XCOM 2

[sonofsanta]

XCOM 2!

 

XCOM 2!

 

XCOM 2!

 

 

Twenty years have passed since world leaders offered an unconditional surrender to alien forces and XCOM, the planet's last line of defense, was left decimated and scattered. Now the aliens rule Earth, building shining cities that promise a brilliant future for humanity on the surface, while concealing a sinister agenda below and eliminating all who dissent from their new order.Only those who live at the edges of the world have a margin of freedom. Here, a force gathers once again to stand up for humanity. Always on the run, the remnant XCOM forces must find a way to rise from the ashes, expose the insidious truth behind the occupation, and eliminate the alien threat once and for all.

 

I bloody loved the first one. Can't wait for this one.

 

XCOM 2

 

Now when are they going to make a Necromunda game based on the engine?

[Sagima]

Could be my first preorder since the last x-com game

[nikaso]

I remember when they first announced the Bureau and I got excited then when it was released an age later it missed many of the things I loved about the X-Com games, sigh.

 

If you are looking for a temporary fix on the Xcom style front however the Altar games UFO series is very very good, very similar to the original Xcom, they are UFO Aftermath, Aftershock and Afterlight.

[korifugi]

...the Altar games UFO series is very very good, very similar to the original Xcom, they are UFO Aftermath, Aftershock and Afterlight.

 

I found them somewhat buggy - although I will admit they were good enough to look past that. Absolutely loved Aftermath with it's low tech 'from the ashes' start.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I'm very excited about this!

 

Loved the original back in 94, loved the remake. Can't wait for the new one

[haci]

Over the years I've gone from being exited about announcements like this to becoming a bit jaded with gaming and generally I'm pretty wary about sequels and remakes, but this, this changes all that. genuinely exited about this and probably will go back on my word of never pre ordering a game for this one

[flyinghaggis]

Just pre-ordered this as it's been getting rave reviews all round and I loved Xcom and the Enemy within update. Looks like there's loads of mods including a long war update in the pipeline for it as well.

 

TotalBiscuit did a "WTF is" video yesterday which gives a pretty comprehensive preview

 

 

Out on Friday........Can't wait

Edited February 3, 2016 by flyinghaggis

[Sagima]

Preordered xcom 2 yesterday and booked next week off on leave (completely unrelated events honest)

[AlfaTech]

Got it downloaded, just can't wait till my lunch break! Been playing quite a lot of the original X-Com: Enemy Unknown Online and replaying the Firaxis/2K 2012 remake this last week. Lurve X-Com, my most favourite game ever. All the reviews are raving at how this is even better than the previous release, hopefully it's a lot harder because XCOM was far too easy (to an experienced XCOM commander) even on Classic Ironman.

[Ghostgame]

Somebody mentioned somewhere that you should use names of people you know (e.g. work colleagues) as the names for your soldiers in XCOM.

Maybe someone should do an Edugeek one and post updates of who lives and survives, lol

[Ghostgame]

Saw this on Kotaku

 

4 things you should do when you start xcom-2

[AlfaTech]

Haha cool, who's hard-core enough to play it first time through on Veteran Iron man?!! lol

[haci]

Really enjoyed playing over the weekend, but I really dislike how blatant the game is now with rigging the outcome of shots/actions, quite a few times I've felt that regardless of whatever I do certain outcomes are inescapable. I got so frustrated with it at one point I reloaded a game numerous times and sure enough that 75% chance to hit was really a 0% chance to hit, I know it's always been the case to an extent but for some reason it feels much more obvious and at times it almost undermines what a great game it is.

[AlfaTech]

I find the American style victoriotic background soundtrack a little tedious (y'know the kinda music they overlay on films to try and impress how amazing America is, bleagh) lol.

[Chris_Jones]

Really enjoyed playing over the weekend, but I really dislike how blatant the game is now with rigging the outcome of shots/actions, quite a few times I've felt that regardless of whatever I do certain outcomes are inescapable. I got so frustrated with it at one point I reloaded a game numerous times and sure enough that 75% chance to hit was really a 0% chance to hit, I know it's always been the case to an extent but for some reason it feels much more obvious and at times it almost undermines what a great game it is.

 

The game pre-generates the Random numbers at the start of each mission, so reloading a save and re-trying the same shot will always give the same outcome. There was a Second Wave option in the original to turn this behaviour off, I don't know if there is a similar option in 2.

 

Basically if you want a different result, you need to take a different action, or alter the sequence.

[Duranis]

How are people finding it? The reviews I have looked at are a bit mixed, some people saying its brilliant, exactly like the first one but better. Other people are moaning that there are too many timed missions and that your choices on how to complete missions are really limited.

 

Really contemplating getting it (i.e. valentines day is coming up and I keep mentioning it to the Mrs ), but if there are issues I would prefer to just leave it until the next steam sale.

[pete]

^ Yeah, I was eyeing it up at the weekend but saw lots of people moaning that the timed missions rewarded Leroy Jenkins rather than more creative approaches.

[Chris_Jones]

There are lots more timed missions, presumably to avoid the very long missions in the first one, where you could go 30-40 turns with very slow advances and sitting in overwatch.

I haven't really had an issue with the timers, yes they force you to keep moving forwards, but I've not found myself having to take undue risks to complete missions within the time limit.

[AlfaTech]

Yep, I'm finding the timed missions are a bit of a bugger but mainly because I just like to cautiously take my own time and play it my way, it kinda forces you into a rush in an all-guns-blazing fashion. I've failed and had to reload numerous times because my squad (or key members) are just out of reach from the evac zone/pressing the button by the count of 1 turn. But I don't think it spoils the game you just have to play it the way 'they' want you to play it I guess. I'm still not very far in to it but I dunno if I would say that it is that much better than XCOM, it's just a bit different with a load more detail thrown in. I would definitely recommended it, if you're thinking about it then I'd say go get it now you won't wanna miss this.

[haci]

The game pre-generates the Random numbers at the start of each mission, so reloading a save and re-trying the same shot will always give the same outcome. There was a Second Wave option in the original to turn this behaviour off, I don't know if there is a similar option in 2.

 

Basically if you want a different result, you need to take a different action, or alter the sequence.

 

 

I guess yeah, sounds feasible but wasn't really just that, I'm not one to reload just to change an outcome anyway and only did it to confirm to myself I wasn't being paranoid it was more just a general feeling of every time you take a critical action something will interrupt you or catastrophically go wrong no matter how cautious and meticulously you plan things a bit like being at work really

 

in reply to the above regarding if it's worth getting: if you enjoyed the previous one its absolutely worth purchasing, you will get many hours of enjoyment from it (maybe a few of frustration too) but overall it's very good, the timed missions can be a pain especially in the later stages of the game where injury's pile up and critical missions come thick and fast the timer ensures that many of your soldiers will be unavailable for the next mission so it's important to have good backup options and not just a single super squad with the rest being rookies.

Edited February 10, 2016 by haci

[Jowley]

It's worth mentioning that it's got Steam Workshop support also if looking at Mods etc are up your alley. May alleviate some of the issues people have with the game in time.

 

I'm loving it so far but only managed to put about 4 or 5 hours into it this week, like others have said if you like the previous one then it's worth considering.

[Sagima]

Back at work after my 4 days off. Spent 57 hours of that playing Xcom2 since Friday night - probably too much but I really enjoy the game.

 

Playing on Standard Difficulty

 

Attempt 1:

Blind stab at everything to figure out the basics (Friday night and Saturday morning). Played through the tutorial - hated it as much as the tutorial from the first xcom although it does help with some of the basics. Everyone was wounded to often and I didn't have enough people. Spent all my time doing sutopsies and not having enough supplies to build anything.

 

Attempt 2:

Try for some sort of strategy - built psi lab, forgot to build the guerilla training school for ages , still didn't have enough recruits, engineers or scientists and got killed far too quickly once mutons and robots showed up (Sunday and Monday). Decided black market was a waste of my time.

 

Attempt 3:

Ignore the main plot as much as possible, finally notice I can build a f***ing workshop to get some engineers, do misison for an extra half dozen recruits, do scientist and resources missions now I have enough engineers, build one of each of the non mission rooms - going much better (Tuesday - Thursday).

Have ignored psionics completely so far - this may turn out to be a mistake but although having psionics was nice I preferred them as they were in the original xcom and not as an extra class of person. Only noticed yesterday evening about the continental bonuses - they seem a bit rubbish so not missed anything.

Also noticed that you can ignore autopsies if you aren;t desperate for the tech they give up - they seem to become free/instant once you've killed enough of them.

Plasma weapons and powered armour is brilliant but mag weapons and predator armour does perfectly well for ages - don;t be like me and sell corpses of things you need to build armour with!

Edited February 12, 2016 by Sagima