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Over at GOG, the reduced-price trips down memory lane continue, only this week there's a whole lot more X-Com. Specifically, this week's GOG sale range focuses on a lot of 2K's older franchises, particularly from the strategy genre. The entire original run of X-Com games can be found here for less than £2 / $2 each, which is nigh-impossible to not recommend. Then there is…
Feature: The greatest total conversion ever made
You Wouldn’t Steal A Skyranger: X-Piratez Is An Outstanding Total Conversion Of UFO/X-COM
In my intro to Silent Storm, I mentioned both modding scenes and UFO (used to distinguish the 1994 original X-COM from the 2012 Firaxis one, and not only out of increasingly sad Eurocentric obstinance) without tying the two together. That, it turns out, was stupid, because X-Piratez, a UFO mod in active development by Dioxine, is the best total conversion for any game I've ever…
Very late to the party, yesterday 2K finally showed up on GOG.com with a selection of classic games. And what a selection. What on Earth were they waiting for? Anyway, at last you can now get DRM-free working-on-your-PC versions of Freedom Force and its sequel, all the classic X-COMs bundled together, three Railroad Tycoon games, and the awful Sid Meier's Pirates remake. It also suggests…
An XCOM fan on Reddit has created a rather robust version of XCOM that is played using the spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel. Dubbed EXLCOM, this reimagining of the science fiction turn-based strategy game is far from complete, but that doesn't mean you can't sink a few hours enjoying the fact that the program you use to budget your weekly spending allowance can be used to…
We live in a world where X-Com creator Julian Gollop can put a project onto Kickstarter and have its confetti parade success or outright failure come right down to the wire. I'm not sure how to feel about that. In the end, though, Chaos Reborn's crowdfunding drive succeeded and then some, which I suppose means the world and I are cool. For now.
Feature: Guest Starring XCOM's Jake Solomon
Once upon a time Julian Gollop was one of the principle minds behind the original X-Com. Yes, with a dash. A dollop of Gollop's design wizardry spawned a legendary strategy series, and now - somewhat fittingly, I suppose - he's making a game about actual wizards. Chaos Reborn is mere days away from casting off its mortal Kickstarter, so Gollop and I are going to…
Well, Steam Early Access, anyway. Seeing as X-Com has been abducted and replaced by the magnificent (but still quite different) XCOM: Enemy Unknown and snazzy 1960s hat dress-up simulator The Bureau: XCOM, Xenonauts is sort of the original's closest living relative. So now's your chance to return to the present's past while clad in the graphics and interface from a past-inspired portion of the future. In…
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...
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…
RPS chum Al Bickham managed to get revered X-COM co-creator Julian Gollop on the blower recently, and got the fine fellow to chat about the making of the best game in the world evereverever. While it doesn't go into Gollop's feelings about the upcoming FPS from 2K (previously expressed here), he does say of the long-canned X-COM Alliance that "I was shocked. It was an…
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Amidst the web-wide frenzy resulting from the announcement of 2K Marin's shooter-sequel to X-COM, those who were unwaveringly disappointed/infuriated that the series' strategy roots had been abandoned had at least one source of turn-based solace. That was Goldhawk Interactive's Xenonauts, one of more X-COM remake projects than any sane man could count - but this time determined to retain the original game's key systems and…
I want to quickly post this, which Jim found. Where did he find it? I don't know. He could have just been reading the XCOM thread at Gamasutra. Google suggests he may have found it at RPGCodex, but that doesn't sound likely. Anyway, Julian Gollop was the legendary creator of Chaos, Laser Squad and - relevantly - the original X-COM. I've been wondering about what…
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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…
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…
Feature:
Funny thing. Whenever I try to write about X-COM, as in X-COM the game, not X-COM the place in my heart, I stall. It's too big. I need to do it at the right time (or perhaps for the right paycheque, I suspect). Where to start? Where to end? There have been superb summaries, makings-of and play diaries. It's a well-documented game, for sure. Yet…
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