The old game is a fantastic piece of gaming goodness, the new one not so great.
Once you start learning how to play the game it has its own faults. Not random, too scripted, and does not lean its self to be played over that much. I think it is just hype marketing that leads one astray anymore as to how the game really is.
Compared to the old programmers of this game, this new game cuts too much in scope to really find a feel for the game, and is very limited and if that is the world, it is not represented as well as the first game did including the entire planet.
In the end you feel like saving nothing and having the aliens just have the planet. In fact you might as well try and just capture the aliens but after the first one and furthering the story, those aliens whom perhaps you should just feel sorry for, just disappear. A lot of game items have disappeared compared to the original game, and this cut-down version does not leave a player with wanting more.
Still Firaxis tried to balance it more, and a player has to imagine more of a world then shown, but still the game is fun. What has not been fun is trying to help people getting their computer to work with the game and problems other players have reported as bugged. Perhaps on the Impossible level they are, but for the most part I have only seen it with video drivers that did not actually work with the game (as in newer versions of Nvidia drivers) where the old graphics drivers do work with the game. What I now consider bug reports from other players just on the Impossible level I would not know. I am only on Classic and still having fun with the game. That is why I am changing the review once again, because I just do not play like some other players do I guess, seeing images of the game. The game probably needs a patch yet, but it surely is not as bad as some players think it is.