- published: 25 May 2016
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X-COM (or X-Com/XCom) is a science fiction video game franchise that began with a classic strategy game UFO: Enemy Unknown by Mythos Games and MicroProse in 1993 and ultimately spanned six finished and two cancelled games, as well as two novels, until 2002. An X-COM reboot series, entitled XCOM, was announced by 2K Games in 2010. It also directly inspired several other video games.
The X-COM core series consisted of four main games published by MicroProse: UFO: Enemy Unknown (also known as X-COM: UFO Defense and originally released in 1993-1994 for the PC, with later ports for the Amiga and Sony PlayStation), X-COM: Terror from the Deep (PC in 1995 and the PlayStation in 1996), X-COM: Apocalypse (PC, 1997) and X-COM: Interceptor (PC, 1998).
The premise of the franchise is that a mysterious alien invasion has began in 1999 (a near future at the time of the first game's release). In response, a coalition of funding nations create an elite clandestine paramilitary organization codenamed X-COM (an abbreviation of "Extraterrestrial Combat Unit") as mankind's last hope. The player is charged with leading this secret force, tasked with a mission to engage and research the alien threat. At the end of the successful game, the X-COM manages to capture and reverse engineer enough of the invaders' technology to decisively turn it against them. The sequels took the fight against new alien invasions underwater (Terror from the Deep, set in 2040), into a futuristic megacity (Apocalypse, set in 2074), and eventually into space (Interceptor, set in 2067, which actually makes it a prequel to Apocalypse).
You always stand on the top 'n hang your flag in the wind
You swim in the big stream got your mind for rent
Everybody knows you as the coolest guy in town
A ghetto kid so proud of it, the boy became a star
Tell all the kids how it feels to be an outsider
Beyond your speech, beyond your thoughts
Inside your heart
Is there some soul
Cause when you fall, when you're face-down
And your heart screams
You will scream too
How can you say that you're the best and you will blow our mind
When you cannot even show your face behind the mask
I watch your clips with your cars your chicks and your cigars
Do you think this is all a man needs, is this all you are
Megalomania is ruling your head you're outta control
All your anger, all your pitch and blather
Is this all an act of desperation
You are the victim of your own story
Boy, is this the reason why