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The Halo franchise is one that pulls in billions of dollars for Microsoft, with each release breaking records and moving Xbox hardware in ways that other game developers can only dream of. Live action shorts, toys and other merchandise, web comedy series, books and graphic novels, animated movies, and all other kinds of media have been created in celebration of the property. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or not, there’s little doubt that you’ve heard of Halo. Let’s take a trip back through time to see where this franchise had its humble beginnings.
The Command & Conquer series is one of the most successful real-time strategy franchises of all time. From the original “Tiberium” games to the Red Alert spin-offs, the Generals entries, and beyond, the series has consistently produced some of the most exciting RTS experiences available, with a focus on intense action sequences supported by light base-building and resource-gathering elements.
While the Command & Conquer games were a great addition to any real-time strategy gamer’s collection, the series was never able to successfully cross over into other genres, like the lucrative first-person shooter category of games. Command & Conquer Renegade attempted to bridge the gap in 2002, but only received a lukewarm reception, offering a mediocre single-player campaign with some fun but short-lived multiplayer
The Command & Conquer franchise seems like it would translate over to the 3D action realm perfectly: it has a rich, campy backstory that would provide the perfect backdrop for an over-the-top action game akin to the Call of Duty or Battlefield franchise, and the series’ strategic roots could lead to some innovative base-building elements in a first-person shooter game, especially in the multiplayer realm.
So it was heartbreaking for fans of the series to discover that a very promising, first-person take on the Command & Conquer games was cancelled shortly after its announcement in 2008, having been canned by EA Games. That game was dubbed simply “Tiberium.”
The mid-2000s were plagued with dime-a-dozen action games for the PlayStation 2, Gamecube, and Xbox consoles, with a new third-person hack-and-slash game seemingly being released every other week. Nearly all of them were forgettable experiences, best relegated to gamers’ collective memories.
But one action game for the Playstation 2 captured gamer’s hearts in 2005: that game was God of War, a wild third-person action game that kicked off a franchise that has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.
Join us at GVMERS as we take a look back at the evolution of God of War.
Star Wars is one of the most popular settings in all of video games, so it’s no surprise that its owners are continually looking to create new bestselling games in the galaxy far, far away. But for every smash-hit like the Jedi Knight series, Battlefront, and Knights of the Old Republic, there are several games that never see the light of day. Games are cancelled for any of a number of reasons. But whether it’s the publisher canning the game late in development or an early concept that never gets fleshed out, it’s always disappointing to see games with huge potential left on the cutting room floor.
Join us now on GVMERS as we look at some of the most prominent cancelled Star Wars games.
Among games that have defined the Real-Time Strategy genre, Command & Conquer is seen as one of the most influential titles. The C&C franchise, along with Warcraft and Starcraft, shaped the identity of RTS games during the '90s and would influence the designs of countless similar strategy titles in later years. Even though the franchise ended with a whimper instead of a bang, it managed to create an indelible impact on the history of videogames. Join us as we take a look at the rise and fall of Command & Conquer.
In the early 2000s, the first-person shooter landscape was a crowded one. An overabundance of Halo rip-offs and World War 2 shooters had flooded the market, and it seemed like every other week a new generic shooter was hitting consoles or the PC platform. While there were many great action games that came out of this era, there were a dozen mediocre, forgettable first-person shooters for every great one that stood the test of time.
Enter Prey, an innovative first-person shooter released in 2006 that took spectacular risks with its unique gameplay and setting. The game kicks off by dropping the player into the shoes of a Cherokee named Tommy who’s abducted off a reservation into an alien spaceship—and it only gets crazier from there. The detailed, highly interactive opening sequences of the game gave way to inventive level designs that most other shooters of the day could only dream of achieving.
Letting the player use a host of bizarre weapons and powerful Spirit abilities, the game eschewed traditional shooter mechanics throughout the single-player campaign, and further let players fool around with its wild ideas in multiplayer matches. Featuring tons of unique ideas like walking on walls and ceilings, letting players warp through portals sprinkled throughout the levels, and dropping players in levels that break the laws of gravity, the game was a truly memorable experience from start to finish.
While the game didn’t achieve a blockbuster level of success, sales were healthy for a brand-new IP, especially one as off-the-wall as Prey, with over one million copies sold. With positive critical reception and a solid start to the franchise, Prey went down in the history books as a standout from the usual shooter fare.
What is this Redux and why did we make it?
First off, I'd like to thank Plokite_Wolf and Cypher for helping us revise and rectify some of the errors and expanding on the information of our first script. After having published our first 'version' of the video, it was brought to our attention that some of the information provided was either incorrect or needed to be elaborated on. I regret the fact that this has happened, as fans of the series we wanted to make a franchise analysis that takes the viewer through the highs and lows of the series as well as tell the stories of the developers at EALA and Westwood in detail. Making a documentary-style video about Command & Conquer has, personally, been one of my long-time goals but I didn't feel that it was fully achieved in our first video. The story of Command & Conquer is very nuanced and the Redux, or Revision or V2 (whatever you like to call it) seeks to tell this more accurately, with 10+ minutes of additional information I feel like this is a much more interesting video for fans of the series.
Sorry to those of you who were waiting on a new video, our regular content schedule will resume now and I hope to have a new (exciting) video online next week! :)
Among games that have defined the Real-Time Strategy genre, Command & Conquer is seen as one of the most influential titles. The C&C franchise, along with Warcraft and Starcraft, shaped the identity of RTS games during the '90s and would influence the designs of countless similar strategy titles in later years. Even though the franchise ended with a whimper instead of a bang, it managed to create an indelible impact on the history of videogames. Join us as we take a look at the rise and fall of Command & Conquer.
We'd like to thank Nathan Cheever, the lead mission designer on Six Days in Fallujah, for assisting and advising us on this project. If you'd like to find out more about the game, he has a page dedicated to it here: http://www.curiousconstructs.com/game...
After the release of the critically-acclaimed first-person shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the video game market was perpetually flooded with war-themed games for a decade. Open-world levels and exotic weapons commonly seen in the likes of iconic shooters from the nineties - these including DOOM, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D - were dropped in favor of linear levels and realistic weaponry. Game plots were no longer mere backdrops for the action, and a large cast of characters would be integral to what’s going on. The days of macho, muscle-bound, one-man-army protagonists was over.
While most modern military shooters were works of fiction loosely based on contemporary events, Six Days in Fallujah, a third-person tactical shooter developed by Atomic Games, was intended to be a virtual depiction of the Iraq War’s Second Battle of Fallujah of late-2004. This was a joint-offensive comprised of US, British, and Iraqi fighters. After the first battle in April, which took place after a small private security team were killed by Iraqi insurgents, it was discovered that that an estimated 3,000 members of this militia had set up their operations within the city of 250,000 people. An emergency evacuation allowed the Coalition to fight without fear of any civilians being caught in the crossfire.
Collectively, over 100 Coalition fighters were killed and 1,000 injured. According to the Red Cross, around 800 civilians also lost their lives during the conflict. Much of the city was left in ruins from the battle, leaving many men and women homeless as a result. In summary, to call it a sweeping victory for the Coalition would be painfully inaccurate.
Due to the critical backlash from the mainstream press, anti-wa
The brilliance of F.E.A.R. and the lessons we can learn from it.
Ever since the first-person shooter was popularized in the 1990s, several titles in the genre have attempted to do one of two things, or both, to capitalize on the kinetic feeling of immersion that comes with experiencing the game world and its going-ons through the eyes of the avatar: a) by empowering the gamer with a wide array of weapons and letting them loose on a virtual space chock-full of hostile NPCs all too happy to riddle their quarry with lead and b), by dropping the player in an environment that not only puts their navigational skills to the test, but also engrosses them with a tangible atmosphere that can prove inviting or unsettling.
It’s a two-part formula that has stood the test of time for over 25 years, and it’s one that developers have been more than eager to iterate upon in sundry ways. With the advancement of technology, games have built upon the shooter template with more dramatic storylines, customization options, gameplay modes, and an emphasis on human competition. These are design choices that have embellished the template and attracted wider audiences, a development that was especially conspicuous during the last console generation with works such as Modern Warfare setting trends that defined the modern military FPS. Suffice it to say that the arcade-y and skill-based roots of the genre were gradually being diluted.
For players that solely seek in shooters the raw satisfaction of blasting their virtual foes to pieces with boom-sticks while simultaneously traversing dynamic locales that captivate the senses and keep them on their toes, this sort of philosophy generally came across as a missed opportunity to distill and perfect the two halves of the formula. A few titles did, however, put an extra emphasis on the core FPS blueprint, and fewer still actually came close to perfecting it. And there is one first-person shooter in particular that stands out. One that
In 1998, following the release of the critically-acclaimed Half-Life, Valve Software assigned themselves with the difficult task of creating a sequel that would not only live up to fans' expectations, but surpass them in every way. Half-Life 2 would feature an exciting new engine capable of rendering the game-world in stunning photo-realism, an engaging story, as well as a diverse set of characters and enemies. It was one of the most ambitious projects in gaming history, sadly, it would also prove to be one of the most troubled ones. With the game having suffered a number of delays and at one point even being leaked to the public in its entirety, to say that Half-Life 2's development was a stressful challenge for its creators to overcome would be putting it mildly.
Even though Valve's hard work proved to be worth the wait when Half-Life 2 was met with acclaim from fans and critics alike on release, the troubled history behind the game would foreshadow the uncertain future of the series as a whole.
While fans kept themselves busy by modding the game to no end, the company decided to work on additional episodes for the game. Episode 1 and 2 were developed simultaneously, this aided the developers in streamlining the story between the two games and allowed them to create an immersive and seamless experience for the player. Episode 1 was praised on release in 2006, much like Episode 2 in 2007, which ended on an ambiguous cliffhanger.
According to interviews, the third episode of Half-Life 2 was to be released sometime after The Orange Box’s release, and would consequently wrap up all of the loose ends. Yet, mysteriously, nothing came of the sort.
Surprisingly, the add-ons didn’t stop at number 3. On the contrary; other companies were in fact commissioned to work on additional episodes, yet, none of them saw the light of day. Thankfully, fans of the beloved series have devoted themselves to unearth as much information as possible regarding these enigmat
Medal of Honor. A series that has forever changed the way first person shooters are made. When the franchise debuted in 1999, no other action game had managed to successfully capture the intensity of the 2nd World War for which Medal of Honor is now famous. Its cinematic scope was a breath of fresh air in a crowded market of formulaic shooters and it quickly became the design template that many other developers would base their games upon. Even if you’ve never played a Medal of Honor game, you’ve certainly felt the repercussion of the iconic series.
But what happened to EA’s once-great property? The franchise that formerly saw massive, worldwide success, with games that kept raising the bar for other first person shooters, hasn’t seen a release since 2012. To answer this question, we will not only cover the story behind the series’ rise to prominence and ultimate downfall but also provide a comprehensive overview of all the Medal of Honor games that have and haven’t seen the light of day.
The nature of video game development is such that games are often developed by large teams with a collaborative approach to creativity. While certain individuals within a team might possess more experience or sway than others, development studios are often trepid to present their works as being auteur-driven – as being directed by a singular artist that controls all creative aspects of the work, and imbues it with a recognizable style associated with them alone. But Konami’s Metal Gear Solid series is a notable exception to this trend. From the release of the original Metal Gear in 1987, to the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain in 2015, the series and its unique brand of military escapism mixed with magical realism has been inexorably linked with its auteurist guidance by series director and writer, Hideo Kojima.
However, while this auteurism enabled the series to be uncompromising in its ambitions in ways many other triple-A video game franchises cannot afford to be, many compromises were made to the Metal Gear Solid franchise all the same. Be it due to time constraints, hardware limitations, creative disagreements, or whatever other reason one could imagine, Metal Gear Solid – just like any other video game franchise – was built upon innumerable rejected concepts and ideas. With the future of the series highly uncertain following the departure of Hideo Kojima and other notable talents attached to the series from Konami, we felt that it would be worthwhile to investigate some of the series’ more fleshed-out rebuffs, to both wonder about what could have been – and show how many of these failures served as the foundation for future successes. From an ambitious iteration of Metal Gear Solid 2 featuring great white sharks and a mind-reading mask, to a subversive spin-off that went as far as to be showcased on-stage at E3 before being cancelled, and then revived under a different name and developer, the history of the Metal Gear Solid seri
When looking back at the evolution of videogame technology, the mid-2000s were, perhaps, some of the most pivotal years. Sony and Microsoft ushered in the next generation of console hardware by releasing the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 respectively, allowing developers to create far more impressive engines to power their ambitious games, and titles such as FEAR, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 were pushing the envelope with their unparalleled graphics and physics simulations.
It was during these turbulent years that a small group of indie developers teased the public with a game so impressive in both visuals and design that it managed to stand out among its substantially bigger-budgeted contemporaries and would remain relevant years after its unveiling.
First showcased to the world in 2005, the fantasy-themed action game Project Offset was trapped in development for five more years, with intentions on being released on the PC, while ports for the 7th generation of consoles were considered as well.
Alas, the game was canned completely in 2010, yet its publishers-to-be never officially clarified why.
So, what did Project Offset bring to the table, aside from its impressive graphics? What happened during development? And, more importantly, why was it cancelled after so long?
Imagine the following scenario: you, the player, are tasked with stealing top-secret documents from a former research institute-turned-military complex swarming with enemies. You manage to slip into the main building undetected, narrowly avoiding the eyesight of your adversaries – but just as you reach the target, you are spotted, and the alarm goes off. Undeterred, you reload your previous save with the intention of making the alert go away – only to be confronted with the same relentless wailing. You load the next save in your list – and once again, the haunting sound is still there. It’s as if the ghost of your previous, inept incarnation has polluted your world with its spectral presence – and there’s nothing you can do about it.
This scene epitomizes the often baffling, yet thoroughly fascinating series of first person shooter survival horror games developed by GSC Game World, Stalker. Stalker is not a series of finished products, but rather, a work-in-progress, a palimpsest whose texture inscribes the history of its troubled development. All the hardships, discarded ideas, and unrealistic ambitions that dogged the games’ development haunt them in the form of innumerable bugs and frustrating design flaws. And yet, despite – or perhaps even because of these faults, the series managed to attract a sizeable cult following, spawning an abundance of mods, fanfiction, novels, as well as films, and even inspire courageous fans to enact their fantasies in the game’s real life setting: the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The story of the Stalker series illustrates that sometimes, success is only possible if it straddles the border of disaster.
In the summer of 2006, development studio Obsidian Entertainment received a call from Sega. Impressed with Obsidian’s work designing story-based role-playing games with a strong emphasis on player choice, Sega expressed it’s interested in having Obsidian develop a role playing game based on an original IP for them. Obsidian agreed to the offer, and in 2006, this title – a third-person espionage-role-playing game which would become known as Alpha Protocol – would begin development in rigor.
Sadly, much of Alpha Protocol’s development would be fraught with trouble, with Obsidian’s staff unable to define a clear direction for the game, and lacking experience designing stealth-based gameplay. However, in the midst of this, Obsidian would receive yet another offer from Sega. This time, Sega was interested in contracting the studio’s talents to develop a game based on one of the publisher’s more lucrative properties: the Alien franchise.
While this game – Aliens Crucible – would ultimately end up being cancelled at Sega’s behest, what information that has emerged about the game in the years following its demise suggests that Obsidian Entertainment may have had something truly special on their hands. More than just an RPG in an Alien mold, Aliens Crucible would have featured a macabre return to the franchise’s horror roots bolstered by Obsidian’s expertise in crafting meaningful player choice, making for what could have been an enticing proposition for both fans of Obsidian Entertainment and the Alien franchise alike.
