is there an XCOM thread?

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.

hardcore mode in any game is for last playthru, not first
when i figured this out i enjoyed gaming much more
i also became a giant floppy vagina, but hey
trade offs

yeah, when i get to the point where i am really comfortable i could see myself just starting again on hardcore. there are usually decisions i wish i had made better halfway thru a game like this anyhow.

it is an absolutely joy

having a hard time deciding if i want to buy this or dishonored

man dishonored sounds pretty fun but every time i buy a game b/c people are talking about thief and deus ex and system shock i get burned (a la fuckin bioshock or deus ex: human revolution).

x-com however has research trees, the greatest invention in the history of video games.

hahahah, SOLD

Yeah, I'd be quite happy with an Xcom tycoon sim. Setting up research departments, allocating force interception budgets, etc

C+P quote right there by adam

I played the demo for this last night. The gameplay is just like Valkyria Chronicles! Sold.

had my first almost-wipe out last night, half the team dead - and thus i chickened out and reloaded. around when you get to month 3, the missions get much more stacked and finances start to get tight

This game is dope. I've barely played any kind of tactical turned based game like this but I'm totally into it.

i just did the first alien base assault. 22 aliens killed, 2 of my guys wounded, none killed. and now i finally have some cash to spend! satellites! sadly i already lost russia :(

cosign about this game, it rocks. Also got burnt after assuming it had autosave :( learned my lesson now. About 5 hrs into the game. The turn-based combat makes it leisurely, but the Zimmer-esque music and snazzy graphics make it seem really propulsive. Great game for weed toilet breaks.

What happens if I turn down a rescue mission cos it looks like all my dudes are gonna be killed? Does the nation in question get pissy and withdraw funding or is it more subtle than that?

pretty much, their terror level goes up, if it's in the red at the end of the month, they withdraw from the project

tried a base assault and got completely mercilessly slaughtered; making sure to come in with full armor and better guns next time

Really digging this - I've played a game to my complete destruction, so I've started again to use what I've learned. Difficulty curve is pretty steep, but not in a bad way.

I haven't restarted yet. I'm trying to switch up my tactics so the grunts are on the front line and my more seasoned people are further back. I've already lost a few of my more veteran soldiers, which makes you rethink your approach for sure.

rookies are always great fodder; cheaper than the mini-tanks, and the ones that survive get promoted

I'm definitely using more rookies in the future. Most of my A team just got killed by those double hardcore tanky aliens.

Started playing this yesterday and had grfeat fun until my computer froze and then would no longer turn on. OH GOOD BECAUSE I CAN DEFINITELY AFFORD TO FIX MY COMPUTER RIGHT NOW

This QT3 review is a tad overclever, but pretty good, in mostly hammering what's happened between 1994 and 2012 (so old)

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/10/16/the-xcom-enemy-unknown-review-that-took-18-years-to-write/

while i'm link spamming why not the The PA Report's enthusiast take

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/xcom-is-a-gamble-on-a-hardcore-genre-and-there-is-more-riding-on-its-succes

this is great!

Anyone who chooses to play multiplayer: I highly recommend adding a flying saucer to your squad. Total bargain.

haven't even thought about mp tbh - it's good?

It isn't robust or anything, but if you want to play a quick, evenly-matched game against another person it's pretty fun.

tech tree:

http://xcom.nexusmods.com/images/5534167-1350750176.jpg

apparently, pc mods are out for this already

nice, guess i'm close to the end (of this playthrough)

have they said anything about a mac version yet?!

Dammit, getting close enough to taze a dude is annoying

Giving some of my dudes the brush-haired classic squaddie 'do with facial hair amuses me as it looks like I'm going into battle with Questlove as my sniper

Yeah, I get pissed off when your advisers complain about you killing an alien rather than stunning it - would be nice to be able to draft them, give them a stunner and let them try.

I enjoy the base mgmt and researchy bits. Then again, I love Kairosoft games.

I'd pay money for just an "Xcom Tycoon" game, come to think of it.

Also, I just noticed that each research item/project has a code name. Awesome.

It's amazing, the technology tree is THE single most tempting aspect of this game I've seen yet. Maybe I'll hit this up over Christmas break or something.

the "countries decide not to fund you anymore" is some bullshit. we got fuckin' pulse rifles and the ability to take live captures, what the fuck you got?

a better explanation might have been "countries are too panicked to allocate funds anymore due to etc etc etc"

I mean, I get the gameplay reason why they did it, I just wish they woulda justified it better

HA! There's a Voynich Manuscripts ref in here!

The defunding from countries was always stupid in the original, seems like it could work with just a little more window-dressing, some SimCity style fake newspapers that suggest the country is gradually coming under the sway of head-in-the-sand isolationist parties insisting that the UFO crisis is being overstated, or asking why our President is sending good Russian blood and treasure off to fight a war that has barely impacted Asia yet, or whatever. Then a few turns later the newsfeed could tell you that the Russian President had lost his re-election bid, then a little after that the funding gets cut....something. But maybe this would be a drag on the game's pace. There could just be a news ticker running across the bottom of the screen, no dialogue boxes as such.

Exactly, and they already use newstickers to relay plot-relevant info after you've finished a mission

There's definitely more set up in the original game about this - i remember there was a lot of talk about alien infiltrators, government subversion, increased terror attacks/abductions etc. It was pretty cool because if you noticed a country was increasingly hostile, you could set up a patrol or base there and often see the increased UFO activity to match, sometimes finding an alien base as well. I don't know if the new game considers this stuff, more likely it's simply the terror meter.

Dammit, getting close enough to taze a dude is annoying

How the hell do you plan for this? I either give everyone a stunner and then everyone gets taken out because I don't have enough grenades, or only one guy has a stunner, inw which case they're invariably the other side of the battlefield when an opportunity for stunning arises.

And in any case, if I try to get to close, I get mullered, especially since anything less than 60% hit-rate results in an automatic miss. No wonder everyone's withdrawing funding, these chancers can't shoot an alien that's standing 4ft in front of them.