[mpipes]

For me its sorta like what Kathleen Kennedy did with Star Wars.

She killed off Han. She turned Luke into a loser, and Princess Leia into Mary Poppins. A Palatine was put in Luke's shoes. We had bombers dropping bombs in space, Leia slapping a Rebellion pilot, a formal gown wearing Admiral, a magic knife, Lando sleeping with a droid (?), and to really cap it all with the cherry on top....we had a cavalry charge on a Star Destroyer. Basically, to many if not most, and certainly to me, it was a train wreck.

In short, she ignored the legacy material as much as possible, and she destroyed most fans' favorite characters in one way or the other. So now, Disney is starting to feel the sting from a core IP property LOSING MONEY. Funny how fans can react to "improvements."

IMHO FL is on a similar track. They will not persuade anywhere near a majority of fans here to buy this product. I think they should go back to the background of the original and make a number or reasonably REALISTIC changes and get rid of the more ridiculous elements, They want Sweden in the mix, have an errant nuke go off in the country or a group of Spetsnaz cross the border and kill a bunch of civilians. You can even have the Soviets invade Sweden to capture an airbase to support Frontal Aviation. And you could put an airborne Brigade into the UK to start massacring civilians to draw off a division or two (its like civilians in the UK own guns or even pitchforks).

Basically, all they have done is put a Year Zero game out with a WWW3 setting and called it - TWILIGHT:2000. For me, it is beyond silly to buy the rights to a game, and then write something that is completely different. That is why many of us here were totally aghast at the Alpha release. Other than the name, it had NO relation to the GDW originals. It was their concept, with their timeline setting, and their rules. Far from being an updated and expanded edition (as it were) with updated rules, graphics, etc.. it was a TOTALLY different game, and not one that is likely to capture the attentions of fans of the GDW game. Now that is fine. Gung ho and yay FL we hope you make money, but don't expect fans of the original to be sold on it.