i've tried and failed to get into Apocalypse so many times... couldn't get past the weird graphic style and semi-realtime engine
― Nhex, Thursday, 24 May 2012 01:39 (twelve years ago) link
thank you adam
― the late great, Thursday, 24 May 2012 06:35 (twelve years ago) link
I wasn't a fan of the semi-realtime, so I just switch it off and go full-on turn-based. I totally love it though. My main downfall is typically renaming recruits after my friends - kinda throws out the "Don't remember anyone's name before captain" option.
― CraigG, Thursday, 24 May 2012 07:42 (twelve years ago) link
i think the pausable realtime is a lot more forgiving than the turn-based. was thinking about this earlier, it's funny how most of the late ufos just turn into parking your people outside and waiting for a hundred aliens to run out the door. i can't decide if this makes more or less sense on a diagetic level than sectoids standing with plasma guns and just waiting for you to open the door
― thomp, Thursday, 24 May 2012 15:42 (twelve years ago) link
that only worked for the smaller ships in the early game. the aliens wise up fast to that tactic, throwing grenades and bunker bombs into your dudes for crazy massacres...
― Nhex, Thursday, 24 May 2012 21:33 (twelve years ago) link
worked all the way up, just pause while you work out where stuff is going to land and play some highly realistic grenade catch
― thomp, Thursday, 24 May 2012 22:46 (twelve years ago) link
that doesn't work unless you kill every single alien on that floor. and even then, aliens had a crazy habit of just chucking them in blind if you killed enough of them. especially once they got the guided missiles. how are you gonna catch the grenades that explode in 0 turns?
you're only really safe if you spread your guys out enough so that only a handful will get caught in a blast impact. damn those suicide discs!
― Nhex, Thursday, 24 May 2012 22:51 (twelve years ago) link
we are talking about different videogames.
― thomp, Thursday, 24 May 2012 22:53 (twelve years ago) link
oh... right. sorry.
― Nhex, Thursday, 24 May 2012 23:04 (twelve years ago) link
TFTD was okay underwater but then got mega fucking hard once you start doing the shore missions
enemy unknown was not too bad until they started attacking your base
― the late great, Thursday, 24 May 2012 23:13 (twelve years ago) link
i think the key to this game is just taking 10x as long to do anything as you want so you have leftover energy for suppressive firing
― the late great, Thursday, 24 May 2012 23:15 (twelve years ago) link
largely, yes, haha
cruise ship terror missions basically ruined TFTD, too long and insanely difficult
― Nhex, Thursday, 24 May 2012 23:17 (twelve years ago) link
like if you just want to move two dudes across a valley or into a building you have to send two guys over to those guys, have them kneel and set up for surpressive fire, send one of the guys 1/4 of the way out to draw fire, set him up to surpressive, then send the second guy out there, set him up on overwatch, then send the two guys in back halfway to the target while the other two dudes cover them. then repeat 2 times to get all four dudes across. no rambo shit!
― the late great, Thursday, 24 May 2012 23:43 (twelve years ago) link
then of course once you master working in tight four man formation they suddenly master putting a dude at every bottleneck that just hucks grenades into your formation
the best is when you open the door of your flying sub and someone offscreen immediately fires a missile into it
― the late great, Thursday, 24 May 2012 23:48 (twelve years ago) link
was apocalypse at all like syndicate? that game was also the bomb.
― the late great, Thursday, 24 May 2012 23:52 (twelve years ago) link
that waypoint guided missle launcher in this game was insane
― johnathan lee riche$ (mayor jingleberries), Friday, 25 May 2012 18:30 (twelve years ago) link
pc demo! this is so awesome.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 01:04 (eleven years ago) link
uh oh, critical danger to free time impending
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 01:37 (eleven years ago) link
Not Enough Time Units
― Nhex, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 02:05 (eleven years ago) link
Shit, there's no way the work laptop will be able to run this, is there
I'm curious where Sid's cameo will be in the game
― Fiendish Doctor Wu (kingfish), Tuesday, 25 September 2012 04:50 (eleven years ago) link
i've heard it runs on shitty/old hardware. sadly i am mac dude so gotta wait for the console version.
giant bomb gameplay stream archive. the dudes firaxis sent over seem to know what they're talking about and the game itself looks fantastic.
― adam, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
oops giant bomb
it ran on my laptop, which is a £200 dell more than a year old
otoh it was kind of eh
― paradiastole, or the currifauel, otherwise called (thomp), Tuesday, 25 September 2012 22:43 (eleven years ago) link
five hour download for one fifteen minute tutorial mission and one twenty minute very easy mission, and you get sort of walked around the base but get to make no decisions
this is not a very good way of selling x-com to me
― paradiastole, or the currifauel, otherwise called (thomp), Tuesday, 25 September 2012 22:44 (eleven years ago) link
exciting
put on osx please
― the late great, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 02:05 (eleven years ago) link
has anyone read anything enlightening on the differences between the pc and console versions?
― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 5 October 2012 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
From what I understand the PC version will have a more zoomed out tactical view in combat, from the assumption that you're playing close to a high-res monitor
― Nhex, Friday, 5 October 2012 18:19 (eleven years ago) link
hey yall this feels basically like x-com with a modern interface.
― adam, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 23:56 (eleven years ago) link
how are the base/research-y bits?
― Fiendish Doctor Wu (kingfish), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 00:32 (eleven years ago) link
i only put like 3 hours in so my information is incomplete but so far the research is standard, x days to research tech y but there's a resource called "scientists" that affects x. for equipment manufacture/base expansion there's money but also a resource called "engineers" that limits what you can create. there's a bunch of stuff i need to build but i need to get more engineers first.
the base is an "ant farm" rather than the top down. also no one's going to attack your base, at least so i've read.
stat/skill progression for the troops is pretty engaging.
― adam, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 02:48 (eleven years ago) link
― the late great, Tuesday, September 25, 2012 10:05 PM (2 weeks ago)
― Mordy, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 03:01 (eleven years ago) link
okay, i should get this then.
― EVERYONE COOKING SCMABLED EGGS,CHEESE WITH TOASTER!! (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 04:44 (eleven years ago) link
everyone please name one of your squaddies 'cankles'
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 04:53 (eleven years ago) link
your base advisors are totally old school strategy game cheesy, totally straightfaced dudes
the tutorial is about an hour, they ease you in REALLY slow. i dig it so far.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 05:00 (eleven years ago) link
http://m.kotaku.com/5950392/xcom-has-hd-cutscenes-but-theyre-hiding
Gotta run a batch file and you can run 1080p cutscenes on PC
― Fiendish Doctor Wu (kingfish), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 08:02 (eleven years ago) link
i am all for this
― set the controls for the heart of the congos (thomp), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 18:56 (eleven years ago) link
bought this on a whim the other night after a couple people i trust on games were excitedly talking about it. havent played any of the old ones but sounds like something i'd enjoy at least for a bit
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 19:02 (eleven years ago) link
It's way more accessible than the original to newcomers. I love that for the tutorial mission, they kill three out of your four soldiers (they even show up in the memorial list). Gives you a good indication that you shouldn't get TOO attached to every specific soldier in your command, but you do want some grunts to get some kills, survive, and rank up.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 19:30 (eleven years ago) link
Has anyone tried playing with one of the classic squaddies?
― Fiendish Doctor Wu (kingfish), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 19:33 (eleven years ago) link
i did a quick look at the customize options, didn't see the Guile flattop, vowed to come back to it later. i DID download the "elite soldier pack" tho
― Nhex, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 19:54 (eleven years ago) link
Im playing on normal mode and am kinda past the tutorial. I havent lost a squad member since the first couple missions. then again Ive only 'aced' about 3-4 missions in a row so maybe my dudes are due to get jacked up.
― johnathan lee riche$ (mayor jingleberries), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:10 (eleven years ago) link
is this gonna be best on computer?
― EVERYONE COOKING SCMABLED EGGS,CHEESE WITH TOASTER!! (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:42 (eleven years ago) link
probably but the xbox interface works really well. i'm really impressed by how well they fit what feels like a complete 90s-style strategy game into an xbox control scheme. i've heard the console civ (revolutions?) did something similar.
i know it's cheesy but a lot of the dumbass stuff like the music playing while i select and kit out my dudes is awesome, or the skyranger landing cinematic.
also, take squadsight for your snipers. holy shit. i've got lt. kozlova jacking aliens up from across the fucking map.
― adam, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:58 (eleven years ago) link
I gave up when it became apparent how ginormous the download for the demo was and I had to stop and think "do I really need an X-Com addiction back in my life"? But y'all are seriously tempting me.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:45 (eleven years ago) link
i have the game on ps3 and i played the demo on pc. it is actually really well designed for console play. i don't think you can go wrong with either.
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 22:57 (eleven years ago) link
I've heard that the mouse is actually kinda finicky and you make idiotic, i-was-actually-clicking-there mistakes frequently enough that the controller sdoesn't look like a terrible option.
― #1 Thwartstop Prospect (Will M.), Thursday, 11 October 2012 21:08 (eleven years ago) link
As a perfect example of just how soft I've gotten, I didn't realize the game has no autosaving, and had to redo the tutorial hour or so again. Bah.
I do very much like so far how they're using the skill trees to fulfill specializations
― Nhex, Friday, 12 October 2012 05:22 (eleven years ago) link
hold on, i thought the pc version autosaved like every other turn
― the max in the high castle (kingfish), Friday, 12 October 2012 06:56 (eleven years ago) link
you can turn autosave on
― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 12 October 2012 10:28 (eleven years ago) link
haha the autosave thing got me too. the third tutorial mission, the VIP escort, 3/4 of my squad goes down in a hail of plasma fire and panic. my remaning dude pushed on, grabbed the VIP and slowly and laboriously killed all the aliens on her own.
after that i turned autosave on, it makes the occasional ridiculous panic spirals way less frustrating.
― adam, Friday, 12 October 2012 13:06 (eleven years ago) link