I Found X-Com (Full Version)

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Tactics -> I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 1:22:40 AM)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7760/

It's only $5. It was one of my favorites so I thought I'd post.

As an aside - Why do developers have such a hard time not F'ing up perfection? Ok, maybe Xcom wasnt perfect, but it's about as perfect as I can recall - Next to my other love WitP.

All one needs to do is update the graphics and the interface. Leave the rest alone. Every single time some jerk tries to redo Xcom it turns out to be a steaming pile. And yes, I do count the Matrix version in the steamie pile section.

Anyways that is what I think. And I'm minus $4.99 now [:'(]




Erik Rutins -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 1:39:03 AM)

Bah, UFO Extraterrestials, especially with the update and BMan's mod, is great. I love the original X-Com, but a modded UFO has everything you could want from the original IMHO and is better looking.




Tactics -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 1:43:50 AM)

The bman mod is the only reason to get the Matrix version, I agree. But without Bman, it's junkie.

I'd actually still get the Matrix version, but for two things - Bman hasnt posted since May 08 and I'm still feeling burned on getting suckered with CCMT.




Erik Rutins -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 2:02:07 AM)

Well, his mod's fine as is, so there's really no need for him to keep posting.

The base UFO game is good as well, but BMan's mod truly makes it shine.

How exactly did you get "suckered" with CCMT?




Tactics -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 2:26:54 AM)

Well, I bought it, expecting something along the lines of COI (polished with game support).

CCMT just wasnt that. I know some people think it should be played on Fast Speed. But I play on Medium - The game has a Medium setting. I play COI on medium.  But as we know on medium in CCMT, the sprites skid across the earth like hockey puks.

When I noticed I came to post in the tech section of CCMT, but found another thread already existed about it, so I posted..and waited. That was back in June.

It's been a year next month, and the bug is still there. Nobody besides Matrix damage control has posted. Skidding sprites kills my immersion; and so I feel suckered. Mostly because the bug is still there after such a long time with no apparent developer support to be seen.




Perturabo -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 12:25:48 PM)

Sue them[:D].




cdbeck -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 10:03:35 PM)

I hate to contradict Erik, but UFO:ET is not up to the same level as X-COM, for me. Now, I liked UFO:ET, but I DO consider the B-Man mod to be downright REQUIRED as there is so much missing from the original release that should not have been missing.

Of course, one thing that makes X-Com trump ET is the nostalgia factor, something that is completely outside of the quality of gameplay. I played X-COM when it first came out, and it was revolutionary. I remember playing it, in my parents old house, while my mom was watching this new show called "X-Files" in the other room. So despite how good/bad ET is, it can never capture that same "glory" of the past.

Also, ET, being set on an alien world and not Earth, lost some of its urgency and sense of personal struggle.

I am also a big fan of the UFO: AfterX series (Aftershock, Aftermath, Afterlight), but I wish that some of their ideas could be merged with ET. Both have their pluses and minuses.

All this talk about ET, makes me want to redownload and play again. Maybe I will do that... provided I can still access my order... [X(]




Perturabo -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 10:33:19 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Son_of_Montfort

I hate to contradict Erik, but UFO:ET is not up to the same level as X-COM, for me. Now, I liked UFO:ET, but I DO consider the B-Man mod to be downright REQUIRED as there is so much missing from the original release that should not have been missing.

Heh[:)].
The downside of modding is that too often developers can get away with releasing badly done stuff because modders can fix it for them.

Anyway, did anyone play UFO: Alien Invasion? It's another remake of UFO:EU - it's free and works on win and linux.
I played it and I liked most of it except lack of destructible terrain and lack of brutality and of that dark atmosphere of constant danger.




SireChaos -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 11:07:29 PM)

I am tempted to recommend X-Force (www.xforce-online.de), but I am afraid the English version is, well, suboptimal. To anyone who can read German well enough, I recommend it without reservation, though. The official "Galactic War" campaign is, if anything, even better than the original X-COM at getting across that dark, scary feeling.
And did I mention that it comes with a complete campaign builder - for those of us here who like that sort of thing?




Jeffrey H. -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/18/2008 11:42:51 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Son_of_Montfort

Of course, one thing that makes X-Com trump ET is the nostalgia factor, something that is completely outside of the quality of gameplay. I played X-COM when it first came out, and it was revolutionary. I remember playing it, in my parents old house, while my mom was watching this new show called "X-Files" in the other room. So despite how good/bad ET is, it can never capture that same "glory" of the past.



Interesting thing about the nostalgia factor. You have touched on something I think. I recently watched this Quentin Tarantino movie where Kurt Russel is a serial killer who uses cars as his weapon. The movie was pretty cool but in the beginning the style was pure 70's B movie, except all the quirky atmoshpere was artificially added. This overall effect was very nostalgic and it really gave me a good feeling.

Do you think maybe a new game could somehow capture the same thing ?





SlickWilhelm -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/19/2008 4:42:22 AM)

You know, the nostalgia factor probably plays a greater role than we think. Even though flight sims have come a long way since the original "Red Baron" by Dynamix in 1991, that is still the flight sim that gives me the fondest memories.

Likewise, the original X-COM had this certain spookiness to it that was unique and quite unlike anything before it, that made it so entertaining. Personally, I think it was the music and the sound effects that were the key.




cdbeck -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/20/2008 10:32:12 AM)

Jeff,

I'm not sure that anthing really CAN capture the nostalgia factor in games, at least 100%. Just like Deathproof (the movie you quoted) wasn't exactly like the old Grindhouse films (although, there was a lot of nice pops, hisses, skips, and stuff added in to make it feel like an in-theater viewing). The issue with games is that, so often, the technology changes but the mechanics do not. So instead of evoking nostalgia, you get a "been-there-done-that" of "oh, we are killing Aliens in turn based missions again?" Part of the nostalgia factor, at least for me, is that these games (Ultima 7, X-Com, Command & Conquer/Red Alert, etc...) evoke the both the halycon days of my youth, where I had time aplenty to play, and also the halycon days of computer gaming's youth, where every new game was literally something NEW and you never knew what to expect. When you shot the walls in X-Com and they BLEW UP and demolished, leaving smoke and rubble, you went "OMG! THAT IS SO NEAT! I CAN DESTROY THE ENVIRONMENT!!!" Today we hold that mechanic as nearly required in such games. Or when you sent finally set up that nuclear missile in C&C and destroyed an entire base in a flashy explosion - now you expect a superweapon and know when, how, and why to use it. Think back to your first "complete set" of blue items in the Diablo series, your first infested terran base in Starcraft, the first time a Crysalid turned one of your X-Com soldiers into a Crysalid zombie, the first time the Guardian's face popped up in Ultima to mock you for going the wrong way, the first time a super-mutant melted when you shot him with plasma in Fallout. All this stuff was new technology back then, now we expect it, and denigrate games that do not have this type of stuff.

I was playing a neat game called Eschalon:Book 1 a while back. It is a "retro" isometric RPG. It certainly evoked a little nostalgia, but it didn't hit the "tone" that I remember from Ultima or other classic RPGs. Sorta like playing Pong on the computer - if it isn't with one of those round controllers and on a grainy TV screen on a saturday morning, it isn't the same.

Partly, this is subjective. I remember the great memories associated with these games at the time of playing - so no other game will recapture that. I remember my dad mailing me my Zerg copy of Starcraft to my Freshman dorm, my excitement about getting a new game magnified by the assuaging of homesickness that mail from home gave me. I remember selling my old toys in a yardsale, working all day in the heat, to get the $100 needed to buy my Nintendo Entertainment System. I already told the X-COM - X-Files memory. I remember waking up on the day after Christmas to play this new, strange, and very immersive game called Civilizations. No new game can bring these memories back, they are intricately linked to those specific games.

I'll never regret my decision to be a gamer, rather than play sports, or other activities. I have so many great memories associated with board games and video games, so many friendships made, so many things I have learned about life, history, people, and society (you can observe much in a PBEM or multiplayer game, as well as a board game).

Wait... what were we talking about? UFO:ET?! Oh, I better go redownload that...

SoM




Perturabo -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/20/2008 1:10:24 PM)

I usually don't have a game-nostalgia, because I still play those games. I like retro style because it doesn't require millions of dollars to produce a game and it doesn't require me to buy a new hardware. Also, it shows artistic skills of graphic artists.




Kuokkanen -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/20/2008 3:03:46 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Slick Wilhelm

You know, the nostalgia factor probably plays a greater role than we think. Even though flight sims have come a long way since the original "Red Baron" by Dynamix in 1991, that is still the flight sim that gives me the fondest memories.

Original Red Baron is from 1980's [:-]

Sid Meier played it before founding MicroProse. Inspired by his experience with RB, flight sims were first to come out from MP.




TonyAAA -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/21/2008 1:08:06 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

quote:

ORIGINAL: Slick Wilhelm

You know, the nostalgia factor probably plays a greater role than we think. Even though flight sims have come a long way since the original "Red Baron" by Dynamix in 1991, that is still the flight sim that gives me the fondest memories.

Original Red Baron is from 1980's [:-]

Sid Meier played it before founding MicroProse. Inspired by his experience with RB, flight sims were first to come out from MP.


There have been a lot of games called Red Baron. I think Atari had the 1st one in 1980 as a vector arcade game.

However, Slick Wilhelm was probably referring to this version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Baron_(game)




SlickWilhelm -> RE: I Found X-Com (10/21/2008 6:53:18 PM)

Yep, that's the one!

Ran pretty well on my 386-SX16 with 2MB of RAM back in 1991. :)





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