Here are my words on Firaxis' X-COM remake, here are the lead developer's words, and below, for the first time, is your own chance to eyeball it in glorious technicolour and living motion.
X-COM: UFO Defense
8 years ago
Feature: Cydonia or Sigh-donia?
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.
Feature: The enemy of my Enemy
Up until January 5, 2012, the mega-ambitious Xenonauts, Goldhawk Interactive's Cold War-set tale of alien invasion, was our number one hope for a modernised X-COM. Then, on January 5, 2012, 2K and Firaxis announced they were making an official modernised X-COM. We've already chatted to Firaxis about XCOM: Enemy Unknown at length, but what did that shock news mean to Goldhawk lead Chris England? Here,…
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:…
Feature: Time units, modding, Iron Man Mode and failure
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…
Feature: Investigating the unknown
In this next chunk of a mammoth chat with XCOM: Enemy Unknown's lead designer at Firaxis Jake Solomon, we talk Chrysalids, the death and critical wounding of your soldiers, the fanbase, why min-maxing X-COM's not all it's cracked up to be, the base, the geoscape and which of the original game's aliens didn't make the cut...
Feature: The origins of a reimagining
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…
We'll have a very big chat with the XCOM: Enemy Unknown devs at Firaxis up for you at some point in the next few days, but in the meantime an American magazine has released a few more screenshots of the strategy reimagining of darling old X-COM. The magazine's post also shows off some of the tactics you'll be using, how a battle might play out,…
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.
Feature: Keeping my enemy close
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.…
EDIT: added Gamersgate deal. Steam's daily deal sees the complete X-COM bundle reduced to £3.05, while the complete pack is £2.49 at Gamersgate. It's as if they think the whole internet is talking about the series. You probably don't want Enforcer and Interceptor but if you don't have them, you almost definitely want the other three. They are £1.01 each on Steam. I still play…
Night will always follow day, controversy will always follow a highly-anticipated game scoring less than 9/10 on a mainstream videogaming website, and X-COM will always see remakes. Xenonauts is the one to watch at present, of course, but Xenowar caught my attention because it's going for a hyper-stripped down, simplistic, scrappy mini-take on the oft-aped formula.
Feature: X-COM in spirit if not in name
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…
Feature: Irrational's co-founder on the future of immersive sims
Curse our limited-length titles! For this post should really be called something like 'Irrational co-founder and now Blue Manchu boss Jon Chey talks more about his splendid-sounding new PC boardgame/ CCG/ MMO mash-up Card Hunter, how to make free-to-play non-horrible, what he thinks the future might be for immersive sims in the vein of System Shock and his thoughts on his former studio's controversial XCOM…
After a year long silence, the enemy unknown is among us again. Below, you can find a brand new and very different to the last trailer for the XCOM reboot, which is created by some of the guys behind Bioshock 1&2, as well as the long-awaited release date. Hooray/uh-oh. Here we go.
It's been a bit all-quiet for the Cold War-set X-COM reimagining Xenonauts for the last few months, but creators Goldhawk have finally broken cover to show how the major element - the ground combat - looks in action. The answer, you may not be terribly surprised to hear is "quite a bit like X-COM", but clearly that's exactly what we want. Higher res and detail…
9 years ago
Feature:
Young people. Good grief. Your ignorance is as plain as those spots on your greasy face. Don't you know anything? Can't you be bothered to learn anything? Did you even read the words of esteemed colleagues Rossignol, Walker and Smith detailing the first three parts of this Olympian list of The Most Important PC Games Of All Time? I am quite sure that I, Deacon…
Feature:
Around four months ago, I flew to San Francisco to see XCOM, 2K Marin/Australia's remake of my favourite-ever videogame. Where once it was a turn-based strategy game, now it's a first-person shooter. This upset one or two people. All that time, I've had to be quiet, despite my previews appearing in PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine UK - games publishers, I love you, but…
Me! I saw XCOM! Me! And I still can't bloody talk about it. But I can direct you to buy, beg, borrow, steal or consume the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, which contains a big-ass feature wot I wrote about 2K Australia/Marin's controversial do-over of The World's Greatest Videogame™. What I can say - I hope - is that the feature goes into why…
10 years ago
The enduring question around 2K Australia's upcoming XCOM FPS has been "why not just come up with a new IP?" Well, that three posts about X-COM each clocked up triple-figures of comments on Wednesday is the answer to that. A secondary question is "why is everyone so upset that it's using the X-COM IP?" The IP is not what's important about X-COM. In terms of…