XCOM 2!

[Huberto]

It's Firaxis. It's PC only. What's not to like?

Civ 6 in 2016 then I guess.

[Comrade_Rory]

I started another playthrough on Enemy Within.
One thing I hope they add is more languages/accents for soldiers. I loved having soldiers from all over the world but having very few languages was crazy but the accents are obviously what irked me a little... like 6 English voices and they're all American. It doesn't suit my Irish and Scottish only team.

[Kamos]

I'll always remember my two best soldiers. Good old Swedish Deadbolt and Iraqi Magic Man, support turned psychic. Never got around to playing Enemy Within.

[Inhuman One]

My favorite was my scottish support girl, nicknamed DOC. She carried the team. I got really upset when she died, all enemies really ganged up on her. First one three a grenade to blow up her cover, and then two or three muttons shot her while she was out of cover. They really where out to get her.

But yes, hoping they will improve customisation.
More voices please, really bothered me that there wasnt a single asian language.

Maybe they can also replace those ugly mech upgrades for humans with cyborg upgrades instead. It just looked silly with those little heads sticking out.
I'd rather see humans get various cyborg updates, the downside of it being that they'd grow increasingly weaker against EMP grenades and such.

And for armor I'd like to see more variations, including possibly some civilian cover ups since they'd try and be undercover. So they could get stuff like a heavy chestplate under a coat. With taking the role of resistance, I'd prefer to have my troops look less uniform either way, more a rag tag bunch which I'd like to still be able to have in the late game.

[IlluminatiRex]

Right now in my new campaign, my soldiers are named after Hex and Mod staff here

[eXistenZ]

I called my best female sniper after myself.

Best thing to do is to nme them after steamfriends. So hey can see themself (probably dead)

[Kamos]

Right now in my new campaign, my soldiers are named after Hex and Mod staff here

Such a nerd.

[Vítor Gaspar]

Ok, so you know how I played the last Xcom?

On Android. Seriously, guys, it sure sucks if you've got the game for PC, because you're paying for the exact same game (it wasn't an issue for me since I only bought it for my tablet), but good lord, isn't that game the apex of a mobile game!

Seriously, it's the only AAA game I know of that I'll say "yeah, this is better in mobile".

[Inhuman One]

Yeah why play on a normal sized screen when you can have it on a tiny screen instead.

[Vítor Gaspar]

Yeah why play on a normal sized screen when you can have it on a tiny screen instead.

For starters, a 10.1 screen isn't small. Then there's the fact this game runs really, really well with a touchscreen.

But why? Well, because you travel? Because you take flights? You hop on trains? Or am I right in assuming you spend 24h a day closed in your mancave, waiting for the delivery man?

I bought it 1 hour before I was canned for 12 hours inside a plane - on a flash deal on Google Play. What a day.

I can understand all the rage towards mobile gaming - I myself do the same -, but at least praise the ones that just get it right: like XCOM.

[Twido]

It's Firaxis. It's PC only. What's not to like?

I also enjoyed Firaxis' Xcom, playing it through multiple times, but I have to admit there are a number of problems that could be improved upon. So in order of approximate importance to me I'll list some of my gripes....

1. The bullet trajectories are off. I can understand this from a design management point of view; it is difficult to calculate where the bullets will go and it would take both time and expertise. Games these days have a very tight schedule and all that but this is a big step backwards, even laser squad had this back in 1988 (although it was on a 2D plane). Without proper physics you can't have realistic stray shots and collateral damage.

2. AI short cuts. AI is probably the most difficult thing to program, just look at the TW games! To avoid having to program difficult AI scripts there are some short cuts such as the way groups of monsters spawn in. At first this seems like an ok mechanism and the little cut scene adds to the atmosphere, but after a while it becomes predictable and exploitable. When playing on higher difficulties, the game revolves around exploiting this feature.

These are my biggest two issues but there are some smaller niggling things that I would like to mention....

3. Character development. I'm not saying that the class/skill based system is terrible, but I think it takes away from diversity and the inventory. On balance I would prefer more flexibility. I have heard that the class based system is staying so I hope they can at least balance the skills a bit better.

4. The weaponry was a bit dull. You start with 4 types of gun and as you do research you develop 2 levels of upgrade that are just better with no interesting characteristics. I felt this could have been fleshed out much more.

5. The difficulty. The difficulty ramps up until about a month in and then gets easier and easier. I am big fan of playing on Ironman classic but the first terror mission is the most important part, everything after that is just downhill.

I have read that Xcom 2 will have procedurally generated levels based on a kind of building tile set. I think this is a great idea that will improve the gameplay. Even in the expansion, the missions could get a bit samey. I also think the setting has a lot of promise so even if they don't fix the big issues, it can still be a good game.

[Inhuman One]

I do hope that character customisation will be improved a little.

I did not like the titan armor much, but its the best which kind of forces you to use it. That high neckguard makes it look weird without a helmet, and I dont want all my soldiers to wear helmets.
So they should maybe have more armor customisation. Each armor having multible customisation options like that neckguard, a paintjob, the usual attachements and such.

More voices are definatly a must, since the game will likely be released in many countries, all those voices could be present. Definatly needs english voices that are not american too. They should at least include one scottish and aussie voice for each gender, and two british. Neutral english would be welcome too, to represent all those nations whose language options are not included. Its just silly to hear a japanese, dutch or norwegian soldier speak with a heavy american accent.

More hairstyles are always welcome, they could seperate that option from the helmet option though, so you could mix and match. They could add headgear like bandana's, sunglasses without a hat, gas masks, Baclava, etc.
Longer hair also seems plausible now since its guerilla fighting and not millitary, so there would not be much regulation in appearance.

Facial detail is also something they can add. This would include tattoo's, scars, make up and such.

Maybe they could have some different bodytypes too. Muscular, average, burly and slim. For both men and women.

[Inhuman One]

I'm playing enemy within quite a lot again, and my beastly main team seems pretty much unbeatable.

There's my scottish sniper leading them, Highlander. An old man with a barret. Shoots 100% accurate from great distances, with few exeptions and then theres still only a small chance to miss.
With his plasma sniper he can one shot saucers, and due to double tap he can finish any enemy that he cant kill in one shot, often killing two in his turn and due to squadsight he covers a lot of ground.

I went with a secondary sniper, a blonde russian woman codename Siberia. Not as good as Highlander since shes not as accurate, but still a very good sniper who also has squadsight and double tap. I tend to save the targets too hard for Siberia to hit for Highlander, when both have them in sight. When splitting up they can cover an awfull lot of ground.

My support guy is a bald Korean nicknamed Monk. He shoots pretty accurate and I tend to use him to test the waters. He is send in first to see if theres enemies, he is the only one of the team who can throw that radar thingy for extra sight.
He is also the medic of the group. Since I have two snipers with squadsight and two assault partymembers, I can pretty much take down any enemies Monk encounters.

One of my assault guys is from Africa, Beastmaster. Has cornrows and a beard. He's my grenadier, he has alien grenades for this. Used to be the one with the arc projector but then he got that upgrade that allowed him to carry two grenades, so he had to pass on that task. I sticked with the nickname Beastmaster though since he was the first to capture live aliens.

And last but not least is my Italian nicknamed Gladiator. Also assault. Pretty much on par with Beastmaster, yet somehow he has the highest killcount of the group after Highlander. Maybe hes a little more accurate but not much. He carries the arc projector so he has his task as well. He is also Psionic, I still need to test the other group members, testing them one at a time.

The sixth person changes all the time, this allows some alternative options to level. Usually the sixth is a heavy, unless the mission would presumably require more tact. Then I just go with another support or assault.

For equipment they are already outfitted with the best plasma gear available, and I stick with the weaker armor, the first steel one since I dislike the look of the Titan armor and my guys dont really tend to get injured much. They use that raspirator thing to prevent strangulation and poison damage, and it gives a bit more hitpoints. Kind of an extra challenge as well to not use the best armor.

I am not planning to mess with their genetics, perhaps I'll do it with one of the spare soldiers but not the main group. They are a really solid team.

Only lost two people this playthrough so far, one early on which I cant remember since I started the playthrough some time ago not far in, and picked it up again recently. And during the mission where you encounter the first Mind controll alien I lost the unique chinese heavy guy with the scar, it was due to a stupid movement mistake where I accidentally clicked for him to not move to cover beind a ledge, but to move OVER the ledge. Enemies everywhere suddenly, three chyssalids around him, a saucer in the sky and a probe as well.And the brainy alien. My dreamteam managed to take out pretty much all of them, Siberia even sniped that brainy leader before the doctor was saying anything about them being dangerous.
Still, it was not enough, one near dead chyssalid survived which was enough to finish him off, they already damaged him quite a bit before I could act.
So the poor guy became a zombie and I had to put him down. A sad fate.

[Inhuman One]

Just finished it, first time I actually finished the game. I just restarted several times before now.

The final mission was kind of heart breaking, my russian sniper, Katerina Petrikova died. Worst part is that she could have been saved if I only had one more healing kit but I already used the four uses I had available. It all went rather well but those two mechs did some heavy damage. Heck, Katerina was really kicking butt through the mission, she took out one and a half cyberdisc in one turn. Such a shame, she was the only woman in my main team.

The end battle was rather anti climatic though, I send Shin Kwan "monk" forward as usual, he uncovers the boss.. which causes Duncan Mcintyre "Highlander", my main sniper and usually squad leader, to take him out instantly with headshot and double tap due to squad sight, before any of the revealed enemies could do anything and well.. with their leader dead the fight was finished.

It's mostly the terrible shape of that space ship that caused me to take more damage than usual, its rare for any of my main team to be hit more than once during any mission. But it was difficult to get enemies in my sights, and those mechs kept using overwatch.

Still, my team can be proud. Duncan McIntyre had 125 kills before going on the final mission, most had around 60-80 with Monk having merely 50 but he's the main support guy. Beastmaster and Gladiator where the assaults so they got plenty of kills.

None of them went beyond carapace armor, with them rarely getting hit it seemed good enough and I dont like the look of later armors.

[Comrade_Rory]

The E3 gameplay demo and then they spend the rest of the video explaining it in detail.
I'm so excited about this.

Also, non-American accents appear to be confirmed! An English and Nigerian accent seem to appear in the video. I wonder if the Scottish accent will be in; I always thought it was funny that there was a UK flag and also a Scottish flag in the previous game.

[Captain Jin]

Big improvement with the accents. That always bothered me. But also it sounds like the sound for the gunfire is a lot better as well. It sounds like each weapon really packs more of a punch. Although I don't know how I feel about the ultra cheap stuff like what that snake did to the Russian guy. That will really piss me off if I lose a good operative to something like the snake dragging him halfway across the map with his tongue and killing him.

Although it looks like you can carry people out and call in a Skyranger for evac... hmm interesting. I didn't watch the entire thing though.

[Comrade_Rory]

Well in the explanation, they mention that for demo video purposes, they've sped it up a little. It would take the Viper three moves in the release; one to move, one to pull you out of cover and one to constrict you and the constrict doesn't kill you straight off.

[Captain Jin]

Well that's good to know.

[Inhuman One]

Yep they did want to show off stuff quickly, hence all shots actually hit. That never happens for me though, exept for Highlander, the sniper I mentioned earlier.

Really happy with more accents, I actually hope they will have an accent for every nationality. Should not be that hard to find voice talent for that, yes?
I'd actually prefer that over everyone speaking their native language since that sounds very confusing when working with an international team. It makes sense for everyone to speak english, but with their native accent. Maybe they could even say the occasional thing in their own language like when they curse, or when they boast about a kill. But always english when speaking with their team or commander.



Bit upset right now after losing Yue Xing during a mission today, identical twin sister of Yue Ying. Both where recruited with the same name so I figured to make them twins. They always went on missions together, never without the other and always working closely together. But she just had to rush in there to try and save more civilians, uncovering three muttons, two chissalids and a berserker. At least it was the berserker that killed her, would have been terrible if Yue Ying had to put down her own sister.

Somehow the aliens hate Asians. Since my base is in China I like having a sizeable amount of actual Asians there but out of the four people I lost so far, three where asian.

[Space Voyager]

Oooohh, an XCOM2 thread... Sorry for not being COMPLETELY on topic, yet I can't feel bad about promoting the roots of the thread topic.

Some of you might know that X-COM:Terror From the Deep celebrates it's 20th birthday this year. So in observance of this momentous occasion, Zombie at StrategyCore decided to do something special: giveaway 10 free Steam keys for the game.

Link to the forum and very simple rules of engagement: http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums...tftd-giveaway/