XCOM E3 Previews are in!

[Azrael Strife]

E3 previews from the demo are coming in, and they are exciting!

 

X-COM, the original, was a game about fending off a wide-scale alien invasion of Earth in two very different but interlocked ways. On the high level, you built bases, researched new technology and trained a high-tech army. On the low level, you dispatched a squad of armed operatives to the scene of an alien sighting and then oversaw the resulting shooty-bang-bang directly. Again, it's about coming up with a plan - and then seeing if that plan works, often in brutally unforgiving circumstances.

 

In XCOM (by the way, could you pay attention to the hyphenage? I'm getting bored of writing "the original" every time), you already have the base. The timeline moves from the near future to the 1950s, and specifically America. As FBI Agent Carter, you're heading up the new XCOM unit, a specialist and beyond-secret initiative to investigate and counteract suspected alien activity on Earth.

 

To do this, you need to come up with a plan in your subterranean base: research new technology, build new weapons, and monitor the airwaves and phone lines of America for signs of Otherness. If something dodgy is found, it appears on the map in your office. It's up to you to go investigate - or not. Much of the game will not be linear, instead allowing you to pick and choose missions based on how important you think they are. For instance, one report might tell of suspect animal attacks. Snap to, Agent. Time for a bit of role-playing.

 

Link to the previews from the 2K Games XCOM Blog

 

I am more excited about this game than ever!

[chiasaur11]

Well, here's hoping.

[Bomb Bloke]

I suddenly find myself wondering just how often "animal tracks" will turn out to be... animals.

 

Drew starts off the presentation by saying "first, I'll show you the XCOM that you know," as Harvey leads the character through the XCOM base. Then, Drew says, "now I'll show you the XCOM that you don't know," and mayhem ensues.

So far everything we know about XCOM is outside the base.

[Matri]

Very nicely sums it up for me.

[Azrael Strife]

This game will be awesome!

[chiasaur11]

Very nicely sums it up for me.

 

But here's the problem.

 

You make a strategy game, you need to, somehow, be better than X-Com at its own game (Dang hard), AND you need to, somehow, appeal to a totally different audience.

 

And, lets say for the sake of the argument, you somehow pull a miracle, and do it. Guess what?

 

Every change will still lead to some degree of whining. Not from as wide a group, maybe, but...

 

Or, you can try something different. Which has better odds of doing something different from X-Com but worthwhile, and way better odds of appealing to console jockies.

 

Not that I wouldn't want a good turn based strategy game. Why I'm following news on Xenonauts.

 

But, really, thinking it was the more likely option is a tiny bit naive at best and, in the hopefully much rarer worst case scenario, shockingly arrogant.

 

We get what we get, and don't buy if it's #$#*.

 

Here's hoping this ain't.

[Matri]

...SNIP...

Right, I'm not going to use any of the expletives that come to mind at you. That being said, I couldn't care less that this game is an FPS. In fact, I'd welcome an FPS X-Com, after the non-appearance of Alliance. And nowhere did I ever call or think that this game is, as you so eloquently put it, "#$#*".

 

But what I object to is you twisting my words to make it sound like I did.

 

Let me make myself clear on this: I object to calling this game XCOM when it is very blatantly not. X-Files? All the elements are there. BioShock? Hell, it almost looks like a prequel. An original IP franchise? Knock yourselves out! But X-Com? This ain't even close.

 

Developers always promise the moon and then some. They have to in order to con the higher-ups into holding on to their money a little less tightly. And that's why I never look at words. Words mean nothing. Developer promises should always be taken with a pinch of salt. If they were 100% true we would have been made John Romero's bitch (pardon my French) and playing Duke Nukem Forever a decade ago.

 

You want to win me over? Don't tell me what you want to do, show me what you can do. And so far all I've seen is a love affair with slime and a gross misunderstanding of what we know of X-Com by Harvey Whitney and Drew Smith. By the way, a 50's replica kitchen complete with linoleum, refrigerator, even a 50's era food mixer and chairs, and then a flatscreen TV? I know it's to introduce a game but you couldn't have stuffed it inside a prop 50's CRT?

 

So we agree to disagree. That's our right on a public forum. I stand by my opinions, and I will either be proven depressingly right or pleasantly wrong, and I will accept the outcome.

 

But don't ever put your words into my mouth.

[Bomb Bloke]

Flat-screen TV? The only one in the trailer I can see is a CRT...

 

I fully agree that anything we don't see in a trailer should be ignored.

[Pete]

Let's calm down a bit here folks please.

[Matri]

I meant their booth at the convention.

 

Someone at Marketing remembered the linoleum and even the light fixture.

[Azrael Strife]

I meant their booth at the convention.

 

Someone at Marketing remembered the linoleum and even the light fixture.

God, you're complaining about that too?

[Matri]

God, you're complaining about that too?

*sigh* I was pointing out the incongruousness of it.

[gunnergoz]

Whatever this game is or says it is, it is most definitely not X-Com. It may be a takeoff on that game, a ripoff of that title or a jerkoff by marketing weenies, but it is not something I will buy, since I only want a strategic/tactical squad combat game in the same manner as the original. I resent all the marketing hype that tries to depict the game as something it isn't.

Calling something a duck, doesn't make it quack.

[Matri]

Hmm. From the RPS interview:

RPS: Are they quite thematically linked in terms of visuals, or will they be a loose collective of different species, as in the first game?

 

We can't talk too much about the specifics of each one, but the overall approach, yes, we want to have consistency.

 

RPS: In terms of referencing the original X-COM, are you are going to leave most of the story stuff behind. I saw there were a few little references like the car was called the Interceptor, and stuff like that, but will we expect to see returning enemies or anything like that?

 

We're forging a new mythology, but what we're retaining is the core elements that made X-COM X-COM; the strategy, the base, the research, agents, all of those things being in charge, and dealing with this problem as you see fit. You are the one that's driving the investigation, those elements remain but we want to create a new world with a new set of enemies that's genuinely compelling for players to learn more about.

 

RPS: It's definitely not a prequel?

 

No.

 

...

 

RPS: They may just be glad that it's not Enforcer 2.

 

That

[Azrael Strife]

Quote overload! I still think this game is X-Com and everything I read about it only makes it sound more awesome and exciting. Thanks for posting that interview, that makes me more hopeful

[chiasaur11]

Quote overload! I still think this game is X-Com and everything I read about it only makes it sound more awesome and exciting. Thanks for posting that interview, that makes me more hopeful

 

I know.

 

You might be able to shoot hats off! Maybe! Possibly!

 

(Oh, and reading all available media, it seems one bad shot will waste your buddies. Promising! Means shotgun goo removal is a bad choice even when it's the only choice.)

[Space Voyager]

Quote overload! I still think this game is X-Com and everything I read about it only makes it sound more awesome and exciting. Thanks for posting that interview, that makes me more hopeful

Same here!

[Matri]

(Oh, and reading all available media, it seems one bad shot will waste your buddies. Promising! Means shotgun goo removal is a bad choice even when it's the only choice.)

 

Sacrilege. Why shoot when you can kill it with fire!!

[Pete]

Can't we just reason with them for a change?

[sluissa]

I have to wonder why so many of the site staff are so quick to defend a game we know so little about and that what we do know about it promises nothing from the old series except based on the vague words of a developer.

 

I hope we aren't seeing some of this.

 

As for my opinion, I have to agree with Matri.

[Pete]

As I've said earlier in the thread, I'm reserving judgement til we know more. People are allowed to be excited and have fheir opinion as are those who aren't happy with it.

 

We can't all slag it off/'defend' it tirelessly til release date until we know more anyway. So far we know very little indeed aside from the fact it's a reboot set in re 50's and there are at least two types of alien. And a base. And agents. That's the short version of what we know, not much to defend so far, but peoe are free to be optimistic even if many think it shouldn't be called XCOM.

[chiasaur11]

As I've said earlier in the thread, I'm reserving judgement til we know more. People are allowed to be excited and have fheir opinion as are those who aren't happy with it.

 

We can't all slag it off/'defend' it tirelessly til release date until we know more anyway. So far we know very little indeed aside from the fact it's a reboot set in re 50's and there are at least two types of alien. And a base. And agents. That's the short version of what we know, not much to defend so far, but peoe are free to be optimistic even if many think it shouldn't be called XCOM.

 

Generally, I agree.

 

But they did mention one other thing that I think is worthy of study. The whole escalation mechanic, if pulled off right, is one of the most intriguing risk/reward systems in the last five years of gaming.

 

Of course, it could fail utterly, but that bit?

 

It's the one thing that I'm really interested in on its own merits.

[Azrael Strife]

I have to wonder why so many of the site staff are so quick to defend a game we know so little about and that what we do know about it promises nothing from the old series except based on the vague words of a developer.

 

I hope we aren't seeing some of this.

 

As for my opinion, I have to agree with Matri.

I have to wonder why so many people bash an unreleased game, as well From what I read, the two people "defending" it are SV and myself, but if you read our posts carefully, they don't really defend XCOM, they say "Wow, looks nice, could be fun!, let's wait and see before we either call it crap or pure awesomeness".

[chiasaur11]

I have to wonder why so many people bash an unreleased game, as well From what I read, the two people "defending" it are SV and myself, but if you read our posts carefully, they don't really defend XCOM, they say "Wow, looks nice, could be fun!, let's wait and see before we either call it crap or pure awesomeness".

 

Well, I tend to agree with that position.

 

Could be good.

 

Could, unfortunately, be a bit lame.

 

Waiting and seeing's the thing at present, yeah?

[Azrael Strife]

Well, I tend to agree with that position.

 

Could be good.

 

Could, unfortunately, be a bit lame.

 

Waiting and seeing's the thing at present, yeah?

Could be horribly awful, too, but so far I feel that will not be the case, neither a bit lame, but that's just a feeling and hope