XCOM: Enemy Unknown PC gameplay demo and Multiplayer footage

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but will the full game have randomly generated mission maps like the original?
 
I don't think you guys are right about the rank. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying go out with only rookies, but the way your stats leveled was by using them,not by gaining ranks. Ranks were a factor of how many soldiers you have. If you had 1 colonel, you had 2 majors and probably 4 captains or something like that. Basically, every time you got more troops, or a soldier gained a higher rank, some other soldiers also gained ranks underneath them, but proportionally. And you could have a squaddie, who has been on many missions and with many kills have some nice stats increases. Basically, if you have a soldier carrying a lot of equipment, his str will increase, if you use up all the Time Units, then his time will increase, if he shoots an alien as a reaction, then his reaction will increase, etc.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2271625&page=3
 
Sorry if this has been mentioned, but will the full game have randomly generated mission maps like the original?

From what I saw in vids. They said there are 80 diffrent battle grounds they've made. So I don't think it's randomly generated but it will vary a great deal. That and they'll have different spawn spots.

Did the original have randomly generated battle grounds or premade like this new one?


I don't think you guys are right about the rank. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying go out with only rookies, but the way your stats leveled was by using them,not by gaining ranks. Ranks were a factor of how many soldiers you have. If you had 1 colonel, you had 2 majors and probably 4 captains or something like that. Basically, every time you got more troops, or a soldier gained a higher rank, some other soldiers also gained ranks underneath them, but proportionally. And you could have a squaddie, who has been on many missions and with many kills have some nice stats increases. Basically, if you have a soldier carrying a lot of equipment, his str will increase, if you use up all the Time Units, then his time will increase, if he shoots an alien as a reaction, then his reaction will increase, etc.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2271625&page=3

I'm fairly certain Rank were not a factor of how many soldiers you had. I had high rankers with no new soldiers. For more than half the game, I usually only have my original 6 or 8 guys... I can't remember the number.

I'm pretty late in making new bases. And I reload A LOT. =/

Stats, I can't confirm it to be one way or another. I just assumed it was rank related. If what you're saying is true... then man, I just found another thing I need to work on the next time I play. Maybe I'll be better.
 
I resorted to just shooting walls and trees and bushes.. (with laser rifles - unlimited ammo).
I am not 100% certain that they add to your accuracy, but i think anytime you shoot (and hit), your accuracy increase.

I know for a fact that in XCOM Apocalypse, if you wanted accuracy to increase, you had to load up your guys with the autocanon that had explosives rounds. You could have a crazy accuracy increase in the first few missions that way since with explosive rounds, you only had to hit close to your target and the explosion would hit that target, and it would count as a hit. I'm pretty sure that the same formula was used in Xcom.
 
That does not work for Xcom, I just tried it.

My experience disagrees, but I guess it's possible they've changed it.

"
Date: Oct. 1, 2012, 6:23 p.m.
Order ID: xxx
Retailer: Green Man Gaming

Items bought:
1. XCOM: Enemy Unknown $33.75
Total: $33.75
"
 
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Rank was absolutely not linked to number of soldiers.
Ranking up was a function of achievements for that soldier. Simply walking around and not doing anything would not get you any skillups.

Increases in skill only occurred on a level up in rank, and was not based on 'use' of that skill. From experience I can tell you that a soldier with weak Psi Strength needed to be left in the base or sold, ESPECIALLY if they were rockstars on accuracy had a lot of TU's. Reason is because their Psi Strength would _never_ increase, and the Ethereals would turn them into their own personal assassins. Not to be confused with Psi Skill.

The one exception to this rule is when you are first putting soldiers through psi training, where they went from no psi power to 'whatever they ended up with'.

Because of the randomness, I would just equip people with light weaponry and do a bunch of missions. I'd wait to see how their stats panned out and I'd either stick the less performing guys in the base as second string, or I would just outright sell them if they were too crappy.

Then the second round of cuts would come after you got the ability to train your psi powers. Undoubtedly you would have one guy with killer accuracy but end up with like 5 psi strength. I typically would buy a batch of 30 soldiers when my psi training building was almost done, so that I could toss them all into training right fresh as rookies, find out who had good psi strength, and get rid of the rest... repeat until you have a full team.

Also, LOL at comparing UFO Defense to Apocalypse. They were nowhere even close to the same game. The 'formula' for the game changed completely after TFTD.
 
My experience disagrees, but I guess it's possible they've changed it.

"
Date: Oct. 1, 2012, 6:23 p.m.
Order ID: xxx
Retailer: Green Man Gaming

Items bought:
1. XCOM: Enemy Unknown $33.75
Total: $33.75
"

Customer notes
Vouchers not valid on this product.

is what it says. And I couldn't find another xcom on their site. SO either they changed it. Or they're just screwing me over.
 
I just thought of the perfect example... Just like Serpent, I rarely used an entire team. I *would* take a whole team of like 20 in an avenger, but would only use around 10 of them.

The units that I left in the ship would never rank up and never increase in skill.

That ended up being a liability since you would eventually run into Ethereals or Sectoids that had mind control, and you'd end up losing any soldiers left in the ship.
 
psy stregth was the only skill that you could not level, not disagreeing, but I have XCOM at home, i'll take a look at my pre and post mission soldier stats. I'm actually in a middle of a game now. (gotta love DosBox)

And your example does confirm what i said, if a soldier does nothing (stays in the craft) then they dont level their stats, since they... did nothing. But those that did leave the craft and did something, did increase in stats. Thanks for agreeing.
 
Rank was absolutely not linked to number of soldiers.
Ranking up was a function of achievements for that soldier. Simply walking around and not doing anything would not get you any skillups.
.

I wouldn't say absolutely not linked. I have had several soldiers that never even left the skyranger, never fired a shot or used psi skill, and were promoted. You can't get a "colonel" until you have XX amount of soldiers. When you have XX amount of soldiers you WILL have someone promoted to colonel.

Usually the promotion is given with preference to better stats. However if I am just doing a bunch of PSI training sometimes I will hire 30+ soldiers so I can skim off the good ones and toss the rest. This will result in a lot of promotions, some of them without a single mission under their belt.

Sorry for the slightly off topic!
 
psy stregth was the only skill that you could not level, not disagreeing, but I have XCOM at home, i'll take a look at my pre and post mission soldier stats. I'm actually in a middle of a game now. (gotta love DosBox)

And your example does confirm what i said, if a soldier does nothing (stays in the craft) then they dont level their stats, since they... did nothing. But those that did leave the craft and did something, did increase in stats. Thanks for agreeing.

Don't try to put words in my mouth, as my example does not at all confirm what you said. Their skills were not upgraded because they did not rank up. Getting shot, killing something, and completing missions would rank up your soldiers. Ranking up got them enhanced stats. Stats were not upgraded until the units ranked up. The resulting stats had nothing to do with what they did on the missions that lead up to the rank up, and were assigned completely randomly.

E.G. you could have a guy with awesome psi strength and skill, mind control the crap out of the enemy, and when they got a rankup they would end up with like 110 accuracy and no buff to their psi abilities.

It was one of intriguing aspects to the game since you constantly had to monitor your soldiers abilities to change around who was doing what before you went on any mission, otherwise you'd again end up trying to use a guy with 5 psi strength to do mind control, or a dude with only 50 TU's equipped with a blaster launcher.
 
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The Rank system for UFO enemy unknowned (or UFO Defense for PS1)
worked as a combination of what you guys are saying.

I clearly remember using all my AP points in all my soldiers because that increased
their stamina. The more you kill the better Aim and so forth.

If a specific soldier got promoted (yes it had to do with the ammount of soldiers as well)
So a soldier can be promoted simply because of the ranks needed bellow.
A promotion did not mean more skills such as better stamina or so it just didnt matter.

I hope I was able to clear that up.

This game is going to be awesome because it a strategy game like valkyria chronicles (VC did not get the attention it deserved - great strategy game one of the best I played since the original xcom) but It also has a Build system (a very complex system) which is going to be
so rewarding getting the alien artifact studying them and then building them.

You have to be into this kinda game to enjoy it.
If your more of a FPS gamer this game will be too slow for you.

Im getting the GAMESTOP DVD COPY PC
Xcom enemy unknowned special edition
its $59.99
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/xcom-enemy-unknown-special-edition/99061

It comes with the Elite Soldier pack which allows you to customize your soldiers.
It also comes with a Poster, Patch (for stiching) and Art Book and ofcouse a case which I
can display next to my original xcom box which also came with a poster.

Cant wait!
 
Regarding the ranking system - one of my friends and I both played this game at the same time. He used the same team over and over, while I had three teams. My colonel did not have better stats than his ?captain? (can't remember his rank). Getting colonel was definitely based on number of soldiers, and the skills point upgrades looked like they came from usage since his top soldier was much better than mine. Not sure if promotions added extra skills though.
 
This game is going to be awesome because it a strategy game like valkyria chronicles (VC did not get the attention it deserved - great strategy game one of the best I played since the original xcom)

I had to come in here just to agree with this statement
 
Just pre-ordered. Civ V is now unlocked for the pre-order, not that it was the basis for my order.

Only a few days left on the pre-order.
Available: October 8th, 2012
 
Just a heads up gmg gives you a 10$ credit if you order there now, or you can wait until the 10th at 11:00 UTC to use the 25% coupon.
 
Just a heads up gmg gives you a 10$ credit if you order there now, or you can wait until the 10th at 11:00 UTC to use the 25% coupon.

Nice!

Just preordered. Thanks. I don't really want to wait til the 10th, chances are it won't work then either. It'll probabyl still have the "discount" and therefore prevent you. Though I could always be wrong.
 
Nice!

Just preordered. Thanks. I don't really want to wait til the 10th, chances are it won't work then either. It'll probabyl still have the "discount" and therefore prevent you. Though I could always be wrong.


Yes it will work then, it says specifically on the coupon "Excludes Xcom (NA) - Until 11:00 UTC on 8/10th." The coupon itself expires the 12th.
 
LOL @ people talking trash about the demo.

You havent played the original.
The beginning of the game is painfully bad because
all of your skills are 0.
This game doesnt get interesting till you dumped about 40+ hrs aleast.
 
LOL @ people talking trash about the demo.

You havent played the original.
The beginning of the game is painfully bad because
all of your skills are 0.
This game doesnt get interesting till you dumped about 40+ hrs aleast.

:confused: Beat the original close to 30 times over the years.

Nothing wrong with 0 skill terror missions...
 
lol...not your skill the soldier's skills are @ 0 when you start the game.
Thats why the demo sucks..

put in the time to level your soldier and bases and its so addictive.
 
LOL @ people talking trash about the demo.

You havent played the original.
The beginning of the game is painfully bad because
all of your skills are 0.
This game doesnt get interesting till you dumped about 40+ hrs aleast.

LOL at assumptions. The demo is shit. It does what you don't want a demo to do. Discourages more than it encourages people buying.

Most of us have, or else we probably wouldn't even know what XCom is. Unless you are talking about apocalypse. That, I admit, I've never played... or anything after that.

Only UFO Defense and Terrors from the Deep for me, thanks.
 
lol...not your skill the soldier's skills are @ 0 when you start the game.
Thats why the demo sucks..

put in the time to level your soldier and bases and its so addictive.

Original was fun at all levels. Early on it had the extra challenge.
 
LOL @ people talking trash about the demo.

You havent played the original.
The beginning of the game is painfully bad because
all of your skills are 0.
This game doesnt get interesting till you dumped about 40+ hrs aleast.

Beat the original game 5 times on a 486. Your post is bad and you should feel bad.
 
I'm looking forward to both this and dishonored...two of the more unique titles this year, and I think the only two I'm actually looking forward to.
 
I'm actually considering getting the console version (xbox). Since the art style is sort of cartoonie and there aren't that many graphic options anyway.
 
Johnle MVP

Whats about future PC mods?
Something you cant do with consoles.

I wanted to purchase this for the PS3, but the mod possibilities
are endless in this type of game.

@the rest
X-Com sucks at the beggining and it doesnt get interesting till you dump tons of
Hrs. If you played the original you should now that. The original is
NOT fun unless you enjoy missing horribly all the time.
 
Johnle MVP
X-Com sucks at the beggining and it doesnt get interesting till you dump tons of
Hrs. If you played the original you should now that. The original is
NOT fun unless you enjoy missing horribly all the time.

I had the exactly opposite experience, the most fun are the first few missions since:
- you have no body armor
- your weapons are weak
- you are really nervous about loosing a guy
- you have no money
- you dont know if your solders will be mind controlled
- etc..

Once you tech up, level up, and weed out the psy weak ones, the game becomes a bit boring since you know you will win. But the first few missions really make it tough and keep you on the edge of your seat. (that is generally my experience with most games, since by the end, it's just a matter of cleaning up. STALKER for me was the best before i went to the Brain Scorcher and encountered the monolith. By then I had good armor and gun so it was easy to deal with them)

Example, I am replying this now and my 4 or 5th mission was a terror attach. I had some guys in basic armor already and i had laser rifles on some guys. I saw chrystalid attaching civilian out in the shadows. I immediately rushed 5 guys to back up my one scout and started unloading all that i had and throwing grenades. If a chrystalid came close, my guys who were protecting other flanks occasionally had to take an aimed shot or two from far away... I was really scared of loosing a guy there. We put down 3-4 chrystalids that way, one was even unconscious.

By the time i have flying suits, it's way easier.
 
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Johnle MVP
@the rest
X-Com sucks at the beggining and it doesnt get interesting till you dump tons of
Hrs. If you played the original you should now that. The original is
NOT fun unless you enjoy missing horribly all the time.

You couldn't be more wrong... and you should "KNOW" that. (see what I did there) :p

XCom is an all time great game for many reasons and everyone has their own view of what made it great fun.

For me, actually being able to lose squaddies (perma death) and the fun of trying missions in different ways... early on use High Explosives on terror missions to nuke open buildings that you would normally lose a squaddie or two trying to clear.

Figuring out the different space ships and how to attack them based on the weaponry you had at the time... fun stuff.

BTW FWIW - I purchased yesterday via Amazon download... I had a credit and the discount brought it all down to a decent price for me. They aren't releasing the game code until launch it seems... so if you need it now and want to preload... get it from Steam it seems... or maybe GMG not sure if they are releasing code this early.

Cheers and happy hunting tomorrow! :D
 
Yes GMG has released the codes for xcom already as well as dishonored.
 
Steam copy will be available 9PM pacific time today. I have it pre-loaded and ready to go. I think it was about 12GB.
 
I agree with most of the above poster. X-com the original was a very difficult game in the early portions and gets a bit easier as you go along, I've actually only ever finished a handful of campaigns but started a lot more of them than I finished.

Interestingly the gameplay videos seems to be a lot better than that demo, I'll wait for an opinion from a buddy whose gonna get it, he was bigger xcom fanatic than me
 
I had the exactly opposite experience, the most fun are the first few missions since:
- you have no body armor
- your weapons are weak
- you are really nervous about loosing a guy
- you have no money
- you dont know if your solders will be mind controlled
- etc..

Once you tech up, level up, and weed out the psy weak ones, the game becomes a bit boring since you know you will win. But the first few missions really make it tough and keep you on the edge of your seat. (that is generally my experience with most games, since by the end, it's just a matter of cleaning up. STALKER for me was the best before i went to the Brain Scorcher and encountered the monolith. By then I had good armor and gun so it was easy to deal with them)

Example, I am replying this now and my 4 or 5th mission was a terror attach. I had some guys in basic armor already and i had laser rifles on some guys. I saw chrystalid attaching civilian out in the shadows. I immediately rushed 5 guys to back up my one scout and started unloading all that i had and throwing grenades. If a chrystalid came close, my guys who were protecting other flanks occasionally had to take an aimed shot or two from far away... I was really scared of loosing a guy there. We put down 3-4 chrystalids that way, one was even unconscious.

By the time i have flying suits, it's way easier.

Hah! Same here! It gets a bit monotonous when you've research pretty much everything. Towards the middle to the end, I just sort of destroy most ships over water so I don't do the missions anymore.
 
Playing on superhuman was epic. I still remember the cold sweat and shaking hands.
 
Congratulations soldier, you have been chosen to lead a super elite team to fight back humanity's greatest threat. We have the best of the best from around the world to fight this war, from the best scientists in the world to the best soldiers.

Your budget, $400 a week. God speed.
 
Damn, all of these new releases are requiring Windows 7. I guess its time for me to make the switch!
 
Congratulations soldier, you have been chosen to lead a super elite team to fight back humanity's greatest threat. We have the best of the best from around the world to fight this war, from the best scientists in the world to the best soldiers.

Your budget, $400 a week. God speed.

Hahaha +1
 
Oh god the awesomeness was difficult to resist. Played a few missions before bed last night. I am not disappoint. I am excite!!!
 
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