XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[Ox]

"You choose where to fight, you, like, direct the entire war; it's an --"
"I'll get all my people killed."
"... Yeah, you will."

Lost forever.

[RandoM51]

Playing the original I'm remembering that you can't plan on keeping anybody alive until you research personal armor.

[RandoM51]

A 9.5 from GameInformer.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/xc...05/review.aspx

Defending against XCOM’s mysterious alien invasion is one of the most challenging, intense gaming experiences of this generation.

EDIT: preload is up, 12.1GB

[RandoM51]

Details on the difficulty levels, from the 2k forums.

Easy:
1. Base global panic starts at 0
2. Most alien activity only raises panic by 1 if 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 hitpoints, accuracy, critical chance 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 hitpoints, accuracy, critical chance 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

[SilentScreams]

I'm thinking Normal/Ironman for my first game. I'd prefer it if there was an unshackled AI without the hard bonuses to accuracy, damage etc.

[Sly Marbo]

Classic/Ironman for me. I expect to fail in spectacular fashion.

[Wolvie]

Pre-loading now! Holy crap it's almost here! Whoohoo!

[zarathstra]

I ordered the special edition from Amazon, since you get $15 towards a future Amazon purchase. My only complaint is that I can't call in sick to work and play all day Tuesday, because I don't know when the delivery truck will arrive...

[SilentScreams]

Oh, boo hoo! It doesn't unlock until Thursday here!

On the bright side, I have Tuesday-Sunday off work due to me having knee surgery. I'll have to spend most of the week resting it. What a happy coincidence! Well, happy except for you know...ow!

[Vigil80]

If anyone somehow comes into possession of an extra patch, I'd be interested.

[Libuke]

What is the officer training school?

I assume Ironman is only save on quit.?

[torrefaction]

Im tremendously excited for this damn game. Between XCOM and Dishonored I may just have to not sleep if I also want to keep my relationship intact.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[Lint of Death]

I tried to look up 'XCOM unshackled' and this thread was the first result. Anyway...

There's plenty more where this came from (Classic mode).

[SilentScreams]

Originally Posted by Libuke

What is the officer training school?

I assume Ironman is only save on quit.?

Yeah Ironman is save on quit only.

The Officer Training School is a facility in your base that lets you perform various upgrades. I'm not sure exactly what all the upgrades are, but I'm pretty sure increasing your squad size is done there for a start.

Originally Posted by Lint of Death

I tried to look up 'XCOM unshackled' and this thread was the first result. Anyway...

There's plenty more where this came from (Classic mode).

I actually linked this video series ages ago and then totally forgot about it myself. Haven't checked for updates in ages. Thanks for the reminder.

[SilentScreams]

Man, those later videos are brutal. Every time the aliens shot at him, not only did they hit but they got crits and one-shotted his guys. I get the feeling he needed to have his guys geared up a bit better by that point. The alien crit rate seems really over the top though.

To be fair, he was playing like a complete spaz. Dashing when he had no idea what he was running into, taking shots when he quite clearly needed to move to a better position and so on.

[SilentScreams]

Some nice footage here.

Once again I'm kind of wishing I could find a video of someone competent playing the game though. Maybe it's easier to see the best moves when you're watching as opposed to playing, but these guys are making really dumb mistakes. The guy in the video I just linked hardly ever uses Overwatch, and he constantly puts his guys in unreliable half-cover with an action left and doesn't even use Hunker Down to give them better protection.

It's just occurred to me that I'm a terrible backseat gamer.

[torrefaction]

Originally Posted by SilentScreams

It's just occurred to me that I'm a terrible backseat gamer.

You should play league of legends. You'd fit right in.


Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[SilentScreams]

I do play LoL. Lux FTW.

I actually think the community for that game gets a lot of unfair criticism. It can be unforgiving at times, but it's nowhere near as bad as the stigma attached to it, and by MOBA standards it's downright cuddly. I've met as many really cool people playing LoL as I've blocked for being douchebags.

Back on topic; the video I linked does actually show a decent player playing the game once Jake Solomon takes over. He shows what a massive difference taking a few minutes to consider your moves can make and he actually comes out of what looked like a hopeless situation relatively unscathed.

[Wolvie]

Hmm, Steam says it will unlock on Oct. 8th. Does that mean we'll get it a full day ahead of the retail version?

Edit: also, no aliens invading your XCOM base? My first reaction was "awe." Then I thought about how much base defense sucked, especially early on, and I was fine with this decision.

[Vigil80]

Originally Posted by SilentScreams

Back on topic; the video I linked does actually show a decent player playing the game once Jake Solomon takes over. He shows what a massive difference taking a few minutes to consider your moves can make and he actually comes out of what looked like a hopeless situation relatively unscathed.

I think they're often concerned about making good video, so they play haphazardly in the process of trying to keep the pace of the video up. I know we'd rather see thoughtful play, but I guess they're trying to keep Joe Internet's attention.