Review Gamebanshee Reviews XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[Thane Solus]

etc.

You have something to say, you don't have to hide behind an alt. Don't like me? Fine, I don't give a shit either way, but you don't have to use another username to tell us how you really feel.

While half of the things he says are valid, the other half are pure non sense. Still its the codex way to post with an alt, and act cool (consoltardish) with a main, and praise all those shity games that were released in the last year, but go emo rage on a decent approach for X-Com. Decent coming from a triple AAA studio, bah why the hell do i post here....

 

[Moribund]

That fucking post

And I agreed with it, until he went truly nuts and said removing time units was good. A masterpiece, dashed to the floor before it was completed.

 

[Achilles]

I can see why this game got so many good reviews. It's built on excellent foundations and by that I mean the original game's combination of global strategy and turn-based tactical battles. They've done a decent job replicating some of the original's core concepts, I had a fun time playing it and I could see myself attempting a second playthrough in the future at a higher difficulty level.

That said, it's by no means a classic and I am pretty sure that noone will be playing it in a year's time. True classics stay on a gamer's mind because they give him the chance to tell his own story, to shape some of the events by doing something unique and unpredictable. This was a core feature of the original X-Com. The new game's gameplay is... cold, mechanical, precise and well-oiled certainly, but it lacks the spark that defines a truly great game. There's very little room to do things your way, to try something crazy and see if it works out.

My fondest memories of the old X-Com were the ones where something unexpected would force me to change my tactics and try weird stuff in desperation. This doesn't happen in the new game, combat has a clinical feel to it that forces you to stick to a specific strategy in order to win. There's a 'proper' way to play each class and that's the end of it. In X-Com, I am still finding out new strategies I never thought about until today by watching other people's let's plays. It's truly fascinating. I've also seen let's plays of the new Xcom. Everyone plays the same way.

So yeah, Xcom is a fun game that tries to stay close to the original. It's not a classic though.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

While half of the things he says are valid, the other half are pure non sense. Still its the codex way to post with an alt, and act cool (consoltardish) with a main, and praise all those shity games that were released in the last year, but go emo rage on a decent approach for X-Com. Decent coming from a triple AAA studio, bah why the hell do i post here....

Time for decent has ended in the 80s.

 

[Thane Solus]

i think u try too hard Modoshi. I think now u become funny, but thanks for the kind words.

 

[zeitgeist]

It is no game of the year but its quite fun....all in all a consolised XCOM is better than no XCOM at all

How so? When a certain niche gets replaced by its watered down substitute in any area of human endeavor, it's a pretty sure sign the original version won't be making a comeback anytime soon, if ever.

 

[EG]

I have never understood that logic of pinning for an older game or genre and when there is an updated fun version then bashing it because it might not be as hardcore as the original
I´ll take popamole games which I can share with my girlfriend and non PC gaming friends over no game at all any day of the week

By all means, take them.

 

[commie]

The most insightful thing about that mega rant was the mention of lack of time limit as the Achilles heel of strategy gaming. That's why PG kicked and still kicks arse. Given enough time, a human player will always defeat a limited AI opponent. With a time limit however, there are constraints and pressures on the player to make moves and take gambles that may not be optimal. Not only does this make the AI effectively a 'harder' opponent, it actually reflects reality more accurately.

 

[GarfunkeL]

.nobody is going to do PC centric hardcore stategy games

http://www.matrixgames.com/
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/

 

[EG]

I play to have fun, the other thing is called RL and that is where I pour all my cristisisms and efforts...there is where the real challenge pays off...not in fucking videogames

Yes, I have shunned both fun and real life if only to avoid the challenge of it all.

 

[Minttunator]

I play to have fun, the other thing is called RL and that is where I pour all my cristisisms and efforts...there is where the real challenge pays off...not in fucking videogames

This argument is as old as video games themselves, so I'll just say that there are actually some people that find challenging games fun. Maybe we don't have such a rich and mentally stimulating real life that you do - that doesn't mean we should bend over for the publishers and be grateful for mediocre entertainment that treats its audience like retards.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Nice to see someone still use the old "I was being ironical"-card instead of the more modern, "I WAS TROLLING TROLOLOLOL!"

 

[EG]

Nice to see someone still use the old "I was being ironical"-card instead of the more modern, "I WAS TROLLING TROLOLOLOL!"

If only it wasn't a lie, GarfunkeL.

 

[GarfunkeL]

It always is.

 

[Minttunator]

Was that another "ironic" post? Because someone who doesn't think video games are important posting on a video game forum about video games sure as hell is ironic.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Sometimes when I see all these retarded posts saying this and that game is art I dont know if it is funny or sad; videogames are meant to be easy to understand, hell they are as mainstream as they get; mostly marketed to the lowest common denominator of attention lacking (in all sesnse of the word) teenagers; so excuse the poor publisher for not understanding the deepness of your intelectual prowess....you want deep and magestic try reading Ulyses; art is meant to be exclusive, not easy to undertand, unaccesible to the unwashed masses....
Videogames be games still dog

EDIT
You know, in a sense I envy that passion some of you guys have for arguing over stuff like that and the need to be challenged by something I only use for enjoyment, and it goes beyond playing NCAA at the highest difficulty level or solving the Knocker doors in Darklands without using the clue book...I simply just dont feel that.
Perhaps it is bets that I played those chellenging games like the original X-Com or Wizardry 4 when I was a teenager with no responsabilities so I could focus all my intellectual effort into them....all in all the current games that are supposed to be "hard" like knights of the chalice, seem easy in comparison, so maybe I understand your angst over the lack of challlenge, even if I personaly dont share it

I don't recall any intellectual challenge in the original X-Com - I was from the generation that got the game with a manual which told you what exactly you have to do to have good chances to win. It was just that throwing 14 people into meat grinder is much more fun to me than throwing 4-6 people.
To me, enjoyment of X-Com wasn't solving any puzzles or anything like that but getting a kick out of losing tens or hundreds of soldiers during the campaign.
It's not about winning or losing - I don't even finish most of campaigns. It was about having these little fuckers die suddenly while trying to kill the other fuckers.

Nah this is for real, they are important but not enough for me to tear my clohtes and cry in the street over them when I think they are not "deep" or "challenging" enough
I mean I look at all the idiots who wait 15 hours in the middle of the street to be the first to get a new Wii whatever...I mean how needy are they?
Its like I said sort of envy all you passionate types who feel they are "true" fans because they know everthing about their hobby with such ardor and passion...I can discuss videogames all day long and be happy with it, in the same way I can exchange a recipe with my sister in law, get drunk with joy when the damnGiants win the World Series or my nephew asks me for dating tips...it is life you know? and how do you know I do not write in cooking forums, HP Lovecraft forums, baseball forums and this is another slice of the pie?
Oh....
I get it
maybe THIS is all you have
Videogames are so importante because they might be the only thing that gives you some honest to goodness JOY in your life, ad you crave for more chanllenge because it might be the only thing thta you have going on....
Oh sorry kid
I wont comment anymore
Go and play, be merry

Taking in account that I don't live in a warzone and don't intend to live in one, one could say that videogames are the only way of satisfying my bloodlust. Bloodlust is one of the primary needs, you know.

Exactly...nobody is going to do PC centric hardcore stategy games, at least on this economic times, unless it is a kickstarter or a console friendly game

I have never understood that logic of pinning for an older game or genre and when there is an updated fun version then bashing it because it might not be as hardcore as the original
I´ll take popamole games which I can share with my girlfriend and non PC gaming friends over no game at all any day of the week

That no game situation never happens to me and I don't play popamole.

 

[EG]

This argument is as old as video games themselves, so I'll just say that there are actually some people that find challenging games fun. Maybe we don't have such a rich and mentally stimulating real life that you do - that doesn't mean we should bend over for the publishers and be grateful for mediocre entertainment that treats its audience like retards.

It indeed takes a fullfiling life not to takethings too seriously buddy, you hit it straight in the head....but I would say that the main problem would be lack of stimulation by itself; the less important and relevant things you do, the more important they seem to you.
I promise I am not beign condesending or anything it is just a fact of life; I got a back operation this month and have been bedridden for almost the wholetime but to do physical therapy, and during this time I have noticed little things I basicly never had time to notice, like the baddly fix plaster in the corner of my room, or the way the maid hides dust beneath the bed, and when I tell this to my girlfriend she just rolls her eyes and says I need to get back to work....because it is irrelevant in the big scheme, and there are much more important things to focus on really.

In this particular case maybe the publisher thinks videogames are just....videogames, and if you think that the developer for XCOM who poured his blood sweat and tears for 4 years, remaking an tweaking the game did it on purpose just to piss you off because he figured taking away the time units would make the game more accesible...well there is the very same thing I am talking about

Sometimes when I see all these retarded posts saying this and that game is art I dont know if it is funny or sad; videogames are meant to be easy to understand, hell they are as mainstream as they get; mostly marketed to the lowest common denominator of attention lacking (in all sesnse of the word) teenagers; so excuse the poor publisher for not understanding the deepness of your intelectual prowess....you want deep and magestic try reading Ulyses; art is meant to be exclusive, not easy to undertand, unaccesible to the unwashed masses....
Videogames be games still dog

EDIT
You know, in a sense I envy that passion some of you guys have for arguing over stuff like that and the need to be challenged by something I only use for enjoyment, and it goes beyond playing NCAA at the highest difficulty level or solving the Knocker doors in Darklands without using the clue book...I simply just dont feel that.
Perhaps it is bets that I played those chellenging games like the original X-Com or Wizardry 4 when I was a teenager with no responsabilities so I could focus all my intellectual effort into them....all in all the current games that are supposed to be "hard" like knights of the chalice, seem easy in comparison, so maybe I understand your angst over the lack of challlenge, even if I personaly dont share it

Why do you insist on writing so much about yourself, Dumah?

For me it's simple: the new X-COM isn't fun while the old X-COM is. There is no argument of "art vs games" and "games vs. reality" nor is there commentary on the meaning of life. There's not even anger or passion. There's just acknowledgement (and disappointment) of the differences and an attempt to understand why someone felt these differences had to exist.

That you're happy to embrace the products designed for you, the self-labeled "lowest common denominator," doesn't make you superior to those of us bawling over the lack of gameplay elements that we felt made the original X-COM fun.

But, games are serious business, right? I'm being serious now, right?

 

[Minttunator]

Dumah, are you this guy by any chance? Let's not forget that everyone is an Olympic gold medalist and Mensa member on the Internet.

 

[Moribund]

I love the apologists who have to come out in favor of any game that comes out. How can you guys not like this game? You too cool to like this game? I'm a busy guy and don't have time for hard core nonsense these days. Instead I just repeat whatever brainwashing I read in a magazine or online that tells me why only bad people dislike games. This is how's it's gotta be so why can't you enjoy it!

Ok, this is a stupid post, sorry. I couldn;t come up with a clever way to say it and the olympic mensa guy who's too successful to play hardcore games that require thinking can't be topped anyway.

Their own opinion is precious but everyone else should STFU and stop being a troublemaker.

 

[Moribund]

I dont mind stupid people, after al I make my living out of analaizing your buying tendencies so the candy wrapper is easy enough for imbeciles to open...

Oh so you make your living in marketing, eh, what a suprise. I am shocked! Shocked you admit it anyway.

More shocked you might think that makes you smart, or successful

 

[EG]

I dont mind stupid people, after al I make my living out of analaizing your buying tendencies so the candy wrapper is easy enough for imbeciles to open...but having to explain myself si broing. Unlike 80% of the world I did come out of a privliaged life, so no public school for me, so the viciitudes of the lifestyles of geeky guys who have to justify their own indequecies by somehow portrying themselves as a "gaming elite" is so bad its is good you know. I am a grownup kiddies so I dont have to make up stories of the LA riots or whtever....what I am you can check in 2 seconds by checking my IP address; it will point you out to Mexico, specificaly Las Lomas, which is the wealthiest neiborhood in the country...sort of a local Palm Springs, so you could say that yeah I love videogames but I have SOOO much else going on that their mental challenge is not an issue for me...so there
As a matter of fact just to rub in the realities of life lemme get out of bed and takes some pics of where I live
BRB

That's nice, dear.

Feel free to stop explaining yourself any time now.

 

[Moribund]

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg181/abrecabron/IMG00224-20121029-1744.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg181/abrecabron/IMG00225-20121029-1744.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg181/abrecabron/IMG00226-20121029-1745.jpg
Sorry about the quality but my hand is shaking a bit...so what can of shithole do you live in Moribund? surely not in a penthouse...Id take more pictures and my girlfriend just came in but I guess you would use those for some nefarious purpose so I´ll pass
Soooo how ever would we measure success?

Penthouse in tehran? I might believe castro if I couldn't see that horrible furniture. Nice rocking horse and tea set, I totally believe a successful businessman lives there and not an iranian grandmother.

Also, post pics of your naked girlfriend in the same view or we know it's fake. You can blot out her head in photoshop.

But how did this turn into bragging about your virtual penis?

I don't mind you like stupid games, but don't tell me I can't disagree. Your opinion is just another fart in the wind to everyone but you if you can't put some reasoning into it.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Unlike 80% of the world I did come out of a privliaged life, so no public school for me, so the viciitudes of the lifestyles of geeky guys who have to justify their own indequecies by somehow portrying themselves as a "gaming elite" is so bad its is good you know.

What does it even mean? What do public schools have to do with anything?

I am a grownup kiddies so I dont have to make up stories of the LA riots or whtever....what I am you can check in 2 seconds by checking my IP address; it will point you out to Mexico, specificaly Las Lomas, which is the wealthiest neiborhood in the country...sort of a local Palm Springs, so you could say that yeah I love videogames but I have SOOO much else going on that their mental challenge is not an issue for me...so there

Summon Vault Dweller

*Sits back, eats popcorn*

 

[EG]

That's nice, dear.

Feel free to stop explaining yourself any time now.

Why it is a simple thing, something imbeciles forgetall the time is the concept of context, that is why I try to useeveryday examples that anybodycan relate to to cause some empathy and understand what I am trying to saywithout much bullshit

Come to think of it life must be hell for all you intellectualy challenging content seeking muhterfuckers :D you beign og so smart and knowledable while everybody else is a sheep...or at least that is what you tell yourselves...
oh well the fun is gone out of the baloon, and your prattling is boring, feel free to ignore me if you feel the urge and have a nice day

Hm. Either you're rather "Dumah," lacking reading comprehension, or you're a troll, neh? Alrighty then, my little Brick in the Wall, it's good to know for the future.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Hahahaha, classic stuff! Clueless newfag gets on a high horse, posts bullshit about his life thinking he's going to shame Codex, only soon to be trolled to death and disappear to the night. Love it.

I can only hope that a link to his FB or something is revealed, so we can order pizza, lube and bibles to him, like with that 1000AD guy.

Oh sorry, didn't mean to insult you, Mr.Successful-Business-cum-Internet-Tough-Guy!