XCOM: Enemy Unknown PC gameplay demo and Multiplayer footage

But i'm saying it should matter. It's silly to me that they're just waiting around for you to kill them.

These fuckers are pretty smart. I mean, they have all this technology and some sort of plan behind it... there're not just here for a roadside pick-nick. If you take too long they should have a chance to leave the area (because they abducted or w/e the shit they needed and they're done with their mission), or they should have a chance to stumble upon your troops while exploring the area, or maybe they should be able to detect your presence and set up on you. Currently, they're more like an opossum caught in your headlights.

It's a turn-based game, yet it's very asymmetrical in design... just an odd combination.

Play on classic and get back to us.
 
this game is getting very repetitive, i have seen the same maps and the maps all feel the same. they need more missions form the council.
 
this game is getting very repetitive, i have seen the same maps and the maps all feel the same. they need more missions form the council.

I agree. More missions in general, not just from the council. More ufo's to shoot down, more terror missions... and yes the level diversity could use work, although they are all randomly generated. The ufo's, of the same class share a layout.
 
The maps aren't randomly generated. The developers have said they made roughly 80 maps, and have different spawn points to help diversify it.

And yes... I do feel the repetitiveness. But it doesn't bother me too much.
 
Anyone else seeing choppy performance when a Berserker Muton begins to charge in between turns? and the camera angle during larger ship encounters gets pretty annoying, I have to keep tabbing to through squad members and using the scroll-wheel to cycle through the multi-level view.

I've updated my drivers to 306.97, still didn't seem to help with the choppiness
 
Anyone else seeing choppy performance when a Berserker Muton begins to charge in between turns? and the camera angle during larger ship encounters gets pretty annoying, I have to keep tabbing to through squad members and using the scroll-wheel to cycle through the multi-level view.

I've updated my drivers to 306.97, still didn't seem to help with the choppiness

No problems with the muton you mention. The camera problem is an issue I think everyone has. Seen lots of post and reviews that mention it. Drives me crazy.
 
Anyone else seeing choppy performance when a Berserker Muton begins to charge in between turns? and the camera angle during larger ship encounters gets pretty annoying, I have to keep tabbing to through squad members and using the scroll-wheel to cycle through the multi-level view.

I've updated my drivers to 306.97, still didn't seem to help with the choppiness

I get that same choppiness. It's odd, only ever appears during the charge itself and then disappears (so usually in total ~2 seconds of choppiness).

Seconded on the camera issues too...bloody irritating.
 
I get that same choppiness. It's odd, only ever appears during the charge itself and then disappears (so usually in total ~2 seconds of choppiness).

Seconded on the camera issues too...bloody irritating.

I get that with the charging Mutons as well. Weird, because I do not get it from any other units.
 
I get that same choppiness. It's odd, only ever appears during the charge itself and then disappears (so usually in total ~2 seconds of choppiness).

Seconded on the camera issues too...bloody irritating.

I get that with the charging Mutons as well. Weird, because I do not get it from any other units.

Just of curiosity are either of you running Win7 x64? In my research there seems to be common link between the choppiness of the Skyranger cutscene, the charging Muton and Win7 x64.
 
Just of curiosity are either of you running Win7 x64? In my research there seems to be common link between the choppiness of the Skyranger cutscene, the charging Muton and Win7 x64.

I am indeed. Now that you mention it, I get the chop on the Skyranger as well. Weird.
 
Just of curiosity are either of you running Win7 x64? In my research there seems to be common link between the choppiness of the Skyranger cutscene, the charging Muton and Win7 x64.

I'm using W7 x64. I notice a slight stutter during cutscenes as well, but far less than the muton charge. The muton charge (if I remember correctly) will also make the audio stutter.
 
Yes, I run Win7 here and I also get "stuttering" videos, I'm not even sure why, the game itself runs fine and smooth, videos stutter though.
 
For my campaign, I had been running the 306.23 driver(the borderlands2 driver) and had no choppiness/stutter. yesterday I updated to 306.97, and my shit's all choppy now.
 
So I DL the demo of this game last night, and I'll check out totalbiscuits review of the game. Looks like some fun to be had here, I liked the originals in the day and so, I do think this might be a good game for me, I don't know if it's worth the asking price right now though. I might have to just play through the demo again.
 
I am running win7 x64 and do not remember noticing any stuttering on the skyranger or muton cutscenes. Is this a windows 7 x64 bug or an ATI/Nvidia issue?

Using ATI 7950.
 
seems to be nvidia based issue... and it wasn't just my cutscenes, it was immediately noticeable at the title screen... the fog was all stuttery instead of smooth and awesome.
 
seems to be nvidia based issue... and it wasn't just my cutscenes, it was immediately noticeable at the title screen... the fog was all stuttery instead of smooth and awesome.

Nope, I am running ATI.
 
You running xfire? I'm running sli.

No, just a single 6970. Rest of the game runs tits, just those scenes act up. I will be honest, I really have not been too bothered by it, so I have not really looked into the issue much. Everything else I am playing right now is running flawless so I am being lazy and just living with it. :)
 
wow so i just had 3 abduction missions pop up all in Africa did one and now all of Africa is max panic lvl. before this the highest was at 3, and im 5 days form the end of the month so im lose the whole dam Continent. whit no way to go to more then 1 mission at a time this is just cheating by the ai as there is no way to stop this.
 
wow so i just had 3 abduction missions pop up all in Africa did one and now all of Africa is max panic lvl. before this the highest was at 3, and im 5 days form the end of the month so im lose the whole dam Continent. whit no way to go to more then 1 mission at a time this is just cheating by the ai as there is no way to stop this.

always have 2~3 sats handy.
 
I have to admit that classic isn't much harder than normal, since you can just overwatch and hit the enemies as they patrol around. Made it about 5 missions in, and messed up pretty bad on my satellite placement, and other choices. So I will probably just restart, and keep a better eye on the countries I want to keep, and want to lose.
 
Month 2 on impossible, havent lost a country yet. Some encounters are pre determined (abductions), some are randomly chosen (like the council requests). Save abusing can get you a better run to have council request lower the panic in the country you need.
 
I have to admit that classic isn't much harder than normal, since you can just overwatch and hit the enemies as they patrol around. Made it about 5 missions in, and messed up pretty bad on my satellite placement, and other choices. So I will probably just restart, and keep a better eye on the countries I want to keep, and want to lose.

After starting on classic before going to normal I'd say the enemies hit harder (more damage or criticals?) and the panic increases are greater.
 
Classic combat is about the same as normal combat. The monsters do *MARGINALLY* hit harder/crit more, but the primary difference is things will have 1-2 more hp so you can't AOE them to death with grenades. Floaters and thin men have 4 instead of 3, so a frag grenade won't take them out any more, mutons and chrysalids get 2 more hp, and ethereals get 5 more hp.

The other behavioral things they'll do on classic vs normal is enemies will mind fray one of your guys to lower his will, then mind control him(instead of just trying to mc him and failing)... Also, as I mentioned before the patrols become more intense on classic than they were on normal. You'll end up fighting two or three groups of guys at once.

What really DOES change is the strategy portion of the game. You get about half the number of scientists and engineers. This really makes keeping up with research and engineering a challenge... And is often why people realize 'they made a mistake' earlier on... Because there isn't as much give in the research/manufacturing tech trees to get things you don't absolutely _NEED_. Honestly to deal with this starvation of resources, I skipped lasers completely.

The other strategy aspect that changes is the 'focus' of the enemy(for lack of a better word). In Normal the enemy seems to pick random cities to terrorize/abduct people in... In classic they will almost always go after whatever city is in the worst panic area, so you have no choice but to go on that specific abduction or risk losing said country(so you can't really use missions to buff your engineering staff or science staff without screwing your panic levels).

Lastly, I am fully expecting a DLC/Expansion pack. The story just... flat out ISN'T OVER... CYDONIA BOUND!
 
Classic combat is about the same as normal combat. The monsters do *MARGINALLY* hit harder/crit more, but the primary difference is things will have 1-2 more hp so you can't AOE them to death with grenades. Floaters and thin men have 4 instead of 3, so a frag grenade won't take them out any more, mutons and chrysalids get 2 more hp, and ethereals get 5 more hp.

The other behavioral things they'll do on classic vs normal is enemies will mind fray one of your guys to lower his will, then mind control him(instead of just trying to mc him and failing)... Also, as I mentioned before the patrols become more intense on classic than they were on normal. You'll end up fighting two or three groups of guys at once.

What really DOES change is the strategy portion of the game. You get about half the number of scientists and engineers. This really makes keeping up with research and engineering a challenge... And is often why people realize 'they made a mistake' earlier on... Because there isn't as much give in the research/manufacturing tech trees to get things you don't absolutely _NEED_. Honestly to deal with this starvation of resources, I skipped lasers completely.

The other strategy aspect that changes is the 'focus' of the enemy(for lack of a better word). In Normal the enemy seems to pick random cities to terrorize/abduct people in... In classic they will almost always go after whatever city is in the worst panic area, so you have no choice but to go on that specific abduction or risk losing said country(so you can't really use missions to buff your engineering staff or science staff without screwing your panic levels).

Lastly, I am fully expecting a DLC/Expansion pack. The story just... flat out ISN'T OVER... CYDONIA BOUND!

I appreciate this little write-up on the differences between classic and Normal. Everything sounds great, except for the resource starvation... i personally felt that there was enough starvation on Normal = / BOO
 
Daymn! There is already a modding community, even without official modding kits. So far the mods have been balancing kind, some with very interesting ideas. Like this, read the descriptions.

http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18

Some of them remove the ridiculous crit and aim boosts on Classic difficulty, just gives you the unshackled AI and more enemies, like it should be. On normal difficulty AI was gimped, badly.

But the most important thing that caught my eye is that they give you a chance to shoot down UFOs going in Terror and Abduction missions, they are just bit tougher than normal apparently. The feature was already there but it was disabled as default. Firaxis, what the hell!? Why!? o_O
 
+1 to that
there are some much needed tweaks being implemented (arc thrower in the pistol slot? yes please)
 
Daymn! There is already a modding community, even without official modding kits. So far the mods have been balancing kind, some with very interesting ideas. Like this, read the descriptions.

http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18

Some of them remove the ridiculous crit and aim boosts on Classic difficulty, just gives you the unshackled AI and more enemies, like it should be. On normal difficulty AI was gimped, badly.

But the most important thing that caught my eye is that they give you a chance to shoot down UFOs going in Terror and Abduction missions, they are just bit tougher than normal apparently. The feature was already there but it was disabled as default. Firaxis, what the hell!? Why!? o_O

Never understood why the crit/aim boosts on classic are considered ridiculous... In normal, very little, if anything, ever hit me... and I was being fairly careless. In classic Ironman, I have been finding the enemies tough, but fair; about on par with XCOM operatives in a straight up firefight.
 
Never understood why the crit/aim boosts on classic are considered ridiculous... In normal, very little, if anything, ever hit me... and I was being fairly careless. In classic Ironman, I have been finding the enemies tough, but fair; about on par with XCOM operatives in a straight up firefight.


Well, instead of ridiculous I would say that we needed another difficulty level. Easy for n00bs, Normal with gimped AI and less enemies, Classic with full AI and enemies, "Superhuman" with Crit and Aim bonuses and Impossible for masochists. :D
These mods are trying to fill the void between normal and current classic difficulty. The jump from Normal to as-it-is Classic can be brutal.
 
As someone who has been playing xcom since 1994... I think that classic as it currently stands is a good representation of how combat used to be.

You actually had to be afraid that you were going to lose your guys if you didn't cover them correctly. Which is how it should be... As I mentioned before... If classic is too hard for you, you need to play more normal until you suck less.

That's the issue. People thinking they are good enough without experience and practice to master Classic. That's not how it was designed. You are only supposed to be able to beat classic if you're an xcom veteran.

On classic I didn't lose a single soldier until the final mission. On normal w/ iron man, I didn't lose a single soldier, ever. Sure, lots of injuries, but the point is clear. If you're *actually* really GOOD at xcom, classic is a beatable challenge and is not by any stretch of the imagination 'ridiculous'.

Also, there IS an intermediate difficulty as you described.
If you start the game as classic and reduce the difficulty after starting to normal... You get the unfettered AI without the increase in aim/crit bonus. Also, you get the additional hit points on aliens making them more difficult.
 
Anyone else playing non-iron man impossible?

I should complete it by the end of this week. Got full satellite coverage and I'm going to scan until I have double firestorm coverage in all continents and have at least 2 maxed non-sniper gifted members.
 
Anyone else playing non-iron man impossible?

I should complete it by the end of this week. Got full satellite coverage and I'm going to scan until I have double firestorm coverage in all continents and have at least 2 maxed non-sniper gifted members.

I'll probably give it a shot after I finish my classic Ironman run and an easy runthrough for achievements (and stress relief from from XCOM squad wipes of CI). And then... after that... Impossible Ironman. YARGGGGGH!!
 
As someone who has been playing xcom since 1994... I think that classic as it currently stands is a good representation of how combat used to be.

You actually had to be afraid that you were going to lose your guys if you didn't cover them correctly. Which is how it should be... As I mentioned before... If classic is too hard for you, you need to play more normal until you suck less.

That's the issue. People thinking they are good enough without experience and practice to master Classic. That's not how it was designed. You are only supposed to be able to beat classic if you're an xcom veteran.

On classic I didn't lose a single soldier until the final mission. On normal w/ iron man, I didn't lose a single soldier, ever. Sure, lots of injuries, but the point is clear. If you're *actually* really GOOD at xcom, classic is a beatable challenge and is not by any stretch of the imagination 'ridiculous'.

Also, there IS an intermediate difficulty as you described.
If you start the game as classic and reduce the difficulty after starting to normal... You get the unfettered AI without the increase in aim/crit bonus. Also, you get the additional hit points on aliens making them more difficult.


Well I AM on X-Com veteran, played it as a child when it was relatively new. But generally I am not good at strategy games so that evens things out.

About the last thing, that I did not know. And apparently neither do a lot of people.
 
I'll probably give it a shot after I finish my classic Ironman run and an easy runthrough for achievements (and stress relief from from XCOM squad wipes of CI). And then... after that... Impossible Ironman. YARGGGGGH!!

Impossible is too silly for me to consider iron man. The first abduction from the base will already put two countries in full panic. I only passed it by reloading until I got a council mission specific to one of those countries and a satellite in the other.

This is basically impossible setting.
Full cover = you probably will get hit and die
Half cover = you will get hit and die
No cover or flank = you will get hit, crit, die, and panic 2 people which in turn kills another squadmate

The only way I got past is with loading games and basically knowing where enemies are. Even in full preparation and knowledge of their location, it's a big challenge. It's still a blast, and has actually gotten easier since I have 3 squad sight snipers with plasma rifles. I have yet to face the elites, but I still have a lot of prep to do for my men anyway.
 
The game looks alright, don't know if I will play it but hope others enjoy it!
 
For those load game abusers I found another good trick. Gifted squadmates are random at the point of assignment and is not set in stone when you recruit a member.. So you can build up a newbie with the iron will training for very high will as a corp, then basically ensure they're gifted. I haven't determined if gifted is decided at assignment, on completion, or at some time in between. It think its on assignment at the labs. So find a good 10 day stretch and train/reload away!!

Most of my main squad were high rank before I could afford officer training, so I'm retraining a new group to have better will. I'm not sure if ill train new snipers cause they're so far from the fight anyway. On normal, I noticed suiciding mind control units hurts morale for the mission (counts as squad member KIA), so on long missions ill need very strong willed people.
 
Here's a trick for Iron Man:
Leave task manager open in the background.
The autosave triggers AFTER the aliens are done moving.
Tabbing out of the game pauses everything.

So, move your guys. Then the aliens go... If during the aliens turn something really bad happens, tab out and kill the game. Your autosave will be for your turn and you'll know where the enemy is/what they're planning and can prepare/counter accordingly. It only gives you a one turn 'look into the future' but that's better than nothing.
 
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