The tale of Vegas, back in the 00's days still a trendy place.
I recall very well when i was a kid checking Gamespot some usual chatter about a project called back then 2 Days to Vegas, some scots trying to do a GTA-tier thing but timed or something like that but that would've had tons of variations in its single player. This was around 2003 i think, nothing came out of it but very detailed (back then) concept art renders which implied a next-gen thing.
Then many years later a trailer came out of nowhere from Midway about a GTA-esque open world game called This is Vegas, many included myself thought it was finally that hyped 2 Days thing but much in form, seems Midway saw Saint Row actually succeeding and wanted some pie.
Then nothing came out of that either and it died.
Until years later it was known that both projects were seemingly totally unrelated and both vaporware, but in very recent years (3 or 2 from now) it seems tons of disgruntled devs leaked their stuff made for This is Vegas and sadly seems it was almost finished but shelved due to Midway shitting itself into liquidation, it was more of a Saints Row clone than GTA's but with a more "serious" tone. There's a bunch of gameplay videos in contrast to the obscure trailer we got from back in the day, you started from scratch and later went on being a hitman/loan shark thing for the big honchos at Vegas (Trump-inspired character included) along with barman and dancing side activities plus racing customizable rides.
A shame it never went out, very flashy looking, but more interestingly for me is that the 2 Days thing project was never mentioned again and very few remember it when doing those fag lists about vapoeware either in articles or juvenile YT videos.
Also while trying to remember the This is Vegas name i found out that other famous game that made americans butthurt as fuck, Six Days in Fallujah, will get a release soon or so some devs say. It seems some dude bought the shelved build time ago and contracted a studio consisting of some Bungie devs to optimize and release it, but i read they also tampered with the graphics and campaign mode so it probably isn't the unbiased controversial take it originally was hyped to be anymore.