New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Internal Affairs [PC/PS2] — Cancelled

Internal Affairs was an action-driving-based game in development by Attention to Detail in 2000. Internal Affairs was designed as a 12-mission character-based driving and action game, and would have been extended with downloadable monthly episodes via broadband. Each episode would reveal a new area of Phoenix City Island and a new part of the plot, which initially concerned tracking down a group of terrorists.

Internal Affairs was self-funded entirely by the folks at Attention to Detail. While working on the game, they had a tight timeframe to quickly find a publisher to secure the game’s future. Unfortunately, two attempts to secure a publisher fell through, and Internal Affairs continued to rely on self-funding until it was deemed not commercially viable to proceed with the project. In the end, the game was cancelled. Chris Gibbs, who was involved with Internal Affairs, shared the following:

“We had two successive publishing opportunities,” recalls Chris Gibbs, ATD’s managing director. “One fell through due to the publisher folding, the next when the subsequent publisher was acquired.”

Without publisher support and with the broadband part of the game in doubt due to the slow penetration of services, ATD couldn’t wait any longer to secure a third deal, and took a paying commission instead.

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Urban Chaos [PS1/PC/Dreamcast] – Beta

Urban Chaos is a fun 3D open-world beat’em up developed by Mucky Foot Productions and released by Eidos Interactive on the PlayStation, PC and the Sega Dreamcast. Although it wasn’t originally scheduled to appear at the E3 1998 show, Eidos was so impressed with a demo they saw a few days before the show that they eventually decided to show it off to the press. Many images from E3 1998 are unfortunately lost to time, but I did manage to preserve a few that I came across in magazines. Who knows, maybe there’s more out there.

The difference between the E3 1998 demo and the final release is interesting:

  • Different map design
  • Different D’arci Stern design
  • Slightly different graphics

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Legend of Kay [PS2] – Beta

Legend of Kay is a fun 3D platformer developed by Neon Studios and published by Jowood in Europe and Capcom in America back in 2005. Little is known about how the Legend of Kay looked early on or what the early codename of the game was. But, you’re in luck because I found some material. Legend of Kay was initially known as Project K. In my mini-interview, the game was pitched by Anthony Christoulakis, who wanted to make a platformer centred around a cat character. Eventually, his coworkers at Neon Studios liked the idea, and the project began development in late 2001.

Below, you get to see a glimpse of early footage of Legend of Kay. Enjoy:

Differences:

  • Different HP and Magic HUD
  • Gorillas have a different armour
  • Kay’s render here is the same as the one used in the DS game
  • Different stamina HUD when swimming
  • Different currency icon
  • Slightly bigger bomb icon
  • The weapons icon is not present in the final game
  • Kay wears a different outfit in early renders
  • Shun doesn’t wear his red cape. The armour is also slightly different

Videos:

In this video, you can see some of the pre-production sketches of Legend of Kay.

Stolen [PS2/Xbox/PC] – Beta

Stolen is an obscure stealth game developed by Blue52 and published by Hip Games. The game was originally intended as a PlayStation 2 exclusive, but Sony abandoned the project. Blue52 eventually found a publisher, and the game was released in 2005 for the PS2, Xbox and PC.

Before the game’s release, it went through several changes, which I’ll demonstrate below. From the build dated April 5th,2004, we can observe the following differences:

  • Different HUD (HP, Map, Visibility Meter)
  • Different Gadget Icon

Whereas in the July 26, 2004 build, the only differences I noticed are the following:

  • Different HUD (closer to the final release layout)
  • Different suspicion music (it sounds like a soft version of the final release)

April 2004 Build

July 2004 Build

Early Concept Artwork

Anya Romanov, the game’s protagonist, went through several iterations along with Breeze, the game’s main villain. Below, we can observe some of the early sketches:

Videos

This trailer of the game is important to note because it shows the following:

  • Different HUD (similar to the July 2004 build)
  • A special take-down technique by Anya that isn’t present in the final game
  • Breeze is wearing a different suit

Article not yet finished.

Spawn: Armageddon [PS2/Xbox/GameCube] – Beta

Spawn: Armageddon is a relatively fun action-adventure game based on Todd McFarlane’s iconic Spawn comic book. The game adapts from issues 1 to 99 of the Spawn comic book series. However, before the game’s final release, we can notice a few differences from the E3 2003 preview trailer of the game.

The differences are as follows:

  • Different HUD (Guns, Necroplasm, HP)
  • Different healing pick-up up icons
  • Different Spawn attacks
  • Different gun sfx
  • Guns make some enemies float in the air (similar to DMC 2)
  • Visuals are slightly different

Videos:

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