There's also an open source reimplementation of the original Gollop designed game which has extensive modding support. There's quite a few total conversion mods for it

https://openxcom.org/

https://mod.io/g/openxcom

I do not think you're talking even about the same games? This is about the _original_ X-Com.

>> I am surprised Firaxis didn't work on an X-Com 3.

Firaxis didn't but Julian Golop's company, Snapshot Games (discussed in the article) published Phoenix Point which is kind of like X-Com 2.0.1:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/839770/Phoenix_Point/

Turn based and random are orthogonal (of course). Coming from table top gaming first, I rarely enjoy real time games. But also find the x-com RNG too much after awhile.

Thanks for the recommendation. Seems like a natural X-COM follow on. Appears to be 60% off on Steam atm as well!

It’s important to separate graphics and UX here - I don’t mind if the soldiers and the aliens are blobs of pixels, or even just coloured squares, but the UI of the original UFO/XCOM games is pretty much incomprehensible to a modern player.

> graphics

Have you tried interpolation, such as HQ4X, SuperEagle etc.?

If that is not enough, add textures, colour-dependent.

Probably becuase i did play it when I was younger, i still love the classic xcom graphics. they are clunky for sure, but have a pleasant style.

It is the little things, like the 'ping' of bullets hitting enemies or terrain, or seeing an alien scurry past between hedges.

This was the only game that my whole family played.

Chaos Funk was a pretty good reworking of it.

That one you posted is pretty good until you get to casting a spell, and then they little keyboard sans-cursors and the lack of apparent touch control all goes wonky.

People frequently do not understand the statistics underlying real world dynamics, embrace oversimplified world models, and going against that has them discouraged? That is one strong re-expression of the satanic attitude.

From cinematography, two big examples "that may have people leave the theater, then":

-- in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, the Sheriff (Gene Hackman) re-telling the story of English Bob:

> You see, the night that Corky walked into the Blue Bottle, and before he knows what's happening, Bob here takes a shot at him! And he misses, 'cause he's so damn drunk. Now that bullet whizzing by panicked old Corky, and he did the wrong thing. He went for his gun in such a hurry that he shot his own damn toe off. Meantime Bob here, he's aiming real good, and he squeezes off another, but he misses, because he's still so damn drunk, and he hits this thousand-dollar mirror up over the bar. And now, the Duck of Death is as good as dead. Because Corky does it right. He aims real careful, no hurry... [...] BAM! That Walker Colt blew up in his hand, which was a failing common to that model. You see, if Corky had had two guns instead of just a big dick, he would have been there right to the end to defend himself. [...] Well, old Bob wasn't gonna wait for Corky to grow a new hand. No, he just walked over there real slow - 'cause he was drunk - and shot him right through the liver

-- the scene in Vince Gilligan's El Camino, in which a bunch of gunners is so hijacked by the unpreparedness to the havoc that most bullets end on the scenery.

Not documentaries, but statistically relevant like the ten "black" in sequence at the roulette, frequent as the wheel is having well over a thousand spins.

"Original XCOM" from 1994, or are you thinking of a later "original" game?

Why was it rubbish?

The plots to XCOM were never very strong: it was the gameplay that set them apart. Gollup’s earlier games (the subject of the article) developed turn-based, grid-constrained tactical simulation out of board games; plot was just polish added to that. Using roughly the same mechanics, you command a death squad on search-and-destroy missions, terrorists doing direct action against the government, and, in Chimera Squad, cops. The story is just window dressing for the mechanics.

I feel completely the opposite. What would it look like in an alien war? Would we have defectors like we do in actual war? Could some of those fighting for the aliens actually be enslaved and riot?

All of this adds depth and texture to a game instead of "humans good, aliens bad". The world isn't simplistic and I really don't want a game with a theme to either.

I really liked X-COM Chimera Squad. Different capabilities were really cool and interspecies banter made the whole thing feel alive. Don't get me wrong, I still like shadowy claustrophobic climate of the original just as much, but for example X-COM reboot was almost spoiled for me because of one character, Bradford. I never hated any alien as much as his nagging, orders and tone.

Also the mechanic in the reboot was a bit misguided. They eliminated sneaking up and ambushing the enemy and replaced it by little animated introduction of the enemy as soon as they land into a very large circle around your soldiers, almost regardless of terrain. X-COM 2 brought it back a little bit with you soldiers starting in stealth mode and some of them potentially re-entering stealth again using a skill.

Yeah, I didn't like significantly more cartoony/comicy shift in themes in 2, especially with DLCs, either.

Fighting campy superhero bosses just kinda made everything less tense (and frankly, the random spawns got kinda annoying).

Did the developers say it was driven by inclusivity?

> It seemed like something someone might come up with in a thoughtless effort to be inclusive of diversity.

The more obvious explanation is that having alien members in your squad opens up new gameplay opportunities.

Your comment seems like a caricature of a right wing person who thinks everything they don’t like is “DEI/woke”. It’s like you need the world to be black and white and when it isn’t it upsets your world view?