RTS

Microsoft, Xbox

Mafioso [XBOX – Cancelled]

monokoma
13-02-2013
1 Comment

Mafioso is a cancelled strategy / simulation game for the original Xbox, in which the player was going to be an italian gangster, on his way to became the boss of the city. The project was created by Teleplan Development Studio, but probably they never found a publisher interested in the game. Teleplan was closed and Mafioso was never released. As we can read from the official press release:

Mafioso features advanced AI, incredibly detailed characters and vehicles, a complex reputation and diplomatic system, a feature-rich economical structure with legal businesses, money laundering operations and illicit activities, all set up in a huge 3D urban environment.

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Others, PC / MAC

Mission to Nexus Prime [PC MAC – Cancelled]

Celine
24-01-2013
No Comments

Mission to Nexus Prime was a real-time strategy game based on a original story by the Hugo Award winning and New York Times bestselling author, Timothy Zahn. Developed by DigiFx around 1997 the game would never be commercially available. Here a small extract from a PR release:

“MISSION TO NEXUS PRIME” contains unique gameplay with features not seen in other strategy games like; four types of dynamically changing terrain on which to battle your opponents; Desert, Arctic, Tropical and Volcanic. Earthquakes and lava eruptions which when triggered form entirely new terrain maps on the fly! Units and vehicles can fall through cracked ice, sink in quicksand and be crushed by falling meteors.

You’ll search the ruins of advanced civilizations, seek out and destroy enemy patrols, rescue critically important allies, defend frontier bases, and face vicious air assaults.

Players must also combat the “the local” creatures which inhabit the world in addition to enemy units! Place units and vehicles in “hidden caverns” to ambush your opponents!

Unique visual model which allows the player to see the terrain but not your enemy! 30 different missions (15 each side) all ordered in a linear storyline written by Timothy Zahn! Over 30 multi-player missions allow you to “team up” for 8 player cooperative play over a LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The “clients” are the user’s workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. or the Internet.

Full blown custom mission editor for designing your own levels to distribute to your friends! (Edit everything!)

70 different unit types and twenty unique installations. Each rendered in full Super VGA 3D perspective using Lightwave 3D!

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

AionGuard [X360 PS3 – Cancelled]

monokoma
17-12-2012
No Comments

AionGuard is a cancelled action / strategy game that was in development from 2008 to 2010 by Avalanche Studios and it would have been published by EIDOS for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. In AionGuard players would have followed an army of elite soldiers, tasked with capturing fixed areas of land which are occupied by numerous mythical and magical creatures.

Originally the gameplay was supposed to take place during the World War I era, however, the theme did not fit the publishers’ line up and was changed to that of a science fiction setting, and subsequently to a fantasy setting when the science fiction theme conflicted with another game in Eidos‘ portfolio. In february 2010, Avalanche Studios announced that the game was officially cancelled, as we can read at Scrowl. The team was then able to move their time and resources to finish Just Cause 2.

Avalanche Studios later bought the rights to AionGuard back from Eidos and they hope to work on it again in the future.

Some more info on the game can be found at Edge Magazine website:

“We’ve had it with this standardisation of fantasy – it’s not exciting any more, it’s deteriorated into trivial re-hashings of the same old things.” But ‘fantasy’ doesn’t tell the whole story of AionGuard. This world is a melting-pot of science-fiction, steampunk, technology, fascism, mystery and games from the excellent Panzer Dragoon Orta to the failed experiment of Lair. If this is fantasy, it’s a gloriously broad strata. […]

“Let’s say you fly in over a new region – the commander of the army might contact you and give you a number of recon missions,” offers Nedfors. “That’s what the military is interested in in a new area. Then it’s all about exploration for the player. You can travel with different attitudes – flying in on a big beast will probably see you getting attacked, but you can be a bit quieter about it.” What if you’ve already seen that area on your travels without being contacted? “You’ve still done that piece of the game, so you get all the benefits from it,” says Nedfors. […]

The scale of the game changes seamlessly – the same size of figure on the screen is now looking over a world that stretches endlessly, populated by an advancing army of 4,000 tiny soldiers. These 4,000 warriors are running on a 360 debug unit, not a PC, thanks to AI scaling. The larger groups of enemies have a group AI that becomes individual once you begin interacting with it.

Thanks to Userdante for the contribute!

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Others, PC / MAC

Dune Generations [PC – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
10-08-2011
No Comments

Cryonetworks in 2001 disclosed information about Dune Generations, an upcoming online real-time strategy game based on Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel series. The company launched an official Web site for the upcoming game that features some concept images, a brief background story and description of the persistent gameworld, and a list of frequently asked questions. Dune Generations was scheduled for release at the end of 2001.

Info from the official page:

The infrastructure of a permanent and massive multiplayer world that exists online; the intrigues and magnificent scenery from Frank Herbert’s Dune Universe; endless space and terrestrial epics: this is what you’ll discover in DUNE Generations.

DUNE Generations is based on three concepts: Short and long-term resource management, real-time commercial and military strategy, and control of a dynasty of leaders within three types of Houses: military, commercial or mercenary. Players will have to make strategic decisions for the advancement of their House and work together or fight one another for domination of the thousands of colonies at their disposal. They will have to evolve in a world with strict rules and use them for their own purpose and benefit. One key purpose, of course, is to gain access and control over the most important planet in the DUNE Universe: Arrakis, where the Spice, the most precious substance in the Universe is produced.

Cryo would be the publisher behind the game; Canada-based DreamCatcher Interactive would be the distributor for North America as part of a partnertship which published a number of other Cryo games.

Dune Generations would let players assume control of a dynasty in the Dune universe. The goal of the game would be to build the dynasty into the most powerful family in the universe, by gaining control of the planet Arrakis, the source of the most precious substance in the universe: spice. Players would choose to control one of three types of dynasties – traders, soldiers, or mercenaries – and each dynasty type would provide a different playing experience.

With the closure of Cryo at the beginning of 2002, the game was canceled due to a failure to negotiate a deal with the company’s creditors. [Info from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Elian for the contribution!

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Nintendo, Wii

Knight Wars [Wii – Cancelled]

monokoma
14-06-2011
1 Comment

Knight Wars is a cancelled real time strategy / action game for the Wii, that was in development in 2006/2007 by Kuju London (nowadays known as Headstrong Games). Except for being planned as a medieval version of the Battalion Wars games, there is not much known about the project, only that it was cancelled in 2007 when Nintendo decided to shift their resources to mass market-accessible titles such as Wii Fit or even the cancelled Wii Crush. As we can read in an old Gamespot article:

Our spies at Kuju’s HQ also tell us that another game based around the WARS series is also in development for the Wii called Knight Wars. Based in middle-aged England, players control tens of thousands of troops including units such as horses, magicians and Knights! ‘Its like Battalion Wars but with some great sword-swinging Wii action and riding around doing tasks for King Arthur!’ we were told!’

As you can read on the wayback machine there were 2 also unnamed Juku projects, one published by Ubisoft Entertainment S.A., and the other by Vivendi Universal Games.

Thanks to Rukku for the contribution!

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