XCOM

            This is the newest writer of the C.I.F.A. team, Hunter. You may have never heard of XCOM, but it’s a series of games created from 1993 to 2001. If you don’t want to hear about the history of these games or already know what they are scroll down to where you’ll see a **** before the paragraph about the newest XCOM game.

They were a series of alien fighting games. These were mostly RTF styled, for the exception of XCOM Inceptor, and XCOM Enforcer. These were all made for PCs but, a few of them were made for Amiga PC and the original Playstation. The first of the series was U.F.O. Enemy Unknown. This game came out in 1994. In the game there were supposedly U.F.O. sightings all around the world, as well as abductions, and attacks on humans. You play as a team called X-COM (Extraterrestrial Combat Unit) they were formed by the most powerful nations in the world to deal with the attacks of extraterrestrial life. At the beginning of the game you immediately start to run XCOM. Throughout the game you learn about the aliens, their species, subspecies, and their technology. The aliens were controlled by mega-minded Ethereals, which were based on Mars. You must take the battle to mars to end the attacks on the human race.

The next game came out in 1995, it was called XCOM: Terror From The Deep. This was set in 2040; a new alien life spawns from the Earth’s own waters. Once again you play as XCOM, but the battles of alien versus man are taken underwater. There are occasions on which you submerge back to the surface. This is when the aliens attack on the shore. The player eventually wins the war over the alien menace.

XCOM Apocalypse was the third game of the series. This game was published in 1997, set in 2090. This game is about the several new cities formed to inhabit human kind. Another new kind of alien has been discovered, they were of no relation to the previous alien attackers. It is also discovered that they have enslaved another kind of alien. These aliens are sent through portals to attack the cities of humans. The main city of the game (and the one you follow) is called Mega-Primus. You play as XCOM (yet again) but this time it has been re-established by the city of Mega-Primus to fight off the newest alien attacks. Throughout the game XCOM tries to find a way to get to the base of these aliens, so they can take the war there.

The other two, as I had already mentioned, are different in that they are not RTF styled. The fourth game is Interceptor. In Inceptor, you play in a spacecraft war against yet, again, alien life. The year is 2067; Earth’s resources are slowly being used up. The companies, that supply these resources, quickly look up to the stars. When up there they find old, old enemies, the menace from the first alien war. The player manages XCOM during this war for resources and survival, while also battling in spacecraft.

Finally the last of the old series was, XCOM Enforcer. This game was created in 2001; the game is set in the first alien war. Professor Able Standard is creating a robot for XCOM, to help defeat the alien menace. Unfortunately, XCOM cut budget and had to cancel this project. Professor Able Standard did not stop with the project though. He secretly created this robot warrior in Nevada’s deserts. He completes his project and releases the machine onto the alien attackers. Throughout the game the player plays as the robot warrior and blows through the alien fleets. Professor Standard finds the alien mother ship, and sends his creation through a portal to destroy the aliens at the source.

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The new game coming out in the series is being created by the great minds that created Bioshock 2. This game is set in the 1950’s and you are William Carter, an FBI agent sent by XCOM to find out why a distresses call was sent in to XCOM. You and your colleagues hear a scream from a nearby house while they’re going down the road. They find a slimy black trail heading to the cry of terror. They arrive to a man lying on the floor, dead you get a picture to take back to base for research. This isn’t like any alien the human race has ever known. In this first person shooter you do missions across the U.S. These missions range from things such as gathering evidence to battle the alien slime. Choose your missions wisely as when you do a mission others may be gone when you go back to base. The great part about the missions, are that you can retreat from it. You just have to make it back to your car and flee. This isn’t just a free-for-all type of game either. You the player need to take consideration into things. Think about the game instead of just shooting everything you see. Doing this will, help you throughout the game, because it may help you notice something and get some information. This will help you unlock a new weapon, find out their weakness, or even find out where they come from. The weapons in the game video look great. In the video, when you shotgun blast the black gooey enemy, they scatter all over. The pistol in the video seemed to do the same, except with less damage. There is also a gun that shoots out bolts of electricity, which is probably better for bigger amounts of the black slime, as you see in the video it shoots all over the place. There is also a glass gasoline holding Molotov. When you throw it the enemy catches fire. There is a lot of screaming involved when you harm or kill the vile goo. So be ready to turn the volume down when you first play. Also in the game, there is a giant thing, it changes shapes and is called a Monolith. This Monolith takes energy from everything around it and uses it to try to kill you. The only thing you can do is, RUN. Shooting this with any kind of gun will not affect it. The only option is to get to your car and get out of there. This video link will be at the end. In most of the previous XCOM games there is a strategic side of things. You control the battlefield, recruiting, ect. It is not yet known if there will be this side to the game, but I have read the people making this want to keep some of the original aspects to the game. What I do know is that if you lose a recruit, it’s not good. They all have their own traits and strength, so keeping others alive is vital. When someone does die, you get a new recruit. I am unsure as to if you pick them, or if they are spawned when you get back to base, but I bet you that the next person may not be too much better than the one before. They possibly could get better, but I only see that happening when you get farther into the game. I predict there will be a strategic side of things, as in some of the previous games, because the creators respect and love the original versions of the games.

This game looks like it will be a huge hit. The game play looks great, the story looks well done, and it has aspects that will suit every gamer. This game comes out in 2011, is coming out for XBOX 360 and PC, and has no ESRB rating yet, but I bet it will be M. Just watch the video and read the article on IGN. I’d put this on the top of the watch list. Here are the links below and thank you for reading this post.

The Official Teaser Video http://www.xcom.com/xcom.html

The Storyline for the Demo http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/109/1096424p1.html

sorry you have to copy and paste the second