Technology shown in pre-release footage that has been removed in the released game

[L. Scofield]

Downgrades are very common nowadays but mostly in regards to resolution, framerate and scene/character detail. What games have actually suffered from technology downgrades? Here are some examples:

Crysis. It was supposed to have some form of dynamic GI named "realtime ambient maps" that was missing in the final game (28s):

Crysis 2. The GI tech Crytek was using supported realtime reflections (not screen space) as shown in the last part of this trailer (1m37s) but were missing in the released game:

Crysis 3. Features shown in this trailer not in the final game are: procedural HDR flares and shapes, 3rd generation real-time global illumination (AFAIK) and area lights:

The lesson here is never trust a Crytek tech trailer

Any other cases you guys can think of?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Aliens:Colonial Marines

 

[Ethatron]

Crysis 3. ... 3rd generation real-time global illumination (AFAIK) and area lights:

AFAIR that were "Light Propagation Volumes", but it had problems outside of controlled situations, which then alegedly have been fixed for Fable. Maybe there more control-freaks.
CE 3.8.1 has Voxel GI, similar to Nvidia's imlementation I guess, and Unreal's dropped research. Which is probably more stable than LPV, at least visually.

 

[AlNom]

Halo 2 used to use stencil shadows for everything.

 

[Grall]

Any other cases you guys can think of?

Quake Wars was supposed to have atmospheric shockwave effects for explosions and things like that (as an NV GTX 8800 exclusive feature IIRC), but this was excised from the game for "performance reasons".

 

[London Geezer]

Aliens: Colonic Marines was just a complete and utter fraud.

 

[shredenvain]

Halo 2 used to use stencil shadows for everything.

Yeah there is also the fact that the first E3 demo of Halo 2 featured an entire level that was never released in the retail version. I still think about that Halo 2 demo and how badass it would have been to play. I even have a DVD I got from best buy that has the entire demo on it. I still watch it when I feel nostalgic.

 

[shredenvain]

Oh another game springs to mind. Gears of War was supposed to have a level where you fought a Brumak that was shown off at E3 2005. It was removed from the 360 version because the engine couldn't handle it. It saw release in the PC version and soon to be releasee ultimate edition.

 

[L. Scofield]

Halo 2 used to use stencil shadows for everything.

Oh how could I forget that. The difference between the reveal trailer and the actual game is like night and day:

Reveal trailer:

Released game: (7m30s)

 

[orangpelupa]

Destiny - the effect that make ground does not only looks bumpy but it is bumpy is missing (i forgot the technical term, tesselation? POM?)