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Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Totems (10Tacle Studios) [Cancelled – Xbox 360, PC]

U64 Staff & Contributors
13-12-2022
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Totems is a canceled action/platformer game developed by 10Tacle Studios Belgium (formerly elseWhere Entertainment) for 10Tacle Studios, from 2005 to 2008, for the PC and Xbox 360.

Made by former developers of the game Outcast, Totems was an action/adventure game mixing modern day world events with the fantasy of native American religion where the player controls Gia, a parkour expert, who inherits various powers from four different animal totem spirits.

The game was revealed a day before the Leipzig’s Game Convention 2007 as we can read on Gamesindustry:

“Darmstadt, August 22nd 2007 – Today 10TACLE STUDIOS AG and 10TACLE STUDIOS BELGIUM officially announce the development of TOTEMS for PC and Xbox 360.

Inspired by the urban sport “Le Parkour“, TOTEMS is a super-heroic platform game with tactical elements that let the player magically transform the world and story to their own style and skill. This third-person 3D action adventure offers non-linear gameplay in a highly interactive environment and is designed to be accessible to the widest audience while offering depth for the core gamers. The player character as well as the enemy is able to use the environment to full extent thanks to the innovative Semantic Environment Sensing System (SESS). Super-heroic movement and combat come alive in a never seen before manner. The Belgian developer’s proprietary NeoReality Engine sets new standards for next-gen platforms and provides an unparalleled atmosphere and experience. Based on an elaborate and original mythology, TOTEMS offers an exciting new world to explore.”

“The PC and Xbox 360 release is scheduled for 2008.”

It was showed during the convention in which Gamespot managed to write a preview:

(…) Gia’s expertise in parkour comes from one of the four totem spirits whose powers she’s able to use. Her agility comes from the monkey spirit, her speed comes from the cheetah spirit, and her combat skills come from the bear spirit. We weren’t told what powers the songbird spirit will afford you, except that they have something to do with creativity. Interestingly, each of the four spirits is mapped to a different face button on the Xbox 360 controller, and so each button can be used to perform a massive number of different moves depending on the context in which you press it.

Using only the monkey button during our presentation, the player was able to navigate a number of different obstacles, including high walls, columns, wide gaps, and narrow ledges. The animation was seamless, and the one-button control system is purportedly possible because of how aware Gia and other characters in Totems are of their surroundings. This was demonstrated to us in a number of different ways. When slowly moving toward the corner of a rooftop, for example, Gia automatically stopped and leaned over the edge to look down, and when left standing idle next to a low wall, she casually brushed her hand along the top of it.

The anthropomorphic tigers that attacked Gia at one point were also very aware of the geometry around them, and were incorporating parkour-style wall jumps and the like into some of their own combat moves. Like Gia’s, their moves were occasionally superhuman, including cat leaps and muscle-ups worthy of the Agency operatives in Crackdown(…).

Unfortunately, nearly one year after it’s announcement, 10Tacle Studios filed for bankruptcy in the beginning of August 2008, shutting down 10Tacle Studios Belgium and cancelling every projects within the studio. We learned via Planet-Adelpha that the development was stopped in March of the same year and that the team had decided to make a similar game using the technology initially created for Totems with Urban Race, also canceled:

“10Tacle AG is in a big financial crisis and it is not over yet. Here at elseWhere Entertainment it has been 6 months since they don’t pay us. The company took on its personal cash and contracted debts in order to keep paying the employees until 2 months ago (since June in fact). So it has been two months since we’re not paid which is a difficult situation for everyone here and Yves Grolet had to take a decision, we couldn’t wait much longer for the money of 10Tacle. So Yves decided to close the studios.”

“From the business and development point of view, Totems was paused (heavy) end of March due to cash issues of 10Tacle, we were doing the vertical slice demo. We had quite a lot of things to show and positive feedbacks. I guess you saw the problem with Michele Pes and stuff, 10Tacle AG suffered quite a lot due to Elveon cancel, Totems being late and more over wrong investments here and there. So 10Tacle was out of cash, without a CEO and investors were not happy at all. With the new CEO, investors decided to change company’s orientation, focusing only on online games and online worlds, they had already a project in mind. So for the team the last 6 months were quite depressing and there was a lot of uncertainties, some people left the company.”

“In the meantime as we saw that the financial situation was becoming critical at 10Tacle AG, the company decided to create a small spin off project based on what’ve being doing on Totems for 3 years, we worked on a project called Urban Race, a multiplayer parkour game yet very different from an esthetic point of view but really the same movement engine behind Totems.”

After that, several former developers returned to Appeal Studios, including former CEO Yves Grolet, currently developing Outcast 2: A New Beginning for THQ Nordic.

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Microsoft, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Cipher Complex [X360/PS3 – Cancelled]

monokoma
09-12-2022
2 Comments

Cipher Complex is a canceled stealth/action game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, alongside a potential PC version, developed by Edge of Reality and published by Sega, from 2005 to 2009. The game was officially revealed in June 2006 by it’s developer where the plot emerged:

“Cipher Complex is an intense, cinematic military combat game that will deliver a brutal shot of adrenaline straight to the hearts of next-generation gamers.

U.S. surveillance satellites detect activity onboard the decommissioned Soviet Bargration Missile Defense Station 4 off the east coast of Siberia. When the Russians deny the U.S. access to the facility, Department of Defense strategists suggest that a small, plausibly deniable reconnaissance mission be sent in to investigate. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is given the go-ahead for operation BLACKOUT, the insertion of a single expert Operator on Russian WMDs and launch facilities. Lt. Col. John Sullivan, callsign: Cipher is air dropped in, and what was supposed to be primarily a reconnaisance mission becomes a race against a terrorist threat; one with implications that will shake the foundations of American democracy and freedoms.”

After it’s revelation, however, little was shown in the press except that in 2008, a deal was signed with “an important publisher“. Unfortunately, in January 2009, as Gamespot pointed out, it appeared that the publisher was Sega, but that they also took the decision to cancel the game without statements:

“As spotted by the increasingly prolific Superannuation, the LinkedIn profile of a former Edge of Reality producer indicates that Sega pulled the plug on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game earlier this year. “Producer for Cipher Complex that was canceled by Sega,” reads the job description of Rob Brown, who served on the project from July 2008 to January 2009.

Oddly, if Cipher Complex has been canceled, Sega and Edge of Reality have made no outward signs of saying so. The game’s Web site remains wholly intact, if devoid of content, and the developer’s Web site continues to promote the project.”

It is still unclear what caused it’s cancellation, even if some people speculated that the 2008 economic crisis was the main reason.

In June 2010, a 10 minutes gameplay video was leaked onto the internet, showing the main character carries out various actions with speed, precision, strength and cunning stealth to neutralize enemies. Under that same video, in the commentaries section, Voice-Over talent Anthony Mendez answered back in 2016 to someone:

“I did the voiceover for the main character. This was simply a vertical slice to demonstrate the approach and some of the characters, etc. (…) With that said, the approach to stealth was ahead of its time – Arkham Knight uses this (albeit much more developed) but I’m sure if they had the opportunity, they would have finished a nice game.”

After it’s cancellation, Edge of Reality managed to make their own self-published new IP in 2014 with Free-To-Play multiplayer third-person shooter Loadout, which shutted down in 2018, the same year during Edge of Reality closed down their offices. Still in 2018, a prototype from March 2009 leaked onto the internet before being made publicly available for download in May 2020.

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PC / MAC, Xbox

Arcturus (BlueInca Studios) [XBOX, PC – Cancelled]

Todd_the_Toad
29-08-2022
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Arcturus is the name of a galaxy revolving around one of the brightest stars, and at the same time the game from BlueInca Studios, laid on its stocks in the summer of 2001.

The plot told how two alien races, when colonizing the aforementioned galaxy, unexpectedly discovered the existence of each other. Humanity was not in the game, but both races behaved in a very human way: instead of solving the matter peacefully, they started a fight.

In the distant future, a war between the Lumerans and the Xizons rages on.
You play Torah and can choose as either faction and lead them to victory in campaign missions.
Victory will mean more resources to build your ships and better your people.

The Lumerans are the weaker outnumbered faction but they have powerful abilities.
The Xizons are the militaristic faction with ambitions of conquest.

Military operations in Arcturus were supposed to proceed as follows: the attacking side sends a flotilla of fighters to the enemy’s planet, smashes enemy aircraft, and then moves on to the next territory – and so on until they capture the enemy’s capital. Battles in space were absent as a class – apparently, the aliens took care of the fleet as a memory.

Thus, the player played two roles. In the role of the so-called Leader, he was directly involved in battles. The accompanying equipment also fought with him. The authors promised a wide range of weapons, from miniature fighters to huge dreadnoughts.

The game was unique in that you move ships around in third-person like an RTS.
Different ships to order around include gas collectors, patrol ships, and unit carriers.
During combat you play from a first-person perspective.

There was to be sixteen single-player non-linear campaign missions (8 for each faction?).
There was also going to be deathmatch multiplayer, likely online play.

Between battles, the player was engaged in the development of his race, organizing the extraction of resources on controlled planets, conducted research and formed detachments, which then accompanied him in battle. In short, the idea was original, but it seems that the developers themselves did not fully understand how to bring it all to life. Arcturus stayed afloat for just over a year, and then added himself to the plaque of canceled projects.

In 2004 development was halted due to funding difficulties.
In 2005 the website removed the message about financial trouble but remained dormant.
Arcturus and BlueInca faded away.

Some information is taken from «Игромания» magazine, 03 (114) 2007, and https://unreleasedgames.miraheze.org/ website. 

PC / MAC

Hardwired [PC – Cancelled]

IGOR
18-07-2022
2 Comments

Hardwired from Novalogic was about postapocalyptic world filled with smugglers and gangs in Mad Max style. Player will be in role of a smuggler that will transport various goods on the black martket from zone to zone. Police or pirates will try to prevent player from doing it, so for the player will be important in what condition is players vehicle, known as Panzer, a mix between hovercratf and tank. After succesfull mission payment is done and player will be able to upgrade its hovercraft.

Game was going to be made after a cult novel of the same name, Hardwired, by Walter Jon Williams from 1986.

Novalogic set up a new studio in London to develop Hardwired.
Game was sadly cancelled mainly because
Wired magazine started a lawsuit against developers , where name Wired was the main concern. More info is on a screenshot in gallery of an article from 1997.


Only a few beaufiful concept art screens now remain from this interesting game.