[Neuromancer]

The press say that everything looks good but somehow some games end up selling really badly.

Also, a good deal of the press is younger and/or never played the original, so they really don't know any better. Also, the natural knee jerk reaction of the games press whenever there's a fan outcry is to take the sides of the company that gives them the early access and the free games, not their audience.

It was also interesting how they responded when asked about multiplayer. "We are talking about single player." The strange phrasing was probably just typical PR caginess but a multiplayer mode might be a good idea!

Interesting indeed. Some kind of co op would be fantastic even if it meant taking turns. Not sure how interested I'd be in competitive MP.

[Lactose_Intolerant]

The strange phrasing was probably just typical PR caginess but a multiplayer mode might be a good idea!

That's the DLC

[TheListener]

Will buy

[Truant]

Reboot looked great, but like Prey 2, it doesn't need the IP. It could very well be its own thing.

[Alchemy]

I like the art direction of the FPS way more, but I really want them to strip the XCOM name from that game. However this looks fantastic and I hope people actually buy it.

[robin2]

Full PAX Panel

part 1: http://youtu.be/r4a5biRyFLA
part 2: http://youtu.be/Nh1T_vRCysg



The XCOM FPS.. even without the XCOM name, that gameplay video was so bad.

[Neuromancer]

Full PAX Panel part 1: http://youtu.be/r4a5biRyFLA part 2: http://youtu.be/Nh1T_vRCysg The XCOM FPS.. even without the XCOM name, that gameplay video was so bad.

Thanks, watching now.

And yes I agree about the FPS, it looked awful in its own right.

[TucoBenedictoPacifico]

I don't know why they'd cancel the FPS. Most the press have said it looks pretty good.

Yeah, but then we saw it and it actually didn't.

Anyway, I'm ready to bet that they are going to cancel that FPS at some point.
Which is somehow sad, cause I would find hilarious to watch it bomb very hard.
Schadenfreude at its best.

[Orgun]

Has the footage from this video been shown? http://www.twitch.tv/2k/b/314356244

X-com gameplay starts at 4.10

edit: It's a demo walkthrough, they run through an entire mission and now they are going through the base. Those Mutons went down real easy, hope that's just for the sake of the demo.

[MightyKAC]

Has the footage from this video been shown? http://www.twitch.tv/2k/b/314356244 X-com gameplay starts at 4.10 edit: It's a demo walkthrough, they run through an entire mission and now they are going through the base. Those Mutons went down real easy, hope that's just for the sake of the demo.

If the game plays like this (with maaaaaaaybe a bit more difficulty) then this will most CERTAINLY be a day one purch.

[Orgun]

If the game plays like this (with maaaaaaaybe a bit more difficulty) then this will most CERTAINLY be a day one purch.

I suppose they could have been playing on Easy for the sake of the demo, definitely gonna have to be IRONMAN mode on Day 1 :D

[hwalker84]

I loved what I saw enough to buy this day one.

[Yo Gotti]

Finally, we get a full demo.

Firaxis does not fuck around. That Tactical view of the globe is just beautiful.

I'm amazed at how they've managed to blend almost cartoon like colors and styles with a mood that's just short of gritty realism.

This could easily be a GOTY contender right here.

[Baron_Calamity]

Firaxis Xcom is turning out better than I imagined or hoped for.

The FPS... I kinda ok with it. The last video made the gameplay seem acceptable. I liked the period 1950s clothes and setting. They just messed up so much of the UFO lore and X-com established universe that on top of not having very good graphics.

[robin2]

I'm afraid about this title effects on the X-Com brand "fate": they chose to go the high budget way, relying on integrating "different audiences". I watched the video during PAX, and from the chat on the left came good words but also words like: "snorefest" "boring" "FPS video when?!?!?". So I can't help to ask myself: is relying on these audiences a good thing, or they just want cinematic action no matter how you tickle them? I feel it is a scary gamble.

If it'll economically fail, the blame will be on the "turn-based games are outdated / things have evolved so we need to make FPSs" or on the over-budgeting?

[Yo Gotti]

I seriously, seriously doubt this game will be a financial failure.

Between 360, PS3 and especially PC it should sell a good number of units. Firaxis' games seem to have very long shelf lives. They probably build their games with exactly that intention and I don't see why they'd develop this one any differently.

I'd expect them to do their usual huge expansion packs as well down the line for this franchise.

Firaxis has gotta be one of the smartest devs in the industry. They know what they're doing.

[Gen X]

Wow, that looked amazing. I haven't played any of the Xcoms since the original appeared on PSone which I absolutely loved and completed. When the squad first touched down at the servo, the controlling of the characters loosely reminded me of the first Full Spectrum Warrior.

Very excite I am.

[Boogalogist]

I'm very excited about this game. Everything in the video looks good so far...but I would have preferred it if I could bring along 10-20 X-com operatives on a mission! That shit was awesome!

[KTallguy]

I will buy the fuck out of this game. They nailed it.

[afternoon delight]

I seriously, seriously doubt this game will be a financial failure.

Very rarely do I say this, but-

[Yo Gotti]

No idea what that picture is supposed to mean.

[inky]

No idea what that picture is supposed to mean.

It means you need to watch Starship Troopers like right now.

It means he is doing his part

[Neuromancer]

No idea what that picture is supposed to mean.

Would you like to know more?

[PantherAttacks]

I really hope you can turn off all the camera swooping around cutscene type stuff. Looks very disorienting!

[Yo Gotti]

Would you like to know more?

>_>

[Lactose_Intolerant]

I really hope you can turn off all the camera swooping around cutscene type stuff. Looks very disorienting!

I said this when it first showed video of this game. Its pretty horrible in a strategy game like this.

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Has the footage from this video been shown? http://www.twitch.tv/2k/b/314356244 X-com gameplay starts at 4.10 edit: It's a demo walkthrough, they run through an entire mission and now they are going through the base. Those Mutons went down real easy, hope that's just for the sake of the demo.

Won't load for me.

Lame.

[JasonUresti]

I really like the looks of the game, most of their choices seem sound.

However, throwing out time units still sting. Every answer I've see, they always preface it, saying "We're not saying TU's were too hard" and "We're not dumbing it down", and then proceed to explain how TUs were too hard and they are dumbing it down.

They get the appeal of the little stories that happen during an X-Com mission that made it so fun. Without TUs, how can my badass veteran soldier go his single turn action movie star running firing spree?

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Well, finally saw it.

Looks good in motion.

[mjemirzian]

They should probably have gone with the Frozen Synapse simultaneous/wego style if they wanted to score more popularity points.

In any case, I still think the comparisons the lead dev is making to minecraft, dwarf fortress, or dark/demon's souls don't make much sense and show a lack of perspective on turn based tactic game difficulty.

[Vlodril]

Looks really good. Love the base. Can't wait for this.

[robin2]

They should probably have gone with the Frozen Synapse simultaneous/wego style if they wanted to score more popularity points.

Personally I prefer standard "chess" turns way more; I even prefer standard realtime more than those pseudo-turn systems. So at lest this element hasn't changed and I'm very happy about it.

[Slackbladder]

This is looking good. I remember playing UFO: Enemy Unknown back on my Amiga 1200 and then on the PlayStation (as Xcom: Enemy Unknown).
Tried other games that have based themselves on the originals like UFO: Aftershock/Afterlight but felt they weren't quite up to the job. This, however, is right up my alley!

Any news on a demo?

[Versipellis]

However, throwing out time units still sting. Every answer I've see, they always preface it, saying "We're not saying TU's were too hard" and "We're not dumbing it down", and then proceed to explain how TUs were too hard and they are dumbing it down.

After watching the demo, I still don't get how TU would have made the game too complex.
Of course, the limited number of soldiers means that scouting would be too expensive in terms of "human resources" and the risk of having one of your soldiers in front of an alien, with not enough TU and with no backup would be higher. It's all connected: if you want TUs you need more soldiers. At least, the game seems to be built around this system, so it seems pretty smooth (even though it now looks more like a Japanese SRPG rather than the original).

One thing I didn't like in the demo is the fact that all the aliens have their starting position in the same spot (around a corpse). How come? A huge airplane just landed 10 meters from you and you don't even try to hide or look for a better firing position? If you do this just to show up in a nice cutscene (which will bore me after the third time I see it), please don't bother! Even the Mutons (who seem pretty weak, but maybe - and I hope! - the demo is on its lowest difficulty level) are all in the same spot, waiting for who know what, even after that huge grenade explosion. I hope this is just something they devised for this demo...

[CecilRousso]

Don´t know if this has been posted before, and if not, if it´s worthy of a new thread, but Jake Solomon confirms that the max squad size for a mission is six soldiers.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...ties-floaters/

RPS: Talking about squad sizes generally, I know this is one of the things that people have complained about on the internet, but I haven’t actually got a full sense of it myself. Is it four or something you field per mission? Jake Solomon: It’s four when the game begins, and then there’s a facility called the Officer Training School which gives you a number of different benefits that are related to your soldiers, and then that also is how you increase your squad size up to six at the end. You start with four, and then you can go up to six. And I totally, totally, totally understand people who are experienced with the original game. There’re some guys who would get excited when they got the Avenger because they could field forty people, they could just be like ‘That’s it, the entire brigade, everyone cram in.’ RPS: I just squeezed in as many tanks as I could generally. Jake Solomon: Right, I know, they take up like four spots. But the thing is that with six soldiers I understand that the people’s experience is with the original game and not with this game, so it’s perfectly fair, I understand the worry about that. But I will say that after playing through at this late stage, six was plenty. Because they have the classes and they slot into these roles, and because they can do many ,many things, by the end when your guys get to Major, Colonel, they have a lot of things that they can do, so it would not be fun to manage more than that group of six. So I’m really happy with how that turned out. You get a group of six and you can sort of play with, you’ve got four classes, so then it’s like a personal choice of ‘do you like running with assaults?’ And a big part of XCOM is playing with the hand you’re dealt, that’s a big thing in strategy games in general. A lot of the fun comes not from being able to carry out exactly the strategy you want but rather having these sort of setbacks occur and you coming up with a new tactic. Part of it is guys die…I had a mission where four out of my six soldiers died, and it was a big mission and so I wasn’t going to freeload. It was the sort of thing where, and it was about halfway through the game, where you’re just sort of like ‘well, I guess we start over’, and there are two people who survived through that and then one of them died on the next mission. But then you look at your ‘B’ team and you’re like ‘I’ve got two heavies and an assault’ so you just change the squad make up and you just start playing a different way. That’s the way that it plays out.

[archnemesis]

That's disappointing, but I guess they've tweaked all aspects of the game to fit a small squad.

[Neuromancer]

But since I beat the game, it was very, very long, which was good, but just in case anyone’s worried, I was playing on normal difficulty, and I designed this game, and I still lost twenty-two soldiers over the course of the invasion.

=o

[archnemesis]

He might just suck at it.

[Clevinger]

I hope the game is modable. edit: And I don't mean that as a slam against small squads. I just hope it's modable.