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Thread: XCOM 2

  1. #1
    Skyblade's Avatar
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    Default XCOM 2

    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:


    Jake Solomon (the game creative director) and Mark Nauta (a Firaxis designer/programmer) playing on Legend difficulty:


    Game's Official Site

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

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    Slothstronaut Recognized Member Slothy's Avatar
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    This is only a week away. God damn it, but I'm broke!

  3. #3
    Skyblade's Avatar
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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).

    Class Spoilers and Videos
    Ranger:

    Sharpshooter:

    Specialist:

    Grenadier:

    Psi Operative:
    Last edited by Skyblade; 01-28-2016 at 08:01 PM.

  4. #4

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    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!
    Last edited by Fox; 01-28-2016 at 08:34 PM.

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    Skyblade's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fox View Post
    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.


    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.

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    Twirler of moustaches CactuarKing's Avatar
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    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)

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    absolutely haram Recognized Member Madame Adequate's Avatar
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    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

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    Skyblade's Avatar
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    While we're waiting for XCOM 2, I might as well bring up the Firaxis Humble Bundle.

    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.

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    Twirler of moustaches CactuarKing's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade View Post
    While we're waiting for XCOM 2, I might as well bring up the Firaxis Humble Bundle.

    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.

  10. #10
    absolutely haram Recognized Member Madame Adequate's Avatar
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    It is an insane bundle, it is insanity.

  11. #11
    Skyblade's Avatar
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    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.

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    Actual cannibal Pheesh's Avatar
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    I'll have to write my character up tonight then! Looking forward to this one.

  13. #13
    absolutely haram Recognized Member Madame Adequate's Avatar
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    I'm losing my mind waiting

  14. #14
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    Another fantastic highlight video, this one covering some of the specific changes made to game mechanics:


    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...
    Last edited by Skyblade; 02-04-2016 at 09:47 PM.

  15. #15
    absolutely haram Recognized Member Madame Adequate's Avatar
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    I'm preloading now, but it unlocks for me in 1 minute and I'm only 32% done kill me

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