X-COM Firaxis - XCOM: Enemy Unknown + Enemy Within Expansion

[Average Manatee]

If anyone's interested in replaying the original X-Com, take a look at http://openxcom.org/. It's coming along really well.

 

[DeepOcean]

Xenonauts is playable already?

 

[Baron Dupek]

Xenonauts is playable already?

By "playable" you mean "doubleclick .exe file, saw main menu and get into the game with decent frames per second", then - yes.
Nice achievement for alpha...

Also there is demo to test.

 

[Lorica]

Xenonauts is playable already?

The parts are in place and you can play without running into too many "under construction signs", yes. AI, UI and some pacing issues mean that I've never gone more than a couple of months in, though.

From the Xenonauts thread:

What remains is very much balancing, balancing and balancing. And some UI stuff. And AI upgrades.

Xenonauts is hopefully going to be released this year, then any future work on it is likely to be subtle balancing or bugfixing or adding more maps. Paid DLC is unlikely if I'm honest.

The interesting part:

We do have other games in prototype stage at the moment, simply because some of our team have finished their roles on Xenonauts already and we need to keep them occupied or risk losing them to other companies. Needless to say, it's much easier working with Unity than it is with the Diner Dash engine...but in any case, Xenonauts is our flagship product and we're primarily concentrating on that.

What happens next is not nailed down yet. At the moment we're planning to do a "quick" 2D game to try out some new stuff and maybe do some experiments with tablets, before returning to making a larger tactical turn-based combat game in full 3D. At the moment we're prototyping a much more robust system for aiming and cover etc using grey block levels and the like - we're essentially fixing the design issues we've had with Xenonauts. That'll likely take quite a while but should pay off long-term.

As for the Xenonauts universe - I think I said I'd rather cut my own legs off instead of immediately doing Xenonauts 2, rather than that I'd stab anyone that suggested it. At this point we can rule out our next turn-based combat game being a Xenonauts game, but we may well revisit the universe at some point.

I don't quite feel we completely nailed Xenonauts - I like to think we could do better if we started over with a better engine and the extra money and experience we have now. A reboot rather than a sequel would probably be my preferred route. As I say, though, anything after the release of Xenonauts is just conjecture at this point. We'll only fully be able to plan the next move once it is out.

 

[Psquit]

Didn't bought the vanilla wont bother with the dlc...

No random generated maps = same shit.

The fact that they add plus 40 maps confirms that they cant even code for shit.

new multiplayer maps... lol why even bother.

 

[SmartCheetah]

I bet Aliens are on some kind of rails, and that's why they haven't introduced random generated maps. Lazy fucks.

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

If anyone's interested in replaying the original X-Com, take a look at http://openxcom.org/. It's coming along really well.

That looks amazing, first I've heard about it. I thought this couldn't be done for legal reasons

I spent some time modding X-Com original which was a pain in the butt, XML looks great.

Website says v 0.9 and nearly complete... is this actually playable or not?

 

[Average Manatee]

If anyone's interested in replaying the original X-Com, take a look at http://openxcom.org/. It's coming along really well.

That looks amazing, first I've heard about it. I thought this couldn't be done for legal reasons

I spent some time modding X-Com original which was a pain in the butt, XML looks great.

Website says v 0.9 and nearly complete... is this actually playable or not?

It's absolutely playable. It still has rare crashes and a few bugs that prevent it from going 1.0 though. Make sure to get the latest nightly build.

Installing it is as simple as copying the vanilla X-Com data files into the Open X-Com folder.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

CALLED IT MOTHERFUCKERS! WOOO! I FUCKING CALLED IT! 30 EUROBUCKS! WOOO! THIS IS LIKE THAT THING ESS VEE WAS TALKING ABOUT CUNTHEADS! NEVER DOUBT ME AGAIN!

 

[Raghar]

CALLED IT MOTHERFUCKERS! WOOO! I FUCKING CALLED IT! 30 EUROBUCKS! WOOO! THIS IS LIKE THAT THING ESS VEE WAS TALKING ABOUT CUNTHEADS! NEVER DOUBT ME AGAIN!

Yes we all knew that, you'd do that, but do some villainy stuff as well next time.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

I killed your cat / dog whilst typing this.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Gasp!

Spoiler

Actually, no.

 

[Heresiarch]

From Kotaku:

"So, here are Ananda Gupta's thoughts on the conclusion of the original XCOM, and why it was preserved in Enemy Within instead of re-written. It stands to reason there areSPOILERS in the following, so don't read it if, for some reason, you have not finished this game. The italicized portion between the lines is a spoiler. Just skip over it.

"There's a reason players find it unsatisfying," Gupta said (you can take out the Uber Etheral, the game's final boss, very easily with two jetpack snipers) "Frankly, that is fine. The story here is you are using the aliens' technology against them. The whole plot trajectory is 'Have you surpassed them?' And the answer at the end is, 'Yes.' The Ethereals plan backfired. They tried to find a superior warrior within a servitor race, and the final mission's message is that they succeeded too well."

To "make it interesting," in the final mission would have required a total overhaul of the game's story, inconsistent with the goal of making Enemy Within an expansion that transforms the original game, and is not a new game unto itself."

Ok I guess that's a no-buy for me then.

 

[Psquit]

Soo easy as fuck boss equal "2deep4me to understand". Now we need that faggot from ign with his bullshit speech of "gaming entitlement is killing indie developers and shit"
.

 

[Raghar]

I hate final bosses. If it's a strategy game, it shouldn't have final bosses. At best it should have MAD. Do you remember the final mission of Gadget Trial?

Spoiler

They attacked a communication facility.

Warning BRUTAL SPOILER DON'T READ IF YOU DIDN'T FINISH IT.

Spoiler

And they didn't make it in time.

Also don't hit reply to quote it, or you can see the second really bad spoiler anyway.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Firaxis has never really done expansions which "transcend" the original game's mechanics, they simply tack on two or three new minor-ish features and call it a day, even if said features break the game over the knee with a sickening crack in the process. For instance: MEC units. Completely fucking overpowered in a game which already has a piss easy endgame... and genetic enhancements for soldiers who were already pretty god damned hardy. I never asked for this.

 

[felipepepe]

So, having a inverted difficulty curve is now explained by plot?

Damn, for the first time I now wish that the moral of this game was something dumb like "freedom & friendship wins everything!"...

 

[Psquit]

Fire emblem for the gba was hard. The only way to kill the dragon was with the legendary weapons.

 

[Surf Solar]

SO when is this badboy coming out?

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

November something.

 

[Brinko]

SO when is this badboy coming out?

Novmeber 15th according to the wiki. So I guess they are sending this thing out to die with all the major releases and new consoles being relatively new.

 

[Hornawkawk]

"There's a reason players find it unsatisfying," Gupta said (you can take out the Uber Etheral, the game's final boss, very easily with two jetpack snipers) "Frankly, that is fine. The story here is you are using the aliens' technology against them. The whole plot trajectory is 'Have you surpassed them?' And the answer at the end is, 'Yes.' The Ethereals plan backfired. They tried to find a superior warrior within a servitor race, and the final mission's message is that they succeeded too well."

To be honest that was exactly the vibe I got from the game. It's an interesting idea, even if it doesn't make for an interesting game progression.

 

[Gord]

Is it really that different from the originals in that aspect?
It might not be as pronounced, but it's happening as well. It certainly is on lower difficulties, once you have psi on your hand.

 

[Raghar]

Is it really that different from the originals in that aspect?
It might not be as pronounced, but it's happening as well. It certainly is on lower difficulties, once you have psi on your hand.

I think that "not as pronounced" is the important part. In original, it just decreased tediousness. (Thought without theirs producer they would release significantly worse game. Because they had tunnel vision)

 

[bonescraper]

http://kotaku.com/sounds-like-aliens-will-invade-your-base-in-xcom-enemy-1418358925

Interesting.