Awesome games which never were.

[Trash]

After the great Master of Orion, its sequel and the amazing Master of Magic dev SimTex was working on a turn based mech game which looked absolutely awesome. You were a noble in an intergalactic imperium who was struggling to become the ruler of his house and ultimately the empire. Doing this through missions, warfare, colonisation and political moves. The game entered development hell when FASA sued them for percieved copyright infringement and was later scrapped altogether when Microprose entered its dying thralls. What really saddens me though is how close to completion the game was when it was cancelled and how great the game looked. There is nowadays hardly any info to be found on this great looking game which is a little surprising for me considering how well-loved the other SimTex offerings are to this day and how many magazines wrote of it during its development. Consider my surprise when I found this youtube movie of a preview of it. Looking as cool as ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SdlinjwvmE

So, what games you looked forward to did never see the light of day?

 

[Luzur]

so Crusader Kings but in space?

 

[Trash]

More like a mix of Civ, MoM, Moo and the tabletop Mechwarrior game. The video doesn't even show a lot of the stuff which was in other previews like the political infighting, warfare, mission types and colonial management. It really was their most ambitious game. They were about ready to release it when they got sued and after that was settled Microprose went under.

 

[SCO]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Why did you to tell me that!

 

[Yeesh]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SdlinjwvmE

Scheduled for release in September? Cheer up, that's right around the corner!

EDIT: I mourned Road to Moscow http://pc.ign.com/articles/131/131163p1.html

And of course Dreamlands.

 

[baronjohn]

Outcast 2

 

[Trash]

Apparantly quite some magazines recieved an alpha or review copy of the Mech Lords game prior to the lawsuit. To this day I hope someone dusts it off and uploads it to a torrent tracker or something. Will never happen ofcourse, but one can hope.

 

[Destroid]

Master of Orion 3.

 

[Angelo85]

Far too many, sadly
Most of all I would have loved to see Jagged Alliance 3 and Van Buren though.

 

[zeitgeist]

Far too many, sadly
Most of all I would have loved to see Jagged Alliance 3 and Van Buren though.

Apparently Jagged Alliance 3 is now being developed by bitComposer... which is probably what, the fifth time the license has been sold after a developer making half a game or a tech demo and then giving up.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Torn

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

GURPS: Fallout and following GURPS cRPGs in various settings.

 

[MetalCraze]

Looking Glass Studios

One being Thief 2 Gold - Thief 2 was originally to have multiplayer including coop (the half-working code for it is included in T2 and modders already did something with it) - they would've most likely included it in the Gold Edition (together with new levels as in T:G case)

Deep Cover - a spy themed game on the same Dark Engine. It would've been awesome - considering that Deus Ex was but a mere shadow of it using some of its ideas on a totally different engine.
http://www.somethingstrange.com/ttlg/deepcover/

It was impossible for LGS to ever release a game that wasn't innovative in something. Good times.

Troika
And the real Fallout 3 - with the only thing reminding of it being a lone, but incredibly atmospheric-looking video (you can even see it using Fallout-styled menus and fonts)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X8Z14ExYxo

 

[SuicideBunny]

x-com: genesis, flying saucer, although the latter reached gold and got pirated despite never being released, and i did play it.
also original non-cute spore.
oh oh oh, and the second fading suns game, the one where you command a spaceship and get to build a fleet and roam through the web trading and doing other stuff.
also early development syndicate looked a lot better than the finished product, imo... at least more complex in an interesting way.

 

[Achilles]

X-COM: Genesis. Still butthurt that it was never released

 

[Luzur]

im more depressed about Van Buren then the others mentioned in this thread.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge (Spiritual successor to X-COM made by the original creator).

Yeah, I remember waiting for this one too. Amusingly, I didn't know that it's being made by Julian Gollop back then.

 

[Grunker]

GURPS: Fallout and following GURPS cRPGs in various settings.

Seconded times 1000.

I'm glad BG3 got cancelled however. The design-documents made it look like Dragon Ag... Hey, waitaminute.

 

[Sceptic]

Anachronox 2.

FUCKING ANACHRONOX 2.



Van Buren gets a very honorable mention.

 

[DraQ]

Anachronox 2.

FUCKING ANACHRONOX 2.



Van Buren gets a very honorable mention.

This.

Anachronox's essentially ended with an abrupt cliffhanger around the middle of the story. I was disappoint.

Also TES IV (to a lesser degree 2 and 3, but I wasn't interested in a series enough to know what Beth failed to implement back then).

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Lets see...

Promised further installments in the 'Knights of Legend' series.

Oh yes, Wasteland 2. There is an advertisement in-game about it (you only see it if you choose to side with Fat Freddy and hunt down Faran Brygo).

Third Ultima 6 spinoff set in King Arthur's time (was to be released after Martian Dreams).

The original Ultima 9 (though from the strength of Ultima 8, it wouldn't probably have been rubbish anyway).

The third 'Lord of the Rings' game from Interplay.

Probably plenty I have missed. I recall many older games hinting at part 2's in their manual that never appeared, and other old games where you were urged to keep your save files for sequels, but the above were supposed to be 'sure things' that never happened.

 

[Trash]

That hinted on Darklands expansion and sequel is another one which they never got around to. Shame, since Darklands is still one of the absolute best rpg's ever and an awesome sandbox game before anyone even knew the term.

 

[ricolikesrice]

the chaos expansion for final liberation

edit: wait, i forgot that was a mod, not an official expansion .... and i guess if we start naming promising mods that never were .....

 

[visions]

Blizzard intended to make a point & click adventure set in the Warcraft universe after Warcraft 2. I think it was supposed to be from the orcs' perspective. Can't remember the title though.

 

[Luzur]

i remember reading the article about it in PCGamer.

Thrall's Journey or something.

Lets see...

Promised further installments in the 'Knights of Legend' series.

Oh yes, Wasteland 2. There is an advertisement in-game about it (you only see it if you choose to side with Fat Freddy and hunt down Faran Brygo).

Third Ultima 6 spinoff set in King Arthur's time (was to be released after Martian Dreams).

The original Ultima 9 (though from the strength of Ultima 8, it wouldn't probably have been rubbish anyway).

The third 'Lord of the Rings' game from Interplay.

Probably plenty I have missed. I recall many older games hinting at part 2's in their manual that never appeared, and other old games where you were urged to keep your save files for sequels, but the above were supposed to be 'sure things' that never happened.

dont forget The Vale of Dreams, the addon for Ultima 8.