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

[Toffeli]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1220803p1.html

Older games weren't better because you had to decipher how to play them. People constantly belittle current games with lengthy tutorials and forgiving check points, wondering what happened to the days when someone would take the time to read a 50-page instruction manual and be OK with constantly reloading a save. The truth is we did those things because we had to; we hadn't been shown anything better.

 

[Burning Bridges]

2012: The dumbing down of turn based games begins, it was about time.

 

[spectre]

So, here we go again. The designers make some derp, then gaming journos bend over backwards to justify it as if it were sliced bread.

I like it best when people namedrop a 50 page (no less) manual, like it's something intimidating. Surely, it takes an entire day of arduous mental strain to comprehend such a grimoire.
Makes me feel like a goddamn child prodigy, cause my xcom never came with a manual (because eastern europia fuck yea) and yet I somehow managed to play it semi successfully.

 

[The_scorpion]

i read that article and i was like

shit starts sounding worse and worse but i guess the bottomn line is

multiplatform release

multiplatform release

multiplatform release

 

[Haba]

Makes me feel like a goddamn child prodigy, cause my xcom never came with a manual (because eastern europia fuck yea) and yet I somehow managed to play it semi successfully.

I was in uh... Primary school then(?), didn't speak English at all. Yet I never had any problems with X-Com. Besides having my squad die horrible, painful deaths, that is. I can only conclude that people are fucking retards. And breeding retarded retards, who are even more retarded than the retards that spawned them.

 

[potatojohn]

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/892298-xcom-enemy-unknown-preview-and-interview-ufo-conspiracy:

GC: My only concern is the four soldier squad limit because that does change the nature of the tactics and gameplay quite considerably, so what's the thinking behind that?

JS: It's a six squad limit actually, but you start with four and the idea is that later in the game you add more…

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

*sigh*

 

[Raghar]

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/892298-xcom-enemy-unknown-preview-and-interview-ufo-conspiracy:

GC: My only concern is the four soldier squad limit because that does change the nature of the tactics and gameplay quite considerably, so what's the thinking behind that?

JS: It's a six squad limit actually, but you start with four and the idea is that later in the game you add more…

That's an old news. The lack of inventory/ammo would be larger problem. 4 squad members actually somehow mitigates problems with turn based combat.

 

[Marobug]

That's an old news. The lack of inventory/ammo would be larger problem. 4 squad members actually somehow mitigates problems with turn based combat.

I agree. For some reason having unlimited ammo and no inventory takes a bit of the personality and individuality of each squad member, not to mention it takes away some tactical depth (should I reload now ? should I find cover to reload safely? etc). I think the 6 squad members limit makes sense considering the game now is a lot more about cover and shit. Deaths will occur less so I imagine each mission would take ages to finish if we had 15 something squad members.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Justifying one shortcoming with another? There are limits to what makes sense in a turn based game, but I don't see why it should be 4 or 6.

 

[Marobug]

What I said is a possibility, and a strong one methinks.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Guess decline really is a... slippery slope.

 

[Marobug]

Yeah it wasn't due to console or budgetary or engine limitations or dumbing down, that's for sure. Gonna stick this one out to the bitter end, huh.

So you still want to talking about it knotanalt ?

 

[Kraszu]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1220803p1.html

Older games weren't better because you had to decipher how to play them. People constantly belittle current games with lengthy tutorials and forgiving check points, wondering what happened to the days when someone would take the time to read a 50-page instruction manual and be OK with constantly reloading a save. The truth is we did those things because we had to; we hadn't been shown anything better.

Funny I hate tutorials, and I have no problem with manuals. Tutorial = fucking boredom, where I have to do exactly what I am told when most of it was obvious anyway. Manual = read when I feel like it or just a needed part since most can be easily deducted while playing the game anyway.

Not wanting forced tutorial =/= not wanting more complex games.

 

[J_C]

There is no way Firaxis would build the PC version of XCOM Enemy Unknown to accommodate the console version's system of command prompts. "No, no, no. Nooo. Oh man, no," Jake Solomon, the game's lead designer told PC Gamer. "I wouldn't do that to you, are you kidding me? No."
That's good news for PC gamers, and it won't stop there. In addition to the PC version of the game getting its own user interface optimized for keyboard-and-mouse gaming, XCOM Enemy Unknown also will be modder-friendly, though Solomon can't commit to what that means exactly right now.
"The idea is that there is the ability for modability," said Solomon. "It won't be anything that we're committing to for release, but it's very very easy using Unreal titles. I write almost all my game code in the scripts, and that's very easy to give to people."
PC Gamer has more details on the PC UI at the link.

On the one hand this could be PR bullshit (it probably is), but at least it gives some hope. Maybe...maybe it is true.

 

[Achilles]

Nah, in that respect I'm confident that they will come up with a PC UI. It's the content that worries me, I need to see for myself if the game is as close to the original as Solomon says.

 

[Morgoth]

Usually there's gonna be a Demo version prior release, so the butthurt should be limited. I think.

 

[Lunac]

Gameplay video as well interviews with several developer/programmer/designer fellows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPLTPj8SUhU

Summary:

0:26 - Cinematic crapfest alert.
0:35 - "not a remake, but a reimagining" - Is there some holy manuscript all these jojo's are using these days?
0:50 - Cinematic crapfest alert.
1:19 - "finding the fun things and eliminating things we don't care so much for" - Uh-oh.
1:51 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
1:57 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
2:03 - "we said how can we simplify that and free up all that headspace that takes up in the players head" - Oh boy!
2:10 - "turned time units into a simplified version where the player has a number of moves" - Um, same shit as before bruh, jus less maths! See? SEEEEE?
2:11 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
2:41 - Cinematic crapfest alert.
2:43 - "The other big thing I think that we did was we aded cover to the game" - No, not cover as in anything that can be useful in a strategy game, but "cover" as in something that looks cool in a cinematic kind of way. Form over function in pure form here.
2:49 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
2:54 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
2:59 - "In some ways we feel like we made the game more... (awkward pause, puzzled look on face) tactical?" - Talking about the cover system. Yeah, that's the ticket, we made it more takkktikal!
3:07 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
3:08 - "Players get really uspet when we take control away from them, well we do that every other turn" - GLAM-CAM goodery? Jesus fuken christos!!! This guy says it like its a good thing.
3:12 - "there is a very cinematic approach we are taking to this game" - annnnnndddd there she goes....
3:15 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
3:22 - "We are leveraging the 3D and the tech we have available" Holy shit did I step into a time machine and travel back to 2001-2003 era when every other dev studio out there was pimping this cool new invention called "dah 3D!!!"
3:30 - "The GLAM-CAM was our way of kind of making a turn based strategy game...umm, sexy" GLAM-CAM? GLAM-CAM?! WTF? SEXY?
3:36 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
3:37 - "Take the camera and put it in the envoirment in a way that kind of gotcha out of the normal game play mode" - Speaking of GLAM CAM and how it basically interupts gameplay every other six seconds from the looks of it.
3:40 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
3:49 - "When your soldier goes to take a cool shot the camera can drop in and we got these great dramatic scenes where your sniper is lining up a super long shot and you'll see it (camera) follow it right down the barrel." GLAM-CAM FTW? No?
3:43 - "Allows for intimate connection" - More "GLAM-CAM" shittery.
4:01 - "GLAM-CAM" POSE ALERT!!!!!
4:07 "It increases the drama" Again, "GLAM-CAM".
4:09 - "..the GLAM CAM..," Muthafuka! Say it again, say it again, please mofo, do it, just do it one more time!!11!!! Make my mutafukin day!
4:15 - "Get the camera down there so the player can see comabt from their soldiers perspecitve" = How can we bring this closer to a popamole CoD/FPS shootan title and guarantee more $$$$?
4:19 - Cinematic crapfest alert.
4:34 - Flat is a challenge? Guy goes on how vertical base constrution... wait, WTF?
5:33 - Cinematic crapfest alert.




...
..
.

 

[Burning Bridges]

4:34 - Flat is a challenge? Guy goes on how vertical base constrution... wait, WTF?

..... and it's and it's really different ..... I haven't seen it represented that way ...... really ever..

2:46 now tactically you have lot more important decisions to make, based off of being in low cover or high cover, ....

 

[The_scorpion]

freeing up head space in the player's head is still my favourite from that mental facility immate interview

 

[Burning Bridges]

When you watch the two scruffy guys (not the handsome one who looks like Dennis Quaid), a really conspicious thing is that every time they say something like *we are really big fans of the game uhm*, they lower their eyes most of the time, which people usually do when they are lying.

 

[The_scorpion]

*we are really big fans of the game* is mandatory to say for everybody who does a sequel for anything, even if it's a movie

 

[Burning Bridges]

"We are really big fans of the game, we even played it .. for an hour or so."

 

[The_scorpion]

"we are really big fans of the game ever since this here publisher hired us to make a sequel of it"

 

[Infinitron]

freeing up head space in the player's head is still my favourite from that mental facility immate interview

I know some people in the gaming industry I'd like to "free the headspace" of.