Information XCOM: Enemy Unknown Has a Demo

[Spectacle]

You realise that all this criticism and resulting failure of the game will lead developers to conclude that "turn-based strategy games don't sell".

And then they will change their mind again when Wasteland 2 sells 2+ million units!
Game publishers are not learning animals. Whatever happens they will draw bullshit conclusions and set themselves up for failure.

 

[kentable]

Seriously, da fuck? Only Max Payne 3 has disappointed me more this year. Can devs stop using cut scenes like it's value added toilet paper? Less is more bitches! When you make half your game cut scenes when do you step back and ask yourself are you making a movie or an interactive game? Interactive movie to rule them all?

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

I'm not even sure if it is worth to mention all the cliches like the scientist chick (today's special offer: two cliches at the price of one! Hot scientist and German scientist!), who basically promises to suck your dick if you bring her more alien artifacts. Romance plot anyone? :facepalm:

Hey, fuck you. Such cliches can be quite fun if done properly.

 

[SuicideBunny]

for all you fucks that are too lazy to actually visit the strat forum and the thread there:

You can change the difficulty by editing "BaseGame.ini" in the install directory. Find the line: "GameDifficulty=+0.0" change this to "GameDifficulty=+3.0" for Impossible.
Supposedly, it alters HP values, fog of war and AI (yeah, this also means the demo defaults to easy peasy mode).

 

[Volrath]

You realise that all this criticism and resulting failure of the game will lead developers to conclude that "turn-based strategy games don't sell".

It's better that way. Trust me.

 

[MicoSelva]

I'm not even sure if it is worth to mention all the cliches like the scientist chick (today's special offer: two cliches at the price of one! Hot scientist and German scientist!), who basically promises to suck your dick if you bring her more alien artifacts. Romance plot anyone? :facepalm:

Hey, fuck you. Such cliches can be quite fun if done properly.

Yes, I know.

 

[Astral Rag]

Wonder why you had to download several gigabytes just to play 2 very basic missions?

Videos (3,78 GB) can be found in:

"Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown-Demo\XComGame\Movies"

In order to view them you will need:

http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

 

[Allanon]

Am still interested to see how it turns out – it was tactically unwise to do a ‘demo’ that was just the tutorial, but I’m not going to automatically write off the whole thing for one stupid mistake. Particularly as the actual game is (allegedly) primarily random missions on random battlefields with scripted missions only for a few plot related ones.
Having said that, this is still an insult to the original, and the six-person limit is just a retarded move.

As far as I can tell from some previews and interviews I've read, the battlefields are not really random. You'll just have the same chunks of the maps rearranged differently. The aliens and the insertion point will vary though.

I wonder if Firaxis will release mod tools at some point. This game might be fixable.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Unreal Engine 3 does not support random map generation. And I doubt Firaxis implemented it, because you'd have to rewrite that code from scratch with your own engine.

 

[MicoSelva]

Here's an optimistic view on this demo:

Assuming lots of retarded stuff is the consequence of the demo being a demo and representing the start of the game (cutscenes) and that the full game has fully-fledged strategic layer, this game could be rather fun. Maybe not in X-COM kind of way, but rather in the style of Incubation, which I rather liked in its time.

Granted, Incubation was a fun little game, because it wasn't very long (30 missions) and its gimmick was introducing new enemies in a fitting environment constantly, to keep you on your guard. The gimmick worked exactly because the game was not very long. Incubation also had hand-crafted missions, which allowed for a greater control of gameplay and made it almost a puzzle game of sorts (with the combo of enemies and terrain being the puzzle to solve).

This type of gameplay probably won't work in a long game of 100-200 randomly generated missions, but I guess we will see.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Oh wow look at the RPS comments if you dare.

Most people think this is a good PC interface and they're glad that all those useless combat options are gone.

And I didn't see a single person complain about this dumb cinematic garbage. I wonder if this place is the only sane community left on the Internet.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I wonder if this place is the only sane community left on the Internet.

Not necessarily sane, but definitely one of the few that still has the ability of critical thinking.

 

[J_C]

this place.... sane.

But you are right that those comments are retarded.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Most commenters are one of the following three:

Drooling fratboy or dork
Brownnosing blogger or journalist
Burned out veteran who wants to feel like a hardcore gamer but wants lower to no difficulty - the old journalists and everyone at QT3 are in this group

 

[Gragt]

Maybe it's the case of a bad demo. It wouldn't be the first time it happened, even though a demo is supposed to showcase the good parts of the game. I'm not fond of the very serious direction they took with it, especially compared to the campy but serious tone of the original. Art style is ok and consistant so far, and the cinematic look isn't too bad. The 2 actions per turn system isn't necessarily bad and is all about the scale of thing. After all you have a smaller squad with special moves and smaller maps this time but depending on how it's done it can be good — that's me being hopeful there and not rejecting changes just because they are changes. The problem is that these missions do not show much, as others said. I'm pretty sure that the full game has more to offer than this but this demo is rather tepid at best. Still on the fence for that one.

 

[Johannes]

What do you think, if you'd have a good big and challenging map that's not scripted to hell, are the base mechanics good enough to make that interesting?

 

[Israfael]

How the mighty are fallen... According to this interview, http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/03/time-for-a-change-firaxis-on-xcom-part-3 , the things that made the game unique (TU management, inventory, randomness, other complex factors) made testers 'frustrated' ... And the right (tm) decision was not to alleviate it somehow, like make a sane tutorial where typical consoletards can learn basic manouvres and strategies (i.e. not running forward with all toons like a drooling retard and not doing scouting with tank / least important operatives), but to cut it to the ground...

For me, it probably wont be an XCOM game in its classic sense.. its a Warhammer tabletop reskin with aliens and console UI..

 

[Gord]

What do you think, if you'd have a good big and challenging map that's not scripted to hell, are the base mechanics good enough to make that interesting?

If that happens and
IF the aliens move around on their own, and not just as a result of spotting them and
IF the AI proves at least half-decent and
depending on just how linear the game will ultimately be, I think it might prove to be interesting enough to warrant buying it at least once it's on sale.

There's some potential to the core-gameplay, it's just impossible to judge from the demo if the devs manage to use that potential.

 

[Smarts]

I ain't givin' up on this yet.

Seen a few video reviews and previews, that PAX livestreaming stuff and some others, where people have said 'I played the demo, and it felt too linear, not right at all, but then I started playing the game for real here and it's really good!'.

I'm down to one engine and a tank of fumes and blind faith here, I admit.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Not a fucking chance PC was the lead platform, not with this clutzy ass UI. Plug in the 360 controller...and waddya know, the whole sweeping camera bullshit starts to make more sense.

 

[Infinitron]

Vault Dweller

1994: It took 7 people to make X-COM UFO Defense. Two guys who did both design and programming, 2 artists, 2 music/sound guys and a project manager.

1996: It took over 30 people to make a “more of the same” sequel. Now we have 4 assistant producers, 12 artists, 6 level designers, etc.

1997, XCOM Apocalypse, a game that kinda sucked. Over 50 people team. 5 sound guys. 21 artists. An army of level designers. We even have a brand manager now. Good times are about to roll.

2001: X-COM Enforcer or Say Goodbye to the Series. Great job managing the brand, assholes.

2012: o_O

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Atleast their AA algorithm is the tits, is it TXAA?

 

[SuicideBunny]

XCOM Apocalypse, a game that kinda sucked.

no, it didn't.

also, you forgot x-com: interceptor

 

[Infinitron]

XCOM Apocalypse, a game that kinda sucked.

no, it didn't.

also, you forgot x-com: interceptor

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/02/01/against-design-decadence-vince-d-weller

 

[SuicideBunny]

*cringe* at least put that in proper quotes, dood.

 

[EG]

XCOM Apocalypse, a game that kinda sucked.

no, it didn't.

also, you forgot x-com: interceptor

No, no. It sucked.

As turn-based.



Turn-based with pause, however . . .

 

[Achilles]

For those interested, here's a brief description of the combat system in the demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr2GeWiDrdY