The New X-Com by Firaxis Hype Thread

[Skyblade]

I did name the post "Information Overload" for a reason.

Anyway, there's some more info out, including full playthroughs of the Tutorial missions (in this German Vid and it's second part), which introduces players to the systems and the gameplay.

First Tutorial Mission Spoilers"Hi, welcome to X-Com. To give you a feel for how this game works, we're giving you a squad of 4 soldiers. To make sure you understand the game properly, by the end of this mission, three of them will be dead. Good luck, Commander."

And I have to say, while I know "gesundheit" is simply German for health, given its colloquial use in the US, I still crack up when I see "gesundheitbonus" on armor.

Also, we got an update to the "max troop count" message. The barracks can hold up to 99 soldiers at once, though 6 is the max squad size. So, yeah, not going to run out of guys anytime soon.



And, right after I post this, we get a vid of that entire first tutorial mission in English.

Worth noting, it seems everything about the initial mission is completely scripted. Not only what movements you make, but it seems your entire squad (likely due to the voice acting), including their countries of origin, appearances, and names.

(SPOILER)So anyone who does the tutorial will likely be guaranteed those same three names on their memorial wall.

[Jiro]

Pretty hardcore way to start. Just, way to cause the commander some grief

[Slothy]

Figured this was worth a bump:

The Escapist : News : XCom: Enemy Unknown Demo Hits Steam

[Skyblade]

Was planning to bump for the demo news myself as soon as it had finished downloading and I had tried it.

It seems the demo is very restrictive, unfortunately. Two missions, one of which is the first tutorial mission, and, as such, completely scripted. Very little base interaction, no soldier customization, a number of the PC UI elements apparently cut out, and according to some people, not completely polished for optimization on all machines.

Still thinking I'm going to play it and love it, as the demo vids look incredible, but I don't think this demo is going to bring a ton of new players to the fold. Which is a shame, since we're still only halfway to the Steam preorder goal for getting a free copy of Civ V.


EDIT: And, that will teach not to trust people on the 2k forums. While it's true the interface is restricted, I still like the PC interface and find it easy to work with. And you can customize your soldiers in the demo, you simply can't do it during the mission prep screen, you have to do it from the Barracks.

Unfortunately, this demo does little but whet and already incredible appetite. I want the game!

Oh, and an additional note: The game's config files seem to be completely unlocked, so feel free to edit the details such as troop number, armor abilities, etcetera.

[Pike]

I definitely want to look into this demo.

[Skyblade]

For those of you who have not yet downloaded the Steam demo, go do it now!

For those who have, I have a present for you.

DHX, a member of the 2k forums, threw together this.

What is it, you might ask? Well, while it's true that the demo is, ordinarily, extremely restrictive, the devs made the insane choice to leave the game files open and unencrypted. What this means is that the demo can be modified like crazy.

This particular editor (which has been declared safe by Trend Micro and Malwarebytes, so it's probably ok, especially since it's so small and simple) lets you adjust the enemies that spawn in the second mission (some spoilers in that it lets you choose between all of the enemy types, including late game ones that have yet to be revealed officially), the number of soldiers you can take on the second mission (from the base 4 to the max 6), and the difficulty. And thank goodness for that, because the difficulty of the second mission is fixed on Easy in the demo (first mission is completely scripted), and the enemies have weak stats and severely restricted AI.


Also keep in mind, be careful when browsing the game's files yourself. They include things such as game videos. From simple things like alien autopsies to (apparently, have avoided them like the plague myself) endgame cutscene spoilers. I haven't checked, nor am I going to, that is a prize I want to have to earn.


Edit: Not all aliens seem to spawn properly (some I tried just kept the default aliens), but a lot of them do. Further note, Cyberdisks frelling owned my 6 man squad on Classic. Alien grenades suck.

Make sure you run the demo before using the editor, as the editor changes some files which aren't created until the demo is actually run.

[Elite Lord Sigma]

So, after I saw a bit of gameplay footage, it finally tipped the balance. I pre-ordered the game yesterday.

[Skyblade]

So, after I saw a bit of gameplay footage, it finally tipped the balance. I pre-ordered the game yesterday.

As a note on preorders, anyone who preorders on Steam now gets a free copy of Civilization V.

[Elite Lord Sigma]

Early reviews are nothing but acclaim so far.

Game Informer: 9.5/10
Official Xbox Magazine: 9/10
Games Radar: 4.5/5

Overall rating is a 91.25% based on 4 reviews on GameRankings. It looks like I made the right decision taking a gamble on this game.

[Pike]

This comes out tomorrow, yes?

I've got it pre-loaded on Steam

[Slothy]

This comes out tomorrow, yes?

I've got it pre-loaded on Steam

Same here. But even better is that I came down sick today and will definitely be calling in tomorrow. Never been happier to be sick.

[Skyblade]

If my information is correct, the Steam version actually unlocks before midnight. Have fun.

[Slothy]

I'm usually trout out of luck there though living farther east time zone wise than anyone in the US, what with Valve being on the west coast. Should be good to go in the morning though I'd imagine.

[Jiro]

Looks like I need to get paid

[Madame Adequate]

Looks like America needs to sink into the ocean