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[ackblom12]

The demo came out today and there have been several online previews released, I was wondering what everyone else was thinking so far?

Here is a good write up from PA Report.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/hands-on-with-the-pc-version-of-xcom-enemy-unkown-spoiler-the-enemy-are-ali

I was really really happy with the demo myself and I'm looking forward to Classic mode quite a lot. I will probably do a Classic Ironman run through at some point and avoid Impossible because I don't fucking hate myself.

[snalin]

It was real fun. I am wondering if you will always have to choose what mission to select, or if you can have more agents and dropships available to handle several at once.

The design change for levels to be more corridor-like than big squares, combined with smaller crews, looks like it will be a great deal of fun, and prevent the problem from the originals of never finding the last alien. Though, always having small teams means that bringing rookies along will be a must, to have somebody worthwhile available when a valuable member dies, instead of having to rely on rookies again.

I'm also really glad that they brought the overwatch ability from the GBA game Rebelstar (which probably was the best GBA game I played). It gives some additional depth to squad movement, as you can secure an area instead of hoping that your dudes reacted to someone walking in front of them.

Another thing - do we have any indication on how much destructible terrain there will be available? Making new doors with rocket launchers was a great part of X-com.

[ackblom12]

Not that I'm aware of, but I assume buildings won't be particuarly destructible. I know crates and some other things are, but not sure about the rest of it. I should test that out with the rocket launcher in the demo. Really though, with windows making handy entrance points now I'm not sure I mind too much if they opted out of dealing with destructible buildings.

Also I think I love the smaller number of crewmen. It was a kind of sadly viable tactic in the original to purposefully move rookies around a corner to attract all of the alien fire. Also with how long wounds take to heal between missions, I don't think there should be any problems with making sure you have rookies around to go on missions.

[Blyss]

Another thing - do we have any indication on how much destructible terrain there will be available? Making new doors with rocket launchers was a great part of X-com.

I was actually remembering playing the old game this morning, and one of the things that was my favorite tactic was blowing a hole in one of the landing pads on the aliens' battleship, and coming up behind the aliens, who thought I was dumb enough to take an elevator.

That guided rocket launcher was my favorite doormaker.   

I should be able to get my hands on the PC demo tonight or tomorrow.

[ackblom12]

Ok, confirmed that in the demo at least, there are no destructible buildings at least. Crates and explodable tanks and such are destructable, but not buildings. That doesn't really surprise me in the least and I'm not disappointed at all really.

[LTK]

Jim: I don’t think any of them are very interesting, they all involve me doing completely idiotic things like sending my sniper to take cover behind an burning (and about to explode) car. I’ve done a lot of that sort of thing. I should mention, actually, how much I have enjoyed the general destructibility of everything. Knocking a wall down to make your way inside a structure has a certain robust satisfaction to it.

Adam: The sound design is strong in that aspect as well – when a building is burning it will creak and make shuddering sounds. Have you met mutons?

Jim: Yes, I just encountered them.

Adam: They quite regularly level entire buildings just to get at one half dead XCOM member who is limping back to the Skyranger.

Pretty sure that's a yes.

[snalin]

Oh, one thing I forgot about the demo - the moment when the camera first panned away from the mission HQ and showed the whole base was beautiful. The game really looks gorgeous, which is something we haven't ever seen in an X-com game.

[ackblom12]

Pretty sure that's a yes.

Fucking yessssss

[Blyss]

As was promised PA did a second report on the strategy portion of the game.  That ALL sounds good to me.  Damn good.

[Dimmukane]

Y'all should buy this game so my friends can get nice bonuses.  Just sayin'.

[ackblom12]

Already pre-ordered, thank them for getting it made in the first place.

[Blyss]

I'm not preordering, because there's no way I can afford it right now, but I WILL own this game.  Soon.

[ackblom12]

Game is pre-loading now. Fucking excited as hell.

[ackblom12]

Review at Destructoid is up.

[ackblom12]

So Classic difficulty is fucking brutal as hell. I'm gonna opt for Normal for the time being.

So that everyone understands what the technical differences between the difficulties are, here is a breakdown from the 2k forums:

The difficulty settings actually affect the game on a LOT of different levels so the ramp up between them is pretty tough:

Easy:
1. Base global panic starts at 0
2. Most alien activity only raises panic by 1 in left unchecked
3. Your soldiers have 1 bonus hitpoint
4. Aliens are dumber, and there aren't as many of them
5. Soldiers cost $10

Normal:
1. Base global panic starts at 0
2. Most minor alien activity raises panic by 1 in left unchecked with some events doing up to 3
3. Your soldiers have no bonus hitpoints
4. Aliens have their AI mostly unshackled
5. Soldiers cost $10

Classic:
1. Base global panic starts at 8 (1 per location)
2. If unchecked alien activity causes at least 1 panic, but will often cause 2 or 3
3. Your soldiers have -1 hitpoint
4. All aliens receive bonuses hit hitpoints, accuracy, critical change and / or damage.
5. Alien AI is unshackled
6. You receive no officer training school
7. There are even more aliens per map
8. Soldiers cost $15

Impossible:
1. Base global panic starts at 16 (2 per location)
2. If unchecked alien activity causes at least 2 panic, but will often cause even more
3. Your soldiers have -2 hitpoints
4. All aliens receive bonuses hit hitpoints, accuracy, critical change and / or damage.
5. Alien AI is unshackled
6. You receive no officer training school
7. There are even more aliens per map
8. Soldiers cost $15


So playing on Impossible it is very likely you will lose one or more funding nation on month one. In theory you could lose every funding nation of the first month depending on alien activity and the efficacy of your response so good luck commander.

[snalin]

Can you sell unused alien artifacts like you could in the old games? Then more aliens on maps could be a blessing in disguise. Otherwise, that looks brutal.

Have an assignment due by Friday, but I'm still going to play a ton of this.

[ackblom12]

Yeah, you can sell artifacts and broken UFO parts are basically vendor trash. I'm not sure if it will be as much of a blessing as a problem seeing as how incredibly lethal combat is though.

I tried Classic mode a couple of times, the 2nd attempt ended up with me losing 3 squad members in one turn due to a panicy recruit who shot another squad member in the face after watching 2 more mates in full cover get their heads blown off.

Edit: Also, unless I've just been missing it, there's no way to sell off your old guns and armor now. The only way I can tell to get rid of them is by waiting for contracts from countries asking for equipment.

Also, Chrysallids still hold the coveted title of "Die in a Goddamn Fire".

[Blyss]

Also, Chrysallids still hold the coveted title of "Die in a Goddamn Fire".

Chrysallids have been known to give me nightmares...

That is one scary concept for an enemy.

[ackblom12]

The only thing that makes them any less scary is the same thing that made them less scary in the original... Plasma. And even that is just hoping you don't have a small bit of bad luck.

Also, here is the Rock, Paper, Shotgun Review.

The only things I really disagree with him on are concerning the item limit and lack of free aim. On one hand, I'd love Free Aim for taking out walls with my Heavies to free up line of sight for my other troops, on the other hand I much prefer unlimited ammo and not having to deal with the hassle of clips. I just can't help but Free Aim and more items would completely unbalance the game. The item limit also makes those max level Support units insanely precious.

[Pilchard123]

Anyone watch TB? Haven't watched this yet, but...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ks03EprFE

[snalin]

GAH! My dudes keeps on dying! Funnily enough, the heavy you get out of the first mission is still with me, but other than that, quite a few has passed away. It's usually to something new that I don't expect - Mutons with grenades, berserkers (those things don't care about walls between you and them), and not remembering that the cyberdisks from the old games were really fucking hard-hitting.

This far I'm happy with the game. Except one crash, there hasn't been any problems, and I generally die to stupidity. There's a lot less reliance on blind luck in this game, and guns actually having 100% hit chance is a big pluss - remember all those 95%-misses?

The little tanks are also pretty cute, and incredible strong, I recommend anyone picking them up. They have speed like crazy, hitpoints though the roof (can take 2 plasma shots to the face and still be going strong), decent attacks, they doesn't panic and don't get mind controlled. Only downside is that they cannot use cover and need ramps to get around, but the ability to take a little tank, drive it into the middle of an open space like there was no aliens around, set it on overwatch, and then put your dudes in cover behind them. Brilliant.

[ackblom12]

Yeah, I'm really happy with how well they've kept X-Com intact without holding onto the old bullshit anymore than necessary. Cutting out most of the inventory management is probably my favorite small change honestly. The skill trees are great and make levels a lot more important and I feel like there is a bit more strategy involved with no Free Aim to rely on.

On the other hand, UFO interceptions are still kind of minimalist to a degree that I kind of wish they were just entirely automated. UFOs also seem to happen with very little frequency now, to the point where it almost feels pontless keeping interceptors around in the various country's hangers.

[snalin]

It kinda feels like the UFOs appear at random intervals which are unrelated to where you have satellites, which makes the satelites kinda meaningless as anything else than a panic level dampener and moneymaking machine.

One thing that is a bit of a hassle with the inventory stuff is that the guys that's off duty for ten days for something* keeps their weapons and armor, so you have to go into their inventory and remove their stuff manually if you want somebody else to use it. Otherwise it's really easy to use, and the choices in equipment selection are interesting - should I bring medpacks and grenades that I might need, or go for extra health and aim with addons? And you really need those stunning devices, as they allow you to capture the crazy expensive plasma guns, but they take up the slot that helps you survive, so it's not very tempting to bring them.

*

(click to show/hide)

PSIONIC TRAINING

[snalin]

The movement in this game! I sent a soldier rushing in a straight line for cover behind a truck. Between her and the truck, there were 3 evenly spaced road blocks - those wooden white and orange ones. And she vaulted every single one like a champ. Since the animation is the exact same every time, and she did it so regularly, it turned into commedy gold.

[ackblom12]

To be honest, it's actually kind of amazing this game was allowed to be made. As happy as I am that it was, this brings enough of the masochism from the 90's back that it's mind boggling that 2k didn't take a look at the near finished product and cut it down immediately.

[ackblom12]

I finally got a Psionics soldier, who also happens to be a Medic specced Support, and dear fucking god it's great. Mind Flay is just fucking amazing. It's only 5 damage, but the 100% hit chance just makes it unbelievably useful.

[snalin]

Use it a lot. Mind control is way too fun.

There are some units that's more resistant to psi stuff than others - berserkers and (ofc) enemies with psy abilities. I'm going to try to control a berserker the next time I see one anyways.

What continent did you guys start with? Each one has a pretty good advantage, although I think the northern american one is pretty weak compared to the others. The Asian one, where the officer school and the foundry is cheaper is ridiculously powerful, as it frees up so much money for satellites and guns.

[ackblom12]

I went with Europe and focused on getting enough satellites in orbit to get Asia's special by the end of the first month. I think my next play through is just going to start with Asia.

[snalin]

As in the first game, it also seems like it's a good idea to take it slowly, but efficiently. Primarily, advancing the "main story" by doing the suggested missions seems to speed up the pace at which harder enemies are introduced. You should probably also have better interceptors before you get too far in.

[ackblom12]

Kinda, I've found that to make up for not having better interceptors, having 2 of them in each country you have sattelites is also doable. I'm still trying to decide if lasers are even worth researching, considering how hard weapon fragments are to come by once you start doing higher level research.

[snalin]

Can you get to plasma without going through lasers first? If that's the case, it might be worth skipping them and focusing on capturing as many plasma guns as you can, but then it'll take really long before your snipers and heavies get good weapons, as the plasma versions of those are not pickups. I also think some of the foundry upgrades are locked to having researched certain weapons - I know that this is the case for the pistol upgrades.

I just got a little hovertank. It's amazeballs. Naming it "Death From Above".

[ackblom12]

Yeah, you can technically start researching plasma weapons the moment you get a pistol or light plasma rifle, it just takes for goddamn ever at first. If you get laboratory and a few more scientists in your employment, I'd suggest researching the Light Rifles once you've got them down to less than 15 days. You should be able to have at least 3 available as soon as it's done if you've been arcing dudes like you should have been doing anyways and they're already the same strength as Laser Rifles, and free. It's the higher grade plasma that's gonna be a long haul. If you can time it right, you should be able to get at least one Heavy Plasma before you really need it and the sniper can hold off a lot longer than most of the rest, especially if you get him Gunslinger and research Plasma Pistols. It's potentially a bit of a time bomb, but if you pull it off you can skip out on Lasers entirely without a real problem.

Just wish there was something to do with Laser weapons. None of the Council ever want them for contracts, they just want plasma.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure if this is a glitch, but apparently weapons held by mind controlled units don't get destroyed if they die while mind controlled.

[snalin]

mind control glitches are the best thing? Remember what happened if you killed something with a Chrysallid that you had mind controlled in the originals? Yup, friendly Chrysalid!

I've gotten at least one request for laser pistols, so I think you've just gotten bad rolls on the random generator. One thing that supposedly made them useful in the first one was that they were extra effective against robotic enemies. Never researched them anyways, as you had access to plasma research the second you were done with the first mission, but the use was apparently there.

[ackblom12]

Pet Chrysallids were fantastic.

Alright, currently at the end game, just doing abduction zones and such to try and get enough weapon materials and all to do all of the foundry and research for achievements. It's kind of crazy when you have a Sniper with Archangel armor, a Psionic Support unit with 129 Will because of the Psi-Armor and everyone else with Titan Armor or Ghost Armor. We are death incarnate.

[Alex C]

been playing the shit out of this

iron man classic mode4life


Also, ever since she was a puppy my dog has been taken to gun ranges, fire works displays, nursing homes, and has even lived near an ambulance garage and a train station. So I was pretty surprised when the thin men make turns her into a panting, shivering wreck as she vigilantly patrols the house.

[ackblom12]

I really love the monster designs for this game. the Thin Men are just so perfectly... off.

[snalin]

Found a little interview about character design. Pretty cool.

The thin men are really great. I just wonder where they pull their plasma rifles from, as there's no way there's room for those big guns on such a little frame.

[Alex C]

I wasn't immediately sold on the intro still shot of the thin men but then the animations totally sold me on them.

[Alex C]

I swear to god my dudes never panic unless we're on bomb disposal duty and then suddenly everyone spends the entire mission shitting themselves.

[Alex C]

I've got a friend on facebook who has barely played the game but is talking about how bullet swarm is for noobs and holo-targeting is vastly superior at all levels of play. 

I can't wait until he gets to sectopods and doesn't have a Bullet Swarm HEAT heavy.

[Blyss]

I finally got my hands on this, and the truth of the matter is, I have ALMOST all praise.  There were a few things the old one did better, but that is a very few, and I love the new iteration enough to overlook them.

I ran my first alien base, and goddamn that was intense.

Yeah, this is my new XCOM.

[ackblom12]

Yeah, there are a small number of real problems with the reboot, but some of what folks complain about missing from the original I consider non-issues. The old inventory system was a goddamn mess that was nothing but busy work for the most part, while I would like free aim I think it might just break the reboot and alien attacks on your base were just tedious. I do agree that the game could have stood to have a bit more variety in weapons though.

[Blyss]

So, I wanted to run this by you folks here before I went elsewhere.  I've done quite a bit of searching, and not found anything like this.

I got to the Temple Ship Assault mission, and when I got there, I saved.  This is habitual right now, so when a mission starts, I just save.  And in this case, it seems to have screwed me, because it locks up on about the 3rd move of the aliens' turn.  Tried it twice, and both times same result. 

I'm not sure if maybe I caused some kind of conflict because the mission has the option to restart if you lose?  I honestly don't know.  Thankfully, I do have a prior save that is only JUST right before the mission save point.  I'll be going back to that tonight, but yeah, wanted to know if anyone else had run into this while playing.

Thanks in advance.

[snalin]

I remember that lock up happening exactly once in my entire play-through, so it's probably a rare issue. Keep multiple saves, I guess.

[de_la_Nae]

Fuuuuuckin' Chryssalids.

Just...just fuckem.

AHH WHY IS MELBOURNE BURNING

(So I rented it last night and I'm pretty goddamned impressed.)

[snalin]

Gotten to the civilian rescue missions with Chryssalids yet? The ones where the Chryssalids eat and turn all of the civvies? That's fun!

[ChaoSera]

Man, I shouldn't have gone Iron Man Mode. Now I'm stuck in the middle of a mission that I COMPLETELY SCREWED UP and no access to a later savegame. I kinda lack the motivation to continue playing now.

[Parkour Lewis]

I downloaded this on PSN and played it for a bit a few days ago and it looks great so far.  I'll probably play it after I finish Deus Ex: HR. 

[de_la_Nae]

Gotten to the civilian rescue missions with Chryssalids yet? The ones where the Chryssalids eat and turn all of the civvies? That's fun!

That was my introduction to them.

[ackblom12]

Chrysalids are goddamn nightmare fuel.