New XCOM game is set in the 50s

[dekkarax]

Source [http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/xcom/preview/first-look-at-xcom/a-2010050715233230054/g-2010050715180181032]

Opinions on this?

Honestly, I like this news; sure, I still wish we had the old turn based games of yore, but narrative wise the setting is good, it will probably be like a B-movie deconstruction. Plus, putting it in the 50s puts it away from the main X-com games and the current FPS fare. The information collection theme looks quite interesting too.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

This isn?t a linear shooter, either. Your base?s phonetappers and police-radio scanners present you with choices as to where to go next and what to do, picked from a large map of the US. Rumours of animal attacks and strange weather patterns in a certain state? Sounds like Blobs are on the rampage. Saddle up, Agent Carter. Grab the wheel of your hulking fedmobile, take two of your best men with you, and go see what?s going on.

Okay, this interested me. But I still don't th-

Take out your camera and record all this ? you need the evidence, because evidence means more funding and research.

Damnit, stop making me interested in this! I don't want to get my hopes up!

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

I've hated everything about the new XCOM game ever since I first heard about it, but I've decided I'm not going to care anymore. Let them shit all over the game if they want. Let them create something that has only the vaguest connection with the original games and plaster the name of the franchise all over it. I'll be playing old-school X-COM anyway, and no FPS is going to change anything about that.

 

[Yureina]

I remember the original X-com games for being pretty fun and interesting to play during its day. But... I think i'll stick with Fallout for my 1950's alternate reality game series of choice.

 

[SimuLord]

I remember the original X-com games for being pretty fun and interesting to play during its day. But... I think i'll stick with Fallout for my 1950's alternate reality game series of choice.

My thoughts exactly. Bethesda took a moribund franchise and injected new life into it while paying proper homage to the source. This new Xcom remake doesn't seem to catch the point of its source material.

 

[crobulator]

i dont want to get my hopes up but i did love the originals hmmm i think we should wait and see

 

[thenightgaunt]

I'm really pessimistic about this one. I love the original games but everything I see about this new one just seems bad.

The 1950's change seems like a bad idea meant to cash in on the popularity of Bioshock then anything else. But even then by abandoning the classic aliens in saucers(which were based on ufo pop-culture references) and replacing them with amorphous blob things with odd, magical looking crystaline ships, they're pretty much ditching the themes that made X-Com memorable.

I was also worried that they had handed this one over to 2k Marin, as the only thing they have on their resume is Bioshock 2, and I really felt like that game was more of an expansion then a sequal. Bioshock 2 really didn't bring anything new or exciting to the franchise (IMO), but that doesn't matter because it's not really 2k Marin that's making XCOM. It's actually a smaller affiliated Austrailian studio no one's really heard of.

Sometimes a departure from the old style works wonders. Look at Fallout 3. But then if you deviate too far you get results that, to be frank, suck. Look at Shadowrun.

 

[Technocrat]

It sounds like they've gotten mixed up between X-*files* and X-*com*.

To be fair, really it seems like they'd started with the idea of making a first-person game about investigating alien activity in the 1950s, and their parent company has slapped the X-com franchise on top of it.

I'm not going to slander it just because it's an FPS - the last game they were making in the series that didn't see the light (X-Com: Alliance) was also going to be, and that seemed to have quite a bit of promise. Sure, it was 1999, and seemed quite cutting edge at the time, but the genre-shift can't on its own be a reason to be pessimistic.

I shall reserve judgement until I see more of it. After all, this isn't NMA.

 

[Jandau]

The game doesn't sound bad in its own right, but I still don't understand one thing: Why name it X-Com? It has nothing in common with X-Com games beyond the basic premise (Aliens invade Earth).

Brand recognition? Hardly. As far as I can tell, the potential customers who might actually recognize the brand are generally looking on the game unfavorably due to its name. If anything, it's a lot of negative publicity. As for those who aren't the fans of the originals (all you "I haven't played the first games, but I like the look of this one." people), they couldn't care less about the name.

If they're not going to make an X-Com game, why name it X-Com. It just burdens the whole project with a ton of baggage it doesn't need. Wouldn't it better if it were a new IP altogether, and then people might notice that it kinda reminds them of X-Com? People would be pleasantly suprised and it would reflect well on the game. As it stands, they are just taking on a legacy that they can't live up to and are dragging down a potentially good game for it...