Heartland: all the things Jaffe didn't like about the Bush administration

David Jaffe's canceled PSP-exclusive FPS game Heartland was supposed to be more than just "the definitive shooter for the PlayStation Portable." It was supposed to have a message, one that echoed the sentiments of the always-opinionated God of War creator. Jaffe told The Escapist in a revealing feature: "It wasn't supposed to make you hate the Bush Administration so much as, as a layperson political junkie, it was supposed to put into light - using games as a medium - all the things I didn't like about the Bush Administration."

Unfortunately, a number of factors led to the cancellation of this project. It appeared that developer Incognito (team behind PS3's Warhawk) simply wasn't interested in working on the game. "They weren't really impressed with A) my politics, and B) story-based games to begin with."

Heartland may have been too ambitious and too graphic for the handheld. "The one thing Sony seemed uncomfortable about was naming the enemy," says Jaffe. "We were going to do some pretty intense stuff." Intense stuff indeed: players would see decapitations, and would face brutal choices: "The player chases after the teenage son, beating him and dragging him down the stairs, and throwing him into the living room. The commanding officer orders the player to douse the family and the house with gasoline, and set it on fire."