I think everyone gets over this type of rage eventually. It requires a certain mixture of maturity, resignation, and acceptance that the world is horribly flawed (to be more precise, people are horribly flawed; the world is lovely).

So getting old at least has some benefits.

I'm still not sure I like the move from Action Points to the new system.  So you get a set number of actions you can perform per turn or something.  Does that remove things such as crouching?  I can understand their reasoning though.  As long as it doesn't limit tactical depth then I'm in.

Oh and slightly off-topic.  I watched all of the Star Wars prequels, though after a while I wasn't sure why.  Kind of like how you can't look away from a train wreck.  Phantom Menace was...OK.  Sort of.  I kept waiting for them to get off Tattoine so the story could start, until I realized that was the story.  I agree with the option of just ignoring them but...dang they were bad!

geggis, for what little it's worth, I wasn't exactly blown away by Bioshock.  I never played the second once since I had no desire to return to Rapture.  One thing I found annoying was the dissonance of elements (c'mon, vending machines?).  Another thing was that for all the setup, I never found anything but a grade-school level treatment and understanding of objectivism.  And perhaps most importantly, I seemed to be playing a remake of System Shock 2, and one that didn't add anything exceptionally compelling.  But maybe I'm being a bit harsh.  I didn't exactly hate it, but it hasn't aged well in my mind.

What were we talking about?  Oh XCOM!  I feel for those who found the game fairly recently.  The strategic elements are absolutely top notch and are still fun.  It's the combat which, although still as tense as ever, demands a heavy toll in time spent.

 System Shock 2 is definitely at the core of my disappointment with it though.

I'm assuming an elaboration on this is part of your essay?  I'm looking forward to it.  So you liked System Shock 2 right?  I thought it was a really good game, but being the curmudgeon that I am, I still think System Shock was the better game.

Back on topic: those long skirmishes were gruelling but I’d hate to think they’ve been sped up for the new one. I loved the feeling of finally clearing an area after a good hour or so laboriously co-ordinating your squad and ‘coming up for air’ so to speak.

I can't argue that point.  Quick skirmishes would go a long way to ruining the balance (at least I think they would).  I was more referring to the need for walking all of your soldiers around to find that last alien.  But even those moments had a certain tension to them.

I’ve heard that System Shock portable is the way to go.

Well that's a new one on me.  A while back I fired up SS on an old computer that I had installed 4DOS on.  It was a good nostalgia trip. I've often thought that the difficult controls were no small factor in the game's relative failure.

I don't think it ever occurred to me how "familiar" that one area in SS2 actually was.

I stopped somewhere around the part where I saw a ghost and soiled myself (for the first time).

That's like right at the beginning isn't it?  

OK, I have no right to give you a hard time.  That game terrified me as well.  The original was just as bad.  Sometimes I'd just have to stop and calm my frazzled nerves.

P.S. it took me forever to get this post up.  Kept getting an error about my math answer being wrong.

Only a few days until release now.  Initial impressions look very promising!  Looking forward to all of the "it's not the original, therefore it suxxorz" comments (not here of course).  That and the inevitable, "How dare they take out [insert clunky, outmoded feature] and replace it with something more streamlined!  Sellouts!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the whole "accessibility" trend, especially when it's just code for "dumbed down."  But the approach they're taking seems right on to me.  Some aspects of the original were just way too monotonous.  We'll see.