Yesterday, NCSoft made an announcement that they are canning the game Auto Assault from their already robust line-up of MMORPGs. For those that don’t know what Auto Assault is, it’s an MMORPG where you choose one of three factions and race around a post-apocolyptic world causing havoc and destroying everything in your way. It was a unique game with a unique feel using a unique engine (Havoc Engine). It was really enjoyable in a lot of ways, but there just wasn’t room for it in this market, not yet anyways.
For those that are still playing, NCSoft will no longer bill you, and at the end of the summer when the game is officially canned, anybody with overtime due to timecards will be reconsiled by NCSoft. The game’s future is still a bit uncertain as NetDevil, the company behind the game may very well support the server on their own without NCSoft as they did with Jumpgate a few years back, however, with so many other projects going on it is doubtful.
Check out the article HERE.
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Sorry it has taken me so long to do another one of these. I know how you all love to know what great PC games you missed out on because of this reason or that reason. This week I bring you a little known title from the Star Trek universe. So get ready to nurture your inner-geek because this week I present to you Star Trek: Borg Assimilator.
Back in 2000-ish Activision secured the rights from Paramount/Viacom to make a game based on the Star Trek universe. Not just Star Trek but they received the rights to make a game based on the Borg from Star Trek. The game was initially put on hold in 2001/2002 due to Star Trek story-line inconsistencies. It has not yet been brough back into development, and although nothing specific was ever said about it being completely cancelled the chances of Activision revisiting this product are slim, very slim.
For those that don’t know what the Borg were, they were a race of cyborgs (go figure huh?) that was out to “assimilate” humans into their own race. Needless to say they were the main “bad guys” in the show.
Well that concludes our cancelled game of the week. The game was very very early in development and I couldn’t find a screenshot of the actual game.
Check out the article HERE.
Another week, another cancelled game. Its fun to do these blogs as it reminds me of old games that I loved so very much, but then I get sad that I will never actually see these games come to life as they should have been. This week’s game is none other than Sam & Max: Freelance Police.
A long time ago, before the Sam & Max Episodes were out and about enthralling us all, there was a main story-line driven PC game entitled Sam & Max Hit the Road. It was a hilarious romp through the lives of these two now-famous detectives. Then back in 2000 LucasArts promised us a sequel. The sequel! I was crying tears of unrelented joy. The LucasArts team showed off new fanciful graphics in 3D, a new addition to the series, and a hilarious trailer. Then, right out of the blue, LucasArts decided to cancel the game for reasons that seemed paultry at best. March 3rd 2004 saw the end of the never-to-be-played sequel.
The backlash was severe, however. Angry fans, such as myself, rose up and shouted against LucasArts promting more than a few of their employees to leave and take up new developemental duties under the name of TellTale games. From there we were brought new Sam & Max games, but never have we seen or heard about the ill-fated sequel that LucasArts destroyed. Who knows what could have been.
Check out the game HERE.
Yes, I know. Its yet another Blizzard game being featured on our weekly What Could Have Been series. Don’t blame me! Blame Blizzard for always dropping the ball on games that they get us all hyped up for. Way back when I was even hyped up for this week’s game. That game being Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans!
The Warcraft Adventures game began is start way back in 1996, I think. Its been a while anyways. It was announced as sort of an officially unofficial sequel to the wildly popular RTS Warcraft II. It was destined to be a pretty basic point and click (from here on out known as clicky) adventure game, like the hilarious Monkey Island series. Unfortunately, after the release date got pushed back an entire year, from 1997 to 1998, Blizzard decided to can the project.
Its hard to say why they canned the project. It could have been because the adventure genre was in decline, or the fact that LucasArts had just released their own clicky to good reviews. Bottom line is the game was canned, never to be brought back to life. It is hard to say whether the game was going to be any good or not as so little information was ever released on the title. It was supposed to be a dark comical clicky that followed the beginnings of Thrall, but thats all we really know. Shame, I really do like clickies.
Check out the article HERE.
So who has heard of the X-COM games before? If you have then you must know that it is by far, hands down, one of the very best turn-based strategy games to date. Yes thats right even today I would rate the game as one of the best. It had everything you could ever want in a strategy game. However, thats not what we are hear to discuss today. Today we bring back from the graveyard a little known title that dates all the way back to 1999-2000.
X-COM Alliance was a game based on Microprose’s famous strategy series. It was being developed by Hasbro Interactive, which is wierd because I never knew they made computer games. What was actually most surprising, however, was that the game was not going to be a turn-based strategy like its previous installments. This game was destined to be a FPS. To be honest I have no clue how this game would have turned out if it were an FPS. On one hand the game was made for turn-based strategy but on the other hand the world and environment was just begging for FPS-stylized gameplay.
In any case, it does not matter, the game was shelved in late 2000 and although shelved doesn’t necessarily mean “cancelled” it has been shelved long enough that it might as well have been. At this point if Atari were to revive the game they would start from scratch anyways. So concludes this weeks “What Could Have Been” series, tune in next week for our spotlight on: Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans.
Read more about X-COM: Alliance HERE.
