er... you mean battlescape? there really isn't a geoscape equivalent in the silent storm games.

agreed. the silent storm engine is the very best turn-based tactical squad combat game i've played, mechanics-wise. i still think that the old X-COM games had better computer AI, though.
i doubt nival interactive could get the rights to X-COM, but maybe they could license the engine to 2K (if 2K ever decides to finally make that rumored new X-COM game!)

whoops!
good call :D
One can only hope...
What about those other games in the Xcom series? Interceptor? that FPS project that got scrapped? I've even heard about a RTS variant of the series and a lot of other things that never quite took off.
ENFORCER! <----- Saga Killer IMHO xD

interceptor was a good idea, but implemented too soon, i think. X-COM started branching out into different game types very quickly after the success of the first game. most of the team from the first game went on to work on Apoc, so interceptor was a sharp departure.
the FPS you're thinking of was alliance, which did look good. if it had been released, it would have been the first (correct me if i'm wrong) game to have squad-based tactics in a FPS.
i think that most X-COM fans really want to see the franchise go back to its roots. we want UFO defense with updated graphics and interfaces, inclusion of modern gaming mechanics, but also retaining the original's game mechanics to recapture the spirit and feel of X-COM. that would have been [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-COM:_Genesis]genesis[/url], but that game was canned when hasbro sold off the X-COM games to atari.

I would do terrible things for a new XCOM. Seriously.

About UFO: Alien Invasion: I recently thought i could play Apocalypse again, as i liked it, and while i did never ever play the first two, i just can't convince me. So i looked for other stuff, and found Alien Invasion.
It is pretty good, but has still lots of issues. The menu (the ingame one, not options etc.) could be a bit better organized, i had a hard time finding my spendings and stuff.. actually i still do not know how much i pay each year/whatever it is, expect when it's time to pay. Also the description of how much the different countries like you is too long, so it's a bit ambiguous, as it says "überschäumend" (exuberant)..well, exuberant lucky? Or raging? I don't know, it isn't displayed.
ANd the UFOs.. i had several hard times where i had to fly in the opposite direction right after doing a mission, otherwise i would get shot down..but once..no way. No matter which direction, it would catch me, as it was basically directly at my dropship.
And there is no way you can defend yourself with only the dropship. So i would loose my dropship, all soldiers, equipement and loot because the game decided to place a UFO right above me? Thats was a bad joke.
Also it's a bit stupid that if you shoot a UFO down, it is always f***** up beyond repair, and if it lands/crashes, it is always recoverable, even if the one you shoot down looks fine in the mission, and other one is only some debris.
Also there is next to no difference between the Aliens i know so far..at least not the humanoid. Weapons are similar (it doesn't really matter if they use Plasma or Particle weapons..), look, other behaviour..
So whats the point?
Also line of sight/line of fire is a joke. I can see Aliens 2 km away through 20 windows, but i can not shoot one standing right down that small stairs/cliff or whatever..because they can't look straight down/up. Another thing: Why can't i choose with weapons like grenades or grenade launcher if i want a heigher trajectory, so i can shoot someone standing near the wall of the building i'm on?
Well.. its still fun.
I should probably try the "After" series, too, heard some stuff about it.. back then, and lately again.

I bought UFO: Aftersock, and boy do i regret it. Not only it is quite buggy as it also seems like a b-version of X-Com. The ingame research images were just too bad, i prefer the x-com ones any time. Yes the original story was appelaing but from my point of view that alone was not enough and it made me stay away from the hole UFO series.
By the way GOG team, what do we have to do to have the x-com games here. :P

Well, they do tend to get lonely in their offices.....:-D