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

[spectre]

Boy, that air combat really looks sucky. I hoped it might be slightly better in action, but it ain't.

 

[damicore]

If this game wasn't an XCOM "reimagining" it would be good for what it is and I would be able to even eventually finish it, who knows.
But the idea of playing it when I have the original superior version laying arround in my HD makes me feel all dirty.

So, summing up: It could have been good for what it would be if it wasn't what it supposedly was.

 

[Gragt]

So it's not about what it is but what it's called.

 

[damicore]

So it's not about what it is but what it's called.

Well, the similarities go way beyond its name, don't you agree? You have the gameplay which is similar to the original albeit extremely dumbed down. You also have sectoids, floaters, muttons, crysalids and almost all of the lore, but revamped for more awesomeness.

It just feels wrong.

 

[Gragt]

It's another game than the original X-COM. It's a remake, and borrows heavily from it, but it'll still do things differently — which isn't a bad idea because the original is still playable. Whether it's a good or bad game depends entirely on it and not the older game.

 

[Gozma]

Do you 20-year-olds find anything creepy about oldschool "Grey" alien stuff? I found the classic "giant almond shaped head with huge black eyes, small or no nose, slit mouth" thing completely horrible as a kid but you guys have been cooked in anime and so on that has habituated all the ick out of that look. Hell when I look at them all the ick is gone. I hated the monkey-kobold Sectoids in this at first but '80s-'90s Greys probably just look silly now.

 

[damicore]

Do you 20-year-olds find anything creepy about oldschool "Grey" alien stuff? I found the classic "giant almond shaped head with huge black eyes, small or no nose, slit mouth" thing completely horrible as a kid but you guys have been cooked in anime and so on that has habituated all the ick out of that look. Hell when I look at them all the ick is gone. I hated the monkey-kobold Sectoids in this at first but '80s-'90s Greys probably just look silly now.

I found creepy the way aliens were depicted in the original. The grey ones not that much, but the whole game was able to build a quite eerie atmosphere.

In this versions aliens look like romance options for Comandant Shepard.

 

[EG]

Do you 20-year-olds find anything creepy about oldschool "Grey" alien stuff? I found the classic "giant almond shaped head with huge black eyes, small or no nose, slit mouth" thing completely horrible as a kid but you guys have been cooked in anime and so on that has habituated all the ick out of that look. Hell when I look at them all the ick is gone. I hated the monkey-kobold Sectoids in this at first but '80s-'90s Greys probably just look silly now.

When I was younger, I found it creepy. Then again, i found Alien creepy, too. Now it's just the normal "semi-human alien." I don't find them silly, though. Well, until you see a few low-budget "sci fi" films and play a few post-millennium games.

 

[MetalCraze]

I like the tree on the right side.

But that's a nod to oldschool gaming!

7 min gameplay video from the PC version - UFO retrieval mission.

I like how it has chest high cover placed exactly in such way that it faces the UFO so you can take popamole shots at it. The best part here is that this cover consists of large carefully sawed logs that fit exactly on their respective ridge - but there is not even a hint that there were big trees around ever.

I wonder who places cover like that in such games. Is it suicidal aliens so their (and player's) suffering in this piece of shit game can end faster?

 

[Gozma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXgKj3wxMm8

That mission looks incredibly canned. I thought just the maps were gonna be static but this has multiple specific dialog lines. And another thing that is pretty disquieting is enemies spawning into the map partway through the mission which always makes tactics games sillier. And the handholding, like the escort character repeating over and over that he is gonna give X-Com loot for rescuing him with all the placid earnestness a voice actor can muster, so the player doesn't get confused about what he's doing... Part of the charm of X-Com is imagining what, for example, selling a hundred plasma rifles to no one in particular means on the diegetic level, and going all the way from that level of broad strokes straight to corny overexplanatory dialog was a bad decision.

 

[Micmu]

Static maps? Spawning enemies?
Oh wow.

This is gonna be better than expected.

 

[Raghar]

And another thing that is pretty disquieting is enemies spawning into the map partway through the mission which always makes tactics games sillier. And the handholding, like the escort character repeating over and over that he is gonna give X-Com loot for rescuing him with all the placid earnestness a voice actor can muster, so the player doesn't get confused about what he's doing...

I seen activated enemies, there was only one case where enemy "might" spawn, but it was certain type of enemy, thus perhaps it was right for him to spawn close. He has zero action points after spawning?, thus they had first strike anyway.

 

[Storyfag]

Part of the charm of X-Com is imagining what, for example, selling a hundred plasma rifles to no one in particular means

"I'm sure El Commendante is an earnest man, buying all those laser cannons for the betterment of his country, and his purchase has nothing to do with the pro-democratic rebellion currently going on."

 

[fizzelopeguss]

if this turns out to be anything but shit....i'll eat my own face.

 

[Gozma]

To me it's shaping up to be on the level of like the recent Deus Ex game, which had a noteworthy amount of pretty good parts respectful of the qualities of the source material plus a bunch of very bad decisions they larded the game with for no reason at all that won't even make it more popular with new players. And it all costs 100 times as much as the original for some reason.

 

[Morgoth]

Could be worse. At least I hope it flops hard on consoles so that lessons will be learned at 2K/Firaxis.

 

[Achilles]

I think the only lesson they'll learn in that case is "damn, we should have pressed on with that Xcom shooter" and the whole 'triple-A' industry will drop turn-based games completely. Then again, one could argue that this is actually a good thing. We'll see how it plays out, it will be interesting to watch.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXgKj3wxMm8

That was probably the worst gameplay video I've seen. That's apparently normal difficulty, kinda sounds like "Classic" is the way to go given how fucking easy that looked. 2 damage plasma pistol? Fuck.

I'm also awfully concerned by that specific dialog. If it had no dialog or just text "He ran over such and such way!" I could see the location of shit being varied, but that doesn't look to be the case. Enemy placement may be randomized, but given the size and layout of that map I don't see enemy placement really changing how it plays out much at all.
Eh, fuck it. Keeping my preorder going. On higher difficulty it still looks like it'd be ok for $38. Plus I'm not sure if Greenman Gaming would try to give me shit about canceling my preorder since I used some weird promotion to get the price.

 

[Gozma]

Yeah, "He's down those stairs!", "He's over by that truck!"

I was like oh no, no

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Fuck. I just clicked the account that uploaded that video. He's got another mission video and it's similarly horrible. Check out the heavy weapons guy shooting through buildings and tanks at shit he can't see. Fuuuuuuuuck.

 

[Storyfag]

Fuck. I just clicked the account that uploaded that video. He's got another mission video and it's similarly horrible. Check out the heavy weapons guy shooting through buildings and tanks at shit he can't see. Fuuuuuuuuck.

At first I was like "But whaddya mean, sniping aliens spotted by someone else is standard UFO fare." Then I watched the vid.


Though I have to hand it to them - entering the building through the window was a nice touch.

 

[SuicideBunny]

I thought just the maps were gonna be static but this has multiple specific dialog lines.

don't you earn funds through story missions now, instead of time passing? looks like this is one of those missions... also, that is normal? wasn't one of the devs saying normal is pretty challenging for him..? and why does the sniper have a special perk that allows him to shoot at aliens sighted by other people?
meh.

 

[Machocruz]

Know this: whenever a developer claims their game is going to be true to old school design, 99% of the time they are lying through their fucking teeth. I have no faith it won't be the same for WL2, Shadowrun, and Eternity.

Alot of player 'empowerment' bullshit in these videos. Huge fields of view and movement from the start, radio chatter letting you know "hey, moar guys are cummin!," conveniently placed cover (that the aliens seem to often forego utilizing), hitting and killing in a single turn (with assualt rifles no less. Thought they were supposed to be shit in the world of X-Com?), sniper is op h-h-h-headshot! for CoDADHD crowd, wall haxxing, slender-men spawning in the open for convenient dying, "____ is over there!"

The guy was able to run halfway across the screen and up a ladder. The fuck? Movement is WAY to liberal for my liking.

And they're too pc and/or dishonest to label it Easy difficulty, which it is by any standard of tactical games. I played shit on Gameboy that required more out of the player than what I'm seeing in XCON.

 

[EG]

Know this: whenever a developer claims their game is going to be true to old school design, 99% of the time they are lying through their fucking teeth. I have no faith it won't be the same for WL2, Shadowrun, and Eternity.

Nor do I have hope . . . but I have a dream.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

On shittastic forum Quartertothree a guy is claiming that escort mission may be the tutorial, which is why it has specific dialog. He also claims the overwatch/reaction shots from the heavy weapons guy are supposedly a known bug/issue and will be fixed before launch.

Supposedly.

 

[Gozma]

I skipped around a long video from some German games site that showed the tutorial mission and it's way more locked down than that, like move this guy to this spot, move this guy to this spot, shoot now from here, etc. in classic "FUCKING LET ME PLAY" boring tutorial fashion.