Well played the demo ... need I say it was interesting albeit way too short , I mean as soon as I was getting into it it ends , Tutorials shouldn´t count as a level :( well this is my first time ever I played this game series , I kinda liked the style of it reminds me of Valkyria Chronicles with Final Fantasy Tactics (tho I think it should be the other way around , but as I said I never played Xcom games before). And yeah the graphics arent all that heavy duty so most people should be able to play it (I played in a laptop with core i5 and a Nvidia 525 so your rigs should be able to handle the game) altho the art style wasnt so great IMO , reminds me too much of starcraft/Blizzard style and the aliens looked meh .... but I guess to the fans of these games that wont matter. Wish the demo was longer or that I could taste a more "intricate" mission to really know if this would be a purchase for me..... but how about you duders? You liked it? Was it what you expected? Or did they ruined it? :P
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Oct 09, 2012
- PC
- Xbox 360
- PlayStation 3
- Xbox 360 Games Store
- + 8 more
- PlayStation Network (PS3)
- Mac
- iPad
- iPhone
- PlayStation Network (Vita)
- Android
- PlayStation Vita
- Linux
The classic tactical turn-based combat returns in this modern re-imagining of X-COM: UFO Defense.
X com Demo ... your thoughts?
It makes the mistake of giving you the tutorial and not much else. I mean, I was already sold day 1, so it didn't really do anything other than make me REALLY want to play the actual game. Oh well. I got Borderlands 2 and way too much homework to distract me until then.
The keyboard and mouse controls felt pretty...shitty? The acceleration was off, everything felt really clunky if you were using the mouse (console-ized?). The UI is just kind of bad.
Having said that, I love the gameplay and cannot wait to jump into this. Controller + PC + Big Screen mode on steam seems to be the way to go.
@YoThatLimp said:
The keyboard and mouse controls felt pretty...shitty? The acceleration was off, everything felt really clunky if you were using the mouse (console-ized?). The UI is just kind of bad.
Having said that, I love the gameplay and cannot wait to jump into this. Controller + PC + Big Screen mode on steam seems to be the way to go.
It isn't the kind of UI that would have been designed if it was PC first, but moving the camera, switching units and selecting powers with the keyboard got natural enough by the end of the demo. I think the camera options are good, but middle clck+drag to zoom and Q/E to rotate felt off. The screen edge map panning feels laggy but is quickly obviated by the superior keyboard navigation. The menus feel natural enough, they don't have that awful "click to select, button on the bottom of the screen to confirm" problem many bad ports have.
If it was PC first, I would expect a direct hotkey to select each squad mate, a mini map and better tooltip design. It could be a lot worse though and the console controls don't look obviously better to me. Maybe I'll play through the demo a second time with an Xbox controller to compare.
Edit: But overall I liked what I played and wanted more than just the tutorial. Demo mission accomplished.
I would have liked at least 2 non-tutorial levels. I enjoyed what the demo offered, but the level they chose to demo is too easy. A more complicated scenario that requires more tactical maneuvering would have been more fun and challenging.
Still gonna get the game. Even though the demo just offered a raindrop of a preview of what the game has to offer, I can just imagine how much it opens up when you have crazier scenarios and start doing R&D and outfitting your soldiers.
@MiniPato said:
I would have liked at least 2 non-tutorial levels. I enjoyed what the demo offered, but the level they chose to demo is too easy. A more complicated scenario that requires more tactical maneuvering would have been more fun and challenging.
Still gonna get the game. Even though the demo just offered a raindrop of a preview of what the game has to offer, I can just imagine how much it opens up when you have crazier scenarios and start doing R&D and outfitting your soldiers.
I haven't played the new game, but the old game didn't have "levels" per se. Also, since every mission is structurally identical (as a solid game should be, in my opinion), giving you two free missions is essentially giving you the entire game, minus the research function...
Mouse feels sluggish, framerate's choppy, cutscenes are bad, and it's weird how everyone can shoot through walls(?). I think I'll be waiting for the Christmas sale when it's like 7 bucks.
I posted this in another thread, but I'll repost it here:
Overall, I loved the demo, and I'm more pumped than ever for the full release. The gameplay is an excellent update to the old-school XCOM gameplay, and the level of presentation is incredible. It has a UI that's just as slick as what I'd expect from the guys that made Civ Rev and Civ V, but it also does something that I've never seen in another Firaxis game, low-level on-the-battlefield action. And it does it extremely well. A dynamic camera that occasionally swings around like something out of a Michael Bay film and a soundtrack that swells and fades along with the action can at times make this game feel more reminiscent of Gears of War than Civilization.
Bring it on!
honestly the mouse feels horrible. SO sluggish and choppy feeling on mouse i cant stress this enuff, ruined the gameplay for me. the ppl above arent lying when they say it feels poor
I didn't like the controls very much. Pressing Q and E to turn the camera around was kind of strange. Also, didn't figure out how to zoom in. Not sure whether this was because of my settings, but some things were really hard to make out. Also, wish that I could undo some actions. I've placed some guys in really bad positions because I couldn't really see exactly where I was clicking. I wanted to put a guy into cover right next to a window, but I accidentally clicked outside of the window and he was taken out pretty quickly because of that.
My guess is that you'll be able to turn up the sensitivity on your mouse and remap the keys once the game is out. Yes, it did feel clunky. That surprised me a bit. The game looks so polished visually and the UI looks clean as well. I'm still thinking it'll be a good experience once we're the ones in charge and experiencing the missions in a context of knowing the bigger picture.
It is a X-Com light, no doubt about it, but I'd take that experience any day to have this type of game become relevant to gamers again. To ensure it sells well it needs to be console compatible, which this game is, maybe more than it is PC compatible at least by default with the demo build in mind.
Yeah, stuff people above have said, mouse controls are pretty bad, and i didn't see a sensitivity option in the menu, hopefully full game has one. Feels very much designed for consoles, maybe they'll add in more PC stuff in the full game or later on? Also, the shooting through walls thing is really weird.
They seem to have gotten the concept right though, and this stuff could probably be easily fixed. We'll see though.
The mouse is fine if you jack up the sensitivity to max but I still found myself using the keyboard to move the camera. I think the tutorial is a little too heavy-handed, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cinematics (squaddie facial animation aside). Wonder how much of that stuff you will see once you have squad customization control.
Once I actually had full control I started to enjoy myself a fair bit, shortcut keys made everything fairly snappy. I suspect the second level is demo specific since it is basically setup to show you some enemy variety, the real levels are supposed to randomize enemy types and positions. Overall wish it had one more level, especially one with a bit of replay value but I guess that would de-value the full game. Also wish that choosing the US or China resulted in a different level.
Not the most amazing demo but one that doesn't deminish my anticipation of the final product.
@Shirogane: @Funkydupe: @badaboom420: @rebgav: @gladspooky: @YoThatLimp:
For everyone having mouse problems.
Turning off vsync and framerate smoothing in the options worked for me. Mouse went from sluggish to feeling perfect.
This is not the first time i've seen vsync horribly implemented and screwing up frame rate and cursor movement
I was already sold on the game a long time ago. I already pre-ordered it, watched every bit of video content they have released (which I NEVER do) and even bought the first game to see how the original is like (the game is really thick and the controls are straight up bad, but the game is actually really fun once you start to get how it works). When I saw the demo on Steam, I immediately downloaded it and played it twice in a row (once with mouse and keyboard and once with 360 controller).
I had no particular problem with the length of the demo, more with its content. I mean a good demo shows you what the game is about so you can determine whether you like it or not. This demo felt more like a warm-up for the people that had already pre-ordered it. It's basically the first two levels of the game, so it's really holding your hand and linear, which, again, I do not have a problem with and actually enjoy in the context of a game, but putting your tutorial in a demo is really kinda boring. I learned more about the game looking at the multiplayer sessions on 2K's youtube account.
Anyway, about the "which controls are better" thing, I would say the 360 controller wins hands down. I mean, it is really obvious when you play the game that the interface has been thought with a controller in mind. Navigating the menus is a lot faster, smoother and does the same as playing with the mouse and keyboard. Don't get me wrong, the game isn't bad with the mouse and keyboard, but it doesn't feel like a PC interface but a console interface ported to the PC (which it is, so it makes sense). But at least the game has the merit of having a PC interface that is not a brick wall to mouse and keyboard players (I'm looking at you Skyrim). So for me, controller it is !
Speaking of the interface, the combat HUD isn't the best. They use maybe the most boring blue and yellow for their HUD. It blends too much with the color palette used for the maps. Also, they could have used more diversity for the abilities/passive effects (the colors and the icons themselves). I should know what is what without having to look at it too much.
Whoa, look at me, already reviewing the game xD Well the thing is that it's the only problem I have with the game is the HUD. Everything else I've seen so far (from the demo and videos) is top notch ! The music is great, the systems in place (both in battle and in the HQ) seem really well implemented and not complicated (yet still complex :'D), the maps and characters look amazing, the animations are great (though I still cannot get over the fact that sometimes shots go THROUGH cover to hit the target) and it just looks like an awesome game overall.
In a nutshell : If you're on the edge about the game, try out the demo and see. If you're not, it's not gonna change your opinion. The 1-hour long livestream tells you more about the game than the demo. It actually tells you pretty much everything you would want to know about the game. Just watch it.
P.S. : Why would you put the RIGHT trigger prompt on the LEFT of the abilites bar. I press LT every time. AT ALL BRAIN UNDERSTANDING NOT.
Worth a shot, Tenn.
For the live showing of XCOM, the game seemed to have some visual bugs. Two soldiers taking cover at the exact same spot caused some glitching. Was that meant to be possible? The camera showed a wall on screen during some of the moves that occurred in tight spaces, in the UFO for example. We've seen that camera bug happen in older videos on YouTube as well. It strikes me as weird that they've allowed that to remain 2 weeks pre-Launch.
The base view was bugged in that all animations were bugged, as in their movement did not trigger somehow. We're supposed to see people walk around and machines working on stuff etc.
The base will be fixed obviously, but I'm wondering what's going on with that cinematic camera as it doesn't seem to always recognize walls in tight spaces.
So this demo wont give us a clear idea of how big the levels are, as far as i've seen it they seem to be rather small. i hope thats not the case with every level.
@Funkydupe: I can zoom out so high in the tutorial level you can see outside the level :P
Cinematic camera having issues has been my question since they started showing footage of the game, what is the most telling is that they joked about the broken camera during one of the livestream pretty recently, making me believe they are not serious about fixing it pre release :/
I hate to be this guy, but I'm a little disappointed from watching the live demo. I didn't get the "x-com feel" from it that I had hoped. There were things I already knew, like only 6 soldiers in every mission, only 1 base and as far as I know it can't come under attack, no time units. I can't get over how amazingly far soldiers can run and then still shoot. Granted I haven't played it, but seemed very tactically forgiving. All though it's hard to say without having played it. I think Jake mentioned that you can complete the game with having under taken 15-30 missions? I might have heard wrong, but that sounds like an awful low number. I also weren't aware that they were using credits instead of some real world currency. The low amount of credits just seem off putting to me personally, since I didn't encounter any problem in the original game in regards to scaling.
I hope I'm wrong and this game still gives me the x-com feel when I get my hands on the full version. If not, it stlll seems like a super competent and fun game.
@NinesSC2: I agree with everything you've just listed in your post. Supposedly there are tougher difficulty settings w. Iron Man that might balance things more to suit those who find things too easy.
Think of it this way. It is a Modern Re-Imagining. It is not supposed to copy/paste the X-Com of old. It is a game for the current generation of gamers. I'm just glad to see someone dig up this type of game again to be honest, and I'm hoping for more games like this.
@Funkydupe said:
Worth a shot, Tenn.
For the live showing of XCOM, the game seemed to have some visual bugs. Two soldiers taking cover at the exact same spot caused some glitching. Was that meant to be possible? The camera showed a wall on screen during some of the moves that occurred in tight spaces, in the UFO for example. We've seen that camera bug happen in older videos on YouTube as well. It strikes me as weird that they've allowed that to remain 2 weeks pre-Launch.
The base view was bugged in that all animations were bugged, as in their movement did not trigger somehow. We're supposed to see people walk around and machines working on stuff etc.
The base will be fixed obviously, but I'm wondering what's going on with that cinematic camera as it doesn't seem to always recognize walls in tight spaces.
Yeah, Firaxis kinda has a buggy track record. Civ V was an amazing game that I played for about 100 hours, but in that time I´ve encountered quite a few bugs, especially in multiplayer. There´s a reason people want play over email for these games. Because that stuff worked- and regular MP in Civ V kinda doesn´t if you add more than 3 players. At least it was like that for us. 2 players was fine, but kinda jacked too (the end turn button would not work, or the game would lag out sometimes)
I wouldn´t be surprised if XCOM launches with similar problems.
@Funkydupe: Yeah, definitely, I agree. And I have no doubt in my mind that the developers are passionate people and care about x-com.
I was actually surprised that halfway through the tutorial, I was thinking about plugging in my 360 controller.
I love that, through the course of playing the tutorial, your squad is mercilessly slaughtered. Seemed like a great touch to let players know what they might expect (i.e. if you get flanked or blindsided, shit breaks bad real fast.)
There was definitely a lot of handholding, which is a bit of a bummer. I remember downloading the Terror From the Deep demo wayyyy back when. No tutorial, just a cold open and you're in a mid-game mission with a bunch of rookies that are just ripe for the slaughter. I never beat that mission, but I played it endlessly, crowing over the weird situations I'd get my squad into. I kind of feel like the demo lets XCOM be X-Com for the last five-ten minutes. So, y'know, popping those two mind-melding aliens with a rocket launcher, then hopping down to find those weird jetpack dudes was great. The highlight for me was realizing the last bit of the level I needed to clear was a warehouse. I thought I had my angles covered as best I could, so I sent my shotgunner in through a side window to pop one of the Thin Men. Didn't count on two of them, so he was stuck out in the open. The second one returned fire and knocked him out and I was gutted. He'd snagged two kills this mission and even though I knew the demo would be over soon, I was still holding out hope for another mission. So two agonizing turns slide by as I try to get my sniper into place and pop the last Thin Man with a head shot. Very tense, very rewarding. Absolutely no regrets pre-ordering now.
The Bomb Defuse scenario type mission we saw in the Live demo here is going to be the ultimate troop killer on harder difficulties... I did not like how it is designed to spread your team out, and when the main bomb is defused several enemies appear in random locations. Nasty.
hmm, I didn't seem to have any issues using the mouse and keyboard like other people but I also played with the controller and I will probably use that when I'm hooked into the big TV and M+K for the monitor. As for the content, it was great, gave you a basic understanding of the game mechanics during actual missions and in the base view. I also like they kept the whole globe thing and you have to send ships to intercept UFOs and you see your jets move over the world as time passes. Very X-Com but in the Firaxis way of refining some of the more archaic systems from the old games and making them more fun.
cant't wait for release. I noticed some people with complaints which is fine but I don't know. these kind of games just don't get made that much and never with this level of production values and from the streams I've seen the team (especially Garth and Jake) are super passionate about what they have made and that's awesome.
@Funkydupe: That plus the terror missions (i think they are called?) where aliens are converting civilians and the more you swaddle the more enemies you have to fight and the lower your success rating, encouraging to keep the pace up.
Well, it feels like new X-com Light - sugar free, artificially flavored retro callback.
There was not sense of mysterious and dangerous atmosphere. Instead of flimsy jumpsuits, your guys are fitted with heavy armor, giving visual clue that they can handle it. Your surroundings are not covered in the fog of war, which might be realistic, but it eliminates the surprises.
Aliens seem to be just waiting for player, which can be because of the demo, but it still gives me a bad taste. I hope there will be patrolling enemies in the finished game.
Also, I hate that you have to choose one or the other mission. What about some sort of gamble option where you send a B-team to the site or something. You can't even send same ship to do another mission before returning to the base?
Game feels like they have removed more features than they have added. Overall, big enough of disappointment for me to hold back and wait for few price drops before picking this up.
@Tennmuerti said:
@Shirogane: @Funkydupe: @badaboom420: @rebgav: @gladspooky: @YoThatLimp:
For everyone having mouse problems.
Turning off vsync and framerate smoothing in the options worked for me. Mouse went from sluggish to feeling perfect.
This is not the first time i've seen vsync horribly implemented and screwing up frame rate and cursor movement
Nope. I tried that. Maybe you're experiencing some kind of placebo effect? Mouse was just as sluggish afterwards as it was before.
I like how they talked up how this is "Totally a PC-focused game. I love the PC!" but they can't even get the mouse right. Ugh.
A great game dragged down by really shitty keyboard & mouse controls. The UI is almost senseless without a controller, relying on you to just intuit stuff like pressing escape to go "back" out of a menu, or Q and E to rotate the camera, or pressing the fucking space bar to shoot something.
Beyond the crappy controls (GRRRRR) I'm as excited as ever. I just know I'll be playing a top down tactical PC game with a dual stick controller and that weirds me out.
@gladspooky:
No not a placebo at all. I know the difference between a sluggish mouse and a responsive one. It was terrible like everyone keeps mentioning when i started the game up, turned off vsync and frame smoothing and it became just like i excpect a mouse to behave in my PC games. Other people have likewise reported that turning off vsync makes the mouse work properly for them. This is not such an uncommon effect either (mouse acceleration getting fucked by vsync)
Are you perchance forcing vsync through the graphic card's settings?
@Tennmuerti said:
@gladspooky:
No not a placebo at all. I know the difference between a sluggish mouse and a responsive one. It was terrible like everyone keeps mentioning when i started the game up, turned off vsync and frame smoothing and it became just like i excpect a mouse to behave in my PC games. Other people have likewise reported that turning off vsync makes the mouse work properly for them. This is not such an uncommon effect either (mouse acceleration getting fucked by vsync)
Are you perchance forcing vsync through the graphic card's settings?
You must not expect a mouse to behave very well, then, because it's shit. Yeah, I disabled v-sync, and turned it off on my graphic card's settings a long, long time ago. I play other "totally not-rushed PC ports" on this computer, and they all have that problem. I'm sure there's some .ini file I have to edit somewhere (that you're not bothering to mention), but fuck that. Maybe next time they can edit it for me before they release their game.
@gladspooky:
"I must not expect?" Get off your high horse buddy. I've been playing with a mouse and keyboard for well over a dozen years and am borderline PC elitist. I offered a suggestion that helped me and other people fix the mouse issue (what works for some might not fix the issue for other peoples setups, this is the pc). And you are now insulting my intelligence on not knowing how a mouse works for the second time now.
Not bothering to mention an .ini file edit? What the fuck? If I did an .ini edit to do a fix I would post exactly that. What sane human would even do otherwise?
I try to offer help and get hostile insults and an inquisition in return that maybe i'm lying on purpose, gee thanks.
Content wise- the demo sucked. Enough said on that.
That said, it did give a taste as to how the game's controls and UI feel. Control wise, I for one had no issues with the mouse/keyboard controls whatsoever- they felt just fine. I will agree the UI is subpar, but not horrifically so- I see myself getting used to it just fine.
Ultimately, I am still interested in getting the full game to experience Firaxis' interpretation of the series.
@Tennmuerti said:
@gladspooky:
"I must not expect?" Get off your high horse buddy. I've been playing with a mouse and keyboard for well over a dozen years and am borderline PC elitist. I offered a suggestion that helped me and other people fix the mouse issue. And you are now insulting my intelligence on not knowing how a mouse works for the second time now.
Not bothering to mention an .ini file edit? What the fuck? If I did an .ini edit to do a fix I would post exactly that. What sane human would even do otherwise?
I try to offer help and get hostile insults and an inquisition in return that maybe i'm lying on purpose, gee thanks.
Oh, lighten up. If you really were a PC elitist you'd have a thicker skin by now. Anyway, no, your suggestion of "Just turn off v-sync, guys!" didn't work. I remember people yelling that about Skyrim and Rage and a whole lot of other PC ports, but there was other stuff you had to do in order to get the mouse working like, you know, a mouse.
It gets annoying after a while.
Anyway, nope, won't be buying the full game. Demo worked in that regard.
Don't forget that the default difficulty is on Easy for some reason. You can edit the ini files to make it "Classic"(Hard) for a more X-Com experience.
@gladspooky:
Thicker skin has nothing to do with it. I simply don't take lightly when people are dismissing my words by saying the equivalent of "maybe you just don't know any better" or "maybe you're imagining things". You push, expect a push back.
Do you want me to come in and start dismissing your words by saying that maybe you are imagining that the mouse doesn't work properly? Or maybe that you don't know how a mouse is supposed to feel on the PC? Will that be pleasant or constructive to read? No? Then don't do it to others.
Anyway, no, your suggestion of "Just turn off v-sync, guys!" didn't work.
Sorry it didn't. Almost no PC fix is universal what works for some people may not work for others people PC setups.
but there was other stuff you had to do in order to get the mouse working like, you know, a mouse.
What does this even mean? You needed a mouse to get a mouse working properly? Yea, no shit :D
@gladspooky said:
@Tennmuerti said:
@gladspooky:
"I must not expect?" Get off your high horse buddy. I've been playing with a mouse and keyboard for well over a dozen years and am borderline PC elitist. I offered a suggestion that helped me and other people fix the mouse issue. And you are now insulting my intelligence on not knowing how a mouse works for the second time now.
Not bothering to mention an .ini file edit? What the fuck? If I did an .ini edit to do a fix I would post exactly that. What sane human would even do otherwise?
I try to offer help and get hostile insults and an inquisition in return that maybe i'm lying on purpose, gee thanks.
Oh, lighten up. If you really were a PC elitist you'd have a thicker skin by now. Anyway, no, your suggestion of "Just turn off v-sync, guys!" didn't work. I remember people yelling that about Skyrim and Rage and a whole lot of other PC ports, but there was other stuff you had to do in order to get the mouse working like, you know, a mouse.
It gets annoying after a while.
Anyway, nope, won't be buying the full game. Demo worked in that regard.
Hey man, calm down, he didn't screw up the controls, he is just giving you tips on things that have helped other people.
I tried the demo a second time on xbox controller and it felt really good. I am really looking forward to the game. I will try mouse and keyboard again with the vsync off and frame rate smoothing off to see how it goes as well.
You can kind of tell the cut scenes are all rendered for the console because they are so low-res, kind of a bummer. This does have all the trappings of a console port. Still seems like a great game though.
Biggest problem I had was some weirdness with mouse control. Nothing game-breaking, but annoying. Like, why can't I click to switch which troop I am controlling, why do I have to tab cycle? I might have missed something, but it seemed the only way to navigate the base was through the tabs at the top, clicking the rooms didn't seem to work. Oh, and why do the people all have no accents other than the lab lady? I had a Russian troop who sounded American.
Edit: Oh, and I found it hilarious when I chose 'North America' for my base, and only the US was highlighted.
Edit 2: I'm an idiot, you can select troops by clicking. Just playing through again.
@Tennmuerti: I read your tips before I jumped in and had no problems with the mouse ( was expecting the worst from some naysayers). Although I have that specia adaptive vsync override from nvidia that can turn vsync off if your frame rate drops below 60 or 30 fps. The game still worked perfectly for me.
@Lagaroth said:
Edit: Oh, and I found it hilarious when I chose 'North America' for my base, and only the US was highlighted.
Me too, but I will find it even funnier in about 5 years when you select "North America" only Canada will be highlighted.
@Jams said:
@Tennmuerti: I read your tips before I jumped in and had no problems with the mouse ( was expecting the worst from some naysayers).
People are just being exceptionally whiny. They focus too much on the tiny problems and rather than get used to them, write the entire game off as being broken.
@Artemesia said:
@Jams said:
@Tennmuerti: I read your tips before I jumped in and had no problems with the mouse ( was expecting the worst from some naysayers).
People are just being exceptionally whiny. They focus too much on the tiny problems and rather than get used to them, write the entire game off as being broken.
There's nothing whiny in expecting the mouse to function properly.
Like, how would the gaming community react if a console first-person shooter port was released and the mouse was just mapped straight to the analog stick without adding smoothing or changing the sensitivity? Would they just say, "Oh, get used to it"?
"Don't worry, man, all you have to do is take a whole bunch of silly putty and wrap it around the analog stick, and then it's just as slow as it's supposed to be. That's what I did." It really boggles my mind why we put up with it. And this is just one of several problems I noticed.
But you guys enjoy it, I guess. I'm gonna go play the original X-Com and think of better times.
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