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Unearthed: Neversoft's lost Ghost Rider game
Long before they dominated the world with the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series and even before they proved that games based on comic books didn't have to suck something awful with Spider-Man, Neversoft toiled away at an adaptation of Ghost Rider. While the game never saw release, much less got into its first, legitimate step in development, Playstation Museum has received an ancient demo of the game. The results? A shame to behold.While 2K Game's Ghost Rider movie tie-in effort looks to be a God of War clone, Neversoft's take was a 2-D platformer in the vein of Castlevania. Presumably canned for being so, would-be publisher Crystal Dynamics passed it up for not sporting that extra third dimension. Judging from the recorded footage (embedded after the break), it only needed more in the way of time than anything else.
Raid tombs with Lara on the PS3!
Ever since the release of Tomb Raider Legends, Lara Croft has redeemed herself and kept the franchise alive. Since her last iteration was so well-received (selling nearly 3 million copies in a year), Eidos has decided to bring the voluptuous lady to the Playstation 3. Said Chief Executive Jane Cavanagh, "Our 2008 products will include new versions of Tomb Raider (including a PS3 version) and many of our other key franchises. We also plan new franchises, including completely new products from both Crystal Dynamics (developers of Tomb Raider) and Io Interactive (developers of Hitman and Kane & Lynch)." This begs the question, should Nariko (of Heavenly Sword) and Lara get into a Super Smash Sisters: Brawl contest, who do you think would win?
The Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary labyrinth [update 1]
Curmudgeon Gamer gets curmudgeonly about the nebulous state of the Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Edition PSP release. Don't know what we're talking about? Head on over and read the scandalous, hyperlink-encrusted tale of dual developers working clandestinely on separate versions of the same game, and the evil publisher who pulled the plug ... but on which one? After much compiling, Curmudgeon Gamer's jvm peels the gum from his shoes, removes his deerstalker cap, and lights up his trusty pipe, before breaking down the whole tawdry affair: "For reasons unknown, Core and Crystal Dynamics were working independently on the same 10th anniversary game. Perhaps Core had been given a green light to try and after the SCi/Eidos merger, no one remembered that detail. Meanwhile, Crystal Dynamics successfully launched Tomb Raider: Legend and was considered by the management, especially in North America, to be the obvious team for the new game." We've embedded the video for Core's version after the break. If anyone can track down the Crystal Dynamics video, we'll post that too and we can tear ourselves apart arguing over which one would have -- undoubtedly -- been the better game. [Update: Curmudgeon Gamer has updated their analysis writing, "According to the SCi/Eidos press release verifying that Crystal Dynamics would produce the game, it will be published not just for the PlayStation Portable but also for Windows and the PlayStation 2. The current Tomb Raider: Legend engine supports all three of these. That changes my reading of the situation."]
