By chance I happened to both watch a trailer for a new XCOM game and read an article about the new Syndicate game today.

It seems both games will be FPS games. I must say that is both surprising and disappointing.

Apart from the obvious fact that that the original games were much loved and that we don't need any more FPS games, what will set a XCOM apart from raven software's last game singularity, that didn't do all that well ?

I love dark sci-fi fantasy shooters but with the lofty sales goals publishers have these days I'm surely in the minority.

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

You have big marketable properties with built-in name recognition. You want to do something with them, but turn-based strategy games do not work or sell on a console. Hence you turn them into FPS games which (people say) work on consoles.

Pretty easy to understand really, even if you don't agree with it.

Take the name away and evaluate them on their own merits. Starbreeze is making Syndicate and there is no way that won't be awesome going by their Riddick games. Xcom is looking damn interesting.

Books and covers and all that...

Found this article:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-02-new-syndicate-to-be-an-fps-report

Singularity was a great game! It only didn't do so well in the sense that nobody bought it.

I agree, I'm a big fan of ravensoft in general. But I don't see the point of shoehorning XCOM into a sci-fi shooter when even a great one like singularity really didn't do so well.

The thing about X-Com that bugs me is why call it X-Com and then throw it all away?

If you made an X-Com shooter where you start off as a rookie, and it's procedurally generated missions and outcome based upon what happens in the game you could be something really cool. You would fight to survive, taking orders from superiors, choosing your load out as more weapons and abilities become available, watching as friends/allies die around you up until you have the final battle in Cydonia. Or you could completely screw up missions until X-Com itself collapses around you or the base you're on ends up being destroyed by the aliens.

Instead of doing something like that, they've gone into this 1950's style starring an FBI agent with nothing really connecting the game to the series beyond the name.

It's true, they do say that. They're wrong, but they say it ;-)

But the vast majority who have never heard of the game won't care (so no extra name-recognising sales from them), and the ones who do know the game will hate it for being nothing whatsoever like the game it "stole" its name from (so less sales from them).

Thus, I don't see the logic of the decision from the point of view of either the publisher or the customers.

So then why use the old series' name instead of coming up with a new one? That way you can have FPS game which can be inspired by anything without bastardizing any other franchise, however dead it may be.

EDIT: typo

I know I'm looking forward to the Super Mario World FPS.

yes, but you, and everybody else, constantly whining about it is free marketing people who don't know what X-Com is will look at XCOM trailers and think 'that's actually pretty cool' that's why you use a popular series, would fallout 3 have been anymore successful had it been called 'apocalypse' or something else? no, the fans that detested the diversion from it's roots helped propel the game further, while the fans that didn't care and only wanted to see a Fallout game would buy it. Also think, there's a middle aged dude, who used to play games in college, he has a job, a family, and only buys a game for himself every 6 months or so, he sees XCOM in the store and remembers how much fun he used to have playing the original XCOM, he sees it's also like the only other games he's really been playing lately, Halo and Call of Duty, so he picks it up.

The Marketing is pretty solid behind calling it XCOM.

Ok XCOM I didnt mind

But syndicate a FPS.... Oh dear

In your opinion. I know which one I prefer ;-)

Never played the original XCOM games, but this one definitely has me interested.

Syndicate an FPS? That's stupid, just stupid imho....