XCOM: Enemy Unknown

kingtiger

sweet Jesus I just spotted on IGN that there is a remake of my favourite game of all time XCOM: Enemy Unknown being released on on October 9, 2012 on the PC

how did I miss this

Reading about it looks like its not going to be dumbed down in anyway

anybody else looking forward to this release?

degrassinoel

i'd heard about the new XCOM fps, but enemy unknown i've not heard of at all, cheers

kingtiger

degrassinoel wrote: »

i'd heard about the new XCOM fps, but enemy unknown i've not heard of at all, cheers

they can stuff their FPS, this is just old school turn based combat

ahh it looks great :cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88EcjtDnyE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX9r0S77Vh0

Gunmonkey

Been following since the moment they announced it, cant bloody wait.

More gameplay vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFSXUk3QVSs

Skip to 2:45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISGvkdzBn3Q

Also had a MP mode announced last week, seperate from the main game. 2 players get credits to buy and upgrade units from both Humans and Aliens and duke it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIgxX39JCN4

marshbaboon

This is one of the few games I've been following closely. It's being developed by firaxis, lord of the TBS game.

In the interviews you get the impression that the developers are huge fans of the original & any changes they're making are really in the spirit of the game. I was very happy indeed when I saw that they're keeping permadeath.

Any of the footage looks incredible. If they deliver on this game It's going to be a must buy from me, and I'm going to make everyone I know who likes strategy games buy it.

kingtiger

I see they changed the old movement point system, how does the new one work?

Gunmonkey

You get 2 actions a turn. Can either move and shoot/use item(I think, not heard much on items)/activate ability or sprint which gives you twice the move range. The "hardcore" fanbase have been throwing a hissy fit and screaming "consolization waaaaagh" but lots of tabletop games use a similar system and it works very well, need to prioritise your actions especially with the reduced squad size.

Cant really say for certain until get me mitts on the game, but a lot of the early previews have been quite positive. Also if it removes the f*****g annoying tendancy to miss click a selection in the original and send your selected unit wandering to oblivion with his back turned to all the aliens....good :mad:

marshbaboon

Gunmonkey wrote: »

You get 2 actions a turn. Can either move and shoot/use item(I think, not heard much on items)/activate ability or sprint which gives you twice the move range. The "hardcore" fanbase have been throwing a hissy fit and screaming "consolization waaaaagh" but lots of tabletop games use a similar system and it works very well, need to prioritise your actions especially with the reduced squad size.

Cant really say for certain until get me mitts on the game, but a lot of the early previews have been quite positive. Also if it removes the f*****g annoying tendancy to miss click a selection in the original and send your selected unit wandering to oblivion with his back turned to all the aliens....good :mad:

I personally really like the change, and I'm a hardcore fan of the original. I still boot it up on dosbox from time to time. It will really help the flow of a game, which was a problem in the original. You tended to get bogged down with actions & shooting.

kingtiger

thanks I will reserve judgement until I see it in action, but hope I don't miss the movement point system

on another note, if your itching for some good old turn based fun and have a smartphone, take a look at the following

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land

Manic Moran

Pete (Guy interviewed in Gunmonkey's first video) recognised me at PAX East and made sure I got brought in on the demos. The Comicon demo with Sid one is the same one they were showing at E3. All were scripted. I'm not making Gamescom this year, so I'm not sure what they're showing right now (I'll check with one of my colleagues there who's checking out XCOM specifically tomorrow), but assuming they're at PAX Prime, I'll touch base (I emailed him today, as it happens), to make sure he's around.

I am very much looking forward to this one. Aliens are now very nasty, even the humble sectoid has a few tricks up their sleeves. I'm OK with the time unit allocation simplification: It does have pretty much the same end effects. A lot of the tactics that you may have learned in the original will now have to be re-thought. You are no longer, for example, the only side to be able to simply choose to remove an obstacle between you and your target, and some of the special abilities such as grappling ropes add an interesting additional dimension.

Hopefully the Ant Farm works out OK. Building your base in a defensible manner, with only one way in or out, was pretty integral to my survival in the original. Seems this is likely to be harder with the new multi-level version.

Now, what should I do with my iron-on XCOM badge...?

NTM

Gunmonkey

Manic Moran wrote: »

Hopefully the Ant Farm works out OK. Building your base in a defensible manner, with only one way in or out, was pretty integral to my survival in the original. Seems this is likely to be harder with the new multi-level version.

There is no base invasion in this, probably due to you only getting one base. Kinda feeds into the idea they have of the only "Lose Condition" you can achieve is losing over half the countries for funding. So having your base be blown up and sitting watching aliens take over while not able to do anything would be no fun :pac:

What you do get similar to the multiple bases in the original are satellites to increase your radar coverage. But these can be identified and destroyed by the aliens.

Popey32

I’ve been following this game and other xcom remakes for a while .The thing that concerns me most is the limited number of soldiers that can be brought on a mission. Hopefully 2k know what they’re doing.


Im also very interested in Xenonauts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenonauts#cite_note-1 which looks to be a closer is some ways successor to Xcom

Downloading Call of Cthulhu for the phone now looks cool kingtiger

Wetbench4

This is brilliant news but im a bit worried that it might change too much. The original format was a perfect balance. I still have the psone version on disc and i was only playing it again about 6 months ago on the ps3(was also living in hope of a psn/psp re-release). The only issue i had then was the graphics which, tbh, didn't look great on 40inch telly, everything else was perfect. So im hoping they do a good job.
I remember the underwater sequel, Terror from the Deep, wasn't as good imo, because they slightly changed the format.

Manic Moran

Pete emailed back, he's at Gamescom. They say they have a playable version on the floor now, and will have one at PAX, so I guess I'll check it out in a couple of weeks.

degrassinoel

Some excellent playable demo footage here, looks great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VP4YmExQAE

Manic Moran

See also the other thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=80595718&postcount=25

hal9000

Its available to pre order on steam now, but wow! I think ill go with gamestop.ie because of price!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/200510/

Gunmonkey

Currently on Amazon for £30 (bout €37) but wouldnt get it till the week after launch.

wayne040576

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Currently on Amazon for £30 (bout €37) but wouldnt get it till the week after launch.

I'll throw more confusion into the mix here.
You can get it on Amazon.com (download code) for $44.99 which is about €35.
You can order those if you give yourself a US billing address.
I've ordered a couple of games from them that way.

http://www.amazon.com/XCOM-Enemy-Unknown-Pc/dp/B006WQR3OM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347059999&sr=8-1&keywords=xcom

Gunmonkey

Looked around and ShopTo has it for £28 (round €33) and think it delivers for release date, anyone used them know when their stuff arrives?

Grimebox

I'm going to assume its going to be rubbish to not get my hopes up

This studio has only made Sid Meier games so far. The base building side of things will be fine, but I am sceptical of how the missions will be. I predict they will **** it up

degrassinoel

the missions, at least the ones i've seen on youtube look great!

kingtiger

degrassinoel wrote: »

the missions, at least the ones i've seen on youtube look great!

can wait it looks very good

this just may ween me off my World of Tanks addiction

oh and @ Grimebox

less of the negative waves man

Manic Moran

kingtiger wrote: »

degrassinoel wrote: »

this just may ween me off my World of Tanks addiction

I just started a new game of the original. Still have time to get my WoT daily doubles though.

DarkJager

Demo is now up on Steam, but it's a hefty 5.8gb. Downoading now

djkeogh

Keeping my fingers crossed that this is as good as the original. I freakin loved that game

Gunmonkey

Up to half way through the download...WOOOOO.

Sure hope this game does well on all the systems, current consoles have a massive gap when it comes to strategy games. Though I imagine most people who buy this will be like "I thought it was a shooter like Gears of War, this sucks" "Why are my guys just standing there, why dont they shoot?" "No base defenses...WAAAAAH" (that last one is from my older brother).

omerin

The beauty about the original game was its simplicity and its shear addictiveness, for me it was up there with the earlier Championship Manager games. This looks too polished and I could see myself playing a half an hour and shelving it

quarryman

omerin wrote: »

The beauty about the original game was its simplicity and its shear addictiveness, for me it was up there with the earlier Championship Manager games. This looks too polished and I could see myself playing a half an hour and shelving it

That's an interesting point. A game being TOO polished. I agree, I wish some remakes were more straightforward high resolution versions of the originals with more levles rather than than being overdone in 3D engines that try to reinvent the game itself.

If I come up with an example of what I'm referring to I'll add it...

Stev_o

Played it. Bear in mind the demo is 30 minutes at tops for a 6 gig download eek. I enjoyed it looking forward to release.

pixelburp

6Gigs?? Jee-sus. I hope there's some form of sync for those who download the demo & then buy the full game; I'd hate to think I'd have to download those assets all over again if I choose to purchase the main thing.

omerin wrote: »

The beauty about the original game was its simplicity and its shear addictiveness, for me it was up there with the earlier Championship Manager games. This looks too polished and I could see myself playing a half an hour and shelving it

No disrepect, but that makes no sense to me & sounds a bit nuts; how can a game be 'too polished'? I certainly don't see how simplicity & addictiveness is somehow mutually exclusive with a game having polish, or a slick presentation. I'd be fairly confident that if the technology existed back in the day, the original X-com devs would have had no problem using what's available now. So if someone's making a game with the complexity of yesteryear, coupled with the gfx tech of 2012, they can have my money right now.