The bad: It's an FPS. :(
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/54277/...-Australia
X-Com is an amazing strategy classic... there have been other games like it since, but not with the X-Com name since the '90s. It's too bad that instead of finally bringing back one of the great PC strategy gaming franchises, we're getting yet another humans vs. aliens FPS... oh well. Maybe it's better than nothing... perhaps...
What is X-Com about, Falcon?
X-Com was a great classic early '90s PC strategy game that got several sequels. Aliens are attacking the Earth and you run the agency fighting back against them. There's a world map where you control things on a global scale, doing research, etc, but when some aliens get through and land, you send in a team and fight them in a turn-based, isometric tactical combat battle. X-Com was a deep and complex game, but was also understandable and fun as well.
Later on there were two action game X-Com spinoffs, an FPS and a space combat game, but neither was anything really special. The three strategy games are why the franchise is remembered so highly.
Some other somewhat similar strategy games exist. There's Rebelstar: Tactical Command for the GBA, UFO: Aftermath and its two sequels Aftershock and Afterlight for the PC, and perhaps a few others. Those three UFO titles are good, and pretty much try to be newer X-Com style games, but aren't X-Com itself...
So when rumors of a new X-Com game started appearing last year, it was pretty cool, but worrisome because would it be something as good as the classics?
And yeah, that worry is now validated. I mean, it could be a good FPS. 2K Marin, who did Bioshock 2, is making it, so it well could be (Irrational Games was initially rumored to be doing this game, but they aren't, they're doing something new). But it's an FPS, not really X-Com... hopefully there will be strategy game elements of some kind, without that X-Com's just not the same.
(Oh, they seem to be calling the game Xcom,
I wouldn't worry. 2K is responsible for one of the greatest First-Person-Shooters ever invented. I doubt that they'll mess it up.
Sure, it'll probably be a fine FPS, but the point is that it's an FPS at all.
Yeah, classic games never turn out well as FPS's. Just look at how Retro bombed on the Prime series. That sure was a stinker. Oh, and Fallout 3. Pee-yew.
Don't count something out till you've seen it, Falcon ;)
But strategy games are my favorite genre, while FPSes aren't that high on my list, and FPSes are a dime a dozen these days. There are too many of them being made as it is.
And anyway, for every example of a game that changed genres successfully, like Metroid Prime, you have others that weren't nearly as successful, like... (I'm supposed to say Fallout 3 here, aren't I... :)) ... um, other than that, the 2d to 3d transitions of lots of games didn't go so well. Mega Man is an obvious example.
But really, my main point is that X-Com is at its best when it's a strategy game series. Of course coming from this developer an FPS is all anyone should expect, but Irrational would have been interesting because while they mostly do first person too, they've also done strategy before -- see Freedom Force. Pretty good game too. Oh well...
A Black Falcon Wrote:But strategy games are my favorite genre, while FPSes aren't that high on my list, and FPSes are a dime a dozen these days. There are too many of them being made as it is.
And anyway, for every example of a game that changed genres successfully, like Metroid Prime, you have others that weren't nearly as successful, like... (I'm supposed to say Fallout 3 here, aren't I... :)) ... um, other than that, the 2d to 3d transitions of lots of games didn't go so well. Mega Man is an obvious example.
Wait wait wait...how was Fallout 3 not successful again? Because last time I checked it was an incredible game and a huge success. The only ones who would disagree would be those who only saw it for what it wasn't, instead of what it was.
And FPS's are big because they're arguably the most popular genre with the "hardcore crowd" right now. Sales don't lie.
EdenMaster Wrote:Wait wait wait...how was Fallout 3 not successful again? Because last time I checked it was an incredible game and a huge success. The only ones who would disagree would be those who only saw it for what it wasn't, instead of what it was.
... I've been criticizing it ever since the day it was announced that Bethesda bought the rights to Fallout, and have said many times that while I respect the accomplishment I don't really like the results of Bethesda's "huge, open worlds with boring, simplistic combat and mediocre writing" school of game design... you've forgotten all that, I guess?
Obsidian's upcoming Fallout 3 standalone expansion has promise storywise, because we should get a Fallout game with actual good writing and story again, but it'll have the same combat I'm sure, so it won't be all better.
Anyway, yes Fallout 3 is successful, sure, but I was talking about how true it is to the franchise and the kind of games that made the series popular, not how successful it is. Fallout 3 is not Fallout. It doesn't interest me very much either, I don't have it and won't be getting it anytime soon.
Quote:And FPS's are big because they're arguably the most popular genre with the "hardcore crowd" right now. Sales don't lie.
True. And it is true that there's always a fad genre, like platformers in the third and fourth (NES/SNES) generations... it's like that, now, with FPSes. And sure, I've liked a few FPSes here and there, I don't dislike them all or something. But I definitely do not like them enough to want most games to be FPSes, as I said I like many other genres more. Also I still can't stand, and am awful at, Halo-style dual-stick console FPS controls...
Have you played Fallout 3 yet or are you still boycotting it?
So I guess you fall into my second category of people then. You haven't even given yourself a chance to try it, so how you can rightly argue against it merits?
How is Fallout 3 any less Fallout than Metroid Prime is Metroid? Both have implemented tons of aspects from their previous games into a first-person game.
And I'll admit, dual-stick controls are horrid for FPS. Mouse and keyboard is the only way to play.
Boycotting? Considering how little I played Morrowind or Oblivion, "not playing out of a near-complete lack of interest" would probably be more accurate. In both cases I probably spent more time, and had more fun, installing the various mods before I started playing than I did actually playing the games.
Quote:And I'll admit, dual-stick controls are horrid for FPS. Mouse and keyboard is the only way to play.
Agreed, mouse and keyboard is far better. As far as console FPS controls go, though, my favorite is still the N64 (I think lazy agrees with me...). I like that better than Halo-style dual-stick stuff.
Fallout 3 is a lot better than both of those games. Better writing, better world, better combat, a bigger emphasis on character stats in and out of combat, all that jazz. F3 is probably Bethesda's best game to date.