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[USEC_OFFICER]

I can see why they removed free aiming.  In the original game it was usually best to just wander around shooting every piece of cover the aliens could possibly be hiding behind, and it's boring to have that be the best strategy.

That wasn't why they removed free aiming though.

...

And why did they remove free aiming, Neonivek? Was it to simplify things for the console crowd?

[Leafsnail]

I am honestly baffled by all this "console crowd" stuff just being applied to everything.  The concept of shooting a gun at a wall is not a difficult one to grasp (indeed, it is something you can do in popular console franchise Call of Duty).

[Neonivek]

I can see why they removed free aiming.  In the original game it was usually best to just wander around shooting every piece of cover the aliens could possibly be hiding behind, and it's boring to have that be the best strategy.

That wasn't why they removed free aiming though.

...

And why did they remove free aiming, Neonivek? Was it to simplify things for the console crowd?

It was because they had a hard enough time getting ordinary aiming to work.

[CognitiveDissonance]

I am honestly baffled by all this "console crowd" stuff just being applied to everything.  The concept of shooting a gun at a wall is not a difficult one to grasp (indeed, it is something you can do in popular console franchise Call of Duty).

It was more of a guess on my side. Nothing to do with "console players are stupid, hurr" but rather than gameplay on consoles tend to be more streamlined. that seems to be the approach to those games - for events to flow smoothly, without distracting the player with way too much detail. I totally get that, too.

[Leafsnail]

Right, fair enough.  Although I think that's probably something that developers aim to do in the PC market too.

[Mephansteras]

Nah, they said in one of the interviews that they had to take out free aiming because it make the game too easy with the cover system. You'd just spam laser/plasma and destroy the aliens cover and them mop up. It removed most of the tactical aspects.

So they had to choose between destructible terrain and free aiming. They chose destructible terrain.

It wasn't an issue in the old game because there were so many aliens and soldiers running around. Plus, cover tended to be of the wall/open space variety and less of a bug deal.

[Tres_Huevos]

I can see why they removed free aiming.  In the original game it was usually best to just wander around shooting every piece of cover the aliens could possibly be hiding behind, and it's boring to have that be the best strategy.

That wasn't why they removed free aiming though.

Actually, if I recall correctly that's exactly why the removed free aim.
I think the quote can be found in this video, though I don't have time to sift through it at the moment to find out where.
http://au.pc.gamespy.com/pc/xcom-enemy-unknown/1226273p1.html

[CognitiveDissonance]

Right, fair enough.  Although I think that's probably something that developers aim to do in the PC market too.

Spoiler: OT, I'll stop soon (click to show/hide)

Most definitely, because it sells quite well. The cinematic experience is fun, but is incompatible with hardcore PC crowd because PC has historically been celebrated for the complexity of gameplay - see Dwarf Fortress. The problem is that consoles are simply more profitable, so it makes more sense to make most games for consoles, and then adapt them to PC. Additional development for PC version is not usually justified. See Dark Souls for a really bad example (developers apologized, vowed to do better with sequel) and Skyrim for a mostly-great example of how to convert a game to PC.

[Parsely]

XCOM took a lot of big steps backwards with this newest release, but then a lot of other games have too, even games originally and exclusively for PC. It doesn't have anything to do with what platform the game is on, the amount of technology or resources, or even our "generation", but what kind of vision the developer has for the game. In short, imagination. Those of us who live on this forum or are fans of Dwarf Fortress should understand that better than anyone else.

EDIT: Ninja'd. Now it doesn't really fit.

[Rince Wind]

XCOM took a lot of big steps backwards with this newest release, but then a lot of other games have too, even games originally and exclusively for PC. It doesn't have anything to do with what platform the game is on, the amount of technology or resources, or even our "generation", but what kind of vision the developer has for the game. In short, imagination. Those of us who live on this forum or are fans of Dwarf Fortress should understand that better than anyone else.

But we as Dwarf Fortress players have trouble grasping this streamling concept. We're used to getting ever more stuff.

[Parsely]

XCOM took a lot of big steps backwards with this newest release, but then a lot of other games have too, even games originally and exclusively for PC. It doesn't have anything to do with what platform the game is on, the amount of technology or resources, or even our "generation", but what kind of vision the developer has for the game. In short, imagination. Those of us who live on this forum or are fans of Dwarf Fortress should understand that better than anyone else.

But we as Dwarf Fortress players have trouble grasping this streamling concept. We're used to getting ever more stuff.

It really isn't fair how unsatisfying everything else feels after playing DF. Its the worst and best thing that ever happened to me.

[MorleyDev]

For people who want the old-school experience once again, two nice pieces of news:

Open Xcom is feature complete. It's a free open source remake the of original X-COM game engine that requires all the originals assets, just drop the exe into the folder of the original X-Com and run. Enjoy the ability to scale graphics to any resolution and built-in support for designing the base at the start, get annoyed at the bug that causes the camera to shoot off to a random corner and not come back until you end the turn. The temporary fix is to go into the options, change the camera type, leave and re-enter options and change it back. Also if you dig around in the settings, you can even have it do some black magic that basically turns all the graphics into good looking vector art, which makes it actually look rather decent when scaled up to any size. It's witchcraft I say!

Also Xenonauts is pretty stable and on Steam Early Access now, which is nice

[WillowLuman]

Oddly enough, looking at market trends, Consoles seem on the way out. In this decade, mobile and PC games will become the main market.

[umiman]

Especially since both Microsoft and Sony seem completely intent on shooting themselves in the feet.

[WillowLuman]

Like high-end PC gaming once was, console gaming will diminish into a hardcore following of dedicated people who have the cash to pay for the systems and the monthly subscription fee for all the games (as this is the ultimate DRM feature the Xbox 1 and PS3 shall have: always online DRM).