X-Com

[blueshift]

X-Com 2 is out this week, but if you have not played the first one (well, remake of the original 90s game based on GERRY ANDERSON'S UFO) then it's on this week's Humble Bundle offer

www.humblebundle.com/

It's only good for another 24 hours though! You can get X-Com for £1 if you wish to pay the minimum amount! If you pay more than the average (currently $10.31) you unlock the Enemy Within add-on pack, which adds a ridiculous amount more to the game.

It's really worth it; I've sunk nearly 200 hours into this game, and I'm not really a computer gamesy person.

Also it's like UFO but good!!

[Pinwig]

I spent most of my game time last year playing the complete edition on my ps3. Loved every minute of it. Superb game.

[browny87]

I just bought it, quite good fun frustrating as hell when one of your beloved characters dies but meh! its a really fun game and takes some really kool strategy

[blueshift]

Feb 2, 2016 13:55:44 GMT browny87 said:

I just bought it, quite good fun frustrating as hell when one of your beloved characters dies but meh! its a really fun game and takes some really kool strategy

That's half the magic though! And remember don't save and reload to undo your mistakes, making errors that end in a squadwipe is what's supposed to happen. Also name all your soldiers after family and friends!

[browny87]

I wouldn't save and reload kinda defeats the object, I cant rename them then ill feel REALLY guilty when I send them to a massacre.

[Stomski]

There's a co-op board game with an iOS/Android app relaying enemy moves etc. to the team of players that looks promising, albeit a little hectic.

[blueshift]

XCOM 2 is downloading! Assuming the customisation options are the same, who wants to be a soldier on my squad??

[Pinwig]

Me!

[legios]

Reporting for duty sir. I know the score, I've even brought my own bodybag. :-)

[legios]

The remake did an absolutely fantastic job of recapturing the feel of the original. I miss having the larger ground teams - reworking my tactics for three-man fire-teams instead of four was a real pain - but the tactical combat is still really enjoyable. The nailbiting struggle to reposition against an unexpected threat, the moments where it all clicks together like a well-oiled machine and you flank a group of aliens and put them down with cross-fire and sniper support. (Snipers in Flying Armour - one of my favourite old tricks and still works rather well)...

A worthy successor to one of my favourite computer games of all time. (Never tended to put friends and family in as my soldiers though - I get attached enough to my troops as it is quite frankly). One of the things I love is the emergent sense of character from the squads. In the remake I still remember the sniper who managed to get sent to hospital fifteen missions in a row. I was on the verge of changing his nickname to "healthcare" when he actually managed to come back from a mission uninjured. Then there was the Heavy Weapons specialist who singularly failed to hit anything he aimed at with a rocket, of which he was carrying three!

And of course the remake has the terrifying Dr Vahlen... I don't know if she unnerves the alien prisoners but she scared the willies out of me! :-)

Karl

[blueshift]

Feb 5, 2016 0:44:38 GMT legios said:

The remake did an absolutely fantastic job of recapturing the feel of the original. I miss having the larger ground teams - reworking my tactics for three-man fire-teams instead of four was a real pain - but the tactical combat is still really enjoyable. l

It's worth checking out the Long War mod. This is very popular, and was developed by a team including some of the game developers, and the same team helped with XCOM 2. It adds even more options, as well as larger ground teams (I have a feeling the usual number is 8 but you can get up to 12 on some missions)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_War_(mod)

Also the Enemy Within addon gives you an evil human agency to also battle against, MECHs and BASE DEFENSE.

[browny87]

whats second one like?

[blueshift]

So, XCOM 2. It's a lot harder. Hurrah!
Apparently a lot of people are finding the performance a bit slow, I think that's the game initially loads at max graphics settings(!). Once I checked the 'auto detect settings' option it was fine.

MISSION ONE was to destroy an alien comms relay. Not destroying it in a particular number of turns results in the loss of the entire game, so it is important to have a crack team who can move fast and get the job done!

Behold, the XCOM TMUK squad!


So we have Turnbull, who proudly sports the colours of G2 Devastator, with his heavy gun and grenade launcher.
Pinwig with his shotgun and sword for stabbing enemies, the colour of vomitting Shockwave (or whatever his avatar is)
Legios, who is our sniper and I guess I went Thundercracker?
Shockprowl; half Shockwave and half Prowl, computer hacker with little drone friend and medic.


Everyone sneaked across the map pretty well until we came to the objective. It was in the building at the top and we were running out of time, so I sent in Shockprowl in the hope he could hack it or something. Turns out you can't hack it and need to shoot it. There were also like, enemies dropping on the team from all sides.



Shockprowl was unable to destroy the relay with one turn to go, so Turnbull had to fire a rocket to blow it up. Unfortunately Shockprowl was standing right next to it Greater good man, your sacrifice saved Earth!


The entire squad is surrounded at this point. Turnbull gives as good as he gets, but is mown down in the crossfire. Then Pinwig is shot at, panics and runs away to hide in a corner. It looks really bad...




But it turns out that Legios the sniper is some sort of insane Rambo badass, and takes down enough with his gun, grenade and pistol to rescue Pinwig.



SO YEAH MISSION ACCOMPLISHED WELL DONE.


I would note that throughout the start of the game all the characters are praising me as one of the world's greatest military commanders, so this poor performance is on you, not me.

[blueshift]

May I present the TMUK REVENGE SQUAD, about to partake in OPERATION BURNING JUSTICE (I promise that name was randomly generated by the game!)




Ralph here is sporting the colours of unreleased G2 Ramjet
Bogatan is dressed as Actionmaster Thundercracker
And Browny is uh, a Brownie. I dunno man.

[blueshift]

Right. So vehicles explode a lot faster in XCOM 2. Sorry Browny

[blueshift]

After an impressive casualty rate, I actually completed a mission 100%! So uh, well done to the survivors!

[Pinwig]

Well just you look at that. I've got a purple helmet!

A PURPLE HELMET no less. And six kills? I rock apparently. I do indeed. I look forward to being the longest lasting of the hub crew. I will outlive you ALL.

Err, even if I am currently gravely wounded?

[blueshift]

Feb 5, 2016 23:53:49 GMT Pinwig said:

Well just you look at that. I've got a purple helmet!

A PURPLE HELMET no less. And six kills? I rock apparently. I do indeed. I look forward to being the longest lasting of the hub crew. I will outlive you ALL.

Err, even if I am currently gravely wounded?

Okay right. Well. Here's the thing. So a mission went bad. You got hit by a bad guy with a stun baton. I thought you were dead and evacced. Too late I realised you were just unconscious and had been CAPTURED.

However XCOM 2 lets you send in a team to RESCUE YOU and thats what we did Pinwig, THATS WHAT WE DID. I sent in the TMUK rescue squad and they broke you out of jail. The aliens had stripped your armour off, so were probably going to do AWFUL THINGS TO YOU. Jetty was a murder machine and used his swords to kill three guards and then ran at the last one and used his body to distract the bullets and made sure everyone got out safely. It was awesome.



See, we saved you, in your delicate pyjamas!! Optimus Prime was so happy he gave us $100.

Then it all went horribly wrong. On a mission where the team had killed everyone apart from one sectoid, which was mind controlling both a zombie and Kingoji, turning him evil. All we had to do was kill the sectoid and the mind control stuff would turn off.

So Bigbazzaboy ran up to the sectoid, put his gigantic gun in its face... and then turned around and shot at the wrong target. That was the last move of the round. It all went downhill from there, but GOOD NEWS if you invested in coffins.

Optimus Prime was MAD

[Pinwig]

Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!

Daring rescue of MR Pinwig followed by TPK?! Jetty you are my hero, but someone needs to teach BigB which end of his boom stick goes boom.

I can't believe this is the end. The purple pajamas must live on!

Must.

They're purple!

[blueshift]

Feb 6, 2016 0:14:32 GMT Pinwig said:

Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!

Daring rescue of MR Pinwig followed by TPK?! Jetty you are my hero, but someone needs to teach BigB which end of his boom stick goes boom.

I can't believe this is the end. The purple pajamas must live on!

Must.

They're purple!

Well, the good thing about XCOM2 is that is lets you export your characters to a 'character pool' and so use them in all your games.

Which is good because I've just about run out of soldiers :c

[legios]

Feb 5, 2016 10:49:33 GMT blueshift said:

Legios, who is our sniper and I guess I went Thundercracker?

In honesty, neither of these characteristics are likely to surprise anyone who knows me well...

But it turns out that Legios the sniper is some sort of insane Rambo badass, and takes down enough with his gun, grenade and pistol to rescue Pinwig.

Pure luck, given that the screenshot suggests that I thought bringing a Ruger Super Redhawk to a real gunfight was a smart idea...Not that me trying to ride my luck is unknown... or that luck turning on me horribly at the worst moment for that matter... :-)

Karl
(There is a reason that no VG character who isn't a pilot I directly control gets my stock "Coyote" call-sign...Let's just say I didn't earn it on the basis of my resemblance to the mythological figure... :-) )

[legios]

Feb 5, 2016 15:53:14 GMT blueshift said:

Right. So vehicles explode a lot faster in XCOM 2. Sorry Browny

Tip from an old X-Com hand - move very swiftly away from anything on fire (smoke inhalation would put you down in UFO:EU, let alone the burning) and avoid anything that goes *boom* like the plague.

Likewise, I miss the old quirk that anything that went *boom* would explode with equal force to whatever set it off. Suffice to say, the combination of petrol pumps, sectoids and a Weapons guy on my fireteam with a Blaster Launcher was a thing of utter joy.... :-)

Karl

[blueshift]

So uh, the aliens are literally fielding Slitheen. I mean. Literally Slitheen. Only they're really scary. They unzip from human suits into a big blobby monster with long claws and run after you and jump and murder your entire team really easily and oh god

xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Faceless_(XCOM_2)

[Hero]

Been a hectic Friday trying to get this game to work on the main PC and no go. I am not a fan of the series myself, but the other half is big on it.

After obtaining a new graphics card hours ago I'll soon be hearing an earie soundtrack, explosions and gunfire in the background all evening. It would appear quite a few gamers have had trouble getting new X-Com to work.

[blueshift]

For some reason the game wants to start with all graphics options up to maximum, and the title screen is in-game rendered so immediately wants to murder your graphic card. Once you're in you can click auto-detect settings and it's fine.

Turn anti-aliasing off and run that from your graphics card if you can. For some reason the anti-alaising on XCOM2 just eats RAM like a crazy mofo. I'm sure they'll patch that soon.

It works fine on my laptop, and that absolutely is not a gaming computer!!

[The Doctor]

Am I still alive?

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Feb 6, 2016 18:55:23 GMT The Doctor said:

Am I still alive?

-Ralph

On your first mission you got shot and died
But then an alien brought you back to life as a zombie!
But then you attacked Karl.
So we had to kill you again.

So no, Ralph. You died. Twice.

[The Doctor]

I only live twice!

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

Yeah, but do you have a big purple helmet?

No. You do not have a big purple helmet.

[The Doctor]

I think you'll find my helmet is purple.

-Ralph