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Comment by swombat | Hacker News Reader

Nice but... the iPad game completely took care of all my XCom cravings for quite some time. It was one of the most solid iPad games I've encountered. It's more a remake than an adaptation, and they really put in a lot of effort to bring the first XCom game into the 21st century, and it shows.

It cost £10 or so, and I never regretted a single penny of it. If you loved this game, I really recommend getting XCom on the iPad.

PS: This is not meant to take away from what these guys are doing... but watching that ancient creaky interface after being treated to the modern touch interface in the iPad game was somewhat painful. Here's a video:

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Just FYI, your link to the video seems to be cut off.

And I seconded the praise of the ipad games. I've played quite a lot of TBS games over the years, and the XCOM remake has to be the best experience I've ever got. Both in term of game play, controlling and the overall experience (a good balance between challenge and immersion - it isn't too hard that it would frustrate you, nor too easy that it feels like a grind).

Here's the video link, not sure where it went... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyEvp59OBog

If you liked the iOS XCom, you may like Shadowrun Returns.

XCom on iPad is pretty good though. I love touch interfaces for turn based games.

Which version? I'm only seeing Enemy Unknown and something called "Aliens versus Humans" which looks like a direct clone, but which the reviews say is sort of a shallow imitation of the original. Is there another I should be looking for? (XCOM is one of my top 5 of all time, would love a direct copy of the original with a graphical update)

Enemy Unknown is the Xcom game.

Damn, I was hoping he meant a real remake of the original. Enemy Unknown was good, but it isn't in my top 5.

I am confused as to what the original could be if not "X-COM: Enemy Unknown" (AKA "UFO: Enemy Unknown"/"X-COM: UFO Defense" released in 1994 on Amiga/CD32/DOS/PSx/Windows by MicroProse)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-COM

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is not a straight remake of UFO: Enemy Unknown / X-COM: UFO Defense, it's a "reimagination". RPS's XCOM review also serves as a comparison/diff to X-COM: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/08/xcom-review/

Ah, the original was called UFO Defense in North America, the recent remake by Firaxis/2k was called Enemy Unknown here. The version in the app store is called Enemy Unknown and appears to be a port of the new version.

I didn't play the original, but I like quite a lot AvsH (I reviewed it for an iOS reviews site, and keep im touch via twitter with the developer)

This: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcom-enemy-unknown/id6395448...

The iPad version was fantastic - looked great, ran great, and was completely absorbing. I'd read some criticism of the touch controls, but I only had a small amount of awkwardness with pinching and change-height gestures. And because it's turn-based most of the issues I found could be undone before they caused me to make a mistake.

Not everyone plays games on iPads. Please be a little considerate. The gaming market is much bigger (in terms of hours played) outside of the mobile devices.

XCom is also available on PC, Mac, and last-gen consoles. I bought it for all three, but I prefer it on the iPad.

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