The Punisher (PlayStation 2)

The Punisher
Developer: Volition Publisher: THQ Platform: PlayStation 2 Released in US: January 17, 2005 Released in EU: March 24, 2005 Released in AU: March 22, 2005 This game has unused cinematics.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do: This game apparently reuses elements from the then-upcoming Saints Row. Dig through the files for any noteworthy findings.

The Punisher is a tale of an angry Italian man who kills other angry Italian men. And Japanese men. And American men. And Mercenaries. And demons. And Archie.

Voice Acting

Present in the data files for the console version (and possibly the PC version?) is the voice acting for the original voice actor for the Punisher, hired as a soundalike for Thomas Jane (the actor from the then-current film), before they knew they'd be able to get the real thing. Most of the original acting was deleted, but a bit of it still exists on the disc and will play in-game on rare occasions. It appears to have been fixed for the PC version to at least not play in-game, or the actual files were removed.

To do: Rip and upload some of the original voice actor's lines. (And see if these lines exist in the files of the PC version.)

Unused/Placeholder Videos

Present in the DATA\MOVIES\BRIEF folder on the disc are the briefing videos for all 16 missions in the game, as well as some others.

bf_apartment.bik, bf_apart.bik

Both video files have the same contents and size. It appears to be a test of the video interference effects used in the final version.

bf_nycrack.bik

This is an earlier version of bf_nycrk.bik, the first stage's surveillance video. Here, the camera goes from the blocked entrance of the crack house to the basement entrance, but in the final, you see the area through two different security cameras.

credits01.bik

A placeholder credits video is in the DATA\MOVIES folder. This video features several executions that were cut from the final version due to them being excessively violent and gory.

Leftover Xbox Version Videos

The DATA\MOVIES\BRIEF folder contains four duplicate files: BF_DRG~1.BIK, BF_HAR~1.BIK, BF_JUN~1.BIK, and BF_MAN~1.BIK (duplicates of BF_DRGBT.BIK, BF_HRB2.BIK, BF_JNGL.BIK, and BF_MANS.BIK respectively). These are actually the original Xbox versions of the videos, but the data files for the game tell it to load the smaller versions instead.

Version History

VERSION.VER is a file that is present in the game disc's root directory. It seems to have been used at one point to track version history of builds. If the date provided for the "Punisher Dev Build" is to be trusted, then we have a good idea of when this game began development.

#Red Faction

// ----------------------------------------------------
// Version History
//
//
//
//version		build	#				comment
//-------		-----------			        -------
//$Ver x.y		$Build	z			        ""								//mm/dd/yyyy	<comment>
//$Ver 0.1              $Build	0			        "Punisher Dev Build"		                                //07/03/2003	<started Punisher for real>