Agent. Missing in action – the most anticipated games lost in development hell
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Every new game reveal from Rockstar thrills the players. That was the case with next GTA installments, Red Dead Redemption, and of course Agent. When it comes to the latter, the thrilling process has continued since 2009 up to a point where the fans are simply tired. It has been 6 years since the project has been announced, and no additional information has surfaced.
Agent announced at E3 in 2009 (and being in development since 2007) was to be Rockstar’s definitive action game combining shooter and stealth elements featuring a tale about a spy undertaking various missions in the 70-ies. Can you imagine? The colorful era (The Cold War was quite a playground for espionage), a use of old school spy gadgets without the soulless achievements of the modern technology, supposedly a superb soundtrack, and an movie-like script - all of that in a single Playstation exclusive title. Unsurprisingly, many still await the coming of the Agent. Will their expectations be met?
Two years since the first announcement, screenshots from Agent have leaked to the internet (the game is being made after all!). After another two years Take-Two had to renew the trademark (the game IS being made!), while in the summer of 2014 one of the online retailers has informed its’ customers that the pre-order for the game has been canceled (that doesn’t mean anything yet, as other instances have thought us). What’s next? Will Rockstar give the Agent a chance? Or will they continue to cash in on the GTA franchise and tease us with the new Red Dead?
Mafia III
2010’s Mafia II didn’t completely satisfy the fans of the original. Nevertheless, the title developed by 2K Czech was a well-done sequel to a beloved gangster game. Rumors regarding the third Mafia have been circulating for a while now, and the game was supposedly headed for the previous generation of consoles (before the target systems were changed for current gen. consoles). Sadly, 2K Czech’s studio in Prague has been shut down and, apart from layoffs, some of the crucial members of the staff have been transferred to 2K headquarters in California. The good news is, that they are probably working on the sequel to Mafia II.
In March 2014 2K has announced that they are searching for voice over and mocap actors for the upcoming game. According to the posted summary, the yet unannounced game is set in Louisiana sometime after the end of World War II. All of the characters are involved in the crime underworld and two of them are of an Italian origin. Coincidence? That information, as voice over and motion caption happen in the later stages of development, ties in with the formation of the development studio Hangar 13 within 2K. Supposedly, the former 2K Czech developers from Prague (the people behind Mafia II and probably Mafia III) are part of the aforementioned studio. The speculation comes naturally. Will we see the next E3 make us an offer we can’t refuse?
Fallout 4
We all know that Fallout 4 is coming someday, but no one can say for sure when. Bethesda Softworks (ironically, it’s the third title on our list connected to the company) has had all the rights to the Fallout brand for a few years now, although all the time spent in court surely has hindered the development. Up until now there have been countless rumors that F4’s reveal is just around the corner.
In 2012 we have learned that the creators are to set the new Fallout in Boston (every such an entry causes havoc on Reddit). After a few months we were informed that the voice actor of Three Dog from Fallout 3 was to reprise his role soon and that at 2013’s E3 a special presentation of the new entry in the post-apocalyptic franchise was to be made behind closed doors. Those were all rumors however. Such gossip was easily forgotten in autumn, when all were holding their breaths due to a certain timer. Do You remember the website thesurvivor2299.com? Currently it re-directs to Bethesda’s official site, but for three weeks between November and December, it featured several codes and a countdown. The first assumption was obvious – soon we will know for sure that Fallout 4 is being made, that it’s going to be better, and we will get to play it on a moment’s notice.
The ‘missing in action’ level on our chuck-o-meter for this one is high, after all the game wasn’t even officially announced yet, and all the hope and speculation is based on the fans’ simple belief that the game must be in production, as the developers would be unwise not to be doing it. We can be certain that Fallout 4 won’t hit store shelves in 2015, but a small teaser to clarify wouldn’t hurt, now would it Bethesda?
