What are our concerns about X-COM2?

[DoPo]

X-Com is about the world (however American accented)

I hated that in XCOM. Or rather, let me rephrase, I hate that everywhere it shows up. I mean the "everybody talks American English" bit. There is only one more annoying portrayal of foreigners - it's the bloody annoying "Let me talk English but randomly inject a word from my language and then immediately translate it into English". That, amazingly, has an even more obnoxios variant - when two people are supposed to be speaking and they are from the same country". Assassin's Creed 2's dialogue was absolutely cringeworthy because of that.

Anyway, back to XCOM - there was an option to allow all soldiers speak their own language - Germans talked in German and so on. I think it was introduced in Enemy Within.

 

[happyninja42]

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I see, thanks for the info. I think I'll pass though, as I didn't really have any big issues with the vanilla game. Though you did mention one aspect I didn't like. The fact that you had to actually get a kill to get exp. I think simply doing stuff on the mission should be sufficient. I mean if you have your support character, and they're doing the stuff they are supposed to do, you know, healing people, tossing smoke grenades, etc, why shouldn't they get exp for that? They aren't assault, it's not their job to kill aliens specifically. Their job is to help their squadmates kill aliens easier. I'd like to see them do some kind of incremental exp reward system. You get a baseline amount of exp for simply surviving the mission, but you get further exp for actually doing stuff.

Killing aliens
Using class specific powers to the benefit of the team
Being the person to actually click on mission items
Etc.

Have they made any statement on whether or not that will be in the next game?

 

[DoPo]

Anyway, back to XCOM - there was an option to allow all soldiers speak their own language - Germans talked in German and so on. I think it was introduced in Enemy Within.

XCOM 2 they, to the best of my knowledge, all speak english, but they have accents this time around.

I'm actually OK with that. OK, I preferred soldiers to speak their own languages in XCOM just because all being American was really annoying, but then again having a squad where each person talked in a different language was a bit odd. Presumably they have to communicate somehow. If not amongst themselves, then with me. Then again, I suppose my soldiers could have been on the dickish side and understood English, just answered in Spanish/German/Italian/Whatever instead.

 

[Cartographer]

Anyway, back to XCOM - there was an option to allow all soldiers speak their own language - Germans talked in German and so on. I think it was introduced in Enemy Within.

XCOM 2 they, to the best of my knowledge, all speak english, but they have accents this time around.

I'm actually OK with that. OK, I preferred soldiers to speak their own languages in XCOM just because all being American was really annoying, but then again having a squad where each person talked in a different language was a bit odd. Presumably they have to communicate somehow. If not amongst themselves, then with me. Then again, I suppose my soldiers could have been on the dickish side and understood English, just answered in Spanish/German/Italian/Whatever instead.

Long war offered a lot more accents to English, though the generic "European" is a little disappointing.

 

[Megalodon]

Anyway, back to XCOM - there was an option to allow all soldiers speak their own language - Germans talked in German and so on. I think it was introduced in Enemy Within.

I don't think it was all languages, only half a dozen or so European ones iirc. What they did was allow all games to use the soldier voice files for every language they localised to game for. So you got French, German, Russian etc. but no Arabic or Chinese for example (I'm pretty sure those weren't there, but it's been a while since I played).

 

[DoPo]

Anyway, back to XCOM - there was an option to allow all soldiers speak their own language - Germans talked in German and so on. I think it was introduced in Enemy Within.

I don't think it was all languages, only half a dozen or so European ones iirc. What they did was allow all games to use the soldier voice files for every language they localised to game for. So you got French, German, Russian etc. but no Arabic or Chinese for example (I'm pretty sure those weren't there, but it's been a while since I played).

Actually, yeah now that you mentioned it, I did remember this. There was no Chinese, for sure, and I believe no Croatian or Czech (I believe at least one of those countries was in the game). Oh well, at least I remember that option improving the game for me.

 

[Jack Action]

Actually, yeah now that you mentioned it, I did remember this. There was no Chinese, for sure, and I believe no Croatian or Czech (I believe at least one of those countries was in the game). Oh well, at least I remember that option improving the game for me.

I'm pretty sure Chinese was in. Mostly because of Zhang. And also, China was part of the XCOM project, unlike most EU countries.

 

[kuolonen]

2) Dr.Vahlen goes Kerrigan on us. Oh come on, Firaxis, you think we didn't sniff this crap coming from ten miles away? Dr.Vahlen, the scientist who studied the aliens, mysteriously goes missing before the start of the game. Gosh, we wonder what could have happened to her? Guys, we know this story. It's old. Really old. Old as Starcraft, in fact. And if you go through with this then we, all of us, are all going to roll our eyes so far back into our heads we'll be able to see our own brains.

Well duh! Lets tick the boxes shall we?
She is german [X]
She is a scientist [X]
She is blond [X]
She is cold/callous [X]
Short of giving her the last name "Mengele" they really couldn't have set it up any more obvious she would be on the enemy team at some point by the laws of Hollywood tropes. Not liking it, but it really was forgone conclusion.

For my part, I am not really concerned. Should I be concerned? I mean making original XCOM ending non-canon was bull, but I will get over it. Other than that, all I've heard so far of XCOM 2 is good.

 

[ZeroFarks]

Well duh! Lets tick the boxes shall we?
She is german [X]
She is a scientist [X]
She is blond [X]
She is cold/callous [X]
Short of giving her the last name "Mengele" they really couldn't have set it up any more obvious she would be on the enemy team at some point by the laws of Hollywood tropes. Not liking it, but it really was forgone conclusion.

And Dr.Shen was Japanese, therefore XCOM is really just the Axis Powers all over again.

I especially liked that South America (y'know, the place where all the Nazis fled to after the war) gave the bonus of "We have ways (of making you talk)" that gave instant interrogation results on captured aliens.

Someone else mentioned "The Thing" - does anyone remember that was basically the plot of X-COM Apocalypse? The "alien mastermind" at the end turned out to be the green alien blood that they all had (for "some" reason). Turned out the blood itself was a sentient parasite organism and all the alien races that you had been fighting were once innocent victims that had all been assimilated by the green goo.

XCOM also keeps in step with the lore of The Bureau (of all things) in demonstrating the master plan of the Etherials, and once again it turns out most of the aliens you've been fighting are just their unwitting slaves.

I mention this because, having also played UFO: Aflterlight it occurred to me there is a brilliant plot element that can be used for XCOM2: Renegade Aliens joining XCOM. Think about it: Earth, and humanity, are just one more in a long series of worlds and races that have been enslaved by the Etherials over the centuries. Who says that humans are the first to rebel, or the only ones to rebel? Even if they are, couldn't that inspire hope in the other Etherial slave races?

Can you imagine how frikkin' awesome it would be to have a Muton heavy gunner on your team? Or a Sectoid medic? Simply following their own lore to it's logical conclusion could turn the base plot from a mere guerilla war into a full-blown slave revolt/revolution, as each success brings more & more aliens over to the XCOM crusade against their Etherial overlords.

Now how does that game sound?

 

[pookie101]

only concern for me is the discovery they have turned into money gouging bastards and are expecting australians to pay $90 USD on steam for it

 

[cathou]

3) Swoooooooooords!

hummm. Terror from the deep had VibroBlades, and Apocalypse had powerswords.

5) We need to discuss Timing, Firaxis.

As a canadian, that point is non relevent, as for most people in the world. unless Xcom is an american only game now, it doesnt matter...

7) Stealth Zepplin?.

well, as we see in the end of the welcome to the avenger video the cloaking seems to be less than perfect... even at the end of the first game we didnt see the cloaked supervisor ship all the time...

You've obviously hanged around a very different crowd. Not from what I have been, but from the norm in general. There are countless stereotypical little rituals and beliefs about dice in RPGs - some of them have bled into the general folklore about RNGs in video games but a lot comes from PnP background.

oh yeah, you had the same DnD gang than mine. we all had at least 3 set of dice, just in case one of the set is "broken" with bad luck. sometime we tried them first, keeping the "luckiest" ones, switching them after getting a 1...

I hope it's not too personal and character driven. One thing I like about XCOM is how you were just The Commander, and you had troops who fought and died but were otherwise just soldiers. You researched aliens and their technology to overcome the invasion just like what an actual government agency would do, and no drama occurred outside the actual global conflict. That kind of disconnect is something I don't see much of in modern gaming, and I found it very refreshing in a world dominated by intense character dramas.

Xcom had always been a game of very personal drama. either you are a cold commander, and get everyone killed if necessary, or you personalise every soldier you have, giving them name from people you know, follow their wound and personal story. so when Valerie, the high ranked sniper died, killed by a sectopod after she killed over 20 aliens by herself, and just after she got back on the field, because she fought for her life in the infirmary for a whole month, after being shot point blank by a muton, well, i was really sad for her...

 

[BeerTent]

I think we should be more concerned about them adding John Carpenter's "The Thing," or the fact that Chrysallids are still terrigying as hell.

Cocoon's.

Not just one zombie... But three baby chryssalids.

You're welcome.

 

[Christian Neihart]

I think we should be more concerned about them adding John Carpenter's "The Thing," or the fact that Chrysallids are still terrigying as hell.

Cocoon's.

Not just one zombie... But three baby chryssalids.

You're welcome.

Double fuck.