XCOM: Enemy Unknown Message Board older than one year ago

SHIVs, which are like Wall-E’s angrier siblings, have been causing some problems. Sometimes the engineers forget to put a gun on them and, worse still, on occasion the mechanised Muton-mashers stubbornly refuse to leave XCOM HQ. The next patch, which is due soon, should fix all that, as well as issues with the visibility of certain UFO roofs, Interceptor-related hanging and a correction to the use of snapshot during overwatch. Full notes below, including difficulty tweaks. Has anyone found a mod of choice, either for balance or general changes? I installed Warspace (not face) at the weekend but haven’t had much chance to play with it yet.

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The RPS reactions went as follows:

Alec: Woah Adam: Holy moly Jim: Woah

Legendary developer Julian Gollop, best known as one half of the sibling-based team responsible for X-COM and Laser Squad, has just announced he’s making a brand new Chaos game.(more…)

Firaxis will soon be beaming down a patch for XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The update should fix a number of issues, notably "abductor roof visibility problems," one of the game's more annoying headaches. Inaccessible SHIVs should also be addressed. A number of other fixes will be made as well, including better multiplayer connectivity and solutions for certain states that would make the game hang.

And some good news for XCOM beginners: Easy difficulty will be made easier. Also of note, the patch will not address an issue where players who beat the game are greeted by a defeat screen. Firaxis is aware of the issue and looking into it.

The patch is slated for all platforms "soon."

Some time later.

Things haven’t gone badly, per se. We lost Keza MacDonald in the alien base, but other than that there have been no fatalities since last we spoke. Indeed, our ranks have been bolstered by sniper Sergeant Craig ‘Alpha’ Pearson, assault Corporal Porp Entine, support Captain Robert ‘Pox’ Yang and sniper Squaddie Jeremy Laird. But there have been wounds. Many, many wounds. As Muton and Floater Elites entered the fray, and the first terrifying encounters with psychic species presented a whole new thread, most of our once-strong team is laid up in hospital. Even our SHIV tank is damaged. Three other soldiers are out of action because they’re being evaluated for psychic aptitude.

And so it is that we meet our darkest hour in what should have been our brightest hour.(more…)

Gearbox Software's Borderlands 2 has shipped 5 million units to date, Take-Two interactive announced this morning in its second quarter financials. The company also noted that XCOM: Enemy Unknown is "proving to be a critical and commercial success." Both games are remarked as having "strong digital sales."

"Take-Two's second quarter revenue and earnings exceeded our outlook, driven by the breakout success of 2K's Borderlands 2 and robust demand for our catalog and digitally delivered offerings," noted Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. "Moreover, with Grand Theft Auto 5 slated for spring 2013, we are poised to generate substantial revenue and earnings growth in fiscal year 2014."

Both Borderlands 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown currently hold near 90 Metacritic ratings.

#stickjockey He renamed all his teammates for his friends, he put himself on the roster and took all of the best equipment. He rebounded from painful defeats—or, eh, restarted a few here and there—and scored fist-pumping victories in all the others. He felt all the vicarious thrills that every sports video game offers. More »

#xcom XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn based strategy game...or is it? While I acknowledge that I am a grade-A wuss in all things frightening, XCOM can still feel scary—almost like a horror game. More »

The first screen shot from Dunwall City Trials, the first of three add-ons for Dishonored.

Look, I love XCOM as much as everybody else, but folks seem to have forgotten about Dishonored. You should play Dishonored, since I’ll be playing the downloadable content coming for it in 2013.

There are three add-ons coming for Dishonored in the months ahead. First up? December's Dunwall City Trials, a $4.99 add-on promising to push the players who've mastered Dishonored’s skills, and test their mettle. There are new achievements and the introduction of leaderboards, all set against players in ten different locations that include arenas with waves of enemies and time trials.

The way more exciting add-ons aren’t coming until next year, since they involve more stories in the Dishonored universe. The Whalers is scheduled for next spring, and involves new environments in Dunwall, in addition to new weapons, powers, and gadgets. The Whalers are a set of supernatural assassins, and I’m looking forward to possessing and killing them.

Details on the story-driven third add-on are being kept under wraps until sometime next year, though.

Unlike the downloadable content for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, all of these add-ons will be released simultaneously across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Terribly sorry, but this chunk of the diary might be a wee bit boring. Not a lot really happens, you see. That speaks to something that tends to happen in XCOM – the early game (at Classic difficulty and above) is characterised by regular and sudden losses because your squad are weak, scaredy and under-equipped, but if you can keep a core team alive for a little while you get over the hump and able to cope better in the field. (Until the psychic aliens arrive, at least). That’s basically where my RPS-themed squad has gotten to now- we’re on the (vital and satisfying) busywork, as we prepare to take the fight to enemy somewhat.

Think of this as one of those mid-season episodes in a TV drama where they’re just killing time until the big denouements and cliffhangers at the end of the series. Like that rubbish episode of Battlestar Galactica with the black market, or something.(more…)

As is the custom of most games that have been out longer than three seconds, Firaxis’ journo-murdering (and also wonderful) XCOM revival is about to receive its first* helping of DLC. Titled “Slingshot,” it takes the form of a three-mission Council campaign centered around “enigmatic Triad operative” Zhang. As ever, it doesn’t take long for combat to ensue – but this time, it takes place in both China and the sky. So, in short, you get a “special” new playable character, a few new missions, and… well, that’s pretty much it.

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It's awfully satisfying to fully upgrade your squad and totally flatten these dudes late in the game.

XCOM is hardly a short game, but if you’re starved for more content, 2K Games and Firaxis are preparing something just for you.

The Slingshot Content Pack, which doesn’t yet have a release date or price, has a set of three Council missions. Within, players will meet of an “enigmatic Triad operative,” sent an alien ship off course, and somehow battle aliens “in the skies over China.” There’s also a brand-new playable squad character.

Many of you will already be familiar with the other add-on, the Elite Soldier Pack. Once a pre-order bonus, this additional set of customization options (classic X-Com soldier, armor aesthetic upgrades, color swapping) is now available to purchase for $4.99.

#xcom XCOM: Enemy Unknown is getting something new with its Slingshot DLC: a self-contained story. More »

2K Games and Firaxis have announced the first downloadable content for XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Entitled "Slingshot," the DLC packs in three new Council missions with a unique story arc. The story takes place in China and, says designer Ananda Gupta, revolves around a "badass Triad operative named Zhang." Said badass will be a playable character and, unlike other XCOM soldiers, will feature a pre-designed face and a unique voice.

We spoke with Gupta and Firaxis producer Garth DeAngelis to learn a little more about the Slingshot DLC and the developer's future plans for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

That headline doesn’t refer to the times when games break and throw up oddball bugs for our amusement, but rather when games throw so many problems at the player that they become a sort of jeopardy-based experience in crisis-juggling. Earlier today I was running through my game collection and thinking about what I might like to play. It wasn’t Dishonored. Three things other stood out: Day Z, FTL, and X-Com. I began to think about what those had in common which, and what that said about my enjoyment of this year’s immersive masterpiece.

And I realised it was this: peril.(more…)

IGN's shows you how to unlock the hidden Hero Characters in XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. 2012 may not be remembered as a fantastic year for pure western role-playing games (especially without a Skyrim to sweep the end-of-year awards) but it's been a great year for me as a video game fan. Why? Because many of the "best games of the year" may not be RPGs, but they've adapted some of the best components of RPGs to become stronger games.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown, for example, is one of the best-received games of 2012, due in part to its use of RPG mechanics. Tactics games are often associated with RPGs (especially Japanese-style tactics games) but the connection isn't always so concrete with "western" games. For example, I don't really qualify the original X-COM: UFO Defense as an RPG, due to its too-large squads filled with personality-free squaddies, whereas Jagged Alliance 2 certainly fit the mold.

XCOM tweaks the initial game's form in ways that align with traditional role-playing games. The squad size is limited to 4-6 characters, traditional RPG numbers, and only having one base means you rarely need large numbers of squaddies - I never had more than 15 at once, and even that was high due to playing on "Classic" difficulty. It also slightly decreases the importance of the strategic decision-making level, putting the focus on the characters in the field.

Things get heated as Brad and Ryan go head to head in XCOM while Jeff and Patrick get busy with the TurboGrafx.

My self-indulgently RPS-themed XCOM Classic/Iron Man campaign diary continues.

Having just lost Tim Stone and Dan Griliopoulos we’re feeling a little shakey, but at the same time we’ve got some veterans on the team now. And laserguns. Can’t argue with laserguns. So, are we ready for our first Terror Mission?

Today, two RPS writers die and four more join.(more…)

#xcom One of the best things I saw last week over at Nexusmods.com (where I go to get all my Skyrim and Fallout mods, dontcha know) was the news that they'd added a page for XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Yes! More »

#xcom Every time a classic PC game is moved over to consoles, we tend to hear the same worries: It's been dumbed down; it's oversimplifed, rendered toothless and worthless. When XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released on both PC and consoles, it would have been easy to jump to the same conclusions. More »

The story of my Classic difficulty, Iron Man mode XCOM campaign so far is here. As a result, we’ve got a pretty solid team forming now, which means only one thing: let’s go get someone killed.(more…)

Today on IGN's video game talk show: why XCOM Enemy Unknown is important and excitement for Animal Crossing 3DS.

I’m playing an XCOM campaign at Classic difficulty in Iron Man mode, with soldiers named after RPS writers past and present. John Walker and Kieron Gillen are dead – who will be next? We’re off to somewhere near home – Liverpool, on an abduction mission. There’d been a choice of rewards, and between the Sergeant promised for this one and the fact that the UK is in a slightly higher state of panic than the others, Scouseland it is.

Rookie Stone is still wounded, as is wet blanket Rossignol. We can now take five soldiers out on missions, so looks like we need two more recruits. Who’s up for a visit to the meatgrinder?(more…)

You're reading Reaction Time, a weekly column that claims to examine recent events, games and trends in the industry, but is really just looking for an excuse to use the word "zeitgeist." It debuts on Fridays in Engadget's digital magazine, Distro.
This holiday's unceasing glut of games is a go, with store shelves making room for the onslaught of snarling aliens, sneering assassins, and slow-mo soldiers walking away from large explosions - or sometimes partially melted helicopters. These are the usual, commercially sexy suspects.

It's best not to judge a game by its cover, though, and this week's front-facing embellishments are exceptionally deceptive. At a shallow glance, XCOM: Enemy Unknown may seem like another case of meathead military dudes mowing down extraterrestrials. Dishonored, meanwhile, conveys a stylish stab-a-thon with its masked, supernaturally talented anti-hero out for revenge. Look longer and you'll find that both have roots in classic PC gaming, and both sell something console owners might not even know they want.

You read our review, we read your comments -- let's discuss!

You know how I said doing ‘Meet The Squad‘ was probably a futile endeavour? Well, two things happened.

Number one, my PC’s secondary hard drive, where the ‘My Games’ folder is kept, had a wobble, which corrupted my XCOM Iron Man save. Not a huge issue as I was mere moments into the game, but the randomly-generated nature of the soldiers means that John’s now a dude and Kieron’s now a girl. Perhaps that is as it should be. Other than that, it’s the same setup as before.

Number two, half the squad got themselves killed. (Note – ‘got themselves.’ It definitely wasn’t my fault. Nuh-uh.)(more…)

#xcom I hate Mutons. If you play XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you probably hate them too. The big, green, ape-like aliens are the shock troopers of the invasion, and they will make you cry. They'll flank and shellack your team, lob grenades into places you thought were safe, and cut down your most beloved veterans in a heartbeat. After doing it, they'll pound their chest like gorillas and crow over their victory. More »

• Various visibility/hiding optimizations
• Multiplayer text chat support (J to activate)
• Mouse 4/5 will switch soldiers in the Barracks
• ESC hides the movement grid if you do not want to commit to a move while it is activated
• Squad Sight ability optimization
• Fixed issue when equipping two grenades with Deep Pockets.
• Fixed Rapid Fire sometimes consuming too much ammo.
• SHIVs that are damaged will no longer become unusable.
• Fixed some hangs/soft crashes in tactical combat.
• Replaced software cursor with the operating system cursor to reduce lag and framerate dependence.
• Fixed rendering bug which causes some soldiers hair to appear as if it is rendering on top of environment fog.
• 1080p movies are now used at all times on the PC.

An XCOM: Enemy Unknown Easter egg allows players to bring in the heavy hitters when times are bleakest. PC Gamer points out that certain soldier names will activate "XCOM Heroes," who are pre-designed super soldiers.

Name alterations for soldier unlocks that have worked so far are Sid Meier, Ken Levine, Joe Kelly and Otto Zander. The one caveat for this phenomenal cosmic super soldier creation power is that once these heroes are summoned the achievements for the game will be turned off.

We also concur with PC Gamer's request that you make sure Levine lives, since after saving humanity from aliens we'd appreciate him finishing BioShock: Infinite.

#showus I sincerely hope you guys are all playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown right now. Yeah, Dishonored is great. But XCOM, man… this game has been keeping me up until 3 in the morning night after night. It's amazing. More »