- 21/05/2024
Welcome to Tues Your Own Adventure! Join Jules and James as they take a look at video games that ended before they started! Running out of gas before turning on the engine!
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00:00 Hello all of you little demons, Jules here for whatculture.com, back again with another
00:05 episode of the awesomely named and awfully hosted Choose Your Own Adventure, the weekly
00:09 medieval themed format where I, the crown jewels of whatculture.com, take a list chosen
00:13 by you.
00:14 Yes, you, the person who has a super special live and let's dice channel update that's
00:19 going to be at the end of the video.
00:20 Don't worry, I won't waste too much of your time with my usual preamble mumble jumble
00:24 that is my introductions.
00:25 But yes, stay tuned to the end of the video because there is something very, very special
00:29 happening.
00:30 Yes, you get to decide what list I double out to you each and every week.
00:33 And this week we have none other to thank than, I'm just going to tune up the drum
00:37 trumpets or the drum pits as they have now been known.
00:40 I don't actually know who suggested this.
00:44 Probably should have had that up on my screen.
00:47 Ironically, I'm stopping myself before I've started, which is actually today's topic.
00:52 So that's worked out quite well.
00:54 James will probably put the name up right now.
00:56 Thank you very much for your suggestion.
00:57 So sometimes when you're playing video games, it can feel like the action only really kicks
01:01 into gear come the very final part of the game.
01:04 And as such, things end just at the point in which you feel like they're just getting
01:08 started.
01:09 Other times, exceptional ideas can just fall afoul of bad release windows, meaning that
01:12 the series they represented are buried before they've even had a chance to bloom.
01:16 And in other, even more unfortunate examples, titles can be killed off or cancelled before
01:20 even getting to market.
01:22 These are the tales of the unloved.
01:23 These are the tales of the underappreciated.
01:26 And these are eight video games that ended before they even got started.
01:31 So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules and this is whatculture.com.
01:34 Say hi to me here on the live chat and put your suggestions for next week's episode
01:38 down in the comment section below.
01:40 But with that in mind, let's get on with that list, shall we?
01:43 Number eight, Vanquish.
01:45 Oh, what's that?
01:46 Yes, it's time for Jules to wheel out his little soapbox car thing because it's got
01:51 wheels apparently and stand on top of it to proclaim where is Vanquish to?
01:56 Yeah, it's that time again.
01:59 Because seriously, this game demanded and deserved more.
02:02 Now while the story might be a good old slice of B-movie ham, delicious, the action tied
02:08 things together so well that it fits like a well-tailored suit.
02:11 Delicious.
02:13 Not wearing a suit, but you get the idea.
02:15 And with the late game reveal that your own government was in on the whole coup of the
02:18 solar sun space station turned death laser, well that's something that hypes up the
02:22 player for a showdown for the ages.
02:25 So who's first then?
02:26 The rascally Russian leader, Viktor?
02:28 Or is Elizabeth Winters, the US president, about to get her teeth booted down her throat?
02:32 Either way, you're scooting towards the end of this game at such speed that you resemble
02:36 a coked up greyhound with worms, and it's here that the action is put down with a brick.
02:41 After battling a pair of souped up mech suits, it's revealed that Viktor has already left
02:45 the space station and Winters has just shot herself rather than have the world find out
02:49 about her treason.
02:50 Oh, right.
02:52 Okay, so what do you get then?
02:54 Nothing.
02:55 You just slide straight into the end credits, because you've had your final boss battle
02:59 and it was against the two mech suits.
03:01 Cool.
03:02 We're just going to ignore the very dour tone that's underlying this very kind of
03:06 cheery end message.
03:07 They're all like "Yay, we saved the day!"
03:08 It's like, no you haven't.
03:10 No you haven't at all.
03:11 There's a resource war waiting for you when you crash land back on Terra Firma.
03:14 That is an issue that I want to see in a sequel.
03:16 Where is Vanquish 2?
03:17 Number 7.
03:18 The Force Unleashed 2.
03:20 As much as we all enjoyed Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 when it came to its action, that's
03:25 pretty good.
03:26 When it came to its story, or moreover its content, the backbone of this game was broken
03:31 over its knee like Bane and Batman.
03:34 It's a comic reference in my gaming soup.
03:37 I love it.
03:38 It's like a crunchy little crouton.
03:39 I say this because it only lasted four or five bloody hours, which is pretty insulting
03:43 considering the full price tag that came with this game, let alone that it flies in the
03:47 face of the two things that all sequels should strive to be, aka bigger and better.
03:52 Honestly, things feel so phoned in that you could replace half the alien forms in this
03:56 game from the Star Wars universe with that roving ball bag known as E.T. and things would
04:00 fit better.
04:01 Because and brace yourself, James, you'll be experiencing a grand total of...
04:05 [MUMBLING]
04:06 ...four areas.
04:07 Two of which are on the same planet.
04:11 That's what this game does to you.
04:13 And yet, what hurts the most about this title is that this offshoot series contains so much
04:18 potential to be great.
04:20 The act of exploring the dark side, working for and then against the Empire, and indulging
04:24 in levels of violence not really seen in Star Wars video games since, was something that
04:28 could have been mined for several years had the devs actually bothered to put more into
04:32 the game than the leftovers to the first with some fan fiction sprinkled on top.
04:36 It was a series that was destined for greatness, but unfortunately fell to the dark side.
04:41 Don't know what voice I'm doing today.
04:43 What accent?
04:44 You tell me, what accent am I doing?
04:46 Number 6, Star Wars Battlefront 3.
04:49 Now I know what you're going to be saying, James.
04:51 That you're going to be saying, "Oh Jules, why are you putting on another entry from
04:55 the same franchise?
04:56 Surely you're meant to only have one franchise per list, but guess what?
04:59 Oh, what's this?
05:01 Oh, it's Evil...
05:02 It's Evil Finger Temple of Doom.
05:05 Off, off."
05:06 Yeah, that's right, I'm saying boo to a goose and you too, my friend, because more people
05:09 need to know about the sheer tragedy that was the original Star Wars Battlefront 3.
05:14 Yeah, that's right, we're not lamenting the fact that EA won't get another chance
05:17 to botch their way through another Star Wars title, but instead we're looking back at
05:21 a time when plucky developer Free Radical was working on a sequel to the much-loved
05:25 series after taking up the reins following Pandemic Studios, and how, despite being,
05:30 according to sources, 99% complete, never got a chance to release this game.
05:34 Now, the title was set to have huge changes to the core experience, with players able
05:38 to engage in space battles, and then ride down to the planet's surface to continue
05:42 the fighting on foot, seamlessly, which obviously at the time would have pushed consoles to
05:47 their limit.
05:48 It was also set to have a single player mode that focused on two clones, one of which defects
05:52 and joins the Rebellion, and the other staying loyal to the Empire after Order 66.
05:56 As you can tell, there was a lot going for this title.
05:58 However, thanks to LucasArts changing management three times across this project, the disaster
06:03 that was Free Radical's haze, and the fact that budgets were slashed and deadlines pushed
06:07 forward meant that Star Wars Battlefront 3 was stuttering hard.
06:11 This, coupled with withheld payments from LucasArts, meant that soon Free Radical had
06:16 no resources to put into the game, all of which led to the development studio closing
06:20 and LucasArts refusing to put out the game.
06:22 Thankfully, though, you can find a ton of footage of what might have been online, because
06:27 the devs just leaked everything they possibly could, which is great.
06:30 Now, there's a weird thing as well, that a lot of people saying that a lot of the assets
06:33 from this game got used in the PSP version, like a spin-off game that came afterwards.
06:39 There was actually one of the lead developers when I was doing research for this, actually
06:42 said no, that's not the case.
06:43 They used some assets in the sequel to that offshoot game for the PSP, but the original
06:47 one didn't have it.
06:48 So there's no real way to say that the Star Wars Battlefront 3 experience that we should
06:52 have got is out there in the public, but still, we were so close.
06:56 99% close.
06:57 That's a real shame.
06:59 Number 5, Halo 2.
07:01 You mind telling me what you're doing on that ship, Master Chief?
07:05 Sir, finishing the fight.
07:07 Oh, that sounds so cool!
07:09 Go on then, don't let me stop you.
07:12 Off you go, off you go.
07:15 Well, what are you waiting for?
07:17 Go on, off you go.
07:18 I'm waiting until next year, until the sequel drops.
07:21 Oh, you motherf-
07:22 Yes, this was the cry heard all around the world when the Chief of Beef decided to sting
07:27 fans with a sequel that we kind of all knew was coming deep down, but was delivered in
07:31 such a horrendous manner in the form of Halo 2.
07:34 Here after waiting a fair old while for the sequel itself, we were dragged through a rather
07:37 confusing mess filled with arbiters and grave minds, only to be told that the real action
07:41 wouldn't be starting until Halo 3.
07:44 Once word got out about this, it's fair to say that the hype train was significantly
07:47 derailed, and for many, it felt like a slap in the face to be delivered with a "let's
07:51 just let these wheels spin" narrative in order to drag out the series.
07:55 Of note, very little happens on this journey, and if you're being truly honest with yourself,
07:59 you could skip right to Halo 3 and still piece together what's going on within minutes.
08:03 Thankfully, Halo 3 more than delivered on the single player front, but for a time, it
08:08 definitely felt like the series was sinking under its own expectations.
08:11 4.
08:12 Titanfall 2
08:13 Now, as we've said many, many times before here on WhatCulture, please, if you haven't
08:19 already, play Titanfall 2.
08:21 Also like and subscribe, I guess.
08:22 As this game is quite possibly one of the most underappreciated hidden gems of the last
08:27 generation, and it's such a shame seeing as the series was just finding its footing
08:31 only to get its legs kicked out from underneath it here.
08:34 The original Titanfall game presented a brilliant concept of big mech battles amidst massed
08:39 firefights, and coupled this with a brilliantly engaging parkour system that allowed for liquid
08:43 quick gameplay.
08:44 However, when it came to its narrative, it was a bit on the light side.
08:48 Stories played out on the same maps that you'd played in multiplayer over and over, and in
08:52 all honesty, the creatures that you could spy off in the distance were actually more
08:55 interesting than the military guff you were being forced to inhale.
09:00 Tom Clancy.
09:01 Then along came Titanfall 2, smashing into the ground and tearing up the script of the
09:06 original, while also delivering a truly heartfelt and action-packed narrative of a man and his
09:11 mech who take on all odds and exchange barbed remarks along the way.
09:15 This was a breath of fresh air, not only for the series, but the entire sci-fi genre at
09:19 the time that was rather in danger of disappearing up its own arse.
09:22 And so of course, with all of this positivity, it died a commercial death.
09:26 Cool.
09:27 This was the game Titanfall 1 needed to be, but thanks to a decline in interest and a
09:32 terrible release window of the sequel, Titanfall as a franchise is now gathering rust down
09:37 the scrapyard.
09:38 3.
09:39 The Order 1886
09:40 Okay, so Jazz, I've actually got a game pitch for you.
09:43 I know I usually speak to James, but let's face it, you're the real brains of this
09:46 operation.
09:47 Oh yeah, betray me like that.
09:49 Well, Jazz isn't here, so you're gonna have to talk to me.
09:51 So how about a video game where you play a group of secret monster hunters looking to
09:54 defend humanity using high-tech weapons, and it's set in Victorian England?
09:59 Sounds pretty sweet, right?
10:01 You can stop nodding now, by the way, we've already made our point.
10:03 Well how about you take that idea, and all of the cool set pieces that it could create,
10:08 and the interesting take on steampunk gadgets and weapons you could see, and smush it all
10:12 down to a four hour experience?
10:14 What's that?
10:15 Do you want more time in this interesting world and the supposedly immortal characters
10:18 you're playing as?
10:19 Well, tough.
10:20 If that's all you're getting, you best be bloody happy with that meagre amount, because
10:24 we're not gonna support the game with DLC or a sequel.
10:27 Welcome my friends to the world of The Order 1886.
10:30 The game that so many wanted to be so much more than what we got.
10:34 Just as the wheels started spinning at full speed, they came off entirely as the game
10:38 crashed to credits around four hours in.
10:40 And remember, this is just when the players finally got to fight against some of the werewolves
10:44 promised in the early stages of the title.
10:46 It's a game that felt like a short story instead of a movie, and its desperate scrabble
10:51 to a close made The Order look like a glorified and very expensive tech demo, albeit one that
10:56 we desperately wanted to see more of.
10:58 2.
10:59 Deus Ex Mankind Divided
11:01 So recently I've been watching a lot of Hbomberguy's videos.
11:04 I love the fact that he has these really long form essays and they're so well thought
11:09 out and I kind of like, even when they're about games that I love and he's ripping
11:12 them to pieces I'm like, damn, I've learned something from this experience.
11:17 But after watching his recent video on Deus Ex Human Revolution, I just sat there thinking,
11:23 yep, he's right, I'm going to start firing up the original game again.
11:26 I might even play through Invisible War.
11:27 That's obviously a joke because no one should play through Invisible War.
11:31 But still, before I did, I started thinking about Mankind Divided, the sequel to Human
11:36 Revolution's reboot prequel thing that was going on, and actually noted that all of the
11:41 issues he's addressing in that were kind of ironed out in the sequel.
11:45 Buuuuut, while the combat definitely was tweaked so that it wasn't as relied upon as in the
11:50 former title, and yes, the approach to level design was rehauled to make things feel more
11:54 connected to the in-game world, and yes, in place of boss battles that were farmed out
11:58 to another dev studio that was just kind of won and it came at the end of the game, but
12:03 but, the issue is not the lack of boss battles per se, but the fact that the story just felt
12:08 like it got going right as the battle hit our screens.
12:12 And remember, it is the end boss.
12:14 Now a running joke within the Deus Ex community is that Mankind Divided attempted to eliminate
12:18 downtime by... cutting out a ton of chapters of its own story, as here it definitely feels
12:23 like you just go to the Alps to battle some bioterrorists, head to London, have a boss
12:27 battle, declare war on the Illuminati, and then hit the showers.
12:31 Quite literally, the most interesting point of the game is where Mankind Divided chose
12:35 to end things.
12:36 And with no sequel on the horizon, as Square Enix is clearly more interested in dividing
12:40 Mankind from their disposable income through microtransactions, it looks as if the Illuminati
12:44 are calling this a win for themselves.
12:46 1.
12:47 Psyops the Mindgate Conspiracy
12:49 So for those wee babies in the group who look with furrowed and sweaty confused brow at
12:54 the memory card slot from a PS2 and start going "bruh what is this, bruh bruh bruh",
12:59 Psyops the Mindgate Conspiracy came out before things like Fortnite, and was, as we would
13:04 call it, a brilliant title, or as the current generation might term it as, a game that totally
13:09 slaps brah.
13:11 Combining ragdoll physics with complete and utter psychic-powered chaos, Psyops was a
13:15 game that shed its military shooter vibes and aesthetic not two levels in, and only
13:20 ever looked back to laugh at the slew of other brown-paletted action games that were struggling
13:24 to find a home.
13:25 However, maybe Psyops should have checked where it was going from time to time, as just
13:29 as the action seemed to hit a high and the plot develop into something more intriguing,
13:33 things stumbled and fell off into the abyss.
13:35 In the closing moments, Nick is confronted by two attack helicopters, and it's suggested
13:40 that an even bigger threat is going to emerge to tie all of the psychic shenanigans together,
13:45 but the game just cuts to black with a classic sequel bait of "to be continued".
13:49 It's one thing for a mega blockbuster like Halo 2 to pull this move, but here, in a much
13:53 lesser known IP, it feels like a truly misguided move that seems to rob the player of a satisfying
13:59 conclusion.
14:00 It's such a shame as well, because the story, while definitely not going to be the sort
14:03 of thing that goes on to win any awards, even though it weirdly was nominated for some,
14:07 which is mind-blowing, it's definitely not boring.
14:10 I mean, you've got psychic powers, evil government conspiracies, twins!
14:14 Twins!
14:15 One of them's evil, obviously.
14:17 There's a lot going on.
14:19 None of it's great, but it's the best type of B-movie stuff.
14:22 And it's a shame that we never got to see this series continue.
14:24 Boo!
14:25 And there we go, my friends, those were 8 video games that ended before they even got
14:29 started.
14:30 I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
14:33 the comments section below.
14:35 But before I go, I just want to say one thing.
14:37 I told you at the beginning of this video that I had a big announcement for the Live
14:39 and Let's Dice channel.
14:40 If you don't know what that is, that is my board game channel where I do my streaming
14:43 and tabletop gaming stuff, and especially Warhammer, which this announcement relates
14:48 to.
14:49 Now, I have been invited, along with the rest of the Live and Let's Dice boys, Mikey,
14:52 Beanie, and Lawson, we are going to an event in Warhammer World in Nottingham on the 7th
14:57 of May to represent a bunch of content creators for the Horus Heresy launch event.
15:02 And it would mean the world to me if you could support this by retweeting, telling people
15:06 about it, or if you have the gumption, if you got the stuff, coming to see us live at
15:12 the event where we can show you what we've been working on.
15:14 I can't detail what it is I've been doing for this event at the moment, but trust me,
15:18 it is spectacular.
15:20 And it's something that I'm really, really happy to be included with.
15:23 So please, if you can come to the event, 7th of May, 2022, in Nottingham, here in the UK,
15:28 come along, say hi, and play a little Space Marines.
15:31 Just walk around, just go, "Hey, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang."
15:35 Or something like that, depending on what's going on.
15:38 Anyway, yeah, thank you very much.
15:39 Hope to see you there.
15:40 It would mean the world to all of us.
15:41 But yeah, that's been it for today's episode.
15:44 Big love to James.
15:45 Hope he's feeling better because he was feeling a bit sicky recently.
15:47 So big love to him as well.
15:49 And before I go, I do just want to say one thing.
15:52 Sometimes in life, we can hit sort of checkpoints that make us feel like we're getting stopped
15:57 just before we're getting started.
15:58 And that can be really, really off-putting.
16:00 But I promise you, my friend, you should never give up.
16:03 If you truly believe that there is something that you've been put on this earth to do,
16:06 to grow as a person, to do something special, then never give up on your goals and dreams,
16:10 my friend.
16:11 Look to others for friends, family, support people in the sport industry, because they
16:15 care about you.
16:16 They want you to do well, and they'll help you achieve your goals no matter how long
16:19 it takes.
16:20 Just keep persevering, my friend.
16:21 That is the message I want to leave you with today, all right?
16:24 Big love from me to you.
16:25 You are a massive ledge.
16:26 Now go out there and smash it.
16:28 As always, I've been Jules.
16:29 You have been awesome.
16:31 Never forget that.
16:32 And I'll speak to you soon.
16:33 Bye.
16:33 Bye.
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