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

[Ulminati]

Just read the RPS review here:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...otgun/steam+(Rock,+Paper,+Shotgun:+Steam+RSS)

I am encouraged. The reviewer seems pretty honest about the differences between the original and this one, as well as how he feels about the repetitiousness/shallowness of a lot of the game. However, he definitely makes a good case for the game as well, and I'm genuinely excited to be playing it when I get home from the shift this morning.
/fanboy

Voulenteering to meat-shield in your let's play
Not touching the game with a regulation 10' pole myself.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Just shot down a UFO, investigating the crash, sent a rookie forward and he got shot by a sectoid. Then the leveled-up soldiers brought RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE DOWN upon the alien.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I had a leveled up assault in medium cover and he just got shot twice by sectoids (And is dead/critically wounded) at extreme long range while he was in smoke that my support popped for him.

I could hear Jake Solomon saying "That's Xcom, baby" in my head. Help. Help!

Edit: Abduction mission. Up against something like 6 sectoids at once. Rookie gets caught by reaction fire and dies, causes panic on my sergeant sniper and the other rookie. Other rookie gets nailed while panicked, causes panic on my sergeant support. Support sergeant dies when she's cowering behind a flaming car due to panic which explodes. Still manage to pull through the mission when my heavy soldier doesn't panic, fires a rocket to take out 3 sectoids in one blast. Sniper calms down and moves to position. Heavy guns down another sectoid, sniper shoots the mind meld-er and takes out two sectoids in one shot. Move sectoids moving up, heavy guns down one and overwatches. During enemy movement the sectoid runs for better cover and gets nailed by the heavy ending the mission.

So GODDAMN MANY sectoids so fast in that mission holy shit. And so much panic, that wouldn't have been a problem if everyone didn't freak out, but the rolling panic among everyone but the heavy fucked me bad.

 

[bonescraper]

Fuck yeah, preloaded! XCOM.Enemy.Unknown.Multi9-3DM

Sure, i'm gonna pirate the shit out of this game until my retail copy arrives.

 

[Volrath]

Hey, at least they are giving those scores to a turn-based game...

That just means we'll have more dumbed down turnbased popamoles in the future.

 

[Gord]

Hey, at least they are giving those scores to a turn-based game...

That just means we'll have more dumbed down turnbased popamoles in the future.

You guys just are never satisfied... M:

 

[Morgoth]

Awaiting Volrath's review after he finished XCOM at least 7 times.

 

[Thane Solus]

Fuck yeah, preloaded! XCOM.Enemy.Unknown.Multi9-3DM

Sure, i'm gonna pirate the shit out of this game until my retail copy arrives.

TPB Store rules, always on time unlike developers

 

[Volrath]

Awaiting Volrath's review after he finished XCOM at least 7 times.

I won't even pirate it

 

[Jarpie]

Three Moves Ahead with Jake Solomon talking about XCom: Betrayal.

Bruce and Rob welcome Jake Solomon, lead designer of Firaxis' new XCOM, and interrogate him mercilessly. Jake explains his design choices and the trade-offs he faced in adapting and updating X-Com.

http://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes/we-will-be-watching-commander

 

[SuicideBunny]

enemies patrol on their own on impossible. not only that but patrols give off sound that can be heard by your troopers and will give off a visual clue that shows the general direction said sound is coming from.

 

[Jarpie]

Pretty tame interview from TMA unfortunately but I was expectecting that, they asked about some design decisions but didn't really go beneath the surface and didn't even really question the flawed design choices (no timeunits, no inventory, retarded art-style, etc), also some very annoying ass kissing.

 

[UncleJimb0]

Classic difficulty Ironman. First month down...losing 1-2 soldiers almost every mission, got my whole squad wiped trying to disarm a bomb in South Africa and then the ingrates pulled out of the coalition. ...guess I'm doing ok for XCOM. Guess the mission difficulty will come from fighting more/stronger enemies than any basic tactical challenge. Lots of rolling the dice with RNG risk/reward.

Decline it may be, but if I had never played the original this would be the best TB tactical game I've played in...I can't remember when?

 

[zeitgeist]

Decline it may be, but if I had never played the original this would be the best TB tactical game I've played in...I can't remember when?

And then in a few years, someone will write "Decline it may be, but if I had never played the original this would be the best TB tactical game I've played in...I can't remember when?" about the X-Com remake's remake, and about JA2:BiA's remake, and so on. Glorious progress.

 

[Jashiin]

Eurogamer – 9/10
CVG – 9.2/10
Videogamer – 9/10
OXM – 9/10
Game Informer – 95/100
Destructoid – 9/10
NowGamer – 9/10
OPM – 9/10
Kotaku – ‘Yes’
Gamers.at – 92/100
Joystiq – 4.5/5
Strategy Informer – 9/10
Lazygamer – 9/10
Polygon – 8.5/10
Machinima – 9/10
The Average Gamer – ‘Great’
PC Gamer – 87/100
Gram.Pl – 9.5/10

Streamlined sequel confirmed.

Turnbased.. wait for ai to move then press awesome button in your turn !

The utter utter fail that is the pc interface and (lack of) options tell you all about their dedication to the platform.

 

[Jaesun]

Brian Fargo ‏@BrianFargo
I'm looking forward to playing the new X-COM. I've been hearing great things.

 

[Sranchammer]

Brian Fargo ‏@BrianFargo
I'm looking forward to playing the new X-COM. I've been hearing great things.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Give me my Space Hulk Remake (modern Kwanistan is not worth defending from Xenos)

 

[Gozma]

To continue my theme of criticizing shit while I still think the game is very good:

Every dollar they spent on the graphical base stuff was 100% wasted. I have not looked at it for more than ten seconds and it exists entirely as a menu-based gamespace in my head. The main design is so boardgamish and contrived (and therefore can be worked out quasi-analytically) there is no reason this couldn't be a $20 indie-like downloadable PC title with a much better interface on a far, far smaller budget - it's not like it depends on something that can only be done with computer games, e.g. hardcore simulations like a physics engine. If you insist on cutscene things they could be drawn art pieces. A real 3-D battlescape and art that doesn't look like it's from a beta of the Dark engine are all I needed

THAT SAID IT IS FUN

 

[Behelit]

Inferior to the original, no question but not to the point its unenjoyable, like the hipsters of the Dex insist it is. Play on classic Ironman and you will have fun. Promise.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I've had two mission wipes ever since I found mutons. Campaign was going so good but now I'm irretrievably fucked I believe. Gonna have to start a new game soon!

 

[Grunker]

I've had two mission wipes ever since I found mutons. Campaign was going so good but now I'm irretrievably fucked I believe. Gonna have to start a new game soon!

Is it better than the Codex gives it credit for or is this just the MHC-Steam-bro talking?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I've had two mission wipes ever since I found mutons. Campaign was going so good but now I'm irretrievably fucked I believe. Gonna have to start a new game soon!

Is it better than the Codex gives it credit for or is this just the MHC-Steam-bro talking?

Way better than the Codex gives it credit for. I can only guess they're basing their opinion off the fact it has cover and a console release, or they're basing it on the demo which was two scripted tutorial missions on the easiest difficulty. On classic difficulty even sectoids are dangerous and I was having pretty steady casualties until the mutons came out. Met mutons in two missions so far, both times involved my last survivor running back to the skyranger and bugging out. The AI has been pretty on the ball too, haven't noticed any horrendous moves, and it's pretty good about moving to better cover and taking a shot, or trying to break suppression if you're suppressing a unit, or whatever. The times they DO do silly shit is when they panic/retreat. Once in a while if you're doing particularly well and wipe out a bunch of aliens in one turn, the survivors will fall back and hide, and usually aren't as good about returning fire or picking the best cover at that point.

Lack of random maps may be a bummer later but I haven't had any repeats (In-game, played on maps I've seen from videos) yet in 6ish hours.

 

[Lightknight]

Is it better than the Codex gives it credit for

It is a fun game.
However its hard to consider it a serious and complex strategy game it claims to be.

Also, someone on steam forums already devised a method of running it on XP, by changing one dll, further proving that Firaxis became lazy gits.

 

[Garm]

Lack of random maps may be a bummer later but I haven't had any repeats (In-game, played on maps I've seen from videos) yet in 6ish hours.

Well, hopefully they'll release a construction set or some bullshit so modders can make their own...or maybe someone can come up with some procedural script? I'm guessing the later idea is impossible, since I know fuck all about modding.