Be Still, Heart: Firaxis Tasked With Remaking X-Com

@fisk0 said:

Fantastic news, though as others pointed out, other than the turn based part there is no relation at all between the X-COM games and Civilization, making the comparison to CivRev odd.

Ghost Recon 3DS, Tactics Ogre and Rebelstar are the closest semi-recent comparisons I can think of.

The comparison is to their experience dumbing down a hard/complex game for consoles.

YESYESYESYEYSYESYEYSYESYESYYES

FIRAXIS. ONE MORE JOB FOR YOU. MAKE A NEW ALPHA CENTAURI. DO THIS, AND YOU WILL HAVE ALL MY MONEY FOREVER.

Also, If its anything like Civilization Revolution I will murder someone. That game was dumbed down console garbage.

Ha ha a fantastic step into 2012 I say.

Man, I'm torn. Initial response was "YES! OH GOD YES!" because, let's face it, X-Com and Terror From the Deep were fucking rad. But I was seriously disappointed in the way Firaxis made Civ5 more "accessible" after the success of CivRev. Yes, the combat was much better than the Stack o' Doom from previous Civs, but they removed gigantic components of overall strategic play and added the incredibly middling city-states making it a worse series. Fuck it, it's a new year, I'll be cautiously optimistic.

Thank god! I'll probably pick this up and all, but now people might actually stop trying to fillet the developers of that FPS.

@Krystal_Sackful: Alpha Centauri is the greatest turn-based strategy game of all time. Full stop. Without Brian Reynolds, though, it couldn't and probably shouldn't be done.

@eznark said:

@Milkman: If it has "intense tactical combat" it is nothing like Civ: Rev. I guess Firaxis could be lying though?

There's plenty of reason to speculate that Firaxis will use something similar to the simplified, though tightly knit design, of Civ: Rev. Essentially, Firaxis can boil down complex design into something that is more suitable for console gaming. Civ: Rev is the only thing we have to go on for Firaxis's console track record, so it's a proper analogy.

I played an Xcom at a friends house growing up and I loved the shit out of it but I am looking at the screenshots of these games and I'm not sure which one it was. Hrrm, you can get all of them on Steam for like 9 bucks but I'm thinking it's one of the first 2 so I'm looking to just get that to save money. Unless someone here tells me they are all good.

2012: the year of brand confusion

I guess this is a good thing. I'm also hoping there's a way to make this less hard than the original, because man, some missions you were just toast!

@fisk0 said:

@BeachThunder said:

Jeez, how many X-com/X-com inspired games are going to be out this year o_o

Anyway, I'll be really happy if they remake TFTD too.

Yes! Terror From the Deep is surprisingly underrated. Given how popular Chtulhu has been in recent years I'm surprised there have been no indie remakes of that or anything (at least no known to me, and I've seen several 'traditional' X-COM remakes).

I'm not really sure that Terror From the Deep really has all that much to do with Chtulhu, if I remember correctly it's just more of the aliens from the first game but underwater. Also I thought Lovecraft has been popular for quite a while, over perhaps three quarters of a century.

Hopefully this will turn out well, but by comparing it to Civ Rev my joy will have to wait until I hear more.

Now I just need Atari to realize that they own the rights to Master of Magic and have them do a reboot of that and I can have happy days.

Wait, how do you turn that into a FPS with light but largely pointless and arbitrary RPG elements and tout it as new and exciting gameplay? Damn kids these days.

@PiltdownMan said:

@fisk0 said:

@BeachThunder said:

Jeez, how many X-com/X-com inspired games are going to be out this year o_o

Anyway, I'll be really happy if they remake TFTD too.

Yes! Terror From the Deep is surprisingly underrated. Given how popular Chtulhu has been in recent years I'm surprised there have been no indie remakes of that or anything (at least no known to me, and I've seen several 'traditional' X-COM remakes).

I'm not really sure that Terror From the Deep really has all that much to do with Chtulhu, if I remember correctly it's just more of the aliens from the first game but underwater. Also I thought Lovecraft has been popular for quite a while, over perhaps three quarters of a century.

Terror from the Deep was heavily inspired by Lovecraft, it wasn't just the aliens from the original but set underwater, several alien types were named Lovecraftian stuff like "The Old Ones" or stuff like that, and the finale took place in an underwater temple reminiscent of R'Lyeh, with tentacle monster things depicted on the walls. It's hard to get more explicitly Cthulhu inspired than that with isometric graphics in Mode 13H.

Also, while Lovecraft has always been popular among fans of horror literature, that used to be a pretty different niche from the people who enjoyed video games. While there certainly has been a few Cthulhu video games since the invention of the medium, they were few and far between up until about 5 years ago when the indie scene got flooded with them (there were the Call of Cthulhu adventure games in the mid 90's, and certainly a few games with stuff inspired by Lovecraft, but compare that to how there are Cthulhu plushies, humorous appearances by Cthulhu in stuff like Cthulhu Saves The World, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Eversion and TV shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, South Park). Cthulhu isn't just something every horror fan knows of today, it's a pop culture phenomenon that will probably turn up in a Justin Bieber video any time now.

As a child i played a few of those x-com games at a friends house and I never knew the name of the games. Looking at some of the old screenshots brings back so many good memories. Might buy some of these on steam so any recommendations on what game to start with?

Hope they get the atmosphere right, even now playing the original X-COM in the dark can put you on the edge of your seat, if they use the civ rev graphical style it will be a travesty.

@PiltdownMan said:

Hopefully this will turn out well, but by comparing it to Civ Rev my joy will have to wait until I hear more.

Now I just need Atari to realize that they own the rights to Master of Magic and have them do a reboot of that and I can have happy days.

Wait, how do you turn that into a FPS with light but largely pointless and arbitrary RPG elements and tout it as new and exciting gameplay? Damn kids these days.

the comparison to civ rev was made because Patrick is a cretin, not because it's apropros of anything.

Firax-is My Heart?

No? Ok.

I will definitely have to check this out.

I'll play both. The FPS looked like it had some interesting ideas.

@Brackynews:

N-nah man, nah.

Gonna have to go with nah.

@fisk0 said:

@PiltdownMan said:

@fisk0 said:

@BeachThunder said:

Jeez, how many X-com/X-com inspired games are going to be out this year o_o

Anyway, I'll be really happy if they remake TFTD too.

Yes! Terror From the Deep is surprisingly underrated. Given how popular Chtulhu has been in recent years I'm surprised there have been no indie remakes of that or anything (at least no known to me, and I've seen several 'traditional' X-COM remakes).

I'm not really sure that Terror From the Deep really has all that much to do with Chtulhu, if I remember correctly it's just more of the aliens from the first game but underwater. Also I thought Lovecraft has been popular for quite a while, over perhaps three quarters of a century.

Terror from the Deep was heavily inspired by Lovecraft, it wasn't just the aliens from the original but set underwater, several alien types were named Lovecraftian stuff like "The Old Ones" or stuff like that, and the finale took place in an underwater temple reminiscent of R'Lyeh, with tentacle monster things depicted on the walls. It's hard to get more explicitly Cthulhu inspired than that with isometric graphics in Mode 13H.

Also, while Lovecraft has always been popular among fans of horror literature, that used to be a pretty different niche from the people who enjoyed video games. While there certainly has been a few Cthulhu video games since the invention of the medium, they were few and far between up until about 5 years ago when the indie scene got flooded with them (there were the Call of Cthulhu adventure games in the mid 90's, and certainly a few games with stuff inspired by Lovecraft, but compare that to how there are Cthulhu plushies, humorous appearances by Cthulhu in stuff like Cthulhu Saves The World, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Eversion and TV shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, South Park). Cthulhu isn't just something every horror fan knows of today, it's a pop culture phenomenon that will probably turn up in a Justin Bieber video any time now.

Well grab your paintbrush and color me corrected. It's been ages since I've played X-Com 2 and I hadn't really read any Lovecraft then, my recent X-Com hours have been put into the first game, and I've never beat an X-Com game, I never assumed that they really had an end, I always played them like 4x games, and assumed that I would just constantly get aliens sent at me.

I can also kind of agree with you now that there may be more people referencing Cthulhu than there used to be. But man there was a pen and paper RPG back in the 80s which is where I first remember hearing about it (I didn't really check it out because I only got into RPGs in the early 90s and that was mostly AD&D and FASA stuff). I still don't think many more people are actually reading Lovecraft, I could be wrong. So after that rambling part I guess I agree with you in that Cthulhu has become an internet meme, he's been around for a long time though, a very long time :) (Pardon my dumb joke)

I was too young to fully appreciate the gameplay in Terror from the Deep and too impatient to play it but I would sit and watch my older brother play it for hours and it looked super fun.

Hopefully they don't pull a Civ V on it!

PACKERS WIN THE SUPERBOWL! PACKERS WIN THE SUPERBOWL! WOOO PACKERS!

@PiltdownMan said:

@fisk0 said:

@PiltdownMan said:

@fisk0 said:

@BeachThunder said:

Jeez, how many X-com/X-com inspired games are going to be out this year o_o

Anyway, I'll be really happy if they remake TFTD too.

Yes! Terror From the Deep is surprisingly underrated. Given how popular Chtulhu has been in recent years I'm surprised there have been no indie remakes of that or anything (at least no known to me, and I've seen several 'traditional' X-COM remakes).

I'm not really sure that Terror From the Deep really has all that much to do with Chtulhu, if I remember correctly it's just more of the aliens from the first game but underwater. Also I thought Lovecraft has been popular for quite a while, over perhaps three quarters of a century.

Terror from the Deep was heavily inspired by Lovecraft, it wasn't just the aliens from the original but set underwater, several alien types were named Lovecraftian stuff like "The Old Ones" or stuff like that, and the finale took place in an underwater temple reminiscent of R'Lyeh, with tentacle monster things depicted on the walls. It's hard to get more explicitly Cthulhu inspired than that with isometric graphics in Mode 13H.

Also, while Lovecraft has always been popular among fans of horror literature, that used to be a pretty different niche from the people who enjoyed video games. While there certainly has been a few Cthulhu video games since the invention of the medium, they were few and far between up until about 5 years ago when the indie scene got flooded with them (there were the Call of Cthulhu adventure games in the mid 90's, and certainly a few games with stuff inspired by Lovecraft, but compare that to how there are Cthulhu plushies, humorous appearances by Cthulhu in stuff like Cthulhu Saves The World, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Eversion and TV shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, South Park). Cthulhu isn't just something every horror fan knows of today, it's a pop culture phenomenon that will probably turn up in a Justin Bieber video any time now.

Well grab your paintbrush and color me corrected. It's been ages since I've played X-Com 2 and I hadn't really read any Lovecraft then, my recent X-Com hours have been put into the first game, and I've never beat an X-Com game, I never assumed that they really had an end, I always played them like 4x games, and assumed that I would just constantly get aliens sent at me.

I can also kind of agree with you now that there may be more people referencing Cthulhu than there used to be. But man there was a pen and paper RPG back in the 80s which is where I first remember hearing about it (I didn't really check it out because I only got into RPGs in the early 90s and that was mostly AD&D and FASA stuff). I still don't think many more people are actually reading Lovecraft, I could be wrong. So after that rambling part I guess I agree with you in that Cthulhu has become an internet meme, he's been around for a long time though, a very long time :) (Pardon my dumb joke)

No, I don't think more people are reading Lovecraft today than previously either, but the Cthulhu mythos in particular has gotten enough pop culture saturation so that everybody know kind of what it is about, at least the big ass tentacle monster part, and reference it constantly in every imaginable situation.

@Swabbleflange said:

This is the perfect solution to that problem of resurrecting an old game series - just make two! Do the inevitable FPS, and simultaneously get someone to do a game that's actually in the same genre as the originals. Win-win.

THIS. Especially when the more-faithful remake can be produced for a fraction of the budget! Have it both ways and please everyone!

I'm so happy.

Sight unseen, this is my most anticipated game of 2012.

@Sloktor said:

As a child i played a few of those x-com games at a friends house and I never knew the name of the games. Looking at some of the old screenshots brings back so many good memories. Might buy some of these on steam so any recommendations on what game to start with?

Play the first one. When you're finished, move on the the start of the first game again. Do not touch any of the others.

@heavyplay:

Man whatever. I like Terror from the Deep a lot. I had played A LOT of the original at that point so the graphical and gameplay changes were welcome to me.

EDIT: AWW FUCK THE XCOM COLLECTION IS ON SALE ON STEAM. I'M FINALLY GETTING XCOM APOCALYPSE.

This was unexpected but welcome news. If anyone can pull off an old-school yet modern XCOM strategy game, it's Firaxis.

@heavyplay said:

@Sloktor said:

As a child i played a few of those x-com games at a friends house and I never knew the name of the games. Looking at some of the old screenshots brings back so many good memories. Might buy some of these on steam so any recommendations on what game to start with?

Play the first one. When you're finished, move on the the start of the first game again. Do not touch any of the others.

The 3 first, UFO Defense, Terror From The Deep and Apocalypse were all great. Personally I prefer the updated UI in TFTD, makes it a lot easier to play even though there is that late game bug that can make it unwinnable (you're likely to get wiped out way before that though). And the atmosphere in Apocalypse is just fantastic, very different from the first two, with it's cyberpunk metropolis and megacorporations replacing the world map and nation support, but it just pulls off most of that stuff really well, and the intro cinematic is one of the greatest I've seen in a game.

X-COM Enforcer is crap without any redeeming qualities whatsoever, while X-COM Interceptor is a rather interesting idea hidden beneath a layer of bugs and design issues making it almost unplayable.

how funny would it be if at launch Firaxis announces SIKE and releases a FPS :P

Marty Lechtansy, you'll have yours. At last!

My last play of Terror from the Deep ended in a tragedy when I thought I could take on a Alien Undercity Base with my team of alien sniper-hunters with plasma grenades and taser sticks. The psychic attacks came from out of nowhere and beserked Marty, who subsequently layed waste to my whole team with his crack shot sniper rifle.

The enemy aliens in this game became increasingly though and relentless, and with my emotional attachment to my teams it became a harrowing experience to go up against them. I never finished a campaign because of that.

Gameplay wise I don't need any 'modern day' adjustments, the game hasn't been equaled in this department. One thing really needs to stay: the destructible environment. This used to open up awesome tactics.

Perhaps storywise they can add a little more personality but otherwise... If Firaxis shipped this game nearly as it was and they'd have my money.

I think people that like xcom would really like MGS Peace walker.
there a lot of similar elements

Fuck. Yes.

Archon remake anyone?

"It’s unclear how much XCOM: Enemy Unknown will borrow from Firaxis’ hugely popular Civilization Revolution, but given that XCOM: Enemy Unknown is coming to PC and Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, there’s reason to believe the approach may be similar."

Hey, Patrick, X-Com: Enemy Unknown (the first game in the series) was released on the PS1. I can see where you were going with that, though.

I played X-COM and Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS1 after Shining Force turned me on to strategy RPGs. I adored having these games that let me use my mind instead of just my reflexes. Where now there are games like Skyrim that take you to a different world entirely, ala Dungeons and Dragons without the need of a dungeon master, I still yearn for the complex chess like strategy games of yore. BRING IT, Firaxis!

Until this actually comes out I'm just going to assume it's going to be completely terrible. That way I'll either be completely right, or completely pleasantly surprised!

Man, they really should have waited till they released XCOM to announce this, because...man...

I couldn't give less of a shit about THAT game now...

omg I did just cume in ma pantsu.

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. I hope this turns out good, but I will believe it when I see it in action.

Hey cool! I'm definitely interested in seeing how that turns out!

Just to note, X-COM collection is on sale through steam today only.

I just wanted to read the post, but your X-coms and XCOMS had me so confused...you should be ashamed of yourself!

I'm so happy about this. I understand the muted reaction to this news as spiritual successors have been attempted by so many developers over the years, but come on people. This is Firaxis. If anyone's going to make a good remake of X-Com, it's these guys. Fans can't ask for more.

Firaxis has never done me any wrong. I can't wait for this. I would put myself into cryogenic storage until its release date if I could.

Oh shit. I kept seeing headlines about a new XCOM strategy game, but none of them mentioned Firaxis. Now I get why this is real fucking news. Firaxis are like the only old school turn based strategy developers that not only still exist, but also still make turn based strategy titles. I have confidence they'll make a great game.

this won't end well.... angry x-com fans incoming.