New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Dreamcast, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation, Sega, Sony

Soul Reaver (Shifter) [ PSX / PC / DC ] Beta / Debug / Unused Stuff]

Gh0stBlade
15-06-2009
3 Comments

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a third-person adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos. It was released for the PlayStation and PC in 1999 and for the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. Soul Reaver entered development alongside Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain in 1997 and focused on puzzle solving instead of Blood Omen 2’s action.

Initially, the game was set to be released October 1998. The secondary release date was then made January 1999. Due to the game still remaining unfinished. It was granted a final delay of approximately 7 months which then, the game went gold in July 1999 and subsequently got released August 1999.

Unfortunately, these delays occurred because the game wasn’t progressing quickly enough in terms of asset creation to fulfill their original vision for Soul Reaver. Several interviews suggested the designers noticed they had an overly designed game thus had no option but to remove certain areas of the game.

Some removed areas are known as:

  • Under City
  • “Turel’s Territory”(Must confirm the exact name)
  • Mountain Retreat

Amy Hennig stated that the development team split the original, much larger plans in two after realizing that they had “over-designed the game”. This decision explains Soul Reaver’s cliffhanger ending and the appearance of originally planned material in later games. Despite the split, Hennig explained that the team left unused components in Soul Reaver’s game engine to avoid unforeseen glitches that might have arisen from their removal. [Infos from Wikipedia] This is why certain reavers are accessible even though they are not actually obtainable on the retail version.

As we can read in this interesting article from The Lost Worlds, many items, weapons and areas were removed / not used in the final game, as the Amplified Force Projectile & Possession abilities, The Amplified Reaver and The Ariel Reaver weapons, Five additional Reaver upgrades and the The Mountain Retreat area. You should check the Lost Worlds article for more informations, it’s really well done!

Thanks to John Doom for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

Alpha: July 1998

Alpha: January 1999

Beta: 12th May 1999

Beta: 28th June 1999

Others, PC / MAC, Playstation, Sony

Blood Bowl [PSX/PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
14-06-2009
No Comments

Blood Bowl is a cancelled sport / action game that was in development by Psygnosis for the original Playstation and PC in 1998. The gameplay could have been something like Speedball or Mutant League Football. The project was stopped when the company went into financial troubles, before being bought out by Sony. It’s interesting to notice that Psygnosis’ Blood Bowl was probably based on the board game of the same name and two other Blood Bowl games were released by other companies in 1995 and 2009.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:


GameCube, Microsoft, Nintendo, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Wreck’n Krew [XBOX / GC / PS2 – Cancelled]

monokoma
14-06-2009
No Comments

Wreck’n Krew was an action game that was in development at DarkBlack for the GameCube, Playstation 2 and XBOX. As we can read from the original press release the game was a highly explosive arcade blast fest, that mixed Blast Corps, Power Stone and Bomber Man. The player would had take the role of a team of demolition experts hired to take on dangerous and dirty jobs, to destroy everything in the level but have to complete certain mission-based tasks within a time limit in order to unlock hidden areas, special characters, and the next location waiting to be ripped apart.

It seems that the developers had to closed down, maybe because they did not find a publisher interested in their projects (this game and Asylum) and so Wreck’n Krew was cancelled. (And no, i dont know why one of the characters looks like Gary Coleman.)

Images:

Leaked, Unseen News

RS Links: removed C&C Generals level released after 6 years

monokoma
13-06-2009
No Comments

generalsblacksheepscreen1sm

Robert Seddon linked us to this article on Kotaku, in which they talk about a removed level from Command & Conquer Generals, a RTS game that was released in 2003.

Called “Black Sheep”, the mission tasks you with driving one of the Global Liberation Army (ie the terrorist faction) chemical weapons vehicles around a “town that had been corrupted beyond salvation by the USA’s propaganda”.

Coming at the height of the WAR ON TERROR, EA decided back in 2003 that such a mission may have been a little much, and cut it from the game when it shipped.

In march 2009 the developers decided that it was time to let it go, and the removed Black Sheep level was finally released as a download from the official C&C website! As we can read from there:

In celebration of the sixth anniversary of the award-winning real-time strategy classic Command & Conquer Generals, we are releasing an exclusive gift to Command & Conquer fans — the lost mission of Command & Conquer Generals. The never-before-seen and controversial Global Liberation Army mission was not included in the game’s original 2003 release and has been hidden and securely stored away in a secret location at our EA Los Angeles development studio until today. Command & Conquer, download the mission Black Sheep for free and unleash their inner General.

Black Sheep was originally slated to be the third mission in the Global Liberation Army campaign where players were given command of the Toxin Tractor, a slow-going farm vehicle modified to spray a deadly corrosive agent, and ordered to eliminate the town that had been corrupted beyond salvation by the USA’s propaganda. While the mission was ultimately removed from Generals, the Toxin Tractor was available in other campaign missions, as well as in multiplayer and skirmish modes.

Huge props to EA!