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2K Games announces XCOM (X360 and PC)

Akia

Member
HK-47 said:
Based on what evidence? Wishful thinking? Denial?
Nirolak said:
Akia's thinking is flawed

Do you think 2K is only going to make FPS X-COM games if it becomes a successful brand this gen?If the FPS game is successful and the ROI on a PC strategy game is high enough not making it is just bad business sense. Its not wishful thinking, my basis is that execs like to make money and diversify their brands. Thus there is a high likelihood of more X-COM games if the initial FPS sells like gangbusters.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Akia said:
Do you think 2K is only going to make FPS X-COM games if it becomes a successful brand this gen?If the FPS game is successful and the ROI on a PC strategy game is high enough not making it is just bad business sense. Its not wishful thinking, my basis is that execs like to make money and diversify their brands. Thus there is a high likelihood of more X-COM games if the initial FPS sells like gangbusters.
While that's true of some brands, it's also very common for companies to heavily lock down their series in order to maintain their fanbase.

For example, Ghost Recon sells great, but we don't have Ghost Recon RTS games or Ghost Recon FPS titles. Ubisoft instead chooses to start up new brands for each of their new genres.

For a more Take-Two specific example, GTA, even when moving to platforms with dramatic power differences, has largely maintained the same type of gameplay.
 
When I first read the thread title and saw the listed platforms, I was so happy to see PC there. Only seconds later did I consider the Xbox version and what it most likely meant. My heart sunk with disappointment. I knew I would open the thread to find the game would be an FPS/TPS. I played through all the good PC originals but fell victim to Enforcer and its devious mockery of my beloved X-Com. I sit in the shower at nights waiting for the sinful stench of that game to circle the drain and one day make me pure again. Never shall that day come :'(

Wario64 said:
120tdn6.jpg

I have no idea what that ring is but I'll be damned if I don't have the urge to fly an Arwing through it.
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
FunkyPajamas said:
Haha, yeah, kind of makes it look like the game is cellshaded or something. Maybe it is? :O DUN DUN DUUUUN.
That's the first thing I thought. The car shadowing looks kind of funny, too. The original X-Com games were kind of cartoony, so that is something I'm not opposed to.
 
Funky Papa said:
That's the first thing I thought. The car shadowing looks kind of funny, too. The original X-Com games were kind of cartoony, so that is something I'm not opposed to.
The sky, the cell shaded-looking ring and the car are kind of giving me a No More Heroes vibe, honest to god.

Too bad GAF is hell bent on hating the game instead of discussing the possibilities.
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
FunkyPajamas said:
The sky, the cell shaded-looking ring and the car are kind of giving me a No More Heroes vibe, honest to god.

Too bad GAF is hell bent on hating the game instead of discussing the possibilities.
We are not hating the game (for the most part), we just think it's fucking stupid to call it X-Com.
 

beelzebozo

Jealous Bastard
FunkyPajamas said:
The sky, the cell shaded-looking ring and the car are kind of giving me a No More Heroes vibe, honest to god.

Too bad GAF is hell bent on hating the game instead of discussing the possibilities.

i'm too retarded to play strat rpgs well, so i'm actually pretty curious about this

p.s. not sarcastic
 
epmode said:
It's almost exactly the same as the first game, aside from the GODDAMNED ASSHOLE LOBSTERMEN OH GOD WHY WON"T THEY DIE OH MAN THEY NEVER DIE
Well, they're not that hard, really: just sneak behind them and open them up like an oyster with a Thermic Lance or any other HtH weapon. And they taste good too!
 
Funky Papa said:
We are not hating the game (for the most part), we just think it's fucking stupid to call it X-Com.
Fair enough, I can relate to that, it's understandable. Same thing happened to me when I saw the latest Ghost Recon news. I was off base when I made the general assumption that GAF was hating on the game just because, so I apologize.

Maybe 2K should have announced it as a spin-off instead of a reboot. To be honest, the only thing that bothers me is the whole "FBI Agent"; but with only a screenshot and a PR-speak filled description to go by, I think I'm going to take a "wait and see" approach.
 
I probably won't get this. I don't need another FPS I'll just play the campaign of once then shelve. Heck I don't even want a multiplayer one. Except Reach. :)
 
Versipellis said:
Well, they're not that hard, really: just sneak behind them and open them up like an oyster with a Thermic Lance or any other HtH weapon. And they taste good too!

Yeah, just make sure you have that weaponry once they show up. My first squad to encounter lobster men were only equipped with harpoon and dart guns. My entire squad spent all their time units for several turns just to shoot at one of them and still couldn't take him down. I can't remember if they even survived that mission :lol

Once you get alien weaponry though, they are pretty easy.
 

Swifty

Member
The reason why first person Fallout worked: kept setting, kept element of exploration, kept differing outcomes of scenarios, kept RPG statistics and data.

The reason why first person Metroid worked: kept setting, kept element of exploration, kept items and abilities from previous games.

The reason why this incarnation of first person X-COM will NOT work: does not keep setting (50s like Bioshock), does not keep strategy and planning gameplay (You're a detective doing detective work in first person), does not even feature the organization that the title even refers to (until the end of the game where it probably will establish a basis for the organization's founding in 1999 at least).
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
FunkyPajamas said:
The sky, the cell shaded-looking ring and the car are kind of giving me a No More Heroes vibe, honest to god.

Too bad GAF is hell bent on hating the game instead of discussing the possibilities.
I honestly hope it's more like Freedom Force.
 

Grooski

Banned
I loved the XCOM games - I remember spending 6 weeks solid on UFO and Terror 10+ years ago screaming curses at those damn Chrysalis.

This announcement fills me with dread. Cold-blooded, finger-nailing-curling dread that the final nail in an XCOM franchise is another generic shooter that will be all that is remembered of this once magnificent tactical strategy series. Some of us were holding out hope that an XCOM reboot would stay true to its roots. Now I guess the XFiles license was too expensive.
 
why cant they even make good "X-Com 1"-style games at all anymore?

seriously, the only other game I think of that's close is Jagged Alliance 2, I felt like Advance Wars was more like Shining Force than X-Com, and Rebel Star was awful... man If was enthralled by fps games id be in hog heaven right now since everyone and their mother is being "fps'd" seriously getting sick of these Doom Clones now....


oh well I guess we have to wait till someone "Heavy Rains" this genre, like Heavy Rain did the old school PC Adventure genre, before we get some attention....
 

Mooreberg

Member
So what has Irrational been doing the past two and a half years? I thought it was a typo on Blue's News when it said 2K Marin.
 

DiscoJer

Member
ZombieSupaStar said:
oh well I guess we have to wait till someone "Heavy Rains" this genre, like Heavy Rain did the old school PC Adventure genre, before we get some attention....

Well, there have been several knock offs. the UFO After___ series. And a couple years ago a turn based one called "UFO Extraterrestrials" from I think the Czech Republic. The last one was pretty close to X-com, but set on another planet, but lacked the random maps that make the original so replayable
 
I really liked Bioshock 2 but FPS? Need to wait for more info, if it's just a standard shooter I'll pass but if they're trying something new and different omfg game of the decade! It would be as though they're taking a game I loved and modernize it, as opposed them from taking a game I love and remaking it
Blizzard -_-
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
you just have to feel sorry for 2K Marin.

every project they announce is met with so much cynicism.
 
Does anyone think that maybe, just maybe there might be all the strategy stuff from the original put into an FPS? Like sorta Mass XCOM Effect style.

Also apparently this is not really a 2k Marin game? 1up says the Bioshock 2 team is not actually the same team working on this.
 
Rez said:
you just have to feel sorry for 2K Marin.

every project they announce is met with so much cynicism.

I agree!

I hope they prove the doubters wrong. I think the media released so far (magazine cover, ring thingy) looks pretty interesting really...
 

Grooski

Banned
Rez said:
you just have to feel sorry for 2K Marin.

every project they announce is met with so much cynicism.

And justified too.

Bio2 was more an expansion with an unnecessary storyline and was "meh" at best. MP was fun for a short while though. This announcement takes a well established strategy franchise and turns it into yet another god-forsaken shooter - a genre that is drowning the industry in clones.

The only downside to this HD gen is the cost of gaming development and the lack of studios taking a risk on games that go against the grain.
 
Poimandres said:
I agree!

I hope they prove the doubters wrong. I think the media released so far (magazine cover, ring thingy) looks pretty interesting really...

eh has that tf2/bioshock/fallout LOL teh 50s retro is teh cool artstyle that kinda getting sick of now (not fallout though, just all the me too's)


Nirolak said:
It seems it's a new IP based on a recent L.A. Times story: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-taketwo13-2010apr13,0,2531760.story

That said, based on job postings, it seems to be a multiplayer heavy first person shooter of some sort.

hot damn!!!! its been mere "days" since a new one those has been released!!!!! I was starting to get worried!!!! bring it on!!!!!
 
ZombieSupaStar said:
eh has that tf2/bioshock/fallout LOL teh 50s retro is teh cool artstyle that kinda getting sick of now (not fallout though, just all the me too's)

Oh come on! You can't hate on Bioshocks art.

That shtick might be getting close to overused... but it's still a whole lot better than generic space marines/soldiers in gritty war torn environments.
 
Poimandres said:
Oh come on! You can't hate on Bioshocks art.

That shtick might be getting close to overused... but it's still a whole lot better than generic space marines/soldiers in gritty war torn environments.

nah my bioshock hate comes from when everyone played fallout 3 going "LOL itz art iz liek bioshock LOL"


I almost went NMA over that one...
 
X-COM: UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep were staples of my youth. That game still scared the crap out of me when an alien revealed himself on the map. I still remember my anguish when my my favorite soldiers would get wiped out.

I only played a bit of Apocalypse unfortunately.

Still excited to see what they're doing with the tactical part of this game within the frame of a FPS. Would have loved the isometric tactical focus but this is the age of FPSs. Allow me to build my research lab and new hangars and I'll be happy!
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
ZombieSupaStar said:
nah my bioshock hate comes from when everyone played fallout 3 going "LOL itz art iz liek bioshock LOL"


I almost went NMA over that one...

Yeah Bioshock is much better

=P
 

Akia

Member
Nirolak said:
While that's true of some brands, it's also very common for companies to heavily lock down their series in order to maintain their fanbase.

For example, Ghost Recon sells great, but we don't have Ghost Recon RTS games or Ghost Recon FPS titles. Ubisoft instead chooses to start up new brands for each of their new genres.

For a more Take-Two specific example, GTA, even when moving to platforms with dramatic power differences, has largely maintained the same type of gameplay.

I think both the "expand&diversify" and "lock down" strategies of handling a game brand that we've mentioned occur. I tend to agree that the latter happens more than the former. I think because X-COM is going to be 2K Marin's baby and that Kevin Levine is such a X-COM fan that if the FPS game is successful we'll see a PC strategy game soon after.

I would argue that Rockstar is a separate case and has been given the autonomy by Take Two in terms of how they handle their brands/franchises. Since you qualified your statement about GTA gameplay with "largely maintained the same", I'm guessing you've taken into account the GTA game on the GBA. I agree with you in terms of UbiSoft, they had a "lock down" strategy from the outset by having multiple franchises under the Tom Clancy brand with distinct gameplay styles that would differentiate them.
 

coopolon

Member
DeadlySchnauzer said:
And i repeat. The 2K Marin/Bioshock 2 team is *NOT* making this game. Confirmed by 2K Games themselves.

See: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178825

That's kind of confusing. 2K Marin is based in Marin County, CA. But they have a branch in Australia, which is also called 2K Marin? That makes sense.

That's like Nintendo of America having a branch in Russia and still calling it Nintendo of America.
 

Servizio

I don't really need a tag, but I figured I'd get one to make people jealous. Is it working?
It's funny that people keep bringing up Fallout 3. As much as I liked it, it's easy to say it missed the mark on what made the original games special. I enjoyed it more as a sequel to Oblivion than to Fallout. Ho hum.
 
Zachack said:
If people in this thread can suggest that an FPS X-Com could play like R6/SWAT/Hired Guns/Escape there's no reason why anyone else couldn't.

The issue is that literally the only reason to make X-Com an FPS in the first place -- i.e. to slap an old, familiar name onto a game in an overcrowded genre to make it stand out -- assures that the person making that call is fundamentally not interested in doing the game right. Sure, there's a way you could make an X-Com FPS that felt true to the series in some way, but there are like 27 different ways to do an X-Com game better (heck, you could even make it a real-time strategy game) that aren't turning it into an FPS, and someone who actually wanted to make a good X-Com game would inevitably explore those avenues instead.

By that logic any side-scroller released on the Wii should have just as much chance of selling 10M copies as NSMBWii.

No, that really has nothing at all to do with what I was saying. :lol

The issue isn't that every turn-based game can sell as well as Civ -- just like not every shooter can sell as well as MW2 and Halo, not every platformer can sell as well as Mario, etc. The issue is that people don't inherently mind turn-based gameplay at all. Civilization and turn-based Final Fantasy and other examples of games with turn-based gameplay sell millions here in the US. The idea that it is turn-based gameplay isn't itself a turn-off or an undesirable gameplay style in any way -- that's just a lingering falsehood that came into vogue when RTS games took off and has never quite been shed completely in the West.

Besides, X-Com was never as big as Civ in the first place. If X-Com: TBS 2010 Edition sold as well compared to Civ4 as, say, XC:TFTD did compared to Civ2 it'd unquestionably be a success.
 
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