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June 12, 2011

Chaikamatic?

I do have to confess that I think Chaika is pretty awesome.

UPDATE: Since I'm doing a linky post, here's another. There's going to be a reboot of XCOM. Frankly, from the sound of it, I'm probably not interested.

UPDATE: Not a link, but... Amazon JP just shipped the two Rio BDs. I have a DHL tracking number, but it's not in DHL's system yet.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 01:57 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
Post contains 68 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Yeah, nothing left but the name. How the mighty have fallen!

Chaikamatic, however, gets the Seal of Approval.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at June 12, 2011 04:47 PM (mRjOr)

2 Yes, the new "XCOM" has no more connection to the original than the name and the fact that it involves fighting aliens. Sad.

Over the past few months I have been playing the original XCOM (and then Terror From the Deep) with a group of friends, rotating the missions so no one has to do 5 small scout retrievals in a row. The game is still a blast to play, far more fun than most current games even if the graphics and interface are out-dated.

Getting pinned down by alien snipers exiting the Skyranger, or opening a UFO door and finding yourself face-to-face with a Chryssalid, or the first time you win a battle with a newly reverse-engineered alien weapon -- XCOM is a classic and just as much fun as it was the first time.

Posted by: haphazard1 at June 12, 2011 05:47 PM (9yBYR)

I never understood why there weren't any windows in the Skyranger, though.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 12, 2011 05:56 PM (+rSRq)

4 I gave X-Com a try, but couldn't get into it. The difficulty curve is just too brutal for my taste. That said, doesn't mean I have any interest in the reboot, either. I really have to wonder why they even grabbed the license; it has less in common with its source IP than the Shadowrun FPS.

Posted by: metaphysician at June 12, 2011 06:41 PM (hD30M)

It was like MOM in that sense: the learning curve really was steep, but once you were past it, it was well worth it.

Still, the steep curve did chase off people who might otherwise have enjoyed the game.

One of the things I really liked was that there were sly jokes spread around. For instance, one of the tiles for one kind of alien ship included a cow being dissected. When I saw that for the first time I started laughing.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 12, 2011 06:53 PM (+rSRq)

6 I'd probably be more forgiving of it, except I find the control system obtuse. MoM and MoO, by contrast? Nice, intuitive controls.

Posted by: metaphysician at June 12, 2011 07:41 PM (hD30M)

7 The Skyranger does have windows. The two soldiers just behind the cockpit can turn to face forward, and they'll see the area in front. (If I remember correctly. It's been a while.)

Posted by: Boviate at June 12, 2011 09:31 PM (RPpft)

8 But why aren't there peep holes on the side of the thing?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 12, 2011 10:48 PM (+rSRq)

9 It IS a transcontinental VTOL squad troop transport. Presumably they had to cut corners in the design somewhere.

Or more like, if you were going to do an XCom update, there are a lot of things you'd have to include. Not because alien technology made them possible, but because we're fielding them now. Drone recon would be number one on that list...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at June 12, 2011 11:16 PM (mRjOr)

10 Forget drone recon. I'll settle for "soldiers actually trained enough to hit the broad side of a barn."

Posted by: metaphysician at June 13, 2011 05:41 AM (hD30M)

11 The comic-opera "spray and pray" firing of rookies is...darkly amusing. (who else has had to frag the teammate who missed 4 shots in a row at something close & nasty? "Sorry, Jenkins, but this rocket launcher doesn't have IFF" BOOM) The fog of war effect was too essential to the overall mood...although knowing the top-level of the entire map would have made sense. You FLEW in after all...)

Posted by: Douglas Oosting at June 13, 2011 09:30 AM (sdWdc)

You have drone recon, sort of, with the remote control (or were they robots?) tanks.

What is really needed, and which was hardly scifi when the game originally came out, is decent night vision gear.

Posted by: haphazard1 at June 13, 2011 09:46 AM (mZgz1)

13 I once read an article, wherein the writer posited that X-Com was actually a satire of the "elite military unit" cartoon genre. His explanation for why your recruits shoot for crap was "X-Com gets sent the relatively crappy recruits by the participating nations, they keep the competent troops for their own usage."

I suppose it would explain the oddly small budget and need to sell captured alien tech to make ends meet. . .

Posted by: metaphysician at June 13, 2011 09:49 AM (hD30M)

14 In other words, "GI Schmoe"...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 13, 2011 12:22 PM (+rSRq)

15 Still does not explain who and for what purpose those buying the alien corpses that X-COM can sell off.

Posted by: cxt217 at June 13, 2011 04:11 PM (jpdL1)

16 Eastern medicine, perhaps. You know, it's like how a Rhino's horn is supposed to increase sexual potency in old men.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at June 13, 2011 06:16 PM (9KseV)

17 Given most or all the aliens are genetically engineered, and some have psychic powers, that may not be far from the truth. Given the tone of the game, it wouldn't exactly be a huge stretch to think that Alien Brain Extract could be used as some kind of mind drug.

Posted by: metaphysician at June 13, 2011 06:32 PM (hD30M)

18 It's entirely plausible that there would be a market for "real" dead aliens, especially if they had cybernetics packed in each one. There's more to reverse-engineer than how to operate the heavy plasma cannon, after all.

And then you take what's left and market it as modern art...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at June 13, 2011 08:20 PM (pWQz4)

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