XCom

I admit you got me there, Althea. But then again, I only played through the first two games (the third one was... well, inadequate, and I didn't bother to try the later ones) and I didn't really pay attention to the sprites so I wouldn't be able to guess that one in a thousand years.

 

I've not played old X-COM in YEARS, it's just they've been beating you over the head with WE HAVE CLASSIC THEMED SHIT IF YOU PRE-ORDER marketing.

Edit: Turns out I was slightly wrong about the pre-order packs - the customisation is included in the classic one. STILL an issue.

But Kaz, and others, here's the Steam page bonus thing:

 

You forgot the third: a copy of Civilization 5 (infinitely more useful than TF 2 items for me, and I own Civ 5 already, and didn't like it).

 

I cropped the third out as it wasn't wholly relevant

 

Civ 5 was 'ok' -- it didn't hold my interest for very long. I kept saying I'd try it again, later, after the dlc and patches, and I did, but I never actually felt like completing a game at that point. I did like SOME of what they did with Civ 5, but felt that 4 was better overall. But I've never really never spent as much time with any of the civ games as I did with 1 and 2.

If you like Civilization type games, I STRONGLY recommend Firaxis masterpiece -- Alpha Centauri. I love that game. GOG.COM still has it, but not the expansion "Alien Crossfire". You can get that on E-Bay though. Just be careful that you don't pay too much for it -- some people try to sell it for ridiculous amount, since you pretty much can only get it nowadays on E-Bay. And after hours of playing both with and without the expansion, I find that I prefer playing without it.

There's a lot about Alpha Centauri that I find to be actually better than civilization. Firaxis at one point, had an idea to linking Alpha Centauri with Civilization, and maybe a later sequel, so that your end position in Civ would determine how you start in Alpha Centauri. But at some point, that idea was abandoned.

I've actually played in a couple of AC tournaments -- one of which I won, another of which I came in second. I had never played multiplayer before, and apparently, I was a very strong Gaian player (no where near as good playing any of the other factions though). Absolutely no one else wanted Gaia because they thought Gaia was weak so I managed to get it in every game I played. It's good to be underestimated lol.

 

Actually, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Complete can be gotten on amazon cheap. Both American and British.

On-topic, I just pulled myself together and pre-ordered XCOM.

 

You are correct. I wasn't aware of that. It's possible that Amazon didn't have it available the last time I had to replace my copy of Alien Crossfire. But just so you know, E-Bay's prices for it are all over the place -- so definitely don't buy it from there unless you check elsewhere (like Amazon) first. And I actually do not recommend the expansion (it does add a lot of stuff, completely new factions, and so on, but I personally prefer to play without it).

 

So I just started playing the game this evening (Normal Difficulty, Ironman) and am enjoying. Biggest problem for me is having enough money to do everything I want to do and/or to equip people how I want to.

One oddity is that there seems to be what I would call a 'utility slot' for the soldiers, and even some things that are worn go there. I constructed a bunch of nanofiber suits but I have to select between equipping that, or a medikit or a grenade. Other than that quirk, I'm liking the game a lot.

The missions are gradually increasing in difficulty, but on normal level, even with 'difficult' missions I don't feel overwhelmed -- I have lost a few soldiers so far, but haven't failed a mission yet, so I think I'm doing ok.

 

Guess it's time for a computer upgrade... just ordered a copy of win 7, an SSD drive(for a fresh install on fresh drive...) and a new graphics card(Geforce 660 GTX). Cost me about $650...

I'll get a fresh PC some other time... after my next scuba teaching trip.

On the plus side, I'll also be able to finally play Bastion, Borderlands 2 and the Loadout beta.

 

It is fun, but tense and at times, frustrating -- lost my entire squad to a swarm of Crisalids assaulting the alien base, and decided to restart the game without iron man (lol, yep I'm a wuss).

 

Damn all you non-europeans who can have the game before Friday. The jelly is eating me up.

 

I have a question about the game for the others who are playing it. How do I obtain more satellites? I have two now, and when I tried to launch a third, I was told I needed another uplink (and power for the uplink). Finally got both built, and then went to launch a satellite again, and it said I didn't have any. OK, I knew that. I can't build one, so I built a foundry (well I needed to do that anyway), and apparently I can't build new satellites. I've gotten a request from Australia to send THEM a couple of satellites, but I don't even have enough for myself. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Ack. My visual problems strike again!

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong -- there's a separate tab under Engineering/create new items -- The default tab is for making weapons, armor, tools, etc. The second is for creating interceptor stuff, and Satellites are under that tab. Worse news is that it takes 20 freakin' days to build a satellite (those guys at Caltech could probably build one from scratch and duct tape with just 2 all-nighters).

Now I have to decide if I'm screwed enough to want to restart my game YET AGAIN...

The good news is that I keep getting better at the game (second playthrough, I haven't wiped yet, been more cautious, though at the expense of not capturing more than a single live alien). On the other hand... I'm 3+ months in...

 

You build them in the workshop, I think, from the second tab (for non-weapon stuff).

 

BTW, how's this for cool:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/10/h...el=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

And btw, I'm restarting the game a THIRD time now lol because of the satellite screw-up. I probably need sleep tonight and shouldn't play, since I have to wake up early. But I'm so aggravated from talking to my brother (he does that to me sometimes) that I can't sleep now, so I guess I'll just start again...

 

But why oh why did it have to require Win 7? I've now spent 9 hours(not counting time spent waiting for the package) and close to $800 on upgrading my computer, failing to install, troubleshooting, buying new ram(apparently I there was a hardware error with my old), and installing again(and it's taking HOURS with no hint of anything happening, and yes I have already disabled floppy drive in bios).

I want to play! AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

 

I think it requires Seven because it uses DirectX 11. It is a shitty move on the part of Microsoft to keep DX11 from Vista and XP, but their motives are clear. I for one would still be using the old, tried and true, the borderline unbreakable, the classic... XP. If not for the DirectX BS.

 

Apparently ripping out the cables to the other hdds helped... got past the problem part in the installation.

But seriously Win7 is going to make me puke, or possibly punch a hole in a wall, it's the slowest piece of shit OS it's ever been my misfortune to use, and I had a friend with a C64 that used a tape deck!

15+ minutes to start it up, 5+ minutes to do the slightest thing... until I unplug my network cable...

Seriously just how much of a big brother is this thing? It took me over 5 minutes to change my screen resolution while I had internet access, as soon as I disconnect it speeds up significantly.