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

[bhodi]

It's x-com. Seems like a pretty tried and true formula. Some hate about the ending; destructoid was the closest to say 'it's not perfect' but it seems pretty good. Giant Bomb has a 1 hour quick look of a decent mission midway through the game. They're on the x-box version, but supposedly the UI has been improved for PCs since the early reviews due to feedback. I'll find out in about 10 hours!

[lamaros]

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.

Eh, read the RPS review or something. Going off numbers is for suckers, as everyone knows. The content of the reviews is pretty much universal, whatever the ratings are.

[apocrypha]

The Ars Technica review at lease mentions several negative points amidst the gushing praise., unlike the Eurogamer one which I can't even be arsed to link it's so sycophantic.

I don't know why I bother to read game reviews any more tbh, I trust the opinions of you guys about a million times more.

[Zetleft]

I really don't have the money to spend right now, should not have clicked on this thread.   Preloading now. 

[koro]

The RPS :words: does go into the negatives on the game, and several of the reviews I've read have similar criticisms. IGN's is kind of amusing because it's basically one long whinefest about it not holding the reviewer's hand enough.

[lamaros]

The RPS :words: does go into the negatives on the game, and several of the reviews I've read have similar criticisms. IGN's is kind of amusing because it's basically one long whinefest about it not holding the reviewer's hand enough.

I always find it amusing when they say things like "the original game was much more tactically deep". I'm sure there will be a lot of things I dislike about this remake (camera issues aside I figure nearly all of them will get sorted with .ini fiddling and mods, though), but to call the original tactically satisfying is way off the mark for me. If you give someone 10 choices but 9 of them are nearly always wrong it's not more tactically deep that something with two meaningful ones.

Very tempted to vpn so I don't have to wait another three days here, but I will be strong and hold on!

[Dark_MadMax]

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

Demo actually made me jump the fence  (e.g. I decided wait till its goes for $15 sale )  .Though some videos make it look much better than it is in demo. Firaxis burned me hard with civ5 though  (which got stellar reviews as well)

[lamaros]

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

Demo actually made me jump the fence (e.g. I decided wait till its goes for $15 sale ). Though some videos make it look much better than it is in demo. Firaxis burned me hard with civ5 though  (which got stellar reviews as well)

The demo is not indicative.

Preorder through GMG or something, because you will probably be waiting a long time for the game+preorder stuff (which is sadly vital in my view) to come down below $20.

With the code GMG25-EVFWS-4Z4ZN you get 25% off, so it'll only be around $30-35.

Plus you get a copy of Civ 5 to gift to someone. :P (Trying to see if mine will get back filled - if so I'll hand it out to someone here)

[Goumindong]

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.

You may not want to dumb it down even if its hard. Normal has dumbed down AI and the enemy is generally progression limited[I.E. they get stuff once you get stuff]

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?

Probably. The UI and general "feel" is the best for any tactical squad based game I've ever played [and I have played a lot] just from the demo.

In addition to this, it has multiplayer so you've always got somewhere else to go after the main campaign.

That being said, i would not suggest getting to attached to your guys.

If you really want to wait and don't care about the first two tiers of the preorder bonus i will be playing the game in about 2.5 hours when it unlocks and will happily give you my opinion and if you really want Civ 5, i have a copy already so you can have mine.

[lamaros]

2k guy is livestreaming before the release: http://www.twitch.tv/2k

Man the game looks fun. So jealous.

[Goumindong]

2 hours. I have not once ever been so hyped for a game

[Hoax]

Its not midnight EST? The one time I want east coast bias...

[Quinton]

Steam claims it'll unlock in "approximately one hour".  So it's either midnight on the East coast, or maybe an hour later.  Here's hoping for midnight!

[lamaros]

Steam claims it'll unlock in "approximately one hour".  So it's either midnight on the East coast, or maybe an hour later.  Here's hoping for midnight!

Unlocks in 8 mins. (Edit: Updated!)

[lamaros]

Unlocked for NA.

[HaemishM]

Loading now. Happy in the pants.

[Furiously]

"corrupted game files" on boot up... Verifying Cache now.

Still giving me the same error. Also says "game unavailable"

[Hoax]

I almost ran out of space, had to recreate steam's clientblob (my bad) and now seeing if it'll update off the preload or if I need to do 100% reinstall. It's "updating" but the time remaining has been steadily growing..  

"corrupted save files" on boot up... Verifying Cache now.

Yeah someone says verify game files and restart steam to try to get it to work.

[Furiously]

Yeah someone says verify game files and restart steam to try to get it to work.

Good plan - seemed to work.

[Hoax]

I'm unpacking, I turned off the clock that was counting upwards and now stare at the tiny blue line in the hopes it means something.

[brellium]

Yeah someone says verify game files and restart steam to try to get it to work.

Good plan - seemed to work.

Just restarting steam works, it'll re-install whatever is missing.

[Quinton]

Smooth sailing.  Just completed my first extraction mission on normal.  Abductee rescued.  6 aliens killed.  One wounded.  No casualties.  Promotions all around.  Got a sniper now, yay!

[koro]

Jesus, this tutorial goes on forever.

[Quinton]

Yeah, I'm kinda regretting playing with the tutorial.  I sort of wish they just had some tooltips or popup info boxes instead of explaining everything with a cutscene. 

[koro]

I think I'm going to take the advice of some of the reviewers and restart the game after the tutorial.

[DraconianOne]

Plus you get a copy of Civ 5 to gift to someone. :P (Trying to see if mine will get back filled - if so I'll hand it out to someone here)

What? What? From GMG?

Time to get on the case then.

[koro]

Only if you preordered, and only from Steam.

Started a new game in Classic Ironman, sans tutorial. Asia as my HQ.

First mission was on a train platform, and my starting location fucking blew. Very poor cover for the first turn, a height disadvantage, and my second turn got me into the train itself with more widely-available cover, but also three Sectoids a car down. Managed to take out one, but my pointman got injured. Three more from a second crashed alien probe moved around and managed to get off some really lucky shots, killing two of my guys and sending the other two into a panic, one turn after the other. Shockingly, one recovered and managed to take out the Sectoid that sent the second guy into a panic, and all that was left was one last Sectoid that was too far away to reliably hit (25% CTH), but the distance to good cover to get closer or flank it was too far, and it kept Overwatching. It took a while, but I managed to take out the final two Sectoids with two gravely injured squaddies.

I think my positioning and maneuvering were sound, but the RNG for shot CTH was just not on my side.

[lamaros]

Only if you pre-ordered, but GMG had it in the end too. As did amazon.

[Quinton]

I think I'm going to take the advice of some of the reviewers and restart the game after the tutorial.

I kinda wish I had done that, but so having fun and don't want to abandon my squad yet.

I'm really torn on spending money to upgrade now vs having no cash partway through the month when I suddenly need more gear or soldiers.   I've been managing losses reasonably well (no more than one per mission and only about 50% of missions with a loss), but I have come back with 4 injured soldiers needing 5-15 days to recover and that's rough.

[DraconianOne]

Only if you pre-ordered, but GMG had it in the end too. As did amazon.

I'm awaiting explicit confirmation that those who pre-ordered from GMG in September will get Civ V too but their Twitter feed indicates that's the case. Keys sent out on the 12th in EU though - which is ridiculous as I won't be playing it then (if at all) because I'll have XCOM.

EDIT: Explicit confirmation recieved. 

[koro]

Welp, catastrophic failure.

After my rocky first mission, my second mission went almost perfectly. Gas station map, lots of cover and methodical sweeps by my fresh squad of four rookies. Six Sectoids dead, only one troop with minor injuries. Third mission was a UFO I shot down. By this point I had a four-man team of Assault, Heavy, Support, and Sniper, so I took them into the UFO mission. Not a lot of good cover heading up to the downed ship, but I offed a couple Sectoids without much hassle along the way. My Heavy took a hit, but it wasn't bad, so I just kept her a bit further back and on overwatch near my Sniper on an overlook above the ship. My Assault sighted the big alien in the ship (whose name I forget), and managed to tag it with his shotgun. Sadly, it managed to crit my Assault through his heavy cover to one-shot him, but was taken down by overwatch fire from my Support and Sniper shortly after.

Next up were a couple Sectoids to the west, and I send my Heavy and Support around, hopping from what cover I could find to try to flank them while my Sniper lit them up from a safe perch. My Heavy went down (but not dead!) from a hit in Hunkered Down cover from a very long distance away, but my Support got one-shot the next turn trying to reach her. She bled out shortly after, and my Sniper started to panic. He was flanked before I could regain control. I'm down to a bare minimum of soldiers now, and my only remaining non-Rookie is still in the hospital for another 10 days.

I think it's about new game time.

[Furiously]

Other than a ton of cutscenes of the transport ship, I'm enjoying it a lot. I stayed up playing "One more mission." a bit too late.

[koro]

I am getting absolutely massacred in UFO missions and I don't quite know why.

No matter what strategy I try I just get picked apart by Sectoids and the UFO commander. I'm stuck with 33-45% CTHs for pretty much anything I do while Sectoids seem to be able to snipe me from halfway across the map in heavy cover or while I'm Hunkered Down. I've been constantly moving from cover to cover, Overwatching at least half my squad when I can, and avoiding Dashing whenever possible. I'm almost afraid to flank enemies now after seeing the ridiclous amount of misses I've had while flanking with 70-95% CTH, only to have the flanker immediately get killed afterward.

[Quinton]

Was doing okay until I hit the "assault the alien base mission" and moved in far too fast.  Thought I had it under control, but it was bigger than I expected and I stumbled upon a bunch of those spider-like aliens and got slaughtered.  Time too call it a night.  Definitely a lot of just-one-more-mission goodness here.

[lamaros]

There's a guy streaming impossible ironman on twitch. He has been going for 6 hours by my reckoning (since it launched, basically).

He's still redoing the first mission. Best he's done is about 4-5 missions before he's lost the game and had to start again.

He might not be a great player, but he's not absolutely awful. The game provides a bit of a challenge.   Plus his inability to realise he's not good enough for this is oddly compelling.