X-Com
 

As announced in the Video Games thread, Firaxis X-Com rewrite coming out in Fall.

Firaxis Games

Getting to Know XCOM: Enemy Unknown - IGN

Pretty cool video, looking forward to it ... great looking graphics, glam-cam, ant farm ...

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Deep Dive #1 - YouTube

Facebook link.

http://www.facebook.com/XCOM

My favorite quote. "The core principals that we wanted to build on from the original game are basically ...everything." Very excited for this!

I'm not sure about the changes to how many people in a squad though...

Well maybe the second part of the Rock Paper Shotgun interview will make you feel better.

Firaxis On XCOM vs Xenonauts & Optional Kill-Cam | Rock, Paper, Shotgun


Or maybe the part where the dev was actually being serious.


The interview also mentions another X-COM style game that is in development named Xenonauts, and from the development screenshots you will be able to have a larger squad for missions.

I'm excited for X-COM, though there is one thing I'm worried about that centers around it being a multiplatform release. I'm happy it's coming out on consoles so people have the option to play it on their system of choice, I just hope they have separate UIs for console and PC. I really hope they don't design one UI and control scheme that's built around the limitations of a controller and on screen text designed to be read from a TV. Should be something basic, but too many games don't seem to get it right.

Could they do something as simple as the remake of Sid Meier's Pirates a couple of years ago where there wasn't much new except for a new coat of paint on the graphics? It was a somewhat limited experience as the old game was but there was so much depth in the original that it held up fairly well.

SI

wow - the remake was already 8 years ago.

After reading SI's post I was thinking, "Was there a Pirates! game I somehow failed to notice?"

I just started playing UFO online. It's pretty fun, free, and has a surprising amount of depth for an online game. It's in closed beta, but you can get a key here.

The same folks also make Jagged Alliance Online which is also a good amount of fun, and in open beta.

Wow- was it really that long ago?

SI

I like this

October 9th

Another trailer for the upcoming xcom.

Firaxis’ XCOM’s Apocalypse | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Kotaku, IGN, and Game Informer have all had very positive hands on experiences with it. I'm excited and starting to get my hopes up so it's destined to fall short of my expectations.

My god that looks fantastic.

I thought that the UFO games from 2000s were not that hot, but one on another world was pretty close to the original. What was it's name......


I can;t remember, sorry

Another review. On sched for Oct 9.

The ‘Consequences’ Of Playing Firaxis’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown | Kotaku Australia

Cant wait.

Damn, now my expectations for this are pretty sky high. Looking good in preseason

The game is up for pre-order on Steam.

very disappointed in the decision to only have one base.

At least they've said modding will be supported and hopefully it will have Steam Workshop integration like Civ V so the ability to have multiple bases will just be a couple clicks away.

Otherwise Xenonauts is looking like a good alternative.

I would have been happy with an updated graphic engine for original X-Com and opening it up for modders. I think with the Firaxis track record, it will be a good game.

I'm not disappointed in that - I'm dissapointed there won't be any base invasions as that was always quite a nice/stressful thing to occur .. but all told its shaping up in a very promising manner imho.

Preordered. :D

Solid preview/review of the first 40 hours:

Hands-On: Forty Hours With XCOM | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Can't wait!

I am slightly concerned that there will be only handcrafted maps (100?) and no procedurally generated ones. Hopefully the random placement of aliens will make things not as repetitive.

Supposedly the demo is available on steam.

I'm downloading it now!

Doh! I don't have time for this now!

Pfft. That was disappointing.

THE GAME IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!! The demo is way to fucking short!

It took me longer to download demo than it did to play through it. The tactical missions seem close enough to the original.

Like Neon_Chaos said I'm a little concerned about the individually drawn maps. One hundred is quite a few but I liked the way the original randomly generated the maps. You never knew exactly what to expect.

I'm also a little bummed about there only being one base and no base defense missions. Maybe there is a chance they can add base defense on as a DLC or something.

One base????? No defense missions???? Might as well wait for the inevitable
gold edition with whatever crap they put into their DLC's....Sigh

Good thing I got my original working on my system...

Steam Workshop integration is what I'm hoping for, there should be a good chance of it since they've said they'll include mod support and Civ V is already in the workshop.

Xenonauts is also worth checking out, even for those getting Enemy Unknown.

Getting a "No Subscription" error when trying to download demo. Anyone else?

Apparently you need to re-start Steam and that should fix the error.

Being that the base is laid out in vertical levels, I think a base defense mission would be pretty difficult to achieve.

In part I agree with this assessment, but the developers seem to have caught so much else of what was great about the game, that I'm hoping they judged correctly when they made that compromise.

No base defense missions are hardly enough to keep me for getting this game. It's just that the original had it so right. Why couldn't they just update the graphics and keep everything the way it was?

Still......


But the tactical mission I played was pretty cool. It's going to take all my willpower to not buy this when it comes out.

I actually have already pre-ordered. :)

Just cause I want the custom color scheme. :P

I don't think I ever stayed alive long enough to experience a base defense mission in the original. :D

Also pre-ordered, don't know how I'm going to find time to play FTL/X-Com/Madden/NCAA.....

Having tried the demo I've gone from "I'll wait til its on sale on Steam" to "I'll tell myself I'll wait for it to be on sale, but one night I'll pull the trigger and buy it for full price then hate the fact I've spent 50 friggin bucks on a game." It's that good.

I also like that since it's in the near future, Scotland is once more an independent nation. My little guy with the Scottish flag on his backpack was my hero.

I preordered a couple of weeks ago. The demo made me feel good about my leap of faith.

Sounds about right

There should be a new GMG voucher code before XCOM is released that will let you preorder for about $36. It will activate on Steam, though you won't get the Steam preorder bonuses.

EDIT: Nevermind, the free copy of Age of Fear deal is done.

Always check Green Man Gaming for deals if you're interested in preordering. I got Borderlands 2 and the DLC bundle for under $60 from there.

Based off of watching videos on the web, the demo is basically the first two tutorial missions.

Grrrr. Can't wait for this.

Hmm, it looks like the current GMG voucher doesn't work on XCOM even though it works on other games that are on sale.

Playing the demo has me concerned about the camera. I would have liked to have a freeform camera instead of the rotatable four corner iso one that is currently in the game.

I was having trouble with it at first, too. I think I got the hang of it at least.