Abortion, noun,the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. (1)
It wouldn't be unwise to make the assumption that the mere mention of the word mentioned above has the power of inciting a 500-post-long flame war in almost any online community. That word can even hold its own in the face of some stiff competition by evergreen flame-inducers such as "global warming" and "world peace".
But why oh why should that word merit a mention on the blog of a humble gamer? And that too, in a bizarrely titled entry that seemingly has nothing to do with either pregnancy or stem cell research?!
Being an unabashed lover of mathematical equations, I'll try and explain my vague introduction with some interesting substitutions. So, let:
Abortion = Cancellation
human = video game
pregnancy = development project
Upon substituting the values and making some appropriate grammatical changes in definition (1), we have:
Cancellation, noun, the deliberate termination of a videogame development project.
I do beg your pardon for the cringe-inducing introduction (references to Ikari Warrior II wouldn't be misplaced here) but I am a sucker for needless drama. As you've probably guessed by now, this article is about "what could've become of games that ended up being cancelled". I hope that didn't sound too obvious! And I also hope that my facepalm-worthy analogy atleast seems in context now.
Like most of the people who've been following video games for quite a while now, I've had my fair share of heartbreaks while reading about the games I was really looking forward too being cancelled. To have waited patiently for a coveted title for a considerable amount of time only to realize that it was no longer meant to see the (LASER) light of the CD/DVD player didn't do so good for my Hyperacidity problems.
After an initial period of gloom, the reality hit home and my thoughts shifted to how well that game COULD've done - both critically and commercially. And so, in this entry, I wish to present to you a brief countdown of some games that, as my thoughts decreed, would've done pretty well for themselves. I, therefore, give you:
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mYTH_2k4's list of the TOP 10 GAMES... NEVER MADE!
A brief word of caution before I begin narrating my countdown - I am a PC nut. So the following list heavily features titles that would've made a release on my preferred platform of play. This is not to say that there were fewer heartbreaks on the various other platforms out there or that the following is a comprehensive guide to PC may-have-beens. Like every other list ever created, the following is nothing more than an opinion. So, without further ado (can't believe I just wrote that), the countdown is as follows:
10. Marvel Universe Online (Cryptic Studios)
One look at my avatar would tell you that I am a Spiderman fan. So whenever a game featuring the webslinger comes around, I usually try and give it a shot. If only to test whether they implemented my favorite superhero quite the way I wanted them to. Anyway, playing as Spiderman in a single player game is one thing, but playing as him in an open ended universe where I could interact with some guy playing as Iron Man or Captain America or the Human Torch was an idea that sounded way beyond cool! Ofcourse, it is easy to see the logistical problems involved in creating a game which seeks to manifest pre-made comic characters in an online world. The very first problem is simple: Would I get to play as Spiderman? I mean, there can be only ONE Spiderman in the Marvel universe! Or atleast one per server...
That left the character creation alternative open. But what was the use of the Marvel franchise then? Would the Marvel heroes be reduced to interacting with PCs in quests? And wouldn't the character creation option throw the Marvel world open to DC-like creations? I would've loved to explore the answers to those question as more details about the game surfaced, but saying that the game wouldn't meet Microsoft Game Studio's "definition of commercial success", Mr. Shane Kim confirmed the abortion of the game in February 2008. And with that, MGS killed my hopes of getting Spiderman to PvP with Wolverwine.
9. Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End (Headfirst Productions)
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was an exceptionally brilliant game that featured some brilliant gameplay mechanics which made the survival/horror setting of the game that much more realistic. The absence of an HUD coupled with the realistic weapon mechanics and the strong storyline made the game a truly memorable experience. Destiny's End promised to deliver the same and a lot more. The game was to be based in modern-day New England (an intelligent mix of new ideas and a familiar setting) and featured a seamless co-op mode. The sanity meter was revisited and the game, as far as the previews were concerned, looked to maintain nerve-wracking atmosphere of the Cthulhu world. The game was announced in May 2005 and was considered cancelled when Headfirst went down in March 2006. For fans of the Cthulhu franchise atleast, this was a sad loss.
8. Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (Origin Systems)
Ultima Online was, arguably, the most instrumental game in the development of the MMORPG genre and making it the way it is today. The fact that its servers are still up and running today, over a decade after its release, is a testament to its popularity and importance. After its groundbreaking success which saw a whopping 100,000 subscriber registrations in the first 6 months of going live, a sequel seemed inevitable. Ultima Worlds Online: Origin or UO2 was first announced in September 1999. As the development progressed, it became evident to Origin's parent company Electronic Arts that UO2's 3D based graphics, emphasis on grouping and a much more balanced combat and PvP system would eat into UO's (still growing) subscriber base. It was, thus, cancelled in March 2001 for being a threat to the original. For me, that was one of the most shameful cancellations in the history of gaming.
7. Jazz Jackrabbit 3 (Epic MegaGames)
Both Jazz Jackrabbit and its sequel have been among my favorite 2D platformers of all time. Although the quirky and funny storyline seemed to target the younger lot, the very same quirks made for some fascinating and unforgettable level and character designs. The introduction of Spaz in Jazz 2 added loads of variety to the gameplay and made way for some of the funniest idle-sequences I've seen in a game. Jazz 3, the Adventures of a Mean Green Hare, was to mark the transition of the series into the 3D realm and, amazingly, that very transition was built into the storyline! The game was cancelled in May 2000 after Epic failed to find a publisher for what could've been another hare-raising and delightfully wacky adventure.
6. Dungeon Keeper 3: War for the Overworld (Bullfrog Productions)
How many game franchises can boast a tagline even remotely close to this one's assurance of the fact that"Its good to be Evil!"? Not many. And how many franchises can put you in control of such monstrosities as Bile Demons, Horned Reapers and Demon Spawns... all in the same room or area... feeding on chicken? My mind struggles to draw parallels for this dark-on-the-outside but funny-on-the-inside strategy franchise that, for once, tells the tale from the other side and still manages to keep it engaging. And who can forget Richard Ridings' brilliant I-could-care-less commentary as the The Mentor? DK3 was supposed to be set in the surface realm with the Keeper now in direct confrontation with the goodly heroes. Unfortunately, the game spent only a month or so in the conceptual phase and the cancellation was officially announced in August 2000.
To be continued...
I have finished halo wars, got 270points and 17 achievements on my first playthrough...The game is fun, same as the real-time strategy games, from Ensemble...The story was pretty good, the cutscenes were great...I did have a lot have playing this...
The YouTube "behind-the-scenes" commentary trailer for the King of Fighters movie.
I always try to reserve judgement before seeing the final product, but after watching that trailer, well...it's like these people were trying to be as wrong as possible.
What I'm really torn about is whether I want to bother renting it when it inevitably comes rocketing to DVD. Good heavens.
started Assasin's Creed... weird camera (kinda reminds me of the original Ninja Gaiden) and kinda clunky controls...
Just leveled up once agian. 4 months it took me to get to the next level. That is all.
Just read that my favorite vocalist ever, Matthew Chalk (ex Psycroptic), is joining my favorite band ever Spawn of Possession.
Along with ChristianMuenzner (ex Necrophagist) this completes the new Spawn lineup for the first time in the years since Noctambulant, SoP's last album.
Also, June 14th was my 7th year being a GameSpot member (according to the profile), the time does fly eh?
So, after over a year since the first (and only) piece of DLC for Mass Effect was released, this week finally saw a tease of information over at Bioware Towers' Twitter. This information had been long in the coming. Not to mention the bevy of rabid PC fans still waiting for a PC patch to get their copy to work without crashing every few minutes - the last word of which was in January this year.
So, I admit, I was rather excited. Until things started to go wrong that is. BioWare's community forum has been rather busy of late, mostly with people complaining about this lack of information. It got worse when the Community Manager Chris Preistley hinted that what he'd put on Twitter wasn't "an announcement of an announcement" and that it was merely a hunch.
Well, it turned out to be something of a red herring. He's officially apologised and confirmed that not only is there no information to be released at this point but that "there won't be any for a while". How horribly disappointing. This is a major faux pas on BioWare's part. Coupled with a complete media blackout on DLC and PC patches for the best part of six months it goes to show that BW handles games with panache and community management with about as much flair as a dead chimp in a dinner jacket. Chris Priestley is practically infamous in that community for being the man everyone loves to hate. I dare say he's the Doug Lombardi of BioWare when it comes to putting his foot in it.
Of course, I don't claim to be an expert in community management or PR but there are some things in life that are just there to be avoided. Being suggestive about information in view of starving fans, only to thoroughly fail in delivery being one of them.
Oh well... best get back to working toward a level 60 Shepard.
I hope everyone is spending the time the way they like it.. Happy holidays
My new toy is a 2006 Yamaha FZ6, this thing is a death machine.
The previous owner installed some nice mods, such as a Two Brothers exhaust, PowerCommanderIII, frame sliders, tinted windscreen, and a fender eliminator kit.
Half-Life 2 (PC, 2004)
This scene didn't actually appear in the final game, but the rest of Half-Life 2 certainly lived up to the hype.
Despite arriving well past its initial 2003 release date, Half-Life 2 made an earth-shattering impression. It saw the return of the silent, crowbar wielding figurehead of the resistance movement, an unwitting spearhead behind the people's liberation against Dr Breen's oppressive regime: Gordon Freeman.
Much had changed since Gordon's 1998 outing - the game sported a complete visual overhaul (not surprising, considering the six year gap) and with a revolutionary physics system, unforgettable water effects and a gravity defying "gravity" gun, Half-Life 2's new campaign was as timeless as ever.
The seamless blend of chapters helped push home the sentiment of a continuous, freewheeling story taking place over a dozen or so hours, while boat rides and flimsy buggies transported Gordon to his next port of call. Revamped enemy AI helped keep the gunfights as challenging as the original.
Half-Life 2 is still as impressive as it was four years ago. It's the definitive shooting experience with impeccable pacing. While the Steam authentication system is a mild blemish, Half-Life 2 still warrants fourth place.
Today I reached Level 39 here on GameSpot. I'll take this opportunity to talk a little bit about what I've been up to lately.
Spring break is next week, and I am really looking forward to it (as any other sophomore in college would). I have a computer science midterm on Friday, but I've had relatively little work to do lately and have been playing a lot of games. I finally won my 500th ranked online win in GH3, and now the only achievement I don't have in that game is the achievement for getting 750,000 on a single song. Sure, I could dedicate a few weeks of my life to mastering TTFATF or cheating to get the achievement, but screw both of those options. For now I will patiently wait for new songs to be released where it is reasonable to get the 750,000.
Anyways, Spring break is going to be awesome. I'm going to be staying at school and going a few concerts, doing plenty of snowboarding, and of course, playing a game or two. My friend and I are planning on renting Army of Two and going through to co-op, and I also have Condemned 2, SSBB, Burnout Paradise, and a list of other games to play that I haven't finished yet.
To everyone who is either on Spring break or will be going on Spring break, have a fun week!
It's been a long time since I last wrote about feeling dirty about my PS3 purchase. However, that's not the topic of this entry. feel free though to read the previous blog post as well for some background on the whole "dirty" thing.
My launch 360 finally died a hot death a few weeks back. It just stopped displaying anything at all, and despite trying to use different cables, and on a few different sets, it still wouldn't work. It however, did not show the red ring of death as many have done to others... it just stopped working.
I figure I bought one of the first boxes, have purchased (and subsequently sold) over 100 Xbox 360 games as well as the HDDVD kit, not to mention about 12 HDDVD movies and 4 controllers... plus those damn Scene It controllers and a dance pad for my boy. All told around $6000+ worth of 360-centered merchandise. As someone who has spent that kind of green on a company's product, I expect a little leeway with the customer service department.
I call up 1-800-4-my-xbox and encounter one of the rudest customer service reps around. I tell him my problem, and he says "Huh. Sorry to hear that. Send it to us and we'll fix it for $179." 
I explain that I have spent a large wad of cash on their product, and that since the 360 is known to have some hardware quality issues in general, I don't think it's good business to refuse a solid customer a simple repair. He replies "Yeah... do you have the three red lights?" I told him I did not, and he said "Then it's going to be $179."
So yeah... I purchased the 2 year warranty from GameStop, and naturally it was outside of that warranty too so I was pretty much screwed. After looking at all of my games, accessories and everything else that would be worthless without a 360, I opted to use some store credit and a little cash to get a 360 arcade and just snap my HDD onto that instead of having the monkeys at MS have my machine and charge me $179. The thought did run through my mind to trade all the accessories and games in for something else, but I already have both a PS3 and Wii so there wasn't anything big to go for.
In any case Now I feel bent over a barrel by two companies... and I might have even said all three if the Wii didn't grace us with Super Mario Galaxy recently. hehe... That alone justifies it's existence at this point.
In the meantime, I'm writing a pretty scathing letter of complaint to MS and see if they won't fix my old machine for free. If so, I'll probably box one or the other up and eBay it, if not I'll probably crack the box and see what I can do inside with the parts. 
Its been two years since ive been on and posted my blog and stuff i don't get on here to much cause im playing my Xbox 360
If anyone wants to play, be friends or something send me a mesage on xbox live and tell me your from Gamespot. My Gamertag is SpeedyChameleon
Ok after about a good year and a half, I'm back baby!
Guess who's back?
Back again
Dylan's back.
Tell a friend
enough of that cheezy crap
It's been quite some time since I posted anything on here. This are ****ing sweet round here. I moved out of my parents house and now I got an apartment on my own. It's small and **** but it did the trick for a while. But now I'm moving out again, getting a bigger apartment and a real bed...none of this futon nonsense 
. Facebook is the devil and I smoke like a chimney 
Peace out
Man i wonder if anyone else is as excited about me for the release of my small game!!! none of the versions are finished...so dont expect anything really great...seriously
Versions 1,2, and 3 are located in the "Our Projects" Section at www.1337group.tk ..please check it out..its under RebeL ASHs projects...please check it out and give me detailed feedback!!
I mean i would appreciate it if you joined the forums on that site and give me feedback there, cuz it helps me keep it organized...but its really your choice...
Also, the Sims 2=crack.
I'll catch you guys later, i'll do a better journal later on in the week.
We just got some PlayStation 3 games in the office, which is exciting because we don't have a PlayStation 3 in the office yet (UPDATE: We got a PS3 in the office). EA sent over retail copies of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 and Madden NFL 07. The cases are smaller than conventional DVD and Xbox 360 cases. The cases are a bit shorter; however, the width and length seem similar to standard cases. 
We spent a minute ogling the games' stylish, translucent casing, but we soon discovered some disconcerting information when we examined the backs of the games. According to the HD support specifications printed on the back of each case, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 only outputs up to 720p and Madden NFL 07 puts out 480i and 720p. 
You may recall last year, many launch titles for the Xbox 360 received a lukewarm welcome due to a lack of features or lackluster image quality since many of them were quick and dirty Xbox ports. Let's hope that Tiger's 720p on the PS3 is only the result of a quick 360 port and not at all indicative of future resolution support.
We have to admit that Tiger seems happier on the PS3. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions feature the same Tiger picture on the front cover, but Tiger sports an enormous grin on the back cover of the PS3 case compared to a cool gaze on the 360 case.
