Quick Look: Xenonauts

That would be sweet and it is somewhat surprising that this has not happened yet. Also I would like to see some Jagged Alliance 2 stuff mixed into the soup.

shotguns, as all well as all weapons are balanced or "gamified" to give you options and make games fun. Most multiplayer games center around extremely small maps with no civilians to worry about. This is perfect for shotgun use, so realistic shotguns would be annoying for everyone else. Usefulness of shotguns in real warfare however is very limited because of their effective range being about 50m and the average engagement being at 200m+, at least in non-urban combat.

It's basically the opposite of what happens with snipers, if weapons were realistically portrayed in any game snipers would never be used by anyone because they are basically obsolete at ranges under 300m/y

I'm loving this summer drought, it's giving great PC games the time of day they wouldn't otherwise get. On that note, does anyone know if Vinny played Watch Dogs?

I really think this game is great, but this Divinity meal is taking far longer to digest than I anticipated. Vinny definitely knocked it out of the park with this one, though. Makes me excited to get back to this!

GBeast 4ever.

Oh, hell yes. :b It was an annoyanceand wasted time in XCOM UFO Defense, where the maps were relatively small, and it was absolutely rage-inducing in Terror From the Deep, where maps were 2-3 times the size of XCOM UD, had multiple levels/floors, tiny corners that were obscured by the fixed perspective and the fact that some levels were multi-parters that wouldn't let you progress until you found and killed the last alien -- then, hey, let's pull the exact same shit in the second part of the mission!Cruise/Cargo Ships, I'm looking at you in disgust.

Also, my fifteen-year old self had no idea the last alien was programmed to go after you after twenty turns, because back in 1995 there was no internet to speak of (and AOL BBs don't count. ;) ).

All that said, I am excited about some of the mods coming out for Xenonauts. I'm currently running Jslezy's Improved Armor Portraits, Skitzo's Mega-Map Compilation, and Kabill's Destructable UFO and Randomized UFO layouts.

"They probably move...more. Than a rock."

Lol, I love Alex.

Looks great, and I was excited to try it out. Heard about Xenonauts a while back and it seemed like a fantastic alternative to new XCOM.

But as the video went on... I just can't handle this right now, man.

Only played XCOM Enemy Unknown before. Picked this up a few weeks ago and it is highly recommended. Better in every way gameplay wise. Also has a pretty active modding community.

The art style is pretty amateur. I do love me some classic XCOM though so maybe Ill give it a try someday.

@fisk0: I probably wouldn't have remembered if I didn't have so many fond memories of exploding floors and ceilings to shoot at nazis, cause that was RAD! Also just blowing up a window a sniper is in.

After Divinity:OS I have a huge urge to try anything old school but Im worried that this game's management system will be too overwhelming for a newcomer. Also kinda want to go back to Enemy Unknown and try the long war mod. Ungh......decisions, decisions.

Corpoal Sucxks, what a heroine...

This was a incredible labor of love, that sought crowd funding before kickstarter was even a thing, long before Firaxis's X-com was announced. (They had a paypal/preorder system) It's incredible for me to see a quicklook of it on Giantbomb. A lot of X-com successors never came out of development, and the pressure on these dudes was immense. It was fascinating to follow it's development, and I'm really happy they received more help via Kickstarter and Early Access to knock the rest of this game out of the park.

@dasakamov: I didn't realize the game was that different compared to the original Xcom. Then again it didn't help that the GB guys didn't seem very familiar with how this game worked...

if that would happen it would explode xcom fans brains.

in the mean time im just going to replay silent storm again in a different way, blow everybody up this time.

the fight system in silent storm is so much superior to xcom and xenonauts its not even funny.

That machine gun is an M240 Bravo.

I haven't played Xenonauts yet, but I have played plenty of (original) X-Com clones over the years, and I have to say that UFO - Extraterrestrials is the best. So if anyone is looking for another of these games, give it a shot.

I hope more games start going for the super clear, hand drawn sprites aesthetic. It's a nice alternative to using the pixelated look for a throwback artstyle. This game would have definitely benefited from a higher budget and more artists, but I actually prefer the way this looks over Enemy Unknown just because I think sprites work better in isometric games than 3D models. There's no need to move the camera around in these games IMO.

Well... now that I think about it, Divinity: Original Sin looks amazing too.

Having played a lot of Terror from the Deep (fuck you lobster men), and a lot of XCOM: EU, I don't think I can go back to some of the, archaic I guess, systems in this game. I hate Time Units. Still, it looks impressively made and I'm sure the old school X-COM lovers who found plenty to dislike about the reboot will enjoy it.

This makes me want a new X-COM.

I have no reverence for original XCOM, so I think I will just stick with the Firaxis XCOM.

Someone else who played UFO: AI :D I really enjoyed how that game fleshed out pre-alien weapons compared to OG Xcom and I would be slightly surprised if Xenonauts doesn't take inspiration by their weapon choices/design. Replaying older games like Jagged Alliance makes me wonder why more modern games don't use different ammo types.

Music sets the mood so fucking good, so much like old XCOM did.

Really great.

Also, sucks to be CPL. SUCXKS i guess..

I just finished Enemy Within a few months ago. I don't think I can play any more xcom. Especially considering how punishing the new one was, I highly doubt more complexity or challenge is what I'm looking for. Also, the overall presentation in Enemy Unknown is much slicker than this.

This thumbnail on top of the alien isolation article is making me chuckle.

"Aww shit" indeed.

I'm loving the GBeast flavor, Vinny's enthusiasm with Alex's cynicism is such a good mix!

The game looks pretty great, I especially like the pixel art for the vehicles, beautiful.

I want this game. Need to finish Enemy Unknown first though.

This game is pretty damn good. I'd suggest anyone interested check it out. It feels like it is missing "something" though, hard to put my finger on. I wonder how Jagged Alliance Flashback will turn out too.

Original XCOM was one of the best games of all time. But even back then, it was clunky as fuck and it aged very badly. The remake improved nearly all aspects of it. I could never go back.

Definitely X-COM. The name Xenonauts makes me think of Psychonauts though.

That's great to hear, I surprisingly didn't enjoy the new x-com (the firaxis one) anywhere near as much as I did the original. So if I can get my OG X-com fix from this it would be fantastic

The original X-COM: UFO Defense is my favorite game of all time, but it looks like it trades in all of that game's style for slight tweaks in gameplay and a cleaner interface. No, mods aren't going to reel me in. I don't know if I can sink another however long into a game that's largely the same as that.

I like how if you hold the UFO for like five turns, you win even if there's aliens alive. No searching for the one dude hiding in the corner.

Okay I am getting this. I didn't end up getting that far in the new X-COM but this looks like it satisfies an itch I really want to scratch. Younger Me was no good at the original game when it came out, and when I tried to go back I found that as much as I wanted to do right by the game I just couldn't get into it.

Also the only thing I can think of when I hear those aliens die is Jeff in this video

Loving the BEAST dynamic, keep up the great work gentlemen.

XCOM.

Last five minutes of the battle is playing hide and seek with aliens. Yep, this is classic XCOM all right!

Though that interceptor music is a sever downgrade...

This game sucxks.

I thinking more of an Al Pacino, or maybe a Ciaran Hinds for that guy on the right.

I thinking more of an Al Pacino, or maybe a Ciaran Hinds for that guy on the right.

@saik0u said:

also this is great