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[JustOnePixel]

That's tempting, and I've got a couple week vacation between jobs coming up...

*suddenly feels more religious*

Back to the main topic...right now, I think there's two things limiting UFO:AI in its current form.  One of them is the lack of randomness: despite the fact that the maps are slightly random, when I last checked it, all missions occur in the same order.  The other thing is the lack of a destructive environment, which rules out a ton of tactics and quite frankly is mind-boggling.  This is more than 10 YEARS after the original, how hard is it to nuke a tile and watch it go away?

Also, FYI there's projectxenocide.com, which has been supposedly coming out forever but looks quite promising nonetheless.

[a1s]

have you actually played it? it's pretty awful. it's very faithful to the original conceptwise though...

on topic on what exists, there's X-force. I don't think they are still developing it, but it's mostly done (well the engine is, and I think the story, I haven't gotten to  the end, there is a serious lack of different models though).

[Drakale]

One of them is the lack of randomness

Yeah, this is something they are working on i believe, it would gain a lot of replayability if the layout of the maps/order of missions was more random. The pace of the gameplay feel a little fast too, in the sense that you will have seen most aliens very quickly in the first month.

I tried some other remakes, but its still the most promising one for my tastes.

[JustOnePixel]

Hey, I remember X-Force - when I checked it out last, "maps" were simply mazes of walls.  I'll peek at it again, looks like it's come along pretty well.

[Jools]

Just as a note, there's also the UFO series that is <ahem> "inspired" by XCOM. Not sure if it's a spinoff, or some company forming from the guys who made the original and wanted to remake it, or a complete ripoff, but the feel is very similar - a combination of base management & research on a global level, and tactical combat on small maps (pausable real-time, like what was introduced in X-Com Apocalypse, rather than turn-based).

The three games are UFO: Aftermath (a bit short and samey), UFO: Aftershock (good range of enemies, been playing it for a while now and it doesn't feel stale) and UFO: Afterlight (not got round to trying this one yet). I picked up all three plus Stalker for 15 quid. Well worth while, if you liked the original UFO: Enemy Unknown.

Oh, and if you want to stick with the old-school games but find UFO:EU a bit easy, try XCOM: Terror From The Deep. The "tough soldier" alien race is almost unstoppable, the powerful alien guns don't have handy auto-fire modes and the the Heavy version only has a 10-shot clip, you need all sorts of crazy stuff to get anywhere in the tech tree, the maps are huge and genuinely spread across up to four levels, there are several missions spread across up to three separate maps where you only carry through whatever soldiers and equipment managed to get to the exit of the last map, and to top it all off, a fair number of the missions take place out of the water, which means that half your weapons are useless and nobody thought that it might be an idea to give you any normal guns for this eventuality.

[Brendan]

While I very much enjoyed XCOM UFO Defense I didn't really enjoy UFO AI. It just didn't have the XCOM 'feel' to it; XCOM was lovingly cheesy and had nods to conspiracy theories and crazy new age aliens all over the place (even elerium was a reference to a conspiracy theory) but UFO AI didn't really have that kind of personality.

Plus, you couldn't blow up farms 

[Idiom]

Enemy Unknown was made of nostalgia.
It was coded in nostalgia by beings of pure nostalgia on the operating system Nostalgia 95.

[Cajoes]

I was under the impression that nostalgia was a aquired trait. Like mold.

Some moldy cheeses are good, even great. But if it's green and fuzzy, chances are the cheese will not be as good as you remember it was.

As a analogy, it was surprisingly good.

[Areyar]

I must agree with Brendan.

Although I enjoyed the after*clones (in fact am still doing so), AI somehow misses the humor and feel of EU. The tech entries lack originality and are boring. I liked the scenery and some of the aliens though even if they cannot be manipulated.

It is closer to xcom as far as content is concerned than the ones from Cenega, but it doesn't add much new really, so for Nostalgia's sake, you'll be better off with an emulator and an old copy of EU.

Just to kick it when it is down: the 'science' of R&D entries can be just as bad as the made up stuff from EU sometimes, only annoying because it attempts to be realistic. 

All this negativity is negated because it is freeware and anyone who doesn't like it can go and mod it him/herself. 

[RickiusMaximus]

The three games are UFO: Aftermath (a bit short and samey), UFO: Aftershock (good range of enemies, been playing it for a while now and it doesn't feel stale) and UFO: Afterlight (not got round to trying this one yet). I picked up all three plus Stalker for 15 quid. Well worth while, if you liked the original UFO: Enemy Unknown.

I've played afterlight but not the first two games- its actaully quite good, the enemy units are powerful and there are several different alien races which all have their own unique fighting styles and weaknesses.

It also has a total war style strategic map whereby you conquer zones that give you specific benefits...

The only problem with it is they appear to have got bored near the end and just stopped the story dead without any explanation, even though they spend quite some time making it look like there could have been alternate endings...

[Idiom]

None of the spin offs are even close to the original 3.

[Areyar]

you lie!

TotD was awfull, even suffering the non-improved graphix or the lethal alien sniping, some maps were just too huge for it to be fun.
(In EU you could just level the entire zone to unearth that cowering grey, but just try blowing up a cruiseship!)

Apocalyse had its fun stuff, but didnt like the aliens or the tech much. Had most fun attacking human(etc) factions in town. Never really mastered the various transportation options, I think.

the original is immortal though.

[Jools]

Terror from the Deep had to have been aimed at hard-core number crunching nutcases who thought the original was too easy. Cruise ships were big maps, but that's just realistic - would you prefer aliens who were out to generate terror on a wide scale, or ones who stuck to picking on small yachts?

The biggest maps I played on were the alien base interiors - and while I did sometimes spend *ages* trying to make some kind of point by sweeping through them and killing all the aliens, I discovered that it was so much less boring (and easier) to send your squad as a cohesive unit direct for the central control module (rather than having them strung out through the base, sweeping for enemy units and likely to be picked off if they encounter anything), leave an (armed) explosive pack, and leg it.

I liked Apocalypse initially but it got bogged down too easily. The early/middle game when big ships start appearing is where I gave up - they turn up, annihilate your vehicles, there's only a handful of weapons in existence that can even scratch their shields, and even then there's not enough ammo for those weapons to be able to destroy the alien ship, even if every shot is a hit. Meanwhile, maintenance costs are bankrupting you, there's no income to be had from manufacturing and selling advanced kit, and the only group you can raid with impunity have nothing worthy of sale.

[olemars]

I just noticed all the original microprose X-Coms (plus two crappy spinoffs) are available on steam for 15 bux total. I'm considering buying if only to alleviate the ol' conscience.

Personally I liked apocalypse for the realtime mode (I know I know, heresy). I just never got the hang of the turn based style of enemy unknown. Always ran out of TU's before getting anything done... The corporation dynamics were nice too and gave a bit of life to the world, in EU and TFTD it was pretty much you and the aliens on an empty planet.

[Areyar]

TotD : Sure the large maps were realistic and great, if only the aliens routing ran off the map instead of hiding.

X-A : the cultists did have some nice illegal 'trodes IIRC that fetched a nice sum.
Raiding the other was generally more fun though.