Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: redsniper on April 14, 2010, 01:16:36 am
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http://kotaku.com/5516654/x+com-is-back
X-Com Is Back!
:D
X-Com, the classic 90's turn-based strategy game pitting mankind against alien invaders, is set to make a comeback as a first-person shooter, courtesy of the 2K studios behind BioShock 2.
:confused:
I'm... I... I have mixed feelings about this...
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Hopefully this one wont crash if you build up too many assets before winning.
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AS a FPS? That ain't X-Com anymore.
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what was the ground based shooter they did while the series was still hobbling along about the time they did interceptor
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Enforcer?
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Do you mean the one based around the crew if the PAtton? The one that got blasted across the glaxy by the cydonia bas on mars? The one that never got released much to the dismay of my brothers and i?
That wasn't enforcer....that was X-Com Alliance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVwIkJPMeP4)
X-Com: Alliance
[/size]
X-Com Alliance was a 3d shooter based on the Unreal engine (which features all the latest features of 3d acceleration). The game is squad based, played from a first person perspective. Small on-screen displays at the top of the screen allow you to track your teammates, of which you can have up to four. Multiplayer should be supported, and since the Unreal engine has a client/server model, permanent XCA servers should appear around the games' release.
The game apparently takes place after the first X-Com war. A mission is sent to Cydonia on Mars to retrieve alien artifacts. However, an unexpected dimensional gate transports the X-Com personal sixty light-years away. The X-Com soldiers find themselves in the middle of a war between the Grey Alliance and a race called the Ascidians. X-Com teams up with the friendly Ascidians and attacks the Greys.
The strategic element is still in place. The soldiers' home base is the USS Patton and between missions you will make decisions on retrieval of items, research, outfitting squadrons, and other mission choices.
Unfortunately, there were a number of setbacks during the production, including the main programmer leaving/being canned from Microprose. At this point, it does not look like the game will ever see the light of day.
Game Style: First Person Squad Based Action Game
System Requirements: Unknown
Game Release Date: Unknown
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what was the ground based shooter they did while the series was still hobbling along about the time they did interceptor
Enforcer. I got it off Steam with the others.
Purely as a run-and-gun shooter, it's amusing. Purely as an X-Com game, it's the Antichrist.
Now if somebody built a Call of Duty-esque (or ARMA 2-esque really) X-Com shooter, that would be completely ****ing awesome.
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X-COM: Alliance
Yeah! I remember getting excited about this a long time ago. Hopefully they'll finally be making it. (Though fighting Grays sounds kinda lame)
More likely it'll be a redo of UFO Defense, but with the deep tactical ground battles replaced by FPS maps. :doubt:
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Now if somebody built a Call of Duty-esque (or ARMA 2-esque really) X-Com shooter, that would be completely ****ing awesome.
based on the original that would be awesome, especially if it followed the development tree
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Initial response: what took so ****ing long/**** yes!
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Initial response: what took so ****ing long/**** yes!
and then:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v418/bawanaal/rageguy.jpg)
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They're only doing this to make the release a Big Entertainment Event. At best, the product will have a few scattered references to X-Com.
Turn-based tactical --> FPS. Gosh, that sounds familiar!
It's akin to Fallout 3. What were the first two games? Who knows, who cares? It's the third installment of something, and therefore "EEEEEPIC."
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oh ****, oh goddammit
While the original game had you as the head of the XCOM agency tasked with protecting Earth from alien invaders (hence the reason why you were planning bases, managing funding), the upcoming shooter will apparently be completely unrelated as you’ll instead be an FBI agent fighting the alien invaders yourself.
http://nexus404.com/Blog/2010/04/14/new-xcom-game-coming-from-2k-games-2k-re-imagining-classic-xcom-strategy-series-but-will-instead-be-strategic-fps-game-xcom-loyalists-upset/
EDIT: Though I guess playing as Mulder would be kind of cool... it's just not X-COM...
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FBI agent vs. Chryssalid. Yeah, that'll work...
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I thought the whole point of x-com games was. . . . . Well you know, x-com itself?
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You know, if they had half a brain they'd do this Hostile Waters style, mix strategy and FPS together and actually make a game that might please some of the fans of the original game.
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From what I know, the only game that gets across the experience of playing the original X-COM/UFO: Enemy Unknown game is that UFO: Alien Invasion open source game. It's quite good IMO.
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You know, if they had half a brain they'd do this Hostile Waters style, mix strategy and FPS together and actually make a game that might please some of the fans of the original game.
as a X-COM amateur nut i would be happy with a pure fps so long as it followed the basic premise of X-COM, arcade or realistic/plausible style of play wouldn't bother me, just give me a chance to shoot sectoids, run screaming from chrysalids, watch hovering UFO lookalike plasma tanks fly over my head cannon blazing and the awe of take out half the map with a blaster launcher.
Flying some intercept missions would be cool to
if you want to really please me do all that and keep the cartoon graphics just update the quality and I would probably be happy to break my normal £30 per game rule
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From what I know, the only game that gets across the experience of playing the original X-COM/UFO: Enemy Unknown game is that UFO: Alien Invasion open source game. It's quite good IMO.
There is sort of TFTD and Apocalypse in turnbased.
All right, it's torches and pitchforks time. Locate the 2k headquarters, brethern! WE MARCH!
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I think the communities energies have been spent/are being saved for the :v: rush which is due anytime soon.
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and then:
No. I really, really wanted to play X-Com: Alliance. This is the closest I'll ever get.
Hell yes.
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(http://nerfnow.com/comic/image/283)
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2k is hot.
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Looks as though there'll be some base building, team management, and mission selection.
So, yeah, Alliance. Only took ten years.
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base building, team management, and mission selection.
It's Alliance.
****. Yes.
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Looks as though there'll be some base building, team management, and mission selection.
So, yeah, Alliance. Only took ten years.
orly?
then sweet, an FPS with base building!
MEANWHILE, AT EA:
LOL C&C4, we take out the base building, and this will be the greatest RTS ever!
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They took the base building out of Dawn of War II and that was pretty awesome.
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They took the base building out of Dawn of War II and that was pretty awesome.
Because it ended up closer to tabletop that way. C&C has no such reserve of good will to fall back upon.
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While not disputing the latter point, I'm uncertain the former is correct. Are there really that many tabletop players, particularly in the US, and is there that much overlap between folks who play paint your unit zoo and folks who play a ridiculously fast-paced RTS based on the painting zoo?
Ah, if only we had actual, y'know, sales figures for PC titles these days. Oh well.
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While not disputing the latter point, I'm uncertain the former is correct. Are there really that many tabletop players, particularly in the US, and is there that much overlap between folks who play paint your unit zoo and folks who play a ridiculously fast-paced RTS based on the painting zoo?
Relic has gone on record as having made gameplay decisions (for example the DoW2 retreat mechanic is explicitly based on tabletop fall back mechanics; less damage from ranged and more if somebody makes melee) based on trying to emulate the feel of tabletop.
Also asking if there are really enough tabletop players to sell several million copies of DoW2 is deeply amusing. Yes, there's overlap enough as well. Even a cursory interface with the 40k community would let you know that.
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Well, seeing as a new OXM issue has arrived in my mailbox with XCOM (note: not X-COM) as the cover story. Essentially, you play as an FBI agent battling globs of self-repairing goo in order to collect Elerium. Whoopee....
No strategy involved here what-so-ever.
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Looks as though there'll be some base building, team management, and mission selection.
So, yeah, Alliance. Only took ten years.
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I was lied to!
Actually, no, that's more or less in line with what the foreign language mags were reported to say.
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So wait.. is this Alliance or just a pile of crap like I feared?
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We may have to wait and see.
I'll let you know on launch day.
Ha ha, just kidding maybe.
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* Mission dossiers are put together by the intelligence and research centres in the base. Dossiers will list effects such as high winds, insect swarms, ball lightning and animal attacks. "The different effects listed by the dossier also pertain to the presence of specific aliens to research or elements to be recovered."
* "Spreading his efforts across the country will also endear XCOM's investors to contribute additional funds. Optimising your operation is the heart of XCOM's strategy, and from what we've seen, it feels a hell of a lot like the original."
* The engineering section of your base can produce weapons, armour, gadgets, and base upgrades.
* Lead designer Ed Orman says: "None of these missions will play the same because they're neither linear nor scripted. There are systems at play that populate these places with enemies, determining where they're going to be and where your goals are. The mission map is an open, non-linear play space."
* No Sectoids or Chrysalids. (Or any aliens from the original, presumably.)
* The black blobs are just one of XCOM's "diverse alien enemies".
So says bamboo (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=2203052&postcount=410). I'd point out that the thing about not playing the same is entirely possible. I just picked up SWAT4 from Direct2Drive, and the folks responsible for that game managed it pretty well.
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Well,, PCG UK has run an article on it.
Reading between the paid-for-hype lines, we have a crap. Time to go threaten the UFO:AI and Xenonauts people again to force them to speed it up.
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I won't miss the Sectoids, but it's just not X-COM without Chrysalids... :blah:
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It's set in the '50s.
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/xcom/preview/first-look-at-xcom/a-2010050715233230054/g-2010050715180181032
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Oh great, now it's a Men in Black video game.
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Which, really, I wouldn't mind at all as long as they didn't call it X-COM....
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Oh great, now it's a Men in Black video game.
Hmm, yeah. Actually I sense a possible Dark Skies influence (even though that was set in the '60s, not the '50s).
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I can haz **** all over canon like I'm blizzard directing WoW? (X-Com doesn't exist before the first game's start date; they specifically mention each nation tried to solve the problem seperately before that for several years.) This one's going straight down the memory hole like Enforcer at this rate.
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It can't be worse than the first MIB game.
Stupid POS.
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It can't be worse than the first MIB game.
There is ALWAYS a way it can be worse.
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It can't be worse than the first MIB game.
Stupid POS.
KEEP TABBING X TO SUBSIST IN YOUR DELUSION! :p
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I know nothing about the X-Com series itself, but this looks like an interesting premise from my independent standpoint.
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Get it off steam for two quid.
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I know nothing about the Com series itself, but this looks like an interesting premise from my independent standpoint.
UFO Enemy unknown (not to be confused with ceniga's UFO series) is still the best squad based strategy ever, the UFO series is good but it over complicates some aspects imho.
X-Com Terror from the deep (UFO Enemy unknown 's sequel) is basically the same again but a lot harder
X-Com Apocalypse is pretty good
not played any of the others though
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Enforcer is reasonably amusing as a run-and-gun shooter, but as an X-COM game, it's like meeting the Antichrist. I can't get Interceptor to run, but I gather it's basically a very poor TIE Fighter clone with a lot of weapons variety, most of which is pointless.
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Umm Yeah...
(http://www.gametrailers.com/video/player/101215)
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I don't know what that actually was, but it certainly wasn't X-COM.
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Thing is, it actually looks pretty cool. I just wish they weren't slapping the X-COM name on it. :blah:
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The part where it looks pretty cool is good enough for me.
You can always go play Xenonauts.
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So it's Bioshock except on land... That's sad.
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http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/06/16/xgood/
Sums up my feelings.
(There is also an /xbad/, which is bassicly... what everyone else thinks I guess.
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The problem with that is your points are completely invalid in regards to how to make a good X-Com game, and make stupid assumptions about why we're upset with them for what we're getting. (So does xbad, for that matter.)
I don't care it's an FPS. I don't care it's not turn-based.
I care that any idiot who's watched the trailer knows this guy is talking out of his ass when he proposes it's going to be SWAT 4 with aliens. I remember what SWAT 4 was like, and I remember the demos and trailers for SWAT 4. SWAT 4 with aliens is more or less exactly what an X-Com FPS should have been, or failing that, a recent Battlefield game on very high difficulty.
This is not remotely like that. Even the trailer shows it.
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You know what? X-COM is like The Matrix. There were and still are no sequels. There were a few cash-ins and a couple of half-hearted attempts to remake the original, but really, there's UFO Defense/Enemy Unknown. Everything else either pales in comparison, sucks in comparison, sucks (full stop), or in the case of the latest game, is totally disconnected from X-COM in all but name.
It does say something about the original, though, that there's still developers and publishers trying to cash in on the name, nine years and however many bad follow-ons later.
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You know what? X-COM is like The Matrix. There were and still are no sequels. There were a few cash-ins and a couple of half-hearted attempts to remake the original, but really, there's UFO Defense/Enemy Unknown. Everything else either pales in comparison, sucks in comparison, sucks (full stop), or in the case of the latest game, is totally disconnected from X-COM in all but name.
It does say something about the original, though, that there's still developers and publishers trying to cash in on the name, nine years and however many bad follow-ons later.
that's because there is still nothing like you first enemy unknown night mission, I remember playing the PC Format supplied demo first which was a night time terror mission against the snakes and their pet crysilids only armed with ballistic weapons, listening to that awesome (and unnerving) plasma sound effect and civy screams was enough to get my 10 year old heart racing back in the day.
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Time to go threaten the UFO:AI and Xenonauts people again to force them to speed it up.
How about helping them out produce content for the game instead?
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Through force of habit we'd all model Freespace stuff. . . . .
Seeing a Sath getting shot down over London and battling shivans may seem fun. . . . . But they have beam cannon faces and pointy wristwatches.
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How about helping them out produce content for the game instead?
The UFO:AI devs get a bit asshatty. I know there was once an offer of major help if they would put in in-mission saves for the casual players, but this is apparently regarded as heresy. I'm not a save-scummer myself, but that'd be my condition for assisting as well.
Xenonauts is being professionally made.
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Missions are short, so in-mission saves aren't a necessity. FS doesn't have them, so?
It was their design decision and you should respect it.
There's nothing unprofessional about saying "no" to your suggestions. It clashes with their vision.
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WTF? The original game had in-mission saves. They should totally be allowed. :wtf:
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There's nothing unprofessional about saying "no" to your suggestions.
It depends on how they go about saying 'no'.
Professional: "We understand the nature of your request, but feel that our efforts are better directed toward other challenges at this time."
Unprofessional: "Casual players? They can learn to play the damn game or **** right off."
I don't know how the UFO:AI devs chose to say it, but to assume one way or the other is a mistake.
Also, some X-COM missions took a hell of a long time. Consider raiding landed battleships, terror missions, attacking alien bases, and defending your own bases. Those would all take place on huge maps, with loads of aliens. If UFO:AI is going to implement larger missions, it'd be kind of them to provide a means to stop in the middle to eat/sleep/work for the people who aren't quite hardcore enough to prioritize those things behind a video game.
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It was their design decision and you should respect it.
There's no reason to respect poor decisions.
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Before this turns into a stupid arguement.
They're making the game, It's their baby, They can choose how they make it.
Anyway........I'm not a fan of this new one as there is no jetpack armour.
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WTF? The original game had in-mission saves. They should totally be allowed. :wtf:
There's no should.
UFO: AI isn't a X-Com copy, there's nothing that's "supposed" to be in there. Unless it's in the design document. Which it wasn't.
Understand that I love in-mission saves myself, but this "it totally should be in there because I say so, and not doing it my way is completley wrong" mentality irks me to no end.
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I don't know how the UFO:AI devs chose to say it, but to assume one way or the other is a mistake.
That depends which dev you're talking too. Winter is the more vocal and explosive one.
They don't want to change that because that's not how they envisioned the game. It's really that simple. It's THEIR vision. Their game.
Anyway........I'm not a fan of this new one as there is no jetpack armour.
It's planned and waiting for a model. I made one for them, but it still needs to be UV mapped and animated. Not that I'm gonna do it, I just sent the mesh their way.
There's no reason to respect poor decisions.
Why is it a poor decision?
I've played many a games without in-mission saves. It's a welcome feature that makes the game easier, but it's far from a game-breaker. I've yet to see a game tank because it didn't have in-mission saves.
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They don't want to change that because that's not how they envisioned the game. It's really that simple. It's THEIR vision. Their game.
Not contesting that. There's just no need for any of them to be an ass about how that message is conveyed. "Vocal and explosive," aren't exactly adjectives that scream professionalism.
Anyway........I'm not a fan of this new one as there is no jetpack armour.
It's planned and waiting for a model. I made one for them, but it still needs to be UV mapped and animated. Not that I'm gonna do it, I just sent the mesh their way.
I think he was referring to the 2k X-COM shooter, not UFO:AI.
Anyway, regarding my previous rationale for in-mission saves, I have some more rookies to grind into the walls of a battleship. ;)
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I can't find the E3 bits yet.
However I can find Noah Antweiler reacting to it by screaming, at the top of his lungs, "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTRRRRAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!" on the show floor at E3, so I'm not very hopeful.
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Watched Spoony's E3 videos last night, myself. I think he might have hated 2k's X-COM more than that horrible hotel.
The sad thing is, I think X-COM could have served as the basis for a really good survival-horror FPS. My dream X-COM game is a remake of the original with a prompt before each tactical mission: "Lead from the base, or lead from the ground?" Working from be base causes the mission to play out as the original, a turn-based strategy. Leading from the ground would put you in the shoes of the ranking X-COM officer, to lead the squad through the mission. And just imagine how badass that could be! Disembark from the Skyranger into the inky darkness of a nighttime terror mission. Breach a supply ship, whilst praying that the Sectoid leader onboard doesn't break the mind and will of the Sergeant covering your back. Try to stay a step ahead of that damned Chryssalid and the zombies that used to comprise half your squad, while you decide to either retreat or make a final stand. Watch on the monitor in your quarters, as your interceptor makes a final pass against a battleship before Ethereals begin to pour forth and make a beeline for your base's access lift. Even if only the shooter option existed, it'd capture the much vaunted immersion, and feel in nearly every way right to have the X-COM name attached.
2k doesn't even seem to be trying, though. So far, their shooter really does look like a reskinned, open-air Bioshock. The custom weapons, the 1950's setting, all of it looks more at home in a Bioshock title than an X-COM game. If someone leaks a list of available plasmids in the game, I'll be totally unsurprised. They've offered no connection to the original, and I'm reasonably sure that had an invasion in the '50's reached the magnitude shown in the trailer, there'd be some more canon events in the X-COM timeline between the Roswell crash in 1947 and the alien escalation in 1997. Everything 2k claimed as an homage to UFO Defense feels very much like VATS did in Fallout 3 - a hollow attempt to placate fans, while they make a game that does not follow on with the rest of the series at all.
I'll probably do with 2k's X-COM what I should have done with Bethesda's Fallout 3 - skip it. I'll grant, 2k is a hell of a lot more compotent than Bethesda, but I just can't abide another one of my favorite classics being reduced to a title to be exploited. Why couldn't XCOM be called It Came from Outer Space!!! or something similar (and probably shorter)? Give the '50's shooter a '50's name and leave the X-COM brand alone, until you're ready to do it properly, 2k.
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The sad thing is, I think X-COM could have served as the basis for a really good survival-horror FPS. My dream X-COM game is a remake of the original with a prompt before each tactical mission: "Lead from the base, or lead from the ground?"
I once read about Hidden and Dangerous 2 handeling things the same way: It allowed you to switch freely between first person and an strategy UI.
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I have to agree with Blue Lion. I can think of at least a few good ways to think of an X-Com shooter. I've already mentioned SWAT4: detail-heavy and incredibly unforgiving. Some of the original Aliens vs. Predator games had elements of the proper paranoia an X-Com shooter would need.
So in short, could you make a decent X-Com shooter? Absolutely. It would be dark, creepy, hard as hell, and owe much to the more frustrating shooters of the last twenty years like the early Rainbow 6 games and SWAT4. It would be the antithesis of everything a casual shooter ever was, forcing the player to think and plan tactically.
Just like the original. And it would be glorious.
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GRAW crossed with AVP 2000 (marine atmosphere) and XCOM Alliance would make my day.
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That's assuming it's actually dark, difficult and tactical.
But that many actually scare off casual players. So I don't hold high hopes.
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I was just stating my own ideal recipe for a revival.
But yeah, I agree with ya. Although some nub who's never played the originals may not be that bothered as they'll have no point of reference to scale their expectations / disappointment.
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Although some nub who's never played the originals may not be that bothered as they'll have no point of reference to scale their expectations / disappointment.
And this is why I don't get why 2k is using the X-COM name. They have to know they're alienating the existing fanbase, and because the original is so old and the series so stagnant, brand recognition isn't going to draw in any new players. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like all they've managed to do is ensure that people who enjoy both shooters and X-COM will keep away from this game.
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Je :bump:
If anybody's interested and/or didn't know about it, UFO:AI just released v2.3. It's fairly impressive, and supposedly a huge improvement over 2.2.
Here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/News
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Bang on the money BlueFlames.