Irrational Games working on a new X-COM?
Saturday, February 17th, 2007 - 5:53pm
Before you file this under "too good to be true," bare in mind parent company Take-Two now owns the X-COM license. Perhaps the recent release of the original to Gametap is more than just a coincidence with this.
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Sweet jesus, I hope that's true. Even if marketing reasons prevent it from being turn-based strategy goodness, which would be dissapointing for sure, I could see Irrational being a developer that would make an excellent game capturing the spirit of the franchise.
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I think it could be true but pointless. It is like a sequel to fallout or something.
There have been 4-5 or more X-com clones in the last few years (UFO: Afterlight seems to be the most recent.) none has measured up.
And some games by the creators of X-com like Rebel Star: Tactical Command for the GBA were just...dull.
I prefer to remember it as it was and go on to other games.
I really enjoyed X-Com 3, although I didn't finish it. I thought pausable real-time was better than turn-based, personally. But, like the original, it got very difficult. I didn't finish X-Com 1 until last year sometime, so I suppose I'll be due to finish 3 in about 2011.
I got the impression that it didn't sell very well.. maybe it was just too soon after the first, and we weren't willing to let go of turn-based yet? Pausable continuous play is much more realistic, but I'm not sure we realized that yet. Interrupts, which were so, so crucial to X-COM 1 and 2, are just a turn-based mechanism to simulate real time... why do that when you can have the real thing?
'Course, completely disproving that idea, the first half of Silent Storm was incredibly good. I'd buy an X-Com game with that engine.
In a recent podcast Ken Levine was talking about games he had played recently. He also mentioned an X-COM clone he had ordered from Europe - which must have referred to UFO: Afterlight.
Yeah, Levine seems to be an X-COM fan in general - however, getting and playing games that happen to be in the same genre of the project you're working on or intend to work is quite a standard practice to do some research.
X-Com three bit off WAY more than it could chew. The vehicles got out of hand. The secret was to buy a bunch of bikes, alright weapons, and just swarm. The combat itself was really very good, creative stuff. I especially liked all the "living" grenades.
A new X-Com from the franchise owner? We'll see. I'm pretty excited about the most recent one from the Aftermath folks. I think Certis has a thread up...
wordsmythe wrote:
Crouton wrote:
This rumor has been around since Take Two bought Irrational and they said they were starting work on a "classic" PC franchise.
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Notsomuch, I think. Fallout had a whole world, a feel, an ethos to it that helps define how people react to it. X-COM didn't. I mean, I love the series, but the plot was pretty bare-bones, there was no characterization, there was nothing to really connect with other than the immense joy of blowing the ever-living-snot out of Mutons.
All there really is to do is just improve the gameplay. In the interim, titles like Jagged Alliance and Silent Storm have come out, all which point to a new, brighter future.
Maybe i'm underestimating the fanaticism of the X-COM fanbase, but short of them colossally screwing it up (Say, turning it into X-COM: Celebrity Protector where you have to keep cameramen away from Celebutards) I can't see it being hit. It's not like the series had made a ton of amazing jumps since. Some nice steps, sure, but the holy grail has always been the original. Add some new weapons, improve the graphics, make sure the world stays destructible... maybe it's me but I feel like it'd take something really special for a company to screw it up when the basics are all already there for you.
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The one mod most asked for on Silent Storm forums?
X-Com.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Please stop teasing us developers!
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Accuritized.
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"If ads put your sanity to the test
come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
how rock can be commercial-free!
'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
My days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle.
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I just... that's so....
Sinatar, I love you.
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Awesome, Sinatar.
I noticed on the weekly release list at EvilAvatar that there's a new game called UFO: Extraterrestrials coming out on Tuesday. It looks to be a very faithful modern follow-up to X-COM: base building, true turn-based gameplay, destructible environments, etc. It appears to have been created by a small team of Czech developers who've been working on it for years.
I'd never heard of it before, but I'll be keeping close tabs to find out if it's any good.
Everything can be debated, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's debatable.
--Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City
I actually caught some of the video of it after following some Wikipedia links.
It's not even right to simply call it a follow-up. It's not even an homage, it's like a modern-day remake. If you watch the gameplay video, you'll be stunned at how much of it is straight out of X-COM.
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I don't see how that could possibly be a bad thing.
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There's also Laser Squad Nemesis. A game that's celebrating its 5th year and is actively developed and updated. Of course they charge a fee for multi-player.
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Like I said in a previous thread, the gameplay video has good things and bad things about it.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
X-Com is up on Gametap. Do a search for Skyranger.
I was playing last night. I'd forgotten how brutally difficult that game is. Now that I've got Power Armour my guys can survive a bit, but it's nearly a one-hit-one-kill game.
I'm not sure there's a market for a clone of the X-Com experience. On the very first encounter, a modern gamer would rush in, guns blazing, and get wiped.
As it is, I'm playing in "Beginner" and I'm saving at the beginning of each round. The game makes me feel like a masochist.
What makes me sad is that your first point is dead-on. X-COM was such a slower-paced, more plodding game that I don't think it would fly anymore. I hate to keep carping about a pet-peeve of mine, but as an example, i'd say to look at the evolution of Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon as examples. Both started as slower, more planning-based games, now both aren't far from being Quake with cover. And it'd be such a shame to see a game that encouraged thinking and, even at the expense of a frequently brutal difficulty level, turn into another "OMGEXPLOSIONS" title.
As far as the saving goes, yeah. There was a point when I played that game that I saved 3-4 times in a single turn. All it takes is one goddamn grenade, or god help you, one Chryssalid to screw up everything.
My favorite, most horrifying experience, we land to kill the crew of some gigantic spaceship. The first guy steps off the Skyranger and flying in comes some grenade from off-screen.
Kerblooey. All but one member of my squad dead. He immediately panics, runs out, goes in circles, gets shot. Oy.
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