10 Cancelled Video Games That Looked Awesome

7. Six Days in Fallujah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0oOGjEATjw Political correctness ruins a lot of things, and one of them was Six Days in Fallujah, a promising-looking war-time shooter that prided itself on the fact that it was not only taken from a real conflict, but essentially taken from one that was still going on during its development, a first in the history of gaming. However, after a massive public outrage, with a lot of UK newspapers wheeling out war veterans to decry how tasteless and flippant the game was - despite having never played it nor having an awareness of its context - the game was quietly cancelled by Konami. It was an intriguing sounding game because it purported to offer the player a level of choice and really immerse us in the unpleasant experience of going to war; we'd have to decide whether to kill a suspect or let them go, and whether to help the local villages or round them up and take them into custody. The developers interviewed over 70 war veterans, so clearly did their homework, and it's just a shame that another useless "moral outrage" sparked a PR cleanup for Konami and ruined what could have been a very special game indeed. Apparently, by 2010, the game was actually completed, so it's just sitting around on a hard drive somewhere. And just a few months ago, it was said that the game "definitely isn't cancelled", though we find this difficult to believe given the time window since the scandal. Interest is only going to wane the longer this is strung out.
 
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.