Game over man! GAME OVER! Let's Be Bad At X-Com: UFO Defense

[Psyentific]

Do you remember a time when games were good? When cutting edge graphics were sprites and 16-bit colors? When boxart looked nothing like the actual game? X-Com: UFO Defense, otherwise known as UFO: Alien Unknown is a game from that time.

A fine vintage Microprose, circa 1994, X-Com: UFO Defense has you as the commander of EXtraterrestrial COMmand, or X-Com. I can sum up the "plot" in under three sentences. Aliens are doing alien things; abducting people, mutilating cattle, invading Earth, et cetera. You must stop them with an 'elite' force handpicked from the best of the best of washouts from Earths greatest special forces shittiest militias. This is a 100% faithful summary of what happens in games. I've seen people miss with Laser Rifles at point blank range. How the fuck they do that, I'll never know. They're fucking stormtroopers, all of them.

Death is permanent. Did your psychic Duke Nukem just eat an alien rocket launcher? Tough shit. Either reload your save, or he's fucking dead. Note: You can actually have psychic Duke Nukems.


So why did I make this thread? I'm doing a Let's Play of this. Right here. If you want a dude named after you, just post in this thread. Post anything. I don't care. Knowing X-Com, I'm going to run out of names for people long before I run out of dudes. Hell, I'm probably going to have to make Cameron "Troll" Strathdee at least twice. I mean I made Paul five times or something, so...

And to keep you interested, I'm going to let you guys tell me what to research, and where to put our first base. Also, I'm going to let you pick what I bring along on a mission, and once you get named, your weapon of choice.

A bit about missons: There's 14 slots in our Skyranger VTOL transport. A tank takes up 4 slots, and an infantryman takes up one slot. We COULD roll around with 3 tanks, but the problem with tanks is that they don't fit into most UFOs. And there's usually a lot of Xenos in UFOs. Xenos that we must kill. We need men to get into the UFOs and buildings, but tanks are powerful out in open terrain. We can usually blow our way into buildings, but good luck trying to breach a UFOs outer hull. (It's actually impossible without the most powerful weapon in the game, and that weapon only creates a one space wide gap.)



So, without further adieu...X-Com.

UFO: Enemy Unknown ( X-com ) - intro movie

>New Game


And we're immediately greeted with...



So, Where is X-COM's Super Secret Underground Headquarters™ located, and what is it called?

-> Vancouver, Canada - Alien Reaction Corps

[TurtleClaw]

Mother Russia, Eastern Siberia, "Vostok-1"
or New Zeland
or Japan, but only if you have access to Mechas piloted by Japanese students

[Psyentific]

Mother Russia, Eastern Siberia, "Vostok-1"
or New Zeland
or Japan, but only if you have access to Mechas piloted by Japanese students

If by Mecha you mean flying power armor armed with lasers or plasma, then we'll eventually have that.

[Cataphrak]

We won't get much cover over Europe if we set up in Eastern Russia, and that would be bad, seeing as, IIRC, a lot of our funding comes from there.

Great Britain, "Overwatch Central", alternatively "MiniXeno".

[Psyentific]

I'm suprised nobody has said Nevada - Area 51 yet.

[Iron Wall]

Newfoundland, because nobody would fucking expect that.
I'll think of a name soon.

[Cataphrak]

Or rather,
Great Britain, "Torchwood"

Our fatality rates will be roughly the same, after all.

[Iron Wall]

Torchwood: Newfoundland?

[Cataphrak]

Torchwood Six (St. Johns)

[Psyentific]

Vancouver - Alien Reaction Corps

[Cataphrak]

For once, Cam's post has my approval.

+1 Rep

[Iron Wall]

You know what? Yes. I agree.

[Chapman approves +5]

[Psyentific]

It's settled then. The X-Com Main Base is in Vancouver, and it is the Alien Reaction Corps. Expect an update tomorrow morning.

[Iron Wall]

Fantastic. I would like to be the second named person if possible.
And I suggest Paul and I go on plenty of adventures together, and he dies tragically which inspires me to become a better person and a top uber-agent of awesome.

Paul has to die though.

[Cataphrak]

I agree, with one change which fits better with IRL.

Chapman, being the noble and heroic one, must die saving all of our lives after I fail to do something mission critical. Afterwards, I, wracked by guilt, will close myself in to the outside world, until I have an epiphany and return, inspired by Chapman's example to be a better person and a better soldier...

...Then I die in the end, by saving everyone else in the most spectacular manner possible.

Mind you, this truly epic saga of heroism and redemption can only be triggered by Chapman's horrible and violent death...

((In case you haven't noticed, I want to be X-Com Recruit number 3, and gods help you if you start me off with a cattle prod, give the cattle prod to Chapman, he's more melee oriented anyways...))

[Gaming]

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