Game designer Julian Gollop gives a full overview of where XCOM: UFO Defense came from and what may be in store for the future.
He had nailed all the ideas on the original design document and it was all virtually in the final game. Fast forward to today, 20 years later: Firaxis changes WHOLE tactical game after 'focus groups' say it's too complex.
It make the difference between a game that's being rebooted 20 years later and a game that's being bundled for free with a shooter in 6 months.
1 Like I could only sit through this because I'm a huge fan of the original. Pretty interesting overall, but what a terrible, terrible presenter. Glad I drank a lot of coffee this morning.
@drwaldy I felt the same! If I wasn't absolutely fascinated by the subject matter, this would be an absolute snooze fest.
1 Like @drwaldy@granola_goodnesDon't agree with you guys at all. He goes through the thought process behind the game and its various features in unprecedented detail - it's a presentation *meant* for people who know the game intimately, not as an advertisement for those who don't. To me that is a lot better than some kind of superficial funny-man presentation that's easy to listen to but doesn't really contain anything you didn't already know.
Many times when I listen to developers talk about their games (and it's a game that I like), I get the feeling that I know more about the game than they do. Not so with this man.
As for the new xcom I liked it well enough but didnt think it was as good as the first one. My biggest complaints were that the tactical areas were much smaller, I could live with the gear restrictions but not that the maps were basically set pieces with the aliens always in the same place.
What a great video. I loved the original one and I remember having to do a lot of reloading once I was up against those alien missile launchers. If even one alien saw you it was game over until you got them yourself. Also remember the second Xcom not being nearly as good as the first as it was way too unbalanced. Difficult to understand that since it was only a re-skin apparently.
I wish pure clone of original game with new graphic and controls and maybe more stuff in but not different game like new one, wheres research and building is bad, economical part is very bad, im not excited even to build or research anything, in original i liked it most, was excited to get new stuff to research and develop.
New x com is super short, there is not even small part of original game, few researches only, few armors etc... original is super great, great replayability , wich ne dont have it, don it in ferw ours and not played again, old one i played lots of times and will someday again! Bad thing for now how it looks and controls, but gameplay is super!
Everyone is yelling at this point. It's dangerous. Hope it will present a new appearance and new experience just as Age of Wushu does.
I had a love/hate relationship with the original X-Com. I loved the concept of average day soldiers being outfitted with tech that they scavaged from UFO's they captured and I loved base building. But I HATED the combat system. Which is to say I sucked at it. I tried so many times to play that game because I REALLY wanted to like it but I just couldn't understand the combat so I never really got to play X-Com per say. But it's now nearly a generation later and I have the new X-Com on my PS3 and I can understand the combat and so I play it constantly (gotta make up for all those hours I didn't get to play the original one as a kid right?).
The combat was pretty horrible in the first game. I've played that first game to death, and have done two complete playthroughs of the new one released last November, and I way prefer the new game to the old. Somethings were trimmed, but I like it much better. The game is way more fun, and I really like the tactical part better.
I'm not always the type to drop the old for the new, but the people who keep calling the new one and I quote from the guy posting above you, "Dumbed down console shite," are giving me flashbacks to Fallout 3.
This guy is a legend in my book. I spent hundreds of hours on UFO: Enemy Unknown (and sequel too). One of the best games ever, hands down.
1 Like So that's the story of its origin.
Nice GS, I hope you can continue doing these kind of interview/speech from developers of games that have impacted the gaming industry even when sometimes they are not a success when they were released.
You need to do something with that player, because whenever it cuts off, i cant go straight to the point where it stopped.
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I met Juilan and Nick Gollop at Wembley Computer show 1991, when they were selling Laser Squad for the Amiga/ST. Nice people.
I still have this liglob.dat file with limitless money cheat, though finished the game countlessly on superhuman w/o any cheats with only tree soldiers, reaching their timeunits reset... hahahaha :)))
3 Like I was a kid in the 80s played Laser Squad. One of the best games ever. X-com was a great sequel back in the 90s.
Original XCOM IMHO still better. The new game is too scripted - you are told what to research. The original let you goof off until you finally researched or engineered what you needed to progress! (The graphics are better now...)
Just an idea Gamespot, now that you guys are doing a lot more 'live' time sensitive stuff, it might be worth adding a function to your site that converts the time shown in articles to the users localised time zone. It should be fairly trivial to implement but it'd save a lot of confusion
1 Like @barrybarryk It actually already does that. When the player is not live, the countdown timer that shows in the space reflects your local time. Check it out here: http://www.gamespot.com/shows/gamespot-live/?event=bungies-brave-new-world-20130328
@neur0sis The countdown timer works fine here too but for most streams, like this one, there is no countdown timer (for this one I guess it's because it's technically live already and just broadcasting a static screen). The Gamespot Twitch content has the same problem with the article/main page link only referencing a static single time zone time.
3 Like @barrybarryk - Yeah ... we have some great new things coming with the site re-design, coming mid year. Maybe able to make some minor adjustments and features before then. :)
@neur0sis @barrybarryk You wouldn't even need to move the countdown timer, the countdown timer is fine. But on the main gamespot page all the article headings and short descriptions only display the time for whatever timezone was put in. It's just that short bit of text that could do with being generated for the user. That way it'd work for your Twitch shows too, since they use a different player and don't have a countdown timer.
2 Like @barrybarryk - Perhaps we could push the countdown timer just outside of the video player area, and continue to show until it reaches zero. I'll make some suggestions to the dev team for our next update. Thanks for the feedback! :)
128mb RAM? What a luxury! When I was a kid we had to make do with 8, and to get games like Dreamweb to run we had to delete every line but HIMEM in the config.sys file and make sure the CD drive wasn't initialised in DOS!
Good ol' 90s- Windows 95, Pentium 1, 128mb ram and they still made such an awesome game!
