31–40 of 238 posts
> It had no video demo playing in the front window of Babbages, This specific reference baffles me. Anyone cares to elaborate/clarify? (I guess when you grow up somewhere other than the US, there's a chance these things happen).
I loved this series all the way back to Rebelstar Raiders. Must have spent endless hours playing all Laser Squad versions on the Speccy and it was only natural to jump into X-COM. Although the ones that moved away from the Rebelstar Raiders/Laser Squad initial concept are not worthy to me.
Lots of complexity and subtly in the battles but just one off scenarios, I had no desire for base building on long term character development.
I will say, the best part of the Firaxis reboot of X-Com is that it perfectly captured the fun that I _remembered_ from the original game. It captured this so well that I remember thinking it was literally the same game with new graphics.
Then I went back and replayed the original... and remembered how hard and clunky it actually was :)
But still one of my all time favorites, along with another Microprose title of the same era, Master of Orion.
One of my favourite things about XCOM was the destructible scenery. The isometric building design (on the procedurally generated maps) was superb, and you could blast holes in it to make your own routes through the map. Likewise the design of the larger UFOs themselves was so exciting - not to mention the variety of scenery a UFO might land in. It was so far ahead of its time in that regard.
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/268507/20_years_later_Da...
> “We were very excited, so we signed a contract to do Diablo,” remembers Brevik. The studio then had to figure out what, exactly, this turn-based isometric game it had been thinking about for so long would actually look like -- and how it would be angled and rendered on-screen. “This was not easy back then...I kind of took a screengrab of X-Com, and we just took that, and put it right into Diablo,” said Brevik. “So the actual tile-square basis -- the same shape and size -- is exactly the same in X-Com and Diablo.” So in a sense, says Brevik, the look and technology of Diablo is all based directly on a screenshot of X-Com.
So, x-com heavily influenced Diablo. In retrospect it makes sense - X-com tile based world, and lightning was pretty unique.
A solid article. I'd disagree with the "single play through" and "pointless starting weapons" comments though. For me it was multiple play throughs learning about what worked and what didn't. This for me was actually a thing that kept me coming back. Trying out new tactics, base locations and equipment to see what worked. All the while trying to balance the budget and keep the squad alive long enough to level up. A t…
The recent reboot is just a tactical console game. It was fun for a while but I get bored quickly.
Also X-Com Apocalypse is not on par with the original, but still quite enjoyable with the realtime combat mode.
One of my favourite things about XCOM was the destructible scenery. The isometric building design (on the procedurally generated maps) was superb, and you could blast holes in it to make your own routes through the map. Likewise the design of the larger UFOs themselves was so exciting - not to mention the variety of scenery a UFO might land in. It was so far ahead of its time in that regard.
Don't forget the damage dealt to UFOs when they were shot down. Sometimes there was but a single alien with what amounts to a few tiles of scrap left from the encounter with my vigilant fighters. Talking about immersion.
Sometimes I waited for the day to start a mission, even if this could means that the aliens could escape
I loved, loved X-COM. It had an ability to capture imagination in a way that few turn based strategy games do. The randomly generated soldier names still loom large as heroes in my mind. I was affected when they were killed in action. "Bernard Dujardin", wherever you are, I salute you