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Thank you for the donations over the past year (2024), it is much appreciated. I am still trying to figure out how to migrate the forums to another community software (probably phpbb) but in the meantime I have updated the forum software to the latest version. SSC has been around a while so their is some very long time members here still using the site, thanks for making SSC home and sorry I haven't been as vocal as I should be in the forums I will try to improve my posting frequency.

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-D1-

XCOM Demo

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(@pinback)
99 Star General

There an XCom demo on steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/200510/

Apparently it's 6GB so too big for me to download <img src=' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wild.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wild:' /> just have to wait for the games release in a couple of weeks.

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Topic starter Posted : September 24, 2012 10:39
(@systemnetwork)
Active Member

Cool !

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Posted : September 25, 2012 02:33
DarkOne
(@sscadmin)
Illustrious Member Admin

If I remember I will download this weekend and give it a spin, I actually have a lot of games to write things up for just have been busy.

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Posted : September 25, 2012 03:04
(@starmax)
Trusted Member

It was a bit hefty in size, but DL'ed it anyway and here it goes:

Graphically, artistically and sound-wise the game is top. Atmosphere and mood are also quite gripping.

As for the Gameplay, well it is a bit different; compared to the classic- simply by the way the interface works.

It's a bit on the console-y side which rubs people (like me) the wrong way.

I made it run almost maxed on my Aspire 7540G.

It only got slow when Fog of War was set to high. No idea why, since visually it wasn't noticeable or it's hard to spot anyway.

The Unreal-Engine does the Job well and is quite streamlined. The transition from exterior and interior are smooth and work well.The virtual Cam is quite well made and responds good.

But apart from that the game comes in full x-com flavor.

The added action-cam (seeing a team mate, run for cover, break down doors and so on) worked quite well IMO and added greatly to the cinematic experience, - especially after the player has set up the team painstakingly for the perfect ambush or flanking.

The Demo was also on the short side, and quite linear. Never had the feel that I was in charge ( one is being constantly told what to do ) but in the last Demo mission it wasn't as pronounced.

No base building in the demo nor World-Space action. And no management whatsoever.

For a 5gig and something I expected more things too do. Every line was voiced (quite well) and conforms with today's standard.

A safe buy IMO, and about time for a real X-Com.

Didn't think I ever live to see the day! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

I will

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Posted : September 25, 2012 08:03
(@shadmar)
Reputable Member

I've played all the classic xcom games and must say I was positivly surprised when I played the demo.

Nice layout, nice graphics, felt like a solid game, and the turn based style you got to love <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

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Posted : September 27, 2012 08:26
 DARI
(@dari)
Trusted Member

6gigs oh my poor ssd ... did they digitized the landmass for the maps - so no need to calculate them from a random seed...

will wait until several confirmation of "no linear gameplay" from different sources

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Posted : September 27, 2012 08:59
(@pinback)
99 Star General

That demo seems to have raised some concerns about the game, enough for RPS to run this article about it.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/25/some-things-you-should-know-about-the-xcom-demo/

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Topic starter Posted : September 27, 2012 10:47
 True
(@true)
Estimable Member

Although I didn't play XCOM so much in the past I immediately preordered the 'Firaxis Edition' after I played the demo. The game has a great atmosphere and a nice setup of the round strategy gameplay. Well... done by Firaxes, if they wouldn't know how to make round strategy work, who would? <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_razz.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

Some colleagues at work and even my wife were hardcore XCOM players in the past and all of them loved the demo. Yes, the demo seemed to have raised some concerns on the XCOM forums, but I didn't even bother to read it. I assume it's just details people were complaining about, however those details were important to them.

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Posted : October 6, 2012 05:01
(@pinback)
99 Star General

Got my pre order in just waiting for next Friday now. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':biggrin:' />

[media] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoS3T4ARyms [/media]

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Topic starter Posted : October 6, 2012 09:22
 True
(@true)
Estimable Member

I wonder if I take a day off on friday. might be worth it. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_razz.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

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Posted : October 8, 2012 07:44
(@pinback)
99 Star General

I should have thought of doing that as no will be in when the post comes and it will end up back at the sorting office.

I see it out tomorrow in the US, just can't believe how thick the publisher is giving pirates two whole days to crack the game before it is released in Europe, no doubt they will be whining about poor sale on the PC.

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Topic starter Posted : October 8, 2012 11:18
 True
(@true)
Estimable Member

As expected the game got awesome reviews. Only a few rated it lower than 9/10.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/xcom-enemy-unknown

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Posted : October 9, 2012 06:57
(@pinback)
99 Star General

Two days to go.

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Topic starter Posted : October 10, 2012 09:59
(@pinback)
99 Star General

Got the game, installed it only to find that steam requires you to download 2gb of data before it will let you play it <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wild.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wild:' />

God I really hate steam.

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Topic starter Posted : October 12, 2012 10:02
 True
(@true)
Estimable Member

More patches can be expected. Still some minor bugs in the game, nevertheless best game of the past 2-3 years!

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Posted : October 12, 2012 11:42
 DARI
(@dari)
Trusted Member
'PINBACK' wrote:

Got the game, installed it only to find that steam requires you to download 2gb of data before it will let you play it <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wild.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wild:' />

God I really hate steam.

a 2 gb zero-day update - nice quality-assurance ...not <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//haha.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':haha:' />

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Posted : October 12, 2012 13:37
(@pinback)
99 Star General

It's a sad state of PC gaming that you are longer even assured of a game working when you buy it.

Just out of interest dose anyone know if the console versions also suffer from this.

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Topic starter Posted : October 12, 2012 21:31
(@deepseaweed)
Trusted Member

Don't know, but first day patches are quite normal today. Perhaps with exception of the Nintendo world where you can still find official workarounds for bugs instead of patches.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

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Posted : October 12, 2012 22:06
 True
(@true)
Estimable Member

And even Nintendo provides now the option to patch games for their latest consoles. ^^

Regarding unfinished games, even publishers use their way of crowdfunding nowadays. If the unfinished game sells well you can expect enough patches to make it run smooth after a few weeks. If it sells bad, support for the game will be stopped as soon as possible. See Legends of Pegasus. (I try to get a refund from Steam for it currently.)

XCOM runs well enough. I'm pretty sure the patch was not required to play through the game, it just fixed the most obvious bugs.

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Posted : October 13, 2012 04:44
(@pinback)
99 Star General

Well after a few hours of downloading the update/patch thing from steam, I hit the play button and it crashes <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//angry2.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':angry:' /> <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//angry2.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':angry:' />

That it for me this pile of junk getting thrown in the corner with Fallout 3 until there some sort of fix for it.

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Topic starter Posted : October 13, 2012 06:53
 True
(@true)
Estimable Member

Some quotes from users of the official forums with similar issues that could solve their problem. Maybe something helps:

Quote:
I think I figured out my problem. If you right click anywhere on the desktop of windows, there should be an option in the dropdown menu to "configure switchable graphics". Click on that, and make sure that xcom is assigned to run with "high performance". You might have to boot up the game once before you do this so it will show up in the recent programs list. After doing this, I was able to play for awhile without any crashes at all, so looks like it worked. I guess the game was switching to the integrated card instead of using the Radeon, and this forces it to use the Radeon all the time. FINALLY GET TO PLAY WOO!

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There is your problem, it maybe a system bios setting, but normally the onboard disables when you put in an add on card. You could try uninstalling your intel card or updating the drivers for it. As for your radeon something is not right it should see both.

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I figured out my problem. It's a known issue with HP laptops with multiple graphics cards. I had to manually tell it to use my radeon card because it was defaulting to an intel one.

(the game doesn't work on winxp, just to cover the most obvious issue I can imagine)

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Posted : October 13, 2012 10:20
(@pinback)
99 Star General

It's not any of them it's a complete crash where the system reboots and you get the black screen with the options to start in safe mode ect.

Reading through the steam forum it seems there are number of people have similar problems, it may be down to some file not installing correctly or the game may just be incapable with quad core processors or something to do with it running on windows 7 64 bit.

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Topic starter Posted : October 13, 2012 22:05
 True
(@true)
Estimable Member

well, for sure it is not a general issue with win7 64 and/or quad cores. it runs fine on my rig with the same specs.

anyway, good luck with your issue.

on a side note, I got my first blue screen on win7 yesterday when I was checking file integrity via steam for xcom (i have the feeling there is no Elite Soldier pack installed), blue screen, reboot, safe mode screen... coincidence? however, on a second try checking file integrity worked without a problem.

Here is a thread related to you issue: http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?150376-xcom-restarts-computer

Looks like a bios update might help. at least it helped some of them.

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Posted : October 14, 2012 00:15
(@deepseaweed)
Trusted Member

I never managed to get Fallout3 running on one of my machines (all Win7-64bit at that time). Bought it later on XBox 360.

The XCOM demo runs fine on my M11x with Windows 8 Pro 64bit installed. I don't remember the last time I bought a game after playing through the demo. Hope the full version runs fine as well.

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Posted : October 14, 2012 04:20
(@deepseaweed)
Trusted Member

Apropos XCOM and Nintendo:

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is one of the 3DS games I played more than 20 hours. It has been designed by Julian Gollop (XCOM).

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Posted : October 14, 2012 04:25
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