X-Com

[bhlloy]

Well, that was fun. Nearly done with a mission and a muton decides to get stuck doing nothing during the alien turn. Nothing I could except abort-quit the game.

Other than that, this game is a blast. Very well done and atmospheric

[dubb93]

Multiplayer is actually fun. I was terrible at the start, but I have won 3 of my last 4. I'm 4-7 overal, but one of those losses was a weird freeze in a match I was way ahead in.

Learning the maps makes for some rough fights. I lost some I probably shouldn't have just learning the maps.

They give you 10,000 points to use to put together a squad. You can use points on soldiers of any class or aliens. Points range from a fully stacked assault class Colonel with Titan armor and a plasma rifle clocking in at a whopping 6700 to a Sectoid at 400.

I'm currently running said Colonel, a Sniper with a plasma rifle that is a Captain, and a Sectoid. Most guys seem to use a squad of 5-6 squaddies. My Colonel rips apart the lower ranked guys in a single shot, my sniper takes the high ground and scores kills with squadsight and my Sectoid lures the enemy out and lets me know their positions. On the rare occasion he had managed to flank another player and score a one shot kill. Seems to be working fairly well. Ethereals seem to be OP in my limited experience, but they cost 9,000 points and I haven't ran into one since my third match so I'm wondering how I would do now that I have the hang of multiplayer.

[Shepp]

Finished it today. Interested in playing it again on higher difficulty. May try out multiplayer.

How many hours did it take you for your playthrough?

[dubb93]

Less than 20.

[dubb93]

Played another Ethereal. He mind controlled my Colonel and used him to rape me. Prior to the MC My Colonel had a shot at him and missed. It would have done atleast 10 damage ha it hit. After the MC my sniper shot him and took him down to 4hp. I lost soundly, but I was missed shot away from victory.

[dubb93]

Played my first cheater! He left when I called him out on it so I ended up getting the win. He had two snipers and was camping. He killed my sniper and my Sectoid. I waited him out and rushed one with my Colonel. I had the drop on him from 1 square away. I used double shot and....both missed. My chance to hit was 1%, however according to the breakdown in info it SHOULD have been 95%. I called him on it in chat and he left.

Nothing like having to resort to cheating in X-Com of all things. Would have most likely legit beat him. My guy is uncrittable due to perks and has 24 HP. He would only do 10 damage per turn. I had a 95% chance of killing one guy on each turn. I had the drop on him and had first shot to do damage. Math was in my favor, but this guy flipped the odds by cheating.

With that I think I am done for the night.

[Edward64]

Having a blast reliving the old days. I hope there are mods and additional maps done for it ... I'm sure Firaxis will think up of DLC's to try keep it fresh.

[SirFozzie]

If anyone wants a game of MP Xcom, hit me up on Steam

edit: No, I don't mean at 2 in the morning Sunday (although I'm up now ;)), I mean if you see me online, hit me up and If I'm up for it, we'll get a game going.

[Shepp]

Less than 20.

Guess I should have asked this along with the first question. How many game months did it take?

[Edward64]

Cool. Zombies!

[jeff061]

Been playing multi with girlfriend. Tons of fun. Wish there were maps and wish you could save multiple squad configurations. But probably best multiplayer fun I've had since Portal.

[Groundhog]

Don't want to read too much of this thread in fear of spoilers, but played the heck out of this over the weekend. The absolutely nailed it IMO. One fear I have is on replayability due to the lack of randomness - I accidentally lost about 4 hours of my game when I crashed the game without saving in ages (alt-tabed out to check something for the gf...). Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I'm a lot better at keeping my dudes from dying now, but the missions were all the same (although the maps were different).

[Neon_Chaos]

Whew. Finished the game on Normal/Ironman during my first playthrough.

~20 hours game time to completion (319 in-game days, 42 missions)

Lost 29 soldiers.

Awesome game.

Final squad screenshots and victory screen in spoiler tags


Final mission squad. The "Volunteer" was Specter.
http://imageshack.us/a/img26/6748/2012101500001.jpg

Winning screen:
http://imageshack.us/a/img707/8420/2012101500009.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img189/3651/2012101500010.jpg

[Izulde]

Stupid question, but how do I enable Ironman for PS3? I'm able to open Advanced Options on the New Game screen, and I see Tutorial and Ironman both there, but I pressed all the buttons and all the directionals, but couldn't find a way to get over there to enable Ironman.

[dubb93]

29 soldiers lost is a ton. Support would have cut that down dramatically. Towards the end each support can heal 30hp a mission and use a smoke bomb that decreases chance to be hit. I brought two of them with me almost always. Give them an upgraded scope too and they are 2nd only to the sniper in hit %. Oftentimes my support would be at 80% to hit when my assault and heavy would be at 50-60%.

[Shepp]

Last night I noticed that my Heavy's were getting 1%, 2%, and 5% chances to hit when earlier they were in the 50's and 60's. Do they have some sort of range restriction or do I have something set wrong?

[Neon_Chaos]

29 soldiers lost is a ton. Support would have cut that down dramatically. Towards the end each support can heal 30hp a mission and use a smoke bomb that decreases chance to be hit. I brought two of them with me almost always. Give them an upgraded scope too and they are 2nd only to the sniper in hit %. Oftentimes my support would be at 80% to hit when my assault and heavy would be at 50-60%.

I spent a good time delaying the final mission. Getting everyone geared up. I actually lost my two support guys before the final mission... Which is why you see three assaults there.

[Icy]

So can it be replayed? or will the missions be the same?

I never finished the original games, but looked like you could keep playing them for way longer than 20 hours as the missions were mainly randomly generated (maybe t's just how i perceived it).

[flounder]

Last night I noticed that my Heavy's were getting 1%, 2%, and 5% chances to hit when earlier they were in the 50's and 60's. Do they have some sort of range restriction or do I have something set wrong?

I had the same thing happen to me last night too. My squad was killing Thin Men left and right until I ran into 3 Mutons and just couldn't hit them. Is there some sort of penalty if you have wimpy weapons against upgraded armor?

[bulletsponge]

might be cover, some angles prevent good shots. also the scatterguns (shotguns) dont hit at a high rate from distance

[Shepp]

Last night I noticed that my Heavy's were getting 1%, 2%, and 5% chances to hit when earlier they were in the 50's and 60's. Do they have some sort of range restriction or do I have something set wrong?

I think its a bug. If I mouse over the red alien head in the bottom right corner it shows 1%, 2%, etc. but if a select to shoot at the target it gives a higher percentage, usually around 60%.

[Groundhog]

So can it be replayed? or will the missions be the same?

I never finished the original games, but looked like you could keep playing them for way longer than 20 hours as the missions were mainly randomly generated (maybe t's just how i perceived it).

From what I've seen in my accidental replay, the missions were the same, but the maps were different. I imagine they setup a few maps for each mission and it randomly selects one.

[Shepp]

Has anyone seen the bugs where enemies will teleport right in the middle of your squad or where your troops are stuck "On Mission" and won't allow you to add them for the current mission?

I went over to the 2K forums last night for some tactical tips and stumbled accross the complaints about these. The majority of folks complaining were doing Classic Ironman. I may hold off playing anymore until these are patched out. I would be most unhappy if my current save got hosed by either one of these.

[Lonnie]

Has anyone seen the bugs where enemies will teleport right in the middle of your squad or where your troops are stuck "On Mission" and won't allow you to add them for the current mission?

The only enemies that I have seen appear out of nowhere are Cyberdiscs with their little drone buddies. I thought that was normal.

I have not seen the soldier stuck in "On Mission."

[Thomkal]

I'm not playing the game, but saw this and thought those who were might be interested:

XCOM: Enemy Unknown mod enables "Second Wave" advanced campaign options | News | PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/17/xcom-mod-second-wave/)

[Ajaxab]

Has anyone seen the bugs where enemies will teleport right in the middle of your squad

I noticed this in one of my battles with a group of mutons last night. I was in shooting range from them and there was no way they could flank me but all of a sudden a muton was right next to one of my soldiers. I've only seen this happen that one time though and I'm about 10-15 hours in.

[Lonnie]

Finshed the normal campaign and started an Ironman Classic difficulty.

Now that's the way it should be. I have lost two complete squads and I think I'm about to lose the whole game. I have a satellite that is about ready, but I have eight places it needs to be!

[Eaglesfan27]

This game is so much fun. Really bringing back memories of the original. I was doing very well (on "normal" level) and hadn't lost anyone for 4 or 5 missions, but I made one careless mistake and lost a highly decorated support officer when a new alien scared me half to death. Definitely the one more mission feel of the original.

[Poli]

I didn't realize this would be available on the xbox. Screw finding a job. I'm staying home for eternity.

[MacroGuru]

Ok so the question is....Xbox or PC?

Are there any pros and cons vs the two?

I have a Birthday coming up and would love to get this..

[Honolulu_Blue]

Ok so the question is....Xbox or PC?

Are there any pros and cons vs the two?

I have a Birthday coming up and would love to get this..

The advantage to the PC version is the potential for future user-created mods.

[nilodor]

The advantage to the PC version is the potential for future user-created mods.

I'm really hoping that these start to trickle out, specifically some new maps, aliens and weapons because I'm not exactly excited about the announced DLC.

Firaxis talks future XCOM content, 'Slingshot' DLC announced | Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/23/firaxis-talks-future-xcom-content-slingshot-dlc-announced/)

[judicial clerk]

So what is the replayability of XCOM?

[bhlloy]

I was surprised at how linear it was. I wouldn't play it again without some major DLC or mods, even at a higher difficulty level

Also thought the final mission was very underwhelming, although that was largely due to a nice slice of luck

I just happened to have both my Colonel level snipers with double tap and plasma sniper rifles taking cover behind the same console, which looked directly into the final room. Sent my psi armor chick into the room, cutscene, boss doesn't move. I have four shots at him with my snipers, game over. Complete luck I placed them there, but no doubt made the ending much easier than the devs had planned :)

[MacroGuru]

Well, the old laptop was choking on the demo...I might end up having to buy the Xbox version.

[wade moore]

Well, the old laptop was choking on the demo...I might end up having to buy the Xbox version.

Glad you mentioned this.

I'm thinking about putting this on my amazon wishlist for Christmas. I'm guessing that it will not do well on my laptop. Anyone have any idea how this plays on the Xbox?

[rockboy70]

So what is the replayability of XCOM?

I love the game and working on my 3rd playthrough. I think if you end up liking the game you'd probably replay the campaign.

[Brian Swartz]

I'm using the Xbox version, I haven't noticed any significant bugs.

Stupid question, but how do I enable Ironman for PS3? I'm able to open Advanced Options on the New Game screen, and I see Tutorial and Ironman both there, but I pressed all the buttons and all the directionals, but couldn't find a way to get over there to enable Ironman.

After the down button cycles through all the difficulties, it will switch over to Ironman and tutorial. I love the game, but that's one of a few very counter-intuitive and annoying design elements.

[jeff061]

I just beat it and plan to play through it again almost immediately. I think it has plenty of replay value.

[MacroGuru]

Alright, xbox360 version purchased....

[Lonnie]

If your first playthrough was on normal, you have to attempt it on Classic. It's almost like a whole other game. You can plow through normal on luck and brute force, but Classic and up you have to really think a lot more about positioning, cover, and line of sight.

I attempted three Ironman Classics, but eventually would hit a mission where I would lose everyone. That usually snowballed as you would end up sending lesser qualified soldiers out on missions. So then I decided to start a regular Classic so that if I really screwed up I could reload a save. I'm almost finished with that run and have gotten much better at not losing guys. Once I finish it I am going to restart an Ironman Classic. I am really enjoying it and think the replay is there.

[Wolfpack]

I bought in last night as a birthday present to myself. Unfortunately, it didn't finish downloading until about 1 AM. I decided to fire up the tutorial on normal just to have a look around. I had played the demo, but wanted to see if there was anything new and different in the full game.

Next thing I know, my wife is calling down the stairs letting me know it was 2:30 (it was actually closer to 3). Yikes! :D

[Wolfpack]

Dola...played another late night. This time tried the "Classic" but wimped out on Ironman. However, I've been treating it as such anyway, mainly because my trainwreck of a game has been oddly compelling. I truly am finding out just how long I can go at sucking before finally losing (still haven't lost yet). My first month wasn't too bad, but then I hit a bomb disarmament mission. The bomb itself wasn't so bad, but I got wiped out by the thin men who dropped in afterwards (those guys are absolute bastards at range with their poison gas attacks). It didn't help that my guys panicked, either. After losing that one, I've been on a precarious edge, barely having enough guys to even fill a mission roster. I bailed on a UFO interception because I was pretty much down to rookies and my prior UFO interception lead to a near wipe-out of my team. This lead to my first terror mission, which I discovered left no time for shoot-and-scoot tactics. I had to let my rookies (and the one sergeant I picked up for winning a prior battle) just blaze away regardless of cover or percentages and hope for the best. Somehow I managed to keep three of them alive including the sergeant. Lost a dozen civilians, though. My situation board is pretty much orange or red everywhere except Germany at this point. Don't know how much more I have left before it's all over, but I'm having a blast losing in this game. :D

[scorp]

OK for those who have had is a bit, still playing?
I finally played the xbox demo it was fun.

Had the original, but upgraded my PC a a week or so after buying it ( game was out for a while before I bought it) after PC upgrade the game was playing in hyper speed so never did get to play the original for but 2 or 3 missions.

[jeff061]

I beat it and immediately started over. I've been having fun in multi as well, though I wish there was more content. One of the better games I've played in a long time.

[Honolulu_Blue]

The council withdrew my funding... Bastards. Alien-controlled bastards!

It turns out that while I am a tactical genius, I lack organizational and administrative skills.

I am a warrior not some god damned politician or bookeeper!

[Mota]

Yeah with my first game I didn't get the satellite and satellite uplink things, I ran out of money a few times after I figured it out, and I essentially lost 3 continents to the aliens. Not sure how far I am in the game (just got psionics), but I have satellites on every country that was still in the X-Com project but hopefully it's not too little too late.

[Wolfpack]

My first real game finally tumbled off the tracks as I lost a rescue mission because my target got gassed by a thin man and died (I loathe thin men at this point). Once that happened, I lost any chance at holding back the pressure building up on me. It didn't help that every single mission featured what seemed like a half-dozen mutons along with other assorted nastiness. Needless to say, by the end I was down to just rookies taking on mutons and, well...
http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/29320007.jpg

[korme]

After you attack the alien base is the game over? I've been delaying going there just because I like my squad so much

[Edward64]

I just finished attacking my first base. It continues.

I am enjoying this game. Still not sure about replay value (e.g like Skyrim) but worth the money for sure. Looking forward to additional DLC's.

[Neon_Chaos]

After you attack the alien base is the game over? I've been delaying going there just because I like my squad so much

It's the halfway point.

[korme]

I've got an alien abduction mission that I can't beat. I keep re-loading like a wimp, but my squad is so depleted I don't know if I can recover if I lose these guys! So many mutons, and some new alien I haven't discovered a name for yet. I just know they are sweet.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Cruised through my first 4 hours or so (XBox version), last night was less pleasant. Playing on normal, everything was pretty hunky dory until I finished whatever month it was and suddenly the difficulty of the missions ramped up to the point that it reminded me of original on PC. I'm at the point where the round spinner bladed thingies show up, the problem isn't them per se, it's so damned many of them & everything else at once.

Have had one country withdraw so far but there's a stack of 'em likely to follow soon at the rate things are going. I'll admit to reloading once so far, I felt so assraped by the abrupt change in difficulty (no, I didn't change my settings or anything) that I felt kinda justified in doing so.

[Glengoyne]

My lightly modded Classic campaign, took one of those big steps up in difficulty last night as well. The first abduction mission where Mutons appeared. I ran an assault guy forward to finish off a Muton, knowing that one of his friends was near by. I figured I'd have to deal with that Muton on Overwatch or my assault trooper was at risk.

Well it turned out that there were actually five or six Mutons and a few thin men over there. All of it activated at once, and I lost the assault trooper and a guy hiding behind a fork lift on the Alien turn. I'm not sure if the fork lift blew up from a hit that turn, or if I didn't notice a hit the turn before.

My sniper went down the following turn, shot in full cover. I fought a withdrawl back to the Sky Ranger, only to find it....missing? "Those bastards took off without us?" So I re-engaged with the three remaining troopers, and finished the mission off. Everyone beaten and bloodied.

[jeff061]

Mutons wreck me in classic. I have no clue how to beat them. I think I just need better tech.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Mutons wreck me in classic. I have no clue how to beat them. I think I just need better tech.

I was pretty successful against them, until they cut my funding.

My general strategy is to move very slowly. I rarely "dash" unless necessary or I feel comfortable I won't "pop" any aliens. And I try to keep my squad pretty cohesive, so I can concentrate fire power if necessary. And rockets. Mutons seem to move a bit more slowly than others, so I was pretty successful in hitting more than one with a rocket and, thus, softening them up for smaller ordinance.

By the time I got to mutons, I had laser rifles and laser pistols, but nothing better than that.

[jeff061]

I do that, but with a crit it takes 2 hits to kill, 3 without a crit. In turn it takes 1 or 2 hits for my guys to die.

I try to put myself in the best position to overcome that, but the odds eventually work against me. But my tech sucked. I didn't have laser. Being able to 1 or 2 shot kill would make a huge difference.

[Marmel]

I am by no means an expert, or even really that good at this game, but my basic strategy seems to do pretty well. I just cleared the alien underground base and I have lost 4 good soldiers over all (along with a handful of rookies along the way), 2 of them in this mission, and one when I clicked on the wrong square and moved him into the open instead of in cover.

Once I am up to a 6 man squad I always bring at least 1 or two rookies, or lesser trained soldiers with me, depending on mission difficulty. One, it builds them up while still having a strong squad, and two, if I have a tough mission with lots of injuries, I still have some great soldiers who sat that one out and are ready to go.

I have yet to upgrade a single weapon, but I try to get the best armor I possibly can. I rarely leave my people out of cover and try to use hunker down or oversight on each turn.

I focus all my efforts on one alien at a time. In my personal order of threat: Those discs, followed by those hulking green ones. The rest I have encountered are all about the same to me.

In a perfect squad I would have: 2 heavies, a sniper, 2 assault and I support. I'll sub in a second support for a heavy or an assault. I don't think I use the sniper to the best of their ability yet though. I find run and gun to be the most useful skill there is. Soften one up with a rocket or grenade, then run and gun to point blank range and use the double shot with the shotgun to finish them off. It does tend to leave the assault soldier a bit exposed, so I make sure I do it when it seems I have reasonble odds of having them survive the turn and get back into good cover or get healed.

I really suck at all the parts of the game in the base, but I think I have gotten pretty good at the missions.

[Glengoyne]

... I find run and gun to be the most useful skill there is. Soften one up with a rocket or grenade, then run and gun to point blank range and use the double shot with the shotgun to finish them off. It does tend to leave the assault soldier a bit exposed, so I make sure I do it when it seems I have reasonable odds of having them survive the turn and get back into good cover or get healed.

....

Before switching to lasers, I also found run and gun to work fairly well if I gave a soldier an assault rifle rather than a shot gun. You can run/dash in any direction, and still get off a couple of shots.

I've used it to move forward from cover probing for aliens. If any are revealed, you have the flexibility to move back to where you started, and still fire. In fact, I'm considering modding the laser rifle so that Assault troops can wield it. Just so I can continue to have that flexibility deeper into the game.

[Mota]

My sniper is a madman, he has 55 kills in 21 missions. Put him as high as you can, get line of sight on bad guys, and watch him pick them off one by one. Now that he's a major he actually gets 2 turns sometimes and has picked off 2 guys in a single turn, awesome.

[Marmel]

My sniper is a madman, he has 55 kills in 21 missions. Put him as high as you can, get line of sight on bad guys, and watch him pick them off one by one. Now that he's a major he actually gets 2 turns sometimes and has picked off 2 guys in a single turn, awesome.

I really got to learn how to use my snipers. Doesn't having them up high leave them exposed though?

[jeff061]

Just leave them way the hell back and make use of squad site.

Psy with snipers is awesome as well, because they can move and use Psi on same turn.

[Lonnie]

Here's a good guide on base management.

A guide to classic ironman for the rest of us (http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?163686-A-guide-to-classic-ironman-for-the-rest-of-us)

[Wolfpack]

I've started again with an Ironman Classic game and so far I've learned pretty well the lessons of my last game. I've only lost a couple of guys so far through about a month and both of those were just bastard shots by the aliens as they were reasonably covered. Had a pretty well-executed observatory evac mission where I used the fenceline to my advantage, taking away one half of the possibilities of where aliens could come from out of the equation. One poor thin man dropped right into the middle of three of my squad at one point, all on overwatch. Needless to say he was gunned down in very violent fashion. It wasn't a perfect mission, though, as after I had evac'ed the scientist, one of my guys got killed by another thin man after he hit but failed to kill the thin man on an overwatch reaction.

It's definitely a different game than the first one since I'm playing with a base in Asia and now the research is almost unbearably long compared to having the base in Europe which I think cuts research time in half. I'm still on default weapons for the most part, though I do have some of the easier-to-get peripherals like scopes and medikits.

[CarterNMA]

Though the graphics are amazing and the atmosphere is spooky if you play it in the basement in the middle of the night with lights out this game kind of falls short of my expectations.

For me the game is all about the soldiers and tactics. I love that as the soldiers get more advanced they get deadlier and deadlier skills. But being limited to six kind of kills it for me. I wish you could get up to 12 by researching a more advanced craft.

The way is see it the Attributes definitely have certain patterns that are supposed to create special sub-classes. For example, if you look at the choices for Support, it's clear that you can create a Medic. Also, seems there are two kinds of snipers; one has a more stand-off kind of skills set while the other can move with the rest of the squad. I did some analysis and came up with the following sub-classes:

Assault - Reactionist
Assault - Closer
Assault - Survivor
Heavy - Beast
Heavy - Suppressor
Sniper - York
Sniper - Léon
Support - Attacker
Support - Cover
Support - Medic

The Attributes and explanations are as follows:

Reactionist: Run & Gun, Aggression, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Fire, Close Combat Specialist, Extra Conditioning, Resilience.
In the original XCOM I preferred have about 4 soldiers who were really high in Reaction and they'd run for the entrance of a ship and wait for the rest of the squad to clean things up before going in. That's kind of what I envision the Reactionist to be like but the current game really doesn't allow for it. Still my favorite type though.

Closer: Run & Gun, Aggression, Close and Personal, Rapid Fire, Close Combat Specialist, Extra Conditioning, Killer Instinct.
These guys are better at dealing with being up close and personal with the enemy. Probably have the best chance to go toe-to-toe with a Berserker.

Survivor: Run & Gun, Tactical Sense, Lightning Reflexes, Flush, Bring 'Em On, Extra Conditioning, Resilience.
I see these guys as having the best chance of making it out alive if they are on their own.

Beast: Fire Rocket, Bullet Swarm, Shredder Rocket, HEAT Ammo, Grenadier, Will to Survive, Rocketeer.
Just like it says...mass damage everwhere. I wish there was a chain gun option for this bad boy ala Jesse Ventura in Predator.

Suppressor: Fire Rocket, Holo-Targeting, Suppression, Rapid Reaction, Danger Zone, Will to Survive, Mayhem.
Basically the poor bastard who gets to lay down the fusillade and reaps none of the glory.

York: Headshot, Snap Shot, Gunslinger, Battle Scanner, Opportunist, Low Profile, In The Zone.
Not a full-fledged sniper as he can run and gun, per se, and be more effective if the battlefield is larger.

Léon: Headshot, Squadsight, Damn Good Ground, Disabling Shot, Executioner, Low Profile, Double Tap.
Your more traditional sniper. I like to use a Ghost Suit so he can get into a good position more forward and up high. Get one of these guys with a Plasma Sniper Rifle and the enemy starts dropping like flies.

Attacker: Smoke Grenade, Sprinter, Smoke and Mirrors, Rifle Suppression, Combat Drugs, Deep Pockets, Sentinel.
The closest a Support dude can get to being Assault. Love that they have those three extra tiles and carry extra stuff. Usually give them a S.C.O.P.E. so that they have a little more extra umph in the battle.

Cover: Smoke Grenade, Covering Fire, Smoke and Mirrors, Rifle Suppression, Dense Smoke, Deep Pockets, Sentinel.
Kind of like the Suppressor but can help you retreat as well.

Medic: Smoke Grenade, Sprinter, Field Medic, Revive, Combat Drugs, Deep Pockets, Savior.
Like having your own little M.A.S.H. unit by your side.

My ideal XCOM unit would have 6 Reactionists and 3 of each of the rest so in case I get any injuries I'm still able to field whatever I think I might need for a particular mission.

[Wolfpack]

So, got a brutal lesson in what Chryssalids can do and my own failing in understanding of Bulletstorm. Terror mission in a multi-level bookstore. Started poorly after I lost my assault man on the second floor after he stormed up the pipe to take on one Floater and suddenly found himself surrounded by four. Managed to get help on one from below and took out another before going down. The mission progressed reasonably well until one of my rookies went around the building to rescue people, she woke up the Chrysallids. Bad: Chrysallids are fast. Good: they are stupid. Somehow she avoided getting attacked after getting spotted as she retreated into the bookstore. I had sent the rest of the squad up top to clear out the remaining Floaters, but had to send them back down once the Chrysallids revealed themselves. I reached a Mexican standoff with two guys standing face-to-face with Chrysallids and a third backing them up, leaving me the horrible choice of either sacrificing one man or making a run for it back up the stairs and hope for the best. I made a run for it. Miraculously (I thought), the Chryssalids didn't follow me up the stairs. This is where my first mistake came from. I somehow deluded myself into thinking that Chrysallids, for whatever reason, couldn't climb (they look like they couldn't because of their small footprints, I told myself). So, I thus hoped that I could just stand them off on the roof and just gun them down from up high. Unfortunately, it just turns out that they are fast but stupid. The moment one of my guys stuck his head over the edge to spot them, I found out not only that they could climb, but they could climb drainpipes. One of the Chryssalids validated this by climbing up and stabbing my guy to death in an instant. So, now I've got three soldiers against a Chryssalid, one of whom is my heavy gunner with Bulletstorm. She's on the other side of the roof with about a 70% chance to hit. For some reason, I thought Bulletstorm meant I could shoot-fire-shoot again, but no. It's just that shooting doesn't cancel out movement afterwards. Once you move, that's the second move. I ordered her to fire, but she wasn't very effective (hit but nothing serious), so I sent her forward for a better shot. Oops. Lost the second shot. Then the two other shooters left couldn't finish the Chryssalid off. Now, not only am I facing a very angry Chryssalid, my soldier who got stabbed to death is now back as a zombie. You can imagine how things progress from there.

The heavy still had a shredder rocket, but I was holding on to it in the hope that I could bag both Chryssalids with it and make it easier for the rest of the squad to take them down. Never got the chance. I've been kicking myself pretty good since then for those mistakes.

[jeff061]

And btw, they don't climb, they can jump up on any elevated surface. With or without a ladder. So yeah :).

[Edward64]

What do you guys do to shoot down the overseer craft?

[jeff061]

Haven't made it that far on classic, but on normal a Firestorm took it down easily for me.

[Poli]

Am I reading right you can only take 6 on a mission at a time?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Am I reading right you can only take 6 on a mission at a time?

You start by only taking 4 on a mission and can eventually upgrade to the point where you can take 5 and then 6 on a mission.

[Apathetic Lurker]

You start by only taking 4 on a mission and can eventually upgrade to the point where you can take 5 and then 6 on a mission.

OOOO all of six.....I am so giddy....

It's not a bad game by any stretch but I still prefer playing the first two. After the initial euphoria and putting in 10 hours this game went to join the dusty stack of new games. Out came the first two.

Maybe Guild Wars II will sate my never-ending quest for gaming goodness from bygone years.

Sigh

[Shepp]

Patch 1.02 is up on Steam. No change log yet.

[Wolfpack]

Hm. Maybe it'll fix what I think now must've been a graphics glitch that I saw last night. I had sent my sniper up a pipe to a roof where she took position on a corner. On the aliens' move, a sectoid on the floor below on the outside of the opposite corner of the building shot and killed her (in other words, he shot diagonally across the building up through the ceiling to do it). At the time I thought it odd, but also thought it must've been an alien on the roof that didn't reveal itself when I came up in the first place. But, as the rest of the level played out, it became obvious that wasn't the case.

Only consolation I can draw from it was the fact that she was a lousy shot for a sniper and I didn't lose anyone else the rest of the level.

[sterlingice]

So, is it safe to say that this is a lot like the remake of Pirates from the 2000s where they kept a lot of the original, update the graphics, and only added a little gameplay? It's very similar to the original but updated.

SI

[gstelmack]

So, is it safe to say that this is a lot like the remake of Pirates from the 2000s where they kept a lot of the original, update the graphics, and only added a little gameplay? It's very similar to the original but updated.

SI

Actually they removed some gameply, it's not nearly so dynamic / random as the original, with less replayability. Although the battles remain fun to fight.

[flounder]

Hm. Maybe it'll fix what I think now must've been a graphics glitch that I saw last night. I had sent my sniper up a pipe to a roof where she took position on a corner. On the aliens' move, a sectoid on the floor below on the outside of the opposite corner of the building shot and killed her (in other words, he shot diagonally across the building up through the ceiling to do it). At the time I thought it odd, but also thought it must've been an alien on the roof that didn't reveal itself when I came up in the first place. But, as the rest of the level played out, it became obvious that wasn't the case.

Only consolation I can draw from it was the fact that she was a lousy shot for a sniper and I didn't lose anyone else the rest of the level.

There is a bug where aliens teleport around the map. I've had that happen to me once.

[BYU 14]

There is a bug where aliens teleport around the map. I've had that happen to me once.

Haven't had that, though thin men drop from the sky sometimes and those damn floaters and their flying!! Luckily they usually land in positions that are not advantageous to them :)

[Shepp]

Can anyone say if the patch improves anything? I've been waiting and waiting for it and of course its released at the beginning of a long work week for me.

[Edward64]

Finished the game. I enjoyed it and played my $50 worth but I don't feel the urge to play it again anytime soon ... so replayability may be an issue. Looking forward to any DLCs.

[Eaglesfan27]

I also finished the game on the normal difficulty level. It was interesting to see my stats compared to others. I lost more than an average number of soldiers, but was much less likely to use explosives which seemed to account for that at least a bit. I'm looking forward to 1 more play through on the harder difficulty level now.

[revrew]

I also finished the game on the normal difficulty level. It was interesting to see my stats compared to others. I lost more than an average number of soldiers, but was much less likely to use explosives which seemed to account for that at least a bit. I'm looking forward to 1 more play through on the harder difficulty level now.

I haven't finished my first normal yet, but am considering the whole experience a tutorial for Classic. At this point (I've probably got about 5-8 missions left), I've only lost 1 ranked soldier (and a couple of rookies) and haven't lost a single country from the council.

I'm loving it and looking forward to playing through again on the harder level.

[twothree]

I also finished the game on the normal difficulty level. It was interesting to see my stats compared to others. I lost more than an average number of soldiers, but was much less likely to use explosives which seemed to account for that at least a bit. I'm looking forward to 1 more play through on the harder difficulty level now.

Picked up the game recently, and played through a normal ironman game. Lost the game at the end of November 2015 never having finished the alien base invasion. My stats compared to the current world stats:

Days Survived: 245 (average 188.62)
Battles Fought: 32 (average 23.09)
Battles Won: 18 (average 21.45)
Battles Lost: 14 (average 1.64)
Aliens Killed: 235 (average 184.77)
Soldiers Lost: 86 (average 18.82)
Average Shot%: 62.1 (average 60.51)
Average Damage per Shot: 4.3 (average 25.72)

In only the second month I made my first attempt at invading the alien base. My highest ranking soldier (Captain) at that time was out with an injury, but I took everyone else who was above rookie rank. They all got wiped out and I never recovered. The Captain, who was the only survivor of my very first tutorial mission evetually got promoted to Major before getting killed on his 12th mission with around 25 kills.

Right before the eighth nation left, I tried a final alien base assault. I made it all the way to the boss before getting wiped. I know next game I need to work on raising my average damage per shot and saving my alloys for weapons.

[revrew]

Where did you get those averages from? The Damage per Shot is way off. I've never seen a shot hit 20 damage even once, let alone averaging more than 20.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Where did you get those averages from? The Damage per Shot is way off. I've never seen a shot hit 20 damage even once, let alone averaging more than 20.

Yeah, that average looks really high. I think the most I have done is 19 with one shot. And that was the exception rather than the rule.

[jeff061]

Last time I played through a lot of the numbers seemed out of wack for whatever reason.

[twothree]

Where did you get those averages from? The Damage per Shot is way off. I've never seen a shot hit 20 damage even once, let alone averaging more than 20.

Those averages are shown when you load a save game that has ended in a defeat. I just start the game then click "load game". Then I click on my save game that is finished. It then shows your score along with the averages. The average damage per shot is now down to 25.49. Perhaps I caused that. :)

It seems very high, maybe a lot of people use a mod or cheats or something.

This game was played on normal ironman. I don't know if the averages are just for that type of game or if they are for all games. Also, I don't know if the averages are shown if you load up a save game that is won.

[Eaglesfan27]

I also saw some crazy damage numbers and other things. I figured it was either a math error or people running cheats. I saw my numbers (and the average) at the end of my winning game.

[dubb93]

You guys must be terrible. My white hits are upwards of 20k. My crits...well lets just say they aren't really necessary. :p

[moriarty]

Picked this up in the Cyber Monday sale ... what's the conventional thinking? Play through on Normal to learn the ropes, or jump right into Classic and learn the hard way.

Do people consider 'normal' too easy.

[Eaglesfan27]

I enjoyed normal. It was fairly easy, but I still lost a fair number of soldiers along the way. I felt like it was a fun training level for Classic which has frustrated me at times even after having played through normal.

[Lonnie]

If I was just starting again I would start on Classic and save scum when things go bad. Nothing like playing the same mission 4 times to teach the ropes. Pay attention to cover, as low cover is pretty much worthless in Classic. You still might not get one shot like in open ground, but it will hurt. Also cover is 180 degrees, so sometimes it looks like you are open to a shot, but you get the full benefit of the cover.

Then once you have a handle on the battles you can attempt a classic ironman. That's the real pain.

[Mota]

Definitely try normal first. I'm enjoying my first playthrough. I'll give classic a try afterwards.

[revrew]

You guys must be terrible. My white hits are upwards of 20k. My crits...well lets just say they aren't really necessary. :p

I'm tempted to call B.S.

I haven't tried the alloy cannon yet, but the plasma weapons (highest short of the alloy) only do a damage of 10. You can crit them up to about 17 or so, though heat ammo on a robotic enemy can send you over 20. But I'm about to do the final mission, and I haven't seen a hit as high as 20 yet.

[twothree]

With the knowledge from my first attempt at the game, I was able to easily win my second playthrough on normal ironman difficulty. You get to see 4 pages of stats about your game when you win as compared to the one page of stats when you lose.

This time I won 32 battles and lost only two battles. I only lost 26 soldiers instead of the 86 that I lost in my first attempt. And only two countries left the project, so I had plenty of cash, though still way smaller than the world average.

Those are some still some insane numbers that are shown as the world average in certain sections at game end.

[Critch]

Looks like Slingshot has been released. I'm a bit doubtful about throwing 7 bucks at a handful of new missions, some new equipment and a new character but it would be good to have before my 2nd play through.

So I'm going to need somebody here to test it out and tell me if it's worth the cash.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Slingshot Pack on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/209812/)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like Slingshot has been released. I'm a bit doubtful about throwing 7 bucks at a handful of new missions, some new equipment and a new character but it would be good to have before my 2nd play through.

So I'm going to need somebody here to test it out and tell me if it's worth the cash.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Slingshot Pack on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/209812/)

I'm sure they'll be offering it as a Xmas sale deal. I can wait 20 days.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Looks like Slingshot has been released. I'm a bit doubtful about throwing 7 bucks at a handful of new missions, some new equipment and a new character but it would be good to have before my 2nd play through.

So I'm going to need somebody here to test it out and tell me if it's worth the cash.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Slingshot Pack on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/209812/)

I love the game. Playing it like crazy, but this DLC does little for me.

[jeff061]

Yep, I'll definitely buy the DLC, but not until a discounted pack is released.

[Ryan S]

If anyone wants to pick it up right now Green Man Gaming have a 30% discount offer.

Discount code - GMG30-DEC01-ARFC9

[Critch]

Slingshot = Three new linked missions (two of which are pretty much the same as basic missions), a Heavy Lieutenant that joins early, and a new rocket launcher to research.

Pretty crap for $7 really.

[Neon_Chaos]

Latest patch is out!

XCOM Enemy Unknown (http://www.xcom.com/enemyunknown/article/xcom-enemy-unknown-3rd-patch-is-live)

Second Wave options have been unlocked! Woowoo. This patch looks to be better than the DLC. Heh.

[Shepp]

I wouldn't get to excited, folks over on the 2k forum are reporting the teleporting alien bug is as bad as ever. Today is my friday so I'll probably be firing this up over the weekend to see for myself.

[mckerney]

Also included is the addition of Chris Kluwe as a hero character for beating one of the devs in a best of three multiplayer series.

[Abe Sargent]

Just finished my first run though after 21 hours. I'm not sure what aspect of that was supposed to be hard. Everybody was talking about it being a hard game, and I didn;t see that at all.

[jeff061]

Bump it up a difficulty setting.

[Abe Sargent]

Bump it up a difficulty setting.

To impossible? Nah.


I don;t see the usefulness of replaying it anyways. I hear th eplot and missions are the same, the maps are the same and already bore me, etc. I don't see myself giving it another day or three, especially since it's a slightly dumbed down, although still fun, version of Xcom

[Neon_Chaos]

To impossible? Nah.


I don;t see the usefulness of replaying it anyways. I hear th eplot and missions are the same, the maps are the same and already bore me, etc. I don't see myself giving it another day or three, especially since it's a slightly dumbed down, although still fun, version of Xcom

You played Ironman-Classic?

[Abe Sargent]

Not Ironman. Yuck. I like having more than one save slot, which I needed since my game crapped out on me and magically deleted my some of saves

I like loading up previous maps and looking over old missions. Could never play Ironman with that.


I had lost 9 people going into the final mission, and then lost half my squad there, and I was so pleased that I had done it with single digit losses heading up to that!


I could never get into heavies. They just get one shot per mission until later, and they suck. i'd rather have two supports, assaults and snipers than sacrifice one of those useful folks for a crappy heavy.



Edited for grammar!

[Edward64]

Waiting for a significant DLC to play the next round. No real desire to boot it up again because it did feel so scripted.

Playing Space Rangers for the nth time.

[Abe Sargent]

Sorry, my bad, looked it up and it took me 23 hours, not 21.

[dubb93]

I could never get into heavies. They just get one shot per mission until later, and they suck. i'd rather have two supports, assaults and snipers than sacrifice one of those useful folks for a crappy heavy.


Really? I thought heavy was pretty effective.

They have that "oh crap" rocket for early in the game survivability of the entire unit. That gets less effective later but AOE suppression, damage reduction, and two shots per turn (with no aim penalty) instead of one never gets less effective. Give them the heavy plasma and they can do almost 30 damage on a single turn.

I ended up running 2 Assault, 2 Support, 1 Heavy, 1 Sniper on big ship based missions and 1 Assault, 2 Support, 1 Heavy, 2 Snipers on missions out in the open.

[Shepp]

Really? I thought heavy was pretty effective.

They have that "oh crap" rocket for early in the game survivability of the entire unit. That gets less effective later but AOE suppression, damage reduction, and two shots per turn (with no aim penalty) instead of one never gets less effective. Give them the heavy plasma and they can do almost 30 damage on a single turn.

I ended up running 2 Assault, 2 Support, 1 Heavy, 1 Sniper on big ship based missions and 1 Assault, 2 Support, 1 Heavy, 2 Snipers on missions out in the open.

Not to mention "Heat Ammo" make them pretty effective against Cyberdisks and Sectopods.

[BYU 14]

Really? I thought heavy was pretty effective.

They have that "oh crap" rocket for early in the game survivability of the entire unit. That gets less effective later but AOE suppression, damage reduction, and two shots per turn (with no aim penalty) instead of one never gets less effective. Give them the heavy plasma and they can do almost 30 damage on a single turn.

I ended up running 2 Assault, 2 Support, 1 Heavy, 1 Sniper on big ship based missions and 1 Assault, 2 Support, 1 Heavy, 2 Snipers on missions out in the open.

Big fan of heavies too. Usually run 2 of them 2 support, 1 Sniper and 1 assault. Team a heavy and a support and the sniper and assault.

[Abe Sargent]

Maybe part of it was that I used the mobile snipers rather than the squadwatch ones. Mobility is very important, and firing lanes aren;t always easy. I started with squadwatch ones, then tried out the other and loved it. Finish with the In the Zone and you can blow out a ton of bad guys in one turns with two snipers assisted by two Assaults running and smashing and two supporters to heal both. A leveled Assaulter or Sniper will outclass a leveled heavy every time I think.

[dubb93]

Maybe part of it was that I used the mobile snipers rather than the squadwatch ones. Mobility is very important, and firing lanes aren;t always easy. I started with squadwatch ones, then tried out the other and loved it. Finish with the In the Zone and you can blow out a ton of bad guys in one turns with two snipers assisted by two Assaults running and smashing and two supporters to heal both. A leveled Assaulter or Sniper will outclass a leveled heavy every time I think.

I tend to use the "sniper as a carry" strategy with squadsight. I never realized how powerful squadsight was until my second playthrough.

With squadsight the games can become easy mode. Any map that isn't a giant ship turns into getting your sniper(s) into a corner of the map at elevation. From there he can cover the entire map at about 95% accuracy. They tend to just absolutely slaughter everything and get almost all of your kills.

With doubletap you can kill four aliens every other turn, and it is usually available everytime new aliens pop out.

Different play styles I guess, but this one is much safer and tends not to lose anyone at all.

[Abe Sargent]

Yup yup, just different strats, no prob, good stuff when a game lets ya do that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

My partial first playthrough has been on hold for quite a while now, but the comment about the sniper strategy surprises me. I've yet to see one that was much more than a frequently missing (like 80-90 percent of the time) waste of a slot.

[mckerney]

My partial first playthrough has been on hold for quite a while now, but the comment about the sniper strategy surprises me. I've yet to see one that was much more than a frequently missing (like 80-90 percent of the time) waste of a slot.

Once you get a scope and a few levels on them they hit just about everything.

[dubb93]

My partial first playthrough has been on hold for quite a while now, but the comment about the sniper strategy surprises me. I've yet to see one that was much more than a frequently missing (like 80-90 percent of the time) waste of a slot.

Pretty much how I felt the first time too.

They really are the be-all-end-all of XCom though.

[mckerney]

Not to mention "Heat Ammo" make them pretty effective against Cyberdisks and Sectopods.

I found heavys fairly underwhelming until going against sectopods. Being able to take one out solo in a single turn is incredibly helpful. When sectopods aren't on the field I'd probably rather have another medkit or sniper rifle though.

[mckerney]

I tend to use the "sniper as a carry" strategy with squadsight. I never realized how powerful squadsight was until my second playthrough.

With squadsight the games can become easy mode. Any map that isn't a giant ship turns into getting your sniper(s) into a corner of the map at elevation. From there he can cover the entire map at about 95% accuracy. They tend to just absolutely slaughter everything and get almost all of your kills.

With doubletap you can kill four aliens every other turn, and it is usually available everytime new aliens pop out.

Different play styles I guess, but this one is much safer and tends not to lose anyone at all.

For my second playthrough I think I might have to try making two sets of sniper squads, one with Squad Sight for missions with wide open maps and another with Snap Shot for downed ship missions. My best squad sight snipers were getting three of four kills a mission but once you had to actually go in a ship they become useless due to firing restrictions after moving.

[RendeR]

I picked this up on a steam sale last week. I've attempted 3 play throughs so far.

Try 1: utter failure about 10 missions in, as I knew nothing and it showed.

Try 2: got further, had things rolling until a terror mission not only slagged my entire 6 man vet squad decked out in carapace armor and lasers, but the loss also sent 6 nations in panic who all then left at the end of the month....

3rd try: Got things rolling well had an awesome squad of 4 people that I added rookies to to use for bait and to groom for future use (whichever managed to happen) everything was going great until I misjudged a missile shot.....*BOOM* blew up 4 of my 6 suad members along with 2 mutons.... from there is just spiraled to a gruesome death. So here I sit after playing for hours on end debating the intelligence of starting completely over again.


OI

[flounder]

In case anyone hasn't seen it, they're coming out with an iPad version.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TQt8xQqy95k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[path12]

I finished my first play-through just last weekend, and I NEVER end up finishing games like this. Just on normal difficulty though. I'll go classic for one more run.

RendeR, go slow, stay in cover is the only real advice I have. Get to plasma weapons as soon as you can. And agree with those who say snipers are awesome once they get a scope and experience -- but I have trouble getting them in good position sometimes.

[MacroGuru]

I picked this up on a steam sale last week. I've attempted 3 play throughs so far.

Try 1: utter failure about 10 missions in, as I knew nothing and it showed.

Try 2: got further, had things rolling until a terror mission not only slagged my entire 6 man vet squad decked out in carapace armor and lasers, but the loss also sent 6 nations in panic who all then left at the end of the month....

3rd try: Got things rolling well had an awesome squad of 4 people that I added rookies to to use for bait and to groom for future use (whichever managed to happen) everything was going great until I misjudged a missile shot.....*BOOM* blew up 4 of my 6 suad members along with 2 mutons.... from there is just spiraled to a gruesome death. So here I sit after playing for hours on end debating the intelligence of starting completely over again.


OI

HAHA...I knew you would get hooked....

[Kodos]

In case anyone hasn't seen it, they're coming out with an iPad version.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TQt8xQqy95k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ooooo. I could play this during my train time each day...

[BYU 14]

I picked this up on a steam sale last week. I've attempted 3 play throughs so far.

Try 1: utter failure about 10 missions in, as I knew nothing and it showed.

Try 2: got further, had things rolling until a terror mission not only slagged my entire 6 man vet squad decked out in carapace armor and lasers, but the loss also sent 6 nations in panic who all then left at the end of the month....

3rd try: Got things rolling well had an awesome squad of 4 people that I added rookies to to use for bait and to groom for future use (whichever managed to happen) everything was going great until I misjudged a missile shot.....*BOOM* blew up 4 of my 6 suad members along with 2 mutons.... from there is just spiraled to a gruesome death. So here I sit after playing for hours on end debating the intelligence of starting completely over again.


OI

Tell us how try 4 goes :)

[Shepp]

I picked this up on a steam sale last week. I've attempted 3 play throughs so far.

Try 1: utter failure about 10 missions in, as I knew nothing and it showed.

Try 2: got further, had things rolling until a terror mission not only slagged my entire 6 man vet squad decked out in carapace armor and lasers, but the loss also sent 6 nations in panic who all then left at the end of the month....

3rd try: Got things rolling well had an awesome squad of 4 people that I added rookies to to use for bait and to groom for future use (whichever managed to happen) everything was going great until I misjudged a missile shot.....*BOOM* blew up 4 of my 6 suad members along with 2 mutons.... from there is just spiraled to a gruesome death. So here I sit after playing for hours on end debating the intelligence of starting completely over again.


OI

I just finished it for the first time on Sunday. This particular save was the 11th time I had to restart. Finally having seen the ending, I would say that this game is more about the journey than the destination. If you enjoy the tactical combat then that should be why you restart the game. If you just want to see how it ends you'd probably be happier by just watching a video of it on Youtube.

[RendeR]

Funny thing is, I get so wrapped up in the playing of the game that I forget to save. So i might as well be playing ironman every time. *sigh*

[mckerney]

I had a game like your third where i lost all but one of my experienced soldiers and was left with my level 10 assault and a bunch of squadies. Nearly quit but decided to give it a go and Sergeant Facecheck managed to carry all my rookies through.

It's really a good thing my assault made it because she was an absolute powerhouse and the only psi operative I was able to find.

Those first few missions with low level snipers sucked though.

[EagleFan]

I had to upgrade my laptop and have since tried this game (since the last one couldn't really play it well) and damn, it is rather fun. Going slow with it but have been enjoying it. I can see myself getting pissed several levels in when I ultimately lose one of my vets. :)

[RendeR]

I finally finished the game on the 6th pseudo-ironman style play.

Color me underwhelmed at the ending. I expected much more.

[BYU 14]

I finally finished the game on the 6th pseudo-ironman style play.

Color me underwhelmed at the ending. I expected much more.

The ending really detracts from the fun of getting there, really does not do justice to a great game.

[Eaglesfan27]

The ending really detracts from the fun of getting there, really does not do justice to a great game.

Agreed, but it is a great game up unto the end and one that I still look forward to replaying when some DLC comes out for it... rare that I feel that way about a game.

[RendeR]

Oh I'm sure I'm going to run through it at elast 1 more time on a higher difficulty, but I was just really weirded out that the ending was so lame.

[Edward64]

I'm bypassing the bureau, good to see this coming out.

XCOM 2 Rumors: ‘Enemy Within’ Spotted On Steam But Is It Sequel Or DLC? - International Digital Times (http://www.idigitaltimes.com/articles/19187/20130731/xcom-2-rumors-enemy-within-unknown-steam.htm)
Every now and then, I come across a story that really, truly excites me in that giddy seven-year-old kid at Toys R Us kind of way. And the latest XCOM 2 rumors are that story for me right now. CVG broke the news that a potential sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown has been spotted deep in the Steam files. The content on Steam is listed as "XCOM EW." There are listings for XCOM EW in English, German, Spanish, etc., a strong sign that a major project is underway. What makes this XCOM 2 rumor especially compelling is that CVG also uncovered a game titled XCOM: Enemy Within on the South Korean Classification Board websites for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The translation isn't very revealing, simply says that the game is being Rated-M.

[jeff061]

I have high hopes the Bureau will be a good game, but I have my doubts.

[Shepp]

I'm definately going to wait and see on both of these. I preordered Enemy Unknown and really liked the style and mechanics of that game. I didn't like the number of bugs and how Firaxis didn't really bother to fix them. Teleporting is only mostly fixed, flanking has got serious issues, and multiplayer is beyond broken. I'm not going to give them any more of my money unless the above mentioned issues are resolved along with whatever content they have planned.

As far as The Bureau, it looks like it has potential but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[Kodos]

Any news on the iPad version?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Any news on the iPad version?

I hear it's quite good.

[Shepp]

Any news on the iPad version?

I think its identicle to the PC/ console release except that it doesn't have as many maps to stay within apple's size limit.

[Neon_Chaos]

The ipad version is the same game.

Slightly fewer maps. Less fancy effects/explosions. No customizable dlc.

They just recently added the second wave options in the latest patch.

[Edward64]

Its a new DLC!

'XCOM: Enemy Within' Is 'Enemy Unknown' DLC, Not a Sequel? (http://gamerant.com/xcom-enemy-unknown-dlc-enemy-within-steam/)
After Firaxis Games seemed happy to take their success with XCOM: Enemy Unknown as a chance to relax, rumors began circulating earlier this months about a mysterious property known as ‘Enemy Within,’ apparently tied to the franchise. The developers broke their silence in confirming that they would be making an announcement regarding Enemy Within at Gamescom later this month, but that may no longer be necessary.

It seems that 30 new Steam Achievements have been added for Enemy Unknown, implying that whatever Firaxis is up to will not be a brand new sequel to the XCOM reboot, but an expansion. These details are far from official, but given the track record of Steam Achievements outing major releases, we’d expect comment from the developers soon.

[jeff061]

Bout time, I'm in.

[Julio Riddols]

I finally picked up Enemy Unknown this past week, and I am trying to figure out what bugs you guys are talking about. I'm on the XBox 360 version.

I'm addicted to this game right now, I've probably put in about 25 hours on it. I also keep reading that the sequel is a better version too. Any thoughts?

[Blackadar]

I finally picked up Enemy Unknown this past week, and I am trying to figure out what bugs you guys are talking about. I'm on the XBox 360 version.

I'm addicted to this game right now, I've probably put in about 25 hours on it. I also keep reading that the sequel is a better version too. Any thoughts?

If you mean the DLC, yes, it improves the original in many different ways that adds more fun, strategy and choice.

[Julio Riddols]

Oh that is DLC? I saw it being sold on a seperate disc and assumed it was a new version.

[NobodyHere]

Do you mean Enemy Within? That's an expansion.

Edit: Also I recommend getting it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Oh that is DLC? I saw it being sold on a seperate disc and assumed it was a new version.

It's an expansion, but they sold it as a separate release on consoles just because it had so much additional data that a download DLC on consoles would have eaten up a lot of HDD space.

[Julio Riddols]

Well that moves that to the top of my list then.

[path12]

FWIW I never had the bug experiences others did. But I'm also a person who thinks the game is plenty hard enough on normal difficulty so may not notice them as much.

[Blackadar]

Well that moves that to the top of my list then.

It should be on the top of your list. Enemy Within just rocks (whether you call it an expansion or DLC - I guess they're one and the same in this case). There's more enemies, more things to research, more options and so forth. When you punch a guy through a wall with a MEC Trooper or engage from a hidden position with the assistance of meld, it's all great fun.

[jeff061]

It's basically a re-release of enemy unknown with, like Blackadar said, more of everything. I loved it.

[Julio Riddols]

So I recently procured the XCom Enemy Within game by cashing in credits from a survey site (Pinecone Research FTW) And this is what happens about 20 hours in to my first Iron Man playthrough..

http://i.imgur.com/dzYw4v5.jpg?1

[Grover]

So I recently procured the XCom Enemy Within game by cashing in credits from a survey site (Pinecone Research FTW) And this is what happens about 20 hours in to my first Iron Man playthrough..

http://i.imgur.com/dzYw4v5.jpg?1

Brilliant. My previous job was at a bowling center and in the Sunday night league I ran there was a Michael Hunt. Don't ever call him Mike.

[Ironhead]

Playing through the game and just got this Captain as a reward on a mission. She has high will and aim and looks like she could have some interesting builds. I am just curious how you would build her though.

Here is the skill tree that is available:

Squaddie:
*Smoke Grenade

Corporal:
* Sentinel (two reaction shots while on overwatch); or
* Close Combat Specialist (free reaction shot against anyone who closes within 4 times, does not require overwatch)

Sergeant:
* Gunslinger (extra 2 damage with pistols)
* Smoke & Mirrors (2 extra uses of Smoke Grenade per mission)

Lieutenant:
* Sprinter (3 extra tiles of movement)
* Bullet Swarm (standard shot does not end turn if used as first action)

Captain:
* Dense Smoke (Smoke Grenades have increased area of effect and provide 20 better defense)
* Combat Drugs (+20 will and 10% aim for allies in smoke)


Right now I am thinking that Sprinter + Sentinel along with Mimetic Skin as a Gene Mod would make her an incredibly effective flanker.

[Shepp]

Are you using some sort of mod? I don't remember Supports having skill trees quite like that.

[Ironhead]

Are you using some sort of mod? I don't remember Supports having skill trees quite like that.

I am using Training Roulette which is an option in the Second Wave add on to the game. Soldiers have some of their nomal set skills (i.e. Snipers always have a choice of Snap Shot or Squadsight, Support have Smoke Grenade, etc...) but a lot of the other skills are randomly generated from a pool of available skills. I think it adds a lot to the game because when a soldier gains a promotion you really aren't sure what path they are going to take. You can end up with some really unique soldiers.

Also in general the Enemy Within expansion is awesome. Adds a lot to the game.

[Shepp]

I played through the Enemy Within I just never really messed with the Second Wave options. I guess you learn something new every day.

[jeff061]

There are a lot of really interesting second wave options that can dramatically change the game. Highly recommend people check them out.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yep, the game is MUCH better with some of the Second Wave options.

[Desnudo]

Any suggestions?

[Brian Swartz]

My lone suggestion is Long War. It's one of the best mods I've ever played for any game.

Long War at XCOM Enemy Unknown Nexus - mods and community (http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/?)

[korme]

Long War is sweet and extremely difficult

[Julio Riddols]

Playing through the game and just got this Captain as a reward on a mission. She has high will and aim and looks like she could have some interesting builds. I am just curious how you would build her though.

Here is the skill tree that is available:

Squaddie:
*Smoke Grenade

Corporal:
* Sentinel (two reaction shots while on overwatch); or
* Close Combat Specialist (free reaction shot against anyone who closes within 4 times, does not require overwatch)

Sergeant:
* Gunslinger (extra 2 damage with pistols)
* Smoke & Mirrors (2 extra uses of Smoke Grenade per mission)

Lieutenant:
* Sprinter (3 extra tiles of movement)
* Bullet Swarm (standard shot does not end turn if used as first action)

Captain:
* Dense Smoke (Smoke Grenades have increased area of effect and provide 20 better defense)
* Combat Drugs (+20 will and 10% aim for allies in smoke)


Right now I am thinking that Sprinter + Sentinel along with Mimetic Skin as a Gene Mod would make her an incredibly effective flanker.

I'm a huge fan of close combat specialist. Tack gunslinger onto that with sprinter and dense smoke. You'll end up with a general badass who can run through enemies like a hot knife through butter. Very effective against mutons and chrysalids, and the kind of person you can just give a good pistol to and they'll be practically all set. My current playthrough has a soldier with over 100 kills with a similar setup.

[Desnudo]

My lone suggestion is Long War. It's one of the best mods I've ever played for any game.

Long War at XCOM Enemy Unknown Nexus - mods and community (http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/?)

Sounds fun - thanks for the suggestion.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Any suggestions?

Not Created Equally
Hidden Potential
Training Roulette
Hidden Potential

I use all of those options.

[Groundhog]

Thanks to you jerks I bought Second Wave, enabled all additional options, and have had my ass handed to me a few times now. Good fun though - love the bio/mech additions.

[Groundhog]

Finally finished X-Com over the weekend. The final stage was tough, and I made it to the final part with just 2 guys remaining.

Anyone tried Xenonauts on Steam? Basically a remake of the original X-Com games - very, very difficult like those games, too.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Anyone tried Xenonauts on Steam? Basically a remake of the original X-Com games - very, very difficult like those games, too.

I have played it some. It's really hard. It didn't take long at all for all of my interceptors to be pretty much obsolete and for my base to be attacked. It was pretty much a wholesale slaughter of my poor troops.

[Groundhog]

I wiped my entire squad on the first mission in my initial two attempts. I'm doing OK through three missions in my current attempt, but yeah, don't go getting attached to any of your little troopers.... Unlike the new X-Com, you can't keep your guys alive by playing smart. Luck, and lack of, is huge.

[Kodos]

I really suck at this. It's my first play through, and I've had several missions where nobody survived. And nobody lives long enough to get promoted very high. 5 nations have withdrawn. I was hoping to build up a good squad before attacking the alien base, but it just ain't happening. And I think I'm on the easiest setting. My memorial wall takes a lot of scrolling to get through.

[MacroGuru]

Bought the Board Game last week. Holy hell is it fun!

It uses an app with it that makes every game a different game. You can play solo or with up to 4 people and every one is part of Xcom from the commander, to Scientist, central office and Squad leader.

I thoroughly have enjoyed it as has my girlfriend and her son.

[Fonzie]

I really suck at this. It's my first play through, and I've had several missions where nobody survived. And nobody lives long enough to get promoted very high. 5 nations have withdrawn. I was hoping to build up a good squad before attacking the alien base, but it just ain't happening. And I think I'm on the easiest setting. My memorial wall takes a lot of scrolling to get through.

Note to self: check with HR and see who was responsible for putting someone named "Kodos" in charge of defending the Earth from an alien invasion.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Note to self: check with HR and see who was responsible for putting someone named "Kodos" in charge of defending the Earth from an alien invasion.

No one left to investigate. Everyone was found dead.

[Kodos]

I blame it on the Terror missions.

[Fonzie]

HR is just...gone?

This news fills me with a profound sense of ambivalence.

[Julio Riddols]

I blame it on the Terror missions.

The key to the terror missions is to move only as quick as you can without getting overrun by chryssalids or those disc things. Sometimes you don't get to save a lot of people, but I think it still lowers panic across the board as long as you finish the mission.

[Kodos]

But I thought the Chryssalids were our friends!

[Fonzie]

But I thought the Chryssalids were our friends!

HR got what they deserved

[path12]

In Enemy Within I cannot get past that fishing village mission.

[nilodor]

In Enemy Within I cannot get past that fishing village mission.

I find that a combination of assaults with close combat (whatever the one is where if an enemy gets close they shoot them) and snipers with the ability to go on overwatch after moving are critical. You really need to be killing the chrsalyds as you encounter them. Then run like hell once you trigger the bomb.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

In Enemy Within I cannot get past that fishing village mission.

I'm struggling with that one too.

[Brian Swartz]

I would think heavies would be most important. I wouldn't want to use a lot of assaults on that mission, with chrysallids you need to kill them from distance.

I don't think the mission is that hard compared to some others, but it does require patience and firepower.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Finally cleared the fishing boat/chrysallid mission. The way I did it was to take my weakest member and sacrifice him. He dashed up the stairs immediately and all the way to the goal in the boathouse. Meanwhile, the other five laid back in overwatch. They provided enough support for him to get up there and activate the bombing run. Then the other five soldiers ran all the way to the evac zone, getting there with three rounds to spare. The guy in the boathouse basically made a suicide run to the opposite end of the boat, pulling enough of the chrysallids away to give the others enough time to get out.

[PurdueBrad]

My 6 year old and I tag-teamed the first X-Com (Xbox 360 version rather than the true originals) and just completed it today which he was really excited by (played on Normal, lost 23 soldiers along the way). His first request was to upgrade to Enemy Within and so we started that one this evening.

I hadn't read anything about it but I did click on all kinds of options (a couple specific storylines, lots of the random stuff and second wave) but we're still going on normal (want it challenging but now overly frustrating for him. Even for me though, there seems like enough changes/new stuff that it'll feel wholly different.

[Warhammer]

Has anyone played this on an iPad? Is it worth it to get it?

[Kodos]

Alas, no. All I have is a Mini.

[rockboy70]

Has anyone played this on an iPad? Is it worth it to get it?

Yes, its a very faithful and well done port. Not sure how well it runs on older ipads (I have an air).

[flounder]

I have an iPad 2 and it crashed every single time I ran it.

[Barkeep49]

Has anyone played this on an iPad? Is it worth it to get it?
I know several students who have it and have played with it for about 3 minutes. Seems very faithful to the game.

[path12]

Between this thread and Brian Swartz' dynasty I've restarted Enemy Within. It's going well but I can't get any Assault class, just tons of Support and Heavy with a handful of Snipers. One Assault guy out of 17 soldiers right now.

[Kodos]

Good news: Greg Hardy should be available.

[jeff061]

I've been getting big into Xenonauts. First couple playthroughs were disastrous, getting used to it thought. It's a lot of fun.

Not sure I could go back to XCom now. But I certainly played the hell out of XCom and enjoyed every second of it.

[Edward64]

I've been getting big into Xenonauts. First couple playthroughs were disastrous, getting used to it thought. It's a lot of fun.

Not sure I could go back to XCom now. But I certainly played the hell out of XCom and enjoyed every second of it.

I finished Xcom twice but I don't think its got a lot of replayability. How is Xenonauts on replayability?

[jeff061]

Haven't played through it all yet. You get multiple bases, more troops, more options, more everything, more out of combat management and "stuff".

That doesn't necessarily mean you get more replay once you play through it, but it does take far longer to master everything. I'm not sure I could have gotten into it without XCom as a primer. My understanding is it's much more faithful to the originals, but I never played the originals.

[Desnudo]

Xcom 2 nov 2015

http://xcom.com

[Brian Swartz]

Yeah I haven't done a serious xenonauts anything but that's what I've read as well. XCom is a spiritual successor, xenonauts more of a direct update of the original.

[bulletsponge]

fitting a game so hard that its sequel starts off after you lose

[Qwikshot]

I'll probably purchase...wonder if because you have a mobile base it'll be subject to attacks.

[chinaski]

Drooooool
XCOM 2’s Procedurally Generated Maps – IGN First - IGN (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/06/04/xcom-2s-procedurally-generated-maps-ign-first?utm_campaign=ign+main+twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social)

[path12]

Loved the original and the remake, XCOM 2 will be one of the very few day 1 buys I do anymore.

[Edward64]

I enjoyed the remake and finished it and its expansion in normal mode.

I wanted more randomness and different ways to win. The final battle was eh. I've had little desire to play it again.

[revrew]

Xcom 2 nov 2015

XCOM 2 (http://xcom.com)

I was having a bad day at work. Now .... :banana:

[NobodyHere]

So no "Terror from the Deep" 2?

[Julio Riddols]

2015 is suddenly turning into a killer year for gaming.

[Desnudo]

I love the plot. Hopefully the gameplay will hold up.

[Kodos]

After a long layoff, I started playing XCOM Enemy Within on my iPad on the train last spring. Depending on the time of year, that gives me 2-3 hours a week where I can play. First play through I got my ass handed to me on normal. I started again, and this time I sailed through to the win on normal. About 20% through, it became fairly easy to win missions and only rarely lose someone. Recommendations for which options to use when I bump the difficulty up a level in the 2nd wave?

[Edward64]

After a long layoff, I started playing XCOM Enemy Within on my iPad on the train last spring. Depending on the time of year, that gives me 2-3 hours a week where I can play. First play through I got my ass handed to me on normal. I started again, and this time I sailed through to the win on normal. About 20% through, it became fairly easy to win missions and only rarely lose someone. Recommendations for which options to use when I bump the difficulty up a level in the 2nd wave?

I play WOTC. Sometimes relatively vanilla and other times with gameplay changing mods, so can't really help you on Enemy Unknown.

What I can say is I typically play on "Regular" difficulty and that's pretty enjoyable for me. The next level is "Commander" and it is more challenging because enemies get more hitpoints and there's more of them. I don't think I've ever beaten it on Commander as my team just gets beat up and I say frak it.

So, if you're done with Regular, start playing the next level up Commander and see how it goes.

[Kodos]

So far, on Classic difficulty, I’m averaging one casualty per mission through 3 missions. I’m using Not Created Equally, Hidden Potential, Save Scum, Absolutely Critical, and Aiming Angles. Much harder so far. Rookies Kodos and Jeff Nights are already dead, and Godzilla Blitz and C.T. Homer are gravely wounded.

[Edward64]

Casualty as in wounded is okay.

Casualty as in KIA ... one per mission is probably not sustainable

[Kodos]

Yeah. Hopefully I can adjust my tactics a bit.

[NobodyHere]

Yeah. Hopefully I can adjust my tactics a bit.

Hmmm, I just have to wonder what side Kodos is actually on...

[Kodos]

My squad probably thinks I'm on the aliens' side. It's gonna be over soon for me on this run. It's much more unforgiving than on normal. It's reputation on Classic difficulty seems well earned. It seems like aliens hit on reaction shots much more often and for more damage. I've lost my entire squad twice, and nobody ever gets to build up much before dying.

[Honolulu_Blue]

My squad probably thinks I'm on the aliens' side. It's gonna be over soon for me on this run. It's much more unforgiving than on normal. It's reputation on Classic difficulty seems well earned. It seems like aliens hit on reaction shots much more often and for more damage. I've lost my entire squad twice, and nobody ever gets to build up much before dying.

Your squad thinks, you, a man named “Kodos” is on the aliens’ side? I wonder why…