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| On the subject of Me by Jerry Whorebach 02/15/2012, 12:02am PST | ||||
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| I didn't play X-Com until '96, which was when my parents bought their first PC. This was back in the dark ages before dedicated 3D accelerators, when you could buy a PC to surf the net or do office work and it would also run every game ever released for the platform just by virtue of being a PC. In retrospect, the mid-nineties were probably the first and last time a non-gamer could, without specifically meaning to, end up owning the most cutting-edge gaming platform available. No wonder PC games were exploding in popularity, and investors were lining up to throw money at John Romero! But I digress.
Being a teenager used to taking his chances on console releases (you better believe I had Revolution X for the Super Nintendo - and Clayfighter, and Primal Rage, and The Tick...), I was amazed to learn how the internet let you try out games BEFORE you bought them, and immediately set about trying EVERYTHING. Shareware, freeware, demos... I knew which days the Adrenaline Vault updated, and in between I'd trawl through CNET and Happy Puppy's archives looking for hidden gems. Out of this grew my love for the accessible turn-based wargame, the kind that didn't require a working knowledge of the NATO Military Symbols for Land Based Systems (or "NAMBLA" for short). I still count the Steel Panthers series among my favourites of all time, and the first X-Com is right up there. Even as a dumb kid I could tell that turn-based wargames were faster-paced than real-time ones. There was no waiting as your units slowly trundled across the map; you clicked where you wanted them to go and - barring any interruption - there they appeared, as fast as their minimal animation could play out. When you were done making decisions, you simply mashed 'end turn' and were immediately presented with a whole slew of brand new decisions. Later I would learn that real-time wargames, due in large part to the competitive culture that grew out of internet multiplayer, had actually become intense contests of mind-reading and attention-management, but that didn't really make me like them any more - especially not the increasingly-irrelevant single-player portions. Anyway, X-Com: primitive graphics and interface, even by 1996 standards (640x480x256 would've gone a LONG way towards making it truly timeless), better squad-level combat than any game short of Jagged Alliance 2. What more is there to say? |
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The new X-Com should let you toggle between turn-based and real-time combat. by 02/12/2012, 12:40am PST  people would complain so they probably won't do that by 02/14/2012, 12:41pm PST Re: The new X-Com should let you toggle between turn-based and real-time combat. by 02/14/2012, 10:42pm PST On the subject of Me by 02/15/2012, 12:02am PST Re: The new X-Com should let you toggle between turn-based and real-time combat. by 02/15/2012, 9:05am PST Jullian Gallop tried that in Xcom3 Apocalypse, sorta sucked by 02/15/2012, 6:13am PST My post was in response to the very high quality comic on the front page. by 02/15/2012, 7:32am PST Fallout Tactics, Arcanum =( NT by 02/15/2012, 6:28am PST Freedom Force? NT by 02/15/2012, 6:35am PST realtime pause button NT by 02/15/2012, 8:38am PST I guess Infinity Engine would count, then NT by 02/15/2012, 11:50am PST |
