Quick Look: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

It's time to shoot some aliens!

Edit: Stupid quest finally over. I can't wait for the game to unlock on Steam. I even took Tuesday off from work so I can get a full day of saving the Earf.

Can't wait!

I cant wait till midnight this is going to be awesome

Ex-cop, ex-XCOM operative... EX-PLOSIVE!!! Getting this game for sure, but I don't know if it should be for PC or PS3.

Woot! The EX was awesome so I dunno what more there is to show but I'm all for more XCOM :D

I can't wait for this game. I loved the earlier XCom games.

Giant Bomb rules

YES!

Less than 24 hours to go

My body, I thought it was ready.

Now I know my body will be tortured and killed hundreds of times for me to only play moar

Jeff missed an opportunity to do his signature 'repeat the last thing I said in an angry demanding voice' with "Who is the enemy?". It would have been perfect.

Goddamn spoiled for content this monday!

This looks way easier than the original. Oh well, will still be fun.

Can you name your own doods? I hope so!

GOD DAM IT! Why won't this game come out already? I have had it pre-loaded for a week now taunting me every time I load Steam.

@Humanity: Yup, you can customise all sorts, name, race, appearance, nationality.

@Teizen said:

Less than 24 hours to go

Damn you americans. :(

@SlashDance said:

@Teizen said:

Less than 24 hours to go

Damn you americans. :(

Look man we don't have much anything going for us right now besides video games.

@Crab_Slayer said:

It's time to shoot some aliens!

Edit: Stupid quest finally over. I can't wait for the game to unlock on Steam. I even took Tuesday off from work so I can get a full day of saving the Earf.

I think if you take time off of work to play video games you have issues.

@SlashDance said:

@Teizen said:

Less than 24 hours to go

Damn you americans. :(

You could use Spotflux to mask your IP

@VooDooPC said:

@Crab_Slayer said:

It's time to shoot some aliens!

Edit: Stupid quest finally over. I can't wait for the game to unlock on Steam. I even took Tuesday off from work so I can get a full day of saving the Earf.

I think if you take time off of work to play video games you have issues.

Issues such as enjoying a game?

OK, this is what the demo should have been showing. Now I am actually interested again about this game.

Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or another bughunt?

Pretty excited for this, but it's a shame the PC version wasn't shown. Kinda interested in seeing how the UI will work with the mouse and keyboard. No worries, though. Gonna enjoy it regardless.

Goddamn, what a great game to watch. Probably will be picking Dishonored this week, though.

@VooDooPC: How is taking some time off for work to enjoy a game an issues.

@VooDooPC said:

@Crab_Slayer said:

It's time to shoot some aliens!

Edit: Stupid quest finally over. I can't wait for the game to unlock on Steam. I even took Tuesday off from work so I can get a full day of saving the Earf.

I think if you take time off of work to play video games you have issues.

Hey now, some of us have weeks (or even a month+) worth of vacation time for our jobs and never end up using 'em. I know that's how it is with me. Nothing wrong with taking a little staycation to enjoy an anticipated game without distractions and break up the work week.

That being said, I'm travelling for work all week and won't be able to touch this or Dishonored until the weekend :(. Can't wait, both look awesome.

And here....we.....GO!

@HouseOfWolves said:

Giant Bomb rules

What is that insane "drip" noise?

That may have been the Xbox notification sound. Go back through the video and see if it coincided with the appearance somewhere on the screen of a little pop-up that says "(somebody) is online." Otherwise, I didn't notice anything unusual.

@Crab_Slayer: I don't think it's a major issue but not being able to wait until 5pm on Tuesday to get home and play the game is sort of like a child not being able to wait to eat candy until after dinner.

Ryan should not play QLs.

5 mins until gameplay. New record Ryan. Maybe one day you can guide a quick look and start playing in the first minute.

Damn. I didn't think I was going to be interested in this game... but damn. I think I'll have to buy this after my exams.

Arrrgh do I get this or Dishonoured? - I can only afford one til the end of the month.

@leebmx: Dishonored. Dishonored. Dishonored. Go read the Rock Paper Shotgun "Wot I Think" for fun maybe.

So...

I watched the Dishonored quick look last night before I went to sleep, and thought that game looked pretty interesting.

Then I had a dream. It had nothing to do with Dishonored.

Of course, I can't remember it all very well, but I guess I was a doctor, and I was trying to diagnose this couple's daughter. They weren't people, per se, but a family of sasquatch or some such. For one of the tests, we pressed the tips of her toes into some mud, and read the pattern they made. Large circle, tiny circle, circle w/ flat right side, circle, circle w/ flat top & flatter bottom (centered horizontally). I looked at the family, and told them... "it's X-com."

What the hell?!?

Would totally watch an endurance run of this. Make Brad play Iron Man Impossible.

This looks awesome!

I can't tell if the xbox version is really blurry or if it's just the video player being terrible.

Either way, looking forward to the EU release.

@ThePantheon said:

@leebmx: Dishonored. Dishonored. Dishonored. Go read the Rock Paper Shotgun "Wot I Think" for fun maybe.

You say Dishonoured which I was leaning towards and then direct me to that article which just makes me drool for XCOM. You are no help at all!

@Humanity said:

@SlashDance said:

@Teizen said:

Less than 24 hours to go

Damn you americans. :(

You could use Spotflux to mask your IP

Steam can ban you for that now. I was thinking of using a VPN until I read the eula. I will just wait it out.

ugh i want to play this so badly but there are no midnight releases in my area

@Vorbis said:

I can't tell if the xbox version is really blurry or if it's just the video player being terrible.

Either way, looking forward to the EU release.

The EU EU release?

@Dapupeteer said:

ugh i want to play this so badly but there are no midnight releases in my area

Just download it on Steam.

I loved the short tactical banter in the beginning. It's promising when a game allows for this kind of discourse or even encourages it between different players. I think you made a good call when deciding to give XCOM yet another video with a classic QL. Really excellent treatment, fun to watch and very informative.

Also, this is it. I won't go anywhere near even more XCOM content. Between GB, RPS and several other impressions and videos I finally pulled the trigger to get in on the (very silly) pre-order things. All I want to do now is fucking play and get my own impression of the whole thing. Very much looking forward to that.

@Xshinobi said:

@Humanity said:

@SlashDance said:

@Teizen said:

Less than 24 hours to go

Damn you americans. :(

You could use Spotflux to mask your IP

Steam can ban you for that now. I was thinking of using a VPN until I read the eula. I will just wait it out.

Plenty of people need to use VPNs for legitimate reasons. I've never heard of a single ban due to unlocking a game early. The only banning that happens is when people use the VPN to buy games cheaper from another territory.

@Delta_Ass: i would but i dont have a great computer right now to run it so had to get it for the ps3 :(

There's one thing that's been bothering me when watching a lot of the pre-release stuff (and this video) for this game, and it's how the Firaxis guys have conditioned media into playing the game. I dunno if they've just been holding back not to spoil the satisfaction of figuring some of this stuff out or if they're gonna be surprised by some of this stuff.

Take for instance the "always move into cover". It seems to me like one of the absolute best ways to scout in the game is to move out as far as you can (regardless of cover) on your first move, then either dash into nearby cover if you don't see anything or dash back to your former position if you encounter aliens. If you got caught in overwatch while moving, moving towards cover wouldn't help anyway and this way you can counteract the free move the aliens get.

Then there's the fact that people seem to love ending turns on corners for no apparent reason. While it's great for getting sight yourself it also leaves your soldier in line of sight himself. Why not abuse line of sight and lure the aliens into traps by hiding several soldiers behind corners and then just blasting aliens to bits with overwatch when they move in. The whole cover system seems to have drawn peoples attention away from line of sight completely, which the original X-Coms was all about.

Jeff talks about how you never catch the aliens off-guard, but isn't it mostly just because you're not using tactics to catch them off-guard ? It just seems to me that the introduction of the 2-move system and the cover-system might have put the gameplay into a place where both players and the designers only understand it on an apprentice level and only as time goes by and people get more intimate with it we'll see how well it actually works.

@Humanity said:

@SlashDance said:

@Teizen said:

Less than 24 hours to go

Damn you americans. :(

You could use Spotflux to mask your IP

Not if you bought console version.

--

Looking forward to play this game. loved the first game for DOS.

Really wanna pick this up but i have a feeling Dishonored is going to keep me busy for a couple of days and AC3/WWE13 is right around the corner.

Maybe ill finish up Dishonored before the 30th.