Games Missing In Action

Parabellum is yet another FPS game planned for consoles and PC. Developed by ACONY, the title was announced back in August of 2006 and was touted as being one of the most violent shooters to date. Utilizing the Unreal Engine 3, Parabellum's focus is on its multiplayer combat, though a single player campaign will also be included. The game's premise centers around an immense terrorist attack on New York City and your team of soldiers' attempt to restore peace.

While no official information about the game has been announced in quite a while, the game's official site was updated this past April with two new screenshots… and nothing more. However, media that was released when the game was announced included a trailer packed full of gameplay footage that you can find by doing a Google search. You may find that the graphics in this trailer look a bit dated, but judging by the two recent screens shots the game may very well have undergone an overhaul to take advantage of the Unreal Engine 3's continual improvement. Regardless, it would be nice to get some indication of the game's progress.

Saboteur is a third-person action title planned for consoles and PC. The game is set in the WWII time period where your character uses stealth to inflict revenge on the Nazis who ruined his life. With a setting that has been thoroughly exhausted, it's good that the game is not about the war; rather, it is about the main character and his personal story. While this may sound more like an adventure title, developer Pandemic promises plenty of explosive action that should appeal to even those who have grown tired of playing WWII games. It's been more than a year since we've heard anything about Saboteur, and with E3 approaching now would be an opportune time for an update.

Here is another title that the public knows absolutely squat about. In fact, Heavy Rain has not even confirmed as the game's official title - it was actually tied to a tech demo that was shown at E3 in 2006, entitled "The Casting". While impressive looking indeed, what we saw in this demo may or may not have been representative of a game that may or may not have been in development at the time. How's that for ambiguity? Still, it was enough to keep gamers talking about it for a long time to come. The aforementioned tech demo depicted a girl in her late twenties as she showed up for a casting call in hopes of getting the lead role of what many speculate is the character in the game. The end result was somewhat earth shattering as the girl's performance was able to spark all sorts of emotions in those who experienced it.

The game is said to be a straight up adventure title due to French developer Quantic Dreams' success with Fahrenheit - known as Indigo Prophecy in the US. Still, this is only speculative. To tell you the truth, Heavy Rain was never even announced as being an upcoming game, but that didn't stop every game site out there from adding it to their rosters. What we do know is that Quantic Dreams is in fact working on a "top secret" exclusive title for the PlayStation 3. However, this announcement did not come until over a year after the tech demo's showing at E3. If you ask me, Heavy Rain is nothing more than wishful thinking as far as an actual game is concerned. I could be wrong though; only time will tell.

Another E3 announcement from back in 2006 is Chrome 2, a sequel to tactical shooter Chrome that was released for PC back in 2003. While this FPS did not rate more than mediocre scores from critics, it did spark a following among gamers, and Techland is answering whatever call exists for a sequel among its fans. Chrome 2 was originally on lists of upcoming DirectX 10 games, back when that was something noteworthy. According to the developers at the E3 conference, the game would incorporate much of what made the first game unique, including implantation - the ability to take over fallen foes with special mind power. Although the thought of jumping into the body of a comrade who's already filled full of holes and decaying sounds pretty vile, the idea is to utilize different abilities on the fly as required for a particular situation. That sounds interesting enough, I guess. Currently, we have no clue as to whether the sequel will be an exclusive PC title like its predecessor. Or perhaps we just have no clue at all, and we won't until the good folks at Techland decide to speak up and give us the goods.

Well, there you have it folks; sixteen games whose developers have decided to become mutes. After my attempts to contact a number of these development teams, I have not received as much as one returned e-mail. Oh well, I guess that's the breaks. I was really hoping to get at least a little info on Interstellar Marines, the one game I have been looking forward to the most. So we'll continue to look forward as looking back has gotten us nowhere. Hopefully this year's E3 Expo, now called "E for All," will bring us some much-anticipated news about these promising titles.