XCOM delayed beyond Q1 2012

@houstons85 Amen!

@nimzy I dunno. Syndicate's been worked on for a long time, has a specific release date attached to it, and they've dealt very well with the criticism. Starbreeze has been on the offense with social media and whatnot comparing and contrasting their version of Syndicate with the original... but 2K Marin just kind of retreated into a hole for a year.

@Damoney125

Honestly I'd be far more receptive of the game if they didn't append X-com to it. I might have even been able to accept it on some level as a spiritual successor.

But really getting tired of everything devolving into FPS.

@Kresh
I second everything you just said.

@Kresh I agree, I played all of the early versions (still remember hanging out with my high school buddies and playing the game huddled around my one friend's screen.)

Times change, if we were to watch an old time movie like a silent movie or something of that ilk it would be enjoyable but you'd hardly want to watch it all the time or expect film makers to make movies using the exact same techniques. Look at stage performances of Shakespeare plays, yeah there are traditionalists but people invent new ways of adapting the stories all the time. Why should vide games be any different?

Sorry Rant Mode Off I agree with you. :-)

@Kresh

The problem is that this utterly kills any chance of getting a real X-com game.

A: It does well and spawns a string of sequels that are also scripted first person shooters in the vein of Bioshock.

B: It does poorly and no one will touch X-com with a ten foot pole.

Those are the only two options available now.

@Regault
I thought 10 years since the last X-COM game plus the handful of lukewarm sequels killed any chance of a "real X-COM game"? Seriously. It's not like the first one came out last year and 2k took a sharp left turn. Lots of people tried to top the first. Every one was a failure. 10 years after the last attempt and you think they should try again?

@Kresh
I've never played the original, but I will say that I am not a big FPS fan at all, and yet this looks quite interesting to me. Pretty much the only modern FPSs I've played are Bioshock and (currently) L.A. Noire, outside of the occasional Halo match with a friend.

I'm most excited about the investigation and research parts, which, based on my understanding, is a huge aspect from the original. Perhaps it's because of the preview I read in GI that has me more excited than the average person?

@Al Ferreira Not being argumentative, but how so? It's a delay from the end of one quarter to some time in the next fiscal year (which starts at the end of the month it was intended for release.) What I've seen actually looks fun and promising. As a fan of the series it'll be neat to see an update on the concept. I'm not saying it will for sure come out but what evidence do you have that makes you feel this way?

@Al Ferreira

With the direction it was going, I'm totally fine with it being vaporware.

Yeah it looks like a decent generic fps maybe even a fun game but X-com it is not.

Crap like this is why we can't have nice things ..... and why games like CarnageHeart Portable was never released in our market (see: its not an FPS).

@commonperson

I'm really just going by the various retooling this title has gone through, the idea that neither version that has been seen has generated much in the way of good press. The layoffs at the studio that have happened, the new delay, etc etc.

Not trying to be a problem, but, this has all the earmarks of a title that isn't going to come out. It may have been a great concept, but, sometimes things don't come together. They would probably be better off cutting their losses and moving on to something else.

If this had not had the X-COM tag, it probably would have disappeared already.

@Ceridith Please define: "Real Sequel."

I thought XCOM was about finding an alien menace, trying to combat them with ill-equipped troops, researching way to combat them better, and eventually taking the fight to the alien menace instead of just reacting.

Or is XCOM only XCOM if it's played with a geoscape and turn-based tactical missions? Or do the aliens have to look like B-Movie aliens from the 50s for it to be XCOM?

Please clarify your statement; it's a bit ambiguous right now.

@Ceridith

Simple X-Com is not an FPS, it benefits in no way from being an FPS.

While this game might eventually turn out to be decent ...... they could have called it Dimensional Gumshoes for all it has in common with X-com save they bought up the IP.

This is called X-com for the simple reason that the name alone will move games and its an FPS because thats all the dev team probably knows how to code.

@Kresh
I figured it would pretty clear when I said "since Apocalypse", and not "since Interceptor," that I meant the lack of any overhead tactical combat for missions.

Not to mention that the mission system in the new "XCOM" game looks to be pre-set options on static maps. A lot of the fun of the original Trilogy was random missions with random maps and random enemy placement that made for near infinite re playability.

@Ceridith

But but but then they couldn't sell you map pack DLC

@Scuffles

Or the PSP/Vita ...... something portable (hell preferably all of the aforementioned)

@Dooliss Believe me, not many people are going to buy this.

And they don't want just a "copy and paste" of the 1994 game. The fans want the mechanics of the first game and still as a turn-based game but improved the interface. That's all they had to do and many people would be excited for it.

Instead they took the easy route and made it a FPS at first and then a pseudo-Mass Effect.

@Dooliss

When you find out they are going to turn the next of your favorite FPS into some social game on facebook.... maybe say Halo village or Call of Duty Ville, then maybe you might have some insight into exactly why bastardizing a franchise is a bad thing.

@Scuffles
Bad examples, bro. Halo and COD have spawned a whole bunch of really successful sequels and are still in production. X-COM produced one stellar game (the first one) and a bunch of sequels that everybody generally forgets about. Then they announced the next game would be a FPS (10+ years ago) and it all quietly died.

This isn't so much bastardizing a franchise as bringing back a dead one that has had lots of misses over the years.

@Zippon

I wouldn't say that the possibility of the next Halo/COD game being a web bases social farmville clone a bad example. Because people who love those games as FPS would freak the hell out.

Now on the topic of successful sequels they are actually also perfect examples. They have had a successful franchise run for one simple fact they didn't change their formula, much like Zelda. They are smart enough to recognize a good thing and stick with it.

Yeah the first X-com was the best in the series, the second was essentially a reskin and the third was so-so but everything after that was pure crap. Instead of looking at that and going back to square one they have decided to push the crap angle in the hopes that you know..... maybe this time it'll stick.

I'm going to stick to my guns and say that this looks like it could be a decent game but it is in no way X-com and should be branded as such. Calling it X-com for the sake of sales and for the fact they bought up the IP, they decided to push the known quantity/nostalgia angle and it doesn't do them any favors.

The only thing it has made me seriously consider is buying Xenonauts.

@Scuffles

I se this as a chance to revive a great series for the shooter-focused market of today. If it does well, then more open-minded people will go back to the earlier games and like those too.

@Dooliss Sorry, but some people don't like seeing one of their favorite old franchises reduced to generic shooters riding off of Bioshock's post 50's retro feel coattails.

@Diet Kane

Then don't get it. It's simple. Pretend it doesn't exist

@Steel Toad Exactly. It's sad that turn based strategy games are practically extinct in favor of another generic FPS. This game has more in common with Destroy all Humans than Xcom.