How Firaxis games betrayed their fans and this last chance

[SuperJew]

I have played every Meier/Firaxis game in existence. From boxes to digital sales, I never pirated a single one. Bought them all. Was proud of those buys too.

Civ IV was the pinnacle for them. A game with such depth and breadth that CİV IV BTS basically made the "permanent strategy" game. A game that can be chain played after finishing it, something you took to the bunker in apocalypse.

But Civ V began the fall. It was easy, simplified. The innovative hex system and "no more stacks of doom" was an arbitrary marketing attempt at a weak game. It took 2 major expansions for Civ V to even become anywhere close as vanilla Civ IV.

Then they made X-Com. I was so excited. Until I saw what Firaxis did. They removed everything that made original X-Com's gameplay deep and difficult, with the incline replaced by scripted and terrible combat. Compared to the 10/10 came the original was, the new one was 6/10 at best with all the bells and whistles.

Then Beyond Earth tried to steal your money with utterly vapid empty clone gameplay.

Then came Starships which ruined your reputation forever.

This is your last chance Firaxis. You already betrayed your fandom three times for the big bucks. Use it well.

[donald23]

Nah, YOU feel betrayed. They definitely didn't betray all their fans at all.

These are all very personal opinions and certainly not the opinion of the entire fanbase. Please represent them as such, because I have no wish to be represented by this piece of text.

[Nogen]

Początkowo opublikowane przez 2 ez:

The innovative hex system and "no more stacks of doom" was an arbitrary marketing attempt at a weak game.

To me, this decision was far the best they have done. It open combat to a real tactical confrontation instead of a competition of the biggest stack. You can have a weaker army statistically wise, but you could overcome by tactical positioning of your troops and so on. Before, it was the biggest stack beat the other lesser stack. The only thing that could change this outcome was the rolls.

Just in regard of this non sense you give, the rest of your post doesn't worth much.

[Jeckenn]

That must be why I have over 200 hours in XCOM, it sucks...yeah right...don't agree with OP at all.

[Nogen]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Jeckenn:

That must be why I have over 200 hours in XCOM, it sucks...yeah right...don't agree with OP at all.

Yep, it's sad. You sunk hundreds of hours in a game you taught was good and enjoyed until finally reveal you the awful truth that, no, it was a bad game and by any mean enjoyable. You were just to stupid to see it.

What a cruel world. ;)

[Steefy_92]

Honestly, why do you try to argue with him over hex system ? Let him have that fight, there is zero strategy involved in warfare regarding vanilla CIV IV, since who has bigger stack he wins (this is of course without mods).

Sorry but did I read this part right "It took 2 expansions .." , well I have news for you. CiV IV was also bare bone before Warlords and BTS, say what you will that's plain fact. So what CiV V without two expansions didn't meet is CiV IV complete (don't spread false information ).

Anyway as people have already pointed out, this is how you feel and it represents solely you and maybe tiny fraction of people.If you are going to write something of this manner at least do it right.

[Empusae]

Whiners gonna whine, and the Earth keep spinning.

[OTIS]

I agree that the new Xcom is easier than the original. But the combat in the original is very difficult if not impossible.

I don't like standing close to a corner ready to take a reaction shot in case anyone comes around the corner, and then end up getting shot by someone my soldier should have seen. Or having the alternative, go around the corner and let the alien's reaction shot take you out. Not to mention getting shot by friendly fire more ofen than the aliens shoot you.

Granted the base building is MUCH better in the original game. In the orignial game you recieved some money every month and you can supplement it by selling things you make. With this money you can hire engineers, scientists, soldiers, etc. There was a lot more strategy in managing your funds efficiently. Not to mention you can have multiple bases.

To be honest, it would be best to have the better combat system of the new one with the more complex base management of the old one.

As for Civilization, I agee with others here. Civilization 4 is a great game, but Civilization 5, with its hex based system, is far superior in every way except the music.

Although I think they should have made an exception for transports. I don't like my units simply embarking onto ocean tiles. I think they should be using transport ships. In which case it works just like the old system, in combat the units being carried are not taken into consideration. It just seems more realistic to me.

I agree with you about Beyond Earth however, it does feel a bit . . . lacking. As for Starships, I never tried it.

But I would hardly say Firaxis is in a slump, they have had a few hits and misses lately just like other companies.

But they are not in a tailspin like Bioware.

[Geomancer]

The original game was in no way more difficult than this one, lol.

I found aspects of this one far more difficult than the original. Maybe going into it blind the new one is easier, but if you know what you're doing the original isn't all that hard. I've seen people beat the original on you tube in just a few minutes, and no they didn't use glitches/bugs to do it like a lot of 'speed runs' they just knew exact what techs they needed, and exactly how to find alien bases to capture a commander.

The final mission with a couple of blasta launchers is truely a joke to be perfectly honest =/ That weapon was beyond OP.

I played the new XCOM for 153 hours, I certainly got my monies worth out of it.

[WateryDoor]

Początkowo opublikowane przez donald23:

Nah, YOU feel betrayed. They definitely didn't betray all their fans at all.

These are all very personal opinions and certainly not the opinion of the entire fanbase. Please represent them as such, because I have no wish to be represented by this piece of text.

I have to agree Civ 5 was great and the remake of xcom is my favorite game.

[Pez]

I partially agree with 2 ez, I loved (and still do) Civ IV (best game ever, IMO) as much as hated Civ V. I loved xcom and appreciated the fact that basically one dlc, enemy within, added the right amount of content to add real value to the game. Please stick to it and don't spawn dlcs like hell, don't waste in a few months the huge respect you earned in years.

[Minoris]

I don't really agree with everything the OP has said, but I can see where he's coming from. He's certainly exagerating (in my opinion, and the opinion of others here it seems) but a lot of people still feel like that one way or another. Like it or not.

Also kinda disgusted at all the "enjoy your ban lulz" that's going on. Saying that it lacks class is an understatement. You can do better, people. I've seen this community (2K Games/Firaxis players in the very general sense) do way better in the past.
(I hope he wasn't ban for that post actually, since it was kind of tame and wasn't even locked.)

[SamBC]

Please don't comment on other people being banned; you don't necessarily know what they were banned for, and it never leads to a pleasant, friendly discussion.

[TangoBravo]

Początkowo opublikowane przez 2 ez:

They removed everything that made original X-Com's gameplay deep and difficult

Like... spending hours looking for the last alien while not being allowed to be careless as a single stray shot might kill your best soldier? The clumsy save system? The endless clicking orgies when it came to packing stuff for the mission? The limited AI?

Here and there tactical ideas disappeared (like having a mule to resupply better soldiers, which I like) but at the same time the game is so much faster. The removal of tactically irrelevant micromanagement is a big advantage when comparing it to the original.

Times change. No game will every bring back your youth, and that is what you seem to be looking for. No game will ever be as original as the games of the 80ies and 90ies when it comes to new concepts. But also no game is allowed to be as clumsy and unintuitive as a game from that time.

[Wales Grey]

Początkowo opublikowane przez TangoBravo:

The clumsy save system?

The save system that, thanks to a bug, set your game to the easiest difficulty whenever you loaded your game?TFTD had the same bug, but set the game's difficulty to superhuman whenever you loaded your save.

[theworld]

Początkowo opublikowane przez 2 ez:

Then they made X-Com. I was so excited. Until I saw what Firaxis did. They removed everything that made original X-Com's gameplay deep and difficult, with the incline replaced by scripted and terrible combat. Compared to the 10/10 came the original was, the new one was 6/10 at best with all the bells and whistles.

I agree that Civ 4 BTS was masterpiece and Civ 5 is disappointing garbage. I've beaten Deity Conquest Pangea in Civ 5 on the first day of playing it. And then I uninstalled the game. It took me MONTHS to get good enough at Civ 4 BTS to beat Deity Conquest Pangea. That is a very challenging game.

What you probably don't seem to realize is that Civ 5 however is in top 20 bestselling Steam games. The casuals love it. They tried to make it EVEN more casual but met with resistance of failures of Beyond Earth and Starships. So odds are Civ 6 is going to be another Civ 5, not Civ 4. Civ 5 was also not made by Sid Meier, he was more like a producer.

Now, onto XCOM. When I've played it on Normal difficulty I felt the same as you - the game was easy, casual and shallow and definitely NOTHING like the Ufo Defense or Terror from the Deep. I felt cheated. How could they call this XCOM? It has almost nothing in common with the original game.

Then I played on Classic and realized I can no longer steamroll everything. I actually need to think seriously about winning this. And when the game became challenging it shown me it's true colors - it really is a deep and strategic game. I realized that the only problem with this game is that they should NOT have called it XCOM. But on it's own it is a great game. The satisfaction I got beating Impossible/Ironman is much the same I felt beating Civ 4 BTS Deity Pangea.

Impossible in this game is much more difficult than Terror of the Deep on Superhuman. You really have to know what you're doing and plan ahead strategically - Unlike TFTD you can actually lose the game on the Geoscape level, not the Battlescape.

I highly recommend you to give this game another chance at least on Classic Difficulty.