X-COM was one of my favourite games of the old days - and if I had to choose I would say, that X-Com Apocalypse was the one I've played the most.

There were several things in this game which were really engaging and after I heard about a Remake of the game I was very corious if the developers were picking up those things, which made the game that good.

In the past there were several games picking up the gameplay of X-Com and there was a trilogy also out which was never marketed very heavy but the other day i saw it in the store for a cheap price I've bought it to get a cool game. In the end I have played no part of the trilogy completely to the end (not sure about their names any more, it was a newer release, no idea). The was something missing, maybe it just looks too .. empty .. somehow not the right feel.

Personally, if someone would ask me, than I would say a game like X-COM does not need to be 3D - it was good in 2D and I would play it nowadays also if it would be 2D .. but nowadays noone is programming 2D anymore .. so normally they are just bad.. 3D killed made many good games - another reason why I am not very enthusiastic about the next Sim City .. another game which was really in good in 2D.

Whatever - this is about X-COM: Enemy Unkown - especially it is about the demo, but because it will be released in 2 weeks, nothing will change any more, so that's quite a good place to start reviewing the game and if they were able to pick up the X-COM Feeling again.

First of all, this one IS 3D .. well .. BUT it also is round-based. YEA! So happy about that - X-Com aso was round based and that's a good thing - even better when they stick with that - it gives a good amount of tactical depth.

X-COM will also be released for the X-Box .. uhm.. no good sign, I have to admit and this does reflect in the overall controlling of the game, as I found out in the demo.

First thing you will HATE about the new X-COM is the simple fact, that they do not respect well-known control mechanisms. If you want to rotate the camera, you would normally try to hold the middle mouse button - you will fail, rotation is done by the 'q' and 'e' key .. very bad .. I hate consoles because of that - hopefully a patch will fix that.

Well - the developers said, they want to make the game a bit more easier for the casual player, because a regular console player just IS a casual player - sadly. All other ones have to live with the fact, that the user interface of X-COM is kindy complicated for the PC player, or every other player who is familiar with the normal controls in a 3D environment.

I remember on the old X-COM days, there was a bit of investigating what all the controls does mean and how to use them properly - I am ok with that - in the new X-COM .. uhm.. well .. pressing enter to go to strategic view .. come on .. why not just give me 10 on-screen-buttons more to play the game. I give a fu.. about console possibilities .. X-COM should be a PC Game - not a console one, it is a strategic game, I really don't care about consoles on strategic games.

This leads to a very simplified X-COM Feeling (at least in the demo, maybe it is more complex in later gameplay).

Remember, the original, there was time needed for changing weapon and such things - looks like that is missing completely now (I may be wrong) - when you stand beside a door, press 'V' to open it .. comeone, I want to click on the door, I do not want to press any specific button and hope the game will open the right door?

But ok - so much critics! But please, don't get me wrong, that game is really not that bad, there are just some annoying facts which are distubring, but X-COM Enemy Unkown seems to be good game after all. After playing the demo I am still confident to buy the game when it is released.

I really hope they implemented the research tree, pick up and using enemy weapons, having psionics, building your base, get the base intruded by aliens and all that things we all know pretty well from old X-COM series.

Making X-COM shoudl be more than just making a round-based game where you can shoot aliens. Really!

I bet, that if the game is out, many people will complain because the game is too much console like - and yes, it IS, even when just playing the demo, you will immediatly recognize, that this is also a console game and normally console games are just crap on the PC .. I bet there will be so much features missing in the end, just because that game aimed the consoles also.

Really, I hate consoles .. they should just make console games (shooters) and stick to PC games with high sophisticated games like X-COM which were invented to play with a MOUSE .. (yea, guys, a mouse are this small cabled box normally resting beside the keyboard .. oh, and a keyboard is that thing with labeled buttons on it)

Let's see how good X-COM Enemy Unknown will really be .. not sure at the moment .. but it could always be worse (like Stronghold 3)

PS: Just a few hours left to release - I am very curious how the game will be after the "demo" - unfortunately, the demo does show very few of the actuall possibilities - but most reviewing magazines gave very nice scores, which should not be possible if the full game is not much more than the demo reveals.