Unannounced video games get canned every day - it's just a fact about the games industry. But when they resurface weeks, months, or even years later, it's always interesting to see and wonder what might have been. Case in point, this Grand Theft Auto-like South Park game found on an original Xbox debug unit:
It also appears that this dev kit is the same one discovered a year ago by NintendoAge forum user "qixmaster," considering the two units hold the exact same contents on them. Qixmaster has a Photobucket gallery with tons of pictures, as well as a rip of a cutscene from the game, where Cartman has his V-Chip re-activated (the device implanted in his brain in the TV show to keep him from swearing, but which backfired and became a weapon):
While the game was clearly in development, it provides some sense of where the developers were going here. We see multiple characters being controlled as they wander around an open world version of the quiet mountain town, hijacking school buses and military vehicles. The kids also have more realistic details on their models. Check out the stitching in Kenny's hood, and the knitting in Cartman's cap. It's surreal, buddy!
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Sam is a former News Editor here at GamesRadar. His expert words have appeared on many of the web's well-known gaming sites, including Joystiq, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, and G4 Media, among others. Sam has a serious soft spot for MOBAs, MMOs, and emo music. Forever a farm boy, forever a '90s kid.