X-Com pack off STEAM

[mortiz-Redux]

If you haven't played the X-Com games yet I suggest you get your ass on STEAM and get the X-Com pack, there's 5 X-Com games (including UFO Defense) going for ?3, that's insanely good value for money.

 

[Gargantou]

I suggest you simply get'em for free off abandonware sites.

I mean, buying them won't give any money to the original devs since none of them are with the company that owns the X-Com IP so.

Besides, not sure how compatible the Steam versions are with the must-have utilities such as say XComUtil(Which fixes a shitload of bugs in the DOS versions, including the infamous difficulty bug that causes difficulty settings to reset after first battle).

 

[Eejit]

The Steam versions are all fulled DOS Box-ed, so will work on Vista as soon as you download them. Getting them abandonware you'll have to arse around trying to get them to work
And apoc at least is compatible with the additional tools, they all should be since they're just the original games bundled with pre-prepared DOS-box.


Also sales of the originals will surely encourage 2K when considering a sequel/remake. If they get Firaxis to make a new X-Com I'd have high hopes for it.

 

[mortiz-Redux]

The Steam versions are all fulled DOS Box-ed, so will work on Vista as soon as you download them. Getting them abandonware you'll have to arse around trying to get them to work
And apoc at least is compatible with the additional tools, they all should be since they're just the original games bundled with pre-prepared DOS-box.


Also sales of the originals will surely encourage 2K when considering a sequel/remake. If they get Firaxis to make a new X-Com I'd have high hopes for it.

I can attest to that, I remember originally downloading X-Com UFO Defense and it took me bloody ages to find settings on DOSBox which made the game playable, for a start the game ran far too fast (in the geoscape having it set to 5 seconds would advance to game as fast as like an hour should), I just played UFO Defense that I got from STEAM and it run's perfectly so they've already sorted out all the settings for you, also I'm not really big on pirating games (abandonware is still piracy) and there's no excuse when a game costs a little over 50 pence to buy.

 

[Fishlore]

Thanks for the heads up. My favorite game of all time that I haven't had the ability to play for ages. I'll happily give Valve 5 bucks for it. Installing now. Yay!

 

[Kyorisu]

2K reps at one time or another have expressed interest in developing with the X-com IP, just nothing has come out of it quite yet.

 

[Eejit]

I'm still hoping they hand it off to Firaxis. The Civ guys had an X-Com scenario in a Civ2 expansion pack, as well as an X-Com-like scenario in the latest Civ4 expansion. Plus Sid and a couple of the other Firaxis honchos used to work for Microprose.
Best alternative imo given that the Gollops have no connetion to 2K (afaik).

 

[Kyorisu]

As much as I'd love that at present it's about as likely as them developing Alpha Centauri 2.

 

[Eejit]

I dunno, I mean that recent(ish) Afterworld scenario shows that they're at least interested in the gameplay/genre to some extent. And 2K must realise they'd be the best people to hand it too... right? ....Right?:imu:

 

[Lobster]

I lost many an hour to these games back in the day, I always used to forget about line of sight, and all my guys would be pwned in little 2 second flashes during the 2nd alien turn, I proper sucked.

I cant remember which one it was that had these cornfields, but they were proper creepy, the Cornfield in L4D braught back such memories.

 

[Gargantou]

Nice to hear they are the full DOS editions, what version is X-Com 1? 1.2 or 1.4?

Also, I never had any problem setting'em up in DOSBox, but then again I'm great at DOSBox and I also use a great frontend called D-Fend Reloaded.

I'm still hoping they hand it off to Firaxis. The Civ guys had an X-Com scenario in a Civ2 expansion pack, as well as an X-Com-like scenario in the latest Civ4 expansion. Plus Sid and a couple of the other Firaxis honchos used to work for Microprose.
Best alternative imo given that the Gollops have no connetion to 2K (afaik).

Well, Gollops have no affiliation with any company these days, the game company they most recently did work for was Namco with Rebelstar: Tactical Command for the GBA iirc.

I also don't really see how Firaxis could make a good X-Com game, do they have any turn-based squad-based games in their repertoire?

Also to be fair, Microprose was a huge company back in its glory days with many many divisons and game under its belt so many of them being former MPS employees doesn't say much.

I lost many an hour to these games back in the day, I always used to forget about line of sight, and all my guys would be pwned in little 2 second flashes during the 2nd alien turn, I proper sucked.

I cant remember which one it was that had these cornfields, but they were proper creepy, the Cornfield in L4D braught back such memories.

That would be X-Com 1, X-Com 2(TFTD) took place mostly underwater and X-Com 3(Apocalypse) was set in a sci-fi utopian city.

 

[Eejit]

I also don't really see how Firaxis could make a good X-Com game, do they have any turn-based squad-based games in their repertoire?

They made a very X-Com like scenario in their latest Civ4 expansion - Afterworld, it was more like a total conversion. Twas a pretty convincing proof of concept for the turn/squad-based part imo.

Also to be fair, Microprose was a huge company back in its glory days with many many divisons and game under its belt so many of them being former MPS employees doesn't say much.

True, but they are some of the most influential and accomplished employees.

 

[Gargantou]

They made a very X-Com like scenario in their latest Civ4 expansion - Afterworld, it was more like a total conversion. Twas a pretty convincing proof of concept for the turn/squad-based part imo.

Did it have heavy skill tracking and destructible terrain and whatnot?

 

[Eejit]

Don't think terrain was destructible, it was a story-based scenario, don't think you were meant to make your own path Also not sure if Civ4 engine would allow that, or if it did maybe it'd have been too much work for a single scenario.

Your units are upgradeable, turn based, fairly X-Com-like atmosphere, enemies soon dangerous enough you had to have your squad covering each other and having all LoS covered instead of being able to rambo.

For a minor addition to an expansion to a game built for a different genre it was surprisingly good though, and had more of an X-Com feel that I expected.

 

[jverne]

these are easily one of the best and most addictive games out there. god knows how many countless times i've went trough almost all of them. (i refuse to play enforcer...no ****ing way i'm touching that!)

i do hope for a sequel...but at the same time i'm afraid of it getting pussified like 99,99999999% of all games coming out recently.
seriously...remember the ufopaedia entry in Xcom: enemy unknown, of those alien food chambers (or something along these lines) where they contained human body parts. as a kid i was almost shitting my pants in fear and disgust. awesome! :E

 

[Eejit]

Nothing beats the fear of hearing a Chryssalid moving during a night terror mission.

 

[jverne]

Nothing beats the fear of hearing a Chryssalid moving during a night terror mission.

that's the most enjoyable pants wetting moment in the game!

 

[Eejit]

And then once you get flying armor it's time for sweet sweet revenge...

 

[Gargantou]

Nothing beats the fear of hearing a Chryssalid moving during a night terror mission.

Depends on the version, 1.2 had better sound than 1.4 imo, for the most part.

There's a fanmade replacement out there that merges the best 1.4 sounds with the best 1.2 sounds.

 

[CyberPitz]

these are easily one of the best and most addictive games out there. god knows how many countless times i've went trough almost all of them. (i refuse to play enforcer...no ****ing way i'm touching that!)

i do hope for a sequel...but at the same time i'm afraid of it getting pussified like 99,99999999% of all games coming out recently.
seriously...remember the ufopaedia entry in Xcom: enemy unknown, of those alien food chambers (or something along these lines) where they contained human body parts. as a kid i was almost shitting my pants in fear and disgust. awesome! :E

I was thinking the complete opposite....I played them, and within 5 minutes, I was bored to tears

 

[Eejit]

I pity you Pitzy

 

[CyberPitz]

I pity you Pitzy

Maybe I'm playing them horribly wrong? Last one I played was...uhh..Interceptor. It was OK, and VERY X-Wing/Tie Fighteresque in the space killing scenes...but the whole round about gameplay seems very "wait a long time for enough money to build more ships and more drones to scout out really far".

Like I said, I may be playing them wrong.

 

[Eejit]

Well I haven't played Interceptor so I can't really comment on that one.

 

[CyberPitz]

Well, they all seem the same, from what I played...

You build your base, send out scouts, see an enemy shit, send out guys to fight and kill them, return to base...rinse and repeat.

 

[Eejit]

And Terror missions, Base Assaults, Base defenses ofc.

Plus research, manufacture, resource management, soldier training, giving equipment upgrades, upgrading your interceptor fleet.

Apoc has even more.