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Valve puts ambitious FPS The Crossing 'on hold' photo

A scant handful of you may recall a very unique shooter from Valve and Arkane Studios known as The Crossing. It was quite an ambitious little game that attempted to blend single player and multiplayer modes into one experience, allowing human players to take on the role of generic enemies and tackle a playable main character. It sounds like a logistical nightmare, but for the time being we won't get to see if it ever worked, because the poor game has been put on ice.

"We ran into an unexpected financial challenge some months ago and we had to put The Crossing on hold," explains Arkane CEO Raphael Colantonio. The financial challenge is said to be the recent wave of layoffs over at Electronic Arts, as EA had been providing support to Arkane to get the game developed. Without that support, the game can't get made. 

That's a shame. The Crossing could have gone spectacularly wrong, but it may also have worked out stunningly well. Unfortunately, the game could never get that chance to succeed or fail. Although there's hope that Arkane could drag the game back into the realm of the living at some point in the future, it's not often we see a shelved title return from the dead.


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26 comments | showing # 1 to 26

IroN1c's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 08:14
IroN1c
Ah, fuck. I would've loved to see this game, just out of curiosity. It had so many great elements going for it, that could've failed on so many levels.
Ali D's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 08:33
Ali D
Bummer. There were a lot of things that looked really interesting about this game. It'll be a shame to see it not come out.
themizarkshow's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 08:53
themizarkshow
I hope it sees the light of day sometime... sounds like a very cool idea if done well.
B-Radicate's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 09:02
B-Radicate
Hmm, I never heard of this. I sounds sorta interesting, though. Only if that jumping ninja can deflect bullets like Wade Wilson in Wolverine, though.
Zippyduda's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 09:04
Zippyduda
I hadn't heard about this game but it sounds pretty good. It looks like Mirrors Edge a little mixed with Ninja Gaiden mixed with SOCOM.

This idea worked in MGS4's Snake vs all so I don't see why this wouldn't work.
Jim Sterling's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 09:22
Jim Sterling
"This idea worked in MGS4's Snake vs all so I don't see why this wouldn't work."

I think the idea of this game is that it was a whole campaign. I can see a one vs. all mode working in a proper multiplayer environment, Dark Sector did that as well. However, making an entire single-player campaign rely on human enemies would be an immense undertaking. It could be a massive success or a huge failure.
MultiJoe's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 09:53
MultiJoe
Valve really should also finish one project before they start the next. I haven't actually played the Half Life series myself, but I think it's fucking hillarious they take a year plus to release 4-5 hours of content on a fully developed and graphically outdated engine.
VengefulPenor's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 10:00
VengefulPenor
@Joe haven't actually played the Half Life series myself

That explains it. The half life series is by far one of the best around. Then enginge is not outdated at all. The games all look quite nice on the computer.
Dexter345's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 10:19
Dexter345
Dang, I was actually looking forward to this game's release, if for no other reasons than academic. It is an entirely new mechanic that could really change up the FPS genre. I mean, playing through single player with enemies whose AI is actual intelligence sounds pretty great on paper. I'm not entirely convinced it would work, but I'd like to see it try anyway.
konrad hazen's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 10:24
konrad hazen
Whoops, I had totally forgotten about this game. The premise is still pretty interesting, but Valve has already gone in that direction (fusing single- and multiplayer) with L4D. I wonder what we can expect in terms of FPS-innovation in the coming years.
UglyDuck's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 10:26
UglyDuck
That's shit. Still, Valve tend to do things differently to other game companies, so we may still see this unshelved, so to speak.
Naim Master's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 11:09
Naim Master
It looks better than L4D , they should have done this instead of L4D ...
Angry Damman's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 11:21
Angry Damman
That's too bad. I remember Perfect Dark for N64 had something like that, where you could split screen single player levels, only one of the players randomly spawned between generic enemies throughout the level. It didn't work out that well but it had potential.
Cough's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 11:27
Cough
Oh, okay. Kinda wondering where the hell the project was, since i saw 0 posts in the tubes about this one since 2005/6. Thanks Jim.
HiddenAHB's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 11:34
HiddenAHB
Oh shit, now i won't be able to be Dead Random Soldier #3.
Too bad.
vexed alex's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 11:59
vexed alex
I was wondering what had happened to this game. I haven't heard anything about it since that old 1Up show preview that Shawn Elliot did.
Shirley Temple's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 12:34
Shirley Temple
Valve didn't put it on hold. Read your own article.
ThunderHeartXI's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 12:49
ThunderHeartXI
I haven't heard of this game until this article but the idea sounds really awesome. And if anyone could pull it off it would be Valve. I hope they can get some funding to put this game back into development.
MultiJoe's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 13:35
MultiJoe
@VengefulPenor

I didn't say it looked bad, but the engine is getting old. It's hardly new-tech and therefore difficult to work with/optimise. That's all I meant.
Hellbender's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 15:39
Hellbender
i read an article on this game a few years ago, and then it disappeared completely. This game seemed to push the boundaries of an fps in a good way. here's to hoping it comes back from the dead.
Magnalon's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 15:58
Magnalon
I think this idea sounds more original/fun than L4D. Of course, it was still a good game in it's own right.

I'll most likely buy this day one if those changes are implemented. I always imagined how cool Mirror's Edge would be with people playing as the evil ninja runner cops.
Chronic Logic's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/16/2009 17:06
Chronic Logic
Clearly versus mode for L4D is multiplayer, not single player at all. Although this slightly does remind me of LOTRO Monster vs player. I thought that this game was supposed to simulate a multiplayer experience with only one player as in singular.
Dan CiTi's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/17/2009 02:32
Dan CiTi
Never heard of it.
The Prodigal Son's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/17/2009 12:30
The Prodigal Son
It's possible that replacing enemy NPCs with other people online might would work. Since most shooters are adopting a ranking system, low-level baddies could be filled by new players and ones of lesser skill, while heavier enemies could be filled by players with more experience and skill. Too bad we won't see it happen anytime soon.
WarZombie's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/18/2009 02:05
WarZombie
Gone the way of StarCraft: Ghost, I'm afraid.

Sucks, that idea sounds interesting.
DaedHead8's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/18/2009 17:14
DaedHead8
Well that's a shame. I wonder if we'll ever get more details on what they got done with the project. Maybe the guts of it will be used for something else.
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