The original reaction to The Bureau (which I think was originally even entitled just "X-COM"?) was basically the same as if a film company were to announce that they were remaking Aliens and setting it in an 80s nightclub.
"But fucking why", essentially.
+7
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited May 2015
The Bureau actually ties in much more into the XCOM universe than what when it originally shown, after all those years of rework. Those amorphous faceless blobs for instance became established XCOM aliens.
But why can't XCOM be more than the same mechanic over and over again?
It could. There is certainly room for games of differing genres in the same franchise. Hell, I was excited for The Bureau because I liked Enemy Unknown and I like shooters. But if you're going to set a new game in a new genre in an existing franchise then things need to feel like they belong. Mutons should be jumping all over the map. You shouldn't introduce a bunch of cool equipment and then not explain why it's not available later in the series chronologically. You shouldn't introduce a bunch of cool alien races and then never mention them again. You should, regardless of genre, strive to make your games feel like they belong together. XCOM (to me) is really embodied by permadeath and living with your decisions. The Bureau doesn't really have that. You can lose agents (but not Carter) and there's no middle ground. In the early game it's not a huge deal and at the end it's a "screw it, reload, I need that guy" moment. You never get that "I'm a year in and there goes my best support, it's time to bring Jimmy up from the B-team" feeling. You never really feel like you're researching things and making your squad better. You find random stuff in the environments to unlock for your guys, but you never have to prioritize and choose between stronger weapons and stronger armor. You have enough dudes to do every mission that comes up.
That's the big one. It's very contrary to the XCOM feeling for me to look at the map and say "Yeah, I can handle this comfortably" and that was my feeling throughout the game.
The Bureau actually ties in much more into the XCOM universe than what when it originally shown, after all those years of rework. Those amorphous faceless blobs for instance became established XCOM aliens.
No they don't. There are no Silacoids in Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within. The Sleepwalker stuff shows up in Enemy Within though.
EDIT: I apologize. Apparently Silacoids are in the original XCOM: UFO Defense. I've never made it far enough in that to see them. Sorry!
While it's still not quite in my "Screw the backlog! It's on SALE!" range, Dead Rising 3 Apocalypse Edition is the cheapest it's been on GMG right now ($20 by using voucher code: GET20P-ERCENT-OFFNOW)
shhh LiLo, the other tables I don't have don't exist at the minute. I don't have the time to get properly sucked back into pinball right now, The Witcher 3 is demanding all my time
Portal Pinball came out at exactly the right time, I've been playing through Portal 1 & 2 so my daughter can watch. She was very impressed when I showed her the pinball table
Yeah, my son loves the Portal games and has been frothing since the table was Coming Soon. I let him play the demo of it last night and he was in heaven.
Too bad I can't buy it for him until November because Steam doesn't want my money right now. And doesn't want other people to spend money for me. And hasn't given me my $330 worth of games back yet.
shhh LiLo, the other tables I don't have don't exist at the minute. I don't have the time to get properly sucked back into pinball right now, The Witcher 3 is demanding all my time
Portal Pinball came out at exactly the right time, I've been playing through Portal 1 & 2 so my daughter can watch. She was very impressed when I showed her the pinball table
Yeah, my son loves the Portal games and has been frothing since the table was Coming Soon. I let him play the demo of it last night and he was in heaven.
Too bad I can't buy it for him until November because Steam doesn't want my money right now. And doesn't want other people to spend money for me. And hasn't given me my $330 worth of games back yet.
But why can't XCOM be more than the same mechanic over and over again?
It can. It has yet to work particularly well.
The last attempt at an X-COM action title was X-COM Enforcer. It was the last the title in the franchise before the revivals. Memories of that probably colored some fan reactions to the first announced revival title being another action title.
X-COM Interceptor was better as a combination of space sim and strategic management but still didn't really impress anyone. The Alien ships aren't as interesting as the aliens themselves which probably doesn't help.
X-COM has a ton of atmosphere that can be tough to capture in some genres. The tension and feeling of vulnerability are tough to do in standard action games. An X-COM action game would really work better as survival horror than trying to do a Mass Effect inspired deal.
I played a bit of X-Com Enforcer way back when and from what I remember, it was actually written to be humourous. My memories put it along the same lines as MDK (which is an awesome game). Am I misremembering because it would be hard to make a funny game that was true to the X-Com world.
I played a bit of X-Com Enforcer way back when and from what I remember, it was actually written to be humourous. My memories put it along the same lines as MDK (which is an awesome game). Am I misremembering because it would be hard to make a funny game that was true to the X-Com world.
You probably remember correctly. A complaint about Interceptor was that there was a lot of out of place humor and pop culture references. I imagine it would be the same or worse in Enforcer.
Sir Carcass can you receive gifts? Steam doesn't give me any clue that you can't when I add it to my cart
To be honest, I haven't actually tested buying or receiving, but Steam support said I wouldn't be able to do either while my account is restricted. I especially don't want to try it right now as I'm waiting for them to give me the last 9 months of purchases back.
I wasn't asking for nor expecting to be gifted the Portal table, but I do really appreciate you doing it anyway. I'm surprised it let the purchase go through, so I'll hold on to it until I at least get these missing games fixed before trying to activate it.
Sir Carcass can you receive gifts? Steam doesn't give me any clue that you can't when I add it to my cart
To be honest, I haven't actually tested buying or receiving, but Steam support said I wouldn't be able to do either while my account is restricted. I especially don't want to try it right now as I'm waiting for them to give me the last 9 months of purchases back.
I wasn't asking for nor expecting to be gifted the Portal table, but I do really appreciate you doing it anyway. I'm surprised it let the purchase go through, so I'll hold on to it until I at least get these missing games fixed before trying to activate it.
What steps have you taken at this point? I know you've emailed Gabe and I assume written back to their "Customer Service" team but have you taken this to twitter at all? Have you considered submitting to a site like Consumerist for results?
Woo made to half of @rikdaly Portal table high score! Table glitched out on ball 3 and so I couldn't get the co-op multiball or I totally could have challenged his high score! (This is not true and I'm going to go cry a bit because i will never reach that score)
The fact that people were actually angry about XCOM: The Bureau still amazes me. Actual anger with real frothing diatribes and everything. I found it embarrassing behavior, personally. Like, I was ashamed to say I am a fan of the series because of all that.
I was upset about it. Maybe even angry? I'll leave it to others to decide whether any writing I did about it at the time constituted frothing diatribes.
There are some games (or books or movies or songs/albums) that just take root in your very being. If you are going to continue a beloved series in some way, either with a sequel or a reboot, you need to be prepared to deal with people's strong connections to the originals and why they were beloved. Absolutely nothing they revealed about the FPS XCOM suggested they understood what made the originals great. If they had made major changes - gone to FPS and set in 1950's say -- but also made clear connections to the originals (maybe some of the same aliens, significant squad management and procedural levels with destructible terrain) most folks would probably have adopted a wait and see mentality.
Obviously there are Chicken Littles out there for any deviation from a beloved tenet of the originals. But in this instance, there wasn't a single thing about what they announced that tied it meaningfully to the original games. So I was upset.
Absolutely this.
Like, for an example of doing what they did and doing it right?
Fallout 3.
A top-down RPG got turned into an FPS (with some RPG underpinnings), which is a huge mechanical change, to answer your question @Santa Claustrophobia.
But it was still recognizably Fallout - there were vaults, you fought Radscorpions, Ghouls were out and walking around the Wastes, you paid for things in caps, etc.
If they'd pitched me the original Bureau as "Delta Green: The Video Game," I'd've been all about it. But when you're telling me it's X-COM, when it very plainly is not, and when in absolutely every interview you give about it you demonstrate that you have at best a tenuous grasp on what made the original good, then, yeah - I'm not going to believe you, and I'm going to be kinda angry about it.
The Bureau actually ties in much more into the XCOM universe than what when it originally shown, after all those years of rework. Those amorphous faceless blobs for instance became established XCOM aliens.
No they don't. There are no Silacoids in Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within. The Sleepwalker stuff shows up in Enemy Within though.
EDIT: I apologize. Apparently Silacoids are in the original XCOM: UFO Defense. I've never made it far enough in that to see them. Sorry!
You might have, actually. They were the muton terror unit.
You might not remember them because they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I'm...still not sure what they do. Because all they seem to do is die. Quickly and easily.
The Bureau actually ties in much more into the XCOM universe than what when it originally shown, after all those years of rework. Those amorphous faceless blobs for instance became established XCOM aliens.
No they don't. There are no Silacoids in Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within. The Sleepwalker stuff shows up in Enemy Within though.
EDIT: I apologize. Apparently Silacoids are in the original XCOM: UFO Defense. I've never made it far enough in that to see them. Sorry!
You might have, actually. They were the muton terror unit.
You might not remember them because they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I'm...still not sure what they do. Because all they seem to do is die. Quickly and easily.
They made training your squad easy, actually!
I think they were supposed to light stuff on fire, it just never really worked right.
The fact that people were actually angry about XCOM: The Bureau still amazes me. Actual anger with real frothing diatribes and everything. I found it embarrassing behavior, personally. Like, I was ashamed to say I am a fan of the series because of all that.
I was upset about it. Maybe even angry? I'll leave it to others to decide whether any writing I did about it at the time constituted frothing diatribes.
There are some games (or books or movies or songs/albums) that just take root in your very being. If you are going to continue a beloved series in some way, either with a sequel or a reboot, you need to be prepared to deal with people's strong connections to the originals and why they were beloved. Absolutely nothing they revealed about the FPS XCOM suggested they understood what made the originals great. If they had made major changes - gone to FPS and set in 1950's say -- but also made clear connections to the originals (maybe some of the same aliens, significant squad management and procedural levels with destructible terrain) most folks would probably have adopted a wait and see mentality.
Obviously there are Chicken Littles out there for any deviation from a beloved tenet of the originals. But in this instance, there wasn't a single thing about what they announced that tied it meaningfully to the original games. So I was upset.
Absolutely this.
Like, for an example of doing what they did and doing it right?
Fallout 3.
A top-down RPG got turned into an FPS (with some RPG underpinnings), which is a huge mechanical change, to answer your question @Santa Claustrophobia.
But it was still recognizably Fallout - there were vaults, you fought Radscorpions, Ghouls were out and walking around the Wastes, you paid for things in caps, etc.
If they'd pitched me the original Bureau as "Delta Green: The Video Game," I'd've been all about it. But when you're telling me it's X-COM, when it very plainly is not, and when in absolutely every interview you give about it you demonstrate that you have at best a tenuous grasp on what made the original good, then, yeah - I'm not going to believe you, and I'm going to be kinda angry about it.
Yeah, I'm totally one of those people that was grumbly and skeptical of the transition to FPSRPG for Fallout. The previews did little to soothe me ("do we really need radio in this game?") and it's hard to showcase systemic depth and narrative flexibility in short videos. Had to get my hands on it myself to appreciate how it played, and I'm glad I still gave it a chance because I wound up loving it, warts and all. A less extreme case was with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, where I rolled my eyes at discussions about the world's aesthetic and fashion design and push-button takedowns. Bah! BAH! The original Deus Ex didn't need that to be awesome! Lo and behold, exposure to actual gameplay won me over; again imperfect, but it was still recognizably Deus Ex at its core.
Hell, a friend of mine got into Fallout 3 and then went back to try out Fallouts 1 and 2. And she loved them! She could appreciate the flexibility of character builds and problem solving even despite the dated appearances. To me that's a sign that something inherent to Fallout survived the transition.
It's natural to be wary of radical changes to existing series, because there are a lot of ways things can go wrong. If the end product is good enough, all can be forgiven - certain subdivisions of fandoms notwithstanding - and there are ways of keeping the 'feel' of a series while introducing something new. The title that would become The Bureau had the added handicap of a stay in development hell, on top of seeming to struggle with the series legacy; at which point why call it XCOM at all, except to cash in on said legacy. I can very much understand why fans would be upset or even angry. Some things you just shouldn't do lightly.
Edit: Going back to Fallout for a bit, part of the reason people were angry about Fallout: Tactics is because it was viewed as something instead of Fallout 3, as opposed to with Fallout 3. I would very much like to peek in on an alternate universe where a competent XCOM-themed FPS came out along with Enemy Unknown.
Sir Carcass can you receive gifts? Steam doesn't give me any clue that you can't when I add it to my cart
To be honest, I haven't actually tested buying or receiving, but Steam support said I wouldn't be able to do either while my account is restricted. I especially don't want to try it right now as I'm waiting for them to give me the last 9 months of purchases back.
I wasn't asking for nor expecting to be gifted the Portal table, but I do really appreciate you doing it anyway. I'm surprised it let the purchase go through, so I'll hold on to it until I at least get these missing games fixed before trying to activate it.
What steps have you taken at this point? I know you've emailed Gabe and I assume written back to their "Customer Service" team but have you taken this to twitter at all? Have you considered submitting to a site like Consumerist for results?
I haven't done much outside of Steam except post here about it. The last communication I had with them was on Monday where they asked for a list of titles that were missing, which I sent to them. I'm annoyed as hell with the process, but I haven't felt outraged enough to make a stink quite yet since things are moving, if incredibly slowly. Probably because I've had a lot of personal stuff going on lately and not much time to dwell on it.
I'll see what Monday brings before I start to escalate. I really hesitate to because this started as arguably my fault.
The Bureau actually ties in much more into the XCOM universe than what when it originally shown, after all those years of rework. Those amorphous faceless blobs for instance became established XCOM aliens.
No they don't. There are no Silacoids in Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within. The Sleepwalker stuff shows up in Enemy Within though.
EDIT: I apologize. Apparently Silacoids are in the original XCOM: UFO Defense. I've never made it far enough in that to see them. Sorry!
You might have, actually. They were the muton terror unit.
You might not remember them because they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I'm...still not sure what they do. Because all they seem to do is die. Quickly and easily.
I don't know. I'm phenomenally bad at old school XCOM. Like, I typically wipe in the first couple sorties, bad. That being said, if all they do is die then that's one that they actually did really well because Silacoid enemies are dumb fodder that you can and should kill with melee in The Bureau.
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
You have to actively try to get killed by a Silacoid in original x-com, and considering that this is a game whose lethality is legendary, that's saying a lot. They are the worst (which means they are the best as far as keeping your troopers alive is concerned) and make Reapers look like Chrysalids. Mutons drew up the shortest straw when it was time to choose terror units and had to pick the loser kids on playground.
I don't know. I'm phenomenally bad at old school XCOM. Like, I typically wipe in the first couple sorties, bad. That being said, if all they do is die then that's one that they actually did really well because Silacoid enemies are dumb fodder that you can and should kill with melee in The Bureau.
I am pretty rubbish at the original XCOM (certainly relative to my love for the series.) I'm very good at reading LPs of it, though.
I got to be halfway decent at XCOM Apocalypse, which is actually my favorite to play of the originals (a minority opinion, I know.)
You have to actively try to get killed by a Silacoid in original x-com, and considering that this is a game whose lethality is legendary, that's saying a lot. They are the worst (which means they are the best as far as keeping your troopers alive is concerned) and make Reapers look like Chrysalids. Mutons drew up the shortest straw when it was time to choose terror units and had to pick the loser kids on playground.
I think it was more because Mutons are just the terror unit themselves. Mutons'll wreck you.
Sir Carcass can you receive gifts? Steam doesn't give me any clue that you can't when I add it to my cart
To be honest, I haven't actually tested buying or receiving, but Steam support said I wouldn't be able to do either while my account is restricted. I especially don't want to try it right now as I'm waiting for them to give me the last 9 months of purchases back.
I wasn't asking for nor expecting to be gifted the Portal table, but I do really appreciate you doing it anyway. I'm surprised it let the purchase go through, so I'll hold on to it until I at least get these missing games fixed before trying to activate it.
What steps have you taken at this point? I know you've emailed Gabe and I assume written back to their "Customer Service" team but have you taken this to twitter at all? Have you considered submitting to a site like Consumerist for results?
I haven't done much outside of Steam except post here about it. The last communication I had with them was on Monday where they asked for a list of titles that were missing, which I sent to them. I'm annoyed as hell with the process, but I haven't felt outraged enough to make a stink quite yet since things are moving, if incredibly slowly. Probably because I've had a lot of personal stuff going on lately and not much time to dwell on it.
I'll see what Monday brings before I start to escalate. I really hesitate to because this started as arguably my fault.
Day 25 and counting.
I guess... Personally, I'd be going nuclear on this thing and hitting the twitter and the consumer sites. Their treatment of your issue is absolutely in no way your fault.
This type of issue happens all the time in the mobile gaming world. We've all seen tales of "Kid buys $500 in Smurfberries" and not once has the response been "Apple blocks customer from all purchases for 6 months and takes back 30 albums in the process".
+9
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
You have to actively try to get killed by a Silacoid in original x-com, and considering that this is a game whose lethality is legendary, that's saying a lot. They are the worst (which means they are the best as far as keeping your troopers alive is concerned) and make Reapers look like Chrysalids. Mutons drew up the shortest straw when it was time to choose terror units and had to pick the loser kids on playground.
I think it was more because Mutons are just the terror unit themselves. Mutons'll wreck you.
Troof.
It's one the game's very few mercies.
0
HalfazedninjaAuthor of Jake Howard: Multiverse 101!Behind YouRegistered Userregular
Just throwing it out there but might the FNG this week be Infinite Crisis? 5v5 custom matches with us yelling at each other over teamspeak could be fun.
The fact that people were actually angry about XCOM: The Bureau still amazes me. Actual anger with real frothing diatribes and everything. I found it embarrassing behavior, personally. Like, I was ashamed to say I am a fan of the series because of all that.
I was upset about it. Maybe even angry? I'll leave it to others to decide whether any writing I did about it at the time constituted frothing diatribes.
There are some games (or books or movies or songs/albums) that just take root in your very being. If you are going to continue a beloved series in some way, either with a sequel or a reboot, you need to be prepared to deal with people's strong connections to the originals and why they were beloved. Absolutely nothing they revealed about the FPS XCOM suggested they understood what made the originals great. If they had made major changes - gone to FPS and set in 1950's say -- but also made clear connections to the originals (maybe some of the same aliens, significant squad management and procedural levels with destructible terrain) most folks would probably have adopted a wait and see mentality.
Obviously there are Chicken Littles out there for any deviation from a beloved tenet of the originals. But in this instance, there wasn't a single thing about what they announced that tied it meaningfully to the original games. So I was upset.
Absolutely this.
Like, for an example of doing what they did and doing it right?
Fallout 3.
A top-down RPG got turned into an FPS (with some RPG underpinnings), which is a huge mechanical change, to answer your question @Santa Claustrophobia.
But it was still recognizably Fallout - there were vaults, you fought Radscorpions, Ghouls were out and walking around the Wastes, you paid for things in caps, etc.
If they'd pitched me the original Bureau as "Delta Green: The Video Game," I'd've been all about it. But when you're telling me it's X-COM, when it very plainly is not, and when in absolutely every interview you give about it you demonstrate that you have at best a tenuous grasp on what made the original good, then, yeah - I'm not going to believe you, and I'm going to be kinda angry about it.
I'm just going to be that person and say that I love the original Fallout games and very much disliked Fallout 3. I still replay 1 and 2 every couple of years (and have since they came out!), and I could barely stomach a single playthrough of Fallout 3.
Different strokes and all that, but I hate what Bethesda did to Fallout.
You have to actively try to get killed by a Silacoid in original x-com, and considering that this is a game whose lethality is legendary, that's saying a lot. They are the worst (which means they are the best as far as keeping your troopers alive is concerned) and make Reapers look like Chrysalids. Mutons drew up the shortest straw when it was time to choose terror units and had to pick the loser kids on playground.
Someone mentioned in Fanda's LP that they actually are immune to ballistic pistol and incendiary rounds, so if you just leave a silacoid alive at the end of a mission and equip your troops with pistols and/or incendiary rounds you can grind reactions and accuracy on them.
The fact that people were actually angry about XCOM: The Bureau still amazes me. Actual anger with real frothing diatribes and everything. I found it embarrassing behavior, personally. Like, I was ashamed to say I am a fan of the series because of all that.
I was upset about it. Maybe even angry? I'll leave it to others to decide whether any writing I did about it at the time constituted frothing diatribes.
There are some games (or books or movies or songs/albums) that just take root in your very being. If you are going to continue a beloved series in some way, either with a sequel or a reboot, you need to be prepared to deal with people's strong connections to the originals and why they were beloved. Absolutely nothing they revealed about the FPS XCOM suggested they understood what made the originals great. If they had made major changes - gone to FPS and set in 1950's say -- but also made clear connections to the originals (maybe some of the same aliens, significant squad management and procedural levels with destructible terrain) most folks would probably have adopted a wait and see mentality.
Obviously there are Chicken Littles out there for any deviation from a beloved tenet of the originals. But in this instance, there wasn't a single thing about what they announced that tied it meaningfully to the original games. So I was upset.
Absolutely this.
Like, for an example of doing what they did and doing it right?
Fallout 3.
A top-down RPG got turned into an FPS (with some RPG underpinnings), which is a huge mechanical change, to answer your question @Santa Claustrophobia.
But it was still recognizably Fallout - there were vaults, you fought Radscorpions, Ghouls were out and walking around the Wastes, you paid for things in caps, etc.
If they'd pitched me the original Bureau as "Delta Green: The Video Game," I'd've been all about it. But when you're telling me it's X-COM, when it very plainly is not, and when in absolutely every interview you give about it you demonstrate that you have at best a tenuous grasp on what made the original good, then, yeah - I'm not going to believe you, and I'm going to be kinda angry about it.
Dammit. Now I really want Delta Green: The Video Game.
Edit: Going back to Fallout for a bit, part of the reason people were angry about Fallout: Tactics is because it was viewed as something instead of Fallout 3, as opposed to with Fallout 3. I would very much like to peek in on an alternate universe where a competent XCOM-themed FPS came out along with Enemy Unknown.
I think it would look something Alien: Isolation with a Chyrsallid or System Shock 2 in terms of aesthetic and atmosphere.
Posts
"But fucking why", essentially.
It could. There is certainly room for games of differing genres in the same franchise. Hell, I was excited for The Bureau because I liked Enemy Unknown and I like shooters. But if you're going to set a new game in a new genre in an existing franchise then things need to feel like they belong. Mutons should be jumping all over the map. You shouldn't introduce a bunch of cool equipment and then not explain why it's not available later in the series chronologically. You shouldn't introduce a bunch of cool alien races and then never mention them again. You should, regardless of genre, strive to make your games feel like they belong together. XCOM (to me) is really embodied by permadeath and living with your decisions. The Bureau doesn't really have that. You can lose agents (but not Carter) and there's no middle ground. In the early game it's not a huge deal and at the end it's a "screw it, reload, I need that guy" moment. You never get that "I'm a year in and there goes my best support, it's time to bring Jimmy up from the B-team" feeling. You never really feel like you're researching things and making your squad better. You find random stuff in the environments to unlock for your guys, but you never have to prioritize and choose between stronger weapons and stronger armor. You have enough dudes to do every mission that comes up.
That's the big one. It's very contrary to the XCOM feeling for me to look at the map and say "Yeah, I can handle this comfortably" and that was my feeling throughout the game.
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, from Swery65, has a demo out. Good way to get a feel for the port. Game comes out on June 5.
No they don't. There are no Silacoids in Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within. The Sleepwalker stuff shows up in Enemy Within though.
EDIT: I apologize. Apparently Silacoids are in the original XCOM: UFO Defense. I've never made it far enough in that to see them. Sorry!
Strider is also down to $6 with that voucher.
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
Yeah, my son loves the Portal games and has been frothing since the table was Coming Soon. I let him play the demo of it last night and he was in heaven.
Too bad I can't buy it for him until November because Steam doesn't want my money right now. And doesn't want other people to spend money for me. And hasn't given me my $330 worth of games back yet.
grumble grumble
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
Does he have his own Steam account?
If not, can you set him up with one?
Last I heard him explain, he can play, but he can't buy or receive gifts.
It can. It has yet to work particularly well.
The last attempt at an X-COM action title was X-COM Enforcer. It was the last the title in the franchise before the revivals. Memories of that probably colored some fan reactions to the first announced revival title being another action title.
X-COM Interceptor was better as a combination of space sim and strategic management but still didn't really impress anyone. The Alien ships aren't as interesting as the aliens themselves which probably doesn't help.
X-COM has a ton of atmosphere that can be tough to capture in some genres. The tension and feeling of vulnerability are tough to do in standard action games. An X-COM action game would really work better as survival horror than trying to do a Mass Effect inspired deal.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
I made a target of myself. Oops.
Thanks to @rikdaly for some portal-y pinball!
Luckily I have no heart and I sold my soul a long time ago, so I'm immune to either of them being crushed by your wicked ways.
Thanks!
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
You probably remember correctly. A complaint about Interceptor was that there was a lot of out of place humor and pop culture references. I imagine it would be the same or worse in Enforcer.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
To be honest, I haven't actually tested buying or receiving, but Steam support said I wouldn't be able to do either while my account is restricted. I especially don't want to try it right now as I'm waiting for them to give me the last 9 months of purchases back.
I wasn't asking for nor expecting to be gifted the Portal table, but I do really appreciate you doing it anyway. I'm surprised it let the purchase go through, so I'll hold on to it until I at least get these missing games fixed before trying to activate it.
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
What steps have you taken at this point? I know you've emailed Gabe and I assume written back to their "Customer Service" team but have you taken this to twitter at all? Have you considered submitting to a site like Consumerist for results?
Which paved the way for Resident Evil 6.
I tried to warn you people.
Digression: Note to self, don't watch videos of Depth before bedtime. I think I now have a phobia of sharks where it didn't exist previously.
Absolutely this.
Like, for an example of doing what they did and doing it right?
Fallout 3.
A top-down RPG got turned into an FPS (with some RPG underpinnings), which is a huge mechanical change, to answer your question @Santa Claustrophobia.
But it was still recognizably Fallout - there were vaults, you fought Radscorpions, Ghouls were out and walking around the Wastes, you paid for things in caps, etc.
If they'd pitched me the original Bureau as "Delta Green: The Video Game," I'd've been all about it. But when you're telling me it's X-COM, when it very plainly is not, and when in absolutely every interview you give about it you demonstrate that you have at best a tenuous grasp on what made the original good, then, yeah - I'm not going to believe you, and I'm going to be kinda angry about it.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
You might not remember them because they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I'm...still not sure what they do. Because all they seem to do is die. Quickly and easily.
Soma out on September 22. Creepy new gameplay trailer.
I'm so excited I'm so excited I'm so scared
They made training your squad easy, actually!
I think they were supposed to light stuff on fire, it just never really worked right.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I had more than a few soldiers in some of my old playthroughs that could clear out entire battleships singlehandedly.
That is great news, I'm not leaving for vacation until June 20th and I just cleared up the ole credit card.
Yeah, I'm totally one of those people that was grumbly and skeptical of the transition to FPSRPG for Fallout. The previews did little to soothe me ("do we really need radio in this game?") and it's hard to showcase systemic depth and narrative flexibility in short videos. Had to get my hands on it myself to appreciate how it played, and I'm glad I still gave it a chance because I wound up loving it, warts and all. A less extreme case was with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, where I rolled my eyes at discussions about the world's aesthetic and fashion design and push-button takedowns. Bah! BAH! The original Deus Ex didn't need that to be awesome! Lo and behold, exposure to actual gameplay won me over; again imperfect, but it was still recognizably Deus Ex at its core.
Hell, a friend of mine got into Fallout 3 and then went back to try out Fallouts 1 and 2. And she loved them! She could appreciate the flexibility of character builds and problem solving even despite the dated appearances. To me that's a sign that something inherent to Fallout survived the transition.
It's natural to be wary of radical changes to existing series, because there are a lot of ways things can go wrong. If the end product is good enough, all can be forgiven - certain subdivisions of fandoms notwithstanding - and there are ways of keeping the 'feel' of a series while introducing something new. The title that would become The Bureau had the added handicap of a stay in development hell, on top of seeming to struggle with the series legacy; at which point why call it XCOM at all, except to cash in on said legacy. I can very much understand why fans would be upset or even angry. Some things you just shouldn't do lightly.
Edit: Going back to Fallout for a bit, part of the reason people were angry about Fallout: Tactics is because it was viewed as something instead of Fallout 3, as opposed to with Fallout 3. I would very much like to peek in on an alternate universe where a competent XCOM-themed FPS came out along with Enemy Unknown.
I haven't done much outside of Steam except post here about it. The last communication I had with them was on Monday where they asked for a list of titles that were missing, which I sent to them. I'm annoyed as hell with the process, but I haven't felt outraged enough to make a stink quite yet since things are moving, if incredibly slowly. Probably because I've had a lot of personal stuff going on lately and not much time to dwell on it.
I'll see what Monday brings before I start to escalate. I really hesitate to because this started as arguably my fault.
Day 25 and counting.
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
I don't know. I'm phenomenally bad at old school XCOM. Like, I typically wipe in the first couple sorties, bad. That being said, if all they do is die then that's one that they actually did really well because Silacoid enemies are dumb fodder that you can and should kill with melee in The Bureau.
I am pretty rubbish at the original XCOM (certainly relative to my love for the series.) I'm very good at reading LPs of it, though.
I got to be halfway decent at XCOM Apocalypse, which is actually my favorite to play of the originals (a minority opinion, I know.)
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
This type of issue happens all the time in the mobile gaming world. We've all seen tales of "Kid buys $500 in Smurfberries" and not once has the response been "Apple blocks customer from all purchases for 6 months and takes back 30 albums in the process".
Troof.
It's one the game's very few mercies.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Steam name is Doug "Rocket Man" Wilson. I don't know who he is on PA, but the gift has been sent via email.
@Svevin . Your key should be in steamgifts.
@Emberquick . Your key should also be in steamgifts.
Gratz to the winners, enjoy!
I'm just going to be that person and say that I love the original Fallout games and very much disliked Fallout 3. I still replay 1 and 2 every couple of years (and have since they came out!), and I could barely stomach a single playthrough of Fallout 3.
Different strokes and all that, but I hate what Bethesda did to Fallout.
Dammit. Now I really want Delta Green: The Video Game.
Oo\ Ironsizide
I think it would look something Alien: Isolation with a Chyrsallid or System Shock 2 in terms of aesthetic and atmosphere.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772