Jagged Alliance is back too
 

New Syndicate is around the corner, we're getting two new X-Coms and on February 9th, Jagged Alliance is Back in Action as it becomes available on Steam (and possibly on other outlets as well). Its been 10-something years since the JA2 (not counting the Wildfire expansion and DS/DSIware ports).

I. Frigging. Love it! Its my all-time favorite strategy series (Yes, I always preferred it over X-Com's) and cant wait to get my hands on this. When the time comes to finally upgrade my hardware, this one will be an instant purchase.

This one seems to stick with the roots as well. Mercs are still highly unique, warfare is still realistic, there's the map screen, mining companies, voice-acting etcetera etcetera. From the trailer, It seems the plot is very similar to the 2nd game. Only difference is that main gameplay is said to be a mix of RTS and turn-based strategy, a "plan & go" system, which sounds something like in Frozen Synapse (sleeper indy-hit of the last year).

Looks surprisingly interesting. I love the new large map mode and that they kept the same voices for the mercs.
But I'm not convinced of the pausable realtime stuff, it looks like Baldurs Gate. I hated it in Ufo Aftermath and The Fall.

Edit: Also whats with the 3d pictures for the mercs faces, they look horrible. Just look at Gus, he's a 30 year old kid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZkkIW9rKrM

That doesn't really look either surprising or interesting to me. In fact, it looks like an old game named Commando...

It's not like real time games like Jagged Alliance never been done. They've been run down to the death actually. What made Jagged Alliance interesting was the turn based action... And they plan to remove it.

Great.

They also removed the fog of war.

JA series never had fog of war. From the video, I can see the basics of line-of-sight system, similar to other games.

Let me know when you stop being stuck in the 90's okay? Then I can start taking you seriously.

Now, what actually did make any of the Jagged Alliance interesting and different compared to say, X-Com, was the personalized characters and modern military setting, not necessarily the turn-based gameplay mechanics.

They changed the turn based to semi-turn based system or whatever. Okay, but instead of bitching about it immediately, lets wait 'till the game comes out and see how it works. Like I said, it looks similar to Frozen Synapse, which was a mixture of turn-based and real-time strategy (Unlike Commandos, which was real-time all-the-time), and that game was a surprise indy hit of the last year (but you probably didnt know that cause its too new for you).

And speaking of Commandos, this does not look like Commandos at all.

If you're talking about Pyro Studios' Commandos series (there must be millions of video games with the word "commando" in their titles)... I have played only C3 Berlin, I suppose the rest are similar, but it has nothing to do with JA, XCOM and the tactic genre. It's a plain puzzle game--which was a huge disappointment for me.

JA did have a line of sight system. Otherwise you could have spotted the enemies only by entering a territory. :rolleyes:
Really? Maybe if you could be the little least coherent I'd be the least bothered that you in particular don't take me seriously. And let me tell you why:
First, you are the one intruducing X-com here. Second, of course the turn based gameplay mechanics is not what set JA and X-com different: they are exactly the same! :rolleyes:

The only point I'd gladly concede would be that what made JA and X-com different is indeed the fact that X-com is fiction and JA is more real life, warfare (guerillera style) centered. But then again, this has absolutely nothing to do with the current conversation...
Those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it. Why do I say that? Because it already happened. Since you seem to like talking about X-com, lets bring you a brilliant example: X-Com Apocalypse. They changed the game from turn based to a pausable RTS, the exact same kind of mechanics shown in the movie linked above, and it completely ruined the serie... :rolleyes:
I don't talk about things I don't know and thus I simply ignored that comment. Which should be apparent by the obvious fact that I didn't even mention it in my reply. However, to be very frank with you, I never even heard of that game before in any way. Not on the net, not from friends, not from whatever. Certainly a great classic to pit a 1994 game against...
There is no such thing as a "mixture of turn-based and real time strategy". You either play the game in real time or in turn based strategy. You cannot have both. What you can have is an RTS which you can pause at any moment, like Baldur's Gate for example. Which is exactly what I am talking about by mentioning Commando! :rolleyes:
You probably mean graphically, which if the case would consider this comment downright too stupid to reply to...


Nope, I mean exactly that game. And I thought you were actually replying to Chosen since it indeed have absolutely nothing to do with the X-com type of game (and that was my whole point from the start too!)... But I'm the only one who really mentioned it :oh:

I played it when it got out, it was a hit and became a classic as far as I know. It was a game in which you had to move a commando unit in sequence to win every missions as they all had specialties to (ab)use and if you didn't plan your moves right you simply had to reload. Clearly nothing to do with a puzzle game though, I really wonder where you got that.

Unless you also consider games like Hitman a puzzle game? :huh:

It looked kinda interesting, but I was never a fan of Jagged Alliance, it played too slow and was too unbalanced. Maybe with a faster game play style I would be able to enjoy it.

Once I heard they stripped the TBS from it I pretty much lost interest.

I have come to a realization that there's no point arguing with Eagle of Fire about anythings thats new or, even worse, something new thats related to something old. You have completely missed my points. Great job. Im ignoring you from now on so dont bother answering to this.

Moving on...

There is not much point indeed when you cannot even make sense. :rolleyes:

I got the opinion that Commandos is a puzzle game, which isn't mine alone, from playing it. Not that I played it a lot, as puzzle games bore me. I'm not saying it wasn't a commercial success. It's a game where you have say two commandos, and only one of them can kill enemies and only the other can climb walls. Very realistic tactics simulator... More like a remake of Lost Vikings.

Commandos is a tattical game.