XCOM by Firaxis
<div class="IPBDescription">As in, not a shooter</div>(Thanks to briktal)
<a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?2587-Games-Informer-reveals-XCOM-made-by-Firaxis-Games" target="_blank">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/sho...y-Firaxis-Games</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->This is the announcement you've been waiting for: One of the most beloved strategy titles of all time re-imagined by one of the best strategy studios in the world. Firaxis Games' XCOM: Enemy Unknown introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place.
Unlike 2K Marin's previously announced XCOM shooter, which sparked tempers among longtime fans for turning its back on the series' cerebral roots, this title is a full-on strategy game that puts players in command of a global anti-alien defense force. XCOM's leader needs a worldwide perspective where threats are identified, populations reassured, and national leaders mollified – but a tactical mind is just as critical considering every shot XCOM's soldiers fire on the battlefield is under the player's turn-based control.
"It’s been a dream of ours to recreate X-COM with our unique creative vision. We’re huge fans of the original game and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-envision a game that is as beloved as X-COM," said Steve Martin, president of Firaxis Games. "We were careful to keep XCOM: Enemy Unknown true to the elements that made X-COM such a revered game while delivering an entirely new story and gameplay experience for both die-hard X-COM fans and newcomers to the franchise."
If you're lost, you can find out what all the fuss over the original X-COM is in the in-depth Classic GI feature we printed a few months ago (now available online for the first time), which includes rare insight from series creator Julian Gollop.
The huge feature in February's Game Informer goes into all the gory details of XCOM's destructible tactical environments, the interaction between the real-time strategic view and the turn-based combat, how the XCOM organization improves its capabilities as the war rages on, and much more.
In addition, the February issue has our lengthy love letter to the top 50 games of 2011, an exclusive look at new Mass Effect 3 details, and the final word on Final Fantasy XIII-2 along with all the usual goodies.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown comes out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC this fall. Until then, check up on our XCOM hub page all month long as we bring you exclusive new content including video interviews with the team leads and the legendary Sid Meier himself.
The February issue of Game Informer should be arriving in mailboxes and newsstands over the next week. If you can't wait for a physical copy, click here to subscribe (or to switch your physical subscription) to our digital edition for when that version goes live on January 10th.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?2587-Games-Informer-reveals-XCOM-made-by-Firaxis-Games" target="_blank">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/sho...y-Firaxis-Games</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->This is the announcement you've been waiting for: One of the most beloved strategy titles of all time re-imagined by one of the best strategy studios in the world. Firaxis Games' XCOM: Enemy Unknown introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place.
Unlike 2K Marin's previously announced XCOM shooter, which sparked tempers among longtime fans for turning its back on the series' cerebral roots, this title is a full-on strategy game that puts players in command of a global anti-alien defense force. XCOM's leader needs a worldwide perspective where threats are identified, populations reassured, and national leaders mollified – but a tactical mind is just as critical considering every shot XCOM's soldiers fire on the battlefield is under the player's turn-based control.
"It’s been a dream of ours to recreate X-COM with our unique creative vision. We’re huge fans of the original game and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-envision a game that is as beloved as X-COM," said Steve Martin, president of Firaxis Games. "We were careful to keep XCOM: Enemy Unknown true to the elements that made X-COM such a revered game while delivering an entirely new story and gameplay experience for both die-hard X-COM fans and newcomers to the franchise."
If you're lost, you can find out what all the fuss over the original X-COM is in the in-depth Classic GI feature we printed a few months ago (now available online for the first time), which includes rare insight from series creator Julian Gollop.
The huge feature in February's Game Informer goes into all the gory details of XCOM's destructible tactical environments, the interaction between the real-time strategic view and the turn-based combat, how the XCOM organization improves its capabilities as the war rages on, and much more.
In addition, the February issue has our lengthy love letter to the top 50 games of 2011, an exclusive look at new Mass Effect 3 details, and the final word on Final Fantasy XIII-2 along with all the usual goodies.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown comes out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC this fall. Until then, check up on our XCOM hub page all month long as we bring you exclusive new content including video interviews with the team leads and the legendary Sid Meier himself.
The February issue of Game Informer should be arriving in mailboxes and newsstands over the next week. If you can't wait for a physical copy, click here to subscribe (or to switch your physical subscription) to our digital edition for when that version goes live on January 10th.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comments
<img src="http://images.starcraftmazter.net/4chan/for_forums/stopped_reading_there.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Call me cynical but that has been a universal rule of franchise ruining for me since I've first heard it.
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>OPINIONS</span>
This, basically. A TBS on a console doesn't need to be any different from a TBS on a PC, specially not one based entirely around smallish squads like XCOM.
I would play the bajeesus out of Alec's imaginary game.
--Scythe--
Of course I'd want it to be a proper game and a worthy remake, but I lost all hope at "a wider console audience".
I predict massively dumbed-down squad management, emphasis on action over tactics, simplified inventory systems, etc.
Let's go through the sucky-buzzwords list.
"One of the most beloved strategy titles of all time re-imagined"
So, what this means is that it will be a first-person shooter with only a bare modicum of actual squad management, roughly translating to something like Rainbow Six: Vegas where you tell your guys to move to cover and they shoot aliens from there. Oh and you can tell them to stop following you sometimes too.
"console audience"
Means all the planning and strategic depth of the game is gone. I'm not going to miss the metagaming tricks like moving 150 scientists on the 31st of each month to avoid paying their salaries, but I imagine we'll be lucky to have scientists whatsoever. Probably just a generic research tree, and you unlock new technologies by spending 'tech points' you earn during missions - because console gamers are really quite stupid, way too stupid to be trusted to manage researching a hundred unique technologies and prioritizing the right ones...
"unique creative vision"
Oh god, this means everything will be brown, full of rubble, and will feature bulging space marines.
"entirely new story and gameplay experience"
Means:
- Regenerating health
- Cover system
- Quick-time events
I'd complain about the story, but to be fair, XCOM didn't really have a story.
What should we call them anyway? I remember the Prince of Persia game that wanted to be a reboot just getting nicknamed PoP 2008, so I guess these could be... XCOM Firaxis and Not-XCOM.
It would be like someone making a chess game that added extra rows, columns, pieces, terrain and moves.
--Scythe--
It would be like someone making a chess game that added extra rows, columns, pieces, terrain and moves.
--Scythe--<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4b/StarTrekChess.jpg/440px-StarTrekChess.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Call me cynical but that has been a universal rule of franchise ruining for me since I've first heard it.
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>OPINIONS</span><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You sound like a whiny ###### to be so dismissive. Games these days have to be multi-platform to be financially viable. I hate dumbing down for console babies as much as the next guy, but XCOM could do with a more intuitive interface for starters.
Also these guys seem to really understand why the game is good. Unlike the drooling morons working on the first person shooter.
<a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/01/06/why-firaxis-loves-xcom.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...loves-xcom.aspx</a>
Also these guys seem to really understand why the game is good. Unlike the drooling morons working on the first person shooter.
<a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/01/06/why-firaxis-loves-xcom.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...loves-xcom.aspx</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'll quit sounding like a whiny ###### when proven otherwise.
I'd love to be proven otherwise but as you said, (some) games have to be multi-plat to be financially viable. Can firaxis with all their x-com love really cater to both and still get above-decent game? We'll see.
Also these guys seem to really understand why the game is good. Unlike the drooling morons working on the first person shooter.
<a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/01/06/why-firaxis-loves-xcom.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...loves-xcom.aspx</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It really doesn't matter a flying ###### what the developers think they understand and know. I would've thought the idiots at DICE knew how to make a good Battlefield game, but they removed everything that made Battlefield great and gave us console stat-grinding sholock because of their evil EA overlords. Battlefield, minus effective squads, minus teamwork, minus communication, in tiny, cramped maps, all wrapped around bad balance and a certain laughably overpowered class to allow players to ignore their team as much and as effectively as possible.
Seriously though Norn, since when were you in the habit of defending development teams of EXTREMELY dubious competence, who have a track record of titles of questionable quality, and are handling one of the most sacred IPs to PC gaming, who then go around throwing out painful red-flags indicating that we should expect some serious downgrades in the gameplay?
I mean, can you really name one game in the last, I don't know, <b>ten years</b> that had that kind of language used about it and didn't end up sucking? DX:HR was probably the <i>least</i> ####ed-up title but even that was a flawed experience with extremely dumbed-down mechanics that did ruin the experience somewhat for me.
Firaxis has dubious competence?
I don't like Team Fortress 2 but it isn't a bad game, it's wildly successful and obviously has some element of fun to it, and I can't claim it isn't well made.
Only if you're mental. I can't think of a better studio to try to tackle X-COM, people were shouting at the heavens that Fireaxis didn't get a shot at the game during the FPS X-COM backlash.
---
<a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/09/first-screens-and-details-of-xcom-enemy-unknown.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...my-unknown.aspx</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Wasn't there another XCOM game?
</b>Yes, 2K Marin is developing a previously announced first-person shooter, simply called XCOM. That game was originally scheduled to come out last year, but has since been delayed out of 2011.
<b>
How do those games relate to each other?</b>
The shooter takes place earlier in the fiction, chronicling the aliens' first attacks in the United States. The strategy game we're talking about here deals with the global response to the later full-blown alien invasion of Earth.
...
<b>Is this a remake of the original?
</b>Kind of. Re-imagining is probably a better term. Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown doesn't directly copy the underlying game systems – for instance, soldiers have different stats than they did in the 1994 original – but the concepts are still here. Players still have to manage multiple resources and threats on a global scale in a seemingly hopeless war against extraterrestrial forces with far better technology and capabilities.
<b>Is this going to be dumbed down for the "wider console audience"?
</b>Firaxis is undeniably streamlining aspects of the game and removing no small amount of micromanagement, but from what I've seen I wouldn't call it "dumbing down" the game so much as getting rid of tedium and uninteresting mechanics. Soldiers still die permanently, fog of war and line of sight are hugely important in combat, and you absolutely can lose the game if you screw up too badly.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/gCIvRh.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/AiP1Qh.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
--Scythe--
And finally, why are old games always so much better? Is it simply nostalgia?
How is it that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Rebellion" target="_blank">Star Wars: Rebellion</a>, which looks like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=1029&q=Star+Wars%3A+Rebellion&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&oq=Star+Wars%3A+Rebellion&aq=f&aqi=g9g-S1&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=681l681l0l1332l1l1l0l0l0l0l221l221l2-1l1l0" target="_blank">pure ass</a>, is one of the best RTS and most difficult RTS games I've ever played? The obvious answer is gameplay > graphics but shouldn't 'gameplay' be making just as many advances as the 'graphics' department?
These questions are more rhetorical / ranting in nature than anything else. I haven't played a complex game in a while.
Yeah, those aren't great screenshots but they look like:
1. Soldiers walking through the base, probably the room visible in (3)
2. The battlescape, with X-COM soldiers fighting... guys in suits? Buh?
3. The base screen, which looks to be a side-on view rather than top-down now. The hangar is clearly visible at the top, along with the room from (1).
I'm not sure why the X-COM base needs TWO rooms consisting of a big map and not much else.
Too early to tell if this will be any good, but I have taken the precaution of doing a happy dance anyway.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/7FC5Xh.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/j2qOFh.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Hmm!
--Scythe--
P.S. Sauce: <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/13/why-you-should-care-about-xcom-enemy-unknown.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...my-unknown.aspx</a>
P.P.S.S. Time to provide some editorial: I think the new XCOM game will alienate the hardest of the core, but most fans of the XCOM of yore will be appeased. Pretty much exactly like DX:HR. Some of the more esoteric stuff will disappear (Action points, most likely) but the core will be left intact. I'm hoping that the squaddies you get at the start of the game are chewed up like wheat through a thresher.
P.P.P.S.S.S. How awesome would it be if this game was set 30 years after the original, when they're attempting another invasion. You have to go into the old mothballed XCOM bases and get them operational again.
I would be very happy if they used a system like that for the new XCOM. The real time pause combat works very well, I think it works a lot better than the turn system.
Honestly about the only thing I don't like is the somewhat limited selection of equipment. I'd like it if we had more options. I mean the game has lots of options in general, but I wish it had more. Massive amounts of options are what make squad command TBS games for me.
Hopefully the destructable terrain at least will add a lot to this game.
It'd be a flaw in marketing for them not to create a PC version (complete with extra features)
Been tempted to play xcom, lately.. Coincidence?
Also, does anyone know how I might run the old xcom version on windows 7?
Though, I think it might just be handling it through DOSbox or similar. So if you still have your copy lying around, you could just use that and DOSbox.