For anyone else who hasn't played XCOM games before - think Final Fantasy Tactics / Fire Emblem, but with aliens (evidently, FFT is actually based off the original XCOM games). Each map is tactical turn-based combat, but yeah like Adam said the big thing I'm actually having problems with is the resource management aspect of the game. There's a brief tutorial, but a lot of the things you want to aim for and why are kind of on a trial-and-error basis. I think I'm going to play this one through on normal as kind of an invasion simulator (IE: trying my best with no idea what to expect or which technology will get me what), and bump the difficulty up for the next playthrough (when I can actually make informed decisions about everything).

One thing to know going in: you can't save everyone, you can't unlock everything. You're always going to be running behind in some area, or some of your troops aren't going to make it home, or some country is going to go into a panic at its lack of aid. And if you're not having that problem, you should quit your game and turn the difficulty up.

EDIT: Oh, one other thing to know going in... it's a 14 GB download, so if you're going with a steam purchase, don't plan on turning around and playing it right away...