XCOM Steam preorder

[lRookiel]

I just pre ordered my copy of the new XCOM game that is coming out soon. I noticed that steam are giving out rewards based on how many people pre order it. Just wanted to know what my fellow peeps on the escapist think of this system.

I'm liking the idea alot, I mean if enough people pre order the game, everyone who has gets a free copy of Civ V to go along with their purchase. That's just even more awesomeness :3

The first reward (a bunch of in game content) is already over half way there to being issued, if anyone was planning on getting this game, I urge you to get it on steam, we all want more TF2 hats damnit! xD

Anyway, what do you think of this system?

 

[Tohuvabohu]

The steam forums are crying (as it usually is) afoul over this system.

Spoiler: Here's a generic quote from the Steam forums

...

Holy Christ... Why is it that any 'content' being added to Steam and TF2 is just another feeble attempt to suck money out of your wallet these days? Every time I turn around there's another way for Valve to try and stick their ♥♥♥♥ in my ♥♥♥.

Isn't Gaben getting enough ♥♥♥♥ing mounds of donuts and cash to roll around naked in while laughing maniacally and calling all of us clueless tards from the MannCo store?

EDIT: Upon further reflection I decided to add this: This is how good game companies go bad kiddies. You are witnessing the death of a once great game company.

They got a taste of the money trough being filled by oblivious and gullible idiots and now look where we are.

So when do we have to buy $20 keys to access our loadout every month Valve? Or rental backpack space or some other hare brained Wile E. Coyote scheme?

Jesus... Enough already.

As for me, I already pre-ordered It was a pleasant surprise last night, because I had just quit playing XCOM after failing a terror mission, and Steam brought up the Enemy Unknown preorder window, which I preordered immediately. (The game does seem rather pricey. I hope it's worth the money they're asking for.)

As for the system, I think it's a cool way to spice up preorders, but a rather strange way to do it. I only knew of the in-game bonus items, normally you'd get this sort of thing just by preordering in the first place. I know we're not entitled to any of this extra in-game stuff, but it does still seem weird that a certain number of people have to pre-order for this to happen.

As for the TF2 items, they're already rendered in-game. I think they will be included regardless, and the pre-order milestone is only to get guaranteed genuine-level items.

But still... If the final milestone were to be achieved, free copies of Civ5! That does seem generous, but I wonder how likely that is to happen.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well these are just old tried and tested slimy salesman moves "Bring in your whole family and get something for free in this totally awesome special offer in very limited supply only for today!"

I'm not a fan of such manipulative marketing, but it is something for everyone to set their mind on themselves.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Seeing as tier 1 is the generic pre-order bonus i'm a little annoyed we don't get that automatically.

Otherwise, seems fine to me.

 

[lRookiel]

As for me, I already pre-ordered It was a pleasant surprise last night, because I had just quit playing XCOM after failing a terror mission,

Wait wait wait, you actually failed a terror mission?! How?!

Yes this is now an XCOM:UFO Defense discussion thread.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

As for me, I already pre-ordered It was a pleasant surprise last night, because I had just quit playing XCOM after failing a terror mission,

Wait wait wait, you actually failed a terror mission?! How?!

Yes this is now an XCOM:UFO Defense discussion thread.

Because I am a terrible commander I lost a chunk of rookies to a grenade thrown by an alien hiding in the darkness, everyone in the ship panicked and ran outside, where they were then shot to death/turned into zombies afterwards.

I blame my allocation of R&D. They just weren't prepared for it. The mission failed, funding was pulled, GAME OVER.

I only recently began playing XCOM, thankfully the game runs with almost no problems on my PC. Everything I heard about the greatness of this game is absolutely true.

I'm still learning though.... everything I've heard about Terror from the Deep makes me believe my performance will be catastrophic, so I'm trying to complete a legit playthrough of UFO Defense, hopefully I will be ready for Terror from the Deep by then.

I am a bit unsure about some of the changes to Enemy Unknown. The lack of TU's, only having one base, there being seemingly infinite ammo... But still, it looks like it will be well worth the play.

 

[lRookiel]

As for me, I already pre-ordered It was a pleasant surprise last night, because I had just quit playing XCOM after failing a terror mission,

Wait wait wait, you actually failed a terror mission?! How?!

Yes this is now an XCOM:UFO Defense discussion thread.

Because I am a terrible commander I lost a chunk of rookies to a grenade thrown by an alien hiding in the darkness, everyone in the ship panicked and ran outside, where they were then shot to death/turned into zombies afterwards.

I blame my allocation of R&D. They just weren't prepared for it. The mission failed, funding was pulled, GAME OVER.

I only recently began playing XCOM, thankfully the game runs with almost no problems on my PC. Everything I heard about the greatness of this game is absolutely true.

I'm still learning though.... everything I've heard about Terror from the Deep makes me believe my performance will be catastrophic, so I'm trying to complete a legit playthrough of UFO Defense, hopefully I will be ready for Terror from the Deep by then.

I am a bit unsure about some of the changes to Enemy Unknown. The lack of TU's, only having one base, there being seemingly infinite ammo... But still, it looks like it will be well worth the play.

I thought it was gonna be something like a Chryssalid swarm or something cooler than "I stuck all my guys together and they got blown up" xD

My nitpick over the new XCOM game is the lack of huge squads, instead of 26 it's like 5 or something.

 

[daveman247]

snip

im guessing they have balanced the funds etc because of less units at once. I think it would make the loss of one guy even more terrible.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

I thought it was gonna be something like a Chryssalid swarm or something cooler than "I stuck all my guys together and they got blown up" xD

My nitpick over the new XCOM game is the lack of huge squads, instead of 26 it's like 5 or something.

I know. My XCOM commanding skills make me seem more like Zapp Brannigan.


"Grenades? Not a problem. I'll just send wave after wave of my own men until the aliens run out of grenades, and they'll be ours!"

I think I had 2 left, which I tried to get back to the ship. And I'll tell you what, those 'zombies' sure as shit weren't zombies by the time I got close. I think I had at least 4 or 5 chryssalids in my LoS when the last guy went down. Fucking chryssalids.

And yeah, there's that too. Although commanding that many units really did slow the game down (You didn't have to) It was still awesome either way to have that many units on field at once. Now, just losing 1 guy is going to hurt way more than before... I guess this is what they intended??? I dunno, it still does kinda suck :\

 

[veloper]

This scheme only encourages potential customers to wait for enough other gamers to pre-order first.
If the bar is set high enough, the pre-order bonusses may even not be reached, which would suck for them who pre-ordered. Let's wait and find out.

 

[Frankster]

*Checks out preorder bonuses* Well this marketing trick ain't gonna do much to win me over, only the first tier of preorder reward looks good in the sense that it adds content to the game (something which should already be a given if you're preordering imo), the other 2 tiers are for TF2 (yey more hats!) and civ5, and as I ain't too much into Tf2 and already own civ 5, so yeh this isn't what's gonna be tempting me from my "wait and see" approach to the new xcom.

As an aside, 29.99£ is an allright price for a brand new game but overall I don't see this as a juicy deal at all.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

As for me, I already pre-ordered It was a pleasant surprise last night, because I had just quit playing XCOM after failing a terror mission,

Wait wait wait, you actually failed a terror mission?! How?!

Yes this is now an XCOM:UFO Defense discussion thread.

Hey, now. I've lost terror missions before. Two or three cyberdisks plus sectoid support sitting right outside the skyranger before I've even got laser pistols?

That's a paddlin'.

 

[Inconspicuous Trenchcoat]

I don't like the idea of whether I receive pre-order bonuses or not being based on other people pre-ordering. Too much control out of my hands, I don't like that. The first two tiers look like standard pre-order bonuses, I don't like them "holding them hostage," so to speak. The free copy of Civ 5 seems like an appropriate bonus to offer under this pre-order amount condition. If it was only that, and the first two perks were included normally, I'd have no problem.

Doesn't really matter though; most pre-order bonuses are non-essential or unremarkable anyhow. It could also just be a gimmick to goad people into encouraging their friends to buy. Maybe the bar will fill to full by the end, no matter how many copies were pre-ordered? I would prefer this to not happen with other pre-orders, unless it's done with only true non-standard bonuses (like the Civ 5 copy). Although, defining what counts as non-standard bonus is subjective. Oh well, somehow I'll survive either way.

 

[Lawyer105]

I don't care about the pre-order bonuses, personally. Having watching this game for a good while now (and especially after that 1-hr gameplay video) this was a day-1 purchase for me. Pre-order just means I paid a month earlier than I originally planned. Given the crappy interest my bank pays, it doesn't even really cost me anything.

So.... who really cares?! Everybody's screaming/whining about nothing.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I knew there was a reason I was waiting to get Civ 5. Although I would Pre-Order it regardless to get the marine customizer pack thingy.

I don't like how it isn't already part of the game, but atleast it is free.

I have never played any of the games in the series, but honestly X-COM looks like it is going to be my fav game for a while. Wish there was more games like this one.

 

[GiantRaven]

What if you already own Civ V? What point is there to pre-order then? Other than the obvious point of getting the game itself.

It feels a little unfair to give out something as a bonus that a large percentage of the potential audience probably already own.

 

[Uliana]

What if you already own Civ V? What point is there to pre-order then? Other than the obvious point of getting the game itself.

If you already own the game, you can simply give Civ V as a gift to someone who doesn't have it. It's stated in the XCOM preorder page.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Considering the physical edition pre-order has:
an art book
a fold-out poster
an insignia patch
various digital bonuses like the soundtrack and desktop wallpapers.

Steam probably thought this up as something to get some pre-orders back.