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[MaximumZero]

Getting the demo now.

Why in the unholy shitballs is it downloading 5.5GB!?

[USEC_OFFICER]

Getting the demo now.

Why in the unholy shitballs is it downloading 5.5GB!?

The entire game is 10-20GB or something like that, so the engine and pretty visuals for the demo take up a lot of space.

[Grakelin]

I really liked that each soldier has his country's flag on his back. I was kind of sad they didn't all have characteristic accents, but that's ok.

This is something that has really annoyed me.

Customising a Scottish soldier...accent choices = American, American, American and American.
Customising a British soldier (not sure why Scotland and Great Britain are separate here...) accent choices = American, American, American and American.
Customising a Japanese soldier...accent choices = American, American, American and American.
Customising an African soldier...accent choices = American, American, American and American.

Really?

All these nationalities that you can choose from and all of the accents (four choices) are standard American accents?

An oversight or laziness? It's started to make me worry. If they could have an oversight like that, what else have they overlooked?

Voice acting costs a bomb and there are an awful lot of countries on this planet.

Voice acting only costs that much if it is attached to a marketable name. At least here in Canada, non-principal actors tend to be paid an hourly wage. I have a feeling that if we looked at the budget for this game, we'd find plenty of space in there for however much voice audio they actually have. Less expensive games frequently have very diverse voice casts. There seems to be something about success which makes today's game devs forget how to properly manage this aspect. I'm thinking back to Oblivion, where rotating actors in and out would have involved more logistics, but would have cost only marginally more and provided a better quality product.

[sluissa]

Yeah, just played it. I'm bothered by a lot of things in it, which is a shame since I actually somewhat enjoyed the combat.

Spoiler: play by play commentary with spoilers (click to show/hide)

Briefing guy giving briefing in skyranger, soldiers just kinda ignoring him and woman seems to be listening to music. Also, weird unexplained expensive hologram briefing screen inside a combat transport seems odd. Other option is that we're just looking through a camera into the skyranger and the briefing is just overlayed onto the view... in which case... can I get my budget back for whatever graphic designer we hired to do that? I'd like to buy a few more soldiers. Everything is too... pretty... I hate to say.

Skyranger lands, still pissed off that we don't get a choice in WHERE it actually lands. (bothered me in original game, still bothers me now.) Soldiers file out of the craft in a cutscene... *cue me screaming at the screen.* NO! I'm playing this game, not watching a movie. Let me move them out of the craft. Let me make the mistake and have people get shot as they're coming off the ramp...

Tutorial starts... continue to be pissed off that I can't actually do anything except click where it tells me too... but I guess that's just a tutorial, and it's nitpicking. I would also complain about the scriptedness of everything, but honestly, still a tutorial. Can't really judge it on that.

Finish tutorial. Completely confused about the region bonuses... Why does Africa give you 30% additional funding? Why does south america give you science bonuses? Why does Europe give you officer bonuses? The US giving you Aircraft bonuses is the only thing that even makes a slight amount of sense. The rest just seem kind of arbitrary... "Well, we've got to give something to these other areas... come up with something balanced and slap them on there." Then I remember... one base per game... so I'll have to choose one of these and stick with it for the rest of the game... *seethe* Pissed off at the base screen. Clunky, too much animation. Where do we even get these cutaway camera shots... It's like I'm looking at an ant farm. Soldier upgrading screen pisses me off. Only being 1 or 2 paths through a class... still pissed off at the classes... let me load out everyone with rocket launchers... or everyone with stun rods. Why only one guy with smoke grenades and first aid?

Research too limited to judge on. Slightly happy it's there and to be honest, the original research wasn't that deep or well thought out either, so it'd be hard to fail in that regard. Especially if you consider TFTD's gamebreaking research bugs.

Back to another briefing... fuck you, I shouldn't have to make this choice... They've already made it clear they have other teams out there from that German recon team. Let me take care of one, while the recon holds the other down until I get there. Alternatively, LET ME HAVE MORE THAN ONE BASE AND MORE THAN ONE FLYING THINGY! If I'd made mistakes in the past which kept me from being able to answer both calls, then that's my fault... but don't just say: "Nope, can't answer both, no matter what you've done in the past, this is the way it is."

Finally make it to a mission... now I"ll get to control my-... more tutorial... on how... to open... doors... and climb ladders... Okay maybe now...

Yes, finally, I'm making decisions. I'm moving my guys. I'm getting used to the gameplay... I'm actually having a little fun! Controls are slightly awkward, but compared to the original, they're not all that bad.(does reek of console port, but I can get used to it.) My guys are getting shot in the face and... only slightly wounded, unlike the first interactive cutscene. Unlike the aliens, which I shoot in the face and 75% of the time they die. Sectoid decides to use it's psionic power! Ooh this will be good!... and he uses it on... another sectoid... The hell? I hope there's a good explanation for that. They die easily... maybe a bit too easily, but they are sectoids.

Moving up, didn't think I'd like the cover mechanics, and they're still slightly clunky, but I can get used to it... Ooh floaters... unusual to have different aliens on different missions. They look silly though... Oh well...Stupid jetpacks... So, they're supposed to use their awesome flying abilities to take advantage of the battlefield? Let's see... and one... hides behind a crate at ground level... good job... The other... launches up into the air like a bottle rocket... and comes back down..... way back at the starting area... *sigh*... this could get annoying... *back tracks to take care of the one behind, grenades the one ahead... Behind one dies, ahead one still alive... Shotgun guy runs up to the floater's face and gives him a mouth full of buckshot... I giggle slightly.

Moving up more... another building. I set my guys up outside the building, two at the window, two at the door. Window guys peek around, see two aliens which instantly see me and scatter. Grenade takes down one... Shotgun guy bursts into the room through two doors and expects to use his run and gun ability... which... I apparently have to activate before he runs... So shotgun guy is standing there in the open... But it's okay since LMG guy just walks up behind up, levels his gun over shotgun guy's shoulder, and shoots the alien in the face... Also probably blows out shotgun guy's eardrums... but we'll worry about that later.

Mission over... i get excellents... a single wounded soldier, out for 5 days... Blah blah, cutscene, please pre-order...

So... it takes all night to download a demo it take me 20 minutes to finish? Fine...

All in all, it pissed me off... but I sadly did like the actual combat section. I feel it might get a bit old and repetitive since I only just barely got a taste this time. I say sadly since the rest of it just seems so... bad... And every bit of it just has that sour taste of Michael Bay... which... I don't mind so much in action sequences... but everything else... no...

I won't be buying this... not at full price anyway... maybe during a sale if I can get it for under 10 dollars. And only maybe...

I want Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds to come back... From what I can tell Sid hasn't actually been very involved of the last few Firaxis games... and honestly? It shows. Reynolds apparently went on to design the slightly awesome "Rise of Nations" series... and what does he do now? Zynga facebook games... *facepalm*

Call me a grognard, or whatever, but I'll just keep on playing the old games and keep an eye on Xenonauts... that was a demo I really enjoyed, every bit of it.

[Aklyon]

I assume you guys are playing the pc demo? what are the controls like? One review I saw said they thought the pc control port was bad from the console but I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet.

The controls are a bit weird and certainly different from the original, but I don't think that they're a bad console port.

WASD to move the camera, Q and E to turn it left/right, F and C to change elevation. Use the right mouse button to move, left mouse to interact. SPACE to bring up the actions menu and to selection options, TAB to cycle between units (you can also right click units to select them).

To me it feels like they adapted the controls of a FPS for the game, but without the horribleness that that statement implies. The controls worked perfectly fine for me, and I found myself blasting through the levels with them.

Scrollwheel: does it do something?

[USEC_OFFICER]

I assume you guys are playing the pc demo? what are the controls like? One review I saw said they thought the pc control port was bad from the console but I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet.

The controls are a bit weird and certainly different from the original, but I don't think that they're a bad console port.

WASD to move the camera, Q and E to turn it left/right, F and C to change elevation. Use the right mouse button to move, left mouse to interact. SPACE to bring up the actions menu and to selection options, TAB to cycle between units (you can also right click units to select them).

To me it feels like they adapted the controls of a FPS for the game, but without the horribleness that that statement implies. The controls worked perfectly fine for me, and I found myself blasting through the levels with them.

Scrollwheel: does it do something?

I was using my trackpad at the time, so I can't tell you. I'm pretty sure that it handles elevation though.

[sluissa]

scroll wheel zooms in and out... the only thing that really bothered me about the controls was how the Q and E camera rotation was locked... I would have prefered to be able to spin it with the mouse to any angle I wanted... Also, when you're selecting skills to use, it locks the camera so you can't control it with the keyboard, only the mouse. (A and D also scroll through skills, so I guess that's why, but that to me feels like terrible holdover from limited console controls.)

[Aklyon]

Did you try clicking and dragging the middle mouse button for the camera rotation?

[sluissa]

yes, I tried everything sensible I could think of, including all the mouse buttons plus ctrl, shift and alt.

[timferius]

I assume you guys are playing the pc demo? what are the controls like? One review I saw said they thought the pc control port was bad from the console but I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet.

The controls are a bit weird and certainly different from the original, but I don't think that they're a bad console port.

WASD to move the camera, Q and E to turn it left/right, F and C to change elevation. Use the right mouse button to move, left mouse to interact. SPACE to bring up the actions menu and to selection options, TAB to cycle between units (you can also right click units to select them).

To me it feels like they adapted the controls of a FPS for the game, but without the horribleness that that statement implies. The controls worked perfectly fine for me, and I found myself blasting through the levels with them.

Scrollwheel: does it do something?

It moves up and down levels. and if you hold the scroll button and move the mouse, you adjust zoom level IIRC

[ScriptWolf]

just installed the demo, trying to play it now but keep getting the complete install and then it keeps saying steam is to busy any help ?

[lordcooper]

just installed the demo, trying to play it now but keep getting the complete install and then it keeps saying steam is to busy any help ?

Exit and restart Steam.

[Aklyon]

I assume you guys are playing the pc demo? what are the controls like? One review I saw said they thought the pc control port was bad from the console but I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet.

The controls are a bit weird and certainly different from the original, but I don't think that they're a bad console port.

WASD to move the camera, Q and E to turn it left/right, F and C to change elevation. Use the right mouse button to move, left mouse to interact. SPACE to bring up the actions menu and to selection options, TAB to cycle between units (you can also right click units to select them).

To me it feels like they adapted the controls of a FPS for the game, but without the horribleness that that statement implies. The controls worked perfectly fine for me, and I found myself blasting through the levels with them.

Scrollwheel: does it do something?

It moves up and down levels. and if you hold the scroll button and move the mouse, you adjust zoom level IIRC

The controls sound fine to me then. Certainly could be worse ways to set up the controls.

[ScriptWolf]

just installed the demo, trying to play it now but keep getting the complete install and then it keeps saying steam is to busy any help ?

Exit and restart Steam.

tried that no luck :/

[lordcooper]

The controls took all of five minutes to get used to.  It's a shame they locked the rotation at 90 degrees though.  There's no reason that would be necessary on PC or console.  That's it though.  That is my sole complaint.

just installed the demo, trying to play it now but keep getting the complete install and then it keeps saying steam is to busy any help ?

Exit and restart Steam.

tried that no luck :/

I guess you'll have to wait until Steam decides it's not too busy then

Spoiler (click to show/hide)