Gaming XCOM: Enemy Unknown Preview

Firaxis' remake of the original X-Com has big shoes to fill. Joe takes a look.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2012/05/29/xcom-enemy-unknown-preview/1

 

Please do not suck!

 

^^^ what johnnyboy700 said! goddammit they need to stop demo'ing games either using control pads or releasing trailers/promo vids that have "press X/triangle to pick up" etc on them, very annoying

 

WHY DID THEY NAME THEM BOTH XCOM IT'S SO CONFUSING.

Edit: Money on all the kids who never played the originals say it's too difficult and they can't win cause people die easily. Saying that I used a hex editor on TFTD to finally, actually win. For a change. Whow my age and shaking hands!

 

I played the first X-Com game on a Playstation, wasn't until Terror From The Deep that I had a PC for it, so I'm not too alarmed by it being on a console. I'm looking forward to it. Jagged Alliance: Back In Action showed that this style of game, while it has fallen out of fashion, can still be a lot of fun, so if they do well with it there's no reason it shouldn't be awesome.

 

Yup they need to keep the same basic stuff that made the first games great.

I hope to god this does not become a dumbed down console version. Make it for the PC then adapt to console! Games like Rage and Deus EX irrate me as they have stupid menus for a pc.

 

I would suggest anyone who is at all interested in the game reads through the detailed interviews at Rock Paper Shotgun. Your fears will be at rest.

 

I...I thought I was the only one!

*eyes well up*

 

I agree to the most part, though when i seen the restriction on squad sizes i was gutted. i wonder how theyre going to offset this when it comes to building spaceships (if its anything like the original)

 

Please note that the game is out 12th October in Europe. Not 9th. (just in case you scream at Steam the day it will come out).

Other than that, I like it, and seems total burnout as happened back 20 years ago (Im 37....)

Bring on underwater battles NOW.......

 

And they removed base attacks, I understand there were players who hated defending their bases but to completely remove them just a shame.

 

WOAH WOAH WOAH!!!

Squad size limited to six?! (http://www.rtsguru.com/game/456/article/2361/XCOM-Enemy-Unknown-What-We-Now-Know-From-GDC.html)

So much for that then. That's complete crap. What a stupid, arbitrary, and totally disappointing decision that is. In the earlier games, especially in the first few missions, there was safety in numbers. You packed the transports with all the bodies you had. You went in mob-handed while you built up the tools and the people to get the job done. Six man teams? That's ruined it for me, and that isn't hyperbole. Reasons being that limiting the squad size limits the range of approaches to any given mission. It also limits the scale of any given mission. It also shows a pretty clear and depressing indication about the scale of the force you get to chuck around, if six guys is the best you can do. Hell I've lost bigger teams that that on Terror missions that got out of hand.

That's really knocked the wind out of my enthusiasm for it. Probably not going to bother now.

I want to blame consolification but my Playstation could handle more than six guys. What a crock.

 

Getting your base attacked in the original games was sometimes a great way to get a huge quantity of elerium. I hope they have the blaster rockets again as they were so much fun. Guiding the rocket through half the base to kill an Alien on the other side of the map.

Bindibadgi LOL, i remember using the HEX editor too, usually for a short coming of elerium.

 

not just that, but if you ramped up the difficulty (playing on expert or superhuman), you would quite often get base attacked at (relatively) the start of the game (and from then on). If you could build an alien containment immediately at the start of the game, and buy shedloads of stun rods, you'd be ready for a base attack by end of jan/beginnning of feb.

As the main race to attack you then was sectiods, being base attacked by sectoids, this meant there would be a sectoid commander amongst the aliens raiding your base. stun/capture the commander, and you can start mind control research from almost the start of the game (as well as the afore mentioned blaster guns). It's VERY challenging, but worth it!

I must own more (legit) copies of x-com than any other game, ive got it on amiga (played it to death on amiga 1200 originally), ps1 (played it to death again with official playstation mouse for amiga nostalgia value!), countless copies on the pc (that i keep finding at car boot sales etc) and steam. damn i love x-com.

mind you, no base attacks and squad sizes of 6 does make me weep, as immediately it does affect your available tactics and resources, as well as make it less an incentive to upgrade your ship (providing you can in this one...?)

 

Yay. Another beloved classic gets the console treatment... Without the HQs gettign attacked and the squad size caps this will not be as good as the orginals, which like bigc90210 I own multiple copies of.

 

well they did say it was a re-imagining and not a remake... they aren't making the same game as the original, that's what the guys behind xenonauts are doing.

it is going to be different, so if you are looking for the old game made again, you're going to think it's crap... but if you are a little more open minded and take all the changes as a whole, you might find a game that taken on it's own is quite good.

or it could just suck =/

far too early to tell

 

Still it should be noted that there are plenty of alternate X-Com games, which while lacking the official IP have probably just as much legitimacy as this remake.

 

absolutely, for those wanting an actual "close as you can get" remake of the original with modern'esque graphics, check out

http://www.xenonauts.com/

CANT WAIT for this. almost pee'd myself at the hidden movement screen alone XD

 

Came to here to make sure everyone knows about Xenonauts. Not disappointed.

TBH, I was willing to look in to this and follow it more closely (I didn't even know it existed until now), but that 6 man squad cap has totally ruined it for me. It is clearly not a hardware limitation, but a limitation they expect from their target audience. 6 people to control makes for a drastically simplified ability to execute tactics and come up with strategies.

Back to playing Apocalypse I guess.

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/69341191/xenonauts should have linked the kickstarter, 10 days to go.