A Tale of How Geleos Conquered Rus'. The Story of Lada Racing Club
November 1 saw the revival of the blog for Lada Racing Club on our portal. MrPatogen posted a few screenshots from this horror show, the last of which became a symbol of the game. And I became curious – do modern gamers remember how Geleos took advantage of the Russian people and left them without support? It turned out that many had not even heard of such a game, even though only three and a half years had passed. Maybe it's for the best; not knowing about such projects is calmer, but with LRC it was a unique case – the game was extremely well-promoted, sold a record-breaking number of copies (300,000 copies in a year) and sparked several unique scandals that have never occurred in the industry before and probably never will again. Moreover, a sequel is in development, and I consider it my duty to prepare gamers for its second coming. Unfortunately, the official website of the game and most fan sites have been dead for a long time, so it is important to talk about this before LRC is completely forgotten!
Presenting – a nostalgic review specifically for GAMER.ru!
The project was announced in May 2004. Geleos Media, known for the excellent racing arcade game “Ostrich Races”, along with ArtyShock Company, promised us practically a dream game – racing through a fully recreated 3D Moscow, the entire model range of Lada, and a modern graphic engine! Here’s the game trailer released in early 2005:
Very impressive graphics for the time. Water like in Half-Life 2, reflections on cars much better than in NFS Underground 2, and all of this in a Russian game! If only there had been a few more post-effects, but the visuals were juicy and beautiful even without them. The developers were eager to engage with the press and players, frequently appearing on the official forum and answering questions. Besides the license from “AvtoVAZ” for the entire model range of Lada, Geleos also used tuning parts from companies like Rider, Pro-Sport, ATT, SVR, Promo, Lit Company, Clutchnet and some others. Multiplayer, police chases, and playing as police were also promised, along with a change of day and night cycles and two game modes – simulation and arcade. For promotion, the winner of Miss Moscow Alyona Kiryachok was invited:
There was also an unprecedented offer announced – every buyer of the licensed version would automatically become a participant in a contest, the grand prize of which was a brand new “Lada”, fully tuned. Huge money was allocated for promotion,
The game was promised to be released in December 2005, and the New Disk website even had an exact date – December 14. This date was there on December 13 as well, and people believed wholeheartedly that the game would be released and would make a great New Year’s gift. But on December 14, the following news appeared on the official website:
*Due to objective reasons, the release of the game is postponed for a short (albeit indefinite) period. However, you can already pre-order it at the online store