UFO: Enemy Unknown, remake by Firaxis

[aelf]

Sounds brilliant.

 

[jdog5000]

Very interesting news!

Stick a fork in Civilization 5, I think it is done.

Think about it some more ... Firaxis would have been working on this XCOM remake for a while seeing as it's so different from their other titles. Minimum two years, so it would have been in development in parallel with Civ5. They must have done CivRev in parallel with BTS, and the whole facebook civ game was also done while they were doing other stuff.

Firaxis is not a one game at a time little studio ... I am surprised we haven't heard about an expansion yet, but still certain there will be one (and the long time may mean it's bigger and better).

We'll see.

 

[qec]

I've never played any of the XCOM games but they sound super fun so will definitely check this out as a newcomer to the series when its released (maybe even get it on the XBOX, mmm GamerScore).

But do you really think this means the end to Civ 5 development? I was thinking this sounded like a awesome announcement until I started reading this thread with all the doom and gloom talk about civ 5, now I'm slightly depressed.

I never got int Civ 4 until the 'complete edition' including the Colonization game. So I looked into the development cycle of the expansions on wikipedia and they released BtS about a year and a half after the release and its almost getting that long since Civ 5 was released so I guess its possible. But both expansions to Civ 4 had so much more content than what they've released for Civ 5 so far. New unique buildings for each civ, new buildings in general, some new units, resources, the espionage systems etc.

Steam is such a great platform to distribute the DLC as well, with the notifications of new content in game and the ease of downloading and installing it through steam. I can't see why they'd abandon such a good system after using it so infrequently.

Also, how many people does it take to develop a video game nowadays? I read the Game Informer article from a couple months back and the original XCOM was Developed by one guy and his brother and he said no more than 4 people were working on it at any given time. Obviously things have changed over the last 20 years so a lot more people are no doubt needed on a project this size. So I checked Firaxis's website and they list 130 employees, which seems to me enough to work on one epic new game while continuing support on an older one. But I don't work in the video games industry and have no concept of the manpower needed to create a new game so I'm just speculating.

This is probably all just optimistic thinking on my part, but hopefully not.

 

[Maniacal]

Considering hey have not announced a Civ5 expansion yet I find it unlikely they are making one. Although the game has sold well and is still one of the ten most played games on Steam so you would think they would make an expansion unless 2K Games makes the X-Com game a priority.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

This is a great day. I loved X-Com: Apocalypse. I haven't played the first two yet but they're supposed to be better than apoc. I actually liked the real time option in apoc mostly because if there is one enemy left in a large area you could wander around for a long time and it's just easier to move around a lot in real time. It's tedious doing several uneventful turns.
I was going to get the shooter anyway because I think what really defined X-Com was the collecting and reverse engineering alien technology to use against them, which strategy or shooter would still be there.

 

[Freakwave]

Interestingly one frontpage item earlier, strategy games for the upcoming year are announced. Among them Xenonauts, an Indie remake for X-com.

 

[Ruler]

Good news, I still miss Ufo: Afterlight. Also next Jagged Alliance is coming in next couple month, as far I know, its real game not some browser game.

 

[Thorburne]

This was the best news that I have heard in a while. After the slap in the face by Take-Two with the FPS, I am really looking forward to seeing this game. Hopefully, I will be getting my February issue of GI soon so that I can dig into the details. Since Firaxis was born out of Microprose, I have high hopes for this game.

With a release date of this fall, I expect that they are pretty far in development (and probably at Alpha stage at the least. That said, there are a few things that they can do to satisfy me...

General Improvements

• Improve the graphics over the original (this is kind of a given)
• Keep the basic mechanics (with some tweaks here and there to adapt to the graphics engine, etc)
• Improve user interface... (my biggest problem with playing the original today)

MUST HAVE

• Sectiods
• Mutons
• Floaters
• Mind-control
• Big Booms (remember firing a rocket into a gas station in the city missions?)
• SECTIODS
• Ability to rename soldiers

My biggest concern is that the story will be tied to the FPS. As far as I am concerned, Take-Two can just change the name of that one and release it as an IP. I might even add it to my collection. Otherwise, as long as the FPS holds the XCOM name, I will never get it or play it.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Good news, I still miss Ufo: Afterlight. Also next Jagged Alliance is coming in next couple month, as far I know, its real game not some browser stuff.

Nowadays, I play Jagged Alliance more than the original X-COM. With some of the mods that add a ton-load of new items and realistic rules, it has become a rather deep game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I read somewhere that, while the new Jagged Alliance will be rather faithful to the series, it won't be turned-based. For me that's not great, if that's the case. As I was reading the news about X-COM from Firaxis, I was really looking for the "turn-based" word in the article. Once I had read this, my hopes were maintained to a decent level.

 

[The_J]

You might have read the stuff about the next Jagged Alliance on the main page ^^.
But yes, not really turn based, as it seems, more a hybrid system. Without more info you can't really say if or if not it will work.

For me it was the same, searched for "turn based" in the article, and was relieved afterwards.

 

[Starhemberg]

Oh man, i was hoping for an CIV V Expansion + big AI PATCH and now XCOM is coming.



My heart is bleeding right now. Especially the fact it will also be released on Consoles, i mean don't expect too much depth in the Game....

I think it will be the same like CIV V. Release a Game in Beta Status and Patch it afterwards, the missing content can be sold als DLC



But we will see what Fireaxis will do with XCOM / CIV V. This is getting interesting.

 

[cephalo]

My big concern here is that the most important aspect to XCOM was its atmosphere. I'm not sure Firaxis is going to get it right. The Colonization remake had serious pacing problems and ruined the feel of the original by rushing the player toward independance as soon as they stepped off the boat.

I hope they will emphasize the 'unkown' in enemy unknown; night battles when some... indescribable thing that you've never seen before steps into the streetlights and turns your best guys into slobbering zombie egg hosts.

Is there going to be a beta? I'd like to get in on that.

 

[Thormodr]

Very interesting news!



Think about it some more ... Firaxis would have been working on this XCOM remake for a while seeing as it's so different from their other titles. Minimum two years, so it would have been in development in parallel with Civ5. They must have done CivRev in parallel with BTS, and the whole facebook civ game was also done while they were doing other stuff.

Firaxis is not a one game at a time little studio ... I am surprised we haven't heard about an expansion yet, but still certain there will be one (and the long time may mean it's bigger and better).

We'll see.

Firaxis isn't that big. With X-COM, Civ World and the Civ MMO, I highly doubt they'd have the time or resources to even release some crappy DLC for Civilization 5, let alone a major expansion.

 

[Ruler]

"The huge feature in February's Game Informer goes into all the gory details of XCOM's destructible tactical environments, the interaction between the real-time strategic view and the turn-based combat, how the XCOM organization improves its capabilities as the war rages on, and much more."

This game is going to be awesome. This game is like X-com Apocalypse, if they do it right it might even hit the mainstream, nothing like take rocket laucher and blow up a house and go clean up the place.

Stop dreaming guys about AI-patch, its waste of resources and devs never do it, AI is AI, it takes player couple week to find the weakness and exploit them.

 

[Midgard Eagle]

Not getting my hopes up. None of the sequels/clones have lived up tho the original, except maybe Xenonauts, and I don't think this one will, either. What made Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep special was the atmosphere and things like the destroyable environment. The other games just don't manage to pull either off right.

 

[Thorburne]

Not getting my hopes up. None of the sequels/clones have lived up tho the original, except maybe Xenonauts, and I don't think this one will, either. What made Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep special was the atmosphere and things like the destroyable environment. The other games just don't manage to pull either off right.

You do realize that Firaxis was formed out of the same publisher that published the original X-Com, right? I am fairly certain that many of the people at Firaxis are familiar with the original and they have the tools to make the game, most importantly the rights (and all that goes with it).

BTW, does anybody know when the February issue of GI is supposed to hit shelves? Or approximately when subscribers should get it? I haven't really paid much attention as to when in the month they arrive, but now I have a reason too. Hmm, come to think of it, wasn't the details of Civ V first discussed in GI? Firaxis must have an agreement with them.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

...
My biggest concern is that the story will be tied to the FPS. As far as I am concerned, Take-Two can just change the name of that one and release it as an IP. I might even add it to my collection. Otherwise, as long as the FPS holds the XCOM name, I will never get it or play it.

That is the most irrational thing I've ever heard.
By your own statement: "I might even add it to my collection." you like the base concept of X-com, and FPShooters and the X-Com 'brand'. Just not together even though the name changes nothing of the games content but for dialog or logos. Loyalty to the use of a word whether it's liking something just because of it or disliking just because of it is not loyalty at all.

Also I should point out that the original X-Com games wasn't even an X-Com game. It was originally UFO: Enemy Unknown, later released as X-Com: UFO Defense and later still X-Com: Enemy Unknown. So if you were truly the most 'pure' fan you'd be all for UFO: Enemy Unknown as the only real x:com game.

Basically this is like if you were at a restaurant and said "I'll have the squid, noodles and a drink. But if you bring me calamari, pasta and a beverage I'll send it back!"

 

[Disgustipated]

I can't believe all of you who haven't played the original. The original is great. To be honest, no way Firaxis can design a game better than the original. It will probably be kiddie friendly (the original was pretty hard- although using psi could be overpowering from what I seen on some youtube gameplay videos).

 

[Dasphios]

That is the most irrational thing I've ever heard.
By your own statement: "I might even add it to my collection." you like the base concept of X-com, and FPShooters and the X-Com 'brand'. Just not together even though the name changes nothing of the games content but for dialog or logos. Loyalty to the use of a word whether it's liking something just because of it or disliking just because of it is not loyalty at all.

Also I should point out that the original X-Com games wasn't even an X-Com game. It was originally UFO: Enemy Unknown, later released as X-Com: UFO Defense and later still X-Com: Enemy Unknown. So if you were truly the most 'pure' fan you'd be all for UFO: Enemy Unknown as the only real x:com game.

Basically this is like if you were at a restaurant and said "I'll have the squid, noodles and a drink. But if you bring me calamari, pasta and a beverage I'll send it back!"

It's not irrational at all, just perhaps poorly phrased. A game may be a self-contained world (no new game can change the original), but it's not a self-contained experience- you're going to compare it to other things you've played, seen, heard, etc. Concern for what the brand is doing is concern for the future of the franchise: if Coke changes its recipe tomorrow to include, say, radioactive bat urine instead of sugar (or HFCS), the Coke fans aren't going to be consoled knowing that the Coke they already have is unchanged. I don't want to put words in Thorburne's mouth, but the fact that one's experience of a game is ultimately subjective doesn't mean it's meaningless. The objection he feels probably isn't toward the game itself, but toward what he sees as being done to the franchise.

And UFO: Enemy Unknown and X-Com: UFO Defense were the same game, just with a different title. The former was very much an X-Com game.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

It's not irrational at all, just perhaps poorly phrased. A game may be a self-contained world (no new game can change the original), but it's not a self-contained experience- you're going to compare it to other things you've played, seen, heard, etc. Concern for what the brand is doing is concern for the future of the franchise: if Coke changes its recipe tomorrow to include, say, radioactive bat urine instead of sugar (or HFCS), the Coke fans aren't going to be consoled knowing that the Coke they already have is unchanged.

He already said he might play the FPS game so clearly it does not contain your hyperbolic example in his view. Also, this is about the name so your example doesn't apply as this isn't about a new recipe replacing the old one. This is like Coke and Cherry Coke, and him saying he's drink Cherry Coke but not if they call it Cherry Coke, but he would if it had a different name.

I don't want to put words in Thorburne's mouth, but the fact that one's experience of a game is ultimately subjective doesn't mean it's meaningless. The objection he feels probably isn't toward the game itself, but toward what he sees as being done to the franchise.

And UFO: Enemy Unknown and X-Com: UFO Defense were the same game, just with a different title. The former was very much an X-Com game.

Yeah, that is exactly my point. They are the same game. It doesn't matter what the name was, they were the same game.

Furthermore, when X-Com FPS was announced there were complaints that they weren't getting a classic X-Com strategy game. Now there is one, proving all the fist shaking was unnecessary. And just because something isn't for you doesn't make it a personal attack on you. Do you get mad at a supermarket that sells English muffins while you only eat cereal for breakfast? I'm going to assume no, because it's just not for you. There's is a natural inclination to get Darwinian about this because there isn't always room for everything in the marketplace. It is Darwinian. The answer is simple. No not buy a game you don't want to play. The sales will determine is the X-Com franchise becomes FPS, strategy, or both. They're made by two different developers so one does not take away development of the other. Except in what 2K Games spends money on. It's a faulty assumption to believe that if they don't make a X-Com FPS then they will make a strategy game instead. FPS's are big money, and strategy is a smaller market. We're lucky they put money towards a strategy game at all and that they are making it an x-com game.

I'm rambling here but I'll get back to the point about the name.

The assumption is that 2K Games believes the the X-Com name is more important than the content of the game it is attached to. If someone makes there decision about whether they get the FPS game because it has the x-com name, then you have proven them right, and if they decision was to not buy the game, the you have caused the damage to the brand you wanted to avoid. It doesn't matter that you did not buy it because you LOVE the name so much. The nuance of why you didn't buy it won't get heard. FPS is a proven genre so if the FPS fails it would be assumed it was because of the name.