WelXCOM back!

Were you as excited as I was when an XCOM game was announced a few months back?

Were you also as disappointed as I was after I read the announcement some more and found out it was gonna be a first-person shooter?

Well, prepare to re-excite and un-disappoint yourself!

SECTOID!

Game Informer magazine has formally revealed another XCOM PC/360/PS3 game being made for release Fall 2012. The kicker: it's staying true to the original game's roots, a hybrid resource management game with turn-based strategy tactical combat against aliens near felled UFOs and Terror sites. The double kicker: Firaxis, one of the less than handful of companies you could trust when it comes to strategy games, is the game's developer.

Here's the blurb/tease for their next month's edition from the site:

This is the announcement you've been waiting for: One of the most beloved strategy titles of all time re-imagined by one of the best strategy studios in the world. Firaxis Games' XCOM: Enemy Unknown introduces a wider console audience to what made the storied franchise great in the first place.

Unlike 2K Marin's previously announced XCOM shooter, which sparked tempers among longtime fans for turning its back on the series' cerebral roots, this title is a full-on strategy game that puts players in command of a global anti-alien defense force. XCOM's leader needs a worldwide perspective where threats are identified, populations reassured, and national leaders mollified – but a tactical mind is just as critical considering every shot XCOM's soldiers fire on the battlefield is under the player's turn-based control.

"It’s been a dream of ours to recreate X-COM with our unique creative vision. We’re huge fans of the original game and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-envision a game that is as beloved as X-COM," said Steve Martin, president of Firaxis Games. "We were careful to keep XCOM: Enemy Unknown true to the elements that made X-COM such a revered game while delivering an entirely new story and gameplay experience for both die-hard X-COM fans and newcomers to the franchise."

If you're lost, you can find out what all the fuss over the original XCOM is in the in-depth Classic GI feature we printed a few months ago (now available online for the first time), which includes rare insight from series creator Julian Gollop.

The huge feature in February's Game Informer goes into all the gory details of XCOM's destructible tactical environments, the interaction between the real-time strategic view and the turn-based combat, how the XCOM organization improves its capabilities as the war rages on, and much more.

While I'm a bit cautious about the game's multiplatform release, I'm sorry if I could not help but be really excited ecstatic about the prospect of getting to play a modern version of one of my most favorite games of all time. Seriously. This is officially my 2012 Day-1-bought game.

Me, when I read the news.

Now all we need is Firaxis making a new Master of Orion and Master of Magic and we'll have the golden years of PC strategy gaming back.