X-COM: Enemy Unknown

[Ruldra]

Anyone planning to get this new X-COM game? I thought this was going to be a shitty FPS like X-COM Enforcer, but the developers decided to go back to the roots and recreate the formula of the original (which was a truly fantastic game).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sveqbQW99xE

If you never played the original, it's basically a management game + turn-based tactical shooter. Outside of missions, you scan Earth for UFOs and alien bases, research alien technology and develop new weapons, recruit and train soldiers, and manage your relations with the countries of the world to ensure they keep funding your organization.

Once you get to the mission and deploy your soldiers, the game becomes a tactical shooter. Use cover and plan your moves carefully, because your soldiers can easily die. They have a health bar and all but one shot is often enough to kill them.

The demo is available for the PS3 and 360, give it a try. I told myself not to buy new games but I'll probably get this one.

[Mischief Maker]

If you never played the original, it's basically a management game + turn-based tactical shooter. Outside of missions, you scan Earth for UFOs and alien bases, research alien technology and develop new weapons, recruit and train soldiers, and manage your relations with the countries of the world to ensure they keep funding your organization.

No disrespect to you, but it's a goddamn crime we live in a world where you would need to include that paragraph on a video game forum.

[Moniker]

Anyone planning to get this new X-COM game? I thought this was going to be a shitty FPS like X-COM Enforcer, but the developers decided to go back to the roots and recreate the formula of the original (which was a truly fantastic game).

Those are two separate games. EU is by Firaxis, and XCOM the FPS is by 2K (I think), and isn't coming out for a couple months yet. I haven't tried the demo (didn't know there was one - thanks), but really want to get it. Have to accumulate some more cash first, though.

I'd be interested in hearing an X-COM fan's thoughts on the reboot. I love the original, but have trouble getting it to run properly on DOSBox.

[Ruldra]

Ironman is now an official mode in the game. This will be fun!

[Ed Oscuro]

The X-COM FPS seems to have slid into development hell. Unless something changed in the last few weeks, there haven't been any updates and the release date has been sliding.

[BobbyNewmarkiii]

If you never played the original, it's basically a management game + turn-based tactical shooter. Outside of missions, you scan Earth for UFOs and alien bases, research alien technology and develop new weapons, recruit and train soldiers, and manage your relations with the countries of the world to ensure they keep funding your organization.

No disrespect to you, but it's a goddamn crime we live in a world where you would need to include that paragraph on a video game forum.

This is a shmups forum.

[Hibachi]

I think that the FPS has become third person but both are being released by Take 2 although the developers are different. I had a friend who played the FPS at E3 and really liked it and he's fairly reliable and just as jaded as me.

I have a copy being sent to me next week as I thought the demo was surprisingly good.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I'll give it a while for the price to drop but I'm pretty pumped for something which will make me care about random soldiers for the first time since Syndicate and MechCommander.

[Daigohji]

I'd been aware of this game for a while, but I generally don't like strategy games. The demo knocked my socks off though, and I bought the PS3 version of the game. The controls map well to a dual shock controller. The mechanics of the turn-based shooter element remind me of Valkyria Chronicles, and are highly addictive. Patience and caution are vital, as rushing ahead is a certain way to get your squad slaughtered (as evidenced by the tutorial mission where most of your initial squad is ruthlessly wiped out).

The whole game has this oppressive atmosphere. Even on normal difficulty you often feel at a disadvantage, especially when it comes to getting a decent sized network of satellites and UFO interceptors built. The music is great, albeit derivitive of the likes of the Transformers movies and Mass Effect.

On the down side, attack animations are buggy, frame rate can get choppy (I've only tried the PS3 version), and the game has crashed on me once already. Also, I don't like the way the game only assigns soldier classes after a couple of battles, and you can't choose which class a soldier becomes. None of this has significantly dragged down my enjoyment of the game though.

I haven't completed it yet, but it's looking like a game of the year contender for me.

[Ruldra]

From the demo I got the impression that stuff like grenades, ammo clips and medikits are infinite, is that true?

[E. Randy Dupre]

I don't know about ammo - I've not played it enough to take notice of that - but grenades and medikits are limited.

[Daigohji]

Ammo is infinite for most weapons, though you need to manually reload after a few shots. Grenades and medkits are normally limited to one per soldier per mission, but some higher level class abilities allow you to carry more. Items are infinite in the sense that buying one medkit will allow one character to use it once in every mission.

[Turrican]

how many die-hard fans of this series are among us shmuppers? Has anyone actually tried to play this in the five floppy version for ECS Amiga 500?

[Ruldra]

how many die-hard fans of this series are among us shmuppers? Has anyone actually tried to play this in the five floppy version for ECS Amiga 500?

I still have the CD of the Windows version. Played the whole thing to death, but back them I heavily abused of the save system and finished the game with the same 8 soldiers you start with. I'd be willing to try an Ironman run but I can't get it to work properly on recent PCs - also lack of time to play.

And despite Terror from the Deep being a reskinned version of the original, it's my favorite of the series. I just love the whole aquatic theme. Unfortunately it had some nasty bugs, including one where the game becomes unwinnable if you research stuff in the wrong order - which was my case.

Apocalypse, found it too convoluted to to get the hang of it.

Interceptor, played the whole thing and loved it. But that game is more Wing Commander than X-COM.

Then I played Enforcer briefly and realized the series were dead.

[Turrican]

cool, I might hunt down the playstation ports of the first two - I have the mouse and they seem solid enough.

[Moniker]

cool, I might hunt down the playstation ports of the first two - I have the mouse and they seem solid enough.

If you do, and it comes with a manual, please let me know the control scheme for the hotseat controller-mode! I've looked low and high for a list of commands and can't find anything. Game is rubbish using the dpad as a virtual mouse.

[Turrican]

Actually, I wonder if the game will work on PS3 with a playstation mouse plugged with a third party USB adaptor...

(yes, my trusty PSX isn't on shelf right now)

[ZellSF]

cool, I might hunt down the playstation ports of the first two - I have the mouse and they seem solid enough.

The PSX port of the first game is pretty rare, it seems to go for 70$+ on eBay, while the much superior Windows version is available for 5$ at Steam.

[Moniker]

The PSX port of the first game is pretty rare, it seems to go for 70$+ on eBay, while the much superior Windows version is available for 5$ at Steam.

Ya, but you can't play the windows version on a PSP.

[Turrican]

while the much superior Windows version is available for 5$ at Steam.

how exactly is it much superior, once you got a PS Mouse? PSX version has music by Allister Brimble, that sealed the deal for me

[ZellSF]

PSX version has wrong aspect ratio, less responsive UI, long loading times before battles and takes a lot of memory card space.

Windows version has lots of fan fixes giving you better controls, automating lots of tedious stuff and of course letting you play the PSX soundtrack. Though, that might be legally problematic (if you care) when you don't own the PSX version.

[Turrican]

I see. Oh well - that was probably to be expected from a console early port I guess. I'll probably end with an historical curio then (luckily it's been nowhere as expensive as you mentioned). I suppose PSX version comes with the infamous "beginner difficulty" bug too, right?

[E. Randy Dupre]

Don't know about the bug in question, but I do remember that the PSX version seemed to be more difficult on the lowest difficulty setting than it was on any of the higher ones.

It doesn't just have long loading times. It has loooooooooooong loading times. You can literally go away, boil the kettle, make a drink, come back and it's still only halfway done. And as for the memory card issue... one save eats an entire (original size) card. It's absolutely insane.

[ZellSF]

I forgot to mention, PS2 fast disc speed option helps a lot with the loading times. But yeah, don't play the PSX version.

[Turrican]

how many hours of game do you estimate for a full campaign? Not a 100% game, just all the missions done through the end...

[BryanM]

It doesn't just have long loading times. It has loooooooooooong loading times.

Hee hee.

These kinds of ports were always classic. Hard drive + lots of cheap storage -> No hard drive + $20 for a memory card that can't even store a decent sized book.

[Moniker]

Got XCOM:EU for X360. About 8 missions in on normal difficulty. First impressions:

A bit easy so far (only lost one soldier outside the scripted 1st mission), but it's still pretty early. I've only just researched laser weapons. Otherwise, everything is pretty brilliant. If you start a game with tutorial on (you don't have to), the first 5 or so missions and the geoscape stuff in between is all guided. The base view is really great - like Steve Zissou's ship. Most of the inventory management stuff is gone; no ammo to worry about (just reloading), and most items recharge b/w missions. Money's still really tight. I've run out of funds for the month and it's only April 10 (some similarities to reality here...). It's a problem because I can't afford to put a satellite over Africa or China and they're about to go mental on me. Only hope is to kill more aliens and sell off stuff I would otherwise use for research & engineering.

As for combat, the particulars are all different, but the feel is very close to the original; your goal is to stay under (almost always destructible) cover while exploring, get eyes on some aliens and kill/capture them by outmaneuvering and getting the right soldier in the right place at the right time. So far I haven't had to worry about civilians, might've been lucky. Some interesting mission types, in addition to the familiar (terror & crashed ships). Had one where I needed to disarm a bomb within x turns (this is the mission where I lost a soldier), another where I had to rescue an escaped abductee. Recruits panic really easily, so you really have to be careful until you level up some vets.

Soldier classes are pretty interesting, and you get perks as you gain experience, which have pretty unique effects. Right now I've got a sniper who can shoot any enemy so long as someone on the team is detecting him (so long as he's in his line of sight), a couple of heavies - one who is good at suppressive fire (making him a good spotter for my sniper), and one who specializes in snap reaction (good cover for the other heavy). My only assault guy hasn't leveled up much yet, so I've made him my secondary spotter and alien stunner. And I've got a support guy with extra movement and medkit uses who basically hauls ass to whoever's in trouble.

Honestly, there's nothing from the original I'm really missing yet, it looks great, and the UI is lightyears ahead. Although a bit less automation of the geoscape would have been better. And now that I think of it... female soldiers. Where are they?

[MR_Soren]

I have it for XBOX 360. I'm at the Overseer mission. Several months in. I really like the game, but it definitely needs some patching.

[Turrican]

how many hours of game do you estimate for a full campaign? Not a 100% game, just all the missions done through the end...

Heh heh, I thought I could overcome at least the memory card thing by playing it on a PS3... Of course, that was a few days before I got my YLOD!

[sjewkestheloon]

Holy hell is this game fun. It arrived yesterday and it is already 20th May. Tried the first base mission and got wiped completely due to some seriously bad luck and a lack of good judgement. That prompted my first reload as I have been living with the consequences in most missions. Now I am delaying a return to the base for a second attempt while trying to stop 5 seperate regions from panicing, while hitting myself in the head for jumping on every 'priority mission' when I should have been engineering satelites and power sources...