1

Yup.  After hearing about the XCOM-In-Name-Only FPS that 2K Marin was making, the news and the current info about XCOM from Firaxis was one of the best surprises so far this year.  Firaxis' reboot is looking a lot better and a lot more promising than the other guys'.

C.T.

2 I have been looking forward to this one since it was announced. I am a bit skeptical of some of the changes, particularly removing time units. But it is certainly more promising than the FPS game being made.

There were some good interviews with the dev team at Rock Paper Shotgun a while back, that had a bit more depth on the changes and the thoughts behind them than this short clip could fit in.

3 I... oh my.  Firaxis, just take my wallet and give it back when you're done.

4 I'm more interested in the remake to Carrier Command that's coming out.  http://www.carriercommand.com/

Lord knows, I spent enough time playing the original when I was stationed in Korea in 1989.

5 Definitely on the watch-list.

6 Woohoo!  I somehow missed this news, though I knew about the XINO* shooter.

If we can get a new Wasteland game and a new party-based tactical RPG from Obsidian, I'll be in happy-land for the rest of the year.

* XCOM in name only.

7 And from that video, they seem to have got it exactly right.  Preserving the turn-based tactical gameplay while refining the mechanics and boosting the graphics into low Earth orbit.

8 The Sectoids sure look amazingly good. I wonder what they'll do with the other races?

9 Maxis has just announced SimCity 5, scheduled for next year.  It's a good time to be alive!

10

If only Sid Meyer wasn't writing the plot. It will put a stake through the heart of the franchise if he makes the aliens turn out to be the good guys, kidnapping humans in an attempt to preserve our species on some kind of cosmic ark before we destroy ourselves with global warming, even though we're so violent they have to frequently fight their way back to their ships after rescuing worthy humans.

11 Where do you get *that* idea from?

12 That was the plot of the cancelled Railroads! sequel, I think.

13 I really should not recommend them, but Game Informer (Gamestop's in-house inpromptu toilet - I mean, their in-house magazine.) did a detailed write-up on Firaxis' XCOM in their February issue.  They also have it online, if you do not want to read it at the local Gamestop.

14

I'm referring to all the "executive meddling" that takes place in games that bear the Sid Meier label (though I am exaggerating a bit). I don't see how anyone bought that excuse in the first place, given that Meier WAS the chief executive in all his games as far back as Colonization.

15 I more mean, where would the idea he'd throw something like that in come from?  Of the Sid Meier games I've played, the only one even vaguely similar is Alpha Centauri, and reducing the game to a cliche enviro-aesop is really not doing the game justice.

16

It's not just the environmentalism, but the common theme in all his games is that every side is morally equivalent, no different from any other except in name. Somehow I don't think that bodes well for Sid Meier's X-Com being the sort of "human underdogs vs. overpowered evil alien maurauders" plot that the previous games were.