New X-COM game coming . . . and it's turn based strategy!

[Syt]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-05-firaxis-xcom-enemy-unknown-announced

Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown announced

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 5 January, 2012

Turn-based strategy game re-imagined by Civilization dev.

Civilization developer Firaxis is making XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a re-imagination of the classic turn-based strategy game.

US magazine Game Informer revealed Enemy Unknown, saying it "introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place". It launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.

"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," Game Informer said.

"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."

Firaxis boss Steve Martin added: "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.

"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."

Firaxis' XCOM has destructible tactical environments, and fuses a real-time strategic view with turn-based combat.

[Razgovory]

Firaxis picked it up?  Hooray!

[Josquius]

I thought the new xcom was to be a fps?
Nonetheless...aint...xenonauts or somesuch due soon?

[Syt]

I thought the new xcom was to be a fps?

That's coming too.

[Razgovory]

I don't think Firaxis has ever made a really bad game.  They produce a lot of games, but all the ones I've played I really liked.

[Mr. Grey]

X-Com was the best game I have ever played, hands down.

It had been the sole reason I bought a playstation.

I was disappointed when I had read about the FPS (even though I will probably purchase it), but now I am excited....Fall 2012 can't come fast enough!

[KRonn]

Yay! I loved XCOM, the first one, not so much the sequels. This will be a must have for me! 

[Mr. Grey]

Yay! I loved XCOM, the first one, not so much the sequels. This will be a must have for me!

I actually didn't mind Terror from the Deep. To me, it was the same game just in water...though the harpoon weapons were pretty lame.

I've played all the rest.....I played them because I am a huge X-Com fan, but they were all extremely horrible

[Iormlund]

I actually liked Apocalypse quite a lot. I still play it from time to time.

As for turns, I'd rather see a Combat Mission style system.

[The Brain]

  Great. Heaven forbid anyone actually makes a new game.

[MadImmortalMan]

US magazine Game Informer revealed Enemy Unknown, saying it "introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place". It launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.

Crap.

[grumbler]

US magazine Game Informer revealed Enemy Unknown, saying it "introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place". It launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.

Crap.

Agreed.  This will suck











up time like nothing else.

[Tonitrus]

First Screens And Details Of XCOM: Enemy Unknown
feature
by Adam Biessener on January 09, 2012 at 11:00 AM 35,335 Views
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Come on in to have your questions answered and to get the first public look at what Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown looks like in action.

Click on any of the three screens on this page to view a high-resolution version.

Find below our answers to some of the most common questions we've seen floating around the Internet since our cover reveal last week.

Wasn't there another XCOM game?
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.

How do those games relate to each other?
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.

So this is some kind of RTS?
No, not in the way the term "RTS" typically applies to games like StarCraft. The real-time element of XCOM is confined to the global view, where the player keeps track of known UFOs and abductions going on around the world. Managing research and development at the XCOM organization's secret base can be done at the player's leisure, and all combat is completely turn-based.



You switch between real-time and turn-based?
Yes. When your aerial transport lands at an abduction site, the game switches to a tactical view and you command your squad of personalized soldiers in battle against an unknown alien threat.

So what do you do in the real-time global view?
On the strategic layer, players direct research into alien technology, give their engineers and foundries fabrication requests, interact with the nations of the world (who have to be mollified to secure funding for XCOM), intercept airborne UFOs with jet fighters, level up their soldiers and recruit new ones, and dispatch the Skyranger transport to engage alien incursions on the ground.

Is this a remake of the original?
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.



Is this going to be dumbed down for the "wider console audience"?
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.

[Tonitrus]

  I cannot think of anything from the original I would consider "tedious micromanagement".  In fact, it could stand to add some cool depth to some decision-making and other aspects (like making it possible to "win back" nations that switch over to the aliens).

But I dig what seems to be the base map.

[grumbler]

I like the aliens at the bottom of the bottom screenshot, with the elephant necks and the rubbery limbs.  The blue outfits have to go, though.

Firaxis is certainly saying all the right things, as far as I am concerned.  And it's about time they did something other than polish the turd that is Civ III+