Pissed about an X-Com FPS? Firaxis hears ya...

[lamaros]

I think you will be more than pleasantly surprised.

Launch trailer. Ok, but not amazing trailer.

[Sky]

I think you will be more than pleasantly surprised.

Never underestimate the power of f13 to hate games.

[lamaros]

Preloads available.

[koro]

I'm barely containing my excitement for this, and this preload is not going to help me one single bit.

[Furiously]

Preloads available.

Just noticed this as well.... Now the painful wait will really begin.

[Megrim]

Does this include people who bought from GMG?

[lamaros]

Does this include people who bought from GMG?

GMG should email you an activation code to add it to steam. I got mine and I am downloading now.

[Megrim]

Ah yea, got it now. Hnnggg.

[HaemishM]

Preloading now. CANNOT FUCKING WAIT.

[Amaron]

Anyone know any good ways to fall asleep for 2 days?

[koro]

Lots of Ambien.

[apocrypha]

Pre-loaded. Not available to me until the 12th. Different release dates for digital content make me stabby.

[Merusk]

*anticipation dance*

I'm slightly shamed to say the part I'm really jazzed about are the custom armor bits.

[Goumindong]

Lots of Ambien.

Only two days

[kildorn]

Pre-loaded. Not available to me until the 12th. Different release dates for digital content make me stabby.

Release dates based around physical media delivery for single player games make me a bit stabby in general.

*stares at completed code on drive, stares at EBGames stores, debates burning them all down*

[calapine]

Pre-loaded. Not available to me until the 12th. Different release dates for digital content make me stabby.

That and different regional pricing for digital content. *mumbles about rip-off*

[lamaros]

Not only is it only out on the 12th here, but they done fucked up and made the 12th start at 10am, not midnight...

We are not amused.

[Goumindong]

Not only is it only out on the 12th here, but they done fucked up and made the 12th start at 10am, not midnight...

We are not amused.

They didn't fuck up, they just didn't choose your timezone.

For instance in NA they chose the midnight on the 12th... Eastern. So I get the game at 9PM on the 8th.

[lamaros]

Constitutes a fuckup to me. I don't live in Europe.

[Njal]

Are we there yet?   

[Amaron]

We have to wait one more day?

[lamaros]

There are now a bunch of reviews out, for those still on the fence.

[koro]

I don't know if it's been mentioned in this thread yet, but once you beat the game you unlock a slew of new options to change how the game is played in subsequent playthroughs, a lot of them to make it work like old X-Com:

[Amaron]

That's sexy but also annoying that they force you to beat it first.

[koro]

I can sort of understand wanting to lock it behind an initial victory in order to limit the risk of completely overwhelming people unfamiliar with the game with a bunch of difficulty options with no in-game context.

Besides, it's almost a guarantee that some mod or modified .ini file will be available to unlock it within 48 hours, if not sooner.

[Zetor]

Yep. As noobish as it might sound, I'll do my first playthrough on normal difficulty and mess with classic difficulty and other difficulty mutators afterwards.

[koro]

That's kind of what I've been waffling on all day. I sort of want to do Normal first to get the hang of how the game's different from the original X-Com and then move on to doing the majority of my play in Classic Ironman, but I've been hearing from a lot of sources that Normal does little more than teach you habits that will just get you killed in Classic.

[Merusk]

The ability to change difficulty on the fly means I'm starting in Classic.  If it gets too rough I can dumb it down but the tutorial/ demo showed me I need some harsh lessons or I'll totally get in to bad habits.  More than once on demo plays I had a guy standing out of cover and unable to even overwatch at the end of his turn, or left my sniper with his ass in the breeze for support.

[Zetor]

Hmm yeah didn't know about the changing difficulty thing. I guess I was too used to JA2 and "choose your fate at the start, and you'd better not choose ironman-expert your first time through!".

[koro]

Now that the press embargo's lifted, reviews are pouring out, and they're pretty much universally positive, which I'm kind of shocked at. Lots and lots of 9/10s and 4.5/5s. I haven't seen a single overly negative review.

[Murgos]

I'll be starting on Classic Ironman.  If that's too much of a punch in the junk I'll dumb it down, but I always played the original in an ironman style so I don't think the trauma of losing favored soldiers is going to ruin my experience.

I am very glad to see that the UI has gotten some PC love since the demo launched (and apparently since the press-preview copies went out).  Recent demos by whats-his-name Jake at Firaxis have shown a good number of improvements, better use of the mouse and more information presented in particular.

Review synopsis from neogaf

RockPaperShotgun - Words/10
Kotaku - YES/10
1UP - A
GodIsAGeek - 10/10
Gamespy - 5/5
GameRanx - 5/5
GameInformer - 9.5/10
Gaming Nexus - 9.5/10
CVG - 9.2/10
Machinima - 9/10
Joystiq - 4.5/5
Edge - 9/10
GamesRadar - 4.5/5
The Escapist - 4 and a half/5
Eurogamer - 9/10
StrategyInformer - 9/10
Destructoid - 9/10
LazyGamer - 9/10
Official Playstation Magazine - 9/10
GamesTM - 9/10
Videogamer - 9/10
PC Gamer - 87/100
Polygon - 8.5/10
Gamer.NL - 8.5/10

[Rasix]

So, as someone that never really played X-com before but has much love for the squad based tactical RPG: I should be buying this now, right?

[koro]

Yes.

I mean you can try the demo if you're on the fence, but...

Yes.

[Murgos]

Squad based tactical RPG

I think the combat, at least from the demo, reminds me more of Fallout 2 than X-Com but yeah, if you're a fan of the genre than this seems like the best in years.

[eldaec]

I'm sure this will be a good game, but can we not start listing the views of 'professional' games 'journalists' in a manner that suggests they have any credibility at all.

This is getting 9s from everyone, because everything from a major publisher gets 9s from everyone. Hopefully it will be the broken clocks' time to shine.