Van Buren in IGN's top cancelled games

[Starwars]

Baldurs Gate 3 wasn't actually supposed to Baldurs Gate 3, it's just that Interplay didn't have the rights to name a D&D game anything else than Baldurs Gate at the time (possibly Icewind Dale). It was never supposed to be Baldurs Gate 3, it was a new story set in the Forgotten Realms.

The Black Hound (which I guess was supposed to be the final name if I understand things correctly) is currently being made as a NWN2 mod by JE Sawyer. So we might still see it, though it'll be a long while yet since he's also busy with his official Obsidian stuff. Judging from what info was actually released on the Black Hound, it seemed really promising.

Josh recently started a blog for it which can be found here: http://the-black-hound.com/blog/
And there is an info site on the Black Hound to be found here: http://theblackhound.googlepages.com/

It's such a shame Troika went away, yeah. They really went all out on their game designs, to the point where I could forgive the unfortunate bugginess. All 3 of their games were completely different from one another, and the best parts of each game were... well, really strong. Arcanum was the most "Fallouty" in overall design with strong choices, Temple of Elemental Evil had probably the best RPG combat I've tried (the rest of it was really bland though unfortuantely, my least favourite of their games) and Bloodlines had incredibly strong characters and writing.

 

[Ausir]

Well, I wouldn't cry over BGIII because the storyline of BG was pretty much exhausted by the end of BGII so they would've been better off making a similar game but with a new protagonist, new D&D rules and new setting. I haven't played Arcanum so I don't know, but the Troika PA game is definitely tear-worthy, because their TOEE is one of the best cRPGs... no, THE best cRPG I've ever played.

Baldur's Gate 3: The Black Hound was BG in name only. It was JE Sawyer's original plot that used the BG name only because that was the only D&D title Interplay could still use at that point. Apart from the general gameplay style being similar to the Infinity Engine games and the Forgotten Realms setting it had nothing to do with Baldur's Gate.

 

[Moving Target]

Sort of a wonky list..... I actually got to play SC: Ghost at E3 before it was canned... Trust me, we're not missing a damn thing. The controls were horrible, and the graphics were pretty bad too.

I also agree that this list skipped over Arcanum 2. I mean, really, how the hell do you miss that?!?

 

[Morbus]

Soon.

 

[Eyenixon]

Ultima Worlds Online: Origin

Now there's a game I'm filled with happiness to know that it died a horrible death, the same can be said for the X: Odyssey Ultima title that was to be released later.
The game doesn't belong on that list because all should be thankful that it never existed, the destruction of the Ultima series was a travesty, and Ultima Online played no small part in that role, it was indeed the shift in focus mandated by the cretins at EA that produced the terrible Ultima IX, it was even their incalculable stupidity that had the original script replaced with some absolutely atrocious nonsense that defied canon in every single way.

Reminds me of the Fallout series to be honest, but rather Bethesda is actually placing all their energy into developing the games (the inevitable sequels) as they had done with Fallout 3, which is a startling display of their ineptitude when it comes to game design.

 

[Scare]

I do miss the times I had waiting for Van Buren...

 

[UncannyGarlic]

Some of the projects chosen are legit while others are crap but the research is lacking all around. I'm with Ausir that it makes no sense that it's a PS3 article and not a general article.

A fairly big-name voice cast, internal dev struggles and issues collaborating between studios fairly quickly shunted the game into development hell from which it never escaped.

Err, WarCraft Adventures was canceled because it wasn't up to Blizzard's quality standards (same thing happened to Ghost I do believe)...

Secondly, we want let you know that stopping development was not a decision that was taken lightly. It was a hard call to make, but each of us knows that it was the right choice. The cancellation was not a business or marketing decision or even a statement about the adventure genre. The decision centered around the level of value that we want to give our customers. In essence, it was a case of stepping up and really proving to ourselves and gamers that we will not sell out on the quality of our games.

Maybe soon Brits will be voting for a president in USA?

If only... The Brits would probably elect someone more competent than Americans do. At least the London Times had it right:

How can 59,054,087 People be so Dumb?

 

[TheGM]

Maybe soon Brits will be voting for a president in USA?

If only... The Brits would probably elect someone more competent than Americans do. At least the London Times had it right:

How can 59,054,087 People be so Dumb?

Called Living in the south.

 

[Yazman]

Some of the projects chosen are legit while others are crap but the research is lacking all around. I'm with Ausir that it makes no sense that it's a PS3 article and not a general article.

A fairly big-name voice cast, internal dev struggles and issues collaborating between studios fairly quickly shunted the game into development hell from which it never escaped.

Err, WarCraft Adventures was canceled because it wasn't up to Blizzard's quality standards (same thing happened to Ghost I do believe)...

Secondly, we want let you know that stopping development was not a decision that was taken lightly. It was a hard call to make, but each of us knows that it was the right choice. The cancellation was not a business or marketing decision or even a statement about the adventure genre. The decision centered around the level of value that we want to give our customers. In essence, it was a case of stepping up and really proving to ourselves and gamers that we will not sell out on the quality of our games.

Maybe soon Brits will be voting for a president in USA?

If only... The Brits would probably elect someone more competent than Americans do. At least the London Times had it right:

How can 59,054,087 People be so Dumb?

Just because the official press release says that, it doesn't mean thats the actual reason it was cancelled. There are nearly always internal things that we never find out about.

 

[M-26-7]

I wish Interplay would just release Van Buren. I'd paid for it, even if it was only half-finished. It would still beinteresting. What do they have to loose, all the works already done and paid for?

 

[Ausir]

Interplay can't release anything Fallout-related without Bethesda's approval now.

 

[Moving Target]

Yup. Good ol' Herve, huh? Really looking out for the fans. What a guy.....

Just because the official press release says that, it doesn't mean thats the actual reason it was cancelled. There are nearly always internal things that we never find out about.

I will repeat my earlier point: SC: Ghost SUCKED. It really did.

By way of comparison, that was the same E3 where I played a demo of Hellgate: London... and I was blown away by that (though it may have been because SC:Ghost was so awful.)

If WC:Adventures was anything close to the same level of suckage, we're much better off without it. And since it was shuttered in almost exactly the same way, I'm inclined to agree that the project was ended due to low quality.

 

[Ausir]

I think WC:A was canned mostly because by the time it was to be published, Blizzard considered old school adventure games outdated, not because of the inherent quality of the story. The trailer was IMHO quite promising, and despite cancellation, Blizzard still considers its plot canon (it was used as background for WC3).

 

[Moving Target]

Ah. I see. Never knew that.

I did know about the WC3/WCA connection, though. I also know that those connections, as well as the massive changes in gameplay, pissed off a lot of old WC fans.

I liked the game, personally, but it did seem to lose quite a bit of that "Warcraft flavor". It really felt like I was playing the Protoss through the entire game- like it wasn't really a bunch of different factions, but just one with some minor differences in town setup and mobility. The models themselves were entirely too much alike; there was one of everything (at least) for each faction.

 

[Ausir]

This is what Roper said:

I think that one of the big problems with WarCraft Adventures was that we were actually creating a traditional adventure game, and what people expected from an adventure game, and very honestly what we expected from an adventure game, changed over the course of the project. And when we got to the point where we cancelled it, it was just because we looked at where we were and said, you know, this would have been great three years ago.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

Just because the official press release says that, it doesn't mean thats the actual reason it was cancelled. There are nearly always internal things that we never find out about.

Check out the wikipedia page on it, they sight interviews with devs and such and it was basically canceled because it wasn't good enough and wasn't different enough.

This is what Roper said:
<snip>

It also didn't help that the guy they hired for QA on the puzzles and their cohesion basically came to the conclusion that a fair amount of the game would have to be redone.

Blizzard hired Steve Meretzky, creator of A Mind Forever Voyaging and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy computer games, as a design specialist to help refine the puzzles and make them further cohesive with the narrative. Meretzky spent two weeks with the developers looking over the game for up to fourteen hours a day and it was decided that sequences of the game had to be rewritten which would involve more animation and more dubbing.

Was it a good game? Maybe, maybe not but what is clear is that Blizzard was not happy with the final product (for various reasons) and thus they canned it. That said, I probably would have enjoyed it more than WarCraft 3, a game which really failed to deliver (IMO), especially compared to StarCraft. I'm not saying that it's a bad game, just that it really didn't stand out as a great product