New X-COM trailer posted - looks like a big old pile of "meh".

[Memento]

I'm probably a little older than most here. I got the original UFO - Enemy Unknown game for my 15th birthday, back when it was new. It was one of the greatest games ever. I bought it on Steam not long ago, just so that I would always have it (the original floppies having long gone to meet their maker).

The new X-COM game looks like they have taken the legacy of the original, scraped off the name and some of the basic story, and slapped it on just another shooter. We already have lots of shooters. We don't have anything that is a combination of turn-based combat, base and inventory management with extensive tech research. The disconnect between this offering and the original is pretty disheartening.

What does everyone else think? Is there still room in the manshoot genre to innovate?

[venn177]

I consider the original X-COM one of the greatest games of all-time, and this isn't X-COM. Nothing about it is X-COM. They're just trying to find old series and reboot them. If it had a different name, we wouldn't even known it's X-COM.

The Ghost Recon or whatever Tom Clancy game for the 3DS is more of an X-Com game.

[dyst]

I much prefer the management section of X-COM, so as long as that is in there and it's good then I couldn't give a flying fuck about all this FPS stuff. Ideally, it will be Rainbow-Six-3-except-with-aliens in the combat missions and X-Com in the management stuff. That would be amaaaaazing.

However, this shooting looks like every other shooter, so if there is no management aspect at all then it will be awful.

[Tei]

"You never have enough shooters" can be made into a rule of dumb, really. I don't know if it will stop being true in the next 15 years, but is true now.

Based on the incredible high quality of the new XCOM, I think continue criticing it for what-is-not would look incredible shortsigned.

I trust game designers decisions.

[Stijn]

I consider the original X-COM one of the greatest games of all-time, and this isn't X-COM. Nothing about it is X-COM. They're just trying to find old series and reboot them. If it had a different name, we wouldn't even known it's X-COM.

The Ghost Recon or whatever Tom Clancy game for the 3DS is more of an X-Com game.

Sure. Doesn't prevent this from being an interesting game in itself, does it?

[venn177]

Pure speculation, but I cannot see any reason they would include the management aspect in more than the most idiotically basic of ways. Would be too complicated for the target audience, I have to assume.

Sure. Doesn't prevent this from being an interesting game in itself, does it?

It's not so much that I have a problem with the game itself, only that it's using the X-COM name, when it's nothing like the other games. I don't have high hopes for it in any way, but I'm still open to the game having the ability to be great.

[Rii]

If the original X-COM had been released three years ago I would have more sympathy for this position. Fact is the game is dead and buried, much as Star Trek was prior to its recent re-imagining. And like the new Star Trek, this new game (assuming it's any good) can only be good for the IP and the prospects of, one day, seeing another 'true' X-COM game. It's all well and good to talk about how this is in no way a continuation of the old, but at a certain point you have to harden up and consider the game on its merits. If you can't do that, at least consider whether this one-note white noise is actually contributing anything useful or indeed interesting to the discussion.

[Memento]

Based on the incredible high quality of the new XCOM, I think continue criticing it for what-is-not would look incredible shortsigned.

I trust game designers decisions.

I can respect the trust, they have brought us a great deal of joy and entertainment over the years. Maybe my problem with it is that it's showing me what I had, and can't any more. It's entirely possible that this will be a great shooter - but it's almost certainly not possible that this will be a real X-COM game.

[venn177]

X-COM as an FPS would be like Call of Duty as an RTS: Would it sell based upon its name to the fanbase that loved the original genre? Yes. Would the fanbase that loved the original genre be happy with the new game? No, even if it was the best RTS ever.

[Memento]

Well summarised.

[Rii]

X-COM as an FPS would be like Call of Duty as an RTS: Would it sell based upon its name to the fanbase that loved the original genre? Yes. Would the fanbase that loved the original genre be happy with the new game? No, even if it was the best RTS ever.

The difference is that Call of Duty is an active and viable property in its current form. A better analogy would be remaking Hexen as an RTS. Would anyone care? No.

And for all that folks are claiming that this has absolutely nothing to do with X-COM, if it were in fact titled something different, from what we've heard regarding 2K Marin's plans for the game any preview which failed to mention its resemblance to X-COM would be lambasted as shoddy journalism.

[lhzr]

New thread complaining about an X-COM trailer posted - looks like a big old pile of "meh".

[Bilbo]

Any chance of a link to this vaunted trailer?

Oops, it's on the front page, never mind.

[coldvvvave]

I just wanted to say that X-Com AfterStuff wasn't that bad.

[Xercies]

I kind of like the look of it, never played the original XCom so don't feel betrayed or anything. I do think we do need mroe of these kind fo FPS from what i've heard and listened to it actually sounds really interestign and not like any other FPS i've heard of and we do need more of those FPS to actually revolutionise the genre and stuff. With this and Deus Ex 3 people might want to build more interesting FPS again.

[Tuco]

I consider the original X-COM one of the greatest games of all-time, and this isn't X-COM. Nothing about it is X-COM. They're just trying to find old series and reboot them. If it had a different name, we wouldn't even known it's X-COM.

The Ghost Recon or whatever Tom Clancy game for the 3DS is more of an X-Com game.

Well summarized.

[venn177]

I kind of like the look of it, never played the original XCom so don't feel betrayed or anything. I do think we do need mroe of these kind fo FPS from what i've heard and listened to it actually sounds really interestign and not like any other FPS i've heard of and we do need more of those FPS to actually revolutionise the genre and stuff. With this and Deus Ex 3 people might want to build more interesting FPS again.

So to summarize: Only by looking to the past can we advance to the future, out of the stagnation that is the present?

[J-snukk]

I do remember mentions of base planning, manufacture and science a la x-com, we were also promised an emphasis on gathering artefacts and photos over large, free form maps with destructible environments. 2k promised a lot with the dissapointing Mafia 2 as well, but I'm willing to let a bit more information surface on this before I start setting fire to it and raping its mother. That said, I'm looking forward to Xenonauts, far, far more than XCOM.

[Ash]

I'm in the same boat. I never played the originals so can't compare any similarities and differences between them and this. However, standing on its own, it looks pretty decent from that trailer. It's definitely one I will be keeping a close eye on.