The Races Of Project Copernicus By Gorrem

(Via)

It's been nearly a year since 38 Studios went down in a controversial ball of flame, but the art for the Amalur MMO, codename Project Copernicus has continued to trickle out in a steady stream. Despite anyone involved with the project still being covered with a slew of NDA's (Non disclosure agreements), some artists still wanted to show off the years of work that would otherwise never see the light of day.

Gorrem (Devon Cady-Lee) is a veteran concept artist in the MMO and fantasy art field, having previously worked on Lord Of The Rings Online at Turbine studios and freelanced at Wizards Of the Coast. His till now unreleased marketing art pieces offer a look at the many colorful races of the world that has yet to see the light of day. Check out his take on eight of the races after the break, and be sure to also head over to the Copernicus concept art dump that we did a few months back over here.

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.

Insomniac Gives Us A Glimpse Into Their Canceled Pinball IP

Captain Starlight, intended to be one of the Pinball tables you'd play.

In this day and age, Insomniac has been best known for their Resistance and long last Ratchet & Clank series. While browsing Facebook recently though, Insomniac decided to share some images from a 2007 IP that never quite managed to get off the ground, 1080Pinball (1080P for short).

 The project was supposed to be the equivalent of what Rockstar did for Table Tennis back in 2006, creating the most realistic simulator of that sport on any system yet. I'm guessing Insomniac had that same mindset after releasing the first Resistance on PS3, but for whatever reason we're guessing other projects got in the way. We've gathered a bunch of images from the canceled IP, so take a look at them after the break!

Wacky Races Forever

An interesting pilot that would have brought the Wacky Races franchise back to a 21st century audience. The fresh visual style full of references to the original source material was great. But I couldn't help but feel like the pacing of the episode kept getting broken up by redundant conversations about 16 million dollar snake bridges. What could have been.

A Look At The Halted Thundercats Movie

Lion-0:  Straight out of Pandora.

Footage of an alleged Thundercats movie that in the works just surfaced recently along with some interesting concept art.  The project was supposedly being funded by WB and was going to be directed by hear this, Jerry O' Flahery...The art director for Gears of War and Unreal Tournament.  Footage and opinions after the jump!