Colosseum: Road to Freedom (aka Gladiator: Road to Freedom in Japan) is an action game developed by Ertain and published by Koei in 2005 for the Playstation 2. The uncut / beta version is a different enough game that it could be probably be considered the equivalent of a “director’s cut”. Aside from the slave trade mode missing, it’s an overall MUCH more polished and satisfying game to play all around and certainly a LOT less frustrating.

There is actually a “Retry?” option available for boss battles that lets you replay the fight several times if you lose. You do not instantly lose all of your items and half your money if you continue as you do in the release version. It is baffling as to why this feature was removed as it lets you “scout” out the boss and if you lose you will be able to prepare yourself better to fight him/her the next time around.

The uncut / beta version contains a “Gore” option that can be turned on or off. When turned on, body parts can be hacked off during battle and go flying across the screen. Severed heads can be used as handheld weapons, thrown, or kicked across the ground at opponents. Legs get hacked off and enemies fall down in severe pain. It adds a lot of fun and realism to the gameplay, and of course better portrays the brutal nature of what was gladiator combat. Body parts can also be carried out after a fight and sold to the merchant for a very large amount of money, so much in fact that you can buy any armor you could possibly want and the extra money allows you to upgrade your armors exactly how you want them.

I don’t know quite what happened between the two versions, but so many things were changed around and removed for worse in the release version and I feel the game suffered because of it. It almost seems to me as if the game producers / developers had conflicting concepts of how they wanted the game to be, and the release version we know won in the end.

Thanks a lot to DeusFlux for the info and the video!

Videos:

Others, PC / MAC, Playstation, Sony

Powerslave 2 (Exhumed 2) [Cancelled – Playstation, PC]

Celine

15-08-2011

6 Comments

Powerslave 2 (AKA Exhumed 2) is a cancelled game that was in development for playstation and PC, set in ancient Egypt, thousands of years before the original title. At the start of Powerslave 2, Ra ( the sun god) disappears causing a permanent solar eclipse on the land. It turns out that he has been abducted by one of his arch-rivals, and its your duty to rescue him and return light to the world. As a young egyptian warrior you must seek out various egyptian gods and attempt to gain their super natural powers, in order to ultimately challenge and defeat Ra’s rival.

Contrary to the first Powerslave (a FPS) the sequel was meant to be a third person action game, even less linear than the first episode. Developed by original creator Lobotomy Software, the game was probably cancelled when the studios was acquired by Crave Entertainment in early 1998.

Images from GameFan 5-10

Images:

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

Crash Bandicoot: Landed (2010) [Cancelled – Xbox 360 / PS3 / Wii / DS]

U64 Staff & Contributors

25-07-2011

17 Comments

Crash Bandicoot: Landed 2010 is a cancelled game in the Crash Bandicoot series, which wasn’t even officially announced but some info leaked from the people who worked it. These info were soon removed from their websites: Crash 2010 was meant to be a 3d Adventure / Action game in developement by Radical Entertainment. It was cancelled due to layoffs by Activision in February 2010.

Many information were leaked after the cancellation but left unnoticed until August 2010, when they were found by some users in the Crash Mania Forums. There is a short gameplay / cgi footage and also some concept art. Crash Mania members made a petition to make activision continue working on the game but it was unsuccessful, partially due to abuse of the petition (ie. obvious sockpuppetry). A new petition has been started, and has so far not suffered these problems.

Recently, an fx demo was leaked by someone as a demo reel video. The owner of the reel video said that game would not be continued because of Activision. When the fans added the video to Youtube, Activision started removing them but many of these are still available.

Console Game!
Crash Bandicoot 2010 (Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii)
Design and implementation of character locomotion and weapon/combat using proprietary software
Open World Mission Design
Game Systems Design Documentation
Weapons/Tools
Interface
Game Economy
Boss design

Another video with items was found, in which we can see some interesting stuff about the canceled game!

Frogzooka [Suck]
Boombat [Blow… Away]
Glow Top [Stun/Light]
Fertilizer Gun [Shoot]
Bottle Rocket-Launcher [Ending/Surf]
Jet pack
Jet ski

Post by MotweraCity

Videos:

DS Footage (Developed by Renegade Kid):

Pictures video for similar visually done game (CTR 2010):

Also Effects Video in this link: http://landinkent.blogspot.com/p/game-fx.html

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Cold Fear [Beta – XBOX PS2 PC]

U64 Staff & Contributors

25-07-2011

3 Comments

Cold Fear is a 3rd person shooter horror title developed for the PS2, Xbox, and PC. Developed by DarkWorks, published by Ubisoft and released in 2005.

Development:

Cold Fear didn’t start as a horror title, based on information and speculation, darkworks was working on several new projects with several publishing and developing houses. In 2003 when DarkWorks was working with Capcom thier project: Lost Mantis/USS Antarctica was canned. In 2004 DarkWorks worked with Namco U.S. on a new title. The game was Time Crysis Adventure. However the game, much like Lost Mantis, was canned, but not before Ubisoft stepped in and took over the project. TC: Adventure evolved into the game Cold Fear. There are several Concept Art images that remain of Time Crysis: Adventure. You can view the Concept Art below:

Alpha Stage:

Prior to the games release Cold Fear orignally looked more detailed and gritty. The enviroments showcased in these screenshots are different in the final version – similar but different. The main chracter in this build was not from the USCG (United States Coast Guard) but part of the Navy Seals and was involved in the operation that invaded the russian ship at the begining of the game. (CLICK TO ENLARGE THE SCREENSHOTS)

Tom Hansen Background

In the alpha build, Tom Hansen was a 29 year old captain of the navy seals – he wasn’t part of the USCG (United States Coast Guard). It can be assumed that – much like the final version – the navy seals was wiped out. Making Tom Hansen the last survivor on the russian ship. It’s possible that Tom was the leader of that Navy Seal group.

Nintendo, Wii

Bit.Trip Series [WiiWare – Unused Stuff]

U64 Staff & Contributors

20-07-2011

No Comments

Bit.Trip is a series of action / music games that has been released on Wiiware download service for the Nintendo Wii. The series has been started in 2009 and finished in 2011. It was developed by Gaijin Games and published by Aksys Games. Each game revolves around the adventures of a character named “Commander Video”, and features “a crazy mix of 80s aesthetics and modern game design”. (Info from Wikipedia)

Six games have been released for Bit.Trip:

Bit.Trip Beat, first one of the series, which introduces a style of pong;
Bit.Trip Core, second one of the series, which introduces a style of more peculiar rhythm, similar of Dance Machines;
Bit.Trip Void, third one of the series, which introduces a different rhythm;
Bit.Trip Runner, fourth one of the series, introduces a new style, with 2D Platformer with rhythm;
Bit.Trip Fate, fifth one of the series, introduces a new style of side scroller shooting with rhythm;
Bit.Trip Flux, sixty one of the series, Gaijin games have returned the Bit.Trip Beat style.

Some of those games have unused stuff hidden in their code, such as animations and sound effects.

Bit.Trip Beat

There is a different game over screen in the first game of the serie. Later, it’s never have been used:
Video:

Bit.Trip Core

In Bit.Trip Core, there are still sprites for WiiRemote that appears in Bit.Trip Beat, probably the game could be different.

Bit.Trip Void

There is some testing stuff into the title screen folder. It’s really unknown about it:

Bit.Trip Runner

There is a unused idle animation, which probably would be used if the player left controller. Maybe, just discovering this animation, the game could be a lot of different, it could probably a sidescroller which you could move manually, and if stops, it could appear this animation rarely. However, Bit.Trip series have the main goal of rhythm, so they retired the animation and did as automatic sidescroller game (probably).

Video:

Bit.Trip Fate
Originally planned to be a more traditional shooter where CommanderVideo was in a ship and he had free movement around the screen. The game also did not use pointer controls or the “fate line” until a later date.

Bit.Trip Flux
Started off using Breakout style gameplay during the normal course of the levels, but was cut because it simply wasn’t that fun. Bosses also used to be at the beginning of each level, reinforcing the reverse nature of the game, but that upset the pacing right away.

The whole serie:There is a sprite which appear in all the games, into the game files. Probably, it’s only used in Japanese Version:

Those sprites only appears on the Japanese version of the game:

Translation: BIT.TRIP VOID’s sytem file is corrupt.
After erasing BIT.TRIP VOID from the Channel Management Screen, please redownload BIT.TRIP VOID from the Wii Shopping Channel.
If you still get the same message afterwards, please contact the Nintendo Service Center.

Translation:
BIT.TRIP CORE’s sytem file is corrupt.
After erasing BIT.TRIP CORE from the Channel Management Screen, please redownload BIT.TRIP CORE from the Wii Shopping Channel.
If you still get the same message afterwards, please contact the Nintendo Service Center.

Translation: BIT.TRIP RUNNER’s sytem file is corrupt.
After erasing BIT.TRIP RUNNER from the Channel Management Screen, please redownload BIT.TRIP RUNNER from the Wii Shopping Channel.
If you still get the same message afterwards, please contact the Nintendo Service Center.

Thanks to Gabrielwoj and Susumu (translation) for the contributors.