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

[Emily]

There is such a thing as bad difficulty but there is not such a thing as difficulty in service of instant gratification

There is. I never played on any other then normal in beth games like FO3. And trust me when i say it, i am difficulty junkie.
Why didn't i ever try harder? since it is pointless dosent feel more difficult just more tedius and stupid, also makes whole point moot of overcoming challenges by level scaling it.

 

[bonescraper]

I watched Firaxis' PAX panel, and i kinda understand their approach now. Forget about the original game, this game is focused entirely on small squad tactics. That's why, as the lead designer said, they finally ditched Time Units (which were removed really, really late in development), and came up with the move-shoot mechanic. It allows for more flexibility when performing "combo attacks" like suppression + flanking, spotting targets for your sniper etc. This isn't true to the original game of course, but i guess that's the only thing they could do with 4-6 man squads anyway. And i blame consoles for those limitations.

So, i understand why they went for special, unique abilities instead of proper inventory management. Since you're limited to 6 soldiers, they wanted to make every class feel useful and important. Because, form what i've seen so far, late game is all about combo tactics. You must utilize and combine everybody's skills to survive. That's also why the landing zone is always on the edge of the map. They don't want you to scatter your soldiers all over the area like in the original game.

This still doesn't explain why the soldiers are nearly omniperceptive, why there is no free aim, and why the aliens can't attack you from the fog of war...

 

[Gord]

Well yeah, bonescraper, only goes to show that the demo doesn't work as a demo for the kind of game they (probably) tried to make.
It's also why I still have some hope left that the final game might offer some amount of tactics, even if different from the originals.
Might turn out to be naive, but we'll see.

 

[IDtenT]

I've been playing the Xenonauts alpha (v15.1) a little.

Concerns:

• The normal difficulty is ridiculously easy. I shot my own guy with a rocket, after taking two shots of an alien pistol and his health was still above 50%.
• The tactical map is still far too easy on insane difficulty. One of my guys without armour took two shots and wasn't yet down.
• The civilian AI makes the wait between turns ridiculously long. They should make them all run at the same time.

Concerns or bugs:

• The maps with the same tileset are all pretty much the same. I don't know if this is due to the alpha nature or not, but it sucks.
• The F-17 is non-replaceable making any protracted game on the insane difficulty impossible.
• Shooting down a single craft in combat doesn't seem to give you a downed UFO.

Positives:

• It's fun, even if it's in a largely broken state.
• Multiple fighters in air combat is a plus over the game it's inspired by.
• The military ranks have been improved (How much I'm not sure).
• The looks are pretty sleek.

 

[Raghar]

Multiple fighters in air combat is a plus over the game it's inspired by.

I thought you could have multiple fighters in the combat. Simply hit trail, wait until the second fighter catches up, and select engagement mode for both.

 

[IDtenT]

Multiple fighters in air combat is a plus over the game it's inspired by.

I thought you could have multiple fighters in the combat. Simply hit trail, wait until the second fighter catches up, and select engagement mode for both.

That's unnecessarily complicated and on top of that slightly unrealistic.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Multiple fighters in air combat is a plus over the game it's inspired by.

i found it kinda annoying that now you have to keep and launch different kinds of interceptors for different ufos, plus the feature was very half-assed last time i tested it, as in ufo escapes on the edges despite your interceptors being faster and constantly gaining on it.

 

[tuluse]

I've been playing the Xenonauts alpha (v15.1) a little.

Concerns:

• The normal difficulty is ridiculously easy. I shot my own guy with a rocket, after taking two shots of an alien pistol and his health was still above 50%

I've never had a soldier survive more than 2 hits from an alien weapon. I can't remember what difficulty I played now though.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Oh, and if anyone else was wondering (I was, was why I went and tested it) you don't get an aimed shot bonus if you fire without moving. I initially figured shoot first taking 2 actions as opposed to move+shoot was their way of handling aimed vs snap shot in the new system, but nope. Same accuracy on classic difficulty if you fire without moving than if you move then fire.

Edit: What the fuck Firaxis. I was watching that 2 hour Gamespot video linked a few pages back and naturally the game seemed better than the demo implied, but then I saw THE GUY USING MOUSEWHEEL TO ZOOM IN THE BASE VIEW! Why the hell would you release the demo of your game with "Hold MMB and move the mouse" to zoom when mousewheel is apparently working in the full version/press release version? Around 1 hour 22 minutes if you wanna stare at his damning finger.

Well clearly everything is wrong in the demo and everything will be right in the full version. Game of the decade!

 

[IDtenT]

I've never had a soldier survive more than 2 hits from an alien weapon. I can't remember what difficulty I played now though.

Mmm... Have you played the latest alpha release?

 

[tuluse]

I've never had a soldier survive more than 2 hits from an alien weapon. I can't remember what difficulty I played now though.

Mmm... Have you played the latest alpha release?

I don't think so.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Looks like there will be additional settings you can enable before starting a campaign, Civilization style.

Googled this really quick and it sounds like they get unlocked by beating the campaign once. HOWEVER, I also found this.
"Well looking at the DefaultGameCore.ini file there is a line that simply reads
ENABLE_SECOND_WAVE=0

It couldn't possibly be that easy to enable SW on your first playthough could it?"
So if people are so inclined you can have your randomized soldier stats for your first playthrough.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Watch this video if you hate yourself.

 

[sser]

Mutiplayer match.

"Where do I go? What do I do?"

 

[Dead Guy]

So this is the target audience, huh? Game of the year, 10/10.

 

[Gozma]

I'm pretty sure this is going to be good now. There will be a lot of things the original has over it, both as a high-tension horror game and with simulation depth/breadth, that I wish I could see continued by a big developer that has the ability to hammer shit out for years, but the distilled RPG boardgame version also has good reasons to exist. Little decisions bug me like the gigantic Unreal Engine standard andromonster human male soldiers and the console-first interface obviously but hey, I still play the original with a 1993 UI made by one guy.

Edit - Maybe this might help kill the worst monster of all - Rtw/P

 

[7h30n]

I'm pretty sure this is going to be good now. There will be a lot of things the original has over it, both as a high-tension horror game and with simulation depth/breadth, that I wish I could see continued by a big developer that has the ability to hammer shit out for years, but the distilled RPG boardgame version also has good reasons to exist. Little decisions bug me like the gigantic Unreal Engine standard andromonster human male soldiers and the console-first interface obviously but hey, I still play the original with a 1993 UI made by one guy.

Edit - Maybe this might help kill the worst monster of all - Rtw/P

You are even more optimistic than me! But on the other hand, what game can really meet my expectations to be equal or better than my favourite game of all times - UFO: Enemy Unknown?!

 

[Raghar]

Watch this video if you hate yourself.

Why was the only survivor named Apparently Stupid?

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

I assume this is a new video

 

[Gozma]

Rescue people in Hong Kong, Cairo, or... Oxford Mississippi

"Fuck the wogs. Ole Miss sorority sluts need our help"

 

[Raghar]

I assume this is a new video

You must enable annotations to make it work.

 

[Mother Russia]

Has anyone given any word on the Interceptor part of the game? You know, where you launch a cool looking plane and shoot down/destroy a UFO in mid air before it lands?
That was my favorite part of the original, classic masterpiece X-KAWM

There IS an interceptor part in this new remake right???

Right??

 

[Raghar]

Sure it's. It looks like a crap and you can use only one plane. You can also see laser going towards your plane.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Has anyone given any word on the Interceptor part of the game? You know, where you launch a cool looking plane and shoot down/destroy a UFO in mid air before it lands?
That was my favorite part of the original, classic masterpiece X-KAWM

There IS an interceptor part in this new remake right???

Right??

http://youtu.be/AGt8e3vG3xw?t=2m28s

You get other buttons than abort based on research/upgrades, saw that in some other video somewhere.

 

[Raghar]

You get other buttons than abort based on research/upgrades, saw that in some other video somewhere.

Yes, they are like sacrifice some implants to get a boost in accuracy.