A guy in our forums posted this link:

http://gamez.gamesweb.sk/news/dreamland.html, and it leads to a Russian site with shots of what is supposedly a Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge FPS game. The poster spins a sordid tale of Bethesda, Virgin, Mythos, and much pathos and betrayal, of which I have no idea how much is true.


Any ideas?

Oops, that should be http://gamez.gamesweb.sk/news/dreamland.htm, without the l.

Now *here's* a story worthy of investigative reporting for the gaming press to follow up.

Is this an early April Fool joke? Those screen shots are from Project IGI...

Which explains how Freedom Ridge became an FPS game ...

I'm telling you: call in the journalists.

Heh,
Bernie's right. Not only are those from IGI they're shots from the IGI Official website.

~Bub

The Freelancer site has an editorial about the demise of Dreamland in which they claim it was a conspiracy.

http://www.freelancer.ag.ru/dream/report_eng.shtml

The writer comes to the conclusion based on posts made to the Mythos board. It seems a bit farfetched to me, but I do find it puzzling that Virgin was unwilling to bankroll the project. Bethesda I can understand, because I don't think they have oodles of money. But Virgin's part of Titus now, aren't they?

Are you sure this isn't just a beta test for Majesty we are all unwittingly participating in?

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

"Are you sure this isn't just a beta test for Majesty we are all unwittingly participating in?"

Majestic? Heh -- yeah, could be. I'd certainly get more up in arms over a conspiracy to cancel Dreamland than some made-up, taking-over-the-world conspiracy. :)

Thanks for not making fun of my typo.. Majestic, I mean!! MAJESTIC! NOT MAJESTY!

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

Yeah, it's a fake (I was suspicious mainly because of the poor presentation of the site, and the fact that most Russian sites seem to be in Cyrillic, not Latin, alphabets ), but it leaves the question of just what did happen still up for grabs.


As for why Virgin would bow out, who knows? It could be just that they felt the game was costing too much and wouldn't make any money. It could be they wanted to steal the license and farm it out to Eastern European sweat shops for a quick buck. Maybe Mythos incurred their wrath by demanding time to do a quality game. Maybe Mythos was completely inept and they had no option but to pull the plug. Who the hell knows?


I suspect it's another example though of companies getting cold feet in regards a detailed, relatively expensive turn-based strategy game in sub-genre (real-world/science-fiction tactical) where real-time and first-person stuff seems to reign supreme.

"I suspect it's another example though of companies getting cold feet in regards a detailed, relatively expensive turn-based strategy game in sub-genre (real-world/science-fiction tactical) where real-time and first-person stuff seems to reign supreme."

This is probably the most likely reason, even if Virgin does intend to grab the license and farm it out to the Ukraine. A game like this just has limited sales potential in most books. The Jagged Alliance series has never sold well, from what I've heard.

Mythos and Infogrames need to get together. An updated X-COM *will* sell, I think.

Asher: The Jagged Alliance series has never sold well, from what I've heard.

Yeah, how did the more recent JA installemnts do? I kind of liked them, personally. I'm hoping that Fallout Tactics will follow along those lines.

Asher: Mythos and Infogrames need to get together. An updated X-COM *will* sell, I think.

Such a shame. That's what Dreamland effectively was, no?

I think Mark is right. A simple 32-bit windows update of X-Com, with modern graphics and sound-- sort of an "X-Com Gold", if you will-- would definitely sell a solid number of copies. Certainly more than enough to justify the work!

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

also, theres Abomination which is close in feel to X-Com (i only played a demo), though its more linear and really doesn't have nearly as much strategy as X-Com.

reviews for it were so-so.

aye, the closest you'll get to xcom these days is either the JA/SW games and even the Fallout games. . . but its the base strategy aspect and research aspect of X-Com that hasn't been integrated much in squad based games recently. the x-coms did those well (plus they had an rpg feel to em!).

also, I hear xcom was big in japan (or a cult hit) supposedly, so a big update to xcom (though xcom apocolypse was supposed to be it) could do well i think. also european gamers are big on these games i think. hmm im generalizing out the wazoo right now. . .

anyway, xcom and masters of magic are the games that are dying for a sequel or some kind of massive upgrade. i for one think a 3d squad based /base building/rpg game can be made and it doesn't have to be named Xcom . . . and can do well.

they ARE making moo3 and civ 3. . . so why not xcom ?

bah, i think microprose was the best gaming company that ever lived . . . and now they are dead.

hmm maybe a cthulu xfile horror game ala Xcom? that would be cool. . .

etc

I interviewed Louie Gilman a year or two ago not long before he left Hasbro Interactive to go work for the CIA, which is a scary thought if you think of operatives having to rely on Gilman technology. Between Microprose and Spectrum Holobyte, I don't think they ever released a game that didn't need a major patch.

Anyway, Gilman told me X-COM sold 400,000 copies. That's pretty good and certainly reason enough to do a proper sequel.