Five X-COM Classics on Steam Now

[DigiQ8]

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Five games from the legendary X-COM series are now available via Steam. The games are being offered for an amazing $4.99 per title, or just $14.99 for the whole package, the pack includes:

• X-COM: Apocalypse
• X-COM: Enforcer
• X-COM: Interceptor
• X-COM: Terror From the Deep
• X-COM: UFO Defense

You can find more info if you click here.

 

[Ennui]

Anybody who has never played X-COM should buy the $15 package immediately, or at least get UFO Defense.

 

[Wanted Bob]

But you can get the UFO Defense gold version for free...

 

[ríomhaire]

Woaw. I thought there were only two of those games.

 

[Lucid]

What the hell? There was an XCOM shooter?!

 

[shade70]

The shootem up XCOM: Enforcer was an awful travesty and not worthy of the XCOM name. It was released during the final death throes of the XCOM series by another company, and was a cheap and nasty shooter with very little to do with XCOM apart from the name. The proper '5th game' in the XCOM series was actually called XCOM Alliance and was well in development but was cancelled when Microprose went bust.

XCOM Enforcer was released by a 3rd party developer instead during the time Microprose was winding up. It looks like they made this naff shootemup and they then just bought the rights to use the XCOM name cheap, added a naff backstory and added a few XCOM ey things to the game.

XCOM Alliance however was looking like great game by Microprose - it was based on another alien planet, and was based timewise between Xcom Apocalypse and Xcom Interceptor. It was a strategy/shooter, and, by the way it was shaping up, (they had released screen shoots etc) would have been a worthy game in the series. (Infact I had the original XCOM Interceptor, and it actually had an advert for XCOM Alliance in the box).

So XCOM Enforcer is crap - I wouldnt dirty my Harddrive by downloading it, but all the other XCOM games are well worth playing. The first 3, UFO Defence, Terror from the Deep & Apocalypse are good strategy games in the vein of Jagged Alliance but with more involved resource management. XCOM Interceptor on the other hand is a Space Sim/Strategy game - it has less resource management than the first 3 but its still good fun - especially if you have a joystick and enjoy games of the Wing Commander/Freespace genre.

All in all these games are Great fun to play and well worth $15 for all 4. Infact Ive already bought the Pack.

Shade

 

[Shinobi]

well spent most of my night last night playing xcom for the 5000000th time instead of working



the game is still awesome, and they fixed the horrible speed issues very nicely, much better than I could have done with dossbox and a cpu limiter myself.


Great purchase, this will be sucking away hours from my life for years to come (again.. lol)

 

[Crispy]

Anybody who has never played X-COM should buy the $15 package immediately, or at least get UFO Defense.

This series is an essential reference point for gaming, especially if you like turn-based strategy. It continually graces the ranks of the Top-100 Games for PC lists and it is still just as good to play now. It has 2D graphics in-game but the pixel art style means it doesn't look crap.

From Mobygames:

The UFOs are invading our skies! Reports of human and bovine abductions are increasing daily! Cities are terrorized! Something must be done!

XCOM, or eXtraterrestrial COMbat unit, was founded as an international force to combat the alien menace. Start with one base, two fighters, one transport, and a few soldiers, you must stop the alien threat... once and for all.

This is essentially two separate but inter-linked games. On the strategic side, called GeoScape, you get a rotating view of the globe, where you see all visible UFOs (those that are within your detection range) as well as major cities and your base(s). You order movements from here, such as sending out fighters to intercept UFOs, transports with soldiers to assault/recover UFOs, and perhaps assault alien bases (if you find any). You also control your research, as you must find better weapons (the Terran weapons are just no match against the alien weapons) quickly, not to mention all the other cool tech you can recover from the aliens. You also need to control your budget, as you can't afford to overextend your reach. Researchers need to be paid, engineers (who build the new toys) need to be paid, base(s) need to be be built/expanded, planes been to be bought/maintained, supplies need to be replenished...

Once you join a ground battle, the game switches to Battlescape, which is a 3D isometric view of the battlefield with realistic line-of-sight calculations and turn-based combat. Your mission is usually extermination of all aliens on the battlefield, though if you can capture a few it would surely help your research efforts. You also recover any alien artifacts left on the field if you win... Which can then be researched...

The game aims to mix strategic considerations, resource management, and tactical combat considerations, along with plenty of authentic UFO lore (made popular by the X-files).

This covers the basics, but I guarantee some of the best moments in strategy gaming are to be had when you start fighting the new species of aliens in the mid to late stages of the game. UFO (to give it its UK name) is pure gaming goodness, which you should at least try out if you pride yourself on being a 'gamer'. It's also challenging. You will get caught short, your plans will be scuppered and you will have to make tough decisions, like whether to leave the Captain who's led your rookies to victory on innumerable occasions behind because... well, you'll find out... :O

 

[PuNcH]

sweet.... buy it now... at least the original x-com....

 

[Eejit]

Just FYI:

On September, 5th 2008 the XCOM series, including XCOM Apocalypse, became once again available for sale on Valve's Steam platform. The game uses a specially configured version of DOSBox, an x86 emulator that allows the game to run on operating systems supported by Steam, such as Windows XP or Windows Vista.

I've checked and Apoc indeed runs on Vista 64bit.

 

[Eejit]

Looks like all except TFTD now have Vista support. Have they been adding the support since putting them on steam? Coulda sworn UFO defense was still listed as not working on Vista a couple of weeks ago.