XCOM 2

Less a sequel or a spiritual successor, then, and more a "what if" scenario.

edit: Having now watched the videos as well, that's actually literally what he says.




Of course there are going to be the same buildings, parks, and other elements around, nothing can change that. But if it's even remotely like the original UFO/X-COM, the combinations will still always be new, as will be enemy locations.

New official 10 minute gameplay, stuff we've already seen at E3 mostly.



Snakes will be the bane of our existence.

We clearly have different definitions of "new." After seeing a map reconfigured with the same shit enough times, there is no more new. The novelty is dead. If you can somehow derive enjoyment from a map you've seen countless times, where one building switched places with another, good for you. This is why I rarely replay RPGs. Different character build, same old shit, even with minor narrative changes based on choices. The only way a game can convince me to tolerate repetition is through compelling mechanics or a great story/characters.

Sometimes there's a building, sometimes a park, always something different. Other details changing as well. And even with all your complaints, it's still a lot better than always playing the invariably same maps like the previous XCOM had, where you know exactly what to expect after a while. Add to this the changing objectives they've added in XCOM2 as well, it's not just the map that has changed, but you may also have to do something quite different the next time. It's really quite far from being repetitive.

Listen, all I'm complaining about is bullshit in marketing. It's not even serious to me, I'm just scoffing at an annoyance. What I'm not doing is criticizing this game in any way; I'm happy about these changes. What I mentioned about repetitive patterns is an inevitability. The novelty will die, I will become bored, "new" is a lie.

I guess we'll have to see how well they can make this work. It's certainly less random than the original UFO/X-COM was, but then again, that caused its own occasional problems as well. Hopefully there will be enough different elements for the game to choose from that the maps will still manage to be new enough even for you for a long time.

1 fucking hour of XCOM 2. The best change is the sensible weapon size. You're no longer playing with cartoon characters.

Customization looks rad, class progression is still binary, snake tits, weapon mods, aliens did 9/11, the lead engineer and scientist got gender bent, enemies have loot, ranger class is a ninja, and much more. Watch the vid.

May the snake tits be with you.

For ssscience.

BREAKING NEWS: More tits.

Go to 3:15


Art


Also, the devs know you know. So now you know they know you know.


Finally, here's some ayy lmao (turn on audio)

That adorable little snake... ^_^

The army was quite fun to watch as well.

The probably funniest thing I've seen so far in all the various previews and gameplay videos would still be this bunch of goodbyes, though.


edit, February: As usual, the dev team is giving us more brilliant surprises. You can actually recruit the developers of XCOM 2 in the character pool. (Images available as well.) Disappointing lack of bio for Solomon, though.

First impressions of XCOMO 2. Very disappointed with the launch. Top featured reviews have some negatives, with a 71% approval (down from the 80%+ it once had), so maybe Firaxis will actually bother making this PC exclusive fucking work right.

First and foremost (for me), no controller support. It's incomplete. This shit should be standard, given the slick, well done controller support I saw in the first game. Now why would this game lack a feature that should already be there? I just don't know. It couldn't be part of a marketing scheme for shilling the one and only controller that works perfectly with the game, could it? Naw.


Now the most important bit for everyone else: it's a glitched up, unoptimized fucking mess. This is ridiculous, given that it's a PC exclusive. Firaxis had one fucking job. They also had a 3 month delay to work with. Still a god damn mess. You know that meme about nvidia graphics cards turning your computer into a campfire? This game makes that come true. Even Witcher 3, an open world game, on near highest settings doesn't tax my computer this much. It's just ridiculous that given the warnings from the review copies there still wasn't a day 1 patch to fix this shit up. This is just embarrassing for them, and coupled with the no controller support, Firaxis has been put on my shit list. This dev just can't be trusted anymore.

Less important, but fucking irritating: timed missions (limited turns). There are too many of them. In the first game they weren't frequent and that made them more special. Now about 80%, as I hear it, are timed. I played 2 missions so far, both were timed. It's just an irritation, and by making me rush to the destination, the game compromises one of the most valuable aspects of gameplay: the option to play and strategize however the fuck I want, without some asshole devs prodding me into behaving in a way I don't want.

I don't believe in the removal of timers, I just don't want there to be so many. Because this was such a huge issue there are already mods for it, but they're just quick fixes that aren't well tested; unreliable. It'd be nice to see some official options related to timers akin to those second wave options in the first game. At the very least the countdown shouldn't start until your cover is blown.

Otherwise the game plays and looks nice. There's some bullshit related to enemies shooting through walls and just seemingly defying the rules of the game, but for the most part it feels like a more polished form of the first game. Especially overwatch.

More on XCOMO 2 later.

I actually enjoy the amount of timed missions, the brutal and short skirmishes feel far more refreshing than leapfrogging forward. Although I have had several occasions where the clock is ticking forcing a dash and it triggers several pods, makes me feel like I'm more rolling dice hoping not to trigger a pod rather than strategizing. 1-2 more turns would be nice.

A major issue I have with XCOM it does a poor job of explaining. For example they ONLY tell you in a loading screen tip that building relays grows increasingly more expensive so I slapped down two of them and then realized I burned my month's worth of supplies. Or what facilities can be manned by what personnel, the Proving Grounds in particular shows no mention of the fact you can staff engineers in the description. Numbers and lengthy descriptions will be more welcome than a vague quip especially on an ironman run.

Vipers are terrible, four grazes in a row at pointblank.

95% chance of this game having a successful launch amirite?

No joke about the performances. In one level in particular the game suddenly decided to cap the frame rate at 30, which prompted me to disable a few graphic options to raise it back up.

I also had one game breaking bug during battle in ironman mode where the commands would just disappear leaving me no choice but to altF4 and restart a new game.

Despite that I think it's been good fun.

It's amazing that they have managed to simplify already simplified Xcom:EW, bestheda syndrome at it's finest.
Is it still Xcom or isometric call of duty where running and gunning is standard way to play missions?
In first game we had bomb defusal missions with timers but they were replenishable and very generous with thin men being push over enemies and only whale mission had timer of doom, in 2 you can't setup sniper properly because it will cost you a mission, hell you can't even wait few hours with mission start to let research get done because they only give you yes/no option, what the hell?
What is even guerrilla in this game if you always end up killing all aliens in the end? Makes no sense.

Fortunately I won't feel any loss over this game as Long War and Xenonauts - true successor of Xcom are here.

How so? Parts of the game have added depth and intricacy, especially the Geoscape, with the rest staying the same.



You don't. There are plenty of missions where you need to escape within your time limit and do not have to bother with killing every alien.

These minute details of in-game logic and people arguing about what tactics should and shouldn't viable don't even matter to me. Firaxis decided having the majority of missions being timed is where the fun is at. As far as I'm concerned, that's a shit choice. Nothing fun about having to reload the second mission the game puts me on because 5 turns in it became clear meeting the deadline was impossible. Rookies a shit.

Well, I'll leave my final opinion on the timed missions for when my game actually gets here and I can try them myself, but from what I've seen of the various gameplay videos, they seem to have rather reasonable timers that still allow you some tactical planning even while keeping you on the move.

It's ultimately a matter of preference. Some people, like me, don't like being rushed. Look at the steam forums, people are still heavily split on this and still arguing about it. Considering the amount of people going on tirades, I'm wondering if Firaxis will react to this.

I'm not even that mad at timers. What really pissed me off was the lack of controller support. The game even consistently crashed on the main menu when I tried to use my xbone controller.

The other guy name dropped Bethesda, which reminded me of a more appropriate comparison to be made.
>we can release a broken game with mod support and others will fix it

Also, another shit decision was the music. I kept wondering if I heard this generic hero music elsewhere. Michael Mccann can compose circles around this shit. Too bad Michael Mccann got mccanned.

I doubt Firaxis will react much to that. There are also as many players who like it, and for those who don't, there are already mods that give you additional turns or remove the timer altogether.

I will never understand why anyone would want to play strategy games with anything other than mouse + keyboard, to be honest. But on the positive side for you, any confirmations that it would not have controller support have always been accompanied by the qualifier "at launch", so there might still be hope for you in the future.

Like many others, I actually like the soundtrack for this one more. Really wish I could have it here as well, but I am not going to buy the game twice just for the music, no matter how much I want it.

Like I said, they're split on this. The mods are quick fixes. Not something I would wager my entire campaign on, especially since it's a possibly broken fix to a definitely bug-ridden game. I'll let the most desperate people be the beta testers. I've already seen reports of crashes.


If you had put "real-time" before "strategy," you would've had a good point, but this is turn-based, bruh. I prefer to play on mein kampfy couch, seeing the game on a big screen with surround sound. This is a case of me putting my trust in Firaxis and then being fucked over because they didn't deliver on a feature present in the first game, which worked really well and was comfy as fuck. I'm not going to take solace in a maybe, kinda uncertain future fix. They did it before and they should have implemented it again, but shilling steam controllers was more important. Ever play Divinity: Original sin? Turn-based strategy rpg. I forced controller support when it first came out, but the support in the recently released Enhanced Edition is the shit.


Clarify, please. You lost me.