Games Missing In Action

by Eddie Turner on June 26, 2008 12:00 AM EST

Alan Wake, a psychological action-adventure thriller, is a game that many people have been looking forward to for a long time. Even though information about the game remains scant (despite a few major previews over the years), anxiety about what developer Remedy Entertainment has been up to has not gone away. The initial trailer that was made public at the time of the game's announcement in May of 2005 portrayed a desperate man who encountered what can be either supernatural beings or government agents. While some may refer to the two as one in the same, there's no doubt that strange happenings will be the center of this much-anticipated title. Alan Wake will be released on the Xbox 360 and Windows platforms, and one of its claims to fame is that it will fully support multi-core (at least quad-core) processors. The big question is, when will it arrive? Although information about the game may be better described as under wraps rather than missing in action, its progress continues to remain a mystery.


This screenshot may give many gamers the quick impression that Darkest of Days is just another wartime shooter, but it most assuredly is not. In fact, the Civil War era shown here is only one of a series of time periods your character will visit over the course of the game. However, it is a first person shooter, though it's centered on time travel. The premise of the game involves your character being sent back in time to alter some of humanity's most pivotal events for the better in an attempt to change the world.

While screens depicting some of the other time periods would be interesting to see, only a few depicting the Civil War period were released when the game was announced in July of last year. This of course may have been representative of the fact that the game wasn't very far into the development process. Whatever the case, developer 8Monkey Labs has done nothing to promote the game in over a year, save for some blog posts that tout the revamping of their site. PC and Xbox 360 are the intended platforms.


Announced in July of 2006, Cipher Complex was touted as an action game for the conspiracy-minded gamer. Players will join agent John Cipher as he infiltrates a group of rogue agents who have destroyed one the US government's recon satellites. Apparently, the conspiracy lies with those involved whose agenda for taking out the satellite is nothing short of earth shattering. Gamers can expect a sufficient amount of gunplay in Cipher Complex, along with a heavy focus on stealth and fighting. Originally targeted for a 2007 release on the Xbox 360 and PS3, Cipher has gone dark after only a few updates about its progress, the last of which occurred one year after the game was announced. In fact, with the official site currently showing no details, we're not too hopeful that this game will see the light of day. If you're interested, keep an eye on developer Edge of Reality.

We Project Delays Keeping Up with the Jones
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  • JarredWalton - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    If you heard that, it certainly wasn't from Blizzard. They will almost certainly do another Diablo at some point, but when? Given WoW and SC2, I think it will be a while before Diablo 3 is released... though it's probably under development to some degree already.
  • MamiyaOtaru - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    Check back after the Blizzard World Wide Invitational (starting today I think). Rumours are pretty heavy they are announcing Diable 3. Blizzard have been dropping hints, and a lot of people are certain they point to D3. We'll see soon enough.
  • Imaginer - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    And looks like they would play the same too...

    Personally, if you seen one... you might as well have seen them all. For me, I am not holding my breath for any of them or even compelled. Unless someone can convince me otherwise...

    I just might be showing my age as well.
  • GhandiInstinct - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    Keep it up Eddie.

    You could have made the list shorter as the only good anticipated games are:

    Heavy Rain

    Alan Wake

    Project Offset

    Elveon

    BTW, not even game sites do articles like this, which are important.

    Thanks again.
  • PointlesS - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    Awesome article...there's a bunch that I remember seeing but have till now left my mind
  • DukeN - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    I'm not coming out....

    because I'm straight :)

    Give it up folks.
  • Rainman200 - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    If 2 Days to Vegas was dropped from the consoles that is a warning sign that the developer was not up to the task, financial troubles, could not meet certain QA goals etc from Sony/MS.


    Most games die before being seen by the public the ones that make are the lucky few and many of the ones you have listed are unfortunate enough or stupid enough to announce/show early builds only for the project to be canned. I'd say no more 2 of the games you listed will ever see the light of day.

    FYI the Indiana Jones game was never in development, Lucasarts is staffed by a bunch of lier's these days and the screenshot you used was from a tech demo not an actual game. The game was only just recently green lit but don't expect it any time soon especially if SW: The Force Unleashed bombs. Lucasarts plan to dig itself out of it's grave is to outsource everything so someone like EA/Activision will probably pick up duties for making any future Indy games and the in-house project will be killed off.
  • nycromes - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    Thanks for the list, it opened my eyes to a few titles I missed over the past few years and even some I forgot about.

    Maybe someone from one of the development companies will stumble on this list and realize they have an unrealized gold mine waiting to be worked on... the golden rule always applies - Money talks.

    I am glad to see some game articles popping up here and there, in actuality the articles have been very informative and some have tackled titles that I was previously unaware of.

    I am all for Anandtech expanding its focus (just not too far). Obviously many of it's regular readers share a love for games, this just makes sense IMHO. Great work, keep the great articles coming.
  • iamauser - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    ...but I've come to Anandtech for literally years for reliable hardware reviews. If the kind of fluff that's been showing up on the front page lately is a deliberate change in editorial direction, well, no sir, I don't much like it.
  • RamIt - Thursday, June 26, 2008 - link

    "...but I've come to Anandtech for literally years for reliable hardware reviews. If the kind of fluff that's been showing up on the front page lately is a deliberate change in editorial direction, well, no sir, I don't much like it."

    Agreed. I prefer what the site was based on. There are far better sites to get game info from.

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