I know this article is a little late, but I was too busy weeping over my Powerball ticket after realizing I would have to go back work the next day. Thankfully, each new jackpot is 40 million dollars, which may at least get one of these games off the ground and onto my consoles.
Powerball mania has swept the nation, and people have been day dreaming about what they would do with so much money. I, of course, jumped on the hype train and day dreamed about what games I would bring back from vaporware Hell.
5) Harker
Harker fell to the horrible fate of being put on the backburner. Instead of continuing work on this vampire inspired game, Double Helix Games decided to put all their eggs into the Silent Hill: Homecoming basket, never to return to the Jonathan Harker’s vampire-slaying world. The studio, who once worked on Killer Instinct for Microsoft, is now owned by Amazon. So it is very doubtful this game will see the light of day. Not seeing the light of day is generally good for a vampire, but isn’t too good if it is an interesting premise to a video game. After doing some searches I found that this game is in the deepest of vaporware graves–no hint of it anywhere. I wonder if the current employees at Double Helix even know if there are any assets for the game laying around. Hopefully someone at Amazon will stumble upon them and resurrect the game. If not, a few million dollars may loosen Double Helix’s grip on this IP. Either way this is the vampire game we need. No more of those sparkly, feminine vampires; it’s time for scary ones to make a comeback.
4) Silent Hills
Anyone who is anyone knows about the Hideo Kojima and Konami breakup just before Metal Gear Solid V was released. There was obvious strife leading up to the breakup, but the biggest thing we lost was Silent Hills. Guillermo Del Toro and Hideo Kojima were teaming up to make what would most likely have been the scariest game ever made. P.T. alone made me shiver and quit playing in the middle of the day because it was so horrifying. Every survival horror fan, myself included, was devastated at the cancellation of this project. Sure, Konami said that there would be more Silent Hill games, but after playing Homecoming and Downpour my excitement is low. This would obviously be the most difficult game to pull from the vaporware graveyard, but I think it would be the most fulfilling. Survival horror really hasn’t taken off like I hoped it would after The Evil Within was released, but I’m thinking that should this game somehow be made, it would usher in the renaissance we so deserve.
3) Shadow of the Eternals
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem is one of best games on Nintendo’s GameCube, and fans have been dreaming of a sequel for over a decade. Originally made by Silicon Knights under the direction of Denis Dyack, the game was a financial and critical success. Dyack was riding high on the GameCube, but things went sour during the development of Too Human, and a huge lawsuit from Epic Games all but ruined the once great developer. Silicon Knights was no more and its successor, Precursor Games, was also in trouble. There were legal issues as to who owned the assets that Precursor had already developed. Dyack continued nonetheless and launched a Kickstarter to keep Shadow of the Eternals going. The Kickstarter was a failure, and as of August 2013 still needed $375,000 just to reach its minimum goal. That amount is mere peanuts to a Powerball winner, so why not cut a check for double that and take the whole studio off Dyack’s hands? He’s obviously lost his touch, so why not find the original group of developers and let them play in this world until they craft a masterpiece?
2) Call of Cthulhu: Destiny’s End
A sequel to Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was suppose to be released in 2004 on the PlayStation 2. Unfortunately, this never happened due to restructuring of the game and the liquidation of Headfirst Productions. Set 80 years after a government raid which destroyed the town of Innsmouth, two protagonists decide they want to find out what truth is buried in the old ruins. Trendsetting co-op was supposed to be the huge seller for this title; players would be able to control Emily or Jacob at any point in the game. Think what Grand Theft Auto V did, only in a survival horror setting from the mind of H.P. Lovecraft. I’m a giant fan of survival horror and Lovecraft’s world, so there is no reason why I wouldn’t drop a couple million into knocking the dust off of this game. I might even try to meet up with Tango Gameworks and get Shinji Mikami help me direct this future survival horror masterpiece.
1) Dirty Harry
The Dirty Harry game has been in “development” since 2005 when Warner Brothers announced it. Unfortunately in the eleven years that have passed, not to much has been done about it. It seems that Officer Callahan has been put on an indefinite suspension, and that doesn’t sit well with me, punk. The Collective was assigned to bring Harry out of retirement with hits like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Heck, they even got Clint Eastwood to lend his iconic voice and mug to the game. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently everything. Even with all the wins the game was destined to have, The Collective began to lay off employees; thirty in 2007 to be exact. With news of the lay-off Warner Brothers pulled the license from the studio, causing the finished scenes and gameplay to lie hidden somewhere. Rocksteady Games would be perfect for this game. They could craft an amazing story and have some stellar gameplay to go with it. Just think Arkham Knight with more guns and lots of Clint. I am a huge Dirty Harry fan and watch the movies whenever I can, so I would definitely pay up a good chunk of my winnings to see this game to life. Hopefully it would get a new movie off the ground too, with Scott Eastwood playing Dirty Harry Jr.
