What they found was that the game has a long, long history. Indeed, it began before Halo, as a sci-fi project by the name of Titan, an MMO inspired by Ultima Online. Then, when Ensemble were brought into the Microsoft fold, the Halo license "was incorporated in the game", and the project's name was changed to Orion.

Apparently, "everyone at Ensemble expected this MMO to be the new focus of the company", and work even began on a new building to house the dev team. Down the road, however, "work on the new building stopped", and it wasn't much longer until Microsoft closed down the entire studio. A suggestion that the cancellation of Orion led to the studio's demise, perhaps?

Moving on from Halo, a number of other unreleased projects came to light as concept art and design documents were packed away. There was a "fantasy-adventure RPG", a "Diablo in space" game, a "pirate-themed take on Diablo", a "Ratchet & Clank-style platformer" and a cartoony platformer called "Agent".

Interestingly, one more older project was unveiled: "Phoenix", an RTS pitting humans vs martians that "changed over time" to become Halo Wars.

The full report - including some concept art for both Orion and Agent - below.

Ensemble Studios: The Last Tour [Gamasutra]

The artwork we showed you yesterday focused on specific character class designs, weapons and vehicles, but new images, which appear to be from the same Halo MMO project, offer a broader, more conceptual look at "Orion."

While the previous concepts have found more derision than we were expecting, these may appeal more to the Halo-loving audience, borrowing already familiar elements and reinterpreting them to fit into the MMO mold.

Thanks, Smarter!

Thanks to one of our snoopiest readers Jeff, we have an in-depth look at dozens of pieces of concept art from "Orion", much of which provides fascinating insight into how the game was originally intended to look, from its many character types to creatures to vehicles to cleavage-exposing Spartan armor.

Some of our favorite pieces include the Grackle vehicle, a UNSC vs. the Convenant comparison line-up and possible character mounts.

On the fun side, we like the dual-gender Spartan aesthetics and would have liked to see how Forerunners Next Top Model would have been implemented.

We even get a look at the proposed character progression for the UNSC's "Assault" class from noob to level 60. And those Greys? Possibly even cuter than Final Fantasy XI's Tarutaru.

We're continuing to dissect some of the early character artwork to learn more about how "Orion" would have played. It appears the in-game look of the MMO is a noticeable deviation from the concept art and we hope that some of this unused material reappears elsewhere in future Halo titles.

Buka releases new DUSK-12 screenshots

Some terrible monsters to deal with

MOSCOW, Russia (August 29, 2007) - after successful presentation of DUSK-12 at GC 2007 in Leipzig and getting positive feedbacks Buka Entertainment is pleased to reveal new screenshots from this notable first person shooter in development at Orion Games.

Experiments to create a perfect soldier failed and a small peaceful town turned into the evil den. The city is now full of aggressive mutants and imperfect soldiers out of control. Mutation definitely doesn't make people look pretty! Inhabitants of the closed city are terrible monsters, and the new screenshots show them in all their ugliness and repulsiveness. You should thank for this the mutagenic virus called DUSK-12 that changes nice and friendly citizens into the wild fiends.

In addition to the genetic experiments, scientists tried to make an ideal combatant mechanically and created a powerful cyborg. And now you have to deal with all these unsympathetic creatures!

DUSK-12 is a state of the art first person shooter, full of action for single and multiplayer and hyper-realistic graphics full of details. The player will incarnate two heroes: a soldier leading his squad, and a mutant who possesses powers beyond the human limits. Use weapons like in usual shooters and give orders to your companions in the squad mode or use the superpowers of the mutant! You choose!

Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are available in multiplay, along with a huge amount of different weapons and superpowers gather in this title that will be a revolution of the genre.

Key game features:

* Totally new graphic engine that uses to the limit the latest technology available for the PC platform
* Play alone or in squad mode as you control the mutated man or the soldier. Use your superpowers or give orders to your companions to aid you in the combat.
* Innovative physic system. Take everything you want, break hundreds of objects, use elements of the scenario as weapons.
* Several vehicles that you will be able to use for traveling through the scenario and transport your group.
* Intense multiplayer mode up to 16 people. Choose between a soldier or a mutated human.