Hey, everybody else has started a let's play and abandoned it. Lets Play X-Com!

[chiasaur11]

Assuming I ever get a place in any active team, that is.

Which is unlikely, as the Europe base has an active psi core, which should manage to massively cut casualties.

Fort Fri, however, has no psionics division.

[Rockphed]

Which is unlikely, as the Europe base has an active psi core, which should manage to massively cut casualties.

Fort Fri, however, has no psionics division.

Real Men learn to resist mind control through sheer stupidity, sir!

[chiasaur11]

Real Men learn to resist mind control through sheer stupidity, sir!

Trooper Knight's been trying that.

It doesn't work that well, really.

[Cubey]

So we have Mutons now? Does that mean we're slowly entering endgame content?

And who'd thought that green frogsuits would make so efficient armor? It's great for camouflage too.


Where is Muton Waldo?

[chiasaur11]

So we have Mutons now? Does that mean we're slowly entering endgame content?

And who'd thought that green frogsuits would make so efficient armor? It's great for camouflage too.


Where is Muton Waldo?

Slowly?

Our squad of ultimate badasses has psychics, the Martian solution available for research, heavy plasma and the craft research passing Firestorm.

The aliens are just now realizing how big a mistake they made in underestimating X-COM.

Which they are attempting to correct, obviously, but we should be planting the flag on Cydonia by August at the latest.

[Alex Knight]

Trooper Knight's been trying that.

It doesn't work that well, really.

It works well enough to let me beat up Chryssalids though!

[Alex Knight]

BTW, inspired by Chia, what would people say if I started up a similar Terror from the Deep game for the forum?

[Jimorian]

Why is this can of ethanol alcohol half empty?

I've been doin' my own ::hic:: shperiments in counterereracting the mind control. I fig...figer if I can't control what my body ish doing, thoze bugs don't shtand a... don't shstand a chance....

[Cubey]

BTW, inspired by Chia, what would people say if I started up a similar Terror from the Deep game for the forum?

Didn't chiasaur express an interest of starting a let's play of that after this one is done? I could be mistaken.

I'd say go for it anyway.

[Oslecamo]

Didn't chiasaur express an interest of starting a let's play of that after this one is done? I could be mistaken.

It will be specially impressive that chiasaur will be the first person to actually finish a "let's play" in these forums, when he himself said in the begginning there was a big chance he would drop the thing by midway.

BTW, it's kinda sad that X-com has such great gameplay, yet it seems that no modern game comes even close to the complexity and realism it offers....

[Cubey]

Yeah, especially since we're more than halfway done with the game, or so it seems.
Wait, we're basically at endgame and still no alien bases? Lucky... Or unlucky, because they have lots of goodies too.

[Lord of Rapture]

Maybe. It may be also nostalgia that makes everyone worship it. They made an exact 3D copy of the game with the exact same gameplay mechanics, and everyone yelled that it sucked.

Sure, it's one of the best games ever, but it seems people can't let go of the past...

[Eldan]

You mean the UFO games? Where they any good?

[Tengu_temp]

They have a different focus (smaller groups, more personalized soldiers, lower death rate), but they're very good and a fitting legacy of the old games. At least the first one is - I haven't seen much of the second and even less of the third.

[Smight]

UFO Extraterestrials is the one that tried to copy x-com and failed miserably,
for one the soliders don't even die they get unconscious, whitch realy destroys the feeling,
UFO series is realtime with pause and not so brutal as x-com, OK game in my opinion, only bigger fault is that 3rd game has vary limited number of recrouts which makes saving mandatory.

[Johnny Blade]

Maybe. It may be also nostalgia that makes everyone worship it. They made an exact 3D copy of the game with the exact same gameplay mechanics, and everyone yelled that it sucked.

Sure, it's one of the best games ever, but it seems people can't let go of the past...

I second Eldan's question - what exactly do you mean?
I've been looking for games like that, and found none that are really exact clones, which would be what I want.

Okay, there's this, but apparently, it's always Ironman (Game Design 101 here - you ****ed it up good) and the soldiers' stats start out a lot lower than in X-Com, which makes me wary as I don't want them to go from complete chumps to gods among mortals like this was D&D or so.

[Oslecamo]

UFO Extraterestrials is the one that tried to copy x-com and failed miserably,
for one the soliders don't even die they get unconscious, whitch realy destroys the feeling,
UFO series is realtime with pause and not so brutal as x-com, OK game in my opinion, only bigger fault is that 3rd game has vary limited number of recrouts which makes saving mandatory.

Well, if this is true, then they are indeed much diferent than the original. There's a world of diference between "dead guys stay dead" and "nobody ever dies lolz!".

Anyway, thanks Johnny Blade for the linck, downloading now. What can I say? I'm a sadomasochist and I love hardcore games!

[Johnny Blade]

Well, I guess it's okay for those who have played X-Com before.

But while I have my fair share of experience with tactical games, my nonexistent knowledge of the aliens I encounter and the weapons I use mean that Ironman is something I won't touch for a long time.

[Oslecamo]

Actually, from what I've read on the wiki it's only ironman during combat. If a mission goes horribly wrong, you can load to before said mission and try to do it again now knowing wich is the dangerous side of your weapon.

Besides it seems they've changed some important stuff even for X-com specialists. Laser weaponry now seems to use ammo and can't fire trough smoke/fire for example.

[chiasaur11]

Didn't chiasaur express an interest of starting a let's play of that after this one is done? I could be mistaken.

I'd say go for it anyway.

Seconded.

Even if I do it, it'd be a while (and likely end in total loss.)

[ZeroNumerous]

It will be specially impressive that chiasaur will be the first person to actually finish a "let's play" in these forums, when he himself said in the begginning there was a big chance he would drop the thing by midway.

I've been thinking about starting up a Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11 LP. I figure it's easier to do a screenshot LP on games that are able to be picked up and put down at a whim.

BTW, it's kinda sad that X-com has such great gameplay, yet it seems that no modern game comes even close to the complexity and realism it offers....

Rebelstar, X-COM on the go.

EDIT: Damn I suck at making links.

[Artanis]

I played UFO:AI a bit a while back, but gave it up because it was so incomplete that the game simply stopped at a certain point. How far are you able to progress in the game now?

[chiasaur11]

"Right. Power armored alien hairless gorilla scientists. That's nice, Ninja."

And another productive meeting ends.

As I walk out of the office, confident in the knowledge that, it being the 27th any attacks are pretty much over. Sure, there might be one or two scouts or some other minor thing, but...

"Sir! You know that terror ship we missed earlier?"

"Vaguely."

"It's attacking Tokyo."

Crap.



"Alright team, listen up. Seems the Snakemen want to stage their own Toho studies monster movie. We play Gamera."

"Gamera's Daiei."

"Thank you Ferrus. That is obviously more important than, say, shooting the Snakemen. I mean, Tokyo can fend for itself, but heaven help us all if I can't remember which studio made some z-list films for MST3K."
Zero Numerous piped up.
"Wait. The Best Brains staff didn't make those movies themselves?"
"No."
"Dear lord. Someone actually intentionally created Manos, the Hands of Fate?"
"Yes."
"Seems the invaders have some justification."

Right. This is why we have Lopez around.

He rolled out and spotted some potential problems quickly.

Tengu, BRC, and I ensured they did not become actual problems.

The 'Lids, oddly, spotted a mind controlled one of their fellows almost instantly, and went berserk. Cut down on hassles for us, which is good, but it still was odd.

The Snakemen seemed aware something was off. Grenades hit Lopez and a nearby Chryssalid, but Lopez shook it off. Seemed he wasn't the main target anyway.

Another oddity awaited down south. Seemed some Snakemen were intentionally hitting themselves with stun bombs. This was... not normal.
Still, that seemed all of them, except a Chryssalid I'd decided to try to capture for study.

The response was... energized.

Fiddler spoke for the group as a whole over the intercom.
"Are you nuts? Remember what happened in 'Alien'? And 'Aliens'? And 'Alien Resurrection'? And Alien vs Predator for the Jaguar?"
"Don't worry about it. These things don't..."
"Spotted one. Seems we weren't as thorough as we should have.."

"Did you see that?! The thing bit a civvie, and the poor *&^(..."
"Right. I see your point about these things."
I paused. These things were at least as bad as Xenomorphs.
"How about I send Copper?"
"Sounds reasonable."

"Are you sure about this, sir? Knight has more experience in these matters."
"Shut up and hit the thing with a stick."

"Got it."
"Um. Good. That's it. Good."
Fiddler came in again.

"'Lid's dead, but the zombie's right by a civilian. Lopez has a shot, but it's not a clean one. Orders?"
Tengu'd tried mind controlling a zombie, but it was no good. Neural pathways were almost human, but not close enough to make it easier.
I knew what to do.
"Lopez, waste the civie. Better dead than zed."

"Got him."

The Zed lumbered into a house nearby. Someone was inside. Seems this time the plague would spread. I heard a scream, and waited for the moan sure to follow.
Huh. No moan. Russo had a lot to answer for.
"Headshots, Fiddler. One last zed, and we all can go home."
"Boom."

"As Hellboy would say: CRAP!"
But Lopez knew no fear.

And the Chryssalid knew what its innards look like.

And with that, we saved Tokyo. The Chryssalids were... interesting. It'd be good to know a tad more.

[EleventhHour]

Zombies, insane Snakemen, dying X-Coms dying aliens and... Well, Lopez.

Looks like a chaotic mission. (Slaanesh wasn't there, was he?)

\/ - (Lid looked more like a name than a reference to the aliens. >.> )

[chiasaur11]

Zombies, insane Snakemen, dying X-Coms and... Well, Lopez.

Looks like a chaotic mission. (Slaanesh wasn't there, was he/she/it/gah?)

No, and we didn't lose anybody. This one didn't go too bad, really. Got a live Chryssalid too. The lab should find that interesting.

[Oslecamo]

Couple of quick questions:

1-Wich difficulty are you playing?

2-Is there any use researching dead aliens besides geting to know their weack points?

[chiasaur11]

Couple of quick questions:

1-Wich difficulty are you playing?

2-Is there any use researching dead aliens besides geting to know their weak points?

1) Easiest, but that's because DOS X-COM always defaults to that anyway.

2) No. Live aliens other than Navigators, Etherals, Leaders, and Commanders aren't much better. But the benefits from those guys is good enough to make their capture priority one.

[Oslecamo]

1) Easiest, but that's because DOS X-COM always defaults to that anyway.

What do you mean it defaults? Aren't you suposed to pick it each time you begin the game one more time from the beggining?

And anyway, if the horrors you've faced are the easiest mode, wow, I can only imagine how the game is in hardest...

[chiasaur11]

What do you mean it defaults? Aren't you suposed to pick it each time you begin the game one more time from the beggining?

And anyway, if the horrors you've faced are the easiest mode, wow, I can only imagine how the game is in hardest...

It's a glitch in the game.
No matter what difficulty you pick, every mission but the first is on the easiest difficulty.

All that changes is the number and stats of the enemy, but with some of the guys showing up next month, that's bad enough to make one very glad one is playing on easy.

Edit: And I'm saving and loading to prevent the worst disasters. X-COM is a harsh mistress.

[Pie Guy]

I'm ashamed to ask this, but how do I shoot in X-com?