The Lost

By Carrie Gouskos

The Lost Movie 4

This game would have definitely been creepy.

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One of the things I love most in the world is Dante's The Divine Comedy (particularly The Inferno) and all things pertaining to the sins of the flesh that we mortals are destined to commit. I'm not morbid; I swear it. When I first heard news of Irrational Games' The Lost, my immediate thought was that they had stolen my idea. My second thought was that this game was going to be damn good.

The story is of Amanda, a single working mother whose waitress outfit makes her appear a little bit like Alice in Wonderland, but whose rabbit hole leads to the nine circles of hell and not a tea party. She's seeking to find the soul of her recently deceased 4-year-old daughter that got lost en route to heaven and ended up in hell. Like Dante before her, she is guided by the poet Virgil, although he plays a much more sinister role in this telling of the story. Being merely mortal, Amanda is no serious threat to the monsters of hell, but she is capable of harnessing different personalities in the form of the female warrior, Instinct, the hooded thief, Shadow, and the magician, Corruption. With these characters in tow, Amanda can solve the puzzles (of course there would be lock/key quests in hell), defeat demons of all sorts, and ultimately find her daughter.

I found you!

Only there was no rescue for her daughter, Beatrice, because the game was canceled quietly a few years ago. Oh what a demise! Beatrice owes her fate to a string of bad luck. When the original graphics engine was scrapped in favor of a new one, The Lost was delayed but still on track for an eventual release. Then Crave picked up publishing rights, decided to shift its focus to releasing budget titles, and The Lost was never heard from again. Rumors surrounding the game ranged from it being almost done to it being an impossible task. However, with very little publicity surrounding the game, we may never know.

Although there's little to be said for whether or not The Lost can be found, there's no shortage of video games containing morbid material. Just ask Hillary Clinton. Honestly, the bright side to this one is not so bright, because there simply aren't enough games coming out based on Dante's Inferno, or any of the Commedia for that matter. We'd even settle for a game based on a book that was influenced by The Inferno, you know something by Joyce or Beckett. Come on guys, give us a bone here! Movies steal from books all the time, so haven't you learned where to get some of the greatest source material?

Ultima X: Odyssey

By Greg Kasavin

Ultima X: Odyssey Official Trailer

Check out the first footage.

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When I was growing up I played all the games I could get my hands on. There were games, and then there was Ultima. I played through Ultima II at the tender age of 8, but it wasn't until a year or two later when I was playing Ultima IV and Ultima V that I realized how absolutely, astonishingly incredible this series was. Having to interact with the games' believable characters, explore its incredibly huge worlds, and brave its morally complex decisions was like no other gaming experience I've ever had. So I give the Ultima games the utmost credit for pushing my love of games deeply into creepy stalker-infatuation territory.

My devotion to Ultima continued all the way up until the infamous Ultima IX: Ascension. I had a brief stint with Ultima Online, but since it deemphasized the storytelling and morality aspects of the series, I never really got into it. But when Electronic Arts announced Ultima X: Odyssey in the summer of 2003, I was really excited. At last, Ultima was making a comeback! Granted, that comeback was hot on the heels of the cancellation of Ultima Worlds Online: Origin, a massively multiplayer "steampunk" take on the Ultima universe that never saw the light of day. But it was great to see EA give the Ultima series another shot.

Needless to say I wasn't the only Ultima fan excited by the announcement, though many of us were concerned by the game's comical-looking art style--a definite departure from the serious tone the series is known for. Nevertheless, Ultima X: Odyssey seemed like it had a lot of good ideas going for it, including a virtue system inspired by its classic predecessors, as well as lots of interface and gameplay tweaks designed to streamline the experience.

As much as I would have loved to stab that gazer in the eye, it would never come to pass.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Development on Ultima X: Odyssey went radio-silent one day, so the writing on the wall became fairly apparent by the time the game was officially canceled a few months later.

It's barely even possible for an Ultima game to live up to my expectations at this point. But, much like the Guardian (the villain of the later Ultima games), I'll patiently bide my time for as long as I have to in order for that slim possibility to occur. Despite the disappointing setback that was UXO, I still have faith that Ultima is far from finished.

The Red Star

By Greg Mueller

The Red Star Official Trailer

Video games based on comics never had it so good.

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Video games based on comic books tend to be hit or miss. Over the years, Acclaim released a number of misses based on popular comics, including The Crow, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four . In fact, Acclaim Entertainment went so far as to establish its own comic book division in the mid-'90s, although it died pretty quickly. If there's one thing to be said for the company that published a dozen versions of the same NBA Jam and Turok games, it's that it's persistent. So, when Acclaim started showing off yet another game based on a comic license in 2004, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the game actually looked good.

The Red Star comic book featured an intriguing story and amazing artwork, making it a great choice for a video game adaptation.

The Red Star was a beat-'em-up/shooter hybrid based on the comic from Archangel Studios. The comic is set in an alternate future in Russia, where a powerful army exerts its dominance over the world with a potent mix of magic and machinery. The gameplay in The Red Star game was heavily influenced by the frenetic shooting of games like Contra and Ikaruga, as well as the melee combat of games like Final Fight. The game was a three-dimensional side-scroller, but the perspective occasionally switched to an over-the-head, Smash TV-style view. There were three main characters to choose from: the tanklike male fighter, a quicker but slightly weaker female fighter, and a powerful female sorcerer. All of the characters had a basic melee attack, a ranged attack, and special moves called protocols, which could be enhanced and combined in co-op when played with another character. The action was frenetic and exciting, with bullets, lasers, and enemies swarming from all directions in calculated and challenging patterns.

At a time when games were getting more and more complicated and homogeneous, The Red Star was poised to give Xbox and PlayStation 2 owners a bit of that good old-fashioned white-knuckle gameplay. Unfortunately, everything collapsed in August 2004 when Acclaim filed for bankruptcy. The Red Star was promptly canceled, and we haven't heard word of it since. Street racing games and alternative sports franchises are safer bets from a publisher's perspective, so those games were picked out of Acclaim's scrap heap while a potential gem was left to gather dust.

Not all is lost for The Red Star, though. You can play the game for yourself--or at least a short demo of it. The September 2004 issues of Official Xbox Magazine and Official PlayStation Magazine each came with a demo of The Red Star. We're still hoping a publisher will see the potential of this game. After all, The Red Star was canceled only a few months shy of its scheduled release, so it was just about finished. However, with the impending arrival of the next-gen systems, time is quickly running out for The Red Star.

True Fantasy Live Online

By Ricardo Torres

True Fantasy Live Online Official Trailer

So beautiful, it's heartbreaking.

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You'd be hard pressed to find a game whose cancellation caused Xbox owners to shout "D'oh!" louder than True Fantasy Live Online. The ambitious game was slated to be the system's first MMO and it was being crafted by seasoned Japanese developer Level 5, whose resume includes such gems as Dark Cloud 2 and Dragon Quest VIII. The game had all the signs of being one of those special landmark titles for a platform--more than just a seminal moment in the console's software library. The game's ambitious use of Xbox Live, which would have been the most extensive use of the service in a game ever, was more in line with the level of sophistication seen in a PC game. Unfortunately, it appears that Level 5's ambition was what led to TFLO being shelved. The game's scope and rich experience presented a sizable challenge for both the developer and Microsoft within the given time frame.

Besides the expected features, such as the ability to party with friends, you were going to be able to create a character that evolved as you played. An intricate trade-skill system was slated to let you create unique wares personalized with your own "signature." In addition, you could own a home that you could fully customize. Furthermore, your character's evolution made use of an ambitious system that tracked how you played the game and built up your character accordingly. So if your character constantly exerted himself physically--by fighting or blacksmithing--he would become large and muscular, but slightly slower on his feet. On the other hand, if you didn't eat much, your character would grow thin and frail. For an idea of how this would work in game, you can see a very embryonic version of this character-evolution system in the excellent Dark Cloud 2.

Who wouldn't want their own dragon?

As if all that weren't enough to get people excited, the game also featured the ability to travel to different locations in the world by a variety of means, such as by horseback, carriage, ship, camels, magic broomsticks, or even dragons. Best of all, the game offered the promise of a constantly changing world, thanks to plans to make more regions downloadable following the game's release. Unfortunately, getting all of this into the game was too tall of an order, even backed by the considerable power of the Xbox. As development moved along at a snail's pace, the decision was made to cancel the game. Level 5's president Akihiro Hino summed up his feelings on the cancellation in the press release that announced its demise: "True Fantasy Live Online was being developed as the ultimate MMORPG on the Xbox Live, but we couldn't foresee the game to offer innovative new experiences to our users. With extreme regret, we have decided to cancel its development."

Hopefully you'll be able to roll with your crew online one day.

Now, while we'd love to bust out with a Rocky-style happy ending and tell you that the game is back in development for the Xbox or slated to be a title for the Xbox 360, we can't. As of this writing, TFLO is still, officially, very much dead in the water. However, rumors continue to make the rounds that, in light of the Xbox 360's power and, more importantly, its expanded Xbox Live features, TFLO may well live again. Microsoft is all too aware of how much this game's cancellation stung fans. More significantly, if such an experience can be pulled off well on the Xbox 360, the game could easily become one of the killer apps that offer players the kind of groundbreaking experience MS is aiming to provide. If we were the betting kind, we'd say that it would be smart to assume that TFLO, or a game like it, is in the cards for the 360.