Friday, February 02, 2007

M.I.A. games ...

IGN's got a decent article on games for the Xbox, PS2, and GameCube that are missing in action, and any updates they could track down. While candidates for this kind of feature are probably near-limitless, they hit some of the highlights (and common threads are "Acclaim bankruptcy" and "Lionhead Studios").

Here are my comments on a few of the titles.

100 Bullets -- Here's a game that had some opportunity, but that opportunity probably sailed when Austin-based Acclaim tanked, and then games like The Punisher and Hitman came out. Based on the Brian Azzarello comic book of the same name, the game was decently down a path of completion when Acclaim went belly up (and it had some great art assets from Austin-based company The Animation Farm). Unfortunately, it sounds like the D3 Publishing GBA/DS/PC/PS3/PSP/Wii versions don't share anything with the previous effort, and an Xbox 360 version isn't yet mentioned.

Citizen Zero -- This was an MMORPG that looked like it was actually going to happen for the XBox, and didn't. Microsoft's got some cash on the line for this one, and it would be a prime candidate for an Xbox 360/Live Anywhere PC dual release, so we'll see if we hear something about it later this year.

Fallout 3 -- Rumors have actually been rolling around this one lately, and we may hear something from this fan-favorite franchise announced for the Xbox 360 later this year.

The Movies -- AKA "One of many missing Lionhead Studios Games". Seriously, I love the concept, but a console port of this PC title would be a beast, and I don't think your target audience is as plentiful on the former as it is on the latter.

The Red Star -- Another comic-book inspired Acclaim game, but this one was actually "complete" when the company tanked. Jack of All Games picked it up, and will be releasing it for PS2 only this month. Given how bad the Xbox demo was, I'm not that sad. Which is a bummer, since the source content is so good.

StarCraft: Ghost -- This Blizzard title had a lot of fans and industry folks buzzing (the title graced a ton of cover stories), but seems to have gone by the wayside. However, Blizzard's waking up to needing to be more than a one-trick pony with World of Warcraft (though, admittedly, a very profitable one-trick pony), and there are rumblings of new StarCraft and other IP offerings from the company to be announced soon.

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