Thanks a lot to Ceno for these infos!
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Propeller Arena: Aviation Battle Championship, had to be one of those titles that would show the potential of the Dreamcast, a console for online gaming. The plot was simple: in 2045, would set up a championship fights between aircraft of the Second World War. The game included a Championship mode, where by choosing one of the playable characters, you could face the fighting and move forward in history, a quick battles, where you could challenge a friend (up to 4 split screen) or the computer, and an online mode, true essence of the game.
In fact, Propeller Arena promised exciting multiplayer battles on public game servers, in which players communicate through a microphone (which is rumored to have been integrated in the packaging of the game) or the keyboard. Unfortunately, this promising game was postponed and then canceled, for several reasons.
For some, the failure of the Dreamcast just around the corner, SEGA thought this game would have earned enough and the gate, while for others the real reason was another
A level of the game, titled Tower Stage, saw aerial combat in the middle of a city of palaces, with the planes which crashed on the latter. According to some, this level was too much like the attack of September 11th (which had just happened to coincide with the launch of the game, scheduled for November 2001) and it was this stage that caused the downfall of the game, however, the various P2P networks, You can find the disk image of Propeller Arena, a pre-release dump from someone.
Thanks to minichapman for the translation!
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More info: http://propellerarena.gametribute.com
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Propeller Arena Trailer
When the new Game Boy Advance was announced, Nintendo shown a Yoshi’s Story tech demo, to promote the power of the console. The demo looked almost as nice as the N64’s Version, but sadly it was never developed into an full game. After some years, a rom of the Yoshi’s Story GBA tech demo was leaked thanks to one guy from Youtube (josdog6): the ROM has no sound or music, it will start with a 3D “yoshi’s island” spinning on the screen, while the gameplay is basically an endless level, just to show the graphics (of course). You have eggs, but you can’t shoot them, if you hold start, an egg will appears in the left of the screen. Select button will remove your health bar. When yoshi dies, you’ll see the same animation from the N64 version, with yoshi deported into the castle.
[spoiler /portuguese version/ /hide the portuguese version/]
Quando o video-game chamado Game Boy Advance foi mostrado pela Nintendo, Nintendo estava planejando Yoshi’s Story para seu video-game…
Basicamente é isso… Quando o yoshi desmaiar, vai aparecer o castelo da versão de nintendo 64… [/spoiler]
Thanks to gabrielwoj for the contribution!
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World Reborn is a cancelled 2d shooter developed by Neopong. In a 2008 post at the now defunct workingdesignsmb board, one of the developers explained why the project was shelved:
[…]Basically because the first publisher contact liked our basic demo (and boy did it look primitive by comparison) and thought it had some promise, they got us officially licensed for the GBA. That publisher seemed to undergo some kind of massive corporate restructuring and our contact there vanished in the process. We were offered a pretty raw deal (less than 30% royalties down from 50% royalties on a completed game) and went our separate ways. As a result of that licensure, though, we were able to bid on GBA projects successfully and eventually netted our first real contracted work with another publisher. Also after the GBA licensure, we were somehow able to get immediately approved for all future Nintendo consoles (the people at Nintendo were great to work with). Several other publishers expressed interest in World Reborn, but none of them ever panned out in the end.[…]
Interestingly, he also talked about more unreleased games:
What I hate even more is that we never got to finish World Reborn 2 (DS game) or Project DA (which we have a very early town engine prototype for, I’ll be putting it up soon too).
At the end, Neopong decided to release the game on their website:
My partners and I have finally completely given up on the ability to get this game out in some form or fashion (DS/Wii remake, Cellphone version, etc…), so rather than let it never see the light of day or be played by anyone, we’ve decided to just make it freely available for download.[…]
Unfortunately, Neopong site doesn’t work anymore, but the rom can be still easily found through a google search. If you are a collector, you can also buy an official release cart of World Reborn for GBA thanks to Piko Interactive!
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The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar revealed many of the game’s original settings and action that were cut down or removed entirely from the final game. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a far darker game where the Combine were more obviously draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky gases. Promotional shots and gameplay videos released before the game became available showed parts of these scenes, and also showed enemies that do not appear anywhere in the final game, such as the “Hydra,” a massive, gelatinous, translucent, neon-blue creature that lived in the sewers. It was planned as a massive bulk far below the city with tentacles that would reach up and spear through enemies, including Combine soldiers. The Hydra was apparently cut because its AI proved troublesome: while impressive when attacking NPCs, it was less interesting, and more frustrating for players to fight, and was also difficult to code.
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Other enemies cut from the game included Combine assassins (their AI was salvaged to form the Fast Zombie; they were females, very similar in attitude to the Half-Life black ops; they are included in Half-Life 2: Survivor), a newly skinned bullsquid, houndeyes, various Synths and Combine soldiers. There was also a planned creature called the Cremator who would clean the streets of bodies after a skirmish with a massive acid gun called an Immolator, which would double as an offensive weapon when the Cremator would become an enemy. The Cremator’s head would eventually be featured in Eli’s lab in Black Mesa East, encased in a jar of formaldehyde, which Eli will make comments about when the player nears the jar and views it.
The game was originally intended to be much more diverse in settings (to the extent that the game felt almost overblown, and little time being spent on developing existing characters; one of the key reasons for it being cut). Parts of the book detail how Gordon would fight alongside characters such as Odessa Cubbage, albeit under a different name and in a different place, as well as fighting together with Colonel Vance – a character that was later merged with Eli to become Doctor Eli Vance – and Vance’s forces. Originally, Eli and Alyx Vance had no relation, and Eli’s lab was originally intended to resemble a form of scrapyard and town in a cave than a better equipped laboratory within a hydroelectric power station; the scrapyard area where the Gravity Gun tutorial takes place resembles the original concept; being an auxiliary area as opposed to the bulk of the lab. The Citadel also looked very different, it was more round than the bulky Citadel from the final version.
Other cuts from the game included a drivable jetski, which was eventually replaced by the airboat in the final game because it was too much like running around on foot. Another vehicle to be included was what looked like a large mining device, to be used in Ravenholm. Also, many weapons were cut.
The E3 video “Traptown” shows that at some point in the game’s development it was also possible to shoot any gun while using the HEV suit’s zoom function and that the player could discard weapons, indicating they could only carry a specified amount of firearms at a time. Traptown was to be a section of the Ravenholm chapter. It seems to share some similarities with a section from the Ravenholm chapter from the released version of Half-Life 2, mostly the setting of the section. The trailer also showed the ability of Combine enemies to try to break down doors, which did not make it in the final release.
This is thought to be a scripted sequence for the E³ video. At the end of the video, the player shoots an explosive barrel that was behind an old car, which made the car explode and jump into a nearby zombie. This wasn’t possible in the final version, although there is a roadblock in the Highway 17 chapter of the finished game where the player does something similar to a barrel-toting truck. Also, Ravenholm (or probably only the Traptown section) featured both Combine soldiers and zombies in its beta stage, as well as Father Grigori, which, according to Raising The Bar and the leaked sound files, was to be tougher and less humorous.
Initially a small mining town called Quarrytown, which was more of a puzzle solving section of Half-Life 2, with zombies added as the town’s pests, Valve liked the idea of having a town full of zombies, so Quarrytown eventually became a big town, which was full of traps, made by Father Grigori, the town’s priest and only remaining survivor. The E3 video, Traptown, featured both Combine Soldiers and zombies, the soldiers being added probably because Valve thought that the video wouldn’t have been as interesting only with the zombies, which are slow and easy to kill.
It remains unknown if most of the cut Half-Life 2 scenes will eventually be completed and released, or if they are lost forever. A removed section of the original Half-Life was eventually released as the Half-Life: Uplink demo; a similar situation was in place with the HDR technology demo, Lost Coast, which was based on a scene that was cut from the sequel. It is possible or even likely that more removed sections of HL2 will be seen in future expansion packs, as Half-Life 2: Episode One didn’t contain any of the aforementioned content. There’s a possibility that Kraken Base might be in the further episodes of Half-Life 2 because Doctor Judith Mossman is only seen in Episode One on a monitor in the Citadel reporting from an Arctic base. This might mean that Kraken Base (possibly under a different name) is being put back into the storyline.
Episode Two includes areas of gameplay based around the “Antlion hive” areas cut from Half-Life 2, and the presence of the cut “Antlion King”, now renamed to be an ‘Antlion guardian’. Episode Two also makes references to the Borealis icebreaker that was cut from Half Life 2, a research vessel revealed to have been created by Aperture Science for some unknown purpose. It is likely that players will explore the Borealis and related arctic base in Episode Three.
Info from wikipedia: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_cut_from_Half-Life_2
Two very similar prototypes were leaked months before the game came out. Obscene amounts of Half Life 2 development data have slipped out of Valve’s grasp and can easily be found on the internet. This includes concept art, sound files, models and countless maps. Thanks to this we can see just about every change ever made to Half Life 2. To read about its original story and see pictures not featured here check out Half Life Wikia.
A mod for HL2, know as “Missing Informations” add some of the beta / unused stuff back in the game. You can download it in here. Some videos with unused models and beta stuff can be found at HL202 Youtube Channel!
Chris put together a site where anyone can download the Leak, patches, WC Mappack and more: http://hl2betapage.webs.com/
Thanks to D-vide, Nastykill, Megalol and discworld for the contributions!
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