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Before it became known as Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, the game was originally titled ESPionage. In its early beta builds, it looked and played quite differently from the version that eventually hit the store. This was largely because Midway began showcasing the game while it was still in its alpha phase.

The game was indeed shown at E3 2003, where it was featured under the ESPionage codename. Thanks to footage and media from that event, we can catch a few rare glimpses of what the game looked like during its early development.

While the game was officially scheduled to release on the GameCube, that port was eventually cancelled.

Video:

Beta differences:

Different HUD
Different character model
Different gun sounds
Different environment
Different running animation

Images:

Unseen News

Severance: Blade of Darkness 2 [Cancelled?]

Yassine Bakrim

03-08-2025

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Severance: Blade of Darkness (or Blade: Edge of Darkness in Europe) was a brutal and atmospheric hack-and-slash released for PC back in 2001 by the now-defunct Rebel Act Studios. Years later, it got a remastered release on modern platforms, giving it a second life with old fans and curious newcomers alike.

While digging around the internet, I came across an old concept sketch that hinted at a possible sequel. It was originally posted on MercurySteam’s Facebook page but has since been deleted — and there’s almost no info about it anywhere else. Still, it seems like a follow-up was at least being explored at some point.

There’s not much else to go on right now, but if you happen to know anything about this lost project — or have more artwork or details stashed away — feel free to reach out. It would be great to uncover more about what could’ve been.

Image:

Unseen News

Internal Affairs [PC/PS2] — Cancelled

Yassine Bakrim

21-06-2025

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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.

Images:

Unseen News

Urban Chaos [PS1/PC/Dreamcast] – Beta

Yassine Bakrim

08-06-2025

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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

Images:

Unseen News

Stolen [PS2/Xbox/PC] – Beta

Yassine Bakrim

02-06-2025

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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: