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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00:00Hello all of you little demons, Jules here for WhatCulture.com, back again with another
00:05episode of the awesomely named and awfully hosted Choose Your Own Adventure, the weekly
00:09medieval themed format where I, the crowned Jules of WhatCulture.com, taken as chosen
00:13by you, yes you the person who has a super special live and let's dice channel update
00:19that's going to be at the end of the video, don't worry I won't waste too much of your
00:22time with my usual preamble mumble jumble that is my introductions, but yes stay tuned
00:26to the end of the video because there is something very very special happening, yes you get to
00:30decide what list I dole out to you each and every week and this week we have none other
00:35to thank than I'm just going to tune up the drum trumpets or the drum pits if they have
00:39now been known, I don't actually know who suggested this, probably should have had that up on my
00:46screen, ironically I'm stopping myself before I've started, which is actually today's topic
00:52so that's worked out quite well, James will probably put the name up right now, thank
00:56you very much for your suggestion. So sometimes when you're playing video games, it can feel
01:00that the action only really kicks into gear come the very final part of the game, and as such
01:04things end just at the point in which you feel like they're just getting started, other times
01:09exceptional ideas can just fall afoul of bad release windows, meaning that the series they
01:13represented are buried before they've even had a chance to bloom, and in other even more
01:17unfortunate examples, titles can be killed off or cancelled before even getting to market.
01:21These are the tales of the unloved, these are the tales of the underappreciated, and
01:26these are 8 video games that ended before they even got started. So let's take a look
01:31at them as I'm Jules and this is WhatCulture.com, say hi to me here on the live chat and put your
01:36suggestions for next week's episode down in the comments section below, but with that
01:40in mind, let's get on with that list shall we?
01:428. Vanquish
01:45Oh what's that? Yes it's time for Jules to wheel out this little soapbox car thing because
01:51it's got wheels apparently and stand on top of it to proclaim where is Vanquish 2? Where
01:56is Vanquish 2? Yeah it's that time again. Because seriously, this game demanded and deserved more.
02:02Now while the story might be a good old slice of B-movie ham, delicious. The action tied things
02:08together so well that it fits like a well tailored suit. Delicious. Not wearing a suit but you get
02:13the idea. And with the late game reveal that your own government was in on the whole coup of the
02:18solar sun space station turned death laser, well that's something that hypes up the player for a
02:23showdown for the ages. So who's first then? The rascally Russian leader Viktor? Or is Elizabeth
02:29Winters the US president about to get her teeth booted down her throat? Either way you're scooting
02:33towards the end of this game at such speed that you resemble a coked up greyhound with worms,
02:37and it's here that the action, well it's put down with a brick. After battling a pair of souped up
02:42mech suits it's revealed that Viktor has already left the space station and Winters has just shot
02:47herself rather than have the world find out about her treason. Oh right, okay, so what do you get then?
02:54Nothing. Just sliding straight into the end credits because you've had your final boss battle and it
02:59was against the two mech suits. Cool. We're just going to ignore the very dour tone that's underlying
03:05this very kind of cheery end message. They're all like, yay we saved the day. It's like, no you
03:09haven't. No you haven't at all. There's a resource wall waiting for you when you crash land back on
03:13terra firma. That is an issue that I want to see in a sequel. Where is Vanquish 2? Number seven,
03:18The Force Unleashed 2. As much as we all enjoyed Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 when it came to its
03:24action, that's pretty good. When it came to its story, or moreover its content, the backbone of this game
03:30was broken over its knee like Bane and Batman. There's a comic reference in my gaming soup.
03:37I love it. It's like a crunchy little crouton. I say this because it only lasted four or five
03:41bloody hours, which is pretty insulting considering the full price tag that came with this game,
03:45let alone that it flies in the face of the two things that all sequels should strive to be,
03:50aka bigger and better. Honestly, things feel so phoned in that you could replace half the alien forms in
03:56this game from the Star Wars universe with that roving ball bag known as E.T. and things would fit
04:00better. Because, and brace yourself, James, you'll be experiencing a grand total of
04:05four areas. Two of which are on the same planet. And that's what this game does to you.
04:13And yet, what hurts the most about this title is that this offshoot series contains so much
04:18potential to be great. The act of exploring the dark side, working for and then against the empire,
04:23and indulging in levels of violence not really seen in Star Wars video games since,
04:27was something that could have been mined for several years had the devs actually bothered
04:31to put more into the game than the leftovers to the first with some fan fiction sprinkled on top.
04:36It was a series that was destined for greatness, but unfortunately fell to the dark side.
04:41Don't know what voice I'm doing today. Don't know what accent? You tell me, what accent am I doing?
04:46Number six, Star Wars Battlefront 3. Now I know what you're going to be saying, James.
04:51That you're going to be saying, oh Jules, why are you putting on another entry from the same
04:55franchise? Surely you're meant to only have one franchise per list. But guess what? Oh,
05:00what's this? Oh, it's the evil, it's the, oh, it's the evil finger temple of doom.
05:05Off, off. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Boo to a goose and you too, my friend. Because more people
05:09need to know about the sheer tragedy that was the original Star Wars Battlefront 3. Yeah, that's
05:14right. We're not lamenting the fact that EA won't get another chance to botch their way through
05:18another Star Wars title, but instead we're looking back at a time when plucky developer
05:22Free Radical was working on a sequel to the much-loved series after taking up the reins
05:26following Pandemic Studios, and how, despite being, according to sources, 99% complete,
05:33never got a chance to release this game. Now the title was set to have huge changes to the core
05:37experience, with players able to engage in space battles and then ride down to the planet's surface
05:42to continue the fighting on foot seamlessly, which obviously at the time would have pushed
05:46consoles to their limit. It was also set to have a single-player mode that focused on two clones,
05:51one of which defects and joins the rebellion, and the other staying loyal to the Empire after
05:55Order 66. As you can tell, there was a lot going for this title. However, thanks to LucasArts changing
06:00management three times across this project, the disaster that was Free Radical's haze,
06:05and the fact that budgets were slashed and deadlines pushed forward, meant that Star Wars Battlefront 3
06:09was stuttering hard. This, coupled with withheld payments from LucasArts, meant that soon
06:15Free Radical had no resources to put into the game, all of which led to the development studio
06:19closing, and LucasArts refusing to put out the game. Thankfully though, you can find a ton of
06:25footage of what might have been online, because the devs just leaked everything they possibly could,
06:30which is great. Now, there's a weird thing as well that a lot of people saying that a lot of the
06:33assets from this game got used in the PSP version, like a spin-off game that came afterwards.
06:39There was actually, one of the lead developers when I was doing research for this actually said,
06:42no, that's not the case. They used some assets in the sequel to that offshoot game for the PSP,
06:46but the original one didn't have it. So, there's no real way to say that the Star Wars Battlefront
06:513 experience that we should have got is out there in the public, but still, we were so close.
06:5599% close. That's a real shame.
06:59Number five, Halo 2.
07:01You mind telling me what you're doing on that ship, Master Chief?
07:04Sir. Finishing the fight.
07:07Oh, that sounds so cool.
07:10Go on then, go on, don't let me stop you. Off you go, off you go.
07:14Well, what are you waiting for? Go on, off you go.
07:18I'm waiting until next year until the sequel drops.
07:21Oh, you mother...
07:22Yes, this was the cry heard all around the world when the Chief of Beef decided to sting fans
07:27with a sequel that we kind of all knew was coming deep down, but was delivered in such a horrendous
07:31manner in the form of Halo 2. Here, after waiting a fair old while for the sequel itself, we were
07:36dragged through a rather confusing mess filled with arbiters and grave minds, only to be told
07:41that the real action wouldn't be starting until Halo 3. Once word got out about this, it's fair to say
07:45that the hype train was significantly derailed, and for many, it felt like a slap in the face to be
07:50delivered with a let's-just-let-these-wheels-spin narrative in order to drag out the series.
07:54Of note, very little happens on this journey, and if you're being truly honest with yourself,
07:59you could skip right to Halo 3 and still piece together what's going on within minutes.
08:03Thankfully, Halo 3 more than delivered on the single-player front, but for a time,
08:07it definitely felt the series was sinking under its own expectations.
08:114. Titanfall 2
08:13Now, as we have said many, many times before here on WhatCulture, please, if you haven't already,
08:19play Titanfall 2. Also like and subscribe, I guess. As this game is quite possibly one of the
08:24most underappreciated hidden gems of the last generation. And it's such a shame,
08:29seeing as the series was just finding its footing, only to get its legs kicked out from
08:33underneath it here. The original Titanfall game presented a brilliant concept of big mech battles
08:38amidst massed firefights, and coupled this with a brilliantly engaging parkour system that allowed
08:43for liquid quick gameplay. However, when it came to its narrative, it was a bit on the light side.
08:48Stories played out on the same maps that you'd played in multiplayer over and over,
08:52and in all honesty, the creatures that you could spy off in the distance were actually more
08:55interesting than the military guff you were being forced to inhale.
09:00Tom Clancy.
09:01Then along came Titanfall 2, smashing into the ground and tearing up the script of the original,
09:06while also delivering a truly heartfelt and action-packed narrative of a man and his mech
09:11who take on all odds and exchange barbed remarks along the way. This was a breath of fresh air,
09:16not only for the series, but the entire sci-fi genre at the time that was rather in danger
09:20of disappearing up its own arse, and so of course, with all of this positivity,
09:25it died a commercial death. Cool.
09:27This was the game Titanfall 1 needed to be, but thanks to a decline in interest and a terrible
09:32release window of the sequel, Titanfall as a franchise is now gathering rust down the scrapyard.
09:38Number 3. The Order 1886.
09:40Okay, so Jazz, I've actually got a game pitch for you. I know that I usually speak to James,
09:45but let's face it, you're the real brains of this operation.
09:47Oh yeah, betray me like that. Well, Jazz isn't here, so you're gonna have to talk to me.
09:51So how about a video game where you play a group of secret monster hunters looking to
09:55defend humanity using high-tech weapons, and it's set in Victorian England?
10:00Sounds pretty sweet, right? You can stop nodding now, by the way, we've already made our point.
10:03Well, how about you take that idea and all of the cool set pieces that it could create,
10:07and the interesting take on steampunk gadgets and weapons you could see,
10:11and smush it all down to a four-hour experience?
10:14What's that? Do you want more time in this interesting world and the supposedly
10:18immortal characters that you're playing as? Well, tough. Four hours is all you get,
10:21and you best be bloody happy with that meagre amount, because we're not gonna support the
10:25game with DLC or a sequel. Welcome, my friends, to the world of The Order 1886.
10:30The game that so many wanted to be so much more than what we got.
10:34Just as the wheels started spinning at full speed, they came off entirely as the game
10:38crashed to the credits around four hours in. And remember, this is just when the players
10:42finally got to fight against some of the werewolves promised in the early stages of the title.
10:47It's a game that felt like a short story instead of a movie, and its desperate scrabble to a close
10:51made The Order look like a glorified and very expensive tech demo, albeit one that we desperately
10:57wanted to see more of.
10:58Number two, Deus Ex, Mankind Divided.
11:01So, recently I've been watching a lot of Hbomber Guy's videos. I love the fact that he has these
11:06really long form essays, and they're so well thought out, and I kind of like, even when they're
11:11about games that I love and he's ripping them to pieces, I'm like, damn, I actually, I've learned
11:15something from this experience. But after watching his recent video on the Deus Ex Human Revolution,
11:22I just sat there thinking, yep, he's right, I'm gonna start firing up the original game again.
11:26I might even play through Invisible War. That's obviously a joke, because no one should play
11:29through Invisible War. But still, before I did, I started thinking about Mankind Divided,
11:35the sequel to Human Revolution's reboot prequel thing that was going on, and actually noted
11:40that all of the issues that he's kind of addressing in that, they were kind of ironed out in the
11:44sequel. But while the combat definitely was tweaked so that it wasn't as relied upon as
11:50in the former title, and yes, the approach to level design was rehauled to make things feel
11:54more connected to the in-game world, and yes, in place of boss battles that were farmed out
11:58to another dev studio, there was just kind of one and it came at the end of the game.
12:03But, but, the issue is not the lack of boss battles per se, but the fact that the story
12:08just felt like it got going right as the battle hit our screens. And remember, it is the end boss.
12:14Now, a running joke within the Deus Ex community is that Mankind Divided attempted to eliminate
12:18downtime by cutting out a ton of chapters of its own story. As here, it definitely feels like you just
12:24go to the Alps to battle some bioterrorists, head to London, have a boss battle, declare war on the
12:28Illuminati, and then hit the showers. Quite literally, the most interesting point of the
12:33game is where Mankind Divided chose to end things. And with no sequel on the horizon, as Square Enix is
12:38clearly more interested in dividing mankind from their disposable income through microtransactions,
12:43it looks as if the Illuminati are calling this a win for themselves.
12:46And number one, PSYOP's The Mindgate Conspiracy.
12:49So for those wee babies in the group who look with furrowed and sweaty, confused brow at the
12:55memory card slot from a PS2 and start going, bruh, what is this, bruh, bruh, bruh,
12:59PSYOP's The Mindgate Conspiracy came out before things like Fortnite, and was, as we would call it,
13:05a brilliant title, or as the current generation might term it as, a game that totally slaps,
13:10bruh. Combining ragdoll physics with complete and utter psychic-powered chaos, PSYOP's was a game
13:16that shed its military shooter vibes and aesthetic not two levels in, and only ever looked back to
13:21laugh at the slew of other brown-palated action games that were struggling to find a home. However,
13:26maybe PSYOP should have checked where it was going from time to time, as just as the action seemed to
13:30hit a high, and the plot developed into something more intriguing, things stumbled and fell off into
13:35the abyss. In the closing moments, Nick is confronted by two attack helicopters, and it's suggested
13:40that an even bigger threat is going to emerge to tie all of the psychic shenanigans together,
13:44but the game just cuts to black with a classic sequel bait of, to be continued. Now, it's one
13:50thing for a mega blockbuster like Halo 2 to pull this move, but here, in a much lesser-known IP,
13:55it feels like a truly misguided move that seems to rob the player of a satisfying conclusion.
14:00It's such a shame as well, because the story, while definitely not going to be the sort of thing that
14:04goes on to win any awards, even though it weirdly was nominated for some, which is mind-blowing,
14:09it's definitely not boring. I mean, you've got psychic powers, evil government conspiracies,
14:14twins! Twins! One of them's evil, obviously. There's- there's a lot going on. None of it's
14:20great, but it's the best type of B-movie stuff. It's a shame that we never got to see this series
14:24continue. Boo! And there we go, my friends, those were eight video games that ended before they even
14:29got started. I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down
14:33in the comments section below. But before I go, I just want to say one thing. I told you at the
14:37beginning of this video that I had a big announcement for the Live and Let's Dice channel.
14:41If you don't know what that is, that is my board game channel where I do my streaming and tabletop
14:44gaming stuff, and especially Warhammer, which this announcement relates to. Now, I have been invited,
14:50along with the rest of the Live and Let's Dice boys, Mikey, Beanie, and Lawson, we are going to an
14:55event in Warhammer World in Nottingham on the 7th of May to represent a bunch of content creators for
15:00the Horus Heresy launch event, and it would mean the world to me if you could support this by
15:05retweeting, telling people about it, or if you have the gumption, if you got the stuff, coming to see
15:11us live at the event. Well, we can show you what we've been working on. I can't detail what it is
15:16I've been doing for this event at the moment, but trust me, it is spectacular, and it's something that
15:21I'm really, really happy to be included with. So please, if you can come to the event, 7th of May
15:252022 in Nottingham, here in the UK, come along, say hi, play, and play a little space marines,
15:32just walk around, just going, hey, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, or something like that,
15:36depending on what's going on. Anyway, yeah, thank you very much, hope to see you there,
15:39it would mean the world to all of us. But yeah, that's been it for today's episode. Big love to
15:44James, hope he's feeling better because he was feeling a bit sicky recently, so big love to him
15:48as well. And before I go, I do just want to say one thing. Sometimes in life, we can hit sort of
15:53checkpoints that make us feel like we're getting stuck, getting stopped just before we're getting
15:57started. And that can be really, really off-putting. But I promise you, my friend, you should never give
16:02up. If you truly believe that there is something that you've been put on this earth to do, to grow
16:06as a person, to do something special, then never give up on your goals and dreams, my friend.
16:10Look to others for friends, family, support people in the support industry, because they care about you,
16:15they want you to do well, and they'll help you achieve your goals, no matter how long it takes.
16:19Just keep persevering, my friend. That is the message I want to leave you with today, all right?
16:23Big love from me to you. You are a massive ledge. Now go out there and smash it. As always,
16:28I've been Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that. And I'll speak to you soon. Bye.