Well it looks like that 2K Games version of X-Com I was talking about a few weeks ago has been announced. It's a first person shooter reboot which looks like it will have next to nothing in common with the original. Check it out on Gamespot Here . Something tells me this may ruin X-Com forever...
Lets hope the proper reboot Firaxis is supposed to be working on will fix the damage to the X-Com name this P.O.S. is going to bring.
Fixed
I don't see how anything could ruin X-Com, I was playing it the other day and its still great.
Have you played X-Com Enforcer?
I don't think anyone could recrate what the first one did but better. Nobody seems to have the ability to think past MOAR MONAY!
Phenomenal news, someone at 2K familiarized himself with the original X-Com and - what a surprise - understood nothing, completely did not "get it". "Fallout 3" scenario all over again.
I can't help but *love* this industry.
Fallout 3 does actaully feel somewhat like Fallout 1 and 2. A little less flat with a different slant of humour but a very similar feel to the world.
Action games based on a stratergy game on the other hand, miss the point COMPLETELY.
Id also like to point out that this is not an X-Com game, it is just another shooter with X-Com branding to give it some media attention.
I own Enforcer, and X-Com Interceptor, plus all the other original X-Com games. Even Interceptor had decent research. Instead of capturing live Aliens you flew a fighter in space and captured UFOs and bases that way. Imagine X-Com while flying a jet fighter in space and that's Interceptor.
I don't know if I'd call this pulling a "Fallout 3". Granted they're taking a great old school IP and turning it into a lame shooter, but Fallout 3 was anything but lame. Before I played FO3 I was worried they would have ruined it by turning it into a FPS, but, I have to say Bethesda did a wonderful job sticking to the source material when they made FO3. I loved FO 1 & 2. For 3 it was like all they did was change the perspective but it's still Fallout. It's a RPG, plenty of RP choices, changing quests and storyline. Fallout 3 was a great addition to the series with much in common with the originals, minus of course the perspective change.
From the little bit I read on this upcoming X-Com it doesn't sound like there will be research or base building or even squad combat (except maybe multiplayer). Even the storyline doesn't sound like X-Com. In the new one you play a modern day FBI agent when the Aliens invade. That sounds more like Half-Life then X-Com...*sigh*
I just hope when this comes out, if it bombs, that Firaxis doesn't cancel their plans because this one doesn't sell good. All we can do is hope I guess. That and do everything we can to talk Stardock into doing a X-Com clone re-make next after Elemental. I think Stardock would do a killer job at a tactical squad based game with a X-Com spin. There's also UFO: Extraterrestrial 2 coming out some time this year I think so maybe that one will be decent.
I guess it's possible they may surprise us and this new version of X-Com might be awesome, but I doubt it...here's hoping *crosses fingers*
Next is an RPG (unless they have a second group ready for game development). I'll frown upon those who oppose the development of the RPG as the next game after Elemental.
X-Com IS an RPG silly! You totally level up your soldiers and get them phat lewt.
And wear chainmail underwear.
Well thats how my squads like it anyway.
FPS? No thank you.
Surely, you jest - it neither felt like a Fallout game nor did Black Isle's fruits of love justice. "Heavily modded Oblivion with improvements here and there" suits Bethesda's mediocrity best as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't like to de-rail this thread however, so let's discuss this subject in detail later, when I have a bit more time on my hands.
As for Firaxis' potential plans for a true remake/sequel - I seriously doubt there are or have been any.
Next up, 2K announces an FPS remake of Falcon 4.0.
This news saddens me. It saddens me greatly.
No, thats Ubisoft. The new Ghost Recon where you have as much firepower as a jet fighter on foot.
Hear, hear...
And to quote the press release off of bhpress.com:
"XCOM is the re-imagining of the classic tale of humanity’s struggle against an unknown enemy that puts players directly into the shoes of an FBI agent tasked with identifying and eliminating the growing threat. True to the roots of the franchise, players will be placed in charge of overcoming high-stake odds through risky strategic gambits coupled with heart-stopping combat experiences that pit human ingenuity – and frailty – against a foe beyond comprehension. By setting the game in a first-person perspective, players will be able to feel the tension and fear that comes with combating a faceless enemy that is violently probing and plotting its way into our world."
So, hang on a sec. Did it just say you play the role of an FBI agent!?!?!? As I recall, the FBI were not part of X-COM, you know, the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, which was made up of members from numerous government organizations... not just the freaking FBI!!! I mean why bother calling it X-Com if you are not going to include X-Com or even be a part of it???How does that plus making it a FPS make it stay true to the roots of the genre???
This saddens me deeply, because I have found turn-based isometric strategy games to be some of my favorite of all time! Leaving games in an isometric view is what gave these games a lot of their charm. You had to imagine what it would be like to be one of the guys on the ground. In the same way a book leaves some of the action open to interpretation by not adding in and wasting our time with every detail, we piece together all the events in our mind by thinking of how the action would actually take place. It is subconsciously more interesting to leave some of the development of the action, up to your brain then to show you every damn thing. I find this is being used less and less. Granted technology can now produce more detail but that doesn't mean it has too. The same goes for turn-based strategy games as well, not just the isometric ones. Fortunately, I am still able to satisfy my turn-based isometric want by playing old games like X-Com or by playing the few games that come from countries like Russia/Czechoslovakia/Ukraine, where they are mostly developed by 1C Company. But it has lately been neglected here in North-America.
Thank you Stardock for ACTUALLY bringing things back to our roots with Elemental. I have high hopes.
Bioshock with an X-Com theme. NOT what I have been waiting for at all.
Thats Bioshock 2 with an X-Com theme. Lets not get the SWAT 4 developer any flak here.
The only good thing I can say about this news, is that in every thread I've read lambasting the idea, someone has mentioned how elemental is an upcoming game with some potential in the Turn based strategy arena.
Everything else about this announcement is depressing. Taking a game known for its excellent mechanics and tone, and throwing those things out the window in order to cash in on the parts that are incidental at best , like the enemies, and maybe weapons, is an atrocity of game design. The X-COM label is just going to feel tacked on.
The sales pitch went like this: "It'll be just like halo, except the grunts will be sectoids, the elites will be mutons(which are now dark brown, in accordance with modern rendering style), and the plasma rifles will be plasma rifles." I hate the modern games industry*.
*not stardock
Well, I know people who "know people". I knew this one was in the works for quite some time, and even said they'd be making the announcement, (less then a month and a half ago). From what I understood the plan was, 2K was making the shooter and Firaxis was making a "true" sequel with squad based combat, base building, the whole nine yards. Last I knew that was the official plan on the inside. I didn't have any idea this one was going to suck so badly though. I thought they'd at least stick a little closer to the X-Com story.
(you do make me wonder though, maybe I should get back in touch with my source. Even if I get conformation the most I can do is talk about it without naming my source. I can't quote my source, nor would I. Needless to say it's a close friend of mine from my Origin days who's still on the inside of the industry)
Edit: It really shocks the hell out of me Ken Levine isn't getting personally involved in this one. He thinks of him-self as the worlds biggest X-Com fan. Ken loves X-Com and anytime anyone asks him about his favorite old school game X-Com is the first word out of his mouth. He's probably pissed off what they're doing to our beloved game. They should of called this soon to be pile of sh*t Enforcer 2 and just used X-Com as a subtitle.
You never know it might be awesome.
Made for xbox and (probably badly ported onto) PC
No really it... might...
...
So... After Stardock makes Elemental, can they please acquire the rights to X-Com and make a real re-make of it?
After all, Stardock already is good at the whole turn based strategy thing. It could actually work! *pleads like a kid trying to save a pet cow from the slaughterhouse*
Yeah I agree with the rest of you. After years of waiting for a new x-com game, we get this. What a waste of a good franchise.
I clicked on the thread title, expecting to the be the negative nelly of the thread with my opinion, and find an entire thread of people just as angry and pissed off as I am! I love this forum
Beside the fact I didn't like Fallout 3 at all (but that's my problem, I guess)... Are you joking? VATS is probably the worst part of the game's mechanics.
Unbalanced, exploitable, boring as hell.
By the way... WOW! I'm so *NOT* excited about this new "X-COM".
Well, if 2K Games actually takes the word of people on the internet seriously there "might be a slim ray of hope" Apparently EVERYONE hates this press release about the new X-Com and EVERYONE is complaining. Maybe, just maybe, 2K will pull their heads out of their asses long enough to see what it is people want in a new X-Com game and Make That. I would urge everyone who considers them-selves a True X-Com Fan to go to the 2K Forums and leave a well worded, polite, piece of your mind. If enough people speak out and say what it is they want then maybe, just maybe, they'll listen.
You must be new to the modern video game industry. If PC gamers complain loudly enough that is the last thing everyone wanted from an X-COM title, they will just focus harder on making it a console title. That's not an entirely bad result in this case though, as the further distanced this gets from the original, the more it will just seem like Generic Console FPS #551 that happens to have a similar name to a strategy game classic.
But seriously, talk about completely missing the point. Taking one the best (arguably THE best) strategy games ever made and turning it into a shitty action game? Come on, tell me this is a bad joke and 2K Games management isn't this stupid.
You have no idea how this works do you?
This is squarely aimed at the Bioshock playing Xbox croud, they don't WANT to make a X-Com game. So why did they use the X-Com name? Advertising.
Press release: "X-COMS BACK GUYS! Its going to be a AWESOME first person shooter, for x-box. Its not going to be anything like X-Com but its going to have aliens and shit! Like we heard you like aliens so we put aliens in your shooters so you can shoot aliens while you shoot.
Peace out dawgs!"
Fans: OH MY MUTON OVERLORDS! They are RUINING the X-Com brand!!! (they already have but whatever) THOSE BASTARDS! blah blah blah bvlah blah bla hlsah it really isn't important what the fans actually say, the point is THEY NEED TO SAY SOMETHING! And where do they say it? Forums, to each other over thier virtual reality anti-social social gameing networks etc etc AND news article comment sections.
They generate a LOT of noise, white noise, non-racist noise - just NOISE. People NOTICE the noise.
Non-Fans: Whats this X-Com sheehat? Lots of people are commenting bout dat sheeat. UFO? Sounds like a borin ass game you sight? Now this Bioshock like shooter sounds fan ya dig? Maybe I buy, irriee?
Non-Fans to other Non-Fans over communication devices: "My blood, ya sight dat newIIS? X-Cam game bin mad dan it astrual-asia my youth. Maybe we hook dat sheeta up you naow? It be big up mine irriee? Could be rightchus eyes an all dat way ma mon."
Reply: "Why are you talking like that? Anywise, one IS interested in this Two Kays product you speak of. Retro and mysterious - sounds a bit like my totty old boy, ha har! X-Com it is then. I 'sight' as you so eloquently put it."
Yas sight?
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