Dix

In some ways Apocalypse was actually my favourite out of the first three games - the backstory & detailed worldbuilding sucked me in, and I really like the mix of creatures. Touches like the aliens adopoting human smoke grenades and using them to put out fires, and the fact that you could often kill all the hyperworms in a multiworm if you hit it with incendiary ammo, helped build the world. Returning some of the cut features would be on my wishlist as well - if you dig into the files you find items like a jail to put brainwashed leaders of agencies that have been taken over into, in the hopes of breaking the aliens hold, and things like the aliens actually trying to reach your containment facilities in a base raid to free their captured brethern. I'd like to saee the politics side expanded. The other factions could actually have a big impact at higher difficulties in the base game, from the police dropping a building on your base if corrupted, to raiding the gangs and Cult of Sirius early game for extra cash and equipment, but a lot of intended items were cut, such as kidnapping specific targets, negotiations, and loss of critical resources such as fuel for your ships if you lost key allies. Kepp the real time, since the game offered you a choice between real time or TBS anyway - RT let's you greatly speed up hunting for that last hidden nest of xeno scum.

Ha - the Commissar has invoked the power of the thread that smoulders, but never dies . I have seen a civilian run away from my soldier & straight into a reaper's arms before, but never into a UFO

..took the words out of my mouth!

Yeah - I've funded it as well, but I've noticed that IndieGoGo games often don't seem to get the level of exposure or funding that Kickstarter does. Admittedly, based on my own limited pool of observations.

Hmm - Twilight?

He will be missed. I've never read another writer quite like him, who could make you belly-laugh even as he made you think.

Wow, good to see so many book fans popping up The suggestions by others have beaten me to a lot of my intended suggestions: (+1) -Terry Pratchett. He is a very funny writer, but what makes his books stand out is that he writes on many levels at once, and is one of the keenest observers of human nature I've ever read. Plus, the Luggage . Over 30 books by now, but if I'm honest his later books are better than than his first few. They are still good,m but his word-smith skills have risen over the years. (+1) -Robin Hobb: Start with Assassin's Apprentice, first in the Farseer Trilogy. She has written 15 books so far (three trilogies, one quadrilogy, and a new trilogy in progress) that cross the world she's created. It's interesting to see the world changing and evolving in response to the actions of characters from various stories, and the characters themselves moving through life over the years. (+1) -Elizabeth Moon: The Deed of Paksennarion, start with Sheepfarmer's Daughter. High fantasy with some interesting twists, and one of the most believable (& saddening) trials of a would-be Paladin hero I've ever read. It wasn't strength of arms, & the courage asked of the hero wasn't of bellowing and hitting things with a sword variety. 10 books across three series. -Honour Harrington series, by David Weber. Sci-fi naval action, well done. And takes notice of physics, to a degree. Think Hornblower in space. (+1)- Stephen Erikson: Malazan book of the fallen. A very detailed and creative world-builder. He trained as an archeologist, and it shows in his writing. He makes massive, complicated worlds full of mysteries and layers of history that are not always fully explained, or even understood by the characters. Just like real life - be warned, though, he writes doorstops. There's also a German author's series: The Dwarves (Die Zwerge), by MArcus Heitz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dwarves_%28novel%29 I've read an English translation (I don't speak German, unfortunately), which was not bad, but always felt as though it had lost something. The book jacket was smothered in praises for the German original though, so it may be worth a look? What types of books do you normally like to read? We've been pushing fantasy and Sci-Fi, as per the examples you listed, but who knows? You may be a historian or biographer at heart!

It was the movies, for me - Star Trek never made it to our national TV channel out in Zimbabwe. Safe journeys, Mr. Nimoy.

Space Rangers - RPG, Spaceships, RTS, Text adventures all in one, together with a dynamic universe that will carry on evolving quite happily in response to all the AI player's action's. Overlord, Dungeon Keeper What about books? Depending on what you like, a good book can provide a very different experience to a game. I've burnt out on games as well, for now, and am working my way through some good written series instead.

I'll join, if you need cannon fodder (or mutated jelly-like monstrosity fodder, whichever)

Uhm - while Evil Genius had a lot in common in with Dungeon Keeper, it had a lot of differences as well (don't get me wrong, still a great game). Give the original DK's a try - they're frequently on sale at GOG.com, and are brilliant fun. If you like that style of game (you are an overlord and planner issuing directives to semi-autonomous units, rather than a C&C style micro-manager), you should also give the Majesty series a try. Having said all that, I've got high hopes for WTFO, and I think there's a thread about it on the forums already (about to enter a meeting, so I can't hunt for it now). I've been burned too many times on DK remakes, but there is always hope for another Xenonautian Phoenix to rise from the ashes of assorted old gamer's dreams

Slightly belated, but happy new year, and may your coming life not consist of cunningly disguised reapers

Sounds promising. I'm actually glad for the Real-Time, partly nostalgia for the original and partly there are already so many good TBS games at the moment.

Thixtrop beat me to it @Xenonex - yeah, there are a lot of remakes/inspired by's around. Some have been rather good indeed (cough-Xenonauts-cough, Shadow Warrior), but Dungeon Keeper? Bitten too many times (Impire, Dungeons, the EA mobile Pay-To-Win horror) - the last game that really captured the spirit of the original DK for me, if not the mechanics, was Overlord. Still, we can hope - Bullfrog provided several classics (wonder if we'll ever see a magic carpet remake?) @Thixtrop - thanks. Looking forward to hearing the verdict.

When I had a Sebillian surrounded - two assault troopers with plasma shotguns, who had unloaded into him at point blank twice each, missing every shot, one shield trooper who had missed three pistol shots point blank, and a rifle trooper (also plasma) one square away who missed every shot on an auto burst. Alien Turn: the Sebillian gibbed all four with a grenade, and a pair of Reaper Alphas ate my two remaining troopers. It was the second turn of the mission - I lost two to snipers on the first turn when exiting the charlie.

Just wondering, given the number of old-school games fans around here, if there any Syndicate fans around who have tried Satellite Reign, and whether you think it's a worthy successor to the Bullfrog originals and/or worth playing? I missed the kick-starter, but now that it's on Steam early access (and now that Xenonauts has restored my faith in remakes!), I'm debating giving it a try.

Heh, you'd be surprised at how things stay the same. Once upon a time all my friends were playing Quake 1 at LAN-parties, while I was in a corner running Final Fantasy 3 on a SNES emulator & being given odd looks (where I was growing up in Africa, consoles like SNES were never really seen in the flesh - even when they were obsolete.) Of course, a bit of FPS mayhem against your friends can be a good stress relief - where else can you repeatedly shoot your mates in the face with a shotgun, and then break for takeaways & a movie? If you can have a good soundtrack to frame the moment, even better

It's good to see such a steady stream of new faces on forum - welcome all.

In answer to the original question, if you have played and liked almost any TBS? Give this a try. It takes a little time to get into, but it is easily one of those games that has "one more turn" in spades. I know what is being said about the game being repetitive, which it can be to a degree, but it has one-button clicks to minimise this if you choose, and unexpected things happen a lot. Last mission my top sniper ended up exposed as I'd sent him too far ahead, and a Reaper I never saw came running out of nowhere behind him. An NPC policeman hiding behind a crate, who I also never saw, emptied his pistol (weakest gun in the game) into it when it was 1 tile away from my Sniper, and killed it. Next mission the sniper died anyway when an Andron simply walked straight through the wall he was hiding behind and shot him point-blank. It's one of those games where unexpected, unscripted events have a way of ruining your day. Or making it. But they are never truly unfair - there's always something you could have done differently to have a different outcome.

Normally I listen to the game music, as I love good game music that sets the tone (Homeworld, anyone?). I think the last game I used external music for was Elite (the first one from 1980's. I know, I'm old ), which I had a soundtrack of Chopin and Mozart with. It just seemed to match the elegant pace of the game perfectly. I do listen to trance, house, techno - but normally either at a rave, at work or just to relax.

SimAnt still resides on my HDD

argh no - my lack-of-free-time! I can't know about this site, la-la-la I can't hear you! Actually, I'm almost relieved that they don't have ChronoCross, for this exact reason..

Master of Orion 3, definitely - never understood how it could have worse ship graphics than Moo2. Never mind the UI. Supreme Commander - it was still a fun game, but.. Total Annihilation was one of my all time favourites, partly due to the soundtrack, but in large part due to the 3d terrain that let you do all sorts of things - combined fire/airbases on top of mesas dotting the desert, hiding artillery platoons behind a mountain range and then spotting targets with scout planes, having short range turrets ringing the inside of your caldera base where the enemy would have to come into their range before getting a shot off. Not to mention the mission where I had to assault a mile-high planetary-wide plateau that was swarming with enemy units and was to steep for almost any of my units to climb. The terrain become effectively a non-factor in SC, with no real features to speak of beyond water/land, and no real way to use it to your advantage. It just came down to who can build faster.

Agreed on Planetes - I'm always surprised that series doesn't get more love. If you liked that, I'd also strongly recommend the Wings of Honneamise. As far as giant robots go, A Vision of Escaflowne? @TNoyce - a second season of Attack on Titan was announced, production was just delayed while the author wrote source material for it.

Sorry - I can be a bit pedantic on occasion! For those who said Jagged Alliance - an interesting bundle had just gone up. It includes the Eador games and the original Jagged Alliance: http://www.bundlestars.com/all-bundles/masters-of-strategy-bundle-2/ Something to fill the gaps until Xenonauts 2: Terror of the Shallows is released (I can dream )