Well I didn't have high hopes for Dark Forces, and yet that game turned into a winner. And no old age jokes, please.Giftmacher said:
Stolen Pixels #186: Well Lookie Who We Have Here
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
On the one hand, I loved the game BECAUSE of it's "spreadsheet" attention to detail- you really felt like you were a base commander researching technologies, building stuff, and fighting aliens.Shamus Young said:
On the other hand, I sucked at the game something fierce. I will probably be better at this FPS. I hope they at least include some base building elements in the game.
Old age jokes? Not likely, if I laugh too hard I fall over my Zimmer frame and wet myself.samsonguy920 said:
You're right though DF was a decent game, the lack of lightsabre put me off to begin with but it's actually pretty enjoyable.Gift.
To all the people saying "It worked for Fallout 3!" - What worked? All FO3 really did was switch from third-person to first person. The actual stuff you did in the game was pretty much the same - You explored a post-apocalyptic near future inspired by the Cold War era, rummaged through ruins, sifted through junk, explored an open world with a larger main plot always in the background.
On the other hand, this is a complete genre shift and I've yet to see anything linking this new "X-Com" game to the original ones. "Aliens attack Earth" is far too vague and until more details are released, I'll go ahead and assume the worst. That isn't to say it couldn't work, but it would have to at least retain the setting and the visual design, as well as many other elements.
The whole "FBI agent" thing doesn't bother me as much, since the game could be dealing with the pre-X-COM era, or the forming of X-Com when the Aliens were first discovered. You might start the game as an FBI agent, only to end up as an X-COM Commando.
What DOES bother me is that while the genre change might be acceptable, the change in the game's underlying paradigm will strip it of any semblance of X-Com soul. I'll elaborate:
The original X-Com games were pretty much Sandbox. There were almost no scripted events, you were given the World and some Cash and told to organize the defense of the planet. How you went about this was entirely up to you. Where you built your bases? How many? How specialized? Which research did you prioritize? Which weapons you used? Did you use tanks or loaded more infantry? Each game could develop differently as you acquire key items in a different order.
Now move this into the FPS genre. Go ahead, I dare you. And even if you succeed, ask yourself if such a game could be made, especially by a minor dev studio.
In the end, this will likely be a standard linear FPS game with maybe some X-Com enemies thrown into the mix. It might not suck, but it won't be an X-Com game...
On the other hand, this is a complete genre shift and I've yet to see anything linking this new "X-Com" game to the original ones. "Aliens attack Earth" is far too vague and until more details are released, I'll go ahead and assume the worst. That isn't to say it couldn't work, but it would have to at least retain the setting and the visual design, as well as many other elements.
The whole "FBI agent" thing doesn't bother me as much, since the game could be dealing with the pre-X-COM era, or the forming of X-Com when the Aliens were first discovered. You might start the game as an FBI agent, only to end up as an X-COM Commando.
What DOES bother me is that while the genre change might be acceptable, the change in the game's underlying paradigm will strip it of any semblance of X-Com soul. I'll elaborate:
The original X-Com games were pretty much Sandbox. There were almost no scripted events, you were given the World and some Cash and told to organize the defense of the planet. How you went about this was entirely up to you. Where you built your bases? How many? How specialized? Which research did you prioritize? Which weapons you used? Did you use tanks or loaded more infantry? Each game could develop differently as you acquire key items in a different order.
Now move this into the FPS genre. Go ahead, I dare you. And even if you succeed, ask yourself if such a game could be made, especially by a minor dev studio.
In the end, this will likely be a standard linear FPS game with maybe some X-Com enemies thrown into the mix. It might not suck, but it won't be an X-Com game...
Retail products don't have souls. FPS sells more than TBT.Jandau said:
Anyways, there is absolutely nothing preventing the elements of resource management and defense organization from working in a first-person game. Also, calling 2K Marin a minor dev studio? Wha? They did two hugely successful big-budget games.
Oh I know FPS games sell better than TBTs, but does that mean every game should be an FPS? Or that I should be happy about it? And I disagree with you about the soul part. A game can have soul in the same way a book or a movie can have it. But if you choose to see the world only from a cold profit-centered capitalistic perspective, then yes, products don't have souls and we should only make that which sells best. Thankfully, not everyone thinks that way.JEBWrench said:
2K Marin isn't a minor studio. However, the game isn't being made by 2K Marin. It's being made by 2K Australia, which recently got a name change into 2K Marin. So currently there are two "2K Marin" studios, one that did Bioshock and the other smaller one that kinda helped them a little and is now in charge of the X-Com game.
Also, I'm not saying that it can't be done (read my post). I'm just saying it would be very hard and I doubt the studio in charge of it would have the needed resources to do anything beyond a bog-standard linear FPS with some inventory management...
There is more to life in the galaxy than swinging a lightsaber around. One gets plenty done with a trusty blaster at your side.Giftmacher said:Old age jokes? Not likely, if I laugh too hard I fall over my Zimmer frame and wet myself.samsonguy920 said:
Gift.
You know, when I heard that they were going to remake X-Com (or UFO: Enemy Unknown as I knew it in my part of the world) I was genuinely excited. I was hopeful that this was going to be one of those remakes where they just slap better graphics on an existing game and call it a day. That would have been lazy, but great. A full-3D sexed-up version of the game would have been effing bueno.
To hear that this is yet another Intellectual Property sacrificed updon the FPS alter, well, that's just plain disappointing. As has been said, for this and many other bastardised classics, why did they feel the need to hijack an existing IP? Did they think that all of us disabused turn-based strategy base-building types would THANK them for turning one of our beloved games into another shooter for the slack-jawed and impatient? Did they think the attention-span-less instant gratification types would actually give a s**t about the X-Com IP? I think they have their markets mixed up.
Ah well, I still pick up UFO every couple of years. I'm not going to bother buying this though. I got bored of FPS with the original Half-Life.
I did play Fallout 3 and I did enjoy it (it had just enough stat and inventory fiddling to keep me entertained) though not as much as the first two, but this is quite simply a different case. Fallout could be adapted because the story and gameplay did focus on a single character (and friends.) X-Com cannot because it was never about the characters. Not your anonymous base commander, not the red-shirt plasma-fodder troops (just TRY getting emotionally attached to them) and certainly not the dozens of faceless Scientists and Engineers you employed.
The current games industry needs to get its head around the fact that some of us couldn't give two craps about characters or dialogue a lot of the time. Some of us just want to build bases and control interceptors and toy soldiers. The less we hear of voice actors the better.
Additionally, I did play UFO: Aftermath. I did enjoy that, the realtime tactical "stopwatch" combat was actually pretty well done, but unfortunately I felt the game stripped out too much of the base-building and UFO-interception gameplay. It oversimplified the UFO/X-Com concept to the point where the world-map was little better than a mission select screen. In Enemy Unknown, for me, the core of the gameplay was building and managing my bases and interceptors, whilst the inevitable ground missions were at times just a periodic annoyance.
It just bugs me that the games industry at the moment seems to shun 'impersonal' games, trying to give us all "compelling and engaging cinematic experiences" or rather; Showing off their latest motion capture bollocks and torturing our ears and minds with irritating voice actors and poorly conceived characters acting out terribly written stories.
Some of us couldn't care less about these mewling morons. Some of us are more interested in the big picture. A picture hopefully big enough that you get a good overview and can't make out any faces or voices.
To hear that this is yet another Intellectual Property sacrificed updon the FPS alter, well, that's just plain disappointing. As has been said, for this and many other bastardised classics, why did they feel the need to hijack an existing IP? Did they think that all of us disabused turn-based strategy base-building types would THANK them for turning one of our beloved games into another shooter for the slack-jawed and impatient? Did they think the attention-span-less instant gratification types would actually give a s**t about the X-Com IP? I think they have their markets mixed up.
Ah well, I still pick up UFO every couple of years. I'm not going to bother buying this though. I got bored of FPS with the original Half-Life.
I did play Fallout 3 and I did enjoy it (it had just enough stat and inventory fiddling to keep me entertained) though not as much as the first two, but this is quite simply a different case. Fallout could be adapted because the story and gameplay did focus on a single character (and friends.) X-Com cannot because it was never about the characters. Not your anonymous base commander, not the red-shirt plasma-fodder troops (just TRY getting emotionally attached to them) and certainly not the dozens of faceless Scientists and Engineers you employed.
The current games industry needs to get its head around the fact that some of us couldn't give two craps about characters or dialogue a lot of the time. Some of us just want to build bases and control interceptors and toy soldiers. The less we hear of voice actors the better.
Additionally, I did play UFO: Aftermath. I did enjoy that, the realtime tactical "stopwatch" combat was actually pretty well done, but unfortunately I felt the game stripped out too much of the base-building and UFO-interception gameplay. It oversimplified the UFO/X-Com concept to the point where the world-map was little better than a mission select screen. In Enemy Unknown, for me, the core of the gameplay was building and managing my bases and interceptors, whilst the inevitable ground missions were at times just a periodic annoyance.
It just bugs me that the games industry at the moment seems to shun 'impersonal' games, trying to give us all "compelling and engaging cinematic experiences" or rather; Showing off their latest motion capture bollocks and torturing our ears and minds with irritating voice actors and poorly conceived characters acting out terribly written stories.
Some of us couldn't care less about these mewling morons. Some of us are more interested in the big picture. A picture hopefully big enough that you get a good overview and can't make out any faces or voices.
i just think WoW with a quick reskin and re-naming stuff.Ryokai said:
although it could be sweet if you rolled either a big daddy or a human, then the out side could be the big daddy area.
actaully, it could work. but make it a prequel, so that parts have turned to turmoil with people fighting (the PvP areas) and parts are relativly unchanged so far (the places to buy/sell stuff).
Ugh, not like WoW at all. Make it Bioshock just like the games, but add in massive multiplayer. No grinding or shit like that (though keep plasmid and gene tonic upgrade system).LWS666 said:
A prequel idea sounds nice, which is what they did with the Bioshock 2 multiplayer. Though a lot of Bioshocks appeal was the ruined great city feel.
A real time strategy Sonic the Hedgehog!: Would not play
Mass Effect tower defense!: Would open it up ... then get distracted by something else
A Metal Gear dating sim!: Would play religiously for 6 mounths and occashionaly go back at darker moments in the years to come
Cooking Mama brawler.: I dont understand what that could be
Animal Crossing: The Flight Simulator. Absolute must buy
A BioShock MMO.: Would get the 12 day free trial 1 year after relese, proabably play it for less time that it took to download
X-com shooter? : na I've got a life
Mass Effect tower defense!: Would open it up ... then get distracted by something else
A Metal Gear dating sim!: Would play religiously for 6 mounths and occashionaly go back at darker moments in the years to come
Cooking Mama brawler.: I dont understand what that could be
Animal Crossing: The Flight Simulator. Absolute must buy
A BioShock MMO.: Would get the 12 day free trial 1 year after relese, proabably play it for less time that it took to download
X-com shooter? : na I've got a life