Aftermath is pretty friendly, from what I recall. It has been a few years since I played, but I recall limping at the end of a few missions and not having to replace my squad.
ET is rather forgiving of getting a few hits, but expect that character to be unusable for at least a few months (sickbay). Although, I think a few mods drastically cut down the healing time.

Nah, research means a lot in Afterlight. Just try to go against native Martians without blade throwers or against Expedition without robotics :P

In X-Com: Apocalypse your soldiers were much tougher.
Also, if I recall correctly, in the UFO games your unit can take a few hits before going down.

I have the retail copy of this and to be honest it's an insult to the name X-Com. It's an average tactical shooter a lot like Fallout Tactics but it certainly has nothing in common with X-Com other than the name. I also agree the research is pointless and just seemed tacked on. If you are after an X-Com game then avoid this game and wait until 2KGames sign up and bring the genuine article. If you just want a tactical shooter then be my guest but be under no illusions its just average.
Personally I am going to wait for the real remake UFO: Cydonia's Fall

I dont know much about the different UFO releases. Are these 2 games remakes of the original UFO games from Microprose?

Sort of sequels in a parallel world. If that makes any sort of sense.

Nah, should have been spiritual successors, actually have as much in common with them as with any other strategy game. Sure, you see some similarities, but if you want to enjoy it, you have to approach it as completely different game

Ah, alright. Being Gog, i thought they were releasing the original 20mb or so games. Will those be brought over too?

I've been waiting for a nice XCOM:UD remake for years and I'm pretty certain it's not going to happen. Many attempts have been made, all of them failed. UFO:CF looks really promising and awesome... but they simply lack the manpower (and motivation) to do anything.
Even the latest forum posts are from the beginning of October...
At on point or another - I'm simply willing to give these sequels a go and enjoy them for what they are. I don't care if they're inferior - they might still be somewhat fun regardless. I can even live with active pause instead of turns, as it might have some merits - something I'd consider heresy a few years back...

True but the mods did explain about work and college. Like you said they have a very small team so you can expect that. The only reason I hold a candle for UFO:CF is they are the first people who seem to 'get' X-Com. Don't attempt to remake a classic in your own image (like Altair and the others did) just remake a classic. Also the music is spot on.

I think UFO:ET was pretty decent. It by no means surpasses the original XCOM, but of all of the attempts, it's the one that doesn't send me running to XCOM after 20 minutes of play. Mind you, patches and mods are somewhat key. But that said, I have high hopes for the sequel too, from what they've annonced it sounds like it's gonna be even closer to XCOM's secret sauce right out of the box. :D

Actually, those are available already on Steam, Direct2Drive and Gamersgate for a few bucks apiece, working ina DosBox shell.

They don't owe me anything - they're doing this for free. As such - I don't expect them to keep working on it... Like I said - I'd be really if they managed to finish it but I highly doubt they'll achieve anything playable in the foreseeable future.
Frankly - all I ever wanted were some UI tweeks... like a list of all the team members in a given base that you could sort by different stats... Stuff like that. As long as I know who to equip with what before the action - I'd even bear with the original graphics... Not that I would mind a tweak in them :>.
Then again - all these people ever achieve in their remake attempts are some AWESOME and incredibly detailed 3D models and some sounds/music and item descriptions (down to the best goddamn flavor text they can come up with). All they lack is the damn game engine itself -_-'. What's even more hilarious - every time a new project pops up, all the progress from the previous one is lost (and they go ahead and make the models, music, etc from scratch). I'd really like it if someone wrote the engine and borrowed ALL the content straight from one of those inactive attempts... Not likely to happen, though.