Liking the game, but I was quite disappointed to find out that if you start a game with the tutorial they completely stifle a bunch of your strategical choices and it's also required for the "story" (not really sure what it entails, but there was a big warning about it). Only played for a bit, but I'm already at my fourth mission and I've yet to gain full control. Tried out a game without the tutorial and from doing the 2 first missions it seems like quite a steeper introduction. Other than that it seems like they fixed the V-sync mouse issues the demo had, which is great.

I've only played a bit of the tutorial and I'm already digging it. I will definitely dig deeper tomorrow, as I'm a little too drunk to retain any of the info shared in the tutorial and I have to go to work tomorrow...but still, I'm excited.

Oh, and I found this guide via Steam. Not sure if it's all that great, but I plan to read through it while I'm at work tomorrow: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/08/xcom-enemy-unknown-guide/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

@Labman said:

I've only played a bit of the tutorial and I'm already digging it. I will definitely dig deeper tomorrow, as I'm a little too drunk to retain any of the info shared in the tutorial and I have to go to work tomorrow...but still, I'm excited.

Oh, and I found this guide via Steam. Not sure if it's all that great, but I plan to read through it while I'm at work tomorrow: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/08/xcom-enemy-unknown-guide/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

Thanks for guide, it reinforced some of my basic thoughts and the stuff about the engineers/how to deal with berserkers is helpful

I'm liking the game but I have this annoying bug it seems where the back button disappears when I'm in base menus. Right now I'm stuck at the soliders screen with no way of backing out.. anyone know of a fix other than ALT-F4 reopen? This has happened three times now, really frustrating.

@Tonyyj said:

I'm liking the game but I have this annoying bug it seems where the back button disappears when I'm in base menus. Right now I'm stuck at the soliders screen with no way of backing out.. anyone know of a fix other than ALT-F4 reopen? This has happened three times now, really frustrating.

Press spacebar. Or something. I think thats how I got out of a similar situation

@Labman: great read, thanks!

Yeah, I agree it is annoying. I felt they held my hand a little too long. I wanted to explore my base and loadout soldiers but it wouldn't let me. Fortunately we only have to deal with it once, you can disable it for future games.

What's strange to me is that there appears to be no chat system in MP, which is kinda weird and anti social for an strategy game for me. I wanna GG!

But beside that, this game is sweet so far! The missions have been tense and awesome. And taking a few mins to customize your troops goes a long ways to make them feel like characters!

@TheHumanDove said:

@Tonyyj said:

I'm liking the game but I have this annoying bug it seems where the back button disappears when I'm in base menus. Right now I'm stuck at the soliders screen with no way of backing out.. anyone know of a fix other than ALT-F4 reopen? This has happened three times now, really frustrating.

Press spacebar. Or something. I think thats how I got out of a similar situation

I had a similar problem after mission 3 of the tutorial. After ALT-F4 it remembered I started building a facility in the base screen, but the tutorial still wanted me to build one on the same spot with no way to do something else. That was the unexpected end of my first ironman game....

Restarted without tutorial, hope it goes better now, would suck to have to bail deep into an ironman playthrough because of a bug. So far so good after 4 missions, this game is a lot of fun when it works.

@Ares42:

99% sure you can disable the tutorial when you start a new game, and I remember Jake Solomon saying you can turn it off in one interview or another. I saw the option to do so when I started up, but kept it on just to make sure I was familiar with all the base-building thing and what have you. This is just training for the real play-though on Ironman mode. Teehee.

Now I'm exercising extreme restraint and quitting for the night, otherwise I'll be up until dawn...

So this is out on US steam?

@eskimo said:

So this is out on US steam?

YES!

@jozzy: I feel like I'm pretty close to finishing the tutorial so I don't quite want to bail on it yet but these menu locks are driving me insane. Happens every 2-3 menus I enter.

@Jackel2072 said:

@eskimo said:

So this is out on US steam?

YES!

Those goddamned lucky bastards.

I just put like 5 hours in and am really loving it. Sadly, I don't think my first go is gonna work out as the US, Canada and Mexico are all about to leave and I have money management issues. Never lost a soldier though!

No way do i encourage you to unlock it early thebatmobile, but if you happen to take a boat trip to america maybe www.spotflux.com will help you?. Is anyone else still having problems with pc controls? Elevation is a bitch, they didnt fix that before release, Im going to have nightmares about rotating with Q and E hopefully alot of this will be patched.

@sirdesmond said:

I just put like 5 hours in and am really loving it. Sadly, I don't think my first go is gonna work out as the US, Canada and Mexico are all about to leave and I have money management issues. Never lost a soldier though!

Dude, I am playing on normal and there is a distinct lack of assault soldiers and engineers. I just put about 5 hours in and I think I am fucked. I was finally awarded a few engineers to purchase plasma weapons, but could not buy them before my next mission. I think I am about to meet mutons for the first time and I am scared with regular weapons.

Even on normal, this game is no joke. I have lost 3 of my best friends, RIP.

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

@Breadfan said:

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

Using a PC with a gamepad. Works wonderfully!

@YoThatLimp said:

@Breadfan said:

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

Using a PC with a gamepad. Works wonderfully!

Just reading that makes me want to punch myself.

The tutorial is a little long, but if we only have to do it once, I'm fine with it. I'm about 4 missions in, and it seems like they just let me loose.

@sirdesmond said:

I just put like 5 hours in and am really loving it. Sadly, I don't think my first go is gonna work out as the US, Canada and Mexico are all about to leave and I have money management issues. Never lost a soldier though!

Being 5 hours in and not losing anyone is really impressive. I'm 5 hours in also (Met Mutons for the first time in the story) and think I have about 18 people dead. Most of them are either rookies or squaddies, but I've lost quite a few good men as well. Last mission I lost 2 sergeants and a corporal, almost lost my lieutenant and a 3rd sergeant as well to those damn Chryssalids.

Fuck Chryssalids.

is the tutorial essential?

Cant be that essential, original seems more in depth and had no tutorial. The tutorial is essentially a scripted mission, and one normal mission, showing you how to move in cover and use abilities.

@MartinDN said:

@YoThatLimp said:

@Breadfan said:

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

Using a PC with a gamepad. Works wonderfully!

Just reading that makes me want to punch myself.

why.

@HH said:

is the tutorial essential?

Nah, it doens't seem essential, but I always like to do them in case there's some nugget of information. However, as I eluded to, if you choose to disable it (which you can do even the first time you play) it seems like you will have a rougher start. May have just been the randomness but the 2 first missions I played without tutorial was distinctly more challenging than the 2 first with tutorial.

It's hard to stop playing. I get much more of the whole "just one more turn" thing with this, than I did with Civ V.

@MartinDN said:

Cant be that essential, original seems more in depth and had no tutorial. The tutorial is essentially a scripted mission, and one normal mission, showing you how to move in cover and use abilities.

Actually, it did... Way back in the Pleistocene age we had these things called "manuals" and some of them (I'm looking at you Falcon 3) would break a toe if you dropped one on it... X-COM: UFO Defence(UFO: Enemy Unknown) didn't have one that big, but it did have a lovely 20 page(ish) tutorial that walked you thru all the systems and controls in the game.

@Breadfan said:

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

Using a PC with a gamepad. Works wonderfully!

I'm loving it so far. Normal might be too easy. In a handful of missions, I've only lost one dude. I've had sooo many close calls, but I've managed to save everyone.

UFO missions seem a tad repetitive, but I'm over it.

GOTY 2012 screw the overhyped AAA titles

No one should be complaining about the tutorial if they don't want to go through it. You can skip it by choosing the advanced options when starting a new game.

Instead it starts you on a generic mission map with a bunch of grey bug-eye aliens. It's as basic as missions get, but at least you can play how you want. Squad members aren't forced to die either.

There is still some hand holding in the base, but it's pretty minimal.

I just lost my first Classical Ironman attempt. Well I didn't lose so much as give up and force the countries to leave - just to see the ending. Anyway I still wanna jump right back in even though that's 9 hours gone! Too many mistakes, some partly due to confusing interface choices. Losing my lead sniper by leaving him out in the open was the final straw. Rookies just don't cut it.

@YoThatLimp said:

@Breadfan said:

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

Using a PC with a gamepad. Works wonderfully!

Just reading that makes me want to punch myself.

@Iodine @TheHT: NP duders!

The problem I have with the tutorial is not the first missions, that's fast and fine. I'm talking about how I'm at the base and Captain Sweaters says "we should use a satellite right away" and I'm like "Ok that's cool, I'm gonna explore the base a little first..."

"No Commander! We have to use a satellite!"

"Oh, you won't let me leave this screen. Ok...." BEEP BEEP BEEP

"UFO detected! Let's get 'em"

"Can I save my game first? No? Ok..."

For the first five missions or so it wanted me to follow a very specific set of actions at the home base. That was frustrating to me when I wanted to explore the base more before going on another mission.

@MartinDN said:

@YoThatLimp said:

@Breadfan said:

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

Using a PC with a gamepad. Works wonderfully!

Just reading that makes me want to punch myself.

Yeah, I too fill with rage when somebody plays games the way they want to. I also do jumping jacks whenever I see livestock, because that makes an equal amount of sense.

XCOM series rookie here.

The game reminds of Company of Heroes and Dawn of War II a little where the gameplay is focused on squad tactics and winning small skirmishes. If anything I think I like the gameplay in XCOM more because unlike DOWII or CoH you have don't need to rely on reactions and you can focus more on setting up scenarios. XCOM actually solves a problem I have with a lot of tactics games which is the feeling of being untouchable. I am getting the point where I've got a few of my troops about halfway down the skill tree and to lose these guys would be a pretty big blow, especially in the middle of a fight.

I read the PC Gamer article and decided to start my first game by skipping the tutorial (since I'd already played most of it in the demo). Some really useful information in that article for fellow XCOM initiates, like how important satellites and thermo generators are. I will say I find the mission structure a little confusing. When I'm scanning or receiving mission alerts I can't really tell which are main missions and which are just sort of random encounters. Maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way?

Also are some of these missions randomly generated (to an extent), or are we all playing through the same ones?

@Breadfan said:

@MartinDN said:

@YoThatLimp said:

@Breadfan said:

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

Using a PC with a gamepad. Works wonderfully!

Just reading that makes me want to punch myself.

Thanks Obama.

Eh, I welcome an age of PC games that control well with a controller. Steam Big picture mode is the future. @BoG said:

I'm loving it so far. Normal might be too easy. In a handful of missions, I've only lost one dude. I've had sooo many close calls, but I've managed to save everyone.

UFO missions seem a tad repetitive, but I'm over it.

Maybe it is me, but man the difficulty ramps up. I made some mistakes (like researching everything I could) and ran out of alloy. I didn't have enough engineers and I really struggled for a second. I think the researching mistake really fucked me though, i should have been spending on satellites, I have 4 or 5 countries maxed out in panic. I am about to assault the first enemy base, I really hope that reduces global panic.

GODFUCKING DAMNIT, lost my first soldier in the first extraction mission. Fucking thin man poison :(

Enjoying the hell out of it, 6-9 missions in atm? didn't count.

Money scarcity is a bitch. I'm playing on classic difficulty.

A sniper with squad sight and a scope is sooooo deadly. My most efficient guaranteed kill soldier. Point blank assault shotgun is hella fun too.

Can't stop playing!

@KoolAid: Ah the incredible social functionality of saying GG or GLHF

@YoThatLimp: I regret saying that this game is easy. I honestly regret it. I have been humbled. I was doing well. I lost a few rookies, nothing big. I had lost one talented soldier, but I had plenty of others. He only died because I made a dumb mistake.

Then I infiltrated the alien base.

I don't know if it's possible for me to progress any further in this save. I guess I still have a few talented soldiers, but my morale has been crushed.

@RenegadeDoppelganger: There isn't really main and side missions, there a missions you are able to do and missions you aren't. Once in a while you get a story mission, but that doesn't mean the randomly generated ones are sidemissions by any standard. Also, if you're playing without tutorial everything is randomized, but with the tutorial the first 4+ missions are completely preset.

Been having a ton of fun with the game, but reached the point in my first playthrough where I felt I had to restart. I've been getting a feeling that there's something wrong about the planetview though. It just feels underutilized or something. Think it might be the lack multiple bases and missions. I miss flying my ranger from mission to mission or sending out multiple squads to different missions popping at the same time. It also feels very strange that missions doesn't linger on the map so you can go back to them. The whole thing just seems very symbolic without any real implications, and you're not even clicking on the planet at all, it's all just menus.

I've only played a few hours, but am loving it. Haven't lost anyone yet (save for the three in the tutorial). Honestly, skip the tutorial if you've watched any of the quick looks or are at all familiar with the game. It's not necessary.

@BoG said:

@YoThatLimp: I regret saying that this game is easy. I honestly regret it. I have been humbled. I was doing well. I lost a few rookies, nothing big. I had lost one talented soldier, but I had plenty of others. He only died because I made a dumb mistake.

Then I infiltrated the alien base.

I don't know if it's possible for me to progress any further in this save. I guess I still have a few talented soldiers, but my morale has been crushed.

You bastard, now I am afraid to go on that mission!

Played a multiplayer match on the Cemetary, seems like everyone is just going to go with with sniper + squad sight. Me and a guy had fairly similar setups sniper with squad sight and two beefed up soldiers. He had two heavies and I had two assaults and had enough left over for a sectiod and a floater. Both of us spent the first half of the match camping. I moved my floater up to the top of the middle building to see if I could get someone in my sniper's sights, i put my floater in overwatch. Moved my sectoid into the middle building with an assaults on either side next to full cover giving me nice big sight lines. The guy charged in with one of his heavies, I suppressed him with my sectoid. He used a rocket and blew my side of the building out, killing my sectoid. I moved both my assault soldiers up to get line of sight on his dude in the middle and I killed him with my sniper now that both my guys could see him. I then moved my sniper slightly to the right, still under some full cover but I changed my line of sight. Because of my perched floater, I saw two of his guys in my snipers sights on the next turn. Because i couldn't zoom in, I picked the one that looked farther away, assuming that was his sniper. I used headshot and got a critical hit, killing his beefed up sniper with one hit. From there, used both my assault guys who had run and gun to take out his third soldier standing in the middle.

Man everyone seems to e doing good except me. I'm playin iron man and classic difficulty. I've lost lots of rookies and a few upgraded soldiers and I've only done like 3 missions.... Fuck man. Still enjoyable though

@ShaggE said:

@MartinDN said:

@YoThatLimp said:

@Breadfan said:

Thinking about picking it up on Xbox later today, how are the console controls? I've been kind of on the fence about which version to get. Crazy, I know.

Using a PC with a gamepad. Works wonderfully!

Just reading that makes me want to punch myself.

Yeah, I too fill with rage when somebody plays games the way they want to. I also do jumping jacks whenever I see livestock, because that makes an equal amount of sense.

Please dont assume, its because it plays 'wonderfully' with a controller, and not so nice without one that makes me want to punch my eyes out of there sockets, i could care less how others play it.

I absolutely love when guys panic. It really ratchets up the tension and puts your squad in quite the pickle. Seems to me a little more tactical than the original which is saying a ton. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You Firaxis/2k Games

@YoThatLimp: Allow me to scare you even more. Don't go into that mission underprepared. Don't take any rookies. Make sure you're ready to go to hell and come back alive.