The neverwere games

So rather than focus on the latest big title game to come out the doors, I thought I’d take a look back at some of the games that were meant to be in production and we never got. Some debatable not seeing the light of day for the good of gaming while others just never released.
So here are some of the better known examples that either never saw the light of day and were in various states of completion and some that were only announced and never heard of again, so enjoy reliving some of these gaming ghosts almost haunting gaming with what remains of them.




Frame City Killer.



Oddly advertised in preview footage not long after the xbox 360 released and surpossedly part of the launch window line up, this game slipped and slipped until finally being cancelled. From what little is about on the game it was an open world game where you played a character who was part investigator and part Neo from The Matrix. Able to do some impressive slow motion fighting special moves complete with slow motion shockwave effects. They key points of the game were meant to centre round possibly using the futuristic neon billboards as part of the game mechanics but as it was canned, we will never truly know.





Soulja boy the game



Oh yes this was apparently going to happen at one point. After 35p got his two games a company decided to hire the Rapper gamer Souljaboy to make a game. For those lucky enough to have no idea who Souljaboy is he’s a rapper who “grew up in the rough streets” with both his parents being Medical professionals and him living in a house that looks like it should be on cribs. Souljaboy the game was meant to be made thanks in part to Souljaboy calling out gamers in general saying he could beat any of them, then vsing one person at two games and proclaiming he was the worlds best gamer.
The downside of this game being cancelled ?
You won’t get to play multiplayer where you could run round as other people and be able to shoot Souljaboy to your heart’s content.





Twilight the game



Not long after Souljaboy the game was hinted to be in production a studio apparently acquired the licence to make a game based of Twilight series. The speel was the game was to be an action RPG game almost in the same vein as Mass Effect with people playing as a character in the Twilight universe of their own creation however the game would follow the story of the books to an extent with the player able to influence outcomes and in fact change the story via their own actions. Think Bella picked wrong then by your actions as an outside character you could change it so she picked Jacob by for example you strengthening the Wolf pack and intervening at key points.
Added to this was going to the multiplayer mode where the player could make another character and this time be given a 3rd option as to who to play as. The first two main game options being Werewolf or Vampire and the 3rd option being a human vampire slayer. What was hinted about the multiplayer was very much a Star wars battlefront style approach with multiple areas and playing campaigns with victory points letting you call in a Twilight character to fight on your team for a match and an ancient Vampire hunter for the humans.
The Downside of Twilight not seeing release ?
Well firstly in multiplayer you’d be able to slay Edward Cullen and the meme / internet madness potential for this is off the charts, but secondly it didn’t sound too bad for a movie tie in game





Pirates of the Caribbean, Armada of the Damned



Starting off as a simple movie licence tie in game this one managed to get the attention of many gamers in the world by looking so good. With the game being Fable but of on the high seas from what was said. Unlike most other games you didn’t play second fiddle to the films cast this was going to be an adventure in its own right just set in the Pirates of the Caribbean world allowing you to become a heroic pirate rouge of legend or a brutal vicious pirate who was to be feared and dreaded in an open world game.
So what’s bad about not seeing this game ?
Come on a good pirate game this generation would be great and I mean one focus really on the pirate world rather than the (still good) Lego Pirates of the Caribbean which focused on the film story a lot.





This is Vegas



One of the big expected games, a game centred around running a club, throwing parties and conning casinos out of cash by card counting and or marking cards along with drag racing down the Vegas strip. The game was so close to done even the voice acting was recording including well known internet person Jesse Cox. This was a game set out to take on GTA by providing something different to it in the form of card playing and cheating and a higher focus on fun but not the completely insane off the wall fun of Saints row.
Why will this is Vegas be missed ?
Well the only way we can card count now is to learn how to do it for real and hope the casinos don’t catch on.





Brutal Legend 2



Not much is known about this title other than it was possible for a very small amount of time. Only rumour to be a prequel to Brutal Legend following Eddie Riggs Father as he takes on the Demon empire and has to fight off the tear drinkers. The first game was just not considered a big enough success for a second one to be produced.

Why will it be missed ?

Because it’s a game about heavy metal rock music and cutting the heads of monsters while someone yells “Decapitation !!!!!!”





Star wars Battlefront 3



What list of games that never saw the light of day would be complete without one of the most controversial no shows. The game was so close to completion before the plug got pulled that there are working gameplay videos out there of up to an hour in length. The story goes that Free Radical took on the project to help keep going and to tide them over and store up enough money to potentially develop Timesplitters 4 without publishers money. Thus began what’s been suggested was development hell which started fine until George Lucas changed round Lucas Arts management and installed a new team. The new management team weren’t so interested in fan pleasing so much as money and seeing how much they could get out of Star Wars for so little input. Lucas Arts cut off money to Free Radical for months at a time claiming they were missing the development goals. The final demos show the game transitioning from ground based combat to space combat with no loading and yet the game was finally canned with Lucas arts stating it wasn’t up to standard. Or if you’re Cynical like me Lucas Arts realising they’d have to pay Free Radical what they owed and not wanting to.
Why is it a shame ?
Because it pretty much marks the point Lucas Arts turned to the dark side and thought games like The Force unleashed 2 were better to make over games for their fans with real longevity and value for money for them. It pretty much stopped the idea of huge continuing battle games dead along with taking down a developer that was debatable way ahead of its time.