The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

degrassinoel

This just popped up on steam as a preorder, there's a semi-gameplay video here
http://store.steampowered.com/app/65930/

it's due for release next month, but some of the preorder bonuses are awesome.
If (they've already gotten the first one unlocked today) they get all three unlocked, you get the entire XCOM collection, every XCOM game ever made, including Enemy Unknown, as well as Spec ops: The line and a bonus DLC mission for The Bureau.


There are a few videos on youtube showing proper gameplay and it doesn't look half bad. This is a recanned third person action game made from the guts of what was supposed to be the XCOM FPS. I'll be buying it anyway, mostly because it's XCOM, but i just hope it's not a cash-in. Fingers crossed

Andy Gravity

Looks ok, I'd love to know if there's more to it than the 3rd person tactical shooty bits like some elements from Enemy Unknown like researching/upgrading/building etc etc.

And yeah those preorder bonuses are pretty good.

ShadowHearth

X COM is only a turn based strategy!

/thread :pac:

No really, I am not interested in this at all. It is sort of a shame that they decided to continue with this project instead of doing some more DLC, expansions or even new turn based X-com.

Grumpypants

I want to enjoy it because I like Xcom but also don't want it to be too successful so they lose focus on the turn based one.

Sprog 4

The pre-order bonuses are not enough to get me to pre order this thing. I've played all the X-Coms before and don't have time for Spec Ops. I'll wait for some trusted reviewers opinions on this one. Looks alright but I'd definitely have preferred another game in the classic X-Com mould.

BlitzKrieg

oddly it reminds me of hidden and dangerous for some reason (though it should remind me of mass effect with the powers wheel)

But something in it keeps making me think H&D, perhaps its the retro 50's feel combined with the old school rifles and 3rd person perspective while being all *tactical*

Hate to hijack the thread but I want a Hidden and Dangerous 3.

Azza

ShadowHearth wrote: »

X COM is only a turn based strategy!

/thread :pac:

No really, I am not interested in this at all. It is sort of a shame that they decided to continue with this project instead of doing some more DLC, expansions or even new turn based X-com.

What?.....do you guys know this game is made by a different developer 2k Marin, so its development has no affect on the turn based X-Com game made by Firaxis.

What is with the negativity surrounding this game. You guys got a turn based X-Com last year that was very good so whats wrong with another developer trying a different take on the IP. You want another turn based X-Com less than a year later?

I mean if we took this attitude with all IP's then we would have never got Mario Kart.

Spear

Azza wrote: »

You guys got a turn based X-Com last year that was very good so whats wrong with another developer trying a different take on the IP.

Because it gets us Thief 4.

Azza

Have you played this game or Thief 4?

Spear

Azza wrote: »

Have you played this game or Thief 4?

Of course not, but then I don't need to have played Thief 4 since the producers have publicly stated and displayed that they've gutted the mechanics and setting and the resignations that have stemmed from it.

Azza

The game still isn't out, its possible by the time of its release it could be a good game.

Problems like that can just as equally happen to current IP's as well.

ShadowHearth

Azza wrote: »

What?.....do you guys know this game is made by a different developer 2k Marin, so its development has no affect on the turn based X-Com game made by Firaxis.

What is with the negativity surrounding this game. You guys got a turn based X-Com last year that was very good so whats wrong with another developer trying a different take on the IP. You want another turn based X-Com less than a year later?

I mean if we took this attitude with all IP's then we would have never got Mario Kart.

Dont get your knickers in a twist bud. People like and prefer different things. I would take a big expansion or new x-com turn based over that crap. same way someone would take that crap over turn based stuff. Its life.

degrassinoel

Firaxis are currently working on a very hush-hush XCOM project, they have been recruiting specifically for it but since the XCOM teaser a few months ago there has been nothing but deafening silence about it. I'm inclined to think that the publishers 2K have a non disclosure agreement in effect until after The Bureau is released so it wont affect sales of either product.

That's my theory anyway, who knows..

The PR for this game (The Bureau) is pretty awesome, some of the live action videos are very effective. This is the latest one

and the original teaser

And yes, that is Merry (Dominic Monaghan) from LOTR in the newest one So at least you know that 2K are proud enough of the product to pump some hefty cash into the live action and to fork out for a decent actor such as Dominic Monaghan

ShadowHearth

Problem I have with this game:

I LOVE this time period in USA 30s to 60s/ish with fantasy elements. A lot of my favorite games are based on this period of time. Like Bioshock, Mafia, Fallout ( Not really, but it is a twisted version of this time period ), L.A. Noire ( hated the game, but time period was damn classy captured ).

I HATE how it looks already. Looks like a linier coridor with chest high walls. Instead of shooting all badies yourself, this time you will need to give orders to other Dumb AI companions.

From what I read/heard so far it was suppost to get scraped or made in to cheaper non AAA game.

degrassinoel

Shadow, we get it, you don't like the idea lol you're just repeating yourself

I'll reserve judgement til i play it, then i can truly be my cynical self about it.

Azza

Game looks fun enough to me. I'll wait for the reviews, but I'm not going knock the game simply because its not in the same genre as the original. The other reasons people listed don't bother me in the slightest. Linear, yeah Half Life was linear :rolleyes:

ShadowHearth

Azza wrote: »

Game looks fun enough to me. I'll wait for the reviews, but I'm not going knock the game simply because its not in the same genre as the original. The other reasons people listed don't bother me in the slightest. Linear, yeah Half Life was linear :rolleyes:

Linear as going from one high chest wall to another chest high wall and then fighting a boss at another chest high wall. And when you just got bored of that chest high wall they throw a twist at you - a full size fecking wall! :pac: :rolleyes:

Jonny7

They make the original XCOM - turn-based - everyone loves it, great game..

Then various real-time incarnations come out - most are pretty meh and forgettable


Finally, after what, a decade or more? they give-in and reproduce the original XCOM - everyone loves it, sells like hotcakes..


now they're back with this.. another real-time game destined for mediocrity

They just don't learn

Azza

I've read a lot of user reviews for X-Com Enemy Unknown by fans of the original who say its massively dumbed down shallow version of the original.

Having not played the original I wouldn't know, I did enjoyeEnemy Unknown, but the mutliplayer was absolutely broken and never fixed as far as I'm aware.

ShadowHearth wrote:

Linear as going from one high chest wall to another chest high wall and then fighting a boss at another chest high wall. And when you just got bored of that chest high wall they throw a twist at you - a full size fecking wall!

Sounds alot like X-Com Enemy Unknown.

sin0city

Multiplayed worked perfectly on PS3. Probably the best multiplayer I've ever played too.

I agree about the prejudgement though. Give the feckin thing a chance lads.
Looking at gameplay videos it seems very like Enemy Unknown in a lot of ways, even down to the cover icons. While I'd choose TBS over RTS I'm interested to see what it's like.

pixelburp

degrassinoel wrote: »

[...]
There are a few videos on youtube showing proper gameplay and it doesn't look half bad. This is a recanned third person action game made from the guts of what was supposed to be the XCOM FPS. I'll be buying it anyway, mostly because it's XCOM, but i just hope it's not a cash-in. Fingers crossed

Not picking you specifically, but I don't understand this attitude, which seems quite singular to gamers. You're going to buy the game anyway (pre-ordered?), but you've no idea yet if it'll be any good or not (or a cash-in that might disappoint). Would it not make more sense to hold fire until it comes out and we know if the consensus speaks as to whether it's good or not, rather than potentially waste your money? Personally speaking, I simply don't have that kind of disposable income to thrown down on a whim on unknown quantities, and games like Colonial Marines demonstrate the danger of pre-orders

For what it's worth, I found the new turn-based X-Com got very repetitive very quickly, and this more action based approach looks equally samey. Very reminiscent of Mass Effect, and the cutscene-action-cutscene approach to game design isn't particularly thrilling after a while...

degrassinoel

I'm going to buy the game anyway because it's got XCOM tagged onto it, that's a major factor in my decision to buy it, but not the sole decision. If i thought it looked like something i didn't want to play, or found nothing to my liking i wouldn't even think twice about buying it.

I've spent hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours playing the XCOM franchise games. It may as well be the next episode of that show you're interested in to me. If it had been another game or some other genre that didnt spike my interest so much i wouldnt preorder and would wait for critic reviews.

tldr: i love xcom, that's why

wayne040576

Azza wrote: »

Game looks fun enough to me. I'll wait for the reviews, but I'm not going knock the game simply because its not in the same genre as the original. The other reasons people listed don't bother me in the slightest. Linear, yeah Half Life was linear :rolleyes:

That's silly talk. This is the internet. It's no place for logical thinking. You just bash on your keyboard and complain about everything whether you've experienced it first hand or not. Come on, join in!

Mr Freeze

Spear wrote: »

Because it gets us Thief 4.

Ouch, low blow for us Original Thief fans.

On topic, I think this looks interesting, and have yet to play XCOM Enemy Unknown, waiting to get it cheap somewhere.

degrassinoel

Mr Freeze wrote: »

Ouch, low blow for us Original Thief fans.

On topic, I think this looks interesting, and have yet to play XCOM Enemy Unknown, waiting to get it cheap somewhere.

You missed your chance in the steam sale? oh man!

Spear

Mr Freeze wrote: »

Ouch, low blow for us Original Thief fans.

On topic, I think this looks interesting, and have yet to play XCOM Enemy Unknown, waiting to get it cheap somewhere.

Enemy Unknown will be free with the Steam pre-order version.

gizmo

Given the development hell this game has been stuck in for the last few years, I'm not going to be touching this with a barge pole until I see a decent chunk of reviews.

Have people forgotten this used to be an FPS?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pm00esm2zI

Spear

gizmo wrote: »

Given the development hell this game has been stuck in for the last few years, I'm not going to be touching this with a barge pole until I see a decent chunk of reviews.

Have people forgotten this used to be an FPS?

It's the fact that it was an FPS, and they backed off from that completely, swinging it back squad based and tactical, that makes me optimistic about. If nothing else it's hard to fault having a fedora and M-14.

degrassinoel

I also mentioned it in the OP too

gizmo

Aye, I'm just surprised more people aren't suspicious over the sudden and fairly dramatic change in direction that's occurred. That, combined with such little amount of actual info about the game and the fairly expensive looking marketing campaign has triggered too many alarm bells in my head for me to be able to get excited about it.

degrassinoel

those alarm bells for you were dinner bells for me lol

the FPS version 2K had planned for this didnt pique my interest as much as this tbh, sure time will tell wether it's any use anyway. I'm hopeful, but that could just be the euphoria granted by enemy unknown, either way it's gonna be interesting to see how it goes.

Andy Gravity

Some footage of the opening mission, doesn't look too bad.

nesf

Azza wrote: »

I've read a lot of user reviews for X-Com Enemy Unknown by fans of the original who say its massively dumbed down shallow version of the original.

A true remake, say a reskinning of the original, would have 80-90% of the gaming community running home to their mothers to say Firaxis were mean and beat them up after they stole all their lunch money. It's a very unforgiving game. There's quite an amount of depth to it but it's brutally unfair. It was one of those games where not completing because it was just too hard for you was acceptable.

One thing a lot of the older people missed in the new version were the base raids. In the old game you had to build your base on a 2d "map." If the base was attacked by the aliens you fought on that map. This lead to very interesting trade-offs between maximum productivity bases and bases that were very difficult to assault. It sounds like it'd make it too easy but for most of the game you were at such an extreme disadvantage in combat that you needed to stack the odds very highly in your favour just to not lose someone in a firefight.

Admittedly though the AI and other parts of the original were pretty crap but that's reasonable given the hardware that they had to play with at the time.

Azza

nesf wrote:

A true remake, say a reskinning of the original, would have 80-90% of the gaming community running home to their mothers to say Firaxis were mean and beat them up after they stole all their lunch money. It's a very unforgiving game. There's quite an amount of depth to it but it's brutally unfair. It was one of those games where not completing because it was just too hard for you was acceptable.

Yeah damned if you do, damned if you don't. Unknown was probably too hard for most gamer's on any difficulty above normal.

nesf

Azza wrote: »

Yeah damned if you do, damned if you don't. Unknown was probably too hard for most gamer's on any difficulty above normal.

Yeah, it's the price of gaming becoming popular.

ShadowHearth

nesf wrote: »

Yeah, it's the price of gaming becoming popular.

Its still a turn based strategy with macro management of the base done right in modern time. Look at New Jagged alliance game. Now thats how you make a bad turn based classic games remake.

I know the New Xcom is a chop down version of classics, but it is still great game. Sometimes unfair, but sometimes it was way unfair to my opponents, where I would hit them with just 7% of chance.

nesf

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Its still a turn based RTS with macro management of the base done right in modern time. Look at New Jagged alliance game. Now thats how you make a bad turn based classic games remake.

I know the New Xcom is a chop down version of classics, but it is still great game. Sometimes unfair, but sometimes it was way unfair to my opponents, where I would hit them with just 7% of chance.

RTS? o_O

degrassinoel

Mornin Shadow, still punting your i hate this game even though i never played it before card? awesome

I think that video Andy posted is awesome, validates my decision of a prepurchase. I'm more than happy that this little spin-off is going to give some (what appears to be) quality backstory/XCOM-origins. I think it looked graphically better than the other pre-release videos i've seen.

Yeah, looking forward to this even more now, cheers Andy!

ShadowHearth

nesf wrote: »

RTS? o_O

Sorry, Strategy.

ShadowHearth

degrassinoel wrote: »

Mornin Shadow, still punting your i hate this game even though i never played it before card? awesome

I think that video Andy posted is awesome, validates my decision of a prepurchase. I'm more than happy that this little spin-off is going to give some (what appears to be) quality backstory/XCOM-origins. I think it looked graphically better than the other pre-release videos i've seen.

Yeah, looking forward to this even more now, cheers Andy!

I havent even said a thing about new game in my latest post... :rolleyes:

degrassinoel

lmao

dude, i bet you'll end up buying this :P

ShadowHearth

degrassinoel wrote: »

lmao

dude, i bet you'll end up buying this :P

Well, like with any game, I will give it a chance to impress me. After checking few reviews, proper gameplay videos I will know better. That does not change my opinion about the game as it currently stands.
Yes, I would like old school type of game, but maybe this type of game, might bring in other gamers to X-com franchise.

degrassinoel

Ahh yeah, any excuse

Potatoeman

degrassinoel wrote: »

Mornin Shadow, still punting your i hate this game even though i never played it before card? awesome

I think that video Andy posted is awesome, validates my decision of a prepurchase. I'm more than happy that this little spin-off is going to give some (what appears to be) quality backstory/XCOM-origins. I think it looked graphically better than the other pre-release videos i've seen.

Yeah, looking forward to this even more now, cheers Andy!

It's a valid concern to have given the increasing trend of developers trying to appeal to a wider audience. There have been too many great games changed to generic titles. I like FPS games but I also enjoyed XCOM and would rather that they concentrated on the strategy games rather than another FPS as there are already loads of great ones. This could bomb and result in them scrapping the entire franchise as its trying to trade on the name ofthe other title in an attempt to spin money.

Azza

Potatoeman wrote:

It's a valid concern to have given the increasing trend of developers trying to appeal to a wider audience. There have been too many great games changed to generic titles. I like FPS games but I also enjoyed XCOM and would rather that they concentrated on the strategy games rather than another FPS as there are already loads of great ones. This could bomb and result in them scrapping the entire franchise as its trying to trade on the name ofthe other title in an attempt to spin money.

Its not an FPS. Its a third person shooter with an emphasis on squad control.
It has a different developer making this, 2k Marin. The turn based series is being handled by Firaxis Games of Civilization fame. Its development has in no way delayed development of any future games in the X-Com turn based series. X-Com Enemy Unknown has been very successful critically and commercially the future for that series seems to be secure for the short to mid term.

Sure it could tarnish the brand name if the game is of poor quality, but so could the next turn based game if its not up to scratch either.

degrassinoel

the live action video's playlist on youtube is here, some new videos were added, gotta say.. they did really well with those. Looking forward to the game even more now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyGvBzQ9nNI&list=PLmAxB8FR-F8qfgAocYOjm-TUpE9NVR6hX

degrassinoel

All of the prepurchase rewards should be unlocked today. (it's at 99% right now)

Bonus DLC mission, Spec Op's The line, and the entire XCOM collection.

Spear

Spec Ops has appeared in my library. It looks like no gift version of the XCom games if you already have them.

degrassinoel

yeah just noticed that too, bit annoyed over that. I wanted to give them to my cousin. Meh, the writeup they have on the steam page ommits to tell you that the XCOM bundle is solely for your account, whilst it specifically says the Spec Op game can be traded if you already bought/own it on steam.

I'm not too fussed, i'd have bought the game anyway, i'd just like for steam to be a bit more open with how they word these things.

Edit: i was wrong again, restarted steam and it's added the whole collection as giftable/tradeable to my inventory.

Sephiroth_dude

Is this a squad based shooter similar to the brother in arms series?

degrassinoel

Spear wrote: »

Spec Ops has appeared in my library. It looks like no gift version of the XCom games if you already have them.

Just restarted steam there and it's added all the DLC's for EU, and the entire xcom collection into my inventory, you can gift or trade them. Happy days!

It is a squad based third person shooter, i've not played BIA so no idea there