New XCOM trailer

[Thorondor]

2K Quote:

 

"The '90s generation of gamers all love Xcom and we own the IP, so we thought OK, what do we do with it? Every studio we had wanted to do it and each one had its own spin on it. But the problem was that turn-based strategy games were no longer the hottest thing on planet Earth. But this is not just a commercial thing

[Space Voyager]

Ok, strategy games not being contemporary is something I CAN NOT agree with. I'm ok with X-COM taking another genres, but this is one non-excuse. The amount of strategy titles only Paradox publishes (and Thorondor tracks down) is astounding, and a lot of strategy series are all-times-best-off. Meh, I better stop.

[Pete]

2K Quote:

 

"The '90s generation of gamers all love Xcom and we own the IP, so we thought OK, what do we do with it? Every studio we had wanted to do it and each one had its own spin on it. But the problem was that turn-based strategy games were no longer the hottest thing on planet Earth. But this is not just a commercial thing – strategy games are just not contemporary." says 2K Games president Christoph Hartmann. "I use the example of music artists. Look at someone old school like Ray Charles, if he would make music today it would still be Ray Charles but he would probably do it more in the style of Kanye West. Bringing Ray Charles back is all fine and good, but it just needs to move on, although the core essence will still be the same."

 

"That’s what we are trying to do. To renew Xcom but in line with what this generation of gamers want. The team behind it is asking themselves every day: 'Is it true to the values of the franchise?' It's not a case of cashing in on the name. We just need to renew it because times are changing."

::

 

Read the rest of the 2K-centered interview here.

 

Definitely don't agree with that. They're changing it for a generation that for the most part don't even know what the original was and not listening to what the "old" generation want. Pretty much everyone who listens to music has heard at least of the name "Ray Charles", but not many gamers in the grand scheme of things have heard of X-COM.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'll still reserve final judgement until the game is released, but decoding that quote comes across as "we want to appeal to today's audience, and if the old timers are still in on it then that's cool but not essential".

 

You would think that the success, however niche, of the UFO After... series, Silent Storm, Jagged Alliance and smaller titles like UFO: ET would be enough to make them go for a strategy title. In fact the Civilization series and even the aging SimCity series should show that strategy games can make a lot of money even now.

 

strategy games are just not contemporary

 

I would think that companies like Paradox Interactive and Matrix Games might perhaps find that a tad insulting, to name but a few contemporary strategy game studios/publishers who make a living on and are passionate about this genre.

 

Don't diss the game's roots, even unintentionally. It's a bad move Christoph if you do indeed want to keep us veterans on board.

 

Oh, and fancy an interview? We have asked several times, and 2K has ignored. Not that I'm saying we're more important than anyone else, we've just been covering X-COM for over a decade so it'd be nice to even get a read receipt on those emails we've sent.

[Pete]

And not to poke fun, but here's a quote from the same interview with Christoph Hartmann:

 

WHY BIOSHOCK 2 UNDERPERFORMED Next year

[Sunflash]

While I will continue to withhold judgment pending actual release, 2K is slowly climbing the rank of companies I have less interest in giving money to...

[silencer_pl]

New XCOm 20 minutes playthrough movie with commentary. Recorded on Xbox I see.

[Space Voyager]

I like it.

[Azrael Strife]

Can't wait to play it

 

I would have preferred, however, field agents wearing something more dignified, they look like accountants.

[Bomb Bloke]

1:40 - "As Agent Carter, that's what you're fighting for... That child's family and thousands of others like it are the stakes etc" - As opposed to, "As the Commander of X-COM, that's what you're fighting for... the whole world!"

 

The people in the base, when the player talks to them, sorta bob around as if they're being controlled by a drunken marionette player...

 

It's nice to finally see the agent management system! Not so nice to see the lack of stats for them...

 

5:22 - "When we played the original X-COM games, we felt almost overwhelmed with choices in between missions..." - Arrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh... Yup, they didn't even think about the "what to do when not shooting stuff" side of the game until the flaming started. Shoulda played more sandbox games.

 

The map looks odd - seems you have to fight your way across America, Syndicate style. Only here you're supposed to save the world, not conquer it.

 

He does a reasonable job of hinting that "yes, there's a complex story here", but without spoiling any of it. Other then, you know, telling us what the aliens are... Hope that doesn't mean they're not all that relevant to the story.

 

In battle, the player has clearly done the rounds in this mission a fair few times already - I know I'm not a dedicated FPS player, but the speed he reacts to things like the first few corpses really threw me. I also wouldn't think to avoid things like the giant bus of flaming death... Would be interesting to see what happens if you don't dodge. Instant death? Or is it just a big scripted event that only goes off when you're out of the way? Which reminds me, the player seems to have no form of health bar?

 

The agent comments are... weird. "What the hell happened here?" - This ain't your first mission buddy, if you haven't cottened on by now then you haven't really earned that next level yet...

 

The tactical view looks promising. Hate to imagine how flat the game would be without it (keep in mind it's a "revision"), though.

 

The bit where he flanks the guys with the shield is... weird. They turn so the shield aims at him, ignoring the TWO guys who should've promptly blown them away. Instead, the aliens come to no harm until he convinces them to point the shield at his allies... Yup, that's teamwork, I suppose...

 

Commentator's blabbing on about the "flank", but it was up to the player to gun down all the aliens...

 

He runs on, encounters an army of aliens. Yup, three dudes in office-wear versus a re-enforced position filled with alien grunts! But it's all good, 'cause our guys have regen, apparently. And can keep running while being shot. Too bad for the military, guess they didn't have those perks. Yeah, the shield gizmo helped, but the team should've been cut down before they ever reached cover, charging up like that while taking hits...

 

It's vexing to see only one alien gun dropped by the hordes he takes down (though the camera angles make it hard to see if that's really was the only one - the player never checked the bodies, and that gun just happened to be in his way). It's certainly the case that many of the guns just seemed to de-spawn. I was about ready to head-desk at the agent comment when he picked it up - "That is one heck of a weapon!" - clearly it's not, unarmored X-COM agents soak up shots from it like they're nothing....

 

... Followed by a "How in the hell are we supposed to fight that thing?!", shouted out before "that thing" has even appeared and made itself obvious as a threat (they didn't complain about the earlier terra-forming, which could've frankly looked more dangerous to me)... When the player DOES start to take "burn" damage, beats me as to how he knows it! The "titan", when captured, naturally does way more damage to the aliens then it does to player squad - the player takes a shot to the face from it and can still happily run around.

 

So um yeah.

 

Verdict! It's a COD rip, as Greywalker suggested. I really do think the guys running the project know this and are embarrassed about it, so I suppose I can give 'em points for trying.

[Jman4117]

New XCOm 20 minutes playthrough movie with commentary. Recorded on Xbox I see.

 

Oh..the torture! XD

[silencer_pl]

BB, it was presentation, so I guess the devs had some easy settings just to show the game, it was on XBox, so again they had some auto help.

 

You know if you are lucky + you can use god mode named load/save in original X-Com you could win the game with one soldier

 

Plus you can't satisfy everyone

 

I say it looks nice although it is blasphemy on the series.

[Space Voyager]

New interview at Gamespot.

[Bomb Bloke]

Is it just an unfounded sense of optimism, or is that body armour at 2:12 and 4:35?

 

Well, I suppose the 4:35 shot is just more of that rubbish the agents strap to themselves for their "perks", but surely they're gonna have some real armour at some point, right?

 

... Right?!

[Space Voyager]

I would hope so... The clerkish look of the agents is what bothers me the most (with the time setting) and covering it up with armours would be just great.

 

I don't recall hearing a damn thing about it though. Also I can't say I can recognize any armour at the times you listed, it seems as the extra equipment some agents are wearing on their backs. Those probably enable the special abilities agents have, like disabling alien equipment.

[Pete]

I think in the first one BB mentioned it's on the wall in the background toward the left of shot, and in the second one BB mentioned there's something in the dark on the far-right of the shot that looks like it could be armour to me.

 

I would hope that they do get armour and that they just don't want to spoil things by uncovering the entire tech tree just yet. Half of the fun of X-COM on your first playthrough is seeing what weird and wonderful things the guys in the lab are going to come up with next and I always found it very satisfying when researching a single topic would lead to 5 more things to research

[silencer_pl]

... but surely they're gonna have some real armour at some point, right?

 

... Right?!

 

 

Armour is for pussies

[Bomb Bloke]

Armour is to aid my ailing suspension of disbelief. Still haven't gotten over the bit where the guy takes the titan cannon to the face...

 

That thing was supposed to be the big scary death-dealer players would have to retreat from, to force you to leave while the going was still good. Watching the guy be minorly inconvenienced by a dead-on shot from it blows all that away. Can't help but wonder whether all it's effectiveness is gonna come from scripting.

 

In the original games, assuming the unlikely case where a soldier would survive something like that, they'd take speed/accuracy/etc penalties until they received medical attention, and if they didn't get it they'd probably bleed out within seconds.

 

Still, I was thinking about it last night, and it dawned on me that the answer to all this is quite simple: They're not making an X-COM game at all! The small teams, the suits... this game will demonstrate how the MIB got started!!

[silencer_pl]

You know in original X-Com a soldier could survive heavy plasma shot with no armour (sectoids too) and no damage taken.

 

Remember that on easy level thigs might look different on pro veteran level

[Bomb Bloke]

Yeah, they could take a glancing shot if the dice were right. Quite possible to take 0%. But, um, I doubt it was a random coincidence in that trailer.

 

Guess you're right, settings may well have something to do with that, so I guess we'll see.

[Greywalker Zero]

I want to make this very clear: 2K are taking the piss - bare with me and I shall explain.

 

It's all very well the narrator assuring us, AGAIN, that everyone at 2K Marin, LIKE HIM, is a massive RPG geek with a metric fuckton of respect for the original XCOM series when everything points to them being the antithesis of it.

In my experience, the average 'RPG Geek' have very specific qualities that tend to stand out from the general population (ie. non RPG Geeks ): namely, they're quite creative, generally very perceptive, adapt to game / mathematical systems with uncanny speed and, last but by no means least, are incredibly imaginitive to the point where some of them will be creating game systems on the fly, developping character profiles and story elements simultaneously, effecting system changes outside of the essential rule perogative and, ultimately, coming up with something beautiful and unique even when making a tribute to somethat has already gone before.

Why? Because a Geek LOVES what they do - it's not just a hobby, it's a way of life and a means to express their most intrinsic desires and personalities (no matter how much of a fuck they happen to be! ).

 

I'm saying this now because I want you to understand why I'm toning down the rant that's NOT coming and why I'm going to keep this as objective as possible. And why I won't be paying full price for the game. And why, if I pick it up at all, it will be for the most pathetic amount of my hard earned money. That's assuming I just don't boycott this PoS.

 

[Observation Mode]

 

I take it back, it's not a CoD rip off, it's a Mass Effect 1 rip off with somethjing that can't be too far shy of a coding plagerism of Fall Out 3's VATS system renamed as 'Time Units'. That's just for starters.

 

That mission screen was abyssmal: As BombBloke points out, not one of those characters on screen could keep still for more than a second, right down to the gaming stereotype woman handing out the mission - she really needs to go to the toilet and get that thrush sorted out!

I wonder how often, later in the game, we're going to walk in to that orchestrated testing session with flamboyantly unpredicatble weaponry? Every other mission, perhaps, or is that too obvious?

 

Then there's the Agent Experience screen. Really? Are you telling me that the only difference between the one in that gameplay demo and the one in Mass Effect 2 is actually ANY different? I hope not, otherwise the ridicule will start to fly.

 

The second part that made me want to hurt someone at 2K Marin came up as they showed us the Mission Board, as the narrator tried to convince us that with the original XCOM games it could get a little 'overwhelming' with all of the missions and their locations. Really? How so? Is it because it was on a global scale? Was it because there could be more than 5 on the trot if you got gang-banged by a half-dozen saucers? Or was it because the missions didn't follow an OBVIOUS and entirely linnear pattern like the new XCOM? I'm still at a loss on that one...

 

And then there's the actual mission they have decided to show us...

 

Let's start with the pitiful SkyRanger nod. Firstly, if there an FPS now that DOESN'T have a chopper flight scene? No? Hmmm.

How about the feeble Ghostbusters nod with the two of them checking each others packs?

Don't get me started on the dialogue - I spend a lot of time writing (does it show? ) and what those characters say during the mission is quite simply moronic. As pointed out earlier, these characters have apparently seen a woman defragment in a video clip and a giant fractal cannon appear out of nowhere and annihlated some dude and a car: 'What's going on here?' is the kind of thing you'd expect from a B-Movie cop or a Star Trek Red Shirt who's about to get turned in to 10m long smear of salsa. How about some dynamic dialogue? Something that tells me that these characters are weathered professionals who have seen human violence enough to recognise a shoot-out in a tent before? Maybe? Hmmm....

 

So much for the sandbox-esque mission profile they suggested over a year ago; that looked about as linear as Bioshock 1.

Add to that the circumstantial events - while the flaming bus was pretty, in a cartoony sort of way, again I can't help but wonder if BombBloke is bang on the money about it being a scripted event. If so, and keeping in mind that most of the events in the Bioshock games are ALL scripted, it's fair to assume that, players have an odd tendancy to be looking the OTHER WAY when shit goes down because they were attracted to something else (usually a big gun and ammo, in my case).

Let's also not forget that stick-scenery first gun fight with the flanking position and the number of times we've seen that. Brothers at Arms, the early CoD, First to Fight, Mass Effect, another Us Army advertising game I can't remember the name of right now... We've seen this over and over again and, while an effective strategy, it's not something you use as the advertising ploy to confirm it AS a strategy game: the player will be doing this anyway because they've played ALL the OTHER FPSs on the market.

It's also during this fire-fight that we see the Mass Effect rip as clearly as day (assuming you're not blind, but then, you'd not likely be playing computer games if you were blind, but you get my point...). Time comes to a NEAR halt, providing the player a chance to determine what his 'strategy' is going to be and to order his 'left and right fist' to use their special abilities. As we can see on the Character Experience Board, these characters won't get any more than 4 abilities (just like in Mass Efffect 2) which grow in effect each level (just like in Mass Effect 2) over the subsequent 4 levels of capped experience (just like in... oh, you get the gist...), and, unremarkably, is accessible on that skills wheel that operates under what is, assumably the EXACT same game mechanic and controller layout.

 

[/Observatrion Mode]

 

There's more I can point out, but I have to do some work today, so I'm going to give yo my final verdict:

2K Marin has made a game that has taken a game experience that was rated within the top 5 PC games of ALL TIME and dumbed it down for players with an IQ of 10 or less.

The arguement that it's a game designed for children is a load of shite because it's got scenes of graphic violence and horror and carrys a minimum of a 15 certifcate already (PEGI 16) and is likely to go up before release, so they're aiming this at people who actually MAY remember the original games.

The CEO of 2K is telling us that if Ray Charles was kicking out tunes today he'd be Kanye West? No he fucking wouldn't, he'd be Ray Charles: someone who COULD play an instrument, someone who COULD sing and, most of all, COULD write a song himself. So, given what we KNOW of Ray Charles, Kanye West, the original UFO Enemy Unknown / XCOM series and our inherent knowledge as a forum FULL OF RPG GEEKS we can summerise THREE facts without a hint of doubt:

 

1> 2K are about to release a game that is plagerising several other mainstream titles.

2> They have FAILED entirely to meet the expectations of the fan base that made the original franchise popular in the first place.

3> The CEO, the narrator and all of their game design, mechanic and concept staff are all full of shit.

 

Just my opinion, by the way...

[FullAuto]

Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

[silencer_pl]

Someone should take a deep breath and stop takeing everything seriuosly.

 

I can't deny some facts pointed, though I don't care about it, I will treat this game as any other casual game that I will play.

 

About script events, do tell me, what normal games don't have scripted events now ? I don't remember which game started the scripted events thing, but since them every major and pretendets to be major (specaily FPS) have scripted events - you must live with it.

 

About copying from other games, also above - there are plenty games that copy something from each other.

 

For example - Mafia ripped of from GTA - did someone care/complain ? No. Back then there was plenty of Wolf/Doom clones. Some of them were good, some were forgotten - did someone cared? No.

 

If you look deep enough you will find many other plagiarism, and still no one cares, no one sue it.

[Thorondor]

It's evident enough that this particular mission is scripted to kingdom come.

 

It could be that it's something that happens just in story missions, but I have a feeling there will be more than just a few of those.

 

The main problem with such missions is that there's a "wrong way" to do them and a "right way" to do them. Jump through the hoops or face the pain.

 

Known side-effects: repetition, frustration, er... keyboard mashing!

 

Still, we know these aren't the only kind of mission around.

 

In "Fetch The Elerium™" missions, or "Take A Picture, It Lasts Longer™" missions on the other hand, all they need to do is randomise the map, the location of the Elerium/target, and the spawned in baddies plus their 'loot drops'.

 

Likely a bit more 'sandboxy', but unfortunately potentially irksome too seeing as you know you're on a clock and it's rush hour time and again. The purported intention is to induce tension, so the longer you stay chances are the more spawns you'll get until you have to make a run for it or are turned into tiny rubik cubes of the weird variety...

 

Fortunately you're not alone. Two guardian angels partake in the proceedings.

 

Will our smartly-attired sidekicks Tweedledee and Tweedledum always behave and assist, or will they eventually get in your way, staring at the pretty lights in the sky as you struggle for dear life, screaming, yet without making a sound?

 

What happens, Agent Carter, when you die?

 

Ah, I see...

 

So, you don't.

 

Thank heavens!

 

Back to base, sweet base. Singular, secret, safe.

 

::

 

And so on, and so forth, as there's surely more to this than meets the eye. The truth is out there...

[silencer_pl]

Fortunately you're not alone. Two guardian angels partake in the proceedings.

 

Will our smartly-attired sidekicks Tweedledee and Tweedledum always behave and assist, or will they eventually get in your way, staring at the pretty lights in the sky as you struggle for dear life, screaming, yet without making a sound?

 

Too much negative energy

 

What happens, Agent Carter, when you die?

 

you die and you press magical immortal load (or you go back in time to the last checkpoint)

 

It's evident enough that this particular mission is scripted to kingdom come.

 

That is what hurts me the most. But I guess in each main plot missions in every game scripts are involved in tons.

[Bomb Bloke]

I don't mind a bit of scripting in the story missions. Heck, I didn't even whinge about the railroading. I'm just inclined to assume that all missions will be like the one we saw, but we'd need to see a fair few more gameplay videos in order to tell.

 

Worth noting that the original games did a really good job of avoiding scripted scenarios, and it's not like such things were uncommon even back then. Even in Apocalypse, the aliens ramp up their technology because you're starting to win, not because you finished story mission X.

 

Actually, come to think of it, Aftermath is probably a good example of scripting done right. I say that because it has "one of a kind" missions throughout, but they're so few and far between that I've no idea what triggered them. I'll have to play the rest of that series some day.

 

For example - Mafia ripped of from GTA - did someone care/complain ?

It would be nice if this one ripped off X-COM, though.

 

Will our smartly-attired sidekicks Tweedledee and Tweedledum always behave and assist, or will they eventually get in your way, staring at the pretty lights in the sky as you struggle for dear life, screaming, yet without making a sound?

It looks like you can always order them to go away and sit behind one of the (scripted) cover points if they bother you.

 

Don't think much of their use in combat though, putting aside the perk thing. That "flank" scenario for example, where the aliens turned their shields away from the two guys to protect themselves from the single player - which turned out to be the right choice, because they came to no harm until the player got the shield pointing away from himself.