Xcom
 

I just discovered that this was released a few days ago - it's apparently a remake of the original UFO Defence / Enemy Unknown game from 1994. Has anybody here tried it? What often happens with these reboots is that the graphics and sound are updated to give it that cinematic feel, but the gameplay is either wholly dumbed-down or so faithfully reproduced that it still has all the irritating quirks of the original. Interested in anyone's view of how they've managed this issue. The original was one of my all-time favourite games.

I have a bunch of friends who were huge fans of the original; several of them are playing the remake and I haven't heard any rants about how they Ruined It Forever, so so far so good...

I'm going to be avoiding it until the first bugfix release (there are some awful ones), but for the most part the re-imagining has designed out the game mechanics that allowed you to shoot yourself in the foot.

Having a lot of fun with it, but I have my doubts on longer term replayability.

The main good point that is kept from the original is the tension. Every time you open a door, walk a tiny bit too far for comfort or have to decide whether you want cover on your front or side facing you dread that sound that aliens have been spotted...

There is a playable demo that you can download from their website. I suggest you try that before making any decision to buy. To me it looks like they have changed the strategic-portion of the game to eye-candy cinematics which would be very strong "no buy" for me. However I have not actually tried that yet.

I'm fan of xcom series, but have been too busy playing CIV 4 these few weeks to try that demo. CIV is scary, you lose your track of time completely with it. Luckily game can show you clock and you can set alarms to stop you from playing. Really bad case of "one more turn".

Thanks for the tip about the demo. You're playing Civ IV rather than V? I have to say I *really* liked the move to hexes in Civ V, and I didn't notice any significant steps backwards from Civ IV. Are you playing on an older machine, or do you actually prefer Civ IV?

Older machine, but also I don't own Civ V which makes playing it a bit hard. What I have heard about the game makes me a bit reluctant to try it at least until it has got a few "service packs". It actually sound to me like two completely different games. OTOH Civ IV and Civ 2 are also two completely different games.

i'm looking for some copy of the 1994 game. modern games don't hold my interest. they seem to focus too hard on being "modern" or "hardcore" of whatever classification current game makers are striving for. "ahem" ummm....
I am pointing at commercial game makers "cough, cough, ahem, cough, cough".

It have a problem running on a modern computers, in particular even if all animation options are set to slowest possible, it is still instant, so it is impossible to see what happens on enemy turn.

Isn't that what DosBox is for?