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[kerlc]

i think the guys in blue suits are alien agents of some sorts. or maybe just interstellar lawyers, which is good.

i personally don't mind the bit cartoonish look. but that is my personal view. hey, Bastion was cartoonish, and it delivered a really serious, dark story.

i kinda like the first screens. except the base.

[Domenique]

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.

It's hardly proper to state that some bunch of colors are better over others, I mean they're colors. What I liked about UFO:EU graphics was that it was dark where it needed to be dark.

[Talvara]

...
The bad:

• Graphics look too cartoonish, bright, not the gritty thing I'd want.

...
[/list]
...

Well... thinking back to Ufo-Defence. they had this awesome comicbook style going in the intro. that was pretty epic? Grit doesn't mean realism.
But I see your concerns, lets hope the atmosphere will turn out to be nice and dark.

[kerlc]

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.

It's hardly proper to state that some bunch of colors are better over others, I mean they're colors. What I liked about UFO:EU graphics was that it was dark where it needed to be dark.

i didn't see where it was supposed to be dark in the screenshots. or should i say screenshot.

[dehimos]

Is this going to be dumbed down for the "wider console audience"?
Firaxis is undeniably streamlining aspects of the game and removing no small amount of micromanagement, but from what I've seen I wouldn't call it "dumbing down" the game so much as getting rid of tedium and uninteresting mechanics. Soldiers still die permanently, fog of war and line of sight are hugely important in combat, and you absolutely can lose the game if you screw up too badly.

"tedium" and "uninteresting".

[Domenique]

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.

It's hardly proper to state that some bunch of colors are better over others, I mean they're colors. What I liked about UFO:EU graphics was that it was dark where it needed to be dark.

i didn't see where it was supposed to be dark in the screenshots. or should i say screenshot.

Well maybe it's just because of the wow-like graphics that it seems too bright to me, though I'd prefer a little darker tone. It could be comic-like, but if it had a darker pallete, it would be very athmospheric.

[kerlc]

meh. if there will be modding support, people will get that out. just like they did with Diablo 3, and that game isn't even out yet! 

[Domenique]

Also I think though the original's colors weren't much darker, the grittiness came form the fact that it was in low resolution.

[Talvara]

speaking about comicbook style. anyone remember seeing shadowwatch? I've never played more than the Demo myself. but from what I remember it had a pretty strong X-com vibe.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/dor/objects/11650/shadow-watch/images/shadowwatch010.html?page=mediaFull

something like that could have worked very nicely aswell.

[kerlc]

sorry, we can't do much about that nowadays. Gods can't help you, son. not with this matter, at least. unless you set the resolution super low.

[Domenique]

sorry, we can't do much about that nowadays. Gods can't help you, son. not with this matter, at least. unless you set the resolution super low.

I don't want low-res, I'm just stating why the game was grittier, sheesh.

[Tilla]

Also note the one real screenshot we have is a daytime view in a fairly open environment. Doesn't really show anything as far as mood/atmosphere that people want to find out. I also think calling it 'WoW-like' because it has colors besides grey is silly.

[EuchreJack]

Is this going to be dumbed down for the "wider console audience"?
Firaxis is undeniably streamlining aspects of the game and removing no small amount of micromanagement, but from what I've seen I wouldn't call it "dumbing down" the game so much as getting rid of tedium and uninteresting mechanics. Soldiers still die permanently, fog of war and line of sight are hugely important in combat, and you absolutely can lose the game if you screw up too badly.

"tedium" and "uninteresting".

Considering that I considered no part of the original X-Com to be tedious or uninteresting, that means that something I like will get cut.

[GlyphGryph]

Considering that I considered no part of the original X-Com to be tedious or uninteresting, that means that something I like will get cut.

I don't know - hunting down that last alien on a mission, having to personally oversee EVERY terror mission and retrieval, having to completely redo equipment before every mission, I see some areas of tedium that could be cut down.

Most likely, they are probably cutting out something like the manufacturing system, which was really mostly a way to break the game than to do anything really useful. Simply being able to contract out specific jobs, instead, would serve the same purpose just as effectively, imo.

Being able to have "expendable" squads later on in the game that you can send out to do whatever would be awfully nice, I think, even if they couldn't really deal with major issues. Honestly, a lot of the end game could be cleaned up - by that point, XCom would probably be pretty powerful, and it would be nice to delegate a lot of the "easy stuff" you've already mastered.

[Tilla]

Having squads you can send independently would indeed own. That seems to be a trend in games lately - assassins creed since brotherhood, MGS: Peacewalker, STO and SWTOR both have systems for sending dudes out on their own on missions.

Note: the tedium and uninteresting part is /entirely/ the magazine writers words, we don't know what Firaxis are actually doing.