Ok... this is a weird thread. Hope you're ok with me putting this here, I know I'm a new poster and all but this covers a game that seems to be missing it's final level... A few things, I know this game isn't great, it's a movie tie in that is linked to a movie that had a very troubled production... but the game itself is special. A quick overview of what happened to the film itself, the director basically fell out with the studio. The studio wanted to do a kids film, the director wanted to do a more serious fantasy film. The studio wanted a less then 2 hours, no violence, no religious themes, no dark themes and a happy ending. Again not what the director wanted, nor what the story was about. A few months before the film was released the studio won. The film was gutted with close to an hour of footage removed. The ending of the film removed entirely, new scenes created, subplots removed, main events in the story reordered, and offending clues digitally removed. Anyone who has seen the film will know it ends rather strangely. All that exists of the original film is a few bits like movie tie in books and finally the game... (see it'd eventually get to the game honest!) The game isn't great and similar to most movie tie in games the levels are inspired by the movie and are not acurate to the film. It's a sega game so I was quite hopeful. However between levels there are movie clips - and the clips are from a workprint version of the film. They're poorly edited and have a voice over but they show clips and scenes that didn't reach the final film. They also show a few scenes post the events of the theatrical film so you start to get an idea of the true ending of the movie... making the game (for someone who is interested in the Northern Lights / Golden Compass game) quite an interesting thing to play (but don't take that as a good play :/). Also the game plays closer to the events the film was supposed to follow (closer to the book). However the game seems to have been cut too. It just ends. You find out a character has been kidnapped and you see the main character race to the rescue and it literally goes to a cut scene of the character going across a perilous bridge to where the other character has been kidnapped and it fades out. Leaving it with a really vauge voice over. It seems obvious that there was probably one last level or at least a boss fight and cut scene. Showing the true ending of the film. First off I was wondering if anyone had seen beta's floating about of this game. Any ideas of the last level or the biggest god send a rip of the last movie cutscene (which may or maynot exist) Secondly I thought it was cool to try and bring to attention the treasures that this game contains even though it's not exactly a special game. It does give a very rough glimpse of what this film originally aimed to do. Hope you don't mind me posting!
That's quite interesting! Any idea if the files have been ripped out or just relinked? if it was as half assed a cut as you assume the files might still be on the DVD.
I know the video files are definetly not on the disc (then again I can't 100% confirm it exists. However the voice over added to the last clip suggests it does. Done by eva green the use the phrase 'and lyra walked into the bridge in the stars'. This is being told the outcome of the final event without seeing the event happen. So I can only assume they cut the voice over from a final clip and just posted it over Lyra walking over the ice bridge). It seems they had enough time to edit one and possibly remove the other one. I don't know about the level files as all I have is the retail 360 version. I had the iso for a short while to check if there were anymore videos on the disc but stupidly didn't think about checking the levels. Need to track down a PC version of the game. For people interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi6javLIDqg I made a youtube video that took the scenes from the game, preproduction storyboards, clips from the theatrical release and shots from trailers to rebuild the ending. I added music, colour corrected etc. Be warned at least have seen the film or read the book before seeing this... The computer game ends at the ice bridge...
I was reading these posts all the way thinking you were talking about some old sega cd or 3do game or something older but then I read it was on 360 and nearly fell over. It's amazing what gets past whoever monitors this stuff the game sounds half finished and rushed as hell. Is it cheap?
The game is cheap now yeah I don't think the game was overlly rushed. The unfinished ending was most likely down to New Line studios removing the end of the film. New Line decided that they'd use the end of the first film as the intro to the second film (not that this is ever going to be made now). So you can't have the game showing you what's going to happen in a film not planned for release for a few years... But it's not like the game makers could completely rework all the in game scenes, dialogue, and difficulty levels to fit the new edit of the film and still have a chance of releasing it for all platforms at the same time as the movie release. So they just cut off the ending. :/ It's for the 360 but graphically and gameplay wise it's nothing worth shouting about:
