[360/PC/PS3] XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[The Grue]

I keep trying to download the demo and when I click on it, it tells me "An error occurred while installing XCOM: Enemy Unknown Demo (No subscription).  Do you have to have pre-ordered to get the demo?

[TiLT]

I keep trying to download the demo and when I click on it, it tells me "An error occurred while installing XCOM: Enemy Unknown Demo (No subscription).  Do you have to have pre-ordered to get the demo?

Restart Steam.

[Blackjack]

Yeesh, I get out of gaming for a while and now everything I want to play or try is coming out within a few days. I just need more time...  

I have a couple buds at another forum who are worried about whether their systems are up to running the game, so I'm glad the demo's out this early.

[The Grue]

I keep trying to download the demo and when I click on it, it tells me "An error occurred while installing XCOM: Enemy Unknown Demo (No subscription).  Do you have to have pre-ordered to get the demo?

Restart Steam.

Thanks.  That fixed it.

[Blackjack]

fwiw, a Steam pal said the demo is just under a 5.5GB download.

[jztemple2]

Thanks to all those who mentioned the demo, downloading now. I've been at the beach all day (being retired is great, everyone should be retired ) and would have missed it if you folks didn't flag it.

[lex]

I wish they would've included a later game mission.  The missions included were very hand holding, but it definitely got me very excited for the full game.  I played with a xbox360 controller, and the interface took a bit to get used to.

In terms of performance, I can play on high at 1080p with my HD4850 and Q6600 without any noticeable drops in performance.

[USMC Kato]

Who else other than me are going to name their XCOM team after GT forum members? 

[jztemple2]

In terms of performance, I can play on high at 1080p with my HD4850 and Q6600 without any noticeable drops in performance.

I'm running it at 1680x1050 (or was it 1650x1080?) full screen on my HD 6570 and i7-2600S (2.8GHz). The mouse is a little draggy, but otherwise it looks great at the default settings. I didn't get to finish the demo but got most of the way through the free-form mission.

I'm definitely going to need to look at some data tables once I get the full game to figure out what the heck I'm doing. I'm thinking that those values are accessible in the full game.

[lex]

I noticed the mouse being a little laggy when I tried playing with the mouse/keyboard.  I haven't tried different resolutions/settings so maybe that'll help.

Apparently the large demo size is due to the inclusion of ALL the movie files from the final game...

And I wanted to mention that the game music was done by Michael McCann, the same guy who did the awesome music for Deus Ex:HR.  The music from the very first mission definitely has the same style.

[CeeKay]

I believe the demo is running at Normal difficulty, so for those of you who think this thing will be easy, just wait and see how you'll do in the second mission. I ended up using grenades to kill multiple aliens twice, just because I didn't want to risk getting attacked. Grenades are powerful, at least this early. This mission also demonstrates how even ample amounts of cover can feel insufficient when trying to advance, particularly when very little of the cover is of any reasonable height.

the promotion guy only had to rest 5 days in mine, but another had 13 days which was odd because he took less damage than the heavy.   I guess field medic work on them isn't only a stop gap measure.

found both missions to be easy, but like you I used grenades.  first batch of aliens got rocket launchered, second batch went down quickly with direct fire, and third batch got grenaded.  enjoyed it, and I may fire up some of the other X-COM games I have on Steam just to fool around since I have yet to install any of them since buying them in early 2010 (according to Steam I bought both X-Com Complete and Freedom Force complete on 1-31-2010 for 4 bucks total).

technical wise everything ran smooth with settings to the max level they could go to.

Apparently the large demo size is due to the inclusion of ALL the movie files from the final game...

ah, I was wondering why it was so big for so little gameplay.

[Lockdown]

Who else other than me are going to name their XCOM team after GT forum members? 

I don't think anyone here would do something like that honestly.

[KC]

I have a laptop w/ the newest Intel i5 processor, Intel graphics HD3000 integrated graphics, 8 GB RAM and Windows 7 64-bit.  Will this be ok to run?

I tried the demo.  With all graphics settings on low, the game runs a little choppy.  I may play with the resolution a little, but I don't know if playing on a non-native resolution on this laptop will help.

[Jarrodhk]

Who else other than me are going to name their XCOM team after GT forum members? 

Maybe one or two in particular.

[TiLT]

Who else other than me are going to name their XCOM team after GT forum members? 

Maybe one or two in particular.

Just don't do what I did in the old X-Com back in the Gone Gold days. I named them after GG-members, but gave one in particular the name of one of the resident trolls at the time, then set him to open the door to a UFO while snickering at his imminent demise. Cue one turn later, when he's singlehandedly killed every single alien on board the ship without taking a scratch himself. He got promoted and turned into my best soldier for the majority of the game.

Yeah, I had mixed feelings about him.

[Soulchilde]

Who else other than me are going to name their XCOM team after GT forum members? 

Yep

Lockdown - Assault
Kato - Heavy Weapons
Hark - Sniper
CeeKay - Comic relief :p


Thinking of changing my 360 pre-order to PC.   

[Blackjack]

It's funny. The vibe on the demo seems very positive everywhere but at the official forums. The community rep there is trying to qualm fears that the demo "isn't XCOM," among other things. Albeit some complaints are by people who apparently holed up in a cave and ignored any coverage of the game to this point. So they're still complaining about things announced months, or maybe even years ago. One of interest....

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?139236-Demo-Makes-Me-Worried&p=1904696#post1904696

Just to address a couple of your specific comments:

Maps: They are randomlized, just not procedurally generated. The demo uses the same maps every time because it's a demo  - in the real game even if you see the same map twice, the spawn points will be different.

Aliens moving: There are aliens that move before you find them. I'm not sure if there are any patrols in the demo but in the full game they're definitely all over the place.

Time units: This is a subjective one, of course, and has been discussed to death. However, I will say that I personally find the new system really shines when you have several special abilities to play with. In the full game this is only a couple missions in. At that point I find that Jake's decision to go with a more squad-focused move+action makes a ton of sense.

I think what he means is in the full game, the map you tackle on a new mission is randomly chosen from a large selection; but it's randomly "generated," i.e., not like say a dungeon in Diablo. afik, the maps are all "hand-crafted." The randomization within the map is more in terms of where units are at the start, I think.

[Blackjack]

Not that we haven't seen a bunch of screenies before, here's some peeks from demo...

*I hope there's a "free floating" camera option or else the Internet will Complain loudly and longly about the Q and E keys only letting you rotate in 4 pre-set rotation points.




*Dunno about you guys but I found the ant hill base gorgeous but a bit confounding. i.e., I thought I'd be able to just double click the appropriate room to "zoom" into it, but it seems like unless I clicked the labeled buttons, I couldn't. Hitting spacebar or Enter seemed to take me to the "most recent room visited," but not into the room I was clicking on.

fwiw, I ran 1920X1080, with everything in graphics turned to max. For a 4 year old PC and so-so video card, ran nicely. Bearing in mind, most of the time not more than one or two things is moving on screen at a time.  

[Bullwinkle]

Thought I'd put this here.

Best Buy is offering a $15 GC if you preorder any version through them.

Tried to put a link in, but it wouldn't copy properly.

[Blackjack]

For our console dudes, a demo is planned but not until around the Oct. 9 launch:

Thread: Console Demos
By 2K Greg

    Hey guys, the console versions of the demo won't be out this week. They're expected to release around launch. I'll see if I can get a firm date for you!

[Blackjack]

RockPaperShotgun attempts to quell the Demo Rage...

Some Things You Should Know About The XCOM Demo

Here’s what I think, a silly old theory of mine: if you weren’t already cynical towards this remake there’s a good chance the small amount of stuff that’s in the demo would have had you excited about the possibilities the full game might hold. If you’ve been bitterly expecting failure, the fact this demo is, quite frankly, a stinker that’s far too superficial and does a poor job of representing the obsessed, tense experience of the wider game is going to confirm your fears about it.

It’s lovely, so lovely to see a pre-release demo of a big game, but that doesn’t mean this was the right demo. It needed to be bigger, and it needed to contain a good hour or two of playtime, but I guess that was deemed giving too much away. They should have given more. Maybe they will yet.

It's a shame a demo that should've gotten people excited about the game is for many folks at best giving a "meh" impression of the game, and at worst killing the game's buzz (unfairly nor not) exactly about 2 weeks before release.

imho, they should've made a demo of one full mission later in the game (maybe 2 if that's reasonable), and given you a chance to actually do something in the base. In retrospect, I mean, who uses cutscenes and a tutorial in a demo?

I guess we couldn't realistically expect them to give us the extended preview code (afik, set later in the campaign) that got bloggers and game journalists excited, but this demo seems like a lousy marketing move.

[Turtle]

I'm actually for the limit of 4 angles to view the world from. This is because in reality, the game is designed to be played from just 1 set fixed angle.

If you want to understand why I support this, just take a look at Silent Storm's implementation. The use of a fully rotating camera allowed the developers to make maps, UI, and various mechanics lazily in regards to the camera, requiring every action the player took to first involve messily moving the camera around for the right angle to do whatever it is they wanted to do. They did some some stuff that would cut away walls, but it was never enough.

Now this new XCOM still has issues, but I played the demo entirely from just one angle, and you see most videos do the same online, and only once felt that I needed change angles, until I realized I could mouse over a bus stop bench to see what was under it. So anything that means less putzing with the camera, and more tactical decisions is fine by me.

The demo seemed fine to me. Honestly I think people might have been expecting too much from this. It's goal is to get new players into the game, especially a console gaming audience that has honestly never experienced anything like this before, not older players who already know the series. They're not trying to prove that it's still the old XCOM with this demo, that's not the point, it's to introduce a much larger audience to what is so great about XCOM. Anyone who wasn't already convinced that this is XCOM from all the other positive buzz on the net is probably someone who would never be convinced by any marketing and can safely just be ignored as grognards who will probably end up buying the game later anyway.

I mean, let's face it, when the first mission in the demo involves that level of casualties, it's clear they're trying to prepare the player for a game like XCOM.

[lex]

here's a cool "interactive" trailer for the game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93M_fLmmecU

You get to pick team/tactics through an example mission.  I think it's a pretty cool way of doing marketing for the game.

[jztemple2]

Just got back from vacation and found that the XCOM:EU Steam pre-orders have reached reward level three, so I pre-ordered and am downloading my free copy of Civ V. Nice

[Destructor]

I have a laptop w/ the newest Intel i5 processor, Intel graphics HD3000 integrated graphics, 8 GB RAM and Windows 7 64-bit.  Will this be ok to run?

I tried the demo.  With all graphics settings on low, the game runs a little choppy.  I may play with the resolution a little, but I don't know if playing on a non-native resolution on this laptop will help.

It'll help, but not very much. Basically you don't have a video card and you're trying to brute force it to work. Which doesn't go much of anywhere in modern PC gaming. That said, the 4000 line is semi-decent, but you're running a laptop with zero upgrade options.

[Blackjack]

PA Report chimes in on the base stuff:

XCOM: Enemy Unknown offers just as many choices in your base as it does on the battlefield

Your base isn’t static. You can look at a simple cross-section of your underground layer and excavate new sections to beef up your power supply, or add expansions that allow you to keep more satellites in the sky. You can add bonuses to your production by linking multiple rooms of the same type; keeping a row of power plants together will allow you to produce more power than the same amount that are spread around your base, for example.

Every 30 days the shadowy council gives you an update on your progress and rewards you with your monthly budget, but you’ll need to take missions with monetary rewards and keep as much of the globe as calm as possible so they don’t leave and take their funding with them. The longer I dug in, the more I realized there was an honest to goodness economy at play here, and keeping your funds and projects managed.

Money and personnel are only two aspects of your juggling act however, as time also plays a part. A soldier is removed from active duty if he takes damage that isn’t healed before the end of each mission, and different research projects take different amounts of time. Do you want to finish something sooner in order to take a new weapon into the next battle, or do you tie up your labs for two weeks in order to play with something a little more powerful?

Scanning the world for missions passes the majority of your time, but the passage of time pauses whenever a soldier is returned to active duty or a research project finishes, allowing you to adjust where your resources are going. The council will also pop in every now and again to ask for your help, and you’re free to turn down those missions… but you’ll miss out on the rewards as well.

[Lockdown]

I think a review or preview/review is out for the game.  I say 'think', because I'm kind of afraid to read through it guessing it may be full of spoilers.  It's labeled preview but has a rating associated with it; so I'm not sure what it is.  Let's just call it an Article!

But, if the potential spoiler thing doesn't bother you...  Game Informer Article

[ATB]

Played the demo last night. Loved it.  Will be getting.

Can you register a non-steam copy of this on steam?

[lex]

I think a review or preview/review is out for the game.  I say 'think', because I'm kind of afraid to read through it guessing it may be full of spoilers.  It's labeled preview but has a rating associated with it; so I'm not sure what it is.  Let's just call it an Article!

But, if the potential spoiler thing doesn't bother you...  Game Informer Article

The five star thing? I think that's a rating of the article, not the game itself.

It's a preview of the first few hours of the game (ie, the tutorial missions and a glimpse of the game once you're giving full control) in the form of an AAR.  It doesn't spoil too much, but does give away some early research options and mission types.  It's nothing surprising if you've played the original.  It gives you an an idea of how the geoscape portion (outside of combat) of the game works. 

Can you register a non-steam copy of this on steam?

I think it's steamworks.  I pre-ordered from gmg and it requires steam to play

[CeeKay]

Can you register a non-steam copy of this on steam?

I think it's steamworks.  I pre-ordered from gmg and it requires steam to play

yep, no matter where you buy it you'll have to register it with Steam.

[Dante Rising]

I'm buying both the PC version and the 360 version. Enjoyed the demo and want to support further development of games like this. Give us Terror From The Deep next!

Having said that, I'm very disappointed that there won't be any maps where your home base is attacked. I absolutely loved the need to defend your headquarters in the original game. It added an extra level of tension when you realized the aliens were absolutely willing and able to bring the fight to your doorstep.

[jztemple2]

I'm buying both the PC version and the 360 version.

Thank goodness there is someone else doing this

[ATB]

Really glad I didn't know anything about this game until last week. Being a 2 months behind on the Bombcast pays off!

One more week!

[Blackjack]

Judging by response at other forums to the camera controls in the PC demo (i.e, generally Hate and Rage), a controller thumbstick may actually be better for that in this. Heck I might even end up playing it on PC with a controller if it works better. Personally I found the camera controls sluggish on PC, and didn't find the mouse technique to zoom all that intuitive (most games of this ilk just use the mouse wheel).

If we're not going to have free camera angles any way (i.e., the fixed 4-position limit), then clacking around with a controller might not bother me.

Gamespy has a video commentary with Firaxis folks talking about the game's difficulty:

Video: Talkin' XCOM: Enemy Unknown Difficulty with Firaxis' Jake Solomon and Garth DeAngelis
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/xcom-enemy-unknown/1226273p1.html
*Worth noting that while the demo didn't let you change keyboard bindings, the full game WILL.

[CeeKay]

Judging by response at other forums to the camera controls in the PC demo (i.e, generally Hate and Rage), a controller thumbstick may actually be better for that in this. Heck I might even end up playing it on PC with a controller if it works better.

I didn't notice anything wrong with the controls, they seemed to work fine.

[Turtle]

I also didn't have a problem with the controls. I suspect there might have been a few hitches due to it being a demo based on an earlier build though.

[ATB]

I had some issues with the camera, but it's largely because I haven't played TBS games (or any games really) on the PC for 10 years.  I was still able to make it through the mission with no casualties...

[skystride]

I'm playing with controller unless they improve the mouse interface from the demo.  Even the lead designer admits in a podcast I was just listening to that they try to keep  the UI consistent between controller/mouse.  Obviously that is going to lead to an inefficient PC UI.

[Doopri]

does the camera swing freely or is it locked in four set positions as a few were suggesting earlier?  just curious and put me in the camp that wouldnt mind set positions as long as the camera goes high enough to get in all the action and give a tactical view...

one more week...

[TiLT]

does the camera swing freely or is it locked in four set positions as a few were suggesting earlier?  just curious and put me in the camp that wouldnt mind set positions as long as the camera goes high enough to get in all the action and give a tactical view...

one more week...

You can rotate it freely up and down, but not to the sides, where you're locked to 4 specific angles (roughly 45 degrees in comparison to the game squares).