New Version of Xcom

[Sirian]

Firaxis's Xcom remake comes out in a week.

I was a huge fan of the original, played it all the way through. I played the first sequel, Terror from the Deep, most of the way through as well. The original Xcom ranks among my favorite games ever, and I have been quietly hopeful about this new version since I first heard about it while working on Civ5.

Based on the dev video (available on Steam) where the team talks about how they decided to do the base, and also based on other buzz around in interviews and whatnot, I took the plunge and pre-ordered. Nothing I've seen has rung any alarm bells for me, while much of what I've seen indicates they at least have tried to be faithful to all the best parts of the game while updating the graphics, UI, sound, etc. Perhaps more telling, I have jumped back off the MMO bandwagon -- skipping GW2 and the new WoW expansion -- in favor of concentrating on single player games, and this is my top anticipation of the season.

Preorders get a free copy of Civ5 (which can be given away to a Steam friend) and some in-game goodies for decorating your soldiers -- if this is a game you're definitely getting anyway, then might as well get the free extras. You have a couple more days, as of this post.

I'll post my thoughts once I have the game, for any who might be interested but want to wait for others to go first.


- Sirian

[rho21]

I also loved the original and am looking forward to this one. Sadly, it doesn't work on XP so I'll be waiting a while to play. Looking forward to reading what you have to say about it.

[dazedroyalty]

Sirian, I'm also very excited about this game coming out. Have watched all the videos!

I even managed to download a copy of the Alien Base video that got inadvertantly posted by a reviewer who hadn't read the disclosure agreement before 2K had it pulled. It's pretty awesome!

We've been discussing the game on and off over the last few weeks in this thread if you want to join our conversation.

[haphazard1]

I haven't seen the NDA violating video, but have watched a number of others with Jake and the devs playing or giving interviews. Most of what I am seeing is very positive, and I have been substantially reassured about some of the things I was worried about with the demo UI, etc. And a couple extra playthoughs of the demo (normal and modded) have made me a lot happier with things.

It is not going to be the same as the original game, but it looks like it will retain a lot of the flavor and tone while providing a fun experience. Whether the devs have gotten all the balance right will not be known until the masses can play the actual release and see if there are a lot of "one right choice" issues. I am really looking forward to finding out. :D

[Sareln]

3MA did a good podcast with the designer.

LINK

[Sirian]

I saw the other thread and read 8 or 10 posts. Who knew you would hide the discussion of the current game behind those posts? I felt like I had walked past a floater hiding behind a barn up in midair and gotten blasted from behind.

We've been discussing the game on and off over the last few weeks in this thread if you want to join our conversation.

Five more days. Then we'll see what we see, eh?

Like you said, Oct 9 needs to get here faster.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

I also loved the original and am looking forward to this one. Sadly, it doesn't work on XP so I'll be waiting a while to play. Looking forward to reading what you have to say about it.

Based on my Diablo 3 reporting, the first week's worth of hype should not be trusted too deeply. A game CAN give a strong first impression and then still manage to screw the pooch royally.

Hope springs eternal, however. Every new game is a fresh chance for the designer to get it right.


I -had- been running a playthrough on Mount and Blade: Warband at 63% difficulty (to pass the time) and closing in on completing a full conquer of all Calradia until yesterday. The game crashed and ate my saved game, first time that ever happened, but a risk I knew was out there since I was playing with no save-and-reload option. With only one saved game slot, if something goes wrong during saving, it could be lost, and it resaves a LOT of times, every time you exit a location or battle. No backup possible. Ah well, that game had been long won anyway. I was just mopping up to pop my Steam achievements and pass the time.

So instead I am poring over RB and reading threads.


The game won't work on XP? Really? Well, time does march on. There is always that point when some products move away from supporting the older OSes. Win8 is on the horizon now.

OK enough rambling. Back to lurker mode.


- Sirian

[haphazard1]

The ironman mode for the new XCOM game has the same potential for loss if something corrupts that single save. I am also unsure what it might do in terms of playing the new game SG-style, with the save being passed to other players. I guess SGs would just have to be played non-ironman mode.

The release date is unfortunately cruel to those of us living in Canada. We have a national holiday October 8th, and then back to work on the 9th. Would have been so nice to have the game to play over the long weekend....

[rho21]

The game won't work on XP? Really? Well, time does march on. There is always that point when some products move away from supporting the older OSes. Win8 is on the horizon now.

Yeah, it seems there's no technical reason it couldn't work (it can run with dx9), they just didn't budget for supporting it, and it happens not to work. I can understand the decision - supporting another platform is a serious outlay - though I'd be interested to know how many sales it costs them.

[haphazard1]

Just tried a couple more runs through the demo, with the latest mod editor to change things around and play with more advanced stuff. I have been unsure of how the difficulty in the new game would stack up, but it looks like there will be plenty of challenge to be had. :D

The demo as released is pretty tame: low level troops in the minimum squad size, no new technology at all just basic human gear, and the weakest alien types at Easy difficulty. It is pretty obvious Firaxis does not want to frighten off anyone unfamiliar with turn based gaming. But it doesn't really give a decent feel for what the real game might be like.

Fortunately modders have been all over the data and config files, and have come up with some fun stuff. I set up a run with a six solider squad, laser weapons, some initial armor (but not the really fancy stuff from later in the game, no special abilities). For opponents I replaced the default sectoids, floaters, and thin men with mutons, heavy floaters, and cyberdisks. And I bumped the difficulty up to Classic. :D

First try == full squad wipe. I got through the mutons and heavy floaters with only some wounds, but cyberdisks are right bastards to deal with. I also had some poor RNG results with 4 consecutive 70+% shots missing when I engaged them. Ouch. Troops started dying, rookies panicked, and shortly there was nothing but smoldering corpses left of my brave men and women.

Second try went better, and I completed the mission -- with four KIA and one wounded. Ouch again. Early fights went worse than the first run, losing one soldier each against the mutons and heavy floaters. I did a lot better (relatively) against the cyberdisks with some better tactics making a huge difference. But those things are truly nasty.

A tougher mission made the whole experience a lot more fun -- the basic demo is just too easy for a player with any significant turn based experience. The most encouraging thing to me was seeing significant changes in the AI behavior at Classic difficulty. It wasn't just the tougher aliens -- I made a third modded run at Classic with the default weaker aliens and they reacted differently as well. This matches nicely with what Firaxis has said about the tactical AI being deliberatly restrained/dumbed down on normal and especially on easy. The aliens on classic used cover better, they flanked more intelligently, they used grenades effectively (quite unpleasantly effectively, in fact!), and the overall buffing of the aliens/debuffing of the humans in terms of accuracy and health made for a very challenging battle. I am reconsidering whether I should make my first play through on Classic, or step down to Normal for the initial game. Still undecided....

Now I need to find some way to keep busy for the next four days. Preferably productively so I can afford to spend time playing once the game is available.