11 Fascinating Gaming Moments That Almost Happened

10. Infamous Was "Animal Crossing With Superheroes"

infamous 1 2
Sony

Back in the days where licensed superhero games fell somewhere between mediocre and total abominations that needed to be scrubbed from history, Sony's Infamous picked up the slack. The first two titles put players in the super-powered shoes of Cole MacGrath, a Conduit imbued with powers the player could either use responsibly, or to cause untold mayhem. There was little fluff; you jumped around a city and fought giant monsters, with Sony's aim being to let players fulfil their wildest superhero fantasies at every given moment.

The original idea, however, was more concerned with letting players fulfil their wildest city-planning fantasies. Yeah, that probably wouldn't have sounded quite as alluring slapped on the box art, would it? Reflecting on the original title back in 2010, Sucker Punch co-founder Chris Zimmerman explained that the team were trying to create "a superhero version of Animal Crossing". Going into detail, Zimmerman expanded:

"You roamed your city, tracked down criminals, helped out the citizens, and did some light zoning work along the way. The best superheroes have alter egos, right? So your alter ego was a property developer, deciding where to put the pet shops and tiki bars the citizens were demanding."

Looking after a city both from a financial planning perspective and a vigilante perspective could have been cool, but there's no denying the series probably ended up being better by focusing solely on the latter element.

JB

Advertisement
In this post: 
elder scrolls
 
First Posted On: 
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.

Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.