2 hours ago
LADA Racing Club is 20 years old - the shame of the Russian-speaking gaming enthusiast
Today is the 25th anniversary of the first “Gothic”.But I have nothing to add about her.I have praised Gothic over all games a million times: I praised it in a feature on Disgusting Men for its 20th anniversary, I praised the demo of the remake, which I expect as the main game of 2026.I also mention it constantly in the cart.Everything is clear here.
But I would like to throw in something about the LADA Racing Club.Apanasik advised me, by the way.Blame him!
You already know what the game was supposed to be and what it turned out to be.And I’m generally silent about internal sawing threads during development - you can get bogged down.There are many reasons why some inadequate hopes were pinned on the Lada.But one of them, very important, is the Russian-language gaming press of those years.LADA Racing Club was promoted so well that it still remains a big stain on the reputation of the gaming industry.
The game was promoted very aggressively and brazenly in gaming magazines, which had a lot of weight in the mid-2000s.Yes, and online too.What I remember:
• "Most Anticipated Game" award at the Gameland Awards • Laudatory, obviously sponsored “developer diaries” in nine issues of “PC Games” in a row • An incredibly sweet interview in Igromania, where the game was called a deep, thoughtful street racing simulator • The same points about realism in the complimentary preview on 3DNews, training manual!
I caught this period - I bought magazines then, and climbed gaming sites from the computer science classroom.I remember well how throughout the year the hype around “our NFS” was so inflated that even I couldn’t believe it at that age.And it smelled like a burning dollar.
And then the game came out and there was a scandal with ratings of one or two points out of ten from publications that yesterday helped the narrative that LADA Racing Club would crush NFS and others.Not only because it’s “ours”, but because everyone there has pitiful arcade games, but here there’s realism that no one has ever done before.This is where gamers were furious - what was going on on the “Gaming Mania” forum!Although there were some drinkers who were more than normal - and quite a few.
Only “Land of Games” stood out, giving the LRC a whopping 7.5 out of 10 on release. With the conclusion: “Contrary to expectations, Lada turned out to be a good game - both as a race and as a virtual guide to Moscow.”It was also on the cover of the issue - now a collector's item.
A bold step when everyone could independently check how it really is there, and everyone already knows about the junk files on two out of four disks.And they say that 300,000 people checked.The editors apologized later.
Then they scammed a Russian gamer who believed in domestic development.But the people have not yet moved away from “Vivisector”.But what a funny and instructive story it turned out to be.It's just the spirit of the times. #game #PC
Today is the 25th anniversary of the first “Gothic”.But I have nothing to add about her.I have praised Gothic over all games a million times: I praised it in a feature on Disgusting Men for its 20th anniversary, I praised the demo of the remake, which I expect as the main game of 2026.I also mention it constantly in the cart.Everything is clear here.
But I would like to throw in something about the LADA Racing Club.Apanasik advised me, by the way.Blame him!
You already know what the game was supposed to be and what it turned out to be.And I’m generally silent about internal sawing threads during development - you can get bogged down.There are many reasons why some inadequate hopes were pinned on the Lada.But one of them, very important, is the Russian-language gaming press of those years.LADA Racing Club was promoted so well that it still remains a big stain on the reputation of the gaming industry.
The game was promoted very aggressively and brazenly in gaming magazines, which had a lot of weight in the mid-2000s.Yes, and online too.What I remember:
• "Most Anticipated Game" award at the Gameland Awards • Laudatory, obviously sponsored “developer diaries” in nine issues of “PC Games” in a row • An incredibly sweet interview in Igromania, where the game was called a deep, thoughtful street racing simulator • The same points about realism in the complimentary preview on 3DNews, training manual!
I caught this period - I bought magazines then, and climbed gaming sites from the computer science classroom.I remember well how throughout the year the hype around “our NFS” was so inflated that even I couldn’t believe it at that age.And it smelled like a burning dollar.
And then the game came out and there was a scandal with ratings of one or two points out of ten from publications that yesterday helped the narrative that LADA Racing Club would crush NFS and others.Not only because it’s “ours”, but because everyone there has pitiful arcade games, but here there’s realism that no one has ever done before.This is where gamers were furious - what was going on on the “Gaming Mania” forum!Although there were some drinkers who were more than normal - and quite a few.
Only “Land of Games” stood out, giving the LRC a whopping 7.5 out of 10 on release. With the conclusion: “Contrary to expectations, Lada turned out to be a good game - both as a race and as a virtual guide to Moscow.”It was also on the cover of the issue - now a collector's item.
A bold step when everyone could independently check how it really is there, and everyone already knows about the junk files on two out of four disks.And they say that 300,000 people checked.The editors apologized later.
Then they scammed a Russian gamer who believed in domestic development.But the people have not yet moved away from “Vivisector”.But what a funny and instructive story it turned out to be.It's just the spirit of the times. #game #PC
