Comments on: Why X-COM Matters (To You)

By: CC-Marley

CC-Marley — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:28:04 +0000

Yes you should. But turn the lights down and get the XComutil.

By: Woozy

Woozy — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:29:39 +0000

They all missed it, but they all got it a little bit too. XCOM was a very rare and special kind of game that took the player and made them a character in the game world and absorbed him or her into the mythos. This isn’t about the pseudo-”immersion” that comes with having dirt and blood splashed on the camera in some cheap first person perspective, it was the genuine immersion that comes from being both observer and participant inside and outside the game world. FPS games make you into a kind of strange combination of voyeur and puppet master, occupying the brain of the protagonist like a weird keyboard wielding homunculus. But in XCOM you were just you–some guy, PLAYER 1, whatever–and that was enough for the game to progress. It’s hard to describe the feeling without going in circles, I guess, but I think the way to put is that whereas most videogames are power fantasies that try to put the player in the shoes of someone else–some big hero character or whatever–X-Com turned around did the opposite: they said “Look, [PLAYER], we need someone to wage a clandestine war against a deadly alien invasion, up for it?” So of course its obvious why people love X-Com so much: they fucking wrote it! As players, X-Com is our show. It was our experience. We tell eachother war stories about it.

Not to point too fine a point on it, but its pretty obvious why the shooter format, no matter how well polished and executed, is never going to be able to capture the “spirit” and “feel” of the original. You can’t participate in a shooter that way, no matter how visceral or immersive the experience winds up being. You’re still just basically pulling some other asshole’s strings.

By: oldbluekid

oldbluekid — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 12:43:29 +0000

I’ve read all the comments for this game. Is that wrong?
I still love X-COM, and I ‘ve never needed a manual to play it.

By: CFilson

CFilson — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:36:02 +0000

These responses have been very interesting to read. I don’t have a whole lot to add. Back in the day, I originally bought TFTD and found it brutally hard at the time. I bought X-COM because I liked the concept of TFTD; I found it much less difficult. I recently got UFO:EU and X-COM:TFTD on Steam. I just kicked Cydonia’s ass tonight and started a TFTD game.

This repsonse is dedicated to Claude Degallier.

On my third assult mission my Lieutenant Claude Degallier was mortally wounded (7 health left with 2 wounds) by a grenade outside the door of an alien sub. Still standing and knowing he was doomed, he rushed the door and killed one Aquatoid only to reveal another behind it that fatally shot him. The rest of the assault team entered and finished off the aliens.

P.S. Does anyone remember a game called Midwinter? Talk about genre bending (simulation, meets strategy, meets FPS, meets RPG all with a fractal generated map and 3d graphics before 3d grpahics cards existed). I played the ever living shit out of that game.

By: lepiaf

lepiaf — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:21:46 +0000

I messed the linking txt, it’s UFO AI, big linked text will lead you to it :)

By: lepiaf

lepiaf — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:19:42 +0000

sorry for reactivating this, but I don’t think that anyone mentioned , which is open source remake based on modified Q2 engine (yes, retro 4 2 day standards, but still smoother than ufo:eu :) they’re still working on it, but it’s in usable phase, check it out

By: Echoic

Echoic — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:04:11 +0000

All of you suckers will still buy the game anyway.. I know I will, I don’t even like shooters.

By: Bret

Bret — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:59:15 +0000

Yup.

More complete than Apoc, less evil than TFTD. Best one.

Interface takes half an hour to get really used to.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:38:22 +0000

By way of asking, if i were to pick up just one of these games on steam, which is ‘best’? X-COM: UFO Defense?

By: Bret

Bret — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:23:03 +0000

Anonymous Coward said:
I think Bret is just very actively failing at being funny / obtuse.
Not that that’s any defense; or that it makes me care any more about him than the RPS-FF, either.

It’s just another way of trying to make it about him instead of the discussion at hand.

–

God I miss those remote controlled flying footballs and entrail research results.

Sorry. You’re right, humor attempted, failed to connect.

Didn’t work at all, I was rude. So, I apologize as thoroughly as reasonably possible. Will attempt to avoid that level of stupidity in the future.

By: Spikyface

Spikyface — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:05:39 +0000

Damn skippy son, 6 guys together created a masterpiece and shared it with the world. I would love to read an interview from them on the “making of” this game

By: Bretfail

Bretfail — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 11:13:42 +0000

I think Bret is just very actively failing at being funny / obtuse.
Not that that’s any defense; or that it makes me care any more about him than the RPS-FF, either.

It’s just another way of trying to make it about him instead of the discussion at hand.

–

God I miss those remote controlled flying footballs and entrail research results.