PeterVenkman
Member
$30 is pretty up there even though there is a lot of new content added. Randomization would have made this more of a purchase for me than mech soldiers.
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XCOM: Enemy Within announced, coming November 12th
- Thread starter Sleeplessnights
- Start date
$30 is pretty up there even though there is a lot of new content added. Randomization would have made this more of a purchase for me than mech soldiers.
GuitarAtomik
Member
Sounds awesome. Love this game.
Remachinate
Member
Another interesting tidbit: per IGN, they're rebalancing some of the existing classes' abilities to make the promotion choices more compelling (for example, Squad Sight doesn't crit anymore and Snap Shot's penalty is only 10).
One thing's unclear though: the VideoGamer.com video suggests there'll only be two new enemies, but the lead designer says there'll be a bunch in the Giant Bomb interview (around 7:10). Hopefully it's the latter; that would do a lot to assuage my concerns about making more playthroughs fresh.
One thing's unclear though: the VideoGamer.com video suggests there'll only be two new enemies, but the lead designer says there'll be a bunch in the Giant Bomb interview (around 7:10). Hopefully it's the latter; that would do a lot to assuage my concerns about making more playthroughs fresh.
ThreePiMatt
Member
New XCOM was really lacking in replayability and $30 for a few new toys and maps likely isn't going to change that.
Original X-Com lasted for so long because it had an almost sandboxy nature to it, yeah there was a beginning, end, and specific things you had to do along the way, but the game never held your hand or told you where to go and what to do. New XCOM has all the subtletly of being thwocked in the head with a hammer with its overbearing **PRIORITY MOTHAFUCKER** on the tech tree.
I think the people that are upset by the lack of a new campaign are in fact highlighting exactly what is wrong with new XCOM; it has a set campaign. Story beats come at specific intervals, chrysalids show up at the same time every playthrough, everything that was driven by player discovery in the original is basically forcefed to the player in the new.game, so everyone is going to have pretty much the same experience.
Original X-Com lasted for so long because it had an almost sandboxy nature to it, yeah there was a beginning, end, and specific things you had to do along the way, but the game never held your hand or told you where to go and what to do. New XCOM has all the subtletly of being thwocked in the head with a hammer with its overbearing **PRIORITY MOTHAFUCKER** on the tech tree.
I think the people that are upset by the lack of a new campaign are in fact highlighting exactly what is wrong with new XCOM; it has a set campaign. Story beats come at specific intervals, chrysalids show up at the same time every playthrough, everything that was driven by player discovery in the original is basically forcefed to the player in the new.game, so everyone is going to have pretty much the same experience.
I still remember that if you were good and lucky (far more important to be lucky) you could have psychics by April and be on Mars by June.
Oh lord no! Squad Sight is how I finished that game. Camping snipers, yo.
Fragamemnon
Member
who really pays full retail for the PC? You'll be able to swing this for $23 bucks plus some pile of preorder goodies.
Was comparing EW's additions to a Civ expansion additions, and the approach from Firaxis is nearly identical. I also agree with you that EU was more deterministic than Civ-much more-but Civ is hardly a sandbox games and on the high levels that it appears you and I both play at, both games require a lot of railroaded choices. I can't choose to not go lasers into carapace on Impossible/Ironman no more than I can not choose to go Civil Service->Education in Civ.
The real issues with EU were:
- aggressive tactical play was heavily punished. (EW's Meld now encourages/forces aggression and introduces more tension into fights)
- troop abilities were highly inbalanced at times (will be rebalanced). Endgame abilities and equipment were too powerful, also will be rebalanced.
- metagame was too linear - not enough choices on research and base building. This presumably will be rebalanced and tweaked into something with more options.
- maps got a predictable. This is not going to get completely fixed without a full sequel, but new maps do help.
Yeah, I wouldn't have made it through the last mission without it.
I keep trying a classic ironman run, and always quit before the end of the first month. Success seems so random based on where your thermal vents are and how soon you can get another satellite uplink built. Ugh.
GotchaForce
Member
What I'm wondering. On console, does it include the original? Also, will the new content be mixed with the old? I wouldn't mind playing it again with new enemies, mechs and additional levels added to the mix of the original campaign.
PeterVenkman
Member
That's what I'll be waiting for - some kind of discount. I'm still waiting patiently for a deal on Brave New World
Neuromancer
Member
I feel the same way. It's kind of a bummer.
I also really didn't care for the end game so knowing everything ends up there puts a damper on my enthusiasm to finish the campaign again.
Fragamemnon
Member
Veering OT and NA only but yeah:
http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/...sid-meiers-civilization-v-brave-new-world-na/
25% off already. Amazon UK had it for 10 pounds a week ago for UK residents. The deals are there unless you are looking to pay like $5. If that's what you want you can just wait for the Fundamental Theorem of Steam to kick in a year from now.
Firaxis expansions are always more than the sum of their advertised parts. They generally leave no stone unturned in re-balancing things and some of the seemingly minor changes to the existing game can have huge effect in how you play the game.
graywolf323
Member
day it goes up on Steam for pre-purchase!
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Nailed it. Bravo.
With Second Wave you can get random starting stats and promotion bonuses for recruits, random rewards for missions, random funding from countries, increased randomness in combat etc..
The new Second Wave option they're adding to make flanking bonuses take into account different angles instead of being just Flanked/Not-Flanked is something I'm really looking forward to trying as well.
Having to pick up Meld within a certain number of rounds will probably impact the strategy of battles quite a bit, and choosing between going gene mods or mech will be tough.. the more I hear about this DLC the more substantial it seems. New maps look awesome and fresh too.
Fragamemnon
Member
I'm glad there are people around who can appreciate the older game, because all I remember about it was being able to effectively print my own money and breaking the back of any challenge that game had (and yes this was before and after I corrected the known save game difficultly bug).
PeterVenkman
Member
That's true, the random elements they are adding to existing mechanics is nice - I should have specified that the one random element I wanted was stages. It would really give some life to the game. That and, as others have stated, a more freeform campaign.
However the option to change flanking is pretty sweet. I'm not so big on how Meld is implemented (for now) as I never liked the push and pull of wanting to play defensively but always being penalized. Terror missions are a prime example - I never liked always rushing forward to save civillians only to be met by a squad of baddies who get to move upon discovery. EU always seemed to push me back to playing defensively and adding a timed resource to the map just seems like a stretch. I'll wait for more experienced players to test it out though because I certainly am no expert.
michaelius
Banned
Those are symptoms.
Real issue was total lack of optional ufo interceptions - you couldn't play agresively because there weren't enough encounters with enemies to train second set of soldiers.
I'm not following you. EU gives you an infinite amount of time to level up soldiers.
Fragamemnon
Member
I never had a problem with backups by the end of the game for my "primary" set of squaddies. Though I will agree that mods such as Long War (and before it, Merciless) were really nice in that you got to shoot down a lot more UFOs. And you can delay any part of the main story path for as long as you want ( something I really don't agree with-the aliens should slowly asphyxiate XCOM's external resources over time ) if you want to level up new troops.
At least we can all agree that McCann is back with new tracks in EW and that is awesome. The soundtrack for EU was amazing.
My sentiments excactly. Some new campaign content would have been very nice. Still excited for more XCOM though.
Squad sight doesn't crit anymore? That kind of makes Snipers useless in the late game then.
Fragamemnon
Member
I noticed that too. Ed Beach (the lead designer of Civ 5: G&K and BNW) was also a big deal for similar reasons.
If you need the added DPS from crits just move your snipers up with the rest of the crew. Hovering angels of death at the back of maps, impervious from damage were silly.
I honestly built my endgame snipers as much around pistol shots as I did squadsight as the utility of the latter ability falls of on the really tough , closer quarters maps later in the game.
TheJollyCorner
Member
my squaddies are ready
*salute*
*salute*
TimeEffect
Member
Jumping into next gen just gets harder and harder.
Remachinate
Member
The teaser trailer alludes to "another force", and most of the new enemies haven't been revealed; don't give up hope yet.
Unless they tweak the spawn/enemy tripping system, I think I'll wait for a sale
Yeah, It sucks that enemys don't look for you, they just sit and wait till you find them.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/21/xcom-enemy-within-announced-tons-of-details
this changes everything
there's a lot more in that article too
wat
this changes everything
there's a lot more in that article too
InsaneElite
Member
The Second Wave option where all skills are randomized for each soldier sounds like it'll really shake the game up. In addition, the Aiming Angles option mentioned in the Rev3 interview sounds fantastic. Your chance to hit an enemy in cover increases the closer you are to flanking them, rather than a binary "25/45% chance to hit if not flanked, 60%+ if flanked".
Really hope these options are available by default and don't require a playthrough with EW to unlock.
those balance changes actually sound really good
they should be patched in rather than hid behind a pay-wall tho
CecilRousso
Member
An expansion is hardly a pay-wall.
BritBloke916
Member
Defence against mind control that doesn't require an inventory slot?
THANK YOU GOD!!!
Edit: immunity from panic too? Whatever the Hell the other option is there for brain augmentation, it must be pretty damn awesome to even make it a slightly tricky choice!
From the IGN article it doesn't seem like the other choice is as useful. Feedback that causes damage to any enemy that uses a Psy attack on you, but does not prevent the psy attack unless it is normally resisted.
Listened to Giant Bomb's interview dumptruck podcast with Anand, and it was kind of a boilerplate interview but he did indicate that there are significant additional portions of Enemy Within that they haven't revealed yet. I'm already on board because I loved the original EU for how it modernized and shaped some of the core aspects of Xcom (my brain couldn't wrap itself around the OG Xcom games really well), but I can understand some people's complaints regarding the campaign structure. Hoping that the new details add further sets of randomness. (And that it relates to that logo tease above ... A new enemy faction or perhaps some rival human faction?)
I'm still not sure how EW will roll out on consoles, though - so is it an expansion that draws on EU or is it a standalone disc?
I'm still not sure how EW will roll out on consoles, though - so is it an expansion that draws on EU or is it a standalone disc?