Comments on: All The X-COMs Are On Steam. Yes, Even Enforcer.

By: TooNu

TooNu — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:11:24 +0000

This day was a great day, a triumphant day, a day I shall remember as the day I jumped and bashed my head on the bit of low ceiling at my PC desk. The 5 quid was well worth buying Xcom….such a good game.

By: I HATE STEAM

I HATE STEAM — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:29:50 +0000

I have tried to contact STEAM so many times (easily twenty) since they added the Vista patch to TFTD… the game runs like shite… and in all my attempts to get help, the STEAM folks have been nothing but Douche Nozzles. They couldn’t care less. Keep this in mind if you purchase anything from them.

By: LST4R

LST4R — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:23:16 +0000

Terror from the Deep works with Vista now! Hooray!

By: PJ

PJ — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:34:17 +0000

Did anyone else notice that it shows Xcom UFO Defense having multiplayer including co-op?

I’m sure the original game didn’t and I would bet that the Steam version doesn’t either but it is kinda misleading if you aren’t familiar with the games.

By: PJ

PJ — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:34:17 +0000

Did anyone else notice that it shows Xcom UFO Defense having multiplayer including co-op?

I’m sure the original game didn’t and I would bet that the Steam version doesn’t either but it is kinda misleading if you aren’t familiar with the games.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:32:06 +0000

This is what I was on about, just in case no one cares…

By: ORYLY

ORYLY — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:34:12 +0000

A lack of tactics will often come from crappy AI, bad level design and and a lack of choices to make rather than turn-based vs. real-time. If the AI charges straight at you, a turn-based game doesn’t become any more strategic. If one location doesn’t differ from another, there’s no decision to make whether you have to wait for your turn or not.

The usualy problem of real-time and lack of strategy is when reflexes play too much of a role when it comes to victory. It’s when doing a ton of good maneuvers often beats a handful of excellent ones. (But there’s nothing wrong with being able to excel in that kind of game.)

Organic aliens are also a B-movie staple, so I don’t know what’s your problem there. And, they fit the theme of an infestation quite well. It’s a pity that they weren’t able to implement the corruption (brainsuckers!) part at all thanks to the omniscient infiltration line graph.

By: sinister agent

sinister agent — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:38:48 +0000

I agree that the fact that they came looking for you even when outnumbered was a shame, and lost the feel of rooting them out rather than assaulting a nest (ideally they should act as they do only when they have an advantage, and otherwise hide and ambush, but it’s a small price to pay for a great game, and there are times when you have to hunt down some dangerous stragglers). But that doesn’t mean there was no AI, man, just that the AI was more aggressive. They flank and use cover and retreat and ambush pretty well, and did you ever try throwing a spare clip at an alien? Half the time they’ll think it’s a grenade and run for cover, giving you a free shot. And the cultists were better at using smoke grenades than I’ve ever been.

And besides, the AI in the first two games wasn’t exactly great, was it? They had one approach:

(1) Sit still in your corner and take potshots at anyone who comes near.
(2) Send the odd scout out.

It’s hardly blinding stuff. The AI in Apoc was arguably more advanced in fact – just that individual aliens were usually less of a threat and they relied more on massed attacks, so their movements came across as less impressive.

I also agree that turn-based games are neglected, but let’s face it, strategy games at large are neglected. And to suggest that the industry’s crapness is due to the lack of turn-based games is frankly laughably simple-minded, as is the suggestion that tactical play is impossible without it.

What was wrong with the organic aliens, then? Or, why should they use the same aliens as in the last two games, when (a) those species have been wiped out and (b) that would be cheap repetition and get them qutie rightly slammed for rehashing.

Sorry, but the ultra-hard multiworm’s death resulting in a swarm of fast, vicious nasties was better in concept and practice than anything in the first game save for the chryssalids. And in what other game have you felt threatened by a puddle?

By: Tomlin

Tomlin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:27:30 +0000

LOL at people loving the Apocalypse.
It was rather ridiculous, really, especially the real-time mode. I would name it “for the lazy in mind and body”. The whole one “tactic” in real-time mode was making your soldiers into a single line, crouching, and waiting – since in real-time AI was pretty much deactivated and aliens simply ran your way from the start. I wont mention that adding such useless mode also taxed AI in turn-based mode.

UFO: Afterxxx games did away with turn-based altogether, and voila – there are no tactics in there at all, just huddle your units together at all times and go around shooting stuff. Just shows how degraded the industry has become without turn-based gaming, *sigh*

Oh, and those organic aliens are the worst, really. Where are my technocratic plasma-wielding grays of old B-movies ?!

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:12:18 +0000

i am a little miffed at the steam drm meaning a can’t dump the game on a usb and taking in into uni with me. Not a deal breaker. But it reminds me that you are treating the customer like a criminal. I’ll wait til gog or impulse gets them.

By: Cheesyquaver

Cheesyquaver — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:00:24 +0000

Apocalypse FTW! Best xcom game of the lot – now, if they only released it for PSP, the circle would be complete!

By: Duoae

Duoae — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:03:07 +0000

I really loved UFO: Enemy Unknown but never got the chance to play the rest. Bought and downloaded, thank you!

I also have to say that i like Cenega’s UFO series as well… though the first is the best (IMO) in terms of how the game plays the latter two are ‘more true’ in game mechanics to the original UFO series.