He Frag, She Frag

Let’s face it, I’m a blurber. If I don’t have the motivation to chime in at length about something, I’ll just throw up an interesting link.

Which is what is happening now! Actually, I’ll have a good article about my proven XBox 360 Life-Extender tecnhique this week – I just felt the urge to make this post because of a newsletter I just received from The Escapist. They posted this article about the ‘accidental success’ of the first X-Com game, which I found pretty interesting. It was more than a sleeper hit than anything, but is universally acclaimed by anybody who knows anything about the history of video games.

For those not in “the know,” X-Com: UFO Defense was a squad-based tactical strategy game with equal parts economic planning and resource management. You’d oversee the construction of X-Com’s bases, hire recruits, research and produce new equipment, and vie for financial support by aiding the countries of the world with their UFO problems.

They kind of give the sequel, Terror from the Deep, a bad wrap – but I enjoyed it. Yeah, it was basically the same game as the first with new graphics, but I totally dug the Lovecraftian allusions.

The first game served only to perpetuate my fear of aliens and alien abductions – a popular media topic in the US at the time, what with shows like Sightings and the X-Files being popular - and so I regard it with equal parts love and discomfort.

With 2K Games’ purchase of the X-Com franchise, this may not be the end of this classic name in the news.