I just jizzed in my pants. Brand new turn based xcom

[MoRmEnGiL]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/05/xcom- ... ilization/

New xcom game. As in successor to the strategy games. As in turn based!

I'm sorry, I cannot speak right now. I'm just trying not to have a heart attack from excitement.

[BinoAl]

Heh, notch posted it on his blog, i saw it just a few minutes ago

[AmRadTheory]

Awesome! I have to admit to a bit of head-scratching when they announced a remake as a FPS... or was that Syndicate? Either way Firaxis+XCOM=needing some new undies!

[Kwilt]

Awesome! I have to admit to a bit of head-scratching when they announced a remake as a FPS... or was that Syndicate? Either way Firaxis+XCOM=needing some new undies!

I believe it was Syndicate.

Also, it's kinda strange to hear about this. Seeing as 2K is making the XCOM reboot as well. Either way, if it's anything as noteworthy as I've seen, it should be interesting.

[Battlecat]

I'm very excited by this! The original game was an excellent strategy game with turn based combat and aliens that started off horrifically more powerful that your soldiers. I hope the can recapture that feeling of danger!

Firaxis does good work, this should be fun.

[FlowerChild]

Firaxis does good work, this should be fun.

Firaxis is the shiznit. I've been wishing for years that they would revisit their Gettysburg series, as well as Alpha Centauri.

[AmishGoat]

Firaxis does good work, this should be fun.

Firaxis is the shiznit. I've been wishing for years that they would revisit their Gettysburg series, as well as Alpha Centauri.

Alpha Centauri was pretty good (the little I played of it) and I liked some of their other previous work, but I'm not impressed with the last project they worked on (Civ 5), so I don't know about this one. It does sound pretty good though, so I'll add this to the watch list.

[FlowerChild]

Alpha Centauri was pretty good (the little I played of it) and I liked some of their other previous work, but I'm not impressed with the last project they worked on (Civ 5), so I don't know about this one. It does sound pretty good though, so I'll add this to the watch list.

I quite enjoyed Civ 5. What didn't you like about it?

[AmishGoat]

Personally, I felt that Firaxis took out some of the parts I like, namely Religion, and didn't really add a whole lot of good, while creating problems with balance and of course, the massive gridlock in the late stages of the game resulting from lots of units and 1upt. Not to mention the early game was even more of a click fest with nothing to do but end turn. And then there is the weird diplomacy, its much better now then it was in the beginning, but its still rather random and I still get more "wtf is this?" than I should, the AI still seems completely irrational (though there is some bias to this, I don't remember the thread but I have read into it on a different forum). And on top of all this, the AI (tactically, not strategically) absolutely sucked, it was child's play to take on forces twice, three, even four times the size of your own, and it wasn't difficult to do even more. Now I know AI is by far the hardest part to code (or I think it is), but clearly either 1upt should be rethought or the tactical AI redone. So yeah, sorry for the rant, but I am pretty disappointed about how things turned out for CiV. I tried really hard to like it, and maybe if Firaxis/2K decides to actually do what they claim they will with the modding stuff (don't know what else to call it), I may take it up again when the big mods start up again (namely Rhye's).

Edit: I don't know if this changes things, but I was a fan of civ 3, and a really big fan of civ 4

[MoRmEnGiL]

Alpha Centauri.

Amen to that bro. A new alpha centauri game and a new chrono game (as in chrono trigger/cross) and I'll be complete as a gamer. I could die happily :P

I quite liked civ5. But I have to admit, the last civ game I played a lot before 5 was 2. So yeah.
What I didn't like in civ5 was what I call the boiling point, which is present in many a 4x game.

Early on the game, you struggle to keep up and stay alive. Then there comes a critical point midgame, where you either win or lose right there. Usually when you make it past it, the game is all but over, since you tend to develop an overwhelming advantage that leads to a surefire endgame victory. What results from this, is I never get to enjoy endgame units in 99% of the games, because by that time they are overkill :P

In civ5 in particular endgame is usually me with modern tanks and mech infantry and airforce,sometimes even GDR, against riflemen and at best ww2 era units. Meh. All crucial and deciding fights are usually around the knight/musket era.

Though I haven't played civ for a very long time, so I've missed most of the patches.

As for the xcom game, I was excitedly waiting for Xenonauts, thinking this and UFO2Extraterrestrials: Shadows over Earth would probably be the last XCOM spiritual successor games ever to see the light of day.. Silly me :]

[Ribky]

Don't leave now, the drones need you.

God I loved that game.

[Mr_Hosed]

Never was a big fan of the XCOM games so this is going to be OT.

I've been a HUGE fanboy of the civ franchise since Civ 1. Civ 5 doesn't really play the way previous civ games did. That's not a bad thing, just that tactics and game flow were drastically changed. Units don't stack, massive city spamming doesn't work (actually a huge detrement), allies are worth having... etc.

The gameplay and UI are more polished tehn any previous civ game, but for a member of the franchise they did drift from the *expected* core gameplay. My first 3 games I lost hard, but then I was trying to play them like Civ 1-4.

Now back to the topic, if the same guys who did Civ 5 are doing an XCOM game, I may have to concider trying out the franchise. Like I said, the UI and gameplay were much more polished and focused in Civ5 so if they do the same for XCOM I may actually enjoy it.

[AmishGoat]

You're right, Civ 5 doesn't play like the previous ones did, (though ICS still works, and was the dominant strategy until last patch or the one before it), and its not that I dislike it for being a different game, its that I felt it wasn't as polished as the earlier ones were.
I do however, still think highly of firaxis overall because of previous games, and I might try this new xcom game when it comes out, hope they have a demo though.

[Gilberreke]

Firaxis is the shiznit. I've been wishing for years that they would revisit their Gettysburg series, as well as Alpha Centauri.

Oh god, if they release a Gettysburg remake, I swear I'll jizz my pants

* hugs the box of one of his favorite games *

[MoRmEnGiL]

Ok, bumping this for anyone interested who hasn't seen this yet:

Spoiler

Show

drooldrooldrooldrooldrooldrooldrooldrooldrooldrooldrooldrooldrool

[Battlecat]

Omg, want it now! Fall can't come soon enough! Thanks for sharing the video!

Seriously, I'd say Firaxis is more or less making the game I imagined in my head playing the original. I'm really excited for this one.

[rhacer]

This is really starting to capture my attention.

[Kazuya Mishima]

My strategy with xcom was always disembark my first guy and run him off in 1 direction depleting his time units, he will have sighted multiple aliens during this time. Next i would disembark my 2nd and 3rd units and take "aimed" shots at the aliens the runner spotted. It always seemed like a anachronistic weakness of the temporal dynamics of the game that one guy can spot an alien but other guys, who are "technically" in the past, are taking shots at the aliens despite the fact they have never seen these aliens.

[badmojo98]

wow, that gameplay looked amazing! in fact, everything about it looked amazing! i played a 3d remake of xcom a while back that was fun, it was frustrating because it felt so slow paced. i'm hoping this new one has a similar tactical engine to fallout: brotherhood of steel, and it kind of looked like it did, so you can leave people in ambush positions and outflank enemies during the middle of the turn. it was the one thing that really annoyed me about the old engine. your guy is sitting there with full time units, an alien runs out in front of him, and there's nothing he can do because it's not his turn. in fallout:bos you could set your guy to shoot on sight, and leave his behind a corner on full time units.

[Poppycocks]

Wow, stumped.

It looks absofabulously amazing.

[DaveYanakov]

I've been excited about X-Com remakes since I played the second sequel. This footage completely blew past my expectations. I'm also loving the art style. This game is still going to look great in fifteen years. A game going for photorealism simply cannot hold up in the same way.

[Poppycocks]

I've been excited about X-Com remakes since I played the second sequel. This footage completely blew past my expectations. I'm also loving the art style. This game is still going to look great in fifteen years. A game going for photorealism simply cannot hold up in the same way.

You mean X-com 2: Terror from the deep?

That one wasn't very good.

[Urian]

I'm torn on the issue. X-Com was one of my favorite games as a kid but I'm not certain if this remake (sorry, re-imagening) will be able to stand up to the memory of the original. E.g. the graphics look a bit "cartoony" and one of the things I liked in the original was the detachment you had from your cannon fodder squad and you instead took on the sole role of a commander overseeing the operation from afar. Still, the game looks interesting enough that I'll probably give it a try once it's released :p

Speaking of X-Com Terror from the Deep, I hope that this game doesn't have the same kind of uniform layout and the trademark waypoint missile launcher. In X-com:TftD you could complete an attack on an enemy base in one turn if you had memorized the path for the missile since every possible base variant had a way that needed less than the maximum number of waypoints :p Sure made those base missions easy!

[DaveYanakov]

You mean X-com 2: Terror from the deep?

That one wasn't very good.

Terror from the Deep was an expansion pack. I said second sequel. Apocalypse.

[MoRmEnGiL]

Bash it all you like but I loved TftD. Well, except from the fishing boat missions that is.


As for the remake, so far all information has been positive, and I love the graphical style I've seen.

I really hope they don't go too crazy with the 3d in the level design though, because it will be a mess to keep track of everything, plus I hate having to constantly rotate and shift the camera angle to see what's going on.