What do people find more frustrating to think about, games that could have been great but were cancelled, or great games that could have been so much better if their development hadn't been as rushed?
Games that could have been great but were cancelled are more frustrating. Obviously satisfaction is better than disappointment but I can much more easily forgive a world where people gave it a try and it didn't work out.
A couple of games I'm still dreaming about 20+ years later:
Guardians: Agents of Justice (Microprose, 1996)
https://www.unseen64.net/2010/06/06/guardians-agents-of-justice-pc-cancelled/
In the years before I had any concept of the difference between developers and publishers, Microprose was a name I trusted, thanks to such diverse games as
Pirates!,
Master of Orion, and of course the first
X-COMs.
Guardians was planned to be turn-based, isometric strategy about a team of superheroes each custom built by the player from a list of power sets. I
still want to play this game. Of course we did get the realtime
Freedom Force in 2002, and I liked FF but was disappointed that it was not about the custom heroes I built, favoring Irrational's original heroes instead. Again, good, but didn't quite scratch the itch.
Third World (Redline Games/Activision, 1998)
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/redline-activision-relationship-decays/1100-2463484/
Another strategy game (real-time this time), low stakes street-level gang wars, and again, all characters would be generated by the players. This is the first game I ever heard of where character portraits would be assembled from different facial elements (e.g. choose head shape, eyes, mouth, etc. to "potato head" original characters).
In the game, set in a postapocalyptic future, players put together gangs composed of representatives from mutant, android, cyborg, and alien races, then battle rival gangs. Characters gain new skills and abilities as they collect technology and artifacts they find strewn throughout the decaying urban landscape.
The game will use Redline's True Perspective 3D game engine, Activision says, and will feature real-time 3D characters and environments and 360-degree rotating camera angles. The game will include multiplayer support for up to eight players and free Internet play over Activision's ActivLink service.
Ron Millar, president of Redline Games and lead designer for Third World, says, "RPG fans will get off on customizing and building up their gang. Tactical fans will thrive on conquering and defending the city's buildings and resources. Action fans will love the real-time combat and 3D engine. This game is going to rock."
Still one of the best trailers I've ever seen (beware eye-stabbingly low resolution, recommend you DON'T zoom in):
