Which One of These Games Would You Have Most Liked to See Eventuate?
Here are five games that we're planned, and some have even been in production, but have never been completed. I know that there are more games than this that were never finished and that many people would love to have played, but these are some of the names that come to mind that I have heard people on these forums mention.
Sam & Max: Freelance Police
A sequel to the popular point-and-click adventure game 'Sam & Max: Hit The Road', LucasArts began development on 'Freelance Police' in 2002. Lead developer Michael Stemmle collaborated with creator of Sam & Max Steve Purcell, who assisted in plot development and led artistic direction. The game would contain 19 mini-games and, according to Stemmle, would be composed of six small stories that would be held together by an über-plot. The game would be in 3D and would feature the classic point-and-click interface. The game's development was powering along before it was suddenly canceled by the monkeys running (or should I say ruining?) LucasArts at the time. After the game's cancellation, Purcell gave his views on the decision:
"LucasArts' sudden decision to stop production on Sam & Max is mystifying. Sam & Max was on schedule and coming together beautifully. I couldn't have been more pleased with the quality of the writing, gameplay, hilarious animation and the gorgeous 3D world that Mike Stemmle's team has created. The rug has been pulled out from under this brilliant team who've so expertly retooled Sam & Max for the 21st century. I'm extremely frustrated and disappointed especially for the team who have devoted so much effort and creativity to Sam & Max. It's a shame to think that their accomplishments, as well as the goodwill that has been growing in the gaming press toward this project, will all go to waste due to this shortsighted decision."
Full Throttle: Payback
LucasArts began production on this game in 2000. Schafer had left the company by this time, so Larry Ahern took the role of the project leader with Bill Tiller as the art director. The game's story involved Ben Throttle - the game's main and playable character - aiming to foil the plan of a large corporation and the local governor who planned to replace all stretches of paved highways with hover pads; a plan that didn't sit well with the bikers and truckers. Ben would apparently prevent an assassination on Father Torque - the leader of the anti-hovercraft rally - before teaming up with a "persistent undercover female reporter" to bring down the villainous governor. The game would apparently include dozens of new locations. 25% of the levels and 40% of the pre-production artwork of Payback were completed before the project ceased in November of 2000. While no official statement was given, Tiller later said that the project fell apart due to "a major difference of opinion between the team and a particularly influential person, who didn't like the direction we were going. And in the end those differences could not be resolved".
Insecticide Part 2
Insecticide is an adventure/action/platformer game by Crackpot Entertainment. The game was created and designed by ex-LucasArts employees Mike Levine and Larry Ahern as well as Josh Mandel of Sierra Entertainment. The game takes place in a city named Troy, in a world where insects have evolved and become the 'dominant race' while humans have devolved into pathetic creatures living on the outskirts of cities. The story follows protagonist Detective Chrys Liszt and her veteran partner Detective Roachy Caruthers who are currently on their latest, biggest and most mysterious case. Insecticide was originally planned as a two-part episodic game which was to be published by Gamecock Media Group. The first episode was released and distributed digitally with the second episode well into production. Unfortunately Gamecock was acquired by Southpeak games in 2008 and, with the company having no intentions of releasing 'Part 2', it was never released. Insecticide currently only exists in its full form on the Nintendo DS, but it's a rather large downgrade from the PC version.
Duke Nukem Forever
Eh... no... please don't make me...
Just read/watch...
Ron Gilbert's Monkey Island 3
Ron Gilbert was, of course, the creator of Monkey Island, the Monkey Island world and all of the characters (from the first two games). He was the lead designer of The Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck's Revenge. LeChuck's Revenge ended with some rather big cliffhangers and left the players with many unanswered questions; questions that were to be answered in the third Monkey Island game of what was to be a trilogy of MI games. But Ron left LucasArts before he could create the third game and LucasArts instead released Curse of Monkey Island which didn't exactly answer the questions at all. No, Ron Gilbert's MI3 was never in production, but Gilbert has stated that he has the storyline in his head and that he did write a brief storyline at one point.
So, which of these games would you have most liked to have seen finished and released and on your shelf as we speak?
Edit: The title of this thread should probably say "Which One of These Games Would You Have Most Liked to Have Seen Eventuate?", as it doesn't exactly make much sense in its existing form.
Sam & Max: Freelance Police
A sequel to the popular point-and-click adventure game 'Sam & Max: Hit The Road', LucasArts began development on 'Freelance Police' in 2002. Lead developer Michael Stemmle collaborated with creator of Sam & Max Steve Purcell, who assisted in plot development and led artistic direction. The game would contain 19 mini-games and, according to Stemmle, would be composed of six small stories that would be held together by an über-plot. The game would be in 3D and would feature the classic point-and-click interface. The game's development was powering along before it was suddenly canceled by the monkeys running (or should I say ruining?) LucasArts at the time. After the game's cancellation, Purcell gave his views on the decision:
"LucasArts' sudden decision to stop production on Sam & Max is mystifying. Sam & Max was on schedule and coming together beautifully. I couldn't have been more pleased with the quality of the writing, gameplay, hilarious animation and the gorgeous 3D world that Mike Stemmle's team has created. The rug has been pulled out from under this brilliant team who've so expertly retooled Sam & Max for the 21st century. I'm extremely frustrated and disappointed especially for the team who have devoted so much effort and creativity to Sam & Max. It's a shame to think that their accomplishments, as well as the goodwill that has been growing in the gaming press toward this project, will all go to waste due to this shortsighted decision."
Full Throttle: Payback
LucasArts began production on this game in 2000. Schafer had left the company by this time, so Larry Ahern took the role of the project leader with Bill Tiller as the art director. The game's story involved Ben Throttle - the game's main and playable character - aiming to foil the plan of a large corporation and the local governor who planned to replace all stretches of paved highways with hover pads; a plan that didn't sit well with the bikers and truckers. Ben would apparently prevent an assassination on Father Torque - the leader of the anti-hovercraft rally - before teaming up with a "persistent undercover female reporter" to bring down the villainous governor. The game would apparently include dozens of new locations. 25% of the levels and 40% of the pre-production artwork of Payback were completed before the project ceased in November of 2000. While no official statement was given, Tiller later said that the project fell apart due to "a major difference of opinion between the team and a particularly influential person, who didn't like the direction we were going. And in the end those differences could not be resolved".
Insecticide Part 2
Insecticide is an adventure/action/platformer game by Crackpot Entertainment. The game was created and designed by ex-LucasArts employees Mike Levine and Larry Ahern as well as Josh Mandel of Sierra Entertainment. The game takes place in a city named Troy, in a world where insects have evolved and become the 'dominant race' while humans have devolved into pathetic creatures living on the outskirts of cities. The story follows protagonist Detective Chrys Liszt and her veteran partner Detective Roachy Caruthers who are currently on their latest, biggest and most mysterious case. Insecticide was originally planned as a two-part episodic game which was to be published by Gamecock Media Group. The first episode was released and distributed digitally with the second episode well into production. Unfortunately Gamecock was acquired by Southpeak games in 2008 and, with the company having no intentions of releasing 'Part 2', it was never released. Insecticide currently only exists in its full form on the Nintendo DS, but it's a rather large downgrade from the PC version.
Duke Nukem Forever
Eh... no... please don't make me...
Just read/watch...
Ron Gilbert's Monkey Island 3
Ron Gilbert was, of course, the creator of Monkey Island, the Monkey Island world and all of the characters (from the first two games). He was the lead designer of The Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck's Revenge. LeChuck's Revenge ended with some rather big cliffhangers and left the players with many unanswered questions; questions that were to be answered in the third Monkey Island game of what was to be a trilogy of MI games. But Ron left LucasArts before he could create the third game and LucasArts instead released Curse of Monkey Island which didn't exactly answer the questions at all. No, Ron Gilbert's MI3 was never in production, but Gilbert has stated that he has the storyline in his head and that he did write a brief storyline at one point.
So, which of these games would you have most liked to have seen finished and released and on your shelf as we speak?
Edit: The title of this thread should probably say "Which One of These Games Would You Have Most Liked to Have Seen Eventuate?", as it doesn't exactly make much sense in its existing form.
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Comments
I would have played it if it had come out instead of Curse, but I'll never know which I would have liked best.
As for Freelance Police, that's a what-if situation that's potentially scary for me. Depending on how that game played out, it's possible we wouldn't have Telltale, and I'll take their three seasons of Sam & Max and their revival of Monkey Island over Freelance Police any day.
And speaking of Monkey Island, I'm one of those who believe that Ron never came up with more than a vague idea of what he would've done with MI3. Maybe some plot points or a resolution to the carnival thing, but certainly not a full idea of the entire game. As far as I'm concerned, there's no unrealized game there, and Curse did an admirable job of picking up the storyline, and if there was no Curse, I wouldn't be posting here today.
I remember some Sam&Max Freelance police renderings in game magazines, sigh.
It doesn't mean I'll like the intended explanation, necessarily. But I still want to know.
Don't worry about that too much, neither did I and I'm a native English speaker.
Full Throttle never really appealed to me. I didn't like the bike battles and it was too short.
I never realized CMI wasn't the original creator's idea for a sequel until much later, so it's always been the official version for me.
And Insecticide and Duke Nukem aren't my type of games.
Listen to this man, people! Only if it is because he has the same opinion as me, do as I say!
Not familiar with Insecticide (but it looks pretty cool) or Duke Nukem, and even though Full Throttle is one of my favourite games I'm not all that keen on the sequel ideas for it.
I wouldn't be against a Full Throttle sequel, but I don't really like either of the sequel concepts that were worked on in the past.
I honestly don't want to see him step in and take full control of a franchise that he respectably "left" several, and several more years ago.
People need to move on, give us something new and different. The franchise has evolved and as much as I value Ron's input and insights I don't think we need to go back to square 1.
I chose MI3. But Freelance Police wasn't far behind.
My vote is going with MI3, though I'm not going to be upset when this doesn't happen. I'll be happy with new Monkey Island dialogue, whichever game it may come with.
I did like those things as part of the unique humour of MI. But because everything was left open ended, I always lean toward SMI as my favorite game. It followed a nice story arc, with an ending, as well as the interesting characters and fun dialogue.
Although some of the scenes on Booty Island are my favorites, the overall favorite game has to go to SMI. However, if I found out the ending and reason behind all the craziness in LR, I might lean that way instead.
While Freelance Police might be interesting to see, I think Telltale has done such a superb job on their Sam & Max games that I really don't need to.
Other titles I would have loved to play are Warcraft Adventures, Loom 2+3, Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, Space Quest 7...
Still, to have seen this made way back then, utilizing the new and kickass technology that existed then, might have been much better for the game. If it were made by anyone else today you know they would find a way to wreck it -- just look at what happened to Still Life 2...
Telltale should make a full lengh Sam and Max game
They have. "Sam & Max Save The World" and "Beyond Time And Space".
The seasons are great but I think they should make one big long game as well.
It's pretty much the same thing. The episodes have one continuous storyline over each season. Would you be happier if they 'glued' all the episodes together?
Actually, they were thinking of doing that for Freelance Police. In fact, the whole "six barely related cases" thing came from Freelance Police. They were even considering splitting it up into episodes like TTG does. Plus, each Telltale episode is about the size of a lot of the adventure games of the early 1990's, so thus each episode is essentially a full-sized adventure.
I don't think this is true. The primary focus of these guys was the story, and they wouldn't have even started working on the project if the story wasn't working. Just look at the story behind the first Full Throttle. It was epic.
Since the technology at the time wasn't anything like right now, there was no way/reason for them to get caught up in the special effects and action sequences...