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    XCOM: Enemy Unknown

    Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Oct 09, 2012

    The classic tactical turn-based combat returns in this modern re-imagining of X-COM: UFO Defense.

    XCOM and WinXP

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    djames216

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    #1  Edited By djames216

    I know a lot of people left Windows XP behind long ago but there are still people out there like myself that still use it. The main reasons I haven't upgraded yet is because of cost and I saw no real reason to bother from a functionality/efficiency standpoint. Upon downloading the Demo for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I realised that the game is not compatible with Windows XP, you need Vista or later. I just wanted to put that out there for the benefit of other XP users who may have considered buying the game. I'm not looking for a discussion on the benefits of getting Windows 7 or whatever, I am well aware of how good it can be. I just simply can't afford to right now because I'm unemployed.

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    abendlaender

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    #2  Edited By abendlaender

    Well, Windows 8 is out in a month, and just costs 50$ which is rather affordable. Although it really sucks if you just want to play the game right now, I agree.

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    greyfoxv1

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    #3  Edited By greyfoxv1

    @djames216 said:

    I know a lot of people left Windows XP behind long ago but there are still people out there like myself that still use it. The main reasons I haven't upgraded yet is because of cost and I saw no real reason to bother from a functionality/efficiency standpoint. Upon downloading the Demo for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I realised that the game is not compatible with Windows XP, you need Vista or later. I just wanted to put that out there for the benefit of other XP users who may have considered buying the game. I'm not looking for a discussion on the benefits of getting Windows 7 or whatever, I am well aware of how good it can be. I just simply can't afford to right now because I'm unemployed.

    I do believe the Steam page states that XP is not supported in a bright orange box.

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    DystopiaX

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    #4  Edited By DystopiaX
    @GreyFoxV1

    @djames216 said:

    I know a lot of people left Windows XP behind long ago but there are still people out there like myself that still use it. The main reasons I haven't upgraded yet is because of cost and I saw no real reason to bother from a functionality/efficiency standpoint. Upon downloading the Demo for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I realised that the game is not compatible with Windows XP, you need Vista or later. I just wanted to put that out there for the benefit of other XP users who may have considered buying the game. I'm not looking for a discussion on the benefits of getting Windows 7 or whatever, I am well aware of how good it can be. I just simply can't afford to right now because I'm unemployed.

    I do believe the Steam page states that XP is not supported in a bright orange box.

    Although it doesn't affect me it would be nice if you could filter steam by games compatible with your os, since this will probably become more of a thing as time goes on.
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    djames216

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    #5  Edited By djames216

    @DystopiaX said:

    @GreyFoxV1

    @djames216 said:

    I know a lot of people left Windows XP behind long ago but there are still people out there like myself that still use it. The main reasons I haven't upgraded yet is because of cost and I saw no real reason to bother from a functionality/efficiency standpoint. Upon downloading the Demo for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I realised that the game is not compatible with Windows XP, you need Vista or later. I just wanted to put that out there for the benefit of other XP users who may have considered buying the game. I'm not looking for a discussion on the benefits of getting Windows 7 or whatever, I am well aware of how good it can be. I just simply can't afford to right now because I'm unemployed.

    I do believe the Steam page states that XP is not supported in a bright orange box.

    Although it doesn't affect me it would be nice if you could filter steam by games compatible with your os, since this will probably become more of a thing as time goes on.

    Yeah, that kind of thing has crossed my mind before now too. It would be useful but I wonder if it would be worth the resources for Steam to do it? Who knows?

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    DystopiaX

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    #6  Edited By DystopiaX

    @djames216: The thing is I don't think it would take that many resources. You can already filter stuff like DLC, it should be trivial to filter games by OS as well. Hell, they even do it for Macs.

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    AlexW00d

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    #7  Edited By AlexW00d

    Wait why have they done this? The game is DX9.

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    djames216

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    #8  Edited By djames216

    @AlexW00d said:

    Wait why have they done this? The game is DX9.

    Yeh I've seen some comments on other forums that seem to have come to the same conclusion. The game is DX9 but doesn't work on XP. Seems inexplicable. I'm no expert but could there be some other non-DX technical reason as to why WinXP couldn't run it perhaps?

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    djames216

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    #9  Edited By djames216

    @DystopiaX said:

    @djames216: The thing is I don't think it would take that many resources. You can already filter stuff like DLC, it should be trivial to filter games by OS as well. Hell, they even do it for Macs.

    Hmm, I wonder if they would need to go back and individually set O.S. meta-data tags for every single title? I'm guessing that would be a lot of work given how many titles there are. And if there isn't already a suitable "O.S. field" to fill in the first place then it can be a major pain to add a new field to an existing database.

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    DystopiaX

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    #10  Edited By DystopiaX

    @djames216 said:

    @DystopiaX said:

    @djames216: The thing is I don't think it would take that many resources. You can already filter stuff like DLC, it should be trivial to filter games by OS as well. Hell, they even do it for Macs.

    Hmm, I wonder if they would need to go back and individually set O.S. meta-data tags for every single title? I'm guessing that would be a lot of work given how many titles there are. And if there isn't already a suitable "O.S. field" to fill in the first place then it can be a major pain to add a new field to an existing database.

    Yeah I guess, but it doesn't seem to be a major problem for past releases anyway, and you can just add it in going forward.

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    uk_john

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    #11  Edited By uk_john

    The fact is, if a mainstream game like Skyrim or Borderlands 2 can run on XP, I think it's suicidal that a niche, turn based sci-fi strategy game needs Win 7. I also don' understand how a huge open world game like Skyrim has a 5GB install and this game needs 20GB - must have a lot of cutscene filler!

    Have heard that the only reason they have it as Win 7 only is in the exe they make a call to the Win 7 equivalent of the XP file kernel32.dll. Seems if you hack the exe you can get at least the demo working. Not sure of the details, but if one file name needs changing in the exe, it shows how 2K/Fireaxis must have done a deal with Microsoft to use the Win 7 filename to hopefully get people to upgrade. I don't know if any money changed hands, but of course Microsoft makes a nice amount everytime a gamer upgrades to Win 7, and there has to be a reason that Win 7 filename was used rather than the XP filename, especially given how the other requirements are so low!

    Lastly, it's so ironic that the first AAA PC title (and maybe the only AAA title this year!) that doesn't run in XP is a remake of a 1994 DOS game! I bet most of us would have thought the first Win 7 game would be some super hi-resolution 3D game that would put Crysis to shame! No a mostly 2D/isometric low system requirements game like XCOM!

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    twigger89

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    #12  Edited By twigger89

    @uk_john said:

    The fact is, if a mainstream game like Skyrim or Borderlands 2 can run on XP, I think it's suicidal that a niche, turn based sci-fi strategy game needs Win 7. I also don' understand how a huge open world game like Skyrim has a 5GB install and this game needs 20GB - must have a lot of cutscene filler!

    Have heard that the only reason they have it as Win 7 only is in the exe they make a call to the Win 7 equivalent of the XP file kernel32.dll. Seems if you hack the exe you can get at least the demo working. Not sure of the details, but if one file name needs changing in the exe, it shows how 2K/Fireaxis must have done a deal with Microsoft to use the Win 7 filename to hopefully get people to upgrade. I don't know if any money changed hands, but of course Microsoft makes a nice amount everytime a gamer upgrades to Win 7, and there has to be a reason that Win 7 filename was used rather than the XP filename, especially given how the other requirements are so low!

    Lastly, it's so ironic that the first AAA PC title (and maybe the only AAA title this year!) that doesn't run in XP is a remake of a 1994 DOS game! I bet most of us would have thought the first Win 7 game would be some super hi-resolution 3D game that would put Crysis to shame! No a mostly 2D/isometric low system requirements game like XCOM!

    There are a lot of other games that require win7, some of them are very graphically intensive, some aren't. The last game Firaxis worked on (civ5) had a dx9 and dx11 executables, it makes sense that they would drop support for the latter as time goes on.

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    envane

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    #13  Edited By envane

    who the fuck didnt get windows 7 .. whats your problem .. stop blaming developers because you have refused to update windows in the past ~10 years

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    TheHT

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    #14  Edited By TheHT

    @envane said:

    who the fuck didnt get windows 7 .. whats your problem .. stop blaming developers because you have refused to update windows in the past ~10 years

    whats .. your problem .. with punctuation

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    envane

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    #15  Edited By envane

    @TheHT: im not wrting an essay , im expressing my thoughts .. and this .. is because ... you people ... ...........................

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    august

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    #16  Edited By august

    @uk_john said:

    The fact is, if a mainstream game like Skyrim or Borderlands 2 can run on XP, I think it's suicidal that a niche, turn based sci-fi strategy game needs Win 7.

    Suicidal? Yeah, I'm sure they'll miss all 7 of the sales they missed out on.

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    #17  Edited By Zelyre

    @uk_john said:

    I also don' understand how a huge open world game like Skyrim has a 5GB install and this game needs 20GB - must have a lot of cutscene filler!

    It is a lot of cutscene filler. Every cutscene that could be rendered in real time on the PC is instead pre-rendered with higher resolution textures and then slapped into the game as 720 and 1080p videos. If those scenes were done in real time, the game would be much, much smaller.

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    SomeJerk

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    #18  Edited By SomeJerk

    It doesn't run on Windows XP because it's time to leave that old turd behind.
    - Signed, people who like their games able to use the advantages of Vista and above Windows systems and would prefer a world with nothing but 64 bit Windows distributions because that would allow games to run on even better game engines, so fuck 32 bit Windows machines also

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    #19  Edited By Ganimoth
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    uk_john

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    #20  Edited By uk_john

    @august said:

    @uk_john said:

    The fact is, if a mainstream game like Skyrim or Borderlands 2 can run on XP, I think it's suicidal that a niche, turn based sci-fi strategy game needs Win 7.

    Suicidal? Yeah, I'm sure they'll miss all 7 of the sales they missed out on.

    XP gamers represent about 35% of gamers. If one in three had bought XCOM for XP, that would have added about 10% to the sales. That can be the difference between profit and loss!

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    uk_john

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    #21  Edited By uk_john

    @SomeJerk said:

    It doesn't run on Windows XP because it's time to leave that old turd behind. - Signed, people who like their games able to use the advantages of Vista and above Windows systems and would prefer a world with nothing but 64 bit Windows distributions because that would allow games to run on even better game engines, so fuck 32 bit Windows machines also

    You support your argument so intelligently and maturly! But if games companies carry on limiting what market their games run in, then PC gaming overall will suffer for everyone! You think XP owners are going to upgrade to Win 7 for ONE game? XCOM isn't THAT special! There's a reason gamers are playing more retro titles and companies like GOG.com are doing so well. Because more and more people don't have the PC to run the Crysis type games of this world. There's also a reason The Sims is the biggest selling PC game - because it runs on practically every PC out there! Same with the most successful MMORPG World of Warcraft, which also has the lowest system requirements!

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    Terramagi

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    #22  Edited By Terramagi

    @uk_john said:

    @SomeJerk said:

    It doesn't run on Windows XP because it's time to leave that old turd behind. - Signed, people who like their games able to use the advantages of Vista and above Windows systems and would prefer a world with nothing but 64 bit Windows distributions because that would allow games to run on even better game engines, so fuck 32 bit Windows machines also

    You support your argument so intelligently and maturly! But if games companies carry on limiting what market their games run in, then PC gaming overall will suffer for everyone! You think XP owners are going to upgrade to Win 7 for ONE game? XCOM isn't THAT special! There's a reason gamers are playing more retro titles and companies like GOG.com are doing so well. Because more and more people don't have the PC to run the Crysis type games of this world. There's also a reason The Sims is the biggest selling PC game - because it runs on practically every PC out there! Same with the most successful MMORPG World of Warcraft, which also has the lowest system requirements!

    This isn't "Halo 2 only runs on Vista". This is "it's been 12 fucking years, upgrade your goddamn toaster".

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    Azteck

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    #23  Edited By Azteck

    @uk_john: I'm going to need a source on those numbers, because I really do not believe you.

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    Jrad

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    #24  Edited By Jrad

    @uk_john said:

    @august said:

    @uk_john said:

    The fact is, if a mainstream game like Skyrim or Borderlands 2 can run on XP, I think it's suicidal that a niche, turn based sci-fi strategy game needs Win 7.

    Suicidal? Yeah, I'm sure they'll miss all 7 of the sales they missed out on.

    XP gamers represent about 35% of gamers.

    12%.

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    Bell_End

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    #25  Edited By Bell_End

    is the rest of you hardware a decade old also. would your PC run it even if it was XP compatible

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