New XCOM game

[cronicler]

-Holy! they made brainsuckers a frightening foe! Despite being goo, the brainsucker analogs were actually quite nice in 3-D

 

-50s... to be frank I would have liked the "age of future" timeline (watch Queen's song Radio's clip. the usual 50's vision future) but I think it would be bad (gameplay and design) and really uneconomic (processing power) to have a FPS in such a setting. Also the hats werent too bad.

I hope the final game won't be keeping the old film like yellowed out pallette. Sure it is different from the modern industrial goo colour pallette but it is still not as good as something more balanced.

 

 

My guesses:

How much control will the player have over X-Com strategy? I am guessing that you will be about the rank of captain which will allow you to nag various departments to concentrate on your needs (and get that whatevergun to be researched/produced a bit faster) but overall you won't probably have solid control over personnel, research and production like the old games. I hope they will be able to get a decent structure for the main story missions. This rank will also allow the player to have some illusion of freedom in missions while (the game) still being able to control the player by tossing him to priority alpha (or one or top or red or whatever) missions when the story needs it.

 

This brings me to the missions. The story missions will be good or bad, that is to be seen (but i do have some hope as the bioshock , despite being a medicore game had superb mission and story structure compared to latest gen). However what will make or break this game will be the random missions. What makes X-Com is the random missions where you scramble to a random location to do stuff. IF, and this is a really big IF, the game manages to offer the player a GOOD random map/mission generator then the game will be ok. (Yes it will have to be that far ahead of other current games).

Is it possible to create a random map generator for an FPS game that plays decently? I truly doubt it. Maybe a random missions on a premade maps but even that can have problems as original stalker showed us. We will probably have x spare side mission maps per main story mission. I just hope that there will be enough side maps that I won't have to play the same urban map again and again.

 

Back to our alter Ego; I don't have many hopes in this area but if it was me, I would study the critisisims to games like Bioshock, DeusEx:Invisible War and so on. Too much streamlining makes it easier to produce and play but actually kills the game.

I know it is a bit naive of me to hope but I hope the game will have a real character system. An inventory, A paperdoll, skills, traits, (active) abilities

 

And lastly the AI, especially the allied and civilian AIs. Panicked civilians are ok but you should be able to direct them a bit so that after you shout "FBI, this is a raid, please move south" (north, to Amberly Park, whatever), they should get the hell out of dodge.

As far as I could see in the video, your AI backups were actually quite useless. It might be the staging but I really hope 2 AI backups will be able to hold their ground against a mindsucker at least.

Also the devs are quite closemouthed on the team control topic. I don't get this aspect of modern games at all. Freedom Fighters, a 2003 video game, had you controlling up to 10 (or 12?) fighters in a basic but passable fashion. Since then there has been only a handful of games that had decent squad mechanics, The Thing, Brothers in Arms (and maybe the Mass Effects). I would like to have a decent mechanic but I am not really hopeful at this point.

Edited June 11, 2010 by cronicler

[Amentep]

I liked the trailer. I suck at FPS, so I dunno if I'll get it, but the trailer made me interested in the game.

[Flouride]

Meh. They turned a nice franchise into a poor shooter where your enemy mostly seems to be goo? I predict 93 metacritic scores.

[Malcador]

Oh man that looks AWESOME. Trailers are fluff, but that looks neither exciting or even interesting to me, maybe we'll find out more.

[Amentep]

Meh. They turned a nice franchise into a poor shooter where your enemy mostly seems to be goo? I predict 93 metacritic scores.

 

Looks like the goo is one particular type of enemy that they were displaying here.

 

There was also that floating obelisk that was destroying things and the mysterious ring at the end.

[Purkake]

So... it's a shooter from around 2005? Yay!

[Amentep]

So... it's a shooter from around 2005? Yay!

 

Why do you say that?

[Flouride]

Meh. They turned a nice franchise into a poor shooter where your enemy mostly seems to be goo? I predict 93 metacritic scores.

 

Looks like the goo is one particular type of enemy that they were displaying here.

 

There was also that floating obelisk that was destroying things and the mysterious ring at the end.

 

Yes, I know. That was my way of saying why would anyone release such a trailer where the only enemy shown is black goo and it's not like it was only shown once or twice, most of the trailer features that black goo. Isn't a trailer supposed to create some sort of awe, or positive thoughts about the upcoming product and not make the customer lose all intrest because they pretty much only see goo in it.

[Amentep]

I wondered if the goo level was the most complete stuff they had. Dunno, but you make a fair point.

[Morgoth]

They're holding back showing the real Aliens, for obvious reasons.

[Purkake]

So... it's a shooter from around 2005? Yay!

 

Why do you say that?

Because that's what the trailer looked like?

[Amentep]

So... it's a shooter from around 2005? Yay!

 

Why do you say that?

Because that's what the trailer looked like?

 

Ah, I didn't get that from the trailer.

 

What made you, in the trailer, think "2005"?

[Purkake]

Mostly the bad graphics and enemy animations, but I guess Bioshock had all of that as well.

 

The Unreal Engine is not helping 2k at all. Ugh.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Purkake

[Morgoth]

Honestly I don't really see a great difference in graphics quality between 2005 and 2010 titles. It's the same generation.

 

XCOM just looks fine.

[Hurlshort]

I'm pretty sure they were going for a slight 50's TV show feel with the trailer. But I don't remember the graphics being a problem in Bioshock either.

[cronicler]

I don't get this. The trailer is about a bunch of brainsuckers (X-Com Apo) kicking unprepared agent butt and a Monolith (Probably somekind of drone) teleporting to the terror site to cleanse the area. A first (or early) contact scenario for X-Com in other words.

Why are people so negative about it?

 

The gameplay isn't too bad, the envirolments are destructable (not flashy explosive kind but more realistic fire based stuff), the enemies are "alien" and even a bit different from the usual palette (cyborgs, ripley's alien, greys), the map is not too bad (as a 50's suburban neighbourhood)

 

Sure it is not THE X-Com but as far as spin-offs go this one seems decent.

[Malcador]

You need a reason to be negative towards games these days ? Huh. Trailer looks uninspiring that's all.

[Walsingham]

Way to (almost) completely miss the point of the game, 2k. Judging by the trailer and the interface

 

Fundamentals:

 

1. Alien menace with superior technology - CHECK

2. Human agency 'XCOM' - CHECK

 

Missing:

 

3. Divided humanity, some aspects of which will attempt to actively obstruct XCOM

4. Teamwork and team building

5. Strong emphasis on building organisation of XCOM including:

- Recruiting field agents and scientists

- Collecting data from aliens including their weird alien technologies

- Beg, buy, build, or steal your equipment

6. Strategic dimension in all combat. Try to save everyone or retreat to limited fortresses?

 

Also:

 

Given that the above should be familiar to most players in some way or another it is common sense that to be new and exciting players will need something other than core gameplay that is new and exciting. This means...

 

7. New aliens- CHECK

8. A novel environment. Certainly not one that we have now seen from a bazillion different angles - eg the 1950s.

[Irrelevant]

The black blobs remind me of the Ing from Metroid Prime: Echoes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZUP6yEn8DM&NR=1

[Oner]

Wals my man, read the previews plox.

[Walsingham]

Wals my man, read the previews plox.

 

Damn. Caught out! Hang on...

 

EDIT: RIGHT YOU BASTARD

 

I've just reread all the previews. The only thing I can see to contradict me is that you get to choose missions elerium vs 'animal attacks'. You may or may not be able to go to multiple locations in the time available.

 

So basically, a slight decrement in the strength of criticism 6. Everything else stands.

Edited June 14, 2010 by Walsingham

[Mamoulian War]

I've just seen the E3 trailer of the X-COM... It was like one of the most boring trailers i've ever seen... Man... Some people commented on it, that better name for the game would be BP - The Oil Shooter, and i fully agree with that statement...

[Slowtrain]

I've just seen the E3 trailer of the X-COM... It was like one of the most boring trailers i've ever seen... Man...

 

 

It's gotten to the point where publishers and deveopers seem to think that just more footage of running around shooting things and blowing stuff up is enough to sell a game. Anf given the mentality of a lot of gamers, maybe it is.

 

For me though, and I am sure for many others, it's been done SO many times now that it is much less compelling than simply showing a car rusting in a parking lot somewhere for 3 minutes.

 

Killing...check.

Shooting...check

Explosions....check

 

You got anything that is, I don't know, even somewhat not done completely to death?

[Serrano]

Wals my man, read the previews plox.

 

Damn. Caught out! Hang on...

 

EDIT: RIGHT YOU BASTARD

 

I've just reread all the previews. The only thing I can see to contradict me is that you get to choose missions elerium vs 'animal attacks'. You may or may not be able to go to multiple locations in the time available.

 

So basically, a slight decrement in the strength of criticism 6. Everything else stands.

 

According to the PC GAMER UK write-up, it doesn't look to have strayed too far from the old games actually. Missions aren't entirely pre-defined, and aborting them, grabbing research materials and legging it back to the interceptor is a perfectly valid and sometimes necessary course of action. The blobs for example, you can't actually kill them until you research equipment that will electrocute or burn the things, so when you first encounter them you may think it's going to be a pushover but the thing is they will keep reassembling itself and coming after you. Apparently 2k decided not to use the old aliens because a bit part of the game was seeing all of this weird things and then working out how to combat them, so I think that's a big plus. Apparently the home base can be expanded over time as well but no details seem to have been given on how that will work yet. I don't know if there will be any political subversion to the game, there's been no mention of it as far as I know. And apparently your fellow agents will be more than generic redshirts, I think they're either a limited pool of characters with personalities or they'll level up like the squaddies in UFO, either way it's intended that you will feel their loss if anything happens to them.

 

It probably won't be the x-com sequel we've all wanted but it sounds like it will be a good game and that 2k are trying.

Edited June 15, 2010 by Serrano

[Darque]

Everything else stands.

 

Did we read the same previews?