XCOM 2

[Skyblade]

Welcome back, Commanders.

That's right, we're just a short week away from the release of Firaxis's follow up to XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Canonically taking place after a Game Over in its predecessor, XCOM 2 involves organizing a global resistance and freeing the Earth from the institutionalized tyranny of the aliens.

Featuring vastly more unit customization options, more powerful skills, more mission types, procedurally generated maps, more varied enemy types, and a host of new gameplay options, XCOM 2 is looking to be a huge step up.


Oh, and for those who enjoyed the incredibly popular "Long War" mod, the mod developers have been working directly with Firaxis to prepare several mods that will be ready for the game at launch.

TotalBiscuit's overview, showing off a lot of character customization and gameplay explanations:
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Jake Solomon (the game creative director) and Mark Nauta (a Firaxis designer/programmer) playing on Legend difficulty:
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Game's Official Site (https://xcom.com/)

So, who's looking forward to killing some more aliens?

[Slothy]

This is only a week away. God damn it, but I'm broke!

[Skyblade]

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A video showcasing all of the available soldier customization options (except female faces, for some reason). It talks about them as well, and has a small interview with Jake Solomon.

This game allows you to create a pool of characters who will be reused throughout multiple playthroughs.

These characters can be soldiers, scientists, engineers, or even enemies to capture or kill, depending on how you set them.

So even if you can't get the game just yet, you can choose how you want your character to look, write up a Biography for them, and choose their class (which you can also set), and I'll stick them in the game when I start streaming and recording it after launch.

The class options and ability selections are also provided in other videos that he did. Firaxis already mentioned all the classes, but I'll spoiler them, in case you want to go in blind (and to save space on the page).


Ranger:
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Sharpshooter:
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Specialist:
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Grenadier:
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Psi Operative:
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[Fox]

I don't generally pre-order games, but having seen so many early impressions from people I trust AND a really good deal on GMG, I went for it. Pretty excited for this one! XCOM is great for the emergent stories.

In fact I'm going to share one. The game? XCOM Enemy Within. The mission? Base defense. I had never watched this far in a Let's Play, and I had never made it this far in my games, so I was completely unprepared for this mission to hit. Imagine my horror, as the level loads in and I assess my squad, that I had rotated my best sniper out for the last mission - she was equipped with default gear. Cue multiple Chrysallids, Mechtoids and Cyberdiscs. This was the end of Elizabeth 'Low Rider' Petit, and probably a lot of other very important units as well.

Or at least it would have been, if of around 48 enemies killed during the course of the mission, 'Low Rider' hadn't got 30 of them. With about a 90% Critical Hit rate. Casulties? 2 Rookies.

I remember the medal I unlocked at the end of the mission gave my sniper no stat benefit whatsoever but I didn't care. She smurfing deserved it. I gave her a new nickname, 'Critter' (I suck at nicknames btw) and began writing fanfiction about her and her lesbian lover 'Colonel Twitch' who was my best assault.

I need another game that can create these kinds of scenarios. I need XCOM 2 in my life!

[Skyblade]

I don't generally pre-order games, but having seen so many early impressions from people I trust AND a really good deal on GMG, I went for it. Pretty excited for this one! XCOM is great for the emergent stories.

In fact I'm going to share one. The game? XCOM Enemy Within. The mission? Base defense. I had never watched this far in a Let's Play, and I had never made it this far in my games, so I was completely unprepared for this mission to hit. Imagine my horror, as the level loads in and I assess my squad, that I had rotated my best sniper out for the last mission - she was equipped with default gear. Cue multiple Chrysallids, Mechtoids and Cyberdiscs. This was the end of Elizabeth 'Low Rider' Petit, and probably a lot of other very important units as well.

Or at least it would have been, if of around 48 enemies killed during the course of the mission, 'Low Rider' hadn't got 30 of them. With about a 90% Critical Hit rate. Casulties? 2 Rookies.

I remember the medal I unlocked at the end of the mission gave my sniper no stat benefit whatsoever but I didn't care. She smurfing deserved it. I gave her a new nickname, 'Critter' (I suck at nicknames btw) and began writing fanfiction about her and her lesbian lover 'Colonel Twitch' who was my best assault.

I need another game that can create these kinds of scenarios. I need XCOM 2 in my life!

This one is looking to be even better for emergent stories.

You now have the ability to carry both wounded and dead soldiers. Even if a soldier falls, you can (if you want) carry them out of the line of fire for a proper burial (but no in-game reward, from what I've heard, it's just an RP thing. Which I love). I also know that you can salvage customized weapons that they have, and if you don't, those weapons will be lost.

There's also a fantastic developer talk panel from Firaxicon where Jake Solomon talked about the changes that customization and the character pool added in.
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The ability to create your friends in incredible detail, and have them pop up on missions is pretty incredible. As he says, how do you NOT take the mission to save your mother when she's a VIP? If you see a fellow EoFFer there on a rescue civilian mission, how do you just let them get wiped out?

Plus, since your character customizations are saved, you feel better about customizing more. You won't spend an hour customizing a soldier, only to have them die and be too frustrated to customize their replacement. They'll probably already be customized, so you can just take them and be immediately attached.

Or, you can run with randoms, and then save those who perform exceptionally well and who have earned their place on a more permanent team.

You can even name weapons, and pass them from soldier to soldier, creating stories of their own. What soldier will earn the right to carry Psychotic's legendary Boomstick when he falls in battle protecting the Avenger from a horde of encroaching aliens? Will we carry his body back with us, and see him off, or just leave him to rot in enemy clutches?

We'll have to find out. :D

[CactuarKing]

Really looking forward to this. XCOM has always held a special place in my heart. I remember spending many an hour playing the original on PC (UFO)

[Madame Adequate]

I'm hype AF for this game, XCOM 2012 was not just astonishingly good, it was good enough to be a worthy successor to the original, and I don't think anyone anticipated that when we first heard about it. But it was, the expansion was a superb bundle of extra stuff, and oh my god 2 is going to be SO FREAKING GOOD!

I've been largely avoiding the hype since the announcements, not because I think I'll be disappointed but because I want to know as little as possible going in. But I am so so ready for this baby to drop

[Skyblade]

While we're waiting for XCOM 2, I might as well bring up the Firaxis Humble Bundle (https://www.humblebundle.com/).

Enemy Unknown for a buck. Ten bucks for Enemy Within, and the XCOM Complete Collection (all the original XCOM games).

Plus several other titles, including Sid Meier's Pirates!, several Civilization games, and Beyond Earth.

Three and a half days left.

[CactuarKing]

While we're waiting for XCOM 2, I might as well bring up the Firaxis Humble Bundle (https://www.humblebundle.com/).

Enemy Unknown for a buck. Ten bucks for Enemy Within, and the XCOM Complete Collection (all the original XCOM games).

Plus several other titles, including Sid Meier's Pirates!, several Civilization games, and Beyond Earth.

Three and a half days left.

Possibly one of the greatest game bundles EVER!!

I have played the vast majority of these games and would thoroughly recommend them to someone who has not experienced them.

[Madame Adequate]

It is an insane bundle, it is insanity.

[Skyblade]

Well, it drops tomorrow. Along with a full asset editor and mod support, and three free mods already available for download that were created by the Long War Studio (the guys behind the ever popular Long War mod), that will add a new weapon type, a new enemy, and a new type of soldier progression to the game.

There have been some balance tweaks, and the geoscape has been completely revamped, but this game is looking so amazing.

[Pheesh]

I'll have to write my character up tonight then! Looking forward to this one.

[Madame Adequate]

I'm losing my mind waiting

[Skyblade]

Another fantastic highlight video, this one covering some of the specific changes made to game mechanics:
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One that wasn't mentioned: Squad Sight now includes an Aim penalty at long ranges, which I've seen climb as high as -27.


EDIT: For those who have preordered on Steam (which I did because there's no physical deluxe edition this time), the game is now available to pre-load. So close...

[Madame Adequate]

I'm preloading now, but it unlocks for me in 1 minute and I'm only 32% done :lol: kill me

[Fox]

The only thing that has bugged me so far is that I wanted to enable Ironman, but because I had the tutorial enabled I never got the pop-up. But the tutorial has story. So if I want Ironman I have to restart without the story elements given in the tutorial. Bah.

Other than that: :D :D :D :D

[Skyblade]

The only thing that has bugged me so far is that I wanted to enable Ironman, but because I had the tutorial enabled I never got the pop-up. But the tutorial has story. So if I want Ironman I have to restart without the story elements given in the tutorial. Bah.

Other than that: :D :D :D :D

A lot of the previewers said it's probably better not to enable Ironman yet. While the game is really solid and really fun, there are still a couple of minor glitches that are making people hesitate (they think they'll be ironed out quickly enough). Losing people because of stupidity? That's your fault. Losing them because they miss a 99% shot? That's XCOM, baby. Losing them because line of sight glitched or something like that? That's a lot less welcome.

Did you enable the mods?

[Madame Adequate]

Ho lee shit this game is good

[Fox]

The only thing that has bugged me so far is that I wanted to enable Ironman, but because I had the tutorial enabled I never got the pop-up. But the tutorial has story. So if I want Ironman I have to restart without the story elements given in the tutorial. Bah.

Other than that: :D :D :D :D

A lot of the previewers said it's probably better not to enable Ironman yet. While the game is really solid and really fun, there are still a couple of minor glitches that are making people hesitate (they think they'll be ironed out quickly enough). Losing people because of stupidity? That's your fault. Losing them because they miss a 99% shot? That's XCOM, baby. Losing them because line of sight glitched or something like that? That's a lot less welcome.

Did you enable the mods?

I haven't yet, I may do so tonight if they won't require restarting my campaign.

[Skyblade]

Well, the start up for this game was atrocious. Pulling one frame every few minutes on the main menu.

Graphics defaulted to minimum and after I sorted through them and reset, it stabilized a lot. Hoping to still get good stream/recording quality out of it. But geez, it seems badly optimized.

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah I've seen a LOT of people, myself included, who have had trouble with stuttering and low frame rates. :firaxis:!

More importantly this game is balls hard, I'm six weeks in and it's over, I've got no money and one rookie left and that's all, it's amazing

[Slothy]

I cracked and am downloading it now.

I'm so poor... :(

[Fox]

So, fellow XCOM players. I would like to ask you:

What was the fate of Jane Kelly?

Mine was killed on the second or third mission. A routine VIP extraction was undone by an armoured turret on the roof of the holding facility. I blew a hole in the roof, infiltrated, sent the VIP outside, so close to extraction! But another pod lay in wait to ambush us. Suddenly Jane had ADVENT soldiers and a Sectoid one side, a Turret with high ground on the other. I extracted the scientist, and Kelly fought valiantly, but she eventually succumbed along with another unit; Lopez. Tiffany and Mike looked set to escape as reinforcements closed in, but when the timer expired Mike was ONE SQUARE away from the extraction zone, so he was captured and only Tiffany returned home.

It's interesting that he's captured and doesn't show up in the memorial. I wonder if I'll have the opportunity to rescue him at some point.

[Slothy]

I survived my last two missions with no one dead through what can only be described as genuine miracles. One involved my last soldier to pull out, who I was fully expecting to just die and be left there like the useless corpse he would be, being way too far from the drop zone to make it in one turn, trying to get there in two would leave him too exposed, and he was kind of hurting. Sectoid comes along and makes him panic. He runs away from the enemies and slightly closer to the drop zone, shoots dead the only guy in a position to flank and kill him, and every other enemy misses that turn. He's also now within running distance of the drop zone with at least two enemy soldiers on overwatch. It's the last turn before a forced retreat so fuck it: I run for the drop zone with one health, both overwatch shooters miss despite spectacular positioning on their part, get to the drop zone and get him the hell out of there. It's hard to describe it in a way that does justice to it but that Sectoid making him panic saved his damn life.

The following was a retaliation mission and it wasn't as impressive, but I lucked my way into killing all of the aliens and saving the civs with a three man force of rookies because all but one guy was injured and I could only afford to recruit two more. I honestly thought that faceless son of a bitch was going to kill at least one of them.

And as far as glitches, I will admit to reloading an earlier save because of one. I wouldn't normally, but I literally lost a mission because the enemy being highlighted on screen when deciding my attacks was not the I was actually firing at when I pulled the trigger on a lot of crucial shots. I can accept losing a mission, but not because of stupid shit like shooting the reanimated corpse instead of the Sectoid when the guy in the crosshairs on screen is the damn Sectoid.

[Fox]

By the way I know you're all wondering so I took some official measurements for how far Stun Lancers are able to run and use their attack in a single turn. When you adjust for the additional square afforded by the slash ability it comes to... 850 trillion miles.

They're relatively easy to deal with though, bear in mind that Viper tongues go twice that far and through surfaces such as walls, shipping containers and the molten core of the planet.

[Slothy]

God damn this game is hard and getting harder. I'm actually to the point where timers will quite easily screw me over if I'm not moving closer to the extraction point every damn turn while fighting multiple enemies. My training school needs to finish so I can have more than a four person team already.

[Madame Adequate]

Jane "Templar" Kelly was my joint most experienced operative and by the end of the final mission had over 90 kills to her name.

She used a sword for most of those.

[Fox]

Words cannot describe how much I despise Archons.

"Aha! Ambushed you! Take this Overwatch trap you jerk!"
*Missed*
*Missed*
*Missed*
*Missed*
*Missed*

"Darn. Still, I survived your turn, now I can close right in to point blank range, all with 85%+ hit chance!"
*Missed*
*Dodge*
*Missed*
*Dodge*

:monster::monster::monster:

[Slothy]

Archons are annoying for a bit, but by the time you're rocking plasma weapons and the best armour they're not too bad.

I ran into a gatekeeper for the first time. Just as Shen was popping up to say it was more graceful or whatever than your typical alien unit it ploughed through the or four pieces of cover with all the grace of a stampeding bull.

[Madame Adequate]

Archons are why you take a guy with Holo-targeting and stick Tracer Rounds on a sniper. Or use guaranteed damage stuff like grenades, rockets, and psi powers.

Also yeah I love how Gatekeepers are these beautiful perfect spheres (when closed at least) but they bust through stuff like the Kool Aid Man.