Help me enjoy X-Com

Prozac wrote:

So... who bought X-Com because of this thread? Just letting you know it's 33% off on Steam now ;)

Someone over there is watching the forums, I just know it! Hi Gabe!

I played a game, late a night, of TFTD in bed. Well aimed alien grenade took out Certis, Podunk, and Prozac and like two others. Since I was using my left hand, and my wife was asleep I figure it's okay if I start over. It was the first mission after all. Don't hate me.

Prozac wrote:

So... who bought X-Com because of this thread? Just letting you know it's 33% off on Steam now ;)

You sneaky Australian dingo.

TheWanderer OoCT wrote:

Since I was using my left hand, and my wife was asleep I figure it's okay if I start over.

Kinky.

Prozac wrote:

So... who bought X-Com because of this thread? Just letting you know it's 33% off on Steam now ;)

$2 on Impulse today too.

Prozac wrote:

So... who bought X-Com because of this thread? Just letting you know it's 33% off on Steam now ;)

/Raise I couldn't get the CD to work, so I bought the combo pack off of steam and had a seemless out of the box exerience.

I purposely didn't set up my units properly and just rushed to the first mission just to get to the combat action. One step off the ramp...BOOM headshot! Man down! Man down!

I love how brutal that game is in the beginning. Not unfair by any stretch, but it sets the proper tone for just how unprepared we as a species are for such happenings.

UFO Defesnse is now recruiting. Must have high PSI and Reaction scores. No scrubs or fatties.

I'm always volunteering to be a meat shield. Haven't seen myself die yet so unless I'm one of the hamburger piles mentioned earlier all is well

clever id wrote:

I'm always volunteering to be a meat shield. Haven't seen myself die yet so unless I'm one of the hamburger piles mentioned earlier all is well

The Steam sales have put the Apocalypse on hold.

Sorry to disappoint. You have fallen in the most recent rounds of the war. You, Mr Wynd and Anime J will not be returning home after the war. Have a nice day!

This war is getting quite brutal and I'm finding it harder to keep people alive long enough to really improve. Thankfully personal shields are on the way once things resume.

Yeah, pretty sure you're still around in mine ID. You may even be a sergeant? Either way you'v estayed alive by keeping your head down and getting the job done.

Ok, on the suggestion of others I went and tried to get FRAPS to record some stuff eventually. Well, I can't get it to work in X-COM Apocalypse, but I can in other games. I also can't get this game to run in a window. It doesn't bother me so much, but that means no videos for everyone else. Sorry guys. If I weren't buying other games for the sale, I might could be bothered to pick up the Steam version and try again.

I had this wild idea not long after I lost in my most recent play-through: what if the rumored sequel that's in development is based on the premise that X-COM lost the first war? What if the aliens now control the Earth and the remnants of X-COM try to organize a covert resistance?

Rat Boy wrote:

I had this wild idea not long after I lost in my most recent play-through: what if the rumored sequel that's in development is based on the premise that X-COM lost the first war? What if the aliens now control the Earth and the remnants of X-COM try to organize a covert resistance?

That's a damn fine idea, I hope they go that way (or someone does).

Glad to see that Prozac is treating me right. I may have to promote mrtomaytohead to "grenade runner" though

The whole "we actually lost!"/"BAD END!" angle was already covered by UFO Aftermath/Aftershock/Afterlight.

Of the three only Afterlight is worth your time. Modded up its quite fun.

clever id wrote:

Glad to see that Prozac is treating me right. I may have to promote mrtomaytohead to "grenade runner" though :P

Hey, you were the lazy bum walking across my battlefields every mission. You were worse than Moondragon ever was. I just didn't catch it in time to make any real changes. It was your own fault you got gunned down, really. Now, Anime J, on the other hand, was wrongfully head-shotted from behind by a team mate.

And if I'm running grenades do I get one of those fancy belts that goes over my shoulder and across my chest with grenades all along it?

Tamren wrote:

The whole "we actually lost!"/"BAD END!" angle was already covered by UFO Aftermath/Aftershock/Afterlight.

Of the three only Afterlight is worth your time. Modded up its quite fun.

And there's my "Simpsons did it!" moment of the day.

Rat Boy wrote:
Tamren wrote:

The whole "we actually lost!"/"BAD END!" angle was already covered by UFO Aftermath/Aftershock/Afterlight.

Of the three only Afterlight is worth your time. Modded up its quite fun.

And there's my "Simpsons did it!" moment of the day.

Bah! Those games don't really exist!

mrtomaytohead wrote:

And if I'm running grenades do I get one of those fancy belts that goes over my shoulder and across my chest with grenades all along it?

Sure, I'll grant you a little dignity.

It sure is amusing how much fun the game is when you personalize it.

clever id wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

And if I'm running grenades do I get one of those fancy belts that goes over my shoulder and across my chest with grenades all along it?

Sure, I'll grant you a little dignity.

It sure is amusing how much fun the game is when you personalize it.

Seriously. This is the first time I ever even thought of it, too. All thanks to GWJ.

I'd like to throw my name into the hat, too.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

You were worse than Moondragon ever was. I just didn't catch it in time to make any real changes.

Lay it on thicker, why don't you? Way to show respect for the dead, buster.

So this whole thing prompted me to fetch the X-Com myself. Turns out I can't run it full screen because every third (or fourth) time I try to scroll the screen by touching the sides with a mouse causes my game to reset to a previous save (or something stupid like that). I've had some luck running it in windowed mode, but the last game I played ended that way as well (and that was after I just cleared out a medium sized landed ship with no casualties :().

MoonDragon wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

You were worse than Moondragon ever was. I just didn't catch it in time to make any real changes.

Lay it on thicker, why don't you? Way to show respect for the dead, buster.

So this whole thing prompted me to fetch the X-Com myself. Turns out I can't run it full screen because every third (or fourth) time I try to scroll the screen by touching the sides with a mouse causes my game to reset to a previous save (or something stupid like that). I've had some luck running it in windowed mode, but the last game I played ended that way as well (and that was after I just cleared out a medium sized landed ship with no casualties :().

What OS, game version are you trying (Steam, DOS CD)?

And hey man, you were getting pretty good towards the end. I was sad to see you go after all that hard work.

I got the Steam version running on Vista 64.

Nice to see that just the mentioning of X-com restarts a whole stampede of UFO-Wildebeest.

The strongness of the game is proven by the fact that people play it whenever it's mentioned, and still love it. Good and Old Games like Kings Quest, Defender of the Crown, Astro Tits and MOO won't make it as far as X-com for fanbase and replayability. Dune and Dune2 are potent in (re)creating recreating some hype, but X-com tops them all. Any gamer touched by this game is changed for good (or worse).

All in all, in response to the original poster. There actually is no real help for getting this game done. You love it, or hate it. To hate it, it's simple: it is one of the most unrewarding, rigid games ever. This pig is a hard-liner like the first Imperium Galactica (with bugs) game or The Football Manager-series with tactics-cracking. It's tough, it's hard and it's not for cheap-thrill-relaxing-gamers. Meta-plotting and planning is needed on X-com. One lapse in your concentration will not ruïn your game, but make things much and much and much harder.

The game pulls your leg; at first you think your soldiers are important - and they're fodder. Later in the game, you actually have to cherish you psi-commanders and all, and they still can be fodder. I do have a love/hate relationship with this game. As I said, one lapse in concentration will hinder your 'save-the-planet'-aspirations, but plain bad luck can also. It's almost like those disasters on the Civilization table-top-game (advanced civ in computerland), or like getting 2/3 of the map with Total War: Rome. A disaster happens in Civ, a rebellion in Total War... and half the world (or more) you conquered is gone). Same with UFO, but then just due to bad luck. Bite the bullet, go on. Or hate the game, uninstall.

I reckon it's the best game of that age, period. The depht, details and possibilities are zillion. The unforgiving terror-sites, chrysalids, and butchering battles overall always make me want to throw the game out of the window after losing a carefull planned terror-site were I loose all my men just because they get psyched ot I just get unlucky... yes, the game is that hard.

On the other hand, I fire the game up every now and then. And wonder why these kind of games are not made anymore...

My 2 cents from the Netherlands... Great show, KUTGW

MrCompletely wrote:
mrwynd wrote:

I suggest looking at the Direct 2 Drive offering for X-com. It's completely DRM free and comes with a handy DOSBox configuration that works great.

Anyone using the Mac OSx version of DosBox to play X-Com?

I've been using Boxer, which is the nifty graphical version of DosBox on OSX. Works great without any configuration. Just hit, hm... command-F to enter fullscreen mode. My brother was visiting a while back and we hooked up my laptop to the TV to play X-Com. I really can't describe how awesome the game is on a 40" screen.

How are the other x-com games? Is it best to just pick up the original, which is $3.34 on steam right now or the x-com pack for $10 which includes X-COM: Terror From the Deep, X-COM: Apocalypse, X-COM: Interceptor, X-COM: UFO Defense, X-COM: Enforcer?

I was looking at my retail box of Apocalypse and it turns out it came with the strategy guide. Holy hell, this thing is thick.

IUMogg wrote:

How are the other x-com games? Is it best to just pick up the original, which is $3.34 on steam right now or the x-com pack for $10 which includes X-COM: Terror From the Deep, X-COM: Apocalypse, X-COM: Interceptor, X-COM: UFO Defense, X-COM: Enforcer?

TFTD is a harder, longer version of the original. Some of missions can take 5+ hours, as you work your way through multiple levels (the ship ones were the ones I hated the most - you have to check every single cabin when you're looking for that last lobsterman - who then proceeds to kill the team that found him, requiring even more time for another team to get to that spot and take him out). The others I couldn't get into, although there seems to be an Apocalypse following here.

Hari Seldon wrote:

Meta-plotting and planning is needed on X-com. One lapse in your concentration will not ruïn your game, but make things much and much and much harder.

A disaster happens in Civ, a rebellion in Total War... and half the world (or more) you conquered is gone). Same with UFO, but then just due to bad luck. Bite the bullet, go on. Or hate the game, uninstall.

The thing that keeps me coming back to X-Com is that if you've planned correctly, you can recover from even the worst disasters. It's incredibly rare to have a game that makes room for failure and recovery, and that makes all the difference. Think about how many games where you simply must succeed, every time, or you have to reload a saved game. I think this is one of the driving forces behind the success of Mount & Blade, too.

If any of you are jumping for the steam sale thats on now, buy UFO Defense, TFTD and Apocalypse individually. Don't get the deal pack, it will saddle your game list with Interceptor and Enforcer. Both are terrible games.

complexmath wrote:

I've been using Boxer, which is the nifty graphical version of DosBox on OSX. Works great without any configuration. Just hit, hm... command-F to enter fullscreen mode. My brother was visiting a while back and we hooked up my laptop to the TV to play X-Com. I really can't describe how awesome the game is on a 40" screen.

Another enabler. Downloading Boxer came with a demo of XCOM, a terror mission which thoroughly thrashed me. Where can I get a full version that will work on a mac through boxer?