2K Games Announces XCOM

Yonder wrote:
Tamren wrote:

I think I know what that is. I forget the name though. Its a salamander newt things with patches of pink feeler things on the side of its head. He seems to have a plushie of one as his avatar.

No I think I remember seeing an article on this thing when it was first born, I think it's a one eyed cat.

Ah, I was looking at it with the wrong orientation. Those salamander things do exist though.

Yonder wrote:
Tamren wrote:

I think I know what that is. I forget the name though. Its a salamander newt things with patches of pink feeler things on the side of its head. He seems to have a plushie of one as his avatar.

No I think I remember seeing an article on this thing when it was first born, I think it's a one eyed cat.

You're telling me that isn't a shopped picture?

We are killing our planet people...

given the thread, maybe Aliens won't be interested in invading us then.

Hobbes2099 wrote:
Yonder wrote:
Tamren wrote:

I think I know what that is. I forget the name though. Its a salamander newt things with patches of pink feeler things on the side of its head. He seems to have a plushie of one as his avatar.

No I think I remember seeing an article on this thing when it was first born, I think it's a one eyed cat.

You're telling me that isn't a shopped picture?

We are killing our planet people...

given the thread, maybe Aliens won't be interested in invading us then. :)

No it's legit. Caused quite the internet debate on it's authenticity when the picture first came out though.

Oh please let there be actual news about this game coming out sometime soon.

Rat Boy wrote:

Oh please let there be actual news about this game coming out sometime soon.

What, you don't like the direction this thread has taken?

Is this XCom shooter going to have one-eyed kittens as enemies?

Redwing wrote:

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I remember being really excited for X-Com Alliance before it was scrapped, I can't help feel a little excited about this too. And who knows, if it does well, perhaps we can expect a more conventional X-Com game shortly afterwards?

Ahh RedWing my naive friend. If it does well the developers will get big headed and we'll just get XCOM 2.

The game:
X-C.O.M. (eXtraterrestrial - Counter Operations Mandate) out in stores later this year. It features a squad of fresh meat, freshly initiated into the freshly formed Counter Operations Against eXtraterrestrials (pronounced, CAR-CS) unit which faces fresh challenges against an onslaught of unknown assailants.

The story:
The protagonist, COAX trooper Brad "The Hammer" Boson, quickly becomes separated from his team and must work through dangerous environments to reach Beta site and safety. Along the way he must team up with a sultry seductress Russian forces agent who might, or might not, be his closest ally during the exposure of a conspiracy that will rock the X-C.O.M. and the world to their core. Brad will have to survive treachery and alien assaults as he uncovers a plot to sell off humans as hosts, food, slaves and energy sources in a world where he no longer knows who or what he can trust.

Choice quotes:
"The Hammer is my nickname."
"That's not a gun, THIS is a Quadvibrational electron dynamo."
"Hey buddy, you think you're going to save the world all by yourself?!"

One proposed addition. You need a twist. The PC should be betrayed! In a shocking turn of events, the PC's superiors turn against him, and kill him in a POV sequence! Every level should end this way.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

One proposed addition. You need a twist. The PC should be betrayed! In a shocking turn of events, the PC's superiors turn against him, and kill him in a POV sequence! Every level should end this way.

Oh well done. Thanks for leaking that info! We were holding that back until the big reveal at E3!!

Details! (summarised From PC Gamer UK preview as I read...)

- definately set in the 50's and with a 'completely new mythology' (so why name it...oh never mind)
- you play a sole, named, FBI agent but you get AI controlled backup agents (currently 'a bit of a worry')
- You have some manner of home-base with wiretappers & police scanners that can be improved
- ..which unlocks missions from an over-world map of the US
- you have to film/photograph and recover evidence in the field
- there are blobs.
- mission maps are large but not designed to be fully explored in one go
- the alien threat increases the longer you stay in-mission and you're ammo/gear is limited to what you arrived with, so it sounds like you are (at least initially) always supposed to be on the defensive. Jump into a mission, grab what evidence you can and get out again alive as quickly as possible.

- you need to collect 'Elerium' in the field to fuel weapons reasearch & development
- the aliens are not your average bipedal things...they want to try to do something more 'alien' (see quote below)

from the article...

Stanley Kubrick's psychedelic nightmares are made flesh, as an enormous monolith shudders out of the horizon, the accompanying mist and lightning blocking out the daylight. Before your eyes, this cubist deathmachine - is it a creature, a spacecraft, a building, all of the above? - transforms. First, into a ring of smaller, diamond-shaped artefacts, and then into two concentric rings, like a gaping metal maw. The rings suck. All the furniture of the house you're in is dragged towards it, smashing through what few windows remain. Run. Your guns have no effect here. Run.

Y'know what...colour me interested. Still think it's pointless calling it Xcom but...I'm starting to like what I hear.

Wait, is this Bethesda? No? Sure could've fooled me. That description almost fits Fallout 3.

stevenmack wrote:

XCOM stuff +

Y'know what...colour me interested. Still think it's pointless calling it Xcom but...I'm starting to like what I hear.

Me too, getting a very Neo-Evangelion "angel" kind of vibe from those aliens, more interdimensional than interstellar. Still, no Turn-Based combat?, BOOOOOO to you Sir!

The alien description sounds interesting. I'd like to see the video for that.

Duoae wrote:
SpacePPoliceman wrote:

One proposed addition. You need a twist. The PC should be betrayed! In a shocking turn of events, the PC's superiors turn against him, and kill him in a POV sequence! Every level should end this way.

Oh well done. Thanks for leaking that info! We were holding that back until the big reveal at E3!!

Someone needs to get their NDAs out faster.

stevenmack wrote:

- there are blobs.

Thank goodness. I couldn't imagine an X-Com game without blobs.

edosan wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

- there are blobs.

Thank goodness. I couldn't imagine an X-Com game without blobs.

No, no, no. You're doing it wrong! Let me fix that for you:

edosan wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

- there are boobs.

Thank goodness. I couldn't imagine an X-Com game without oogaba.

There. Much better now.

stevenmack wrote:

Details! (summarised From PC Gamer UK preview as I read...)

I am sufficiently satisfied that they aren't making a linear run 'n' gun FPS, and my interest is definitely piqued (albeit very cautiously).

feeank wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

XCOM stuff +

Y'know what...colour me interested. Still think it's pointless calling it Xcom but...I'm starting to like what I hear.

Me too, getting a very Neo-Evangelion "angel" kind of vibe from those aliens, more interdimensional than interstellar. Still, no Turn-Based combat?, BOOOOOO to you Sir! :old:

Yeah, it sounds pretty interesting! It just doesn't sound like X-com.:-p

Well, think about it this way. Every other sequel to X-COM took the timeline further and further out from the setting of the original game, aka today-ish. What's wrong with going backwards?

the alien threat increases the longer you stay in-mission

That scares me a bit. I hope it doesn't just mean "spawn frequency is directly related to the amount of time spent in the mission. If you're smart, follow the quest arrow marker as fast as you can to the giant glowing object and touch it to get teleported out of the mission before you get overwhelmed!"

Puce Moose wrote:
the alien threat increases the longer you stay in-mission

That scares me a bit. I hope it doesn't just mean "spawn frequency is directly related to the amount of time spent in the mission. If you're smart, follow the quest arrow marker as fast as you can to the giant glowing object and touch it to get teleported out of the mission before you get overwhelmed!"

From what I've read of a similar preview done in an Aussie mag over here, you begin and end the mission at your car. So I guess it's get in, grab as much info as possible and toast a few aliens if possible, and then quickly dash back to your car and make a get away. No quest arrows were mentioned, in fact an alien detector device was mentioned, some sort of compass that points towards the nearest 'blob', that you can build once you've researched the aforementioned 'blobs' enough. It actually sounds really interesting to me so far, and I almost get the feeling that the original x-com was trying to go a similar route, but it always ended up being easier to just clear the area out.

They replaced the Skyranger with a Studebaker?

Boycott.

Actually, now that I've been thinking about it awhile, there is some logic to the 50s setting. The UFO sighting phenomena (or at least the modern version of it) began in the late 40s after the end of World War II and the Roswell crash allegedly happened in 1947, contactee stories in the 50s, and full-on abduction stories first started floating in the late 50s and early 60s.

Could the XCOM shooter have more Noir elements than Max Payne 3?

Preview at Games Radar. Still reading so I haven't formed any opinions yet.

I've got us locked in to check this out at E3!

Rat Boy wrote:

Preview at Games Radar. Still reading so I haven't formed any opinions yet.

Ah yes, that'll be the same as the print one in this months PC Gamer. Spiffy.

Color me interested...

Edit: Also, is Shawn Elliot involved in this project?