Cydonia or Sigh-donia?
By Alec Meer on March 6th, 2012.
Last week, I finally got to see XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Firaxis’ X-COM remake, with my own failing eyes. I have various things to post about it over the coming days, but let’s start with a break down of what made my little belly flutter with excitement and what made my weak jaw clench with anxiety. It’s X-COM, but… not. Here’s why.
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By Alec Meer on February 6th, 2012.
You’ve read an awful lot about XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Firaxis’ remake of the original, the legendary X-COM, in our fact’n'theory-fat 13,000 word interview with project lead Jake Solomon here, but the only images we’ve been able to show you thus far are tiny 600 pixel jobbies you need to squint at to make much out. How cruel we were. But how lovely we now are: here are 16 high-res shots to scrutinise for signs of extra information, tribute and/or betrayal. Click on each – including the one above – for an embiggened version.
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Time units, modding, Iron Man Mode and failure
By Alec Meer on February 3rd, 2012.
In the third and final (for now) part of my enormo-chat with Firaxis’ Jake Solomon, head brain on XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the official remake of the legendary X-COM, we get into the nitty-gritty. To whit: why throw out time units, how the replacement system works, modding support, difficulty, soldier classes, country funding, Julian Gollop, ‘ZCOM’ and why he feels this new game has to bear the X-COM name.
The origins of a reimagining
By Alec Meer on February 1st, 2012.
They did it. They really did it. As we unexpectedly discovered last month, Firaxis are remaking/reimagining the original X-COM, the 1993 title that is quite rightly often hailed as the greatest game ever made. Recently, I had a long, fascinating and genuinely reassuring chat with XCOM: Enemy Unknown‘s lead designer and evident fellow X-COM gonk Jake Solomon – in this first of three parts, he talks how, why, when, the response to the controversial XCOM shooter, Cyberdiscs, whether it’s being simplified for console, 2K’s infamous ‘strategy games aren’t contemporary’ comment and missing hyphens.
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By Craig Pearson on January 20th, 2012.
Monolithic (yet huggable and surprisingly good dancers) gaming culture chaps EDGE have an interview with Julian Gollop, the original creator of the XCOM series. With the upcoming reboots exciting and enraging fans in equal measure, the man who made the terrifying tactical turn-based treat has a lot to say on the new XCOMs: “It was a bit disappointing from my point of view and for many fans of X-COM. When from out of the blue we heard that Firaxis are doing a turn-based version, it’s as if 2K are trying to cover all their bets.”
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By Alec Meer on January 16th, 2012.
New screens and resultant info-nuggets have arrived for Firaxis’ X-COM reimaginging, and they’ve assuaged some of my concerns. By which I mean “wahoooooooooooooooooooo! (cautiously)”
In addition to that, I’m hearing that XCOM – the shooter – has been delayed again, to 2013. Whether that means it’s gone back to the drawing board yet again, is waiting to see how the Firaxis game does or has its head on the executioners’ block I just don’t know. It does mean that Enemy Unknown is now definitely the first game in the XCOM relaunch, which pleases me greatly.
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By Alec Meer on January 9th, 2012.
OK, here we go. Brace for impact. Barricade yourself in your home. An American magazine has just put the first screenshots of the XCOM remake ‘reimaginging’, some teasy details, plus the vital answers to to whether it’s linked to the XCOM shooter and if it’s been… altered for consoles.
Good news! Well, ish.
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Keeping my enemy close
By Alec Meer on January 6th, 2012.
Firaxis making a new, true X-COM remake is the best gaming news of the year, and I fairly much expect to still be saying that on December 31 2012. Of course, it isn’t that simple. There are things this game needs to do, to get right, if it is to be both a successful homage and a successful modern strategy game in its own right. Here’s what I want from it.
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By Craig Pearson on November 9th, 2011.
2K Games have exclusively told me, and everyone else with an internet connection and an interest in game publisher financial details, that they’re delaying XCOM until ‘fiscal 2013′, presumably to avoid clashing with the end of days.
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X-COM in spirit if not in name
By Alec Meer on October 1st, 2011.
OK, I admit it: I am as cynical as you when it comes to half-suspecting that enormously ambitious, fanbase-courting independent projects announced before work on them has even begun carry the dread stench of vapourware. I’ve been very interested in Xenonauts for some time, if faintly horrified that lead designer Chris England claims he made the final decision to pour his life savings into funding an X-COM remake based on an offhand oh-if-only comment I made on RPS, but I confess wasn’t entirely convinced it would see the light of day. Partly this was due to the many tales of infamy concerning amateur game devs who started working together remotely without ever actually meeting – online tensions can run so high – and partly because I’ve been waiting a long time for an X-COM remake that actually feels anything like X-COM. It is not in my nature to believe that dreams can come true.
A playable build of Xenonauts was on show in the RPS-sponsored Indie Arcade at the Eurogamer expo last week, and pretty much everyone I spoke to about it said the same thing: “well, it’s X-COM,” they offered with a wide grin. They didn’t say what worked or what didn’t or what they’d change or anything like that – they just said “it’s like X-COM.”
I can’t think of a greater compliment for any game.
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By Jim Rossignol on September 23rd, 2011.
Still filled up with indignant energy and ready to type “This is not my X-Com!” in response to whatever comes out of 2K? Then you are in luck, because there’s a brand new video about the development of the squad-based UFO-shooter, with a couple of guys from 2K Marin explaining what they are up to. Watch it below! Jonathan Pelling, the project lead, says: “It’s about experiencing the origins of this organization from a really zoomed in and boots-on-the-ground perspective. We really wanted you to feel like what it was like to be one of the squadies in the original game, and not the all-knowing, top-down commander.”
In case you missed it, we also got a 20-minute walkthrough a month back, which showed the game in some serious detail.
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