Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice (lost unreleased PlayStation 2 game; 2008)
Box art of the game.
Status: Lost
Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice is a vehicular combat shooter game developed by now defunct software house BigBig Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for PlayStation Portable in 2007; a PlayStation 2 version was supposed to release later on, but after several postponements - with the latest set release date being the 10th of September 2008[1][2][3][4] - it was ultimately cancelled and went unreleased.
Development history
There was little parallel development between the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2 versions of Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice, as work on the latter commenced after substantial progress was made with the other[5].
Exclusive features
The PlayStation 2 version of Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice featured local split-screen multiplayer up to two players, as opposed to ad-hoc multiplayer up to four players on PlayStation Portable. Related to this are two exclusive modes: Car Jackers, where players have to steal as many vehicles as possible, and Finders Keepers, where players have to accumulate gems by stealing them from enemy vehicles. These replaced Survivor and Cop n' Robbers, exclusive to PlayStation Portable instead.[6]. It would have also been possible to switch save data from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation Portable, and vice versa.
Games Convention 2007
A demo of the game could have been shown at Games Convention 2007, which took place in Leipzig, Germany, as the German rating system, Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK), gave the game (labelled as 'GC-Demo') a rating of 16 on the 6th of August 2008, just a little over two weeks before the event[7]. In addition, information on the game can be found within a related PlayStation Network Monthly Artwork press disc[8].
Screenshots
14 screenshots are known to exist. The earliest ones are from a PlayStation Monthly Artwork press disc from February 2007[9], and were taken on the 12th of December 2006. They showcase the local split-screen multiplayer feature:
The other 10 screenshots are found in the PlayStation Network Monthly Artwork press disc for Games Convention 2007[8], and were taken on the 24th of July 2007:
Availability
Currently, two builds of the game are known to exist:
- On the 5th of April 2024, it was discovered that USK is still in possession of the demo build they rated for Games Convention 2007[10];
- On the 20th of April 2024, it was discovered that Issue 3 of the Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, dated May 2007, contains a preview of the game curated by editor Mark Serrels[11]. He revealed that it was played on a PlayStation 2 development kit.
Further information on other builds has yet to surface.
References
- ↑ [1] Official PlayStation entry for the game (Norway)
- ↑ [2] Official PlayStation entry for the game (Sweden)
- ↑ [3] Official PlayStation entry for the game (Netherlands)
- ↑ [4] Official PlayStation entry for the game (Portugal)
- ↑ This was revealed by one of the artists who worked on the game, who also happened to handle external QA. Their identity remains undisclosed.
- ↑ [5] Interview with game director Christopher Whiteside, conducted by Eurogamer.
- ↑ [6] USK entry for the game.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 [7] PlayStation Network Monthly Artwork press disc for Game Convention 2007.
- ↑ [8] PlayStation Network Monthly Artwork press disc, February 2007.
- ↑ This was revealed by USK support after they were contacted by email.
- ↑ [9] Official PlayStation Magazine (Australia), Issue 3 (2007-05).