New Footage Of Obsidian's Canceled Aliens: Crucible RPG Surface

The cancellation of the Aliens RPG back in 2009 still stands in my book as one of the most baffling, unexplained decisions by a publisher in recent memory. A studio experienced with RPG development, an IP begging for a more in depth gameplay experience, what went wrong? To this day devs haven't commented on the exact reasons behind the project getting canned.

SEGA never quite explained their decision behind the cancellation, but I'm guessing it had something to do with broad appeal and demographics. An FPS would probably sell better than an RPG, no? Obsidian went on to work on Fallout: New Vegas and only a few devs lost their jobs following a ton of work spent on a prototype that was ultimately overlooked.

Recent footage has surfaced showing off an early build of the game and some of the systems in place: Team based gameplay, characters with fleshed out personalities and a great sense of atmosphere. Despite some rough areas and placeholder assets, the video definitely gives a taste of what could have been. Former project director J.E. Sawyer offered some  insights into some of the game's high level concepts, which would have been pretty fitting for an Aliens RPG:

'This was a game of limited resources and perma-death. If a party member got face-hugged, your choices were to mercy kill them, put them in a sleeper and wake them sparingly if you need them, or let them pop - but the bottom line was that once they got impregnated they had an expiration date. ' (More here)



Animator Danny Garnett also recently uploaded this reel featuring some in game animations. On a fun note though, we've already heard from some credible sources that SEGA is currently at work on yet another Aliens title. Is this recent influx of Crucible footage a coincidence, or is this a sign of things to come? Only time will tell. We've gathered all the concept art related to the cancelled title that we could find (A massive amount), check it out after the break! Keeping our fingers crossed here.

The Lost Half-Life Alpha

I couldn't be more fascinated with alphas, tech demos and canceled versions of games, and the recent unearthing of a tech demo of an early version of the first Half-Life is one of the most fascinating things I've seen in a while. The Alpha, dubbed version 0.52 is a tech demo version of the game which was released on 9/4/1997, a full year before the release of the actual game.



The alpha was leaked via a Redditor called jackaljayzer, who claimed that the early version of the game was released on a disk intended for press purposes only. The preview disc featured a preview of various areas showcasing the type of graphical feats that the heavily modified Quake engine dubbed 'Goldsource' could accomplish, as well as an early version of multiplayer modes.

We're talking pre-Source here, during a time in which geometric transparency, tactical AI and heavily scripted sequences in first person shooters were close to nonexistent, aspects which made the game nothing short of revolutionary at the time. I still get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I remember playing the game for the first time.

(Via)

If you're familiar with the original game you'll be nothing short of staggered by the vast amount of differences in this alpha version, which is the equivalent of a rare videogame relic. If you're hankering for a shot at playing the game, you can get it over here!