XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

[keith.lamothe]

Oh, if it's only a few mission types, and you know when the mid-mission spawns happen, that's a different thing.  Not too excited about them dropping in out of thin air, but that's not nearly so bad as it just happening "whenever the game feels like it" in any mission.

[Mánagarmr]

Oh, if it's only a few mission types, and you know when the mid-mission spawns happen, that's a different thing.  Not too excited about them dropping in out of thin air, but that's not nearly so bad as it just happening "whenever the game feels like it" in any mission.

Ah well, no that never happens. All the aliens are placed at mission start, and have their own goals to fulfill. Aside, possibly then, from the VIP/Bomb type missions, which I've never seen on either a demo, stream or video online, so I can't speak of them. But as far as I understand it's a "trigger" spawn, not randomly placing them whenever.

[eRe4s3r]

Only thing i do NOT like about this game, yes, the only thing. Is the completely borked cover calculation they use. Which is to say, they don't use any. AS described below/above or whatever, there is no in-between cover caluclations. That means you can have a car between you and the enemy, if you don't hug that car (and even if you do) shots can go straight through.

That's just wow. But it can be exploited... also those crysallis thingies wow.. first time I see one It rushes my heavy and turns him into a 20hp zombie (if I looked right while screaming in anger) talk about bad manners!

[Wanderer]

My god, the game's been out for a day, and you've already analysed it down to it's single lines of code. Have ye no life?

What can I say, when I get into something, I get into it... 

Besides, I've got familial guests this weekend for a local event and wanted some quality time in with my gaming before they drove me absolutely batshit.  Out of curiousity, which camp do I fall into, btw?  I know which one I think I do.   

[Wanderer]

Bomb site they'll spawn on bomb deactivation.  VIP they respawn as you retreat the VIP towards extract.  These are the two I know of.  Sorry if there was a mislead, it's a reinforcement spawn, I'm just not excited by the implementation. 

Ah, those mission types were never in the original, so I can't really say if I'm happy about it or not. It's likely to give you time pressure to GTFO. If it was simply as easy as to hunker down and kill the aliens, the mission would be no different from a normal abduction mission.

I guess it's the cost of variety.

That actually would have been kinda cool if VIP had an edge spawn of a huge mob to get you to move your arse.  Actually, it's the opposite.  They drop from the sky in your retreat path so you're constantly moving back to target at half speed so you can reaction anything that drops from the sky before your wee little civvie can get themselves peppered to pieces.  There's usually only 2/3 of these (so far) and it's always Thin Men (it makes some sense in game why these are the 'responders') but it actually just slows you down.

The bomb mission is the opposite as well.  The bomb missions have a timer on them and you have to move from power-station to power station to buy yourself enough time to cross the map without getting dead.   Once you're there, the safest tactics I've found is to get all your guys in position local to the bomb and in cover facing outwards, get them into overwatch, then have one guy pop the bomb in the middle and run for cover.  You should have bought yourself enough time with the timers previously.  Then, you wait for the encircling air-drop and watch as your guys pop these little fegs as they fall to the earth and you hope you set the perimeter right.  You carefully hunt down any 1/2 enemies you missed because your 'safe zone' no longer is and then the mission's cleared.

Every time it happens I basically have one thought go through my head... "Don't I have interceptors?  What the hell are these guys dropping from?  Invisible weather balloons?"

[Mánagarmr]

You sound more like a raving XCOM-ist than the laid back version, but I *think* you belong to the latter. I've found that many playing the game absolutely love it and have tons of fun with it, but still manages to find things that drives them crazy.

To me, personally, that just shows that the game is a success, in spite of its flaws. If an XCOM fan can love it, it's a great game. You can *always* find things to complain or disagree about in a game you love

[Mánagarmr]

*regarding from-the-sky spawns*

Okay, if it's like that, I absolutely disagree with the design. That just sounds like a rather bland shooting gallery. :/

[Wanderer]

... also those crysallis thingies wow.. first time I see one It rushes my heavy and turns him into a 20hp zombie (if I looked right while screaming in anger) talk about bad manners!

10 actually... and an utterly dumbfounded look on my face as they come screaming in from way beyond the fog of war and actually did a LAP around my dug in team before snuggling up nice and close to a target.  From what I can tell their move+attack range isn't rediculous (it's long though) but when those suckers decide to sprint they can cross half a map with ease.  Laser Rifles... lots of Laser Rifles.  On Overwatch.  Rockets don't hurt either.   Luckily eventually your guys (even in game-starter armor) will be able to take a single hit from these guys when they pull this stunt.

Spoiler: FYI: Be prepared to face a small horde of them in the first base assault.

Edit:

You sound more like a raving XCOM-ist than the laid back version, but I *think* you belong to the latter. I've found that many playing the game absolutely love it and have tons of fun with it, but still manages to find things that drives them crazy.

Ah, good, I was afraid I was feeling schizo by being both... glad to know I really am.  It's so hard to get good conversations alone otherwise these days...  the football teams never yell back and the presidents ignore my questions via the microphone in my radio they planted there YEARS ago to track me.

[madcow]

An escort mission WITH randomly dropping enemies?

Fun.

Based on what I've heard here, I'll likely still get this though.

[Mánagarmr]

Yeah, there's no way I'm missing this game, in spite of its flaws. This is, hands down, the best XCOM attempt in literally 20 years. Xenonauts is going to be the best when it's released, but for now XCOM:EU will absolutely do just fine.

[zespri]

Bloody XCOM "pre-loaded" 12GB. Now it's "updating" 12GB. What's the bloody point of preloading if you need to re-download the whole thing again on release???

[Mánagarmr]

Bloody XCOM "pre-loaded" 12GB. Now it's "updating" 12GB. What's the bloody point of preloading if you need to re-download the whole thing again on release???

I'm going to be quite cranky if it does that to me

[keith.lamothe]

It takes a surprising amount of time to move a Chryssalid, bit by bit, into your computer.

[Aklyon]

It's easy to spot the raging "I want XCOM, line for line!" and the "This is a kind of fun take on the classic" people in this thread. Seriously if all you want is a resolution increase Xenonauts is over there.

Though I should add that I've yet to play the game due to release date retardedness.

Also, Xenonauts is not complete yet. Its currently *goes to check for updates*

...In almost-Beta. They're expecting brokenness so the game's going to be in a in-between state between alpha/beta until its again playable.

[tigersfan]

For everyone's info... TotalBiscuit seems to like it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ks03EprFE&feature=plcp