Exarch

Don't forget X-COM: UFO Defense was released on Playstation as well.

And by then, it'll be too late. Better for the voices of the concerned to (hopefully) be heard while the game is early in development. No one in their right mind expects them to turn it completely around and make it a turn based strategy game, but they can add familiar aliens, maybe alter the way Elerium works, etc. I mean, seriously... blobotovs? Someone needs to take their copy of Fallout 3 away and get them to play X-COM more, I think. If I wanted anyone to do an X-COM FPS... I think it'd have to be the guys who did FEAR. At least then I know I'd be terrified.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter_2010 This may be an extreme example, but in a way, it's kind of relevant to what happens when you use a popular franchise and then change everything about it.

I have to admit... even after all the other new information, I'm still waiting for what this has to do with X-COM. The only name we have that's familiar is Elerium and... it's a Mayan sculpture that you can find sitting out in the open away from UFO reactors? Elerium was based on Bob Lazar's description of Element 115 (which I'm sure most or all of you already know). Whether they're rebooting the franchise or not, Elerium is Elerium. It's entire purpose is to be cut into slabs and power a UFO reactor. They're not even showing they've done any research into UFOlogy, let alone X-COM. I just get this feeling there's going to be an achievement that's like "Find all 32 Elerium sculptures!" and that's more or less all Elerium is for. Maybe as a sort of currency or resource, too, but it doesn't eliminate the fear that all it is is a sort of hidden item in levels similar to Fallout 3's bobbleheads that only exists for the purpose of treasure hunting and -maybe- an effect on gameplay. And I have to echo people's concerns on the mission branching. All it sounds like is you get a specific set of missions you get to choose from, but they're all predefined. Meaning this is probably going to be just a once-play-through type game, maybe you can squeeze two or three playthroughs out, but it's going to get boring quick the second or third time. Again, I don't even care about it being an FPS, but one of the things I absolutely loved about X-COM (and actually a lot of Microprose games in general... they really knew how to do replayability) was the sheer unpredictability of the game. Black ooze as an alien? Ok, I guess I could see something like that in X-COM. Yet even the silacoids and celatids seemed more interesting than just... slime. And Calcinites had the diving suits. I really, really hope we see some floaters or chrysallids. Heck, even a Sectoid would be nice, but even then that's pretty generic. If we see classic aliens in the game, I'll admit, I'll start feeling more comfortable with this. As it stands now, I'm seeing absolutely nothing that couldn't have been done without the X-COM name. Also, some of the gadgets and weapons sound exactly as I'd expected and feared: cheesy 50s scifi similar to Fallout 3. Waiting on Flash Gordon style rayguns next. X-COM didn't need to be rebooted. It was perfectly fine the way it was, and a game that was suited to modern audiences could have easily been made given what was already established. I don't understand why they're doing this at all.

I think an FPS X-COM would be absolutely spectacular if done right. The problem is, I'm still hung up on "reimagined," "FBI," and the obvious 1950s setting. Why is this even called X-COM? If the game was a story of an X-COM operative during the First Alien War, I would actually be ecstatic over it, whether it had any of the management in it or not. Landing at missions in the Skyranger, clearing UFO crash sites at night, and seeing your buddies or yourself in that nifty personal or power armor in first person with modern graphics would be spectacular. But from what they're saying, we're not going to see any of that. We're not going to see much of anything familiar to X-COM except maybe some aliens we might recognize if this is truly going to be in the 1950s. So what gives? Why is this even carrying the X-COM name?

Oh, I played Apocalypse, and I loved Apocalypse. But there's a difference between taking a 1950s style, and actually being set IN the 1950s. At least Apocalypse built on what was already there. We had elerium powered craft, plasma guns, etc. It was clearly a futuristic setting, the backdrop was a last bastion on Earth as humanity spread out into space looking for new places to settle. We had human/alien hybrids from the previous wars, robots, and a dystopian society that formed in the wake of the previous alien wars. The 1950s art style was iffy, but when you remove that, you don't really lose what X-COM Apocalypse was. An X-COM based in the actual 1950s will have none of that. There won't be a Skyranger, there won't be jet interceptors, auto-cannons, and other familiar elements of the old games. If they do, it's going to look out of place and essentially give a "Sky Captain" vibe. I can only speak for myself, but I don't want 1950s comic book X-COM, I want modern X-COM. They're just going to have to be really careful with what they do. Like I said, we already know the gameplay won't be familiar, classic X-COM turn based strategy, and they're rebooting the story. So what will make this X-COM? Well... we just don't know right now. And that's really not a good way to make your first announcement. It has the potential to be really awesome, or to flop horribly, depending on how much they use Bioshock as inspiration over X-COM. As for the worry about it being another Enforcer... I highly doubt that. Enforcer was a rushed product to not let the X-COM Alliance assets go to waste. This will be polished, I have no doubt of that. The question is whether it'll be recognizable as X-COM or not.

Which is why I think they're rebooting it to fit with their 1950s fetish. Like I said, it's definitely what's irking me the most. Hopefully... HOPEFULLY this is just a prequel, and X-COM will still be officially established in modern times. But if they really are going for "X-COM in the 50s," I'm going to be disappointed.

Sorry for the double post, but I just remembered my log in and wanted to add something. >.> I think the saving grace for this as opposed to something like Fallout 3 or C&C4 is that it's not claiming to be a direct sequel. This is not X-COM 4. It's a side story, and I'm all for franchises splitting off into different genres. But it's yet to be seen if the style is going to be so radically different that it's not even recognizable anymore. I'm skeptical, certainly, but I'll wait to see some actual aliens and not an obviously early Alpha screenshot of a flat-shaded, untextured UFO blowing up some poor fool.

Stumbled across this portfolio of a video game art designer, and saw some things related to Aftermath that I thought were very interesting, of particular note the Octopus transgenant that I think still has a research entry (I know there was one transgenant listed in the requirements for one of the research topics, but it never appeared in game). Anyways, I thought you'd all like to take a look yourselves. http://nazghul.eiecon.net/projects/in-house/in-house.html PS: Realized the link didn't take you straight to them. In order to find them, go to Projects and then In-house up at the top and you'll find them.

How many countries have sided with the aliens already? It could be a case of that it's down to one country, and at the end of the month, they sided with the aliens, and that's that. Though I thought it would normally tell you that the last country had fallen.

Only a T-Shirt? Put my name in the credits or make a character after me, and then I'll participate in the contest.

At one point, Megapol had gone over to the Aliens. Then I raided a gang slum, and they were allied with me again, and they hated the Aliens, but the Aliens still liked them. It was funny to see Megapol hovercars shooting at Motherships, but the Aliens weren't shooting back.

X-Force... seems like I've stumbled across this before, though I never tried it. It's definitely a little more difficult to understand than X-Com. It's also too bad that I know that their Ambassador transport design is ripped off from another game. ???

Ah, good point, Aralez. I totally agree with you. As for Apoc, it was so different from the other X-com games as far as interception went, that I hadn't really thought about that. Ah, well. AM was definitely fun in it's own right.

Thanks Slaughter. Aralez, besides the aggression buttons, I didn't see much difference between X-Com and AM. I did like the inclusion of fighter cover for the aliens, though. Nice touch. BTW, I love the power armor smilie.