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Kaboom Dragoon posted:It's not terrible, but it's not likely to rocket to the top of your favourites either. It killed time during lunch breaks at work, which, really, was all I was asking for. It's probably on a par with the Bioshock tie-in - does decent service to the source material, but not mandatory reading. It does accurately reflect an average game of XCOM though, in that characters tend to die at the drop of a hat. I had a good laugh once I realised that. At the end of the day, it's a tie-in book, so adjust your expectations accordingly, but if you see it cheap, you could do worse. Alright, thanks, i will keep my eyes Open for it then. Cythereal posted:On the other hand, they took down a supply barge with nothing but ravens and missiles so good on them - that's what the Avenger is, a refitted supply barge. Especially this part has me Intrigued. i'm not sure if i ever came across this in my play troughs.
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Jul 16, 2016 14:34
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Brainamp posted:It's not really a meme so much as acknowledged in-game that she had zero qualms about torture and interrogation of alien prisoners. Reminder that the canonical way to get around the language barrier was Vahlen shoving electrodes into the skull of the captive alien and then 'stimulating' (read: Hurting) it until they could get a good enough sense of the brain to read its thoughts.
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Jul 16, 2016 14:40
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Humans are actually the villains. The aliens are space-UN peacekeepers trying to keep a lid on these psychopaths.
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Jul 16, 2016 14:45
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Kasrkin posted:Especially this part has me Intrigued. i'm not sure if i ever came across this in my play troughs. Essentially, ADVENT has placed certain areas off-limits to absolutely everyone and X-COM saw really weird poo poo coming out of these contagion zones - animals made of glass and other bizarre stuff. They saw ADVENT forces going into these zones armed with flamethrowers, which the book notes are not standard ADVENT equipment. There's an event or two in this game that references them, but nothing's come of them yet. Could be foreshadowing for X-COM 3 or just "hey, weird poo poo" for flavor. Night10194 posted:Reminder that the canonical way to get around the language barrier was Vahlen shoving electrodes into the skull of the captive alien and then 'stimulating' (read: Hurting) it until they could get a good enough sense of the brain to read its thoughts. Also a way to get around most of the aliens not having mouths.
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Jul 16, 2016 14:48
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Ahhh Jade stop putting the "-" in the new XCOM!Kurieg posted:My favorite line of Tygans is the one about him being poo poo at actual therapeutic medicine so he's glad you send him a steady stream of corpses to practice on. He says he and the crew are glad he gets to practice on corpses first because by his own admission his knowledge of therapeutic medicine up-till-recently was entirely theoretical. He also states a similar reason for wanting you to recruit more scientists, he is a chemist/biologist by trade and wants all the help he can get. I really wish Tygan got flesh out a bit more because I like that he was the defector who was never revealed as a mole; he was totally true to XCOM the whole time. Hell story line where there was a mole with Lilly constantly accusing Tygan and Bradford trying to be neutral; only to have Tygan end up being the hero would have been welcomed as some real development. Cythereal posted:Essentially, ADVENT has placed certain areas off-limits to absolutely everyone and X-COM saw really weird poo poo coming out of these contagion zones - animals made of glass and other bizarre stuff. They saw ADVENT forces going into these zones armed with flamethrowers, which the book notes are not standard ADVENT equipment. Well remember at the end of Enemy Unknown the Ethereals point out they were running from something. Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jul 16, 2016 |
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Jul 16, 2016 14:51
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The Lone Badger posted:Humans are actually the villains. The aliens are space-UN peacekeepers trying to keep a lid on these psychopaths. What the gently caress is this pro-Advent propaganda doing here? 
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Jul 16, 2016 15:32
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Gridlocked posted:Well remember at the end of Enemy Unknown the Ethereals point out they were running from something. My bet is someone out there made an alien AI with poorly defined priorities or foolishly breached into dimensions where they found something that happily started breaching back. Maybe some combination of the two. Y'know, the Insert Sci-Fi Threat Here usual.
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Jul 16, 2016 15:33
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Scribbleykins posted:My bet is someone out there made an alien AI with poorly defined priorities or foolishly breached into dimensions where they found something that happily started breaching back. Maybe some combination of the two. This is Let's Play XCOM2, not Stellaris!
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Jul 16, 2016 15:38
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I really wish they would do something with The Bureau, I don't care what anyone says I liked that game a lot and it had a character to it. I mean sure I can see and accept the problems with it but it's not X-Com: Enforcer.
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Jul 16, 2016 16:21
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Kurieg posted:That also folded into the meme about her being the one who chops of the limbs for Mec-ing. The first time you send a soldier in for MEC-ing in XCOM: Enemy Within, Dr. Vahlen is specifically named as the one being consulted with for the amputations. You also have the poo poo that goes on in the gene labs, where your soldiers are sent to have their eyes removed and replaced with alien eyes. XCOM: Enemy Within got creepy as gently caress, though it didn't quite seem to follow through on the consequences of that creepiness. Pittsburgh Lambic fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Jul 16, 2016 |
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Jul 16, 2016 17:20
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:The first time you send a soldier in for MEC-ing in XCOM: Enemy Within, Dr. Vahlen is specifically named as the one being consulted with for the amputations. She also comments that the limbs are being put in cryogenic storage and hopes that with meld they can be reattached when the war ends. Again, Vahlen only resorts to the neural probes because nevermind the language issue, most aliens aren't physically capable of speech. Most are also lobotomized - if you read the interrogation reports, Vahlen mentions using traditional interrogation techniques on aliens like thin men where traditional methods can work. She brain probes aliens like sectoids and floaters. Vahlen's eccentric to be sure, and without supervision probably would get carried away, but I found her endearing and the most memorable character in the game. Pittsburgh Lambic posted:You also have the poo poo that goes on in the gene labs, where your soldiers are sent to have their eyes removed and replaced with alien eyes. XCOM: Enemy Within got creepy as gently caress, though it didn't quite seem to follow through on the consequences of that creepiness. Again, read the lore. Their eyes are modified thanks to meld, not removed. You play around with enhancing the function of their pupils or giving them better depth perception. Vahlen is a bit extreme, but she's not that extreme. She calls out the ADVENT elites as completely disregarding ethical practices for their augmentations, going well beyond what she is willing to condone. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Jul 16, 2016 |
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Jul 16, 2016 17:28
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:You also have the poo poo that goes on in the gene labs, where your soldiers are sent to have their eyes removed and replaced with alien eyes. ...special eyes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fRuoMIfpw
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Jul 16, 2016 17:28
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Cythereal posted:She also comments that the limbs are being put in cryogenic storage and hopes that with meld they can be reattached when the war ends. Look, Vahlen and Ethics have a very special relationship.
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Jul 16, 2016 17:36
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Cythereal posted:Again, read the lore. Their eyes are modified thanks to meld, not removed. You play around with enhancing the function of their pupils or giving them better depth perception. Good point. I had just been going on Meld's stated use in the cinematic after you first unlock it, in which Meld is described as being used to bond human tissue to electronics, or human tissue to alien tissue. My assumption had been that Vahlen was using Meld to graft alien body parts onto human soldiers to enhance their capabilities. Those kinds of things gave the game a very dark tone when I was playing; to me XCOM: Enemy Within was about people losing their humanity in the process of fighting the aliens. Cythereal posted:Vahlen is a bit extreme, but she's not that extreme. She calls out the ADVENT elites as completely disregarding ethical practices for their augmentations, going well beyond what she is willing to condone. Do you mean the EXALT elites in Enemy Within? Pittsburgh Lambic fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Jul 16, 2016 |
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Jul 16, 2016 17:46
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:Do you mean the EXALT elites in Enemy Within? Erm. Yeah. Wrong group of sinister, face-concealing alien collaborators using extensive alien gene mods. When you meet the first EXALT Elites, Vahlen comments that they're using gene mod technology well beyond what she considers safe or ethical. Pittsburgh Lambic posted:My assumption had been that Vahlen was using Meld to graft alien body parts onto human soldiers to enhance their capabilities. In the research, Vahlen comments that the gene mods are inspired by alien genetics. For example, commenting on the cyberdisc autopsy: Its internal mechanisms seem to operate like organs, giving it the ability to circulate plasma through its core systems, much in the same way blood flows through our bodies. These mechanisms enable the construct to distribute vital functions throughout its body. After further study, it may be possible to use these designs in our genetic modification program to reduce our soldiers' dependence on vital organs such as the heart This unlocks the Secondary Heart mod. Vahlen's pretty clear about looking at alien physiology and occasionally seeing interesting ideas for genetic modifications, not actually replacing organs with alien gribblies. Sorry if I'm coming across as defensive or spergy.
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Jul 16, 2016 18:06
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It's okay, keep justifying yourself, Vahlen.
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Jul 16, 2016 18:11
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:Those kinds of things gave the game a very dark tone when I was playing; to me XCOM: Enemy Within was about people losing their humanity in the process of fighting the aliens. That was what they'd pretty clearly intended for it to be (see the R Buckminster Fuller quote at the beginning of Enemy Within.) The actual result was a lot more... booshey.
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Jul 16, 2016 18:12
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Keeshhound posted:That was what they'd pretty clearly intended for it to be (see the R Buckminster Fuller quote at the beginning of Enemy Within.) The actual result was a lot more... booshey. Any knowledge of anime would inform you that traditional xeno-ethics go out the window just as soon as you get a rocket punch.
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Jul 16, 2016 18:16
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Gridlocked posted:He says he and the crew are glad he gets to practice on corpses first because by his own admission his knowledge of therapeutic medicine up-till-recently was entirely theoretical. He also states a similar reason for wanting you to recruit more scientists, he is a chemist/biologist by trade and wants all the help he can get. Yes, that's the one. I like him because he's honest about his own limitations and calls in Lily all the time for consults. Whereas Vahlen and Shen were usually at eachother's throats. I mean hell he did the surgery to remove his own chip by himself.
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Jul 16, 2016 18:19
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Cythereal posted:Essentially, ADVENT has placed certain areas off-limits to absolutely everyone and X-COM saw really weird poo poo coming out of these contagion zones - animals made of glass and other bizarre stuff. They saw ADVENT forces going into these zones armed with flamethrowers, which the book notes are not standard ADVENT equipment. That's where ADVENT is fighting the 1960 XCOM remnants that they woke up.
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Jul 16, 2016 18:24
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This is a long shot, but perhaps it was a reference to Gollop's new project? Probably just a case of wishful thinking on my part.
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Jul 16, 2016 19:12
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Brunom1 posted:Someone obviously hasn't played enough Metal Gear Rising.
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Jul 16, 2016 20:16
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Cythereal posted:Vahlen's eccentric to be sure, and without supervision probably would get carried away, but I found her endearing and the most memorable character in the game. I agree with all of this. I just assume "eccentric" involves a lot more... war crimes.
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Jul 16, 2016 21:04
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chiasaur11 posted:I just assume "eccentric" involves a lot more... war crimes. I read this in Taigen's voice. Fits 100%
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Jul 16, 2016 22:37
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chiasaur11 posted:I agree with all of this. That is my area of expertise.
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Jul 16, 2016 22:38
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chiasaur11 posted:I agree with all of this. Bradford does mention that Dr. Vahlen is about the most terrifying person that the aliens could possibly have coming to interrogate them. "Interrogation log 1822 hours: Ze subject appears to exhibit an exceptionally pronounced pain response when ze probe is inserted directly between ze eye and ze tear duct and allowed to penetrate to within one millimeter of ze brain. I vonder if ze pain response would intensify if I vas to apply electrical current. However, my assistant still has yet to return from ze bathroom; when I left the containment unit at 1810 to check on her she was curled up on ze floor sobbing into her labcoat. I vill have to find a nine-volt battery myself."
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Jul 16, 2016 23:00
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Considering how they reflect my view of the original game's cast this seems like the time to share the extra haikus I sent to Jade Star along with my original soldier application. Shen speaks much wisdom The likable character Is often least dumb Power up strange tech Doctor Vahlen is insane Could have been a bomb Bothersome Bradford Best sweater that ever wore A wooden actor
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Jul 16, 2016 23:15
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were people really "upset" that we were doing 24-style interrogations so that we could get Plasma credits? I'm pretty sure Vahlen is doing exactly what they were doing in the original XCOM, it's just that now we have the technology for voice acting. I don't know about you but I'm willing to suspend some ethics if it means I have a chance of not being destroyed whenever a Berserker or a Chrysalid gets within touching distance
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Jul 17, 2016 00:22
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One quick q... Can somebody get the Epic Voice Guy from Honest Trailers to jump into one of the levels? He is the Voice of the Council (or whatever... faceless talking head guy)
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Jul 17, 2016 00:33
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Aces High posted:were people really "upset" that we were doing 24-style interrogations so that we could get Plasma credits? I'm pretty sure Vahlen is doing exactly what they were doing in the original XCOM, it's just that now we have the technology for voice acting. Who said anything about being upset about it? Vahlen was awesome.
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Jul 17, 2016 00:45
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Night10194 posted:Who said anything about being upset about it? Vahlen was awesome. Yeah, part of why Vahlen was great was that she put a face onto the assumptions we'd had about X-Com's science teams all along.
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Jul 17, 2016 01:12
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.... *looks at video* So next mission is "Operation Nigel Cumming's Fart" Unique
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Jul 17, 2016 01:15
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just go with the flow
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Jul 17, 2016 01:21
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You can thank/blame Lunethex for the new randomly generated mission names.
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Jul 17, 2016 01:38
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To be fair Jade looked over it too before the LP. So I'll only take credit/responsibility for the good ones 
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Jul 17, 2016 01:47
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Just saw the first video in my subscription playlist. I loved the first Xcom playthrough so I'm looking forward to this.
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Jul 17, 2016 03:54
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Sent in my soldier to die for the cause, I hope I managed the exporting correctly. Looking forward to seeing XCOM 2 played by someone who's good rather than a bad like me.
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Jul 17, 2016 03:55
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Once Jade has a chance to make all of the characters into dudes, you should export them as a character pool for us to futz around with if we'd like. Also Vahlen is the greatest. When she wasn't bitching about blowing up weapon fragments anyway. I really do love every cutscene from XCOM2012. So many of them play out the same way. Vahlen wants to do something, bradford gets angry, shen points out the military applications and Bradford has a House-esque epiphany about how it could kill aliens. I hate how often I've clicked through the cutscene for the first one where Vahlen proposes capturing aliens. CLOSE RANGE? I don't dislike Tygan or lil' shen, but man, they're not their predecessors.
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Jul 17, 2016 07:31
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Bradford, Vahlen, and Shen had a good schtick going as a team.
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Jul 17, 2016 14:17
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WITNESS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvIgzYBL2Z8
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Jul 17, 2016 14:34
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