is there an XCOM thread?

that doesn't work unless you kill every single alien on that floor. and even then, aliens had a crazy habit of just chucking them in blind if you killed enough of them. especially once they got the guided missiles. how are you gonna catch the grenades that explode in 0 turns?

you're only really safe if you spread your guys out enough so that only a handful will get caught in a blast impact. damn those suicide discs!

we are talking about different videogames.

oh... right. sorry.

TFTD was okay underwater but then got mega fucking hard once you start doing the shore missions

enemy unknown was not too bad until they started attacking your base

i think the key to this game is just taking 10x as long to do anything as you want so you have leftover energy for suppressive firing

largely, yes, haha

cruise ship terror missions basically ruined TFTD, too long and insanely difficult

like if you just want to move two dudes across a valley or into a building you have to send two guys over to those guys, have them kneel and set up for surpressive fire, send one of the guys 1/4 of the way out to draw fire, set him up to surpressive, then send the second guy out there, set him up on overwatch, then send the two guys in back halfway to the target while the other two dudes cover them. then repeat 2 times to get all four dudes across. no rambo shit!

then of course once you master working in tight four man formation they suddenly master putting a dude at every bottleneck that just hucks grenades into your formation

the best is when you open the door of your flying sub and someone offscreen immediately fires a missile into it

was apocalypse at all like syndicate? that game was also the bomb.

that waypoint guided missle launcher in this game was insane

pc demo! this is so awesome.

uh oh, critical danger to free time impending

Not Enough Time Units

Shit, there's no way the work laptop will be able to run this, is there

I'm curious where Sid's cameo will be in the game

i've heard it runs on shitty/old hardware. sadly i am mac dude so gotta wait for the console version.

giant bomb gameplay stream archive. the dudes firaxis sent over seem to know what they're talking about and the game itself looks fantastic.

oops giant bomb

it ran on my laptop, which is a £200 dell more than a year old

otoh it was kind of eh

five hour download for one fifteen minute tutorial mission and one twenty minute very easy mission, and you get sort of walked around the base but get to make no decisions

this is not a very good way of selling x-com to me

exciting

put on osx please

has anyone read anything enlightening on the differences between the pc and console versions?

From what I understand the PC version will have a more zoomed out tactical view in combat, from the assumption that you're playing close to a high-res monitor

hey yall this feels basically like x-com with a modern interface.

how are the base/research-y bits?

i only put like 3 hours in so my information is incomplete but so far the research is standard, x days to research tech y but there's a resource called "scientists" that affects x. for equipment manufacture/base expansion there's money but also a resource called "engineers" that limits what you can create. there's a bunch of stuff i need to build but i need to get more engineers first.

the base is an "ant farm" rather than the top down. also no one's going to attack your base, at least so i've read.

stat/skill progression for the troops is pretty engaging.

exciting

put on osx please

― the late great, Tuesday, September 25, 2012 10:05 PM (2 weeks ago)

okay, i should get this then.

everyone please name one of your squaddies 'cankles'

your base advisors are totally old school strategy game cheesy, totally straightfaced dudes

the tutorial is about an hour, they ease you in REALLY slow. i dig it so far.

http://m.kotaku.com/5950392/xcom-has-hd-cutscenes-but-theyre-hiding

Gotta run a batch file and you can run 1080p cutscenes on PC

everyone please name one of your squaddies 'cankles'

i am all for this

bought this on a whim the other night after a couple people i trust on games were excitedly talking about it. havent played any of the old ones but sounds like something i'd enjoy at least for a bit

It's way more accessible than the original to newcomers. I love that for the tutorial mission, they kill three out of your four soldiers (they even show up in the memorial list). Gives you a good indication that you shouldn't get TOO attached to every specific soldier in your command, but you do want some grunts to get some kills, survive, and rank up.

Has anyone tried playing with one of the classic squaddies?

i did a quick look at the customize options, didn't see the Guile flattop, vowed to come back to it later. i DID download the "elite soldier pack" tho

Im playing on normal mode and am kinda past the tutorial. I havent lost a squad member since the first couple missions. then again Ive only 'aced' about 3-4 missions in a row so maybe my dudes are due to get jacked up.

is this gonna be best on computer?

probably but the xbox interface works really well. i'm really impressed by how well they fit what feels like a complete 90s-style strategy game into an xbox control scheme. i've heard the console civ (revolutions?) did something similar.

i know it's cheesy but a lot of the dumbass stuff like the music playing while i select and kit out my dudes is awesome, or the skyranger landing cinematic.

also, take squadsight for your snipers. holy shit. i've got lt. kozlova jacking aliens up from across the fucking map.

I gave up when it became apparent how ginormous the download for the demo was and I had to stop and think "do I really need an X-Com addiction back in my life"? But y'all are seriously tempting me.

i have the game on ps3 and i played the demo on pc. it is actually really well designed for console play. i don't think you can go wrong with either.

I've heard that the mouse is actually kinda finicky and you make idiotic, i-was-actually-clicking-there mistakes frequently enough that the controller sdoesn't look like a terrible option.

As a perfect example of just how soft I've gotten, I didn't realize the game has no autosaving, and had to redo the tutorial hour or so again. Bah.

I do very much like so far how they're using the skill trees to fulfill specializations

hold on, i thought the pc version autosaved like every other turn

you can turn autosave on

haha the autosave thing got me too. the third tutorial mission, the VIP escort, 3/4 of my squad goes down in a hail of plasma fire and panic. my remaning dude pushed on, grabbed the VIP and slowly and laboriously killed all the aliens on her own.

after that i turned autosave on, it makes the occasional ridiculous panic spirals way less frustrating.

The guys on the Giant Bombcast went on at length about how brutal and difficult the game is.

lol. kids today!

i'm debating with myself if i want to turn the autosave on, or force myself to reload the entire mission if i fail badly enough

i'm playing without autosave, just saving at the start of the mission. i am disappointed w/ myself every time i reload, it feels cheaty. i wish could make myself play the hardcore mode but i get too attached to my dudes to let them die just because i am dumb.

heh, i have the exact same feelings Roberto

i rationalize my reloading as a learning tool. reloading is time-consuming enough that i feel it an adequate negative reinforcement for feckless or irresponsible behavior in-game. totally restarting the mission (or just letting my dudes die!) would be overkill, leading to frustration, unhappiness, heart disease and death.