Fishman

They try to make it harder to crack. What was done quite fast after the premiere BTW, so the measure failed miserably. If people could do what they want out of the box, who would buy all the size- and feature-increasing DLC's, $25 each?

Hm... sounds just like Apple iCar

It's really quite simple. What doesn't concern you, doesn't exist. Three killed in Boston bombings? OHMYGODWHATATRAGEDY!!!1111oneoneone Forty dead in Pakistan due to earthquake? Who cares? Still, the AE is one of the worst companies in gaming industries when it comes to end-user satisfaction and that's why every annoyed teenage player voted for them.

Belive me, that's just a tip of an "iceberg"... if you know what I mean It was actually a demote of contemporary political party election poster - in the original there were infants wearing hats

Oh, another gem I've almost forgotten about: Gorky 17 (Odium in the US). Not exactly your typical turn-based strategy, as the maps were crampy and the combat was more Final Fantasy-ish, but nevertheless it was fun. [video=youtube;FCM4qC6E4Q4] And the one game, I'm almost sure noone here not being from Poland had a chance to play: Rezerwowe Psy (Reservoir Dogs) - a really awful Jagged Alliance clone that was more a work of satirical fiction on contemporary political situation than actual game.

100% scientifically proven!

Ohh... do I get a special badge by being answered by Project Leader? I've played it some more in the weekend and actually yes, there are better and more diversified maps that the desert ones that I encountered before. Yet still, they look incredibly flat. I guess that's where the engine limitations comes into play. After a few battles the shooting system seems better than at the first sight. After a few rounds I started having some recollections from Jagged Alliance 2 And the aiming level is remembered between shots, so it's not that much of a hassle. Yet there are still some projectile path problems that need to be solved - it seems that whole tiles where there's even a piece of alien ship are treated as solid cover. There was an alien standing with a plain line of sight between him and my soldier near the entry of alien ship but they couldn't see or shoot at each other.

THX for the info.

Not that I know anything about game design, but working with large IT projects taught me that sometimes you just have to scrap much of your work because previously chosen solution can't comply with new demands. I know it's way easier said than done and involves a lots of frowning over wasted time and resources, but there's only one thing worse over wasting a part of your work: wasting all of your work because the final product is unable to satisfy project requirements.

The Sentinels are good, maybe even better than the original in some aspects. Harder, especially at the beginning, because you have very limited resources and everything costs money. Hammer&Sickle is badly developed and much harder than the Sentinels. There are no clear goals in missions, and one bad decision or even missing some time-constrained event guides you to an inevitable path to failure. "Frustration: The Game" I'd call it. How would anyone think of it as a good game concept?

It means I should write: Real-time and SLS don't mix very well FOR ME

I can say, I've played quite a lots of them: - X-COM: UD - X-COM: TFTD - X-COM: Apocalypse - UFO: Extraterrestrials (couldn't really get past certain poing despite several tries) - Jagged Alliance 2, 2.5, Wildfire - Silent Storm - Silent Storm: Sentinels - XCOM EU 2012 Games I've tried but couldn't really get into them: - The UFO series with active pause - real-time and SLS don't mix very well. - Fallout Tactics: BoS - as a harcore Fallout fan I was gravely disappointed this not being Fallout 3 and boycotted the game. Tried to play it lately - not that bad, but doesn't have "that something". - UFO: Alien Invasion - played some early build, half of things weren't working. - Some turn based Warhammer 40k game - meh - Hammer&Sickle - RPG based on Silent Storm placed in Cold War theme. So much potential, so poor execution

For me, the main factor for a game being good is if I've had fun playing it. And it certainly was the case with XCOM 2012. It could be a much better game not being so dumbed down, but it also could be a complete disaster. I'd rather take it for what it was than being a sales failure shutting down the market opprotunity for any high-budget turn-based game for years! Do I want a more in-depth XCOM remake? F**k yes! Why in the hell would I buy a preorder of Xenonauts if I didn't? Especially after playing the disaster that UFO:ET was...

The panzerkleins were a bit unbalanced in the first game, and a complete gamechanger - up for 75-80% of the storyline you basically hide and wait for the enemy to come into range trying to avoid being shot at as much as possible, while after obtaining PKs it all boiled down to rolling in and opening fire at the nearest enemy, as nearly all of infantry (and enemy PK - except for mortar and beam) weapons were ineffective against you. That's why many of players hated the ending, that could make their team completely obsolete if not leveled up with the endgame playstyle in mind. Not even to mention, that you had a good chance (guaranteed for axis campaign) that the first mission you'd encounter enemy Panzerkleins, there's a large group of them, the toughest type in the game, accompanied with a mass of infantry and the (almost) only way to defeat them is to capture beam weapons from enemy attacking you. Oh, and the complex is rigged to explode after killing the commanding officer. WTF were the storyline designers thinking??? It's way harder than any other mission in the game. That's why I recommend playing with the aforementioned mod that weakens the Panzerkleins. In the Sentinels addon they are much more balanced - they're much weaker, and there is a variety of infantry weapons that have enough firepower and penetration to deal with enemy PKs and wearing them is no longer an easy mode, as missions after obtaining them are filled with enemies carrying anti-armour weapons and enemy PKs.

Well, the XCOM 2012 IS a good game, no doubts about it. It doesn't have a high replayability factor and is oversimplified, but nevertheless it's a fun game and a must-have for every genre lover. It's not the XCOM revival we were waiting for, but it's a step in a good direction, showing that turn-based games have a place on modern game market not only in the indie niche.