Have you ever read about an upcoming game that sounded exciting, but then you lost enthusiasm due to the lack of updates that followed? Maybe you didn't even recognize it at the time, because the game just faded from your consciousness. Like many gamers, I like to follow the progress of games I'm excited about from development to release. I enjoy watching all the informative developer interview videos along the way, but when all publicly released progress is nonexistent, you have to wonder what the heck is going on with these games. A lack of progress or information can also lead to games being canned as interest appears to wane.
With that said, I'd like to bring to light a number of games whose presence has simply fallen off the face of the earth since their initial announcement. Some of these may be more familiar, but we're avoiding the most noteworthy titles that "everyone" already knows about. (Yes, Duke, I'm talking about you!) As always, I am platform agnostic, so the following titles may be for PC, Xbox 360, PS3, or some combination of those.
Originally referred to as Project IM, Interstellar Marines wowed fans of first person shooters everywhere with an incredible looking trailer shown off at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2006. You can still see this trailer at the official site. Although there were a few updates that lead up to the release of this trailer, not one official word has been uttered since. Even though many game sites have the game listed with a release date of TBA 2008, it has been updated each passing year with TBA 2006 and TBA 2007. Needless to say, we know very little about this game other than its potential to be a huge hit. Here's to hoping that its developer, ZeroPointSoft, will be dropping some new info about the game really soon.
In 2005, Tarsier Studios announced a forthcoming fantasy-action-adventure game, titled simply Metronome. Updated to City of Metronome, the game stood out from the crowd with its unique art style and wildly imaginative characters. This game also suffers from a lack of public knowledge. However, things haven't been completely quiet. In 2006, an odd piece of information was released. It stated that the game's original concept, which consisted of your character capturing various sounds with a recording device and playing them back to manipulate your surroundings and entrance your enemies, was scrapped. This was reportedly due to the game's prospective yet unnamed publisher claiming that the concept was not marketable. What a shame - it sounded great to me. Still, beyond this announcement, no updates have been made public. In the smaller image above, you can see the original concept at work. Although the game's official site remains active, there are no hints of the game's progress or links to bring visitors beyond the main page.
Coded Arms: Assault is a PS3 exclusive that has flown under the radar since a playable demo of the game was showcased at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show. With only a target release date planned, the demo reportedly showed a lack of polish that resulted in a turn-off for many of the fans that experienced it. After the many rumors that the sci-fi first person shooter was cancelled, a representative of developer Konami recently stated that that there were "currently no plans" to release the game for the PlayStation 3. While many took this statement to mean the game had been cancelled, a more recent buzz has emerged stating that the game is simply on hiatus. Whatever the case, Coded Arms: Assault is definitely missing in action.
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JarredWalton - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
If you heard that, it certainly wasn't from Blizzard. They will almost certainly do another Diablo at some point, but when? Given WoW and SC2, I think it will be a while before Diablo 3 is released... though it's probably under development to some degree already.MamiyaOtaru - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
Check back after the Blizzard World Wide Invitational (starting today I think). Rumours are pretty heavy they are announcing Diable 3. Blizzard have been dropping hints, and a lot of people are certain they point to D3. We'll see soon enough.Imaginer - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
And looks like they would play the same too...Personally, if you seen one... you might as well have seen them all. For me, I am not holding my breath for any of them or even compelled. Unless someone can convince me otherwise...
I just might be showing my age as well.
GhandiInstinct - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
Keep it up Eddie.You could have made the list shorter as the only good anticipated games are:
Heavy Rain
Alan Wake
Project Offset
Elveon
BTW, not even game sites do articles like this, which are important.
Thanks again.
PointlesS - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
Awesome article...there's a bunch that I remember seeing but have till now left my mindDukeN - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
I'm not coming out....because I'm straight :)
Give it up folks.
Rainman200 - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
If 2 Days to Vegas was dropped from the consoles that is a warning sign that the developer was not up to the task, financial troubles, could not meet certain QA goals etc from Sony/MS.Most games die before being seen by the public the ones that make are the lucky few and many of the ones you have listed are unfortunate enough or stupid enough to announce/show early builds only for the project to be canned. I'd say no more 2 of the games you listed will ever see the light of day.
FYI the Indiana Jones game was never in development, Lucasarts is staffed by a bunch of lier's these days and the screenshot you used was from a tech demo not an actual game. The game was only just recently green lit but don't expect it any time soon especially if SW: The Force Unleashed bombs. Lucasarts plan to dig itself out of it's grave is to outsource everything so someone like EA/Activision will probably pick up duties for making any future Indy games and the in-house project will be killed off.
nycromes - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
Thanks for the list, it opened my eyes to a few titles I missed over the past few years and even some I forgot about.Maybe someone from one of the development companies will stumble on this list and realize they have an unrealized gold mine waiting to be worked on... the golden rule always applies - Money talks.
I am glad to see some game articles popping up here and there, in actuality the articles have been very informative and some have tackled titles that I was previously unaware of.
I am all for Anandtech expanding its focus (just not too far). Obviously many of it's regular readers share a love for games, this just makes sense IMHO. Great work, keep the great articles coming.
iamauser - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
...but I've come to Anandtech for literally years for reliable hardware reviews. If the kind of fluff that's been showing up on the front page lately is a deliberate change in editorial direction, well, no sir, I don't much like it.RamIt - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link
"...but I've come to Anandtech for literally years for reliable hardware reviews. If the kind of fluff that's been showing up on the front page lately is a deliberate change in editorial direction, well, no sir, I don't much like it."Agreed. I prefer what the site was based on. There are far better sites to get game info from.