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[olemars]

Hope there's still someone left at Firaxis who knows how to do dark and gritty.

[kerlc]

i was always under the impression that X-Com hired people with enough guts to stand up to aliens, so i can see them hiring a police officer that stood up to the aliens.

[Domenique]

i was always under the impression that X-Com hired people with enough guts to stand up to aliens, so i can see them hiring a police officer that stood up to the aliens.

A policeman has hardly any training compared to a soldier or a special unit (SEAL etc.). They are not trained to be in a battle, they know nothing of it, while a recruit from the army would atleast have the faintest idea what does it mean when the bombs are exploding all over the place and a guy is firing a rifle a few meters away from you.

[Talvara]

I'm sure the answer can be found in the ingame ufo pedia, or in the 'literature' accompanied with the boxed versions of the games .

From what I recall... X-Com was a top secret organisation. and its soldiers, scientists and engineers were recruited from all around the world.

40,000$ (with 20,000$ monthly upkeep cost). The costs can be justified as screening and training costs (I imagine your soldiers don't just sit on their asses while on base). They had some sort of kevlar uniform that looked a bit like what could be airforce coveralls.

I always figured they were pretty much the best Earth had to offer, being forwarded from the funding nations' (para)military organizations (with the same applying for X-COM as a whole).

what Delta said is what I remembered prettymuch.

I remember my brother bought Terror from the deep and it had this awesome tactical guide which wasn't much use ingame but was awesome flavour wise. (it had this short story about a terror mission gone wrong) I should try and dig it up again. Does anyone know if Ufo-defence had simulator flavour feelies?


that being said, kidnapping npc's with potential when you have seen them in action does sound like a cool thing to do.

[GlyphGryph]

But the thing is, xcom pulls at least part of its lore from alien movies, and there are a number of movies where hiring promising civilians for your secret war is a central component. It would be fun, it would add a lot of flavour, it would make things interesting, and it really wouldn't be much in the way of extra effort, assuming they are already going to the level others described of making civilians real characters with various reactions. Which they should do.

XCom rookies are good, but like others said, I don't think they are the best of the best. I think the countries sending them may tell XCom they are the "best of the best", in much the same way they assure us that they are giving us "as much funding as they can possibly afford". But seriously, I don't think the countries of the world take X-Com seriously (at least at first), and they are only going along grudgingly until they see some actual results.

I actually imagined XCom had its own recruiting agency as well, and didn't just limit itself to those "offered" by the other various countries.

[Domenique]

I'm sure the answer can be found in the ingame ufo pedia, or in the 'literature' accompanied with the boxed versions of the games .

From what I recall... X-Com was a top secret organisation. and its soldiers, scientists and engineers were recruited from all around the world.

http://www.xcomufo.com/x2notebk.pdf

[Muz]

I always felt that the X-Com guys were more like fanatics. Something like the opposite of the Cult of Sirius. The storyline seems to imply that they're some super elite force (like the CIA or something) which only the best soldiers get recommended into. But seeing how fast their skills go up, and how low starting stats are, I doubt they're trained at all.

So, yeah, fanatics. That's why you get the rookies to just 'take a little look' ahead of everyone else, and keep them full of alien grenades just in case. That's why they go up against those mindraping chrysalids/tentaculats, and whatever the hell aliens there are out there.

[Domenique]

XCom rookies are good, but like others said, I don't think they are the best of the best.

Would it be any fun at all playing with the best characters from the start? It's a gameplay mechanic that doesn't correspond to lore, that's all.

[Itnetlolor]

I think some of the best LPs had everyday guys to outright psychopaths joining in. Talk about not taking XCOM seriously. Just look through the NERV HQ XCOM LP where Gendo Ikari was running the place (and Lizzy Shinkicker from the Princess Maker 2 LP joining in the fray). That was a mess, but an awesome mess nonetheless.

Everyone was elite in their own regards, but all too often, quite a number of screws loose forming a ball made of them.

[dehimos]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/09/first-screens-and-details-of-xcom-enemy-unknown.aspx

hexagons.

[Mephansteras]

Eh, as long as it works ok I don't care if it's hexes or squares.

[kerlc]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/09/first-screens-and-details-of-xcom-enemy-unknown.aspx

hexagons.

looks nice.

i was always under the impression that X-Com hired people with enough guts to stand up to aliens, so i can see them hiring a police officer that stood up to the aliens.

A policeman has hardly any training compared to a soldier or a special unit (SEAL etc.). They are not trained to be in a battle, they know nothing of it, while a recruit from the army would atleast have the faintest idea what does it mean when the bombs are exploding all over the place and a guy is firing a rifle a few meters away from you.

that's what additional training's for! what i always thought is that X-Com operatives got additional training once recruited. not a military training, but mostly so they don't snap under pressure. what i mean is, i've always thought that you pick out the best of those that you have selected some time ago. (example: you found a promising cadet, gave him/her training, he made it with flying colours, he is on your to be recruited list.)

[Domenique]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/09/first-screens-and-details-of-xcom-enemy-unknown.aspx

hexagons.

Personally...
The bad:

• Graphics look too cartoonish, bright, not the gritty thing I'd want.
• I don't need to know how far I can walk, I will need to shoot so the distance I can walk is not of concern.
• I liked the way base used to look, it looked much larger top-down rather then from a side.
• The interface looks like Tactical Sims.
• What are those douches in blue suits, aliens?

The good:

• Side-arms.
• Some sort of cover system.
• A quick-grenade button.
• Guys are outnumbered.
• I'm still drooling because I want this game so bad.

Also:

Q: Is this a remake of the original?
A: Kind of. Re-imagining.

S***, F***, Bugger.

[Talvara]

I remain hopeful. I'm a little saddened that they confirmed the X-com shooter to be part of the cannon (although I can understand it from a publishing view on the situation). but a re imagining of the universe doesn't have to be a horrible thing.

Wasn't there another XCOM game?
Yes, 2K Marin is developing a previously announced first-person shooter, simply called XCOM. That game was originally scheduled to come out last year, but has since been delayed out of 2011.

How do those games relate to each other?
The shooter takes place earlier in the fiction, chronicling the aliens' first attacks in the United States. The strategy game we're talking about here deals with the global response to the later full-blown alien invasion of Earth.

it also looks like the aliens will be using more subtle 'ctuluish' tactics. looking at the human enemies the squad is fighting in the screenshot.

it looks nice enough I think I am a little worried about the 'cutting out micromanagement' talk when asked about dumbing it down. (note, I think ufo defence and terror from the deep didnt really have a good balance but that did help with the helpless atmosphere you get from your first few missions) an actually working dificulty setting would be awesome! but I hope they wont throw any punches with 'us'.

[GlyphGryph]

I'm glad they didn't go with "ubergritty, blacks, browns and greys only!" style graphics. Games with "cartoony" (i.e. realistic) amounts of color are much better in almost every case, and I don't so that subtracting at all from the x-com feel. The original had plenty of bright colors, it was the way the game WORKED that made it seem gritty.

Also, I'm not sure those enemies in the screenshot are human - human necks and spines don't work that way, do they? More like wearing a human suit... Also, they look to be 8 or 9 feet tall.