XCom was defense against invasion.

This is more like Colony.
Der Wikofpedia

...or even They Live for that matter.

As the Youtube comments say...Maybe...XCom?

Invisible Inc didn't always include the rewind mechanic and I don't think it was actually a planned feature. Later iterations probably balanced the game more around it, but I still think it is kinda amazing how well it works given it wasn't in the game until relatively late into development.

I'd actually very much like the game to penalise you for not using rewind. Or rather I'd like the game to be balanced with assumption you will use it. I like that rewind creates a nice middle ground between quick save scumming and iron mode. I think it allows for a more challenging game in other respects and that doesn't feel frustrating when a miss click puts your main girl in open ground surrounded by cyberdisks (especially when the UI was pretty bad when it came to different elevations...). It smooths the transition from too easy to too hard.

That said, there are a number of changes from Enemy Unknown that I'd like to have more priority. Borrowing from Invisible Inc again, the ever raising alarm level in that creates a sense of urgency that I never felt in XCOM, even in the bomb missions and with the meld resource. I never lost a soldier because I forced them to take an incredible risk for the sake of the mission, I really only lost people because an unlucky shot dinked them in head across the map when they were in heavy cover. It looks like they are perhaps addressing urgency with the threat of reinforcements, which is cool. The other frustration I had with XCOM:EU/EW is that it always seemed to punish scouting. You'd effectively "wake up" the aliens by finding them which really disincentivised spreading out to cover more ground. It was simply safer to move as ball and let the enemies run into you (with the possible exception of the terror missions). it looks like they might be addressing that by making you the insurgent force with ambush tactics etc.

So yeah. I'm hyped.

I just wish they'd hired a few more voice actors. I loved that my squad was a group of international badasses*. I hated that they all spoke English with an American accent.

* I nearly cried when Douggie, my Scottish assault, died. In my mind, he was got into xcom after escaping the Glasgow gang scene. None of the team could understand him, but he was the first human to ever headbutt an alien. RIP Douggie, ya brave caledonian nutter. We killed that cyberdisk for you, man!

Your video, XCOM 2 trailer, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

If you enjoyed XCOM: Enemy Within and like a bit of a challenge, you should take a look at the Long War mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/?

Finally someone else said it "RTS games are fighting against the interface, turn based are pure game" I have nothing against RTS but that has always the problem: hand-eye coordination is almost more important than tactical decisions.

Its' like: you click your unit to move and the interface interprets it wrong; you lose vs you think that this place is the best, it wasn't you lose. How many times in RTS games a part of your HUD is blocking the view or clicking the wrong unit because it moved under your mouse while you were defining actions, you battle with the map to find a unit that is constantly moving etc etc.. I know that's part of the game type but for my money, they all have had so huge flaws in some part that none (since turn of the millenia) has made me do what i did with Civilization series.

I think' i'll go and get my copy of the new XCOM...

Around 5:45 Julian says that free-form strategy games cannot guarantee that the player will always have something interesting to do, and that, in his view at least, you couldn't get away with that sort of game anymore today.

Paradox Interactive with their Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis and Victoria franchises are still up and running. Hearts of Iron 3, in particular, seems more popular than ever, after the release of the third add-on, "Their Finest Hour". And if anything, HOI3 is even more of a sandbox than the original XCOM.

Similarly, Bohemia Interactive's Arma series as a comparable counterpart in the field of first person shooters is gaining massive popularity as well, even though it incorporates extensive "downtimes" for players.

You can't churn out annual iterations and expect AAA-rate numbers of sold copies, but the community is still large enough to warrent a couple of these franchises.

12 hours? Only if you blast through every mission on very easy, skip the entire story, and try to speed run your way through the campaign. Even then I doubt you'll make it on your first time.

If you actually play the game like a normal person, it'll easily take you 20 - 30 hours. Not to mention the high replay value due to mutually exclusive choices you have to make during the campaign, such as permanent unit upgrades, mercs you hire, and mutually exclusive missions.

So yeah, as a guy who rarely finishes games, and almost never replays, the WoL singleplayer alone got me a good ~60 hours of gameplay (once on hard, once on brutal), which is more than I can say about any single player game I've bought in the last decade other than Civ 4 and XCOM (and maybe Fallout NV).

And that's not counting the multiplayer.

Radio: My favorite discovery of 2012 is "Radio Lab", a story telling show reminiscent of another favorite, 'This American Life', but with a much more sophisticated sound design. All episodes are available for free in the podcast section of iTunes.

Music: I fell in love with the New Orleans second line scene after Issy and I paid a visit to the crescent city this year. We saw the 'Rebirth Brass Band' live and had a great time. We also had a mini-meetup at the show with @dotdude. New Orleans music culture is like no other.

Music: Louis Cole & Genevieve Artadi: Highly unique and energetic electro-acoustic music. Hard to explain.

Music: Austin Texas band 'The Black Angels' - Dark, bluesy rock obviously influenced by the Doors. To be honest, I'm not crazy about blues rock or the Doors, but 'The Black Angels' manage to meld these influences into something I really dig.

Music: UK band, 'Metronomy'. Their sound is eclectic, hooky and heavily influenced by all the cool British 80's bands I loved as a kid. Goes down easy. Works in the background as well as the fore.

Movies: Django and Looper were the two films that captivated me from start to finish. Both films by gifted auteurs, one at the top of his game, the other on the rise. Great writing. Great Directing. Great performances.

Horror movies: The Cabin in the Woods (A clever and absurd meta-horror mashup) and the The Lady in Black (A classic, classy ghost story) both satisfied. It's nice that there were a couple of diamonds in sea of Paranormal-Activity-esque-found-footage detritus.

TV: same stuff that everyone else likes - BB, GoT, DoAb and Sherlock. I also got into Always Sunny in Philadelphia this year - very dark, very funny.

Books: Started a bunch, finished very few. Nothing to recommend. "Checklist Manifesto" is pretty interesting so far - it's about how the brain functions (or fails to function) in the information-dense present.

Games: 'Xcom' was a worthy update of the original. Loved all the detailed micro/macro strategy. 'Journey' was beautiful and fairly moving for a videogame.

Well thats a glowing review. I love the new Xcom. Mods are coming along nicely for it too.

>> ^NaMeCaF:

I normally hate turned based games, but this one was surprisingly good. The only real frustrating bit that pissed me off beyond belief was the whole % hit chance thing. I think is a total lie and the whole shoot/hit thing is just completely random. When 30% and 40% shots hit more often than 90% and %80 shots, something is fishy.



Aw, you just didn't beg, whimper, cry and gnash your teeth at your computer before tentatively clicking on the fire button enough! At least that's my experience.

http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/fo09et/futurama-the-xcom-project

I was put off pre-orders by Max Payne 3 and Diablo 3 but may now go for Xcom. I really hope its going to live up to the early Xcom titles.

>> ^gwiz665:

All of the above.
>> ^radx:
A giddy viking feline fighting aliens?