In my view, the taint of Epic store exclusivity attaches to any game that participates in it (and I don’t count Microsoft Game Pass as an exception to exclusivity in this context), so it’s perfectly OK to comment on it when commenting on games that have traded a higher rate of dev compensation for Epic store exclusivity. That’s the trade-off the devs made, and that sticks with the game as long as the exclusivity applies, IMO.
My way of getting around this issue is to simply consider a game that is still under Epic store exclusivity as not actually being fully and properly released. Thus, I’m very interested in Phoenix Point, but from my POV it’s not actually released yet. When it releases properly to the general public, I’ll make a decision on buying at that point.
There are way to talk about how Epic relates to Phoenix Point without derailing the thread. That is certainly welcome here. But please take complaining about the Epic Games Store and complaining about complaining about the Epic Games Store to the proper thread.
He’s referring to Gallop being unable to update/modernize the X-COM (with the hyphen) games after the first two and it taking an extended period of time before Fireaxis’s XCOM came out. Apocalypse etc were ambitious but weren’t successful commercially.
Apocalypse was super ambitious wasn’t it? But I remember being bitterly disappointing that X-com 2 felt like such a half-assed retread, except this time you were underwater so the weapons had names like “harpoon gun”. I bailed on it pretty early, but I wonder if there was more to it further into the game. In fact, I wonder if you can see any bits of Phoenix Point lore in X-com 2.
“It’s totally fair. He had the original idea, but that doesn’t mean he knew how to translate that idea into something palatable, simple and interesting.”
Are you aware any of the stuff that got cut from the initial design? I can only remember from early interviews/previews/etc but the original idea for that game was gonzo. Emmerich-Moo3 level ambitious. The final product didn’t get anywhere close, predictably.
The guys making openapoc (like openxcom for apocalypse) have dug into the archives and found a ton of unused code and plans. That thing was incredible. Someexamples.
Right, I chose not to quote it because it’s basically an irrelevant comment. I shouldn’t need to point this out, but X-com took years of “trial and error” to develop. Every computer game takes lengthy periods of trial and error to develop. I shouldn’t need to point this out either but each of the original three X-coms were “modern” for the times (Even TfTD, which a lot of people did feel was just a retread). Yes, including Apocalypse.
I didn’t even realize this game was out. Or even that it was a real game!
The only press I ever saw on it was Facebook ads, which made me immediately think it was another social media/mobile freemium game, running right alongside those “Level 30 Crook” and “Kill the Goblin” ads.
If you wanna check it out, save your coupon and pick up xbox game pass for pc. It’s crazy cheap ($1/£1 a month!) and Phoenix Point is one of the (many) games available on it that are worth playing.
Caveat emptor: the game is buggy. I’m the sort of guy who doesn’t mind bugs that much so long as I can get around them, but yesterday I just gave up on it after ~50 hours of play, deep in my second campaign, which I started after I found whatever is the “normal” difficulty too easy.
So I was doing this haven defense mission. I cleared the map but the game wouldn’t end. I uncovered every nook and cranny on the map and nothing. Frustrated but undeterred, I hit the forums to see if there’s a workaround. That turned out to be a mod to enable the console in the game and a command to be typed in. I enabled the mod, followed instructions to the letter, but the game refused to load - didn’t throw an error, it just kept waiting for that never arrives. And the game is so badly written that it disables the mouse cursor while it loads even when the focus is outside the game window, so that you’re locked out of your OS when it’s loading.
Well, after the third attempt and an hour later, I just gave up on it. I’ll probably give it another chance if they improve the stability of their game, but I doubt that day will ever come. The overall package has the feel of being programmed by a team that’s new to game development, and I feel that its technical problems are too ingrained to be corrected.
The game in it is good, more because the freshness of its theme rather than its core tactical gameplay. I do adore its free aiming system and granular movement, but almost everything else is done better elsewhere.
