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The evolution of The Bureau


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How can any of you say you would rather play the game they originally pitched??? This isn't about originality, it's about an X-Com game that STILL DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THE HYPHEN!!!

 

Seriously, if they can't even spell the name right after so long in development there will NEVER be any hope for this game. Especially after the excellent effort that was the recent Firaxis turn-based strategy game...

 

You do realise the Firaxis game does not have the hyphen, either, right?

 

We should be absolutely delighted that 2K are heeding the fan community and at least TRYING to make amends for their blasphemy but instead, even the people who cursed the original release are now saying it's a shame they changed it?!?! And let me point out that changing to a TPS still doesn't make it a strategy game, it just makes a slightly more turn-based FPS...

 

They are not aiming at making a strategy game, they never were, but they did change it from a straight FPS, to a tactical shooter, at least that's their reported intention; but never was the term "strategy game" used to refer to this game by any party.

 

So they're listening, sort of... What difference has it made so far?

 

Issues resolved?

Sectoids are in the game now along with other recognisable foes

Wierd black ghosty monsters are possibly gone?

There are attempts to tie this into actual X-Com timeline and Mythos (even though there shouldn't be)

 

Issues unresolved?

No base management, save for research and personnel

The aliens only invade America (as usual...)

Highly developed shield and plasma technology is introduced forty years before UFO, but they lose it all...

The initial invasion devastates large parts of the US but goes completely unnoticed by EVERYBODY ELSE

The stupid black obelisks and weapon systems are still in, despite a genuine UFO being shown in the teaser

Only fielding a 3 man team (with a roster maximum of 8) against possibly dozens of aliens

Everything else not mentioned so far...

 

"Unresolved issue" sounds like it's a problem; the points you made are not problems, are design decisions about how the game is to be played

, they are not incorrect, or bugs, or anything, just not of your liking. Also, let's wait and see the possible ingame explaination as to why they "lose" all technology by the beginning of XCOM: EU.

And I liked the initial black goo aliens concepts.

 

One of the things that REALLY bugs me is that they go so far as to say the alien invasion was DEVASTATING and every single battlefield in the game is completely devoid of human life. But then they try and tie it into the original mythos? How? Was every shred of evidence of the invasion miraculously destroyed everywhere all at once? And all of the decimated American towns were suddenly rebuilt and their slaughtered inhabitants revived? Really? Noone who saw or heard any of this stuff survived? Or even wrote something down? Phone call to a loved one? Telegram to colleague in scientific community? Possibly PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY???

 

Not only is it absurd to imagine such a crippling invasion going completely unnoticed in the rest of the world, it's also illogical that such a serious extraterrestrial attack would fail to cross the borders into even Canada and Mexico, let alone cross any oceans (in their intergalactic spacecraft...)

 

On top of all of this nonsense, there are also the strange and seemingly immensely powerful obelisk weapons that just seem to be discontinued by the invading aliens in favour of floaters by the time they invade again in the 90s... What happened to the Mutons too? After the invasion failed in the 60s and they realised that only the heavily armoured plasma powered ape-monsters had actually had any success at all, they must have decided to do away with the armour and growth hormones in favour of a skin tight green onesie...

 

Again, you're ranting about things you do not know, unless you've played the game and we don't know about it? I prefer to be disappointed by the actual game rather than by speculations (like Aliens: CM did! :)).

 

Seriously I could rant about this all day. Sure, they listened to the fans hating on the game, but not to WHY the fans are hating! We weren't screaming out for you to add sectoids, change the era or move the camera. We just wanted you to release the game WITHOUT THE XCOM NAME ON IT!!! At least in 2010 we could all accept that it just wasn't even remotely X-Com and the name on the box was just a typo. Now though? They've gone out of their way to include recognisable aliens and link it into the pre-existing X-Com universe. But they've done such a half-arsed job of it they would've been better off doing nothing at all! All they needed to do was CHANGE THE NAME!!!

 

What is this game even meant to be a prequel too by the way? I presume the Firaxis one? In which case forget the onesie comment... In actual fact though I don't really care that much if it's only trying to tie in with the new re imagining. That means it isn't trying to sully the original franchise after all!

 

And for what it's worth, I don't think this game will be even remotely comparable to Enforcer. No it wasn't even the least bit tactical and had nothing at all in common with the original. But you know what it was? Canon... Like it or not, Enforcer DID happen in the X-Com universe... There are a lot of people out there (possibly a majority) who refuse to acknowledge Enforcer as a true X-Com title but the truth is, we don't get to decide that. The people who own the rights do... Right now it seems the people who own the rights are incompetent and unsympathetic buffoons. They should've cancelled this game years ago and just used the assets elsewhere. It'll no doubt still be an entertaining game (as it would've been for different reasons in 2010) but it STILL won't be an X-Com game...

 

The same as you don't get to decide that this game occurs in the XCOM timeline or not, this will be canon once released. Enforcer was a ridiculous and pointless piece of shit, but according to the people who owns the rights, it's X-COM, and it's canon, so there.

 

I still fail to see anyone's point as to why an FPS, or tactical shooter, can't be X-Com because it's not strategy. There is an XCOM universe, and I don't see why waste the potential on just strategy games, shooters are not inferior genres, just different, and can contribute to the XCOM universe from their perspective.

I enjoyed Interceptor back then, and I was dying to play Alliance, I still think this game can be a nice addition to the franchise, and help boost it.

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Doom, DoOM, DOOM! rolleyes.gif

 

Geez, your rant is verging on Pod's psychotic manifesto about how Dave Ellis killed X-COM. jester.gif Brilliant! tongue.png

 

My vote is that The Bureau will be better than Enforcer. I mean, it's gotta be! wink.png

 

- Zombie

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Not to be pedantic but the hyphen was made officially part of the organisation name from TFTD onwards. The first game didn't have the hyphen. So the Firaxis remake and this prequel side story of epic devastation that's just a footnote later on have the name correct. We can start grumbling if and when they get to the TFTD-esque era. ;)

 

-NKF

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Not to be pedantic but the hyphen was made officially part of the organisation name from TFTD onwards. The first game didn't have the hyphen. So the Firaxis remake and this prequel side story of epic devastation that's just a footnote later on have the name correct. We can start grumbling if and when they get to the TFTD-esque era. wink.png

 

Euro versions, sure. Those didn't have the hyphen. However, I have 20 or so boxes of the American version/Japan PSX version that would like to have a word with you in a dark alley. They have that mysterious hyphen plastered all over them - inside and out. The hyphen was just not standardized until TFTD and onwards, when everything and their mother's uncle had it (chalk that up to a brilliant branding/marketing campaign).sorcerer.gif

 

Is the Euro version wrong for not including it? Nope. But it automatically gets branded with the hyphen anyway due to standardization. tongue.png

 

If/when a TFTD reimagined/remake comes out (or heck, a sequel), I'll bet dollars to donuts that it will not have the hyphen. See, the new versions will adopt the name without the hyphen as their standard. wink.png

 

Do I like this? No. I would have preferred the devs stuck with the original nomenclature to standardize and strengthen the X-COM brand name even more. Another reason why I don't like the change is that the Firaxis and/or the devs never really answered the question of why the hyphen had to go in the first place. I'm guessing it's one of two things:

  1. They wanted to make the new version stand out as their own (aka ownership).
  2. They didn't feel worthy of the hyphen and left it out out of respect for the original.

- Zombie

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Chicken and egg situation isn't it? Packaging and manuals is fair game I guess. But in-game, there aren't a lot of hyphenated references.

 

Not sure about the reason for the drop of the hyphen, but I suspect it may be similar to the way some supermarkets are slowly starting to drop the capital in their shop names. Just you wait, in time it will no longer be hip or cool to say XCOM, It'll be xcom. ;)

 

What is so magical in the hypen? It doesn't throw sparkles or ponnies does it?

 

It summons a portal to the world of cheese mongers. And, well, I guess it somewhat defines the break between the two words that make up the name. Let's also not forget the humble dot. The dot has made the occasional appearance in the series, but has never had the same recognition as the hyphen.

 

- NKF

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I approached 2K Marin and offered the team a chance to set the record straight, and to explain just how tactical The Bureau really is. Creative director Morgan Gray was more than happy to discuss these concerns and to speak freely about the game’s tactical nuances that you haven’t yet seen in action.

 

::

 

Learn all that VG 24/7's Dave Cook managed to have declassified in this article.

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To focus on:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ishckKM31Go

 

::

 

Also, there's confirmation from 2K Games that the first DLC pack for The Bureau is to be exclusive to Xbox 360 given pre-order of the the game.

 

https://www.ozgameshop.com/product_images/pc_and_video_games/games/xbox_360/the_bureau_xcom_declassified_raw.jpg

 

In "Codebreakers", a bonus side mission, Special Agent Carter & squad are to investigate what happened to a comms interception facility that has stopped responding to calls from HQ and deal with whatever is going on.

 

Edit: an additional bauble...

 

(...) those who pre-order The Bureau through GAME will receive the Light Plasma Pistol as an exclusive in-game item. Early Bureau research into outsider weapons technology has yielded promising results in the form of a prototype light plasma pistol. Not as bulky as its Outsider predecessor, this compact weapon fires condensed bolts of plasma and boasts a vastly improved rate-of-fire, giving players an early edge in the secret war for humanity’s survival.

 

:killcrazed::plasma:

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The atmospheric screens below are from the Codebreakers DLC, also featuring a certain hi-tech pistol...

 

Shedding some light

https://cdn1.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/8472729/2KG_TheBureauXD_Codebreakers_2.jpg

 

The famed Light Plasma pistol

https://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/8472727/2KG_TheBureauXD_LightPlasmaPistol.jpg

 

How can he sleep at a time like this?

https://cdn1.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/8472737/2KG_TheBureauXD_Codebreakers_3.jpg

 

Lost in transmission

https://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/8472723/2KG_TheBureauXD_Codebreakers_1.jpg

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