Editor's note: Rob's a big fan of X-COM. Two rumored titles could deliver his ideal X-COM game. What is it? Read on to find out. -Jason

So it should also come as no surprise that I regularly look for news concerning the many rumors of an X-COM remake. I recently found something quite interesting.

Online magazine GamerZine claims to have insider knowledge of not one but two X-COM titles in development -- a strategy game from none other than Sid Meier and Firaxis, and a first-person shooter from Ken Levine and 2K Boston.

The article claims that the games in tandem development, which got me thinking about a passage from a former Firaxis employee, Soren Johnson.

Johnson, of Civilization 3 and Civilization 4 fame and now a designer/programmer at EA, wrote earlier this year in a column for Game Developer about what made X-COM a game design success:

"Another example of a successful mix of separate subgames is X-COM, which combined a tactical, turn-based, squad-level combat game with a strategic, real-time, resource-management game. As with Pirates!, what makes X-COM work is that the game chose a focus -- in this case, the compelling tactical battles between your marines and the invading aliens. The high-level, strategic metagame exists only to provide a loose framework in which these battles -- which could take as long as a half hour each -- actually matter. One doesn’t fight the aliens to get to manage resources later; instead, one manages resources to get to perform better -- and have more fun -- in future battles."

Johnson's clear in his commentary: X-COM's “a successful mix of separate subgames.” The GamerZine article describes the two rumored X-COM games in development as being two separate genres -- are the two games related?

I’m thinking of an updated strategy game in the same vein as the original X-COM: UFO Defense and the sequel, X-COM: Terror from the Deep, married to an FPS. Could this be what Levine was hinting when he stated that his new project is “substantially more ambitious than BioShock”?

But I’m getting ahead of myself -- let’s step back in time. Ten years ago, the owners of X-COM had huge plans for the franchise. At that time, Hasbro Interactive’s Hunt Valley, Maryland, studio was developing a spinoff of the strategy games in the series called X-COM: Alliance. This game would have been a squad-based FPS, as Bob Kathman (formerly of the studio) discussed in detail a number of years ago.

The cancelation of X-COM: Alliance was a major disappointment to fans of the X-COM games, but could a resurrection be on the horizon? Such conjecture makes sense -- Levine's known for robust FPS games with strong role-playing-game elements (System Shock 2 and BioShock).

Meier has some history with the X-COM franchise as well, having founded the development studio that published the series, MicroProse. Additionally, one of the first rumors of an X-COM remake involved Firaxis, supported by a statement from Meier suggesting that the studio was looking to resurrect older MicroProse titles, such as the X-COM games.

More recently, however, was the observation that the last expansion for Meier’s Civilization 4, Beyond the Sword, included a new game mode that was described as “a turn-based tactical scenario that looks like a cross between X-COM and Diablo.”

Again, this would make sense because Meier and Firaxis are known for producing high quality, turn-based strategy games.

The final bit of knowledge to ponder among these rumors is that Take-Two Interactive acquired the X-COM franchise in 2005; Firaxis and 2K Boston are both subsidiaries of Take-Two.

So what am I imagining? I'm picturing an updated, true-to-the-original X-COM remake that's tied into a separate FPS game. I’m thinking about molding a tactical squad through the strategy game and then having the ability to port my soldiers into the FPS game, and vice-versa!

Or, even better, imagine the FPS game as a supplement to the strategy game -- say you’d rather play a tactical mission as a FPS and real-time as opposed to an isometric view and turn-based. Perhaps the FPS game will be able to integrate into the strategy game for tactical battles.

This is basically what Johnson meant when he discussed the success of X-COM. Could these new rumored X-COM games be taking that a step further by not just integrating two genres into one game but by integrating two standalone games into one experience?

Such a vision is unquestionably more ambitious than BioShock and would be a revival to a long-loved series that goes far beyond mere nostalgia.