Ok, so there's an APP that runs the game instead of in-game mechanincs and that is so it can be played in real-time.

Aha. Real-time. Now i see.

****.

Should have known it was too good to be true. =(

I think everyone who has waited 10 minutes for someone to make a decision in Pandemic or Battlestar will disagree on this front.

Besides that, Smartphones are ubiquitous these days. If you've got a group that can afford a $60 Board Game, they've probably got a Tablet or Smartphone already. It's also available on PC and on the Web.

I have played the game app and all. I love the integration of the app and the pressure it helps create. You always have to be on your toes as orders are barked out by the player running the app. Just play the game before you judge it. You may pass up one of the years best games.

Odd... you get SO excited... then dismiss it out of hand. I don't see what the big problem is... I think it's innovative, and something our gaming group has already talked about having in a boardgame anyway, and hey, here it is. Looking forward to this one

My first reaction to seing this : WOW! YES! MUSTBUY!

I love the new Xcom Computer game, and like many other I have been longing for a boardgame adaptation. Then I see that FFG is doing one. FFG. Of all companies! YES! That to me automatically means it's gonna be beutiful looking and probably technically very well done.

Who's the designer? Eric m. Lang?! The guy behind Chaos in the Old World! i LOVE CitoW! That is one of my all time favorites in the history of ever. If he's making it, then how could things get any better!? That guys knows his s**t!

But then, the fine print rears it's ugly head.

A free APP that..? umm.... wait what? Did I read that right?

Surely it's just an optional thing that help with.... hmm.. nope. Looks pretty integral and... non-optional? Really??

Ok, so there's an APP that runs the game instead of in-game mechanincs and that is so it can be played in real-time.

Aha. Real-time. Now i see.

****.

Should have known it was too good to be true. =(

I can play real-time games that require an working phone/tablet with my friends all the time. I like that in computer games. In my boardgames, not so much. I really want to be able to sit down and talk to my fellow players, discuss, joke and strategize, with the only time limit is the time set aside for the game in total. I don't want to be dependent of battery-power or working internet connections. This is what we play boardgames to get away from.

I still have no doubt this game will be beutiful and well designed, I just know that it is not a game designed for me.

And as an extra wind-out-of-sail-taker, I can now also rest pretty safe in knowing that my favourite game company will never be making a "classic-approach" boardgame to cover this franchise, and that Firaxis & 2K is probably not going to let anybody else do it either.

Double ****.

SO CLOSE!

...please... can you make an optional downloadable rule-set for having a GM run the aliens or something? Maybe as an expansion? ... pretty please...?

At first I too was nervous about the app thing, and for all of the stereotypical reasons. But the concept is actually warming on me as the initial shock wears off. One of the things about board games that I like is the slow ponderous nature of being able to take my time and BS with my friends. But WHAT IF this is also fun and awesome...but in a different way!

I have to admit that when I think about it; co-op games with my friends, even stressful ones, are a great time. I see no reason that this would be an exception. They are combining all the fun and stress of a great co-op video game with the joys of sitting around a table with all your friends drinking beer.

To me the app isn't totally different in concept from any game that uses an hourglass to time turns. I know it also does other things too, but oh well.

I for one will still totally be buying the crap out of this game.

I played a demo of this at GenCon and I loved it! The app made the game have the same tension and weight of decisions that you get when you play the video game. Without the app, the game is a group of min-maxing strategists planning and playing everyone's turns. The app puts you under a fast time limit so that you and the other players don't have time to play each other's turns. One of the biggest problems with co-op games is when they are built to where one loud person at the table can win (or lose) the game for everyone. The app absolutely prevents this as well as builds that classic X-Com tension.

Charge your phones, bring a laptop, qq after trying it.

1st - The app appears to allow the game to do things you just can't replicate with a deck of cards. I'm sure players will come up with something to use in place of the app, but I'd bet it will be a fraction of what the app can do. FFG was likely looking at doing an Xcom boardgame, but couldn't come up with a solid way to control the aliens and managing all the various elements of the game in a way that was at all enjoyable or playable. The app was the solution.

2nd - The app will run on smart phones, tablets, or PC. You don't have any of these? You don't have a smart phone? You don't have a tablet? You don't have a laptop? So your a huge fan of the Xcom series, so much so that you want to play the boardgame, but you don't own any of those devices?

Laptops outnumber desktops, so most people were probably playing xcom on laptops. The game is out for tablets also, and roughly 2/3 of the american population have smartphones....people on welfare have smartphones.

Look, I understand you might not have all of them. I don't. I hate laptops and build my own desktops. I don't have a need for a smartphone and a dataplan. But my son has a smartphone (no dataplan), and my wife has a tablet. I'd be playing this game with them. Even if they didn't have those items, I have friends that likely have old smartphones sitting around unused they'd give up in a heartbeat.

3rd - you can buy a brand new smartphone for under $50. Hook it up to your wifi and you have a nice little portable computer with wifi based internet (no need for a data plan). Now you can get this app, plus lots of others that are pretty fun. You can easily find used smartphones for under $25 on ebay/craigslist.

Look, I'm a little iffy about this feature but people having access to it being a problem is freaking comical.

Even if it's good in this game, it will likely start a dangerous precedent with other game companies. Soon we'll have smart phone interfacing life, monopoly, etc and they'll be shoving it into other games as a way to replace dice rolling and add silly pictures and not really add any element to the game. But that was bound to happen anyways.

If the app is good, and adds useful features that wouldn't be easily replicated by other means, I'm all for it.

FFG makes great games, but honestly, a lot of them become incredibly complicated to play with a lot of miniscule rules and all sort of tokens and markers to help track stuff. I could see an app as a way to simplify all of that.

The biggest concern I have is making games too involved in the app where the boardgame becomes secondary to the point where you might as well have the board in the app as well and just turn the entire thing into an app. At that point it's no longer a boardgame.

I don't own a tablet or smart phone either.

But I just convinced my friend to preorder it cause he's a casual fan of the vgame and I'm a great salesman.

Problem solved!

So maybe FFG can add a tablet to the game, jack the price up by 400 and everyone wins!!!!

This game will still rock. It isn't real time. There is pausing and all kinds of stuff for the timed areas. It's no different from a board game with a timer for turns. As for the app...it's going to teach people how to play so you don't have to have a giant rulebook and have way more cohesive enemy strategies than some stupid card randomization system.

I was nervous at first but now I am totally sold and ALL FOR IT. Bring on the XCOM!

I don't own a tablet or smart phone either.

But I just convinced my friend to preorder it cause he's a casual fan of the vgame and I'm a great salesman.

Problem solved!

Well considering you just posted here...you have 100% of the required equipment to play this game. Unless you and your three other friends do not between you own a laptop, a decent phone, a cheap tablet, or even a desktop that you could just move to the table if you really wanted too. If so, I feel super bad for posting this. Have things gotten any better in Uzbekistan?

I don't own a tablet or smart phone either.

But I just convinced my friend to preorder it cause he's a casual fan of the vgame and I'm a great salesman.

Problem solved!

Well considering you just posted here...you have 100% of the required equipment to play this game. Unless you and your three other friends do not between you own a laptop, a decent phone, a cheap tablet, or even a desktop that you could just move to the table if you really wanted too. If so, I feel super bad for posting this. Have things gotten any better in Uzbekistan?

I agree for the most part. But there are people, more then a few, from FWC, that would only have a desktop. A desktop may not work to well given that, from what I have read, the app info needs to be at times revealed to all and at other times restricted to the comms officer.

That said, I personally, like the idea of the app, especially the ability to dynamically react to a players situation, without the need to interpret lengthy flow charts.

Um.. the app is in the player's control. How is not having a device capable of using the app any different than not having a huge table for Arkham Horror + expansions? In fact, I know less people who own a table big enough to play Arkham than I do without smartphones.

I am behind this game all the way and will pick it up as soon as I can. However, your point does not seem to be very well thought out. Players without large tables can always play on the floor (I've done this many times). Groups without a capable device (however unlikely) have no other options.

I don't own a tablet or smart phone either.

But I just convinced my friend to preorder it cause he's a casual fan of the vgame and I'm a great salesman.

Problem solved!

Well considering you just posted here...you have 100% of the required equipment to play this game. Unless you and your three other friends do not between you own a laptop, a decent phone, a cheap tablet, or even a desktop that you could just move to the table if you really wanted too. If so, I feel super bad for posting this. Have things gotten any better in Uzbekistan?

I agree for the most part. But there are people, more then a few, from FWC, that would only have a desktop. A desktop may not work to well given that, from what I have read, the app info needs to be at times revealed to all and at other times restricted to the comms officer.

That said, I personally, like the idea of the app, especially the ability to dynamically react to a players situation, without the need to interpret lengthy flow charts.

Your first point is not correct. Only the Comms Officer (or whatever it's called) needs to see the app, and he relays any relevant information to the other players.