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TIGSource ForumsPlayerGamesXCOM, X-COM and X+COM
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Author Topic: XCOM, X-COM and X+COM  (Read 20533 times)
Dragonmaw
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« on: October 09, 2012, 05:18:38 PM »

Anyone else pick this up?

Pretty pleased with it so far. It's no proper remake (I'll leave that to Xenonauts) but it stays within the basic XCOM formula (tactical squad fights, base management, world view) while making itself stand out. Good introduction to the genre.

Lots of niggling problems, though. For example, there's no way to just stay on a particular Z-level, which leads to some really irritating camera shit when roaming inside alien ships.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2016, 06:41:22 AM by Silbereisen » Logged
forwardresent
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« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2012, 06:54:01 PM »

I have just pre-ordered, still not out in the UK yet. 2 more days.

I haven't played an X-Com game since Terror From The Deep. I think I was about 5 or 6, God I feel old. It looks interesting, hopefully free-aim will be patched in.

Xenonauts also looks excellent so far, really like what I've seen of the alpha.
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« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2012, 07:34:13 PM »

I haven't played an X-Com game since Terror From The Deep. I think I was about 5 or 6, God I feel old.
You were 5 or 6 when you played Terror From The Deep, and you feel old!?

Motherf$&*er I'm getting old.
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« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2012, 10:46:32 PM »

Game's ok but kinda lacks a lot of what made the original special.
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Nillo
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« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2012, 11:34:19 PM »

Game's ok but kinda lacks a lot of what made the original special.
Like nostalgia? Tongue

I noticed you had the same sort of opinion about DE:HR too (a game that received rave reviews, but you feel isn't "special" like the original). And I loved the hell out of that game, so... maybe I'm going to like Enemy Unknown? Hah.
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Cobralad
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« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2012, 12:36:02 AM »

Game's ok but kinda lacks a lot of what made the original special.
Like nostalgia? Tongue

I noticed you had the same sort of opinion about DE:HR too (a game that received rave reviews, but you feel isn't "special" like the original). And I loved the hell out of that game, so... maybe I'm going to like Enemy Unknown? Hah.

Lets be honest: you want 20-something dudes enjoy game about shooting aliens, more than kids can enjoy it.
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« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2012, 12:42:30 AM »

(a game that received rave reviews,
im glad
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« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2012, 12:57:29 AM »

Lets be honest: you want 20-something dudes enjoy game about shooting aliens, more than kids can enjoy it.
I don't even know what this sentence is supposed to mean.
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Dragonmaw
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« Reply #8 on: October 10, 2012, 01:23:23 AM »

Game's ok but kinda lacks a lot of what made the original special.

No game can ever replace X-COM, because it sits in a sort of defiance as to the technological and design limitations of its time. It's like "yeah fuck you guys let's add a million features that all seem contradictory but are actually really great."

I feel like this one keeps the spirit of XCOM without just being a rehash. I'm actually kinda interested in seeing how Apocalypse would look under this engine/ruleset.

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Radix
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« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2012, 04:48:50 AM »

This game is pretty fucking good. It's not a remake but a reimagining, from some dudes who you can tell really love some xcom. I've seen some internet echo chambery shit with people whining about things they changed from the original, but it's not like the original didn't have a lot of issues and bugs of its own.

If you've preloaded already, skip the staggered release date bullshit: run Steam through a US proxy (I just used plink to tunnel through one of my webservers but you can find a free VPN or whatever) and you'll be able to play right now.
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forwardresent
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« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2012, 02:25:58 PM »

Played about 2 hours of it now, went with a VPN option. I was playing Xenonauts and just couldn't take it anymore. It's a really fun game, I've really enjoyed it so far. I do long for another base and free-aiming in combat, but other than that it's excellent.
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deathtotheweird
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« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2012, 02:34:26 PM »

the demo of it was pretty awful. 3 boring tutorial/early game levels. it doesn't even give you a good idea of how the game plays, it tells you what to do every step. they could have at least thrown in one real level or something.
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Dragonmaw
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« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2012, 04:48:02 PM »

yeah that dmeo is baaaad
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forwardresent
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« Reply #13 on: October 11, 2012, 09:19:00 AM »

After the hand-holding start the game really ramps up. I'm really enjoying this, but I'm going to restart in Iron Man mode for more of a challenge. Not that it isn't hard enough already. It's got a few annoying bugs that pop up every now and again, hopefully they'll be patched soon.
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« Reply #14 on: October 11, 2012, 02:26:00 PM »

Bought it a couple of days ago, and yes, the beginning is very hand-holdy, but it seems to be getting better as I progress. That said, I liked the feeling of piecing the underlying plot of the alien invasion from the research, rather than having it spoon-fed to me via cutscene. The original felt more sandboxy, while this very much feels like the current generation of games where the developers felt the fear that you wouldn't 'get it', and thus opted to cautiously lower you into the shallow end of the pool with a safety harness, a lifesaver and floater wing-things.

As for 'the things that made the original special', I definitely miss things like larger squads, kneeling/standing, different types of fire, placing bases whereever you want, having more than one base, and so forth. It's not about nostalgia. The new one is to the original what Civ V is to the original Civ: better graphics, streamlining a lot of the depth/complexity in favor of ease of access to a generation of dudebro players who are used to more immediacy and twitchy action games than more cerebral, slower experiences.

So far my verdict is "Yeah, it's enjoyable, and I'm glad I gave you money because I hope more games like this get made, but hey, how about a 'retro mode' DLC for $20 that is basically the original game remade in this engine, for us old-fogey types? No? Ok, I guess I'll finish playing it and go wait for Xenonauts again."
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deathtotheweird
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« Reply #15 on: October 11, 2012, 02:36:47 PM »

Quote
but it seems to be getting better as I progress.

kinda thought that would be the case. even still, I'll wait for a price drop.

how's the multiplayer?
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Dragonmaw
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« Reply #16 on: October 11, 2012, 02:47:57 PM »

I legitimately do not like the cutscenes, except for the interrogation, dissection, and base facility ones. They are super corny and they do kinda spoonfeed the player. That being said, there's still a lot of detail in the UFOpedia.

Larger squads doesn't really make sense given that the encounter sizes are smaller and your soldiers are stronger.

Kneeling/standing was replaced by a very functional and useful cover system (the only real reason you kneeled anyway).

Different types of fire has been rolled into the overall usage of a weapon (snipers, for example, can't fire after moving) and abilities like Headshot or Suppression. Not really necessary to have aimed, snap, free, etc in such a system.

Placing multiple bases I do miss, but they rolled the important aspects of that into the main base. Satellite Coverage takes the place of listening posts, hangars available on each continent take the place of hangar bases, and the main base is dramatically larger than the bases in XCOM. It would be nice if there was an option to enable multiple bases on a new game, but of smaller size (1-2 levels).

The one thing I miss most is being attacked at your base. Really hoping they bring it back in some way.

It really is about nostalgia. It's always about nostalgia. And when the reality of a game doesn't conform to your nostalgic expectations, you paint it off as being "dudebro" and "shallow." As Radix put it:

This game is pretty fucking good. It's not a remake but a reimagining, from some dudes who you can tell really love some xcom. I've seen some internet echo chambery shit with people whining about things they changed from the original, but it's not like the original didn't have a lot of issues and bugs of its own.

Also, even with this game out, I'll probably still play Apoc and UFO. Especially Apoc, what a lovely game.
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« Reply #17 on: October 11, 2012, 06:56:13 PM »

Far from being dumbed down; now that I've played enough to have a bunch of fully-ranked dudes (some are starting to learn psi too) it's apparent that there's a lot more tactical depth than the original despite the overall flow of your turns being simplified. Yeah you have fewer guys and no TUs, but the combination of cover and the various perks/abilities your dudes get makes things really interesting.
I'm really impressed with the design of the risk/reward tactical decisions you have to make constantly. Do you wanna try to soften up an enemy swarm with your guys then have your Sniper finish them all with In The Zone, at the risk of him missing the first shot and ending up with a team of still-alive bad guys in your face? Should your Support pop a smoke grenade to defend your whole squad, or heal the one guy who badly needs it, or risk trying to finish a baddie off, or go into his special on-fire overwatch mode? Should your Assault stun this guy at the risk or ending up defenceless right next to an alien if the stun fails?

Whereas the original was always like this for me:
-HWP scouts, everyone throws grenades. Then later:
-24 dudes with laser rifles walking forward in a line blind-firing until every piece of cover on the map is destroyed. If any die that's fine because it's not like aiming mattered. Then later:
-23 dudes razing the entire map, one guy back in the skybus with a blaster launcher.

I'm not such a big fan of the strategic geoscape stuff in this game though. It all works well enough but with less control over coverage it just feels like the fuck-you timer is killing you in Classic rather than it being a product of your actions. And while not being able to respond to everything happened in the original it was an emergent thing of not being able to be everywhere at once, here it's a choice of three buttons. It's in line with the rest of it but I dunno, the geoscape is just such a huge part of x-com, I think they went slightly too far with the scalpel there.

edit: jesus my grammar
« Last Edit: October 11, 2012, 08:56:56 PM by Radix » Logged
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« Reply #18 on: October 11, 2012, 07:24:42 PM »

Huhhh, was waiting on this. Gonna get it as soon as I can get to a games store Epileptic
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forwardresent
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« Reply #19 on: October 11, 2012, 07:52:51 PM »

Just lost all my good soldiers to a few lucky criticals. I love this game.
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