X-Com

[Edward64]

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

Firaxis Games

Getting to Know XCOM: Enemy Unknown - IGN

There are two groups of people who will be watching the XCOM series' rather rocky return with interest. The first will be players of the revered 1994 PC strategy game, long-term gamers rather worried by the concept of a remake. The second – the group that includes me – is people who were either too young or too poor to have been playing PC games 18 years ago, but who are deeply intrigued by the reverence with which UFO: Enemy Unknown is invariably talked about. In almost everyone's estimation, this game was one of the all-time greats of the decade, an achievement that's yet to be equalled by anything else in the genre in terms of its detail and scope for emotional involvement. You can't help but be intrigued.

XCOM is a turn-based strategy game based around an alien invasion of Earth. Taking squads of operatives out into the field, you fight back against this invasion mission by mission, drawing closer and closer to ultimate success – or, importantly, to failure. Like the original Enemy Unknown, it's quite possible to fail to repel the invasion. Once soldiers are dead, they don't come back, and the research you undertake over the course of your playthrough will greatly affect the eventual outcome. It's not aiming for the legendary difficulty of the PC original – I have friends who still swear that it was almost impossible to complete – but it is clearly aiming to preserve the tension and sense of real, tangible consequence that made UFO: Enemy Unknown so memorable.

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

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Deep Dive #1 - YouTube

[Edward64]

Facebook link.

http://www.facebook.com/XCOM

[cody8200]

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

[mckerney]

Death & The Muton: Firaxis On XCOM Fatalities & Floaters | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

[Warhammer]

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

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

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

Jake Solomon: Right. Then there’s a Quicktime Event to interrogate them.

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

RPS: Rookie soldier, rookie mistake, eh? One thing I wasn’t personally quite so sure about in the stuff I saw was the glam cam, I know you guys really like that yourselves, and the soldier barks…

Jake Solomon: I was wondering when you were going to ask me about that. Yes? Now how did you put that: ‘there was something that I wasn’t quite as excited about’. I like that. What you’re asking me is ‘can I turn that off?’ Is that your question?

RPS: Heh, you’ve gazumped me. I’m fine with it being in there, I’d just like to have the option to turn it off if I want a quieter ‘I don’t want to be distracted, I just want to get my head down and solve this problem’ kind of session.

Jake Solomon: You have the option to turn that off. You also have the option to turn off soldier voices.

RPS: Hurray! Then everyone’s happy.

Jake Solomon: (laughs) I made sure and cleared that with Casey, my lead programmer. I was like ‘Look!’ I knew this was going to come up. ‘I’m talking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun this morning, can I tell them that we have the option to turn off action cam and turn off soldier voices?’ You can ask him, I told him that this was gonna come up. He said ‘Yes, you can tell them we have that option.’

Actually, let me tell you about something else we have. I played through the entire last game, we have an option in-game currently where you can hide enemy health and you can hide damage that you do, and that was something that people had brought up. In the original of course you had no idea how much damage you did, you had no idea how much health the enemies had and so we added that and that’s how I played this last game. It’s actually very different. You can’t say like ‘oh this guy can take this shot because he’s guaranteed to take out that alien there if he hits’, so it’s interesting. That’s also an option we’ve added is the option to turn off enemy health and any sort of damage tech so that the player can play a little bit more in the dark like the original.

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.

[sterlingice]

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

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Could they do something as simple as the remake of Sid Meier's Pirates a couple of years ago

wow - the remake was already 8 years ago.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

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?"

[thesloppy]

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.

[sterlingice]

Wow- was it really that long ago?

SI

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by mckerney

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

I like this

You can go to the memorial wall where you can see all the guys who have died, and it tells you how many kills they had, how many missions they went on, what operation they died on. It’s actually pretty cool because we just put this in too, when you go to the memorial it’s sort of this UI screen and the camera’s looking at the bar, and as more guys die, you start to see these blurry pictures filling in on the wall behind the UI, and then there’s more and more shot glasses in front of the memorial.

[spleen1015]

October 9th

[Edward64]

Another trailer for the upcoming xcom.

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

[Atocep]

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.

[Grover]

My god that looks fantastic.

[Jacob Typer]

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

[Edward64]

Another review. On sched for Oct 9.

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

Perhaps, alas, I should have quit while I was ahead. That second day’s play is where I lost my snipers. I’m still sorry about that. Hopefully when XCOM: Enemy Unknown comes out on October 9, I’ll get a chance to redeem myself.

[Neon_Chaos]

Cant wait.

[bhlloy]

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

[Honolulu_Blue]

The game is up for pre-order on Steam.

[Warhammer]

very disappointed in the decision to only have one base.

[mckerney]

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.

[Edward64]

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.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

very disappointed in the decision to only have one base.

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.

[Neon_Chaos]

Preordered.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Solid preview/review of the first 40 hours:

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

Can't wait!

[Neon_Chaos]

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.

[rockboy70]

Supposedly the demo is available on steam.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by rockboy70

Supposedly the demo is available on steam.

I'm downloading it now!

[Glengoyne]

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

[spleen1015]

Pfft. That was disappointing.

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

[Shepp]

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.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Shepp

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...

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Shepp

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.

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.

[jeff061]

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

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by jeff061

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.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

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...

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.

[Shepp]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

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?

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

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.

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.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

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

[Groundhog]

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

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

[Critch]

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.

[Atocep]

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

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Critch

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.

Sounds about right

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Critch

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.

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.

[Neon_Chaos]

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

Grrrr. Can't wait for this.

[mckerney]

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

[Neon_Chaos]

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.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

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.