In our previous two instalments of this series, we chronicled ten titles - ranging from the days of the original NES to the current gaming generation - that were tragically cancelled before their highly anticipated release dates. The reasons behind these cancellations vary from incredibly bad business decisions by the game publishers, and technical issues with the game's development, to platform problems (see Sega) and incredibly bad business decisions by game publishers. Here are the first 10 games we've charted.

Part 1 (in no particular order)

Part 2

Now it's time for more long lost games. Here are five additional titles that were taken before their time.

Aliens: Colonial Marines (PS2, 2002)

This one is a complete mystery. In 2001, Electronic Arts and Fox Interactive announced a new PlayStation 2 game based on the classic movie sequel "Aliens." And it looked hot, too - Aliens: Colonial Marines was to take place shortly after the events of "Aliens", where players lead a new squad of Colonial Marines to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the crew of the USS Sulaco, and the incident on the planet LV-426. The first-person shooter game was also designed with squad-based gameplay, which allows players to command other NPC Marines in the squad. Each member of the squad would have specific skills and personalities, with experienced veterans being more reliable in combat, and rookies being prone to Hudson-esque panic attacks screaming "Game over, man! Game over!!!"

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES Slide Show (8 images)

According to EA, there were three campaigns with more than 20 missions planned for the game. Aliens: Colonial Marines also promised some new stuff, too. For example, one of the five extensive environments was going to be the mysterious alien home world - I would have loved to have seen that. In addition, players would encounter new synthetics (see screenshots for more) and never-before-seen aliens. The graphics also included advanced lighting and particle effects. Aliens: Colonial Marines was looking like the game that "Alien" franchise fans had been waiting for.

Aliens: Colonial Marines looked to take the next step for the popular "Alien" franchise, but the PlayStation 2 exploded like a chest-bursting Xenomorph.

Fox Interactive, EA and developer Check Six Studios previewed the game at E3 2001, and the gameplay footage looked extremely promising, especially on the then-new PlayStation 2. But the release date for the game slipped from the 2001 holiday season and by the time E3 2002 rolled around, EA confirmed that the title was "on hold", is publisher-speak for "this game is dead in the water." Aliens: Colonial Marines was officially cancelled later that year.

No official answer was ever given as to why production was halted on a game that was scheduled for release that same year, especially a title based on a wildly popular movie franchise. It may have had something to do with Check Six Studios, a relatively new developer that only completed one title - 2002's Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly - and appears to have shut down.

The moral of the story may be this: never hand over a big time movie franchise license to new developer and a publisher with a dubious history of cancelling titles. The demise of Aliens: Colonial Marines was a crushing blow to the "Alien" game franchise, which has seen plenty of titles but few that lived up to the greatness of the first two films. One could argue, in fact, that the best of the series is actually Alien Vs. Predator 2. Thankfully, we have Sega working on two new Alien titles: check out our TwitchGuru blog post for more. But I'll always lament the loss of Colonial Marines.

Join our discussion on this topic