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Games Entertainment

The Heartbreak of Canceled Games 115

Gamespot has a piece running today revisiting some of the late and lamented game titles that never made it out of the development phase. Though the article covers all genres, there are a depressing number of canceled Massive titles on the list. From the article: "You'd be hard pressed to find a game whose cancellation caused Xbox owners to shout "D'oh!" louder than True Fantasy Live Online. The ambitious game was slated to be the system's first MMO and it was being crafted by seasoned Japanese developer Level 5, whose resume includes such gems as Dark Cloud 2 and Dragon Quest VIII. The game had all the signs of being one of those special landmark titles for a platform--more than just a seminal moment in the console's software library. The game's ambitious use of Xbox Live, which would have been the most extensive use of the service in a game ever, was more in line with the level of sophistication seen in a PC game. Unfortunately, it appears that Level 5's ambition was what led to TFLO being shelved. The game's scope and rich experience presented a sizable challenge for both the developer and Microsoft within the given time frame."
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The Heartbreak of Canceled Games

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  • Duke Nukem (Score:1, Redundant)

    by WTBF ( 893340 )
    Exactly why isn't this considered late?
  • Sam & Max (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DarkHelmet ( 120004 ) * <<ten.elcychtneves> <ta> <kram>> on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:44PM (#13430447) Homepage
    What article like this is complete without:
    Sam and Max 2 [samandmax.net] I feel cheated looking through that article without seeing S&M there.
    • by WidescreenFreak ( 830043 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:58PM (#13430586) Homepage Journal
      Oh, well. I inadvertently duplicated your sentiments in my own post. Looks like we were both typing at the same time.

      A lot of the Sam and Max: FP developers created their own company, Telltale Games - www.telltalegames.com. Although they have not expressly said that they're negotiating with Steve Purcell, they have not ruled it out. Apparently, Steve Purcell was very upset with LucasArt's decision and TTG has the benefit of being the team that worked on Sam and Max: FP.

      So, maybe after they're finished with their first major project Bone, based on the comic book of the same name, they'll be able to enter talks with Purcell.

      At least we can hope.
    • hey, there are plenty of other places on the web to catch some S&M.

      <action>duck</action>
    • What article like this is complete without: Sam and Max 2 I feel cheated looking through that article without seeing S&M there.
      Wait... there was S&M in Sam and Max 2? That dosen't seem right......
    • by WidescreenFreak ( 830043 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @07:45PM (#13432086) Homepage Journal
      Steve Purcell is not giving up hope, so we definitely shouldn't! It's a month-old link, but I noticed it a few minutes ago on TTG's site.

      http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?st ory=6021 [gamasutra.com]

      Here are the last two paragraphs, bold emphases mine for those who don't want to read through the whole article.

      Regarding the recent kerfuffle over a new Sam & Max title in development at LucasArts but subsequently cancelled, Purcell is relatively sanguine: "While at Pixar I was consulting on Sam & Max 2 after hours. I got word that it was cancelled from the team but the subsequent fan backlash was an unexpected side effect. Thirty thousand people signed the online petition protesting the decision. I had no idea there had been that level of anticipation for the game."

      That would seem to bode well. I'm sure that if he had gotten no response he would have just assumed "Well, I guess no one is interested." (I hope that that I didn't just do a TripMaster Monkey, inane summarization there. Immense apologies if I did.)

      Finally, Steve concludes his comments with equivocation about whether his involvement in the game industry is completely behind him: "Would I get back into games? Sure. The [Sam & Max] license is back in in my hands now so we'll see what happens in the near future."

      Oh, sweetness!
    • Reading TFA, I get the impression that only RPG's ever get cancelled.
    • I feel cheated looking through that article without seeing S&M there.

      I feel cheated too when I don't get to see S&M.

      volpone

  • by Shivetya ( 243324 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:50PM (#13430520) Homepage Journal
    I remember the videos and previews, hell I still have the preview videos. I suspect that any sequel to UO won't stand a chance until the population numbers of UO drop below 30k or so.

    Their comment about UFO:Aftermath was unwarranted. It actually is very much turn based, like the original and TFTD. In fact it is the closest to TFTD of the UFO games proposed or released.

    I can tell you one thing though, I lament over the fact of what doesn't get cancelled. Some of the crap that does get released makes you wonder why we even play these games.
    • Ditto... UO2 was looking spectacular, but then it all got wasted when EA canceled it, and after a legal battle with Todd McFarlane shoehorned the art stuff he made into UO as 'Blackthorns revenge' or some such thing... THe latest for UO involves Elves "returning'... bah.

      At least the team got to destroy most of the documentation & backups for UO2 themselfs, rather than EA abuse it. I still have the pictures somewhere.

      And also Sam N Max 2.
  • Last Ninja 4! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Per Wigren ( 5315 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:51PM (#13430522) Homepage
    The sequel to the classic Last Ninja series from the 80s was first supposed to be released in 2000. The releasedate has since been pushed about 6 months at a time and been shifted from "cancelled" to "not cancelled" several times... Only time will tell if we'll ever see this game on the shelves. I've been waiting forever...

    Info and beta screenshots at the unofficial Last Ninja 4 page [lemon64.com]
    • So I assume this Ninja was last in the sense that the Fantasy was final?
    • I notice the game is for Xbox... have you tried Ninja Gaiden? I've never played Last Ninja, so I don't know how close it is, but if you're looking for ninja action on Xbox, Ninja Gaiden's where it's at right now. (It even has two expansion packs, called Hurricane Packs, downloadable over Live.) Give it a try.

      Oh, but it's hard... very very hard. Expect to replay boss battles over and over and over and over until you figure out the strategy to beat them, then 4-5 more times to actually pull it off.
      • "We speculate that when you put the game on hard difficulty, you just get cancer and die." Or something to that effect.
      • I went over a buddies house to try Ninja Gaiden out and it was impossible to frustrating. If this was any other ninja game without the "Ninja Gaiden" label, I really wonder if people would actually enjoy it.

        This is at least 4x harder than the hardest NG game from the NES era. And that's being generous.

        • You have got to be kidding. Do you really, truly remember the NES NG's insane level of button-mashing difficulty? Especially the last two.

          NG on the XBox is loads easier (on Normal difficulty), in fact the game seems a lot harder than it is. Weird I know but when you finally play through on Normal and move up to Hard (or Very Hard) and go BACK to playing on Normal you could swear that you accessed some new easy setting. Enemies that once slaughtered you in seconds when you first played now clumsily stumble a
        • Re:Last Ninja 4! (Score:2, Insightful)

          by toad3k ( 882007 )
          I really dislike this mentality. I enjoyed the original ninja gaiden games because they were hard. In fact when I think back, there were no games I can think of that were easy that I actually liked.

          Hard games give you a sense of accomplishment when you master them.

          As for the last ninja, I never understood what people saw in the game. Maybe I should pull it up on an emulator sometime, as an adult and try to figure it out.
  • by WidescreenFreak ( 830043 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:51PM (#13430527) Homepage Journal
    This list is missing a lot of in-progress-then-cancelled games for the PC. Where is Sam and Max: Freelance Police from that list? It was one of the most anticipated games in LucasArts' "Coming Soon" line-up with an estimated completion of 85-90% (based on statements by its developers) when LucasArts suddenly pulled it citing market reasons.

    How about Full Throttle 2?

    (Does Duke Nuke 'Em Forever count or is that "still" in development?)
  • by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:52PM (#13430533) Journal
    Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury [gamespy.com].

    Written by D.C. Fontana, whom true fans will recognize as the author of many episodes [startrek.com], most of them good. Voiced by the original actors, minus the late DeForest Kelley.

    One can only wonder what it could have been. It's my biggest "could'a been", and that includes myself as both an Ultima and Fallout fan. (Fallout3 would probably have been at least OK, hopefully outstanding, but after Ultima 9, I'm not sure we needed a 10...)
  • by ValuJet ( 587148 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:56PM (#13430567)
    I refuse to accept that steaming pile they released as an actual game. Biggest. Dissapointment. Ever.
    • Yes, and the same goes for Might and Magic IX.
    • I agree, to an extent.

      I too was disappointed when I installed and played MOO3, and my wife was a MOO2 fan also so it was a double-disappointment.

      But supposedly they patched all the game-wrecking bugs out of it (like how anti-missile lasers wouldn't work). I have not yet tried it again, however.
      • At least Master of Orion got a "2". I'm still waiting for my Master of Magic sequel. /Life Magic + Warlord + Halfling Slingers for the win!
      • The bugs? It was more than that -- it was the (lack of) gameplay. I played for two weeks, mindlessly going through the game, trying to figure out WTF was going on. When my friend asked "How is it?" I told him that I didn't know, because I didn't know what was going on, or what to do, or how things were happening. It happened to be a perfect description for a game that did nothing.
        • Yeah, it did have a steep learning curve. My wife and I figured at least some of it out, because we started winning games. But mostly through exploitation of the gameplay bugs.

          Related topic: check out Hegemonia [hegemonia.info] if you haven't gotten your 4X fix in a while.
          • I went to the website -- people are still actively playing this game. You should read this thread [ina-community.com], explaining all of the user-made patches and mods that you need to go through just to make the game tolerable.

            If you have to go to all of this trouble just to make the game what it should've been, it isn't worth it (and I certainly haven't tried).
    • You beat me to it. I was going to say that it should've been canceled. I couldn't agree with you more -- worst game that I've ever bought that I've expected so much from. Even Black & White doesn't come close to the level of disappointment.
    • No, it wasn't. Everyone knew that MOO3 was going to be a horribly overcomplex sociological simulation with a lite interface slapped onto it - the people who kept up with the news got exactly what they wanted, exactly what was promised (though the AI was a little odd before patching).

      The real hugest disappointment ever was Star Control 3. New dev team just destroyed it. StarCon, the fourth game, was completely cancelled. Apparently they replaced the material with a bunch of Colony Wars stuff and made it
      • I was bummed out that StarCon never made it, but I thought SC3 was a far cry from "real hugest disappointment ever". It didn't advance the series, and was even a step back in a few ways, but it was another helping of the game I loved so well.
    • I don't know why people make such a big deal over MOO3. Sure, it wasn't as good as the other two, but I can think of a more disappointing game [gamespot.com] that came out in the same year, forget about "all-time."

      Rob
      • Bull.

        Freelancer was a marginal game in single-player, but the persistent universe server online play made it endearing.

        Servers sprang up with all kinds of concepts, from user-enforced rules (RP) to complete mods with entirely new universes.

        The Freelancer universe was a solid foundation, and the flight engine was excellent for PvP combat. Go have a look at the online community that still persists after nearly 3 years, if you need a second opinion.
    • If you want to play a game thats very close, play Space Empires IV - I played that first, than recently played Moo 1 and 2 - Its really close, borrowing a lot of the same concepts, and plays really nicely.
  • No Earthbound 64. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Strell ( 877448 )
    What kind of stupid list is this? On a slightly related note, maybe it should include some home brew games too - Chrono Trigger 3D, Zelda: Ocarina 2D...though I'm not sure if those would count or not.
  • My heart breaks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FadedTimes ( 581715 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:03PM (#13430639)
    - Star Fox 2 for SNES
    - No Sonic 3d game for Sega Saturn
  • by Aeron65432 ( 805385 ) <agiamba@@@gmail...com> on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:08PM (#13430684) Homepage
    was the lack of Freespace3. I thought Freespace1/2 were phenomenally done. Freespace 2 was one of the few game sequels I thought thoroughly improved the previous game in every aspect. Graphics, gameplay, interaction were all great.

    Sadly, Freespace3 was one of the many casualties of Interplay's death.

    • I thought Freespace1/2 were phenomenally done. Freespace 2 was one of the few game sequels I thought thoroughly improved the previous game in every aspect. Graphics, gameplay, interaction were all great.

      Yes! The Freespace series was the spiritual successor to Wing Commander, and I loved it. Sadly, we'll probably never see a Freespace 3 (Volition, the developer and I believe the owner of the Freespace IP, is still around but they're doing crap like the Red Faction series and The Punisher). Luckily, th

  • Shenmue 3? (Score:5, Informative)

    by KrisW ( 613034 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:14PM (#13430733)
    Somebody had better check their facts [kikizo.com] on this one...
    • Personally, I'll belive it when Sega annouce it. But whatever they do, I'll probably buy it.
      • Ditto. I loved the original Shenmue on Dreamcast and Shenmue II on Xbox. A Shenmue III title would motivate me to buy whichever next gen console it came out for. I'd like to see it on Xbox 360 but I'd buy a PS3 if necessary. Jim
  • Stars: Supernova (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Aranth Brainfire ( 905606 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:24PM (#13430822)
    One word: :'(
    • Yeah. It seems it was too ambitious, I'd have settled for fixing and extending the old game (better AI, more interesting tech, better management etc.).

      There's always freestars [sourceforge.net], but that doesn't seem to be moving very fast.
  • Post-Apocalypse (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bootle ( 816136 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:40PM (#13430975)
    FALLOUT 3.... I wanted it so bad.... *sheds tear*
  • I was eagerly awaiting the release of X-COM Alliance back in '99-2000. It was a FPS with some squad controls set in the X-COM universe and running on the original Unreal engine. Several friends and I were really excited about this game, being both FPS and X-COM fans.

    I also remember reading a little about X-COM: Genesis before it was cancelled. It was a remake of the original X-COM: UFO Defense that was being worked on at the same time Alliance was. And then Hasbro decided X-COM wasn't a brand worth reviving
  • How about Halo? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jayhawk88 ( 160512 ) <jayhawk88@gmail.com> on Monday August 29, 2005 @05:05PM (#13431171)
    Don't get me wrong, Halo was a great game, but way back in the day when Bungie was first talking about Halo, it was going to be this massive multi-genre game, having elements of an FPS, RTS, space sim, and possibly even RPG (though that was probably just hype admitedly). I can remember Battlecruiser3000-esqe usenet threads (minus Derek Smart of course) talking about how this game was going to revolutionize gaming as we know it, immerse you in a fully realized game world, make you toast in the morning and walk the dog.

    Then all of the sudden, it was just another FPS. Well that turned out to not be quite true as Halo was anything but run of the mill, but you can't help but wonder what kind of game Halo would have been had the Bungie guys not got bored of Starcraft.
  • by Zangief ( 461457 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @05:07PM (#13431179) Homepage Journal
    for Dreamcast, and you will have fanboys crying in seconds.
    • Damn you for making me recall that!

      Castlevania Ressurrection would have been a strict action game - which makes it better than any of the recent Castlevanias. After the good but overrated Symphony of the Night, Konami has churned tons of action+RPG mixes - always pretty good, but never great.

      The last Castlevania truly worthy of this name is Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis.
    • I dunno, hasn't Konami since said that the Dreamcast Castlevania got cancelled for sucking? You'd think gamers would be happy about a cancellation like that.
  • What about Golgotha? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by WWWWolf ( 2428 )

    "Wow, Golgotha looks great", thought I so many years back. "I bet I'll be getting one of those Bitboys graphics cards when this comes out." Yes, those were my actual thoughts from that era. My belief in hype and far-off vaporware has been shaken greatly since. =)

    Golgotha seemed like a really good concept. Sad to see that it never got released...

    Not all was lost though, Battlezone had the same idea but more refined execution. Also, the game source and assets were released to PD. I couldn't help but grin

  • Middle Earth Online (Score:3, Interesting)

    by vga_init ( 589198 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @06:03PM (#13431537) Journal
    I awaited that game with bated breath. Sierra Online had done a feature article about it while it was in development in their user magazine. I wasn't alone; quite a few people got excited, only to find out the game was later cancelled. If Sierra hadn't been so stupid and had actually gone ahead and made the game, they would have released it right before the huge LotR craze that hit the US. It could have been big bucks for Sierra and good times for LotR fans like myself.
  • I can't say I really miss Propeller Arena for the Dreamcast - I have a copy, it was leaked a long time ago (try those "backup" sellers or bittorrents). But still, it's sad that such an awesome game, even completed, was canned.

    For more info, check my Propeller Arena Fan Site. [gametribute.com]
    • I can't say I really miss Propeller Arena for the Dreamcast - I have a copy, it was leaked a long time ago (try those "backup" sellers or bittorrents). But still, it's sad that such an awesome game, even completed, was canned.

      Having never heard of this game, and only going by the screenshots on that site, I wonder if you've played the Crimson Skies games? One on PC [gamespot.com] from 2000, much more flight sim-ish; one on Xbox [gamespot.com] from 2003 (with Live support), much more arcadey. Propeller Arena definitely looks simila

    • That looks similar to Wing War, a VR1 powered arcade game from Sega. It was a contemporary of Virtua Racing but had a variety of aircraft (everything from biplanes to Harriers) that you could fly in a city based arena. The game was basically a one on one airbourne deathmatch and in two player mode it was awesome.

      I remember it being mentioned as a potential Dreamcast port back when the console appeared to have a future. Nothing ever came of it though. It is available as a MAME ROM but to my lasting disappo

    • I know it's not the same thing, but judging by some of the screenshots, it looks like some of the design made its way to Monkey Ball 2, especially the dogfight party game...
  • This article [retrogames.com] covers quite a few games - and these are just on one platform! (the ZX spectrum, in case it means something to you). Admittedly, some were ports of games that were released on other platforms, but still.

    The worst has to be when a game ends on a cliffhanger but the sequel is never released. This isn't a problem that's unique to interactive media - this page [tripod.com] lists many TV shows that were cancelled before a cliffhanger could be resolved.
  • by Johnny Mnemonic ( 176043 ) <mdinsmore@g m a i l .com> on Monday August 29, 2005 @07:46PM (#13432092) Homepage Journal

    Half-Life for the Mac, goddamit. Sierra had the thing finished--but didn't go forward to releasing it, purportedly for marketing reasons. So I guess they prefer to lose their entire effort of porting it than spend another 10% to try to sell the thing.

    Which meant no Counter-Strike for the Mac, either, naturally.

    There are still many a Mac gamer that has a bitter, bitter hatred of Sierra for just this reason.
    • Half-Life for the Mac, goddamit. Sierra had the thing finished--but didn't go forward to releasing it, purportedly for marketing reasons. So I guess they prefer to lose their entire effort of porting it than spend another 10% to try to sell the thing.

      You'd think that they could have at least released it as a download. No boxes, no distribution, no middleman. Make the game available as a paid-for download, put the word out to the Mac community, and let them purchase and download it electronically.

      It
      • Keep in mind both bandwidth and customer service are not free. I'm sure the main reason they would can it rather than release it for a direct sale is because then would need to support the alternate Mac version.
        • bandwidth and customer service are not free.

          Um ... which is exactly why I said that it should be a paid-for download. I never said that it should have been free.

          There is nothing saying that Sierra would have to take the calls. They're just distributors. Valve could just as easily been the ones to take the service calls. And for all we know they were ready to.

          For that matter, if Valve had the game finished and Sierra backed away from distribution, why didn't Valve just allow a paid-for download d
          • Yeah it's all conjecture - I would just assume it was a business decision where they looked at the numbers and decided that projected cash coming in from sales would not be worth the cost to maintain and support the Mac version.
            God know what the agreement was between Valve and Sierra, but I'm sure considering the case between Valve and Vivendi (it was them wasn't it?) concerning direct sales via Steam - there probably would have been some sort of contract issue.
            The only other thing to consider is that at th
    • Likewise for Half-Life Dreamcast. It was finished, but they cancelled it for the tax write-off (according to popular myth).

      Though, in all fairness, contemporary marketing costs more than 10% of development -- it's more like 50%-100% for most games.
    • The cancellation of the Mac version of Half-Life was what finally pushed me over to "The Dark Side" in June 1999. That and the fact that with Windows 98SE, finally there was a version of Windows that _began_ to be useable without jumping through too many hoops.
  • The cancellations that I was most surprised to not see mentioned in the article, were: - Babylon 5: Into the Fire - Fear Effect 3 - Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury (mentioned above)
  • Duck Hunt 2- This time you can shoot the giggling dog.
    Avoid the Noid 2- How did Dominoe's Pizza allow this franchise to die?
    Superman 64 part 2- Substitute "purple haze" for "green kryptonite fog", and suddenly the sequel would make sense.
    Catch-22: The Videogame- It would have been the best WWII-themed game ever. The best part is that it was to contain no action gameplay (except perhaps drunk driving in Jeeps and other mischief). Had it been completed it would have been part economic simulation and part non-
    • Duck Hunt 2- This time you can shoot the giggling dog.

      Actually, in the arcade version of duck hunt if you made it far enough, the dog would start to jump up at the ducks from the brush. You could actually shoot him (would cost you the round) and then it show him hobbling along with a bunch of bandages on him. I think he would also wave his fist at you too. I was pretty disappointed that the home version didn't have that 'feature'.
  • I was working on NHL 2K2 for the Dreamcast when Sega decided, "let's not make consoles anymore." Despite the fact that the actual game was completed, it didn't help my career any - I haven't been able to get a salaried job since. Needless to say, I'm a bit disappointed, here in my cardboard box.
  • Babylon 5 (Score:4, Informative)

    by emarkp ( 67813 ) <slashdot&roadq,com> on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @12:20AM (#13433319) Journal
    I'm surprised no one's mentioned the debacle of the Babylon 5 game. It was mostly done, all the cutscenes were shot (with the show's actors and sets). The 3D models were based on the models used to render the show.

    Then Sierra moved the team. Then they dropped the project.

    Then when the developers raised the money to buy the IP, Sierra refused to sell at any price.

    [sigh]

    • And it supposedly had physics accurate space battles. Or at least, more accurate than general. (Ships didn't need constant propulsion, they would keep moving along their original path when turned, etc.)
      • But Frontier did this, and it was very hard to play. If they got it to be playable, then great, but cool ideas don't always work.
        • Independence War 1 and 2, however, really capitalized on Newtonian flight physics. IW2 got it completely right.

          It's an incredible feeling, sliding along the skin of a capital ship while laying down a barrage of fire on its broadside, then blasting out sideways at a crazy angle.

          There's even a conversion from Independence War to a Babylon 5 universe: see Buda 5 [firstones.com].
    • Whats even worse is that (as far as I am aware) Sierra (part of Vivendi Universal) still holds the rights (presumably exclusive rights) to make the B5 game and wont make one OR let anyone else make one.
    • Absolutely. Have you heard the roughly an episode's worth of original music Chris Franke completed for it? It's just marvellous.
  • I am honestly surprised that this was never mentioned by others here. The original had everything that pointed to the makers having all it took to make an exceptionally immersive game without fear of being innovative. Also they actually thought that sound and its effects were a primary element in supporting suspension of disbelief and not some tacked on addendum.

    I still remember being shocked at the wonderful sound of my character walking across snow.

    Outcast 2 cancelled. Truly a bad day for PC games.

  • Crusader: No Remorse and Crusader: No Regret were some of my favorite DOS games. A third was planned, but became one of the first casualties after EA took over Origin Systems.
  • Nintendo has a great puzzle set with Panel de Pon (Yoshi-rebranded as Tetris Attack here), Dr. Mario, and Yoshi's Cookie. For gamecube, with four player modes for each. Which THEY AREN'T SELLING HERE. Seems like they could pretty easily recoup any translation costs, even if they had to redo the exceedingly fairy Panel de Pon as Tetris Attack.

    Jerks. I still gotta drag my SNES around to my friends so we can play the old 2 player version.
  • I was looking at the game True Fantasy Live Online over the internet; I was looking at videos and screenshots and I got really interested in the game. Is there a game similar to this one out already? I mean, the game looks fantastic. It's not too serious, and not too childish. The videos on this page [rpgamer.com] in particular caught my attention. Look at the end of this one (.mov file) [rpgamer.com]... I like it because it looks like something Nintendo might have done (how ironic that it was set out for Xbox). Is there anythi
  • Granted this borders on nostalgia, but I LOVED Master of Magic, as did many of my friends. A turn based strategy game, it came out it 1993 as a DOS game, had its share of bugs even fully patched, and did not work well with Windows. I can't quite put it into words, but nothing since has quite matched it in my eyes. The closest successor would be the Age of Wonders games. I own all three of those, and they still don't have the level of detailed city control that fans of MoM knew and loved.

    For years the
  • It was more than just nearly complete.

    The X-Box version at least was finished and distributed on usenet. It is a great shame that it wasnt released officially it is well deserving of making money and there are few games as addictive and down right fun as it is. With any luck it will gain a cult following and either be released or another game based in the Red Star universe will come out.
  • As a kid, I loved The City, especially because there were so many places that you could *not* go, because those areas were to be in another installment of the game. And The Dungeon was even more fun, with actual quests and alignment. They were supposed to turn it into a MMORPG, but that died around 1999, I think. So, that series had a total of 4 or 5 planned games that were cancelled. This must hold a record somewhere in game history. The music in the game was the best to come out of my Apple IIc's tin
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