was looking forward to playing apocalypse again, which is a totally underrated and kind of neat game
- the shift from post-communion aliens/military sf to 50s b-movie monsters/jetson future-environments looks like a better idea now than it did- likewise it's easier to forgive the graphics now they aren't meant to be the graphics for, like, an actual new game, ha- i think every sprite in this game does a good job of depicting whatever essential attribute/feeling you end up associating with seeing that creature. at least the essential OH SHIT reactions one gets from the two-frame animations of the brainsuckers in the early game or the exploding dogs in the mid game really work, so something must have gone right- the research tree is an interesting choice. the new aliens use a lot of organic tech so rather than looking at alien weapons and waiting to steal them what you do is research all the alien life cycle stages to develop toxin weapons- having the little PEW PEW toxin guns melt off their damn alien faces at the halfway point when you finally catch up on tech is really, really satisfying
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 10:48 (twelve years ago) link
i think i stopped playing it when i realised that the city factions were kind of broken and pointless: though they were at least A Good Idea. the geopolitical aspect of the first two was kind of lacking, after all. FRANCE IS PLEASED WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE. GERMANY IS DISPLEASED WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE AND HAS REDUCED YOUR FUNDING. (there was a flash game i played, and a sequel to it, where you controlled the mutations of a virus, trying to cause a pandemic and exterminate humanity. the second game boasted it had 'more realistic' politics, human actions, etc. i lost in my first playthrough because a region they had arbitrarily designated 'The Middle East' had closed its borders. oops)
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 10:52 (twelve years ago) link
also the endgame missions were kind of ... suddenly the game was a lot less reactive. that said, it was a smart idea to develop an endgame campaign rather than a Final Mission, those were done. (i never got to the Final Mission on terror from the deep, actually.) (actually, i never even beat an alien base on terror from the deep, because god they were annoying.)
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 10:53 (twelve years ago) link
i still can't decide if terror from the deep was a series of design choices made to make the game difficult and frustrating (interesting sequel design route: good work on the marathon! our new game is an ultramarathon and also we are going to break your ankles with this hammer) -- or whether the dev team just really, really didn't understand the logic of the first game
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 10:55 (twelve years ago) link
because no one posted on this thread i spent like two hours today looking at x-com let's plays
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 22:20 (twelve years ago) link
oh would you look at that
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/964/http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DDB-XCOM/x-com-complete-pack-bundle
rock paper shotgun notes "You probably don't want Enforcer or Interceptor"
― thomp, Friday, 6 January 2012 02:10 (twelve years ago) link
wait
what?
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/05/february-cover-revealed-xcom-enemy-unknown.aspx
― Nhex, Friday, 6 January 2012 03:12 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/06/the-new-xcom-my-needy-little-wishlist/#more-87746
bit of a non-article really but
5) Destructible environments, but more so. It’s something the unofficial sequels never pulled off, but it’s an essential part of X-COM. Not just as a feature, but also as part of building the sense that X-COM are a taskforce with free reign – respect for civilian property doesn’t stand in the way of hunting aliens. I wouldn’t seeing property damage contribute to funding level assessments, though: international funding’s an aspect of the game that could stand to be fleshed out.
13) Minimal story and exposition. Everything that needs to be told can come from Researching alien items and lifeforms to study and act upon at my leisure. I don’t need a big cutscene explaining what and where Cydonia is, I just want a brief message saying that flying there is now possible.
i think it's really interesting how much the player's narrativization of the experience is a big part of the first three games: but also just how contingent that was on the narrative and the world being the least developed part of the game (it being something the gollops were pushed to add by microprose, & that they've never done in another game; also one that's only given the basic level of features, and that other ideas they had (you were going to be also commanding intelligence aspects beyond 'an alien base has been discovered!') were omitted from
― thomp, Friday, 6 January 2012 13:06 (twelve years ago) link
also, i bought the first game and apocalypse. again.
I have hilarious memories of quitting and restarting from a save every time I lost a soldier in xcom (which happened like 90 billion times) because starting off fresh with a new rookie solider was a terrible thought.. damn I loved xcom..
― strongly recommend. unless you're a bitch (mayor jingleberries), Friday, 6 January 2012 16:35 (twelve years ago) link
Ok, this series of interviews has got me decently hypedhttp://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/01/xcom-enemy-unknown-preview/http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/02/firaxis-xcom-preview/http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/03/time-for-a-change-firaxis-on-xcom-part-3/
― Nhex, Saturday, 4 February 2012 05:54 (twelve years ago) link
Neat!
― Put another Juggle in, in the Juggalodeon (kingfish), Saturday, 4 February 2012 18:45 (twelve years ago) link
been thinking of replaying xcom lately!
im more interested in xenonauts (http://www.xenonauts.com/) than the firaxis xcom, but i got some cautious optimism goin on with the latter. the xcom shooter will of course be an unspeakable abomination
― Hungry4Ass, Saturday, 4 February 2012 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
the lead developer on the firaxis one seems like a mensch
― junior dada (thomp), Sunday, 5 February 2012 00:39 (twelve years ago) link
yeah he really seems like he 'gets it'
― Assmaster (Hungry4Ass), Sunday, 5 February 2012 00:41 (twelve years ago) link
also:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/12/jan/xgeo.jpg
yeeeeaaaaaaaahh
― junior dada (thomp), Sunday, 5 February 2012 00:42 (twelve years ago) link
i mean it's pretty rare for me to be hyped about a videogame, i suppose i should try and get hyped about one that's not a remake
― junior dada (thomp), Sunday, 5 February 2012 00:43 (twelve years ago) link
as long as the combat is turn-based i would probably enjoy it, but they do appear to be making a real xcom game. its exciting though i keep having to remember to maintain proper jadedness levels
― Assmaster (Hungry4Ass), Sunday, 5 February 2012 00:48 (twelve years ago) link
they did remove time units, and you're restricted to basically two actions per soldier per turn, which sounds somewhat radical
still, i got a very good vibe from those interviews
― Nhex, Sunday, 5 February 2012 01:32 (twelve years ago) link
Wow, had no idea a new one was in the works! That's nuts!
Past X-Com discussion - -
1993 VIDEO GAMES1994 VIDEO GAMES POLL (yes it's in both, somehow)and a little bit here un-retired
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 13 February 2012 03:10 (twelve years ago) link
been browsing thru videos about the firaxis remake. am now recklessly confident in it from what i have seen and heard. this is going to fucking rule.
― Roberto Spiralli, Saturday, 19 May 2012 03:25 (eleven years ago) link
ufo defense is kind of that unfriendly bcz you're basically just dumped in it with a completely incomprehensible interface with like thirty buttons on it and you spend the first three missions leaving yr doods outside doors at the end of yr turn and watching the same alien come out and shoot them
RTFM
― the late great, Saturday, 19 May 2012 05:11 (eleven years ago) link
good shit here, comes w/ free x-com demo
http://boxerapp.com/
they added MT-32 support to Boxer? cooooool.
― Nhex, Saturday, 19 May 2012 07:42 (eleven years ago) link
my copy didn't come with the manual!
― thomp, Saturday, 19 May 2012 10:39 (eleven years ago) link
though to be fair it did come with the 400 page strategy guide but that seemed kind of a heavy investment, time-wise
http://www.xcomufo.com/x1manual.pdf
― the late great, Saturday, 19 May 2012 22:25 (eleven years ago) link
133 pages!
RTBFM
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 19 May 2012 22:51 (eleven years ago) link
the tutorial in there basically just shows you exactly how to end up in the situation i described. there is a note on the importance of opportunity fire on p96, i suppose.
― thomp, Sunday, 20 May 2012 10:01 (eleven years ago) link
october 9th for new one.
― adam, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 20:16 (eleven years ago) link
so weird - so it's actually coming out way before the FPS reboot, which got pushed to next year
― Nhex, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 20:22 (eleven years ago) link
i got TFTD going on my MBP but it was much more boring than i remember, also the scrolling and animations were too fast or too slow on any cpu setting
― the late great, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 20:52 (eleven years ago) link
that fps reboot is going to be a steaming pile of shit.. or vaporware.
the firaxis game looks like the bees knees tho.. not sure how I will be able to get my hands on it as I am a mac user, but firaxis is somewhat mac friendly so I have my fingers crossed.
― johnathan lee riche$ (mayor jingleberries), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 21:06 (eleven years ago) link
is x-com: apocalypse any good? enforcer and interceptor look rather weak and i can't get enemy unknown working on my mbp
― the late great, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 21:12 (eleven years ago) link
enemy unknown can work, you gotta try harder mannnnn
― Nhex, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 21:31 (eleven years ago) link
i maybe need to find a non-CD version
― the late great, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 21:42 (eleven years ago) link
the original works great via boxer on osx. amazon is selling 5 x-coms (1, tftd, apocalypse and two more i never played) for 4 bucks right now, steam key, i d/led it via mac steam and put the actual files in boxer. perfect.
― adam, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 22:35 (eleven years ago) link
i bought the set on steam but it would not let me run it. how do i d/l the files? i am a steam noob.
― the late great, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 22:48 (eleven years ago) link
i was able to convince the mac steam to d/l the files even though it's the wrong platform. i think i just right-clicked and told it to get the content. one's it's downloaded the files will be in wherever steam keeps its files (depends on yr version of osx, it's easily googlable) and install via boxer
i got bored halfway thru writing that so reading it is probably worse so d/l this, unzip, run thru boxer, ignore any savegames:
http://www.mediafire.com/?q5f5atp57u5rzdd
not positive that will work but maybe?
― adam, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 23:37 (eleven years ago) link
i am exactly as bad at this game now as i was in 1994. jesus. just burning thru recruits.
― adam, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 02:19 (eleven years ago) link
hahahah, yessss, that was me exactly the last time i played this.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 04:02 (eleven years ago) link
that doesn't necessarily mean you're bad at all! the game seems pretty explicitly designed for your early dudes to be mercilessly killed
― Nhex, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 04:38 (eleven years ago) link
"Don't remember anyone's name before captain" is the motto, i think
― Choad of Choad Hall (kingfish), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 07:11 (eleven years ago) link
apocalypse is worth a look if you can get stuff running
― thomp, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 09:23 (eleven years ago) link
i seem to have gone off on one about it in one of the other threads
i've tried and failed to get into Apocalypse so many times... couldn't get past the weird graphic style and semi-realtime engine
― Nhex, Thursday, 24 May 2012 01:39 (eleven years ago) link
thank you adam
― the late great, Thursday, 24 May 2012 06:35 (eleven years ago) link
There must be optimization problems in this build or something. It runs like ass on my 3.3gz i5, 24gb ram, Radeon R9/2gb. All hinky even at low settings and resolution.
― antexit, Saturday, 6 February 2016 19:46 (eight years ago) link
man i hope this doesn't hurt them. seems a massive oversight, though: i don't think xcom players, on average, are really the gotta-have-the-newest-graphics type
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Sunday, 7 February 2016 00:37 (eight years ago) link
I was thinking "ok, I'm getting by, it's basically working, and I'm happy enough to be getting MORE XCOM on my just-under-the-bar laptop", but once I saw just how many problems there are, on machines that are >>>recommended spec… I think maybe do not touch this till it is fixed.
― woof, Sunday, 7 February 2016 00:49 (eight years ago) link
going to play it now though, it's such fun
― woof, Sunday, 7 February 2016 00:52 (eight years ago) link
Bradford should be played by Nick Kroll with a little too much eye-liner
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CSlk8ITU8AAKk0g.jpg:large
Also, for those who want a little preview gameplay footage:
https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CaerqUdUUAAa1yW.mp4
― Darkest Cosmologist junk (kingfish), Sunday, 7 February 2016 01:31 (eight years ago) link
I turned off action cam, vsync, dropped down shadow and AA effect, then forced them on with the graphics card app. Better.
Game still hard as shit. Thinking about dropping this down to easy for the 1st playthru.
― Darkest Cosmologist junk (kingfish), Sunday, 7 February 2016 01:33 (eight years ago) link
I had a quick try at it and lost on the first (non-tutorial) mission.
― inside, skeletons are always inside, that's obvious. (dowd), Sunday, 7 February 2016 03:08 (eight years ago) link
https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcom/comments/44b7pf/xcom_2_tips_megathread/
Wow, these are good. Flashbang a sectoid to kill its psionic controls, aggro a patrol squad before you get too far in and wind up getting caught between squads afore & behind you, etc.
― Darkest Cosmologist junk (kingfish), Sunday, 7 February 2016 03:47 (eight years ago) link
http://www.gamepur.com/guide/21988-xcom-2-pc-error-fix-fps-loss-save-game-location-cant-detect-4k-resolution.html
Ooo, how to speed up animations!
― Darkest Cosmologist junk (kingfish), Sunday, 7 February 2016 03:51 (eight years ago) link
time management of base operations stress >>> combat stress
― bnw, Sunday, 7 February 2016 17:40 (eight years ago) link
not sure there's a game I cuss out more while playing. missing multiple 80%+ shots unleashes my nerd rage.
― bnw, Tuesday, 9 February 2016 15:26 (eight years ago) link
during my playthrough of the 2012 x-com, i got so fed up with missing high percentage shots that i briefly maintained a spreadsheet where i recorded the predicted percentages vs the actual outcomes. it balanced out in the end. but yes, nerd raaaaaage
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 9 February 2016 15:49 (eight years ago) link
how does the new one compare to 2012 x-com?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 9 February 2016 15:51 (eight years ago) link
i'm only a few hours in but its mostly the same aside from your base being busier/more complex. (there are likely more new aliens and tech I haven't got to.) my biggest complaint is that your base advisers won't stfu. No matter where you click they have some stupid comment or story.
if you were into the 2012 game, you'll easily like it.
― bnw, Tuesday, 9 February 2016 16:13 (eight years ago) link
I'm still only a few hours in, but, yeah, it's like the same but more so - more options, more stuff to do, more to research - biggest change to the feel is that most missions have some kind of timer, so slow-slow-slow overwatch play doesn't work.
― woof, Tuesday, 9 February 2016 16:42 (eight years ago) link
You can click off the in-house radio chatter, I think. The option of "ambient dialogue" or sumthing in the options, isn't it.
Added the mod for facepaint last night, and sending out all my squaddies in Pris-style warpaint is strangely satisfying.
Game is MUCH harder this time round, it should be emphasized. I'm just now getting non-shite gear.
― Darkest Cosmologist junk (kingfish), Tuesday, 9 February 2016 20:39 (eight years ago) link
feel like they overdo the punishment of getting squad members injured. trying to get your best crew set up for a difficult mission is almost impossible b/c of that.
― bnw, Wednesday, 10 February 2016 16:21 (eight years ago) link
Has anybody tried the multiplayer yet?
― Darkest Cosmologist junk (kingfish), Wednesday, 17 February 2016 05:16 (eight years ago) link
This game is really hard. I was chugging along doing great, beautiful squad, nice gear, flawless victory on holding off an attempted invasion of the base. Then all of a sudden while everybody's celebrating I find I haven't done enough outreach and I have three fires to put out and absolutely there's no way I'll have enough healthy guys to answer the second or third one. I just tried and failed through seven reloads to keep my best sharpshooter, Glenn Danzig, from getting merked by that muton on what should have been a pretty easy mission. Aka, I'm fucking done! Considering eating about 6-7 hours of progress and going back to an early save. I <3 u xcom
btw the specialist and ranger classes are the greatest in this game. The ranger's free overwatch bladestorm perk, how awesome is that. Also the flash grenade is the most useful flash grenade in video game history
― antexit, Wednesday, 17 February 2016 17:56 (eight years ago) link
Confirming that ranger and specialist are OP. Sharpshooters have been pretty underwhelming.
― Millsner, Thursday, 18 February 2016 00:25 (eight years ago) link
Specialist on the support tree is a little OP, I agree. It kind of blows the whole medikit economy which contributed to so much fun tension in the last game. (Specialist on the offence/hacker tree is kind of boring so far.)
imo saying ranger is OP is being kind of hard on yourself given how tough this game is. It's a glass cannon. Given that the sharpshooter can't be used in the usual way on the timed boards and the grenadier is actually more of a support class than a tank I think the classes are pretty balanced.
― antexit, Friday, 19 February 2016 16:08 (eight years ago) link
something i noticed today is that my evening spent playing xcom 2 war of the chosen has really made me want to time-manage my own life way more effectively
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Sunday, 22 April 2018 10:33 (six years ago) link
https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/14/21219644/xcom-chimera-squad-release-date-price-pc
firaxis announced a new xcom game today; it comes out in less than two weeks and it's half price on steam right now and for the first week of launch. HM.
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Wednesday, 15 April 2020 02:43 (four years ago) link
i mean, is this a total dog they're trying to offload, or did an internal team do something experimental and they realised they could monetize it, or what ...
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Wednesday, 15 April 2020 02:47 (four years ago) link
someone take the plunge and tell us how it is!it's a 2K game so i will just wait until it's bundled. i never got around to playing XCOM 2 anyway
― Nhex, Wednesday, 15 April 2020 08:57 (four years ago) link
i have some buds who will for sure jump in day 1, i'll report back
― Hackers (1995) (Will M.), Thursday, 16 April 2020 20:05 (four years ago) link
-- the opening cutscene has a weird energy--it's still image flash animation. no budget. mouths don't move when people talk. -- but the game itself is ... a modern xcom game. -- runs just about on my non-gaming laptop on the lower settings but i should probably get my gaming pc out. -- the writing is less bad than the other modern xcom games. -- the base stuff ... kind of less bad also? -- changing to interlaced turns doesn't bother me because it seems very familiar from just playing octopath traveler.-- even on hard nothing difficult in the first two missions, though i guess one of those was a tutorial.-- i wonder if the ending is going to set up a modern xcom version of apocalypse.
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Friday, 24 April 2020 08:02 (three years ago) link
isn't there some sort of deal with this new one where there's a set, limited selection of characters you can pick from, rather than endlessly regenerating/training new soldiers like the last few? maybe i made that up
― let me be your friend on the other end! (Karl Malone), Friday, 24 April 2020 14:53 (three years ago) link
no that’s the deal
and if anyone bleeds out you have to start the mission over, which saps the tension rather a lot.
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Saturday, 25 April 2020 12:15 (three years ago) link
also missions are series of discrete rooms. it’s almost arcade-y. into the breach just got a big update, i think after i get through chimera squad i will do another run at that. maybe invisible inc also.
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Saturday, 25 April 2020 12:16 (three years ago) link
this game has over 1300 discussion topics on its steam board
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Saturday, 25 April 2020 17:11 (three years ago) link
my friend i mentioned above is a fan fwiw. i am prob gonna get it
― Hackers (1995) (Will M.), Thursday, 30 April 2020 19:28 (three years ago) link
don't play it on ironman. it generated a mission it was legit impossible for me to win* which meant i was just in an eternal 'restart mission?' loop
* if enemies ended the turn on a particular set of squares the mission was failed, but i didn't have the item or character that would let me start the mission near it, my characters all started more than a turn away from being in LOS of the fail condition
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Friday, 1 May 2020 03:08 (three years ago) link