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[KyanMehwulfe]

Digging the urban city environment... the political and propaganda news screens, the neon signs and markers... Looking forward to what the higher tier armours and upgrades look like. The new muton berserker and advent mechs look rather bad ass. Hope we get some great augments or armor suits salvaged from their tech.

 

[Tacitus_]

I like how XCOM isn't so clearly good vs. the clearly bad aliens. Blowing up stuff and using live rounds in a crowded civilian gathering is a pretty shitty thing to do.

Noble ends, dubious means suits the game well. Not really grimdark because you know the aliens are assholes, but at the same time you aren't playing mr. nice guy either.

 

[FiraB]

I like the new gameplay, looks rather interesting and I like that the AI doesn't overwatch the same targets now (always hated that). I like that they improved the movement grid as well, always felt like I couldn't play it on pc without a controller because it just felt clunky so glad to see it vastly improved.

Like the fact that aliens now look and feel powerful, that zerker looks and feels like a big threat on the map and not just something you kill with ease.

Looking forward to november.

 

[Funky Papa]

Reminds me that I'd do nasty, nasty thing for another turn based W40K game.

Maybe GW will take note of XCOM's success and care for the few reamining loyalists out there? Chaos Gate remains one of my favourites turn based games ever.

 

[TTG]

The news of PC exclusivity and art style change suggests to me a budget constraint. Anyone know if the original was fiscally unsuccessful or if Firaxis is is not doing well in general? Hopefully the game will be great despite that, but it's off to an underwhelming start. Two good things to take away from the demo:

-The guy suggested that separate enemy packs are no longer oblivious to what's going on. He said something about them converging when the player is discovered. I like the scenario of engaging packs quickly to keep them off balance or conversely if there is a sloppy static encounter, having them mobilize on your location. So much of the game on higher difficulty came down to moving conservatively enough to only engage one pack at a time that everything else was ancillary to that. It's just not something that should dominate most decisions.

-Making the aliens a lot more powerful was the right call. It serves to create a lot more encounter variety where a lot of stuff in the first game was just multiples of the same enemy. It also allows for a longer progression and a bigger tech tree for the other side.

 

[Funky Papa]

The news of PC exclusivity and art style change suggests to me a budget constraint. Anyone know if the original was fiscally unsuccessful or if Firaxis is is not doing well in general?

It had excellent PC sales and marginal console ones, so it stands for reason that Firaxis focused on computers this time around. Their first XCOM game was pretty much designed for consoles in comparison (while, excellent, the control scheme was undeniably console-friendly).

 

[Fragamemnon]

Whenever you are talking about budgets and Firaxis, one thing to keep in mind is that generally speaking half the company is always working on Civ something or another at any given time, and the company itself is simply not very large. They list 120 employees on Wikipedia but that number is larger than reality-if you look at the credits for both EU and EW they are nothing like what you might see from a big budget game. Their stuff squarely is done in the mid-tier resource wise.

The other thing to keep in mind is that their PC fanbase is very strong and quite large, though it is rooted in Civ. It's actually a lot easier to sell those existing fans on a new XCOM game if it is PC-only (and has the features that Civ players love, especially big workshop support and a clean UI) that runs more or less on the same systems they play Civ V and XCOM:EW on than any other target audience. This fanbase also views any game that is released side by side with a console version with immediate distrust, a position I can sympathize with.

So while XCOM2 isn't a huge budget project, there is more or less a fixed cap that Firaxis can really run up making the title, with the budget limited by the studio size and the specific demands of the target audience.

 

[Funky Papa]

Yeah, while XCOM's credits were large, I'm sure the core team was rather small. It always felt as a small budget production, specially next to XCOM 2, which looks much more refined.

 

[TTG]

Refined? Maybe the bad resolution video is to blame, but it looks pared down visually(like it's made to run on an overachieving tablet) and losing console support of any kind doesn't suggest expansion in budget. I'm a little surprised MS or Sony didn't propose exclusivity actually, considering it wan GOTYs on consoles and whatnot, axing support seems more abandonment than refinement.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Refined? Maybe the bad resolution video is to blame, but it looks pared down visually(like it's made to run on an overachieving tablet) and losing console support of any kind doesn't suggest expansion in budget. I'm a little surprised MS or Sony didn't propose exclusivity actually, considering it wan GOTYs on consoles and whatnot, axing support seems more abandonment than refinement.

Pared down from EU? Really? I mean I'm the biggest fan of EU going and that game is not a looker. The character models, animations, and shader work in this demo are well beyond anything EU/EW throws around.

One of the lessons from the last couple of years is that the best console versions of PC games come after the PC version is done and then the game's development fully shifts over to the console version, taking into account the full capabilities and limitations of the different platform. You get happy PC customers and happy console customers that way. When you take a PC game and release them at the same time on consoles, OTOH, everyone comes away wanting more than they got.

As for MS/Sony asking for exclusives, man if you wanted to kill the PC hype and buzz for this game that would be the number one thing you could do. The only thing PC gamers trust MS and Sony to do is to make good PC games shittier. Even if they were interested (and due to sales, they aren't) , there's no way 2K/Firaxis could continue to build a second tentpole PC franchise with that kind of agreement.

 

[I H8 Memes]

Refined? Maybe the bad resolution video is to blame, but it looks pared down visually(like it's made to run on an overachieving tablet) and losing console support of any kind doesn't suggest expansion in budget. I'm a little surprised MS or Sony didn't propose exclusivity actually, considering it wan GOTYs on consoles and whatnot, axing support seems more abandonment than refinement.

What the heck? This game looks way better then EU. And which one of the 5 people that bought this game on consoles gave it a GOTY award?

 

[Rentahamster]

As for MS/Sony asking for exclusives, man if you wanted to kill the PC hype and buzz for this game that would be the number one thing you could do. The only thing PC gamers trust MS and Sony to do is to make good PC games shittier.

Yep, I would have felt that way, and I imagine a lot of others would too.

 

[Funky Papa]

I'm currently playing EU for a second time and man, I did not remember level design being this bad. Most missions take place in something closer to fighting arenas than maps, props are incredibly recurrent and then there's this stupid thing about the overall look of the place having fuck all to do with the actual geographical setting, what with the Egyptian border having lush forests and whatnot.

I hope XCOM 2 addresses this shit, because it makes the game look low budget as heck.

On a more positive note, SHIVs are being fucking awesome this time around. I don't know why, but they were fairly worthless during my first run, yet right now I find myself sending them on the most complicated missions or whenever I don't need my squaddies to rank up. They are basically mobile coverage that happens to shot back at the aliens.

 

[Fragamemnon]

there's this stupid thing about the overall look of the place having fuck all to do with the actual geographical setting, what with the Egyptian border having lush forests and whatnot.

Someone is going to whole ham in XCOM2 with geographic location mapping to biome-flagged plot and parcels via mods, and it is going to be GLORIOUS.

 

[Shake Appeal]

You know, I don't think I've built a SHIV in any game of EU or EW, and I haven't done it so far in my LW campaign. I should do it. I should embrace the SHIV.

Also I am up to July (?) now in LW and still loving it.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Hmmm


I have no idea how to embed tweets.

EDIT: Oh, here we go, they already tweeted it:

Another image, this one from the show floor:

 

[Xamtheking]

Hmmm


I have no idea how to embed tweets.

There are things called pictures
You take them
And then you can put them in posts
:3
(But thanks for the Tweet)

 

[Shake Appeal]

Coolest thing about that pic is the overgrown gas station (?) behind them. If the areas outside the megacities have a neglected, post-apocalyptic feel to them, I'm so into that.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Coolest thing about that pic is the overgrown gas station (?) behind them. If the areas outside the megacities have a neglected, post-apocalyptic feel to them, I'm so into that.

Agreed! It also looks like the gas station map from EU, so that's fun.

Really like the design of the Advent mechs. Wonder if MECs and Mechtoids will be making a return...

Oh god, Mechtoids with the new Sectoids would be nuts.

 

[Fragamemnon]

You know, I don't think I've built a SHIV in any game of EU or EW, and I haven't done it so far in my LW campaign. I should do it. I should embrace the SHIV.

Also I am up to July (?) now in LW and still loving it.

In my just-completed b15e campiagn, I had an alloy SHIV go 45 missions straight before it needed to go in for repairs. They are crazy good if you invest in them, the aliens shoot the tanky shiv and not your dudes.

 

[Shake Appeal]

In my just-completed b15e campiagn, I had an alloy SHIV go 45 missions straight before it needed to go in for repairs. They are crazy good if you invest in them, the aliens shoot the tanky shiv and not your dudes.

Since I'm playing LW for the first time mostly blind (I read about the strategic game a little because that's always where I'm weakest), I'm just kinda bumbling along making terrible investments all the time. SHIVs seem like a money sink that stops a squad member from gaining experience, but I guess LW is designed so there are no real trap options.

 

[Sober]

Hahaha oh man LW has no trap options?

Well, you won't know until like 2 months later.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Since I'm playing LW for the first time mostly blind (I read about the strategic game a little because that's always where I'm weakest), I'm just kinda bumbling along making terrible investments all the time. SHIVs seem like a money sink that stops a squad member from gaining experience, but I guess LW is designed so there are no real trap options.

The tradeoff is that they keep your roster super stable, prevent injuries (or worse), and keep you out of nasty fatigue crunches that can happen in late summer/early fall when alien resources peak while you are still dealing with EXALT.

 

[Funky Papa]

Better quality.

Coolest thing about that pic is the overgrown gas station (?) behind them. If the areas outside the megacities have a neglected, post-apocalyptic feel to them, I'm so into that.

That's brilliant. EU was really lacking in that particular department, as I was previously complaining.

 

[UnrealEck]

I just started playing EU a few days ago for the first time. I've had the game in my library for maybe 2 years but never tried it.
It's a really good game. I'm looking forward to the sequel a lot now.

The graphics in XCOM2 are also clearly better than in EU. They're nothing cutting edge but definitely better than the first game.

 

[RandomSeed]

All this coverage has me playing XCOM again. I've tried LW multiple times, but I just can't get into it. I've put about 100 hours into the vanilla game, so oh well. I just wish there was a mod (that works with EW) that balanced panic levels in marathon mode. I'd be happy with just a longer vanilla game, and that's probably my biggest hope for XCOM 2. Less of a rush acquiring all the tech, and the feeling of having to launch satellites ASAP.

 

[Rentahamster]

Have there been any mods released for XCOM that give the game a decent graphics boost?

 

[AlexVu]

You know, because of Beagle I now cannot take the old Bradford seriously anymore.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Have there been any mods released for XCOM that give the game a decent graphics boost?

There are some retexture mods but it's really more of a graphical change than a boost.

You know, because of Beagle I now cannot take the old Bradford seriously anymore.

Everyone is hamming it up throughout the campaign and I hope they carry that over into XCOM2. This isn't a serious "story" game, it's a framework for adults to play superheroes vs. aliens with virtual action figures.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Berserker like whaaaaaat

Scary looking lady.

 

[Rentahamster]

Berserker like whaaaaaat

Scary looking lady.

I am reminded of Dragon Ball Z Abridged, and the gag they had with Dodoria.

 

[StrangeTaco]

Kinda surprised it's a PC only release, have the released any information on why they decided to do that?

Spoiler

But since I'm on PC and doesn't affect me... HYPE

 

[Rentahamster]

Kinda surprised it's a PC only release, have the released any information on why they decided to do that?

Spoiler

But since I'm on PC and doesn't affect me... HYPE

Yes. The thread is large, but there's a lot of discussion about what they've said about it.

Basically the situation is that most of the people who bought the first game are on PC. Secondly, it would give them the ability to really tailor the UI and gameplay experience to best suit that platform. They are open to porting it to console late, but for now, the focus is on PC.

They are a small team, and only have so much resources, so optimizing their workflow (Firaxis dev experience is mostly in the PC realm) is important in creating a quality product.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I am reminded of Dragon Ball Z Abridged, and the gag they had with Dodoria.

I gotta rewatch that sometime.

Looking at the pic again, the pattern on the shoulders is interesting. Looks like some kind of subdermal armor, implanted none too carefully.

Wonder what's up with the male Mutons?

 

[LurkerPrime]

Berserker like whaaaaaat

Scary looking lady.

Having seen the alternate reality and knowing the full extent of the alien's forces from XCOM: EU, y'all know there's only one possible origin for this thing.
Poor humanity.

 

[ClayKavalier]

At the end of the summer, I'm either building a gaming PC or getting an Xbox One. If I get an X1 I'll ride out this gen on consoles and build a PC a few years from now.

It seems like a bad time to build a PC, I've been wanting to do it for years and can finally afford it but it seems like the smart thing to do would be to wait a few years and build a PC when there's a single GPU that can do 4K at a high frame rate and Gsync monitors are less expensive. Then I could build an awesome setup, whereas right now the GTX 980 Ti can't hit high framerates at 4k and likely won't be able to play games like Witcher 3 and Batman at 60fps at 1440p (what I'd be playing at) with all the bells and whistles turned on. Kind of sucks to drop $1,500+ on a PC and not be able to max everything out of the gate. In the mean time I'd get an X1 to play Cuphead and the other X1/ PC exclusives.

But all that said, this game is really making me want to build a PC.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

Berzerker is augmented now?

I mean, berzerkers were always upgraded mutons but it seemed mostly biological with normal armouring. The actual augmentations seem new.

Crazy if we can salvage their corpses to make new augmented berzerker armour or making salvage their augs and put them in our own soldiers.

Rangers with berzerker aug strength...

 

[WhirlwindMonk]

It seems like a bad time to build a PC, I've been wanting to do it for years and can finally afford it but it seems like the smart thing to do would be to wait a few years and build a PC when there's a single GPU that can do 4K at a high frame rate and Gsync monitors are less expensive. Then I could build an awesome setup, whereas right now the GTX 980 Ti can't hit high framerates at 4k and likely won't be able to play games like Witcher 3 and Batman at 60fps at 1440p (what I'd be playing at) with all the bells and whistles turned on. Kind of sucks to drop $1,500+ on a PC and not be able to max everything out of the gate. In the mean time I'd get an X1 to play Cuphead and the other X1/ PC exclusives.

Except that something like this will always be true. In a few years, when you go to build that 4K g-sync setup, there will be some other new tech that's just "a couple years away" from being affordable. If you've already got a solid setup, then by all means, wait until the tech is enough of an upgrade to be worth the money. But if you have nothing, and are always looking ahead to "that next cool thing," you'll never actually build. Sometimes you've just got to suck it up and go. People have and will continue to be perfectly happy gaming at 1080p and 60+ fps. Don't let the constant promises of "the next big thing" scare you away from building if you want to build.

 

[Durante]

Except that something like this will always be true. In a few years, when you go to build that 4K g-sync setup, there will be some other new tech that's just "a couple years away" from being affordable. If you've already got a solid setup, then by all means, wait until the tech is enough of an upgrade to be worth the money. But if you have nothing, and are always looking ahead to "that next cool thing," you'll never actually build. Sometimes you've just got to suck it up and go. People have and will continue to be perfectly happy gaming at 1080p and 60+ fps. Don't let the constant promises of "the next big thing" scare you away from building if you want to build.

Yeah, it's always a bad time to build a PC, but it's also always a great time to build a PC.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Art Direction Autopsy for EU2012

 

[GungHo]

Except that something like this will always be true. In a few years, when you go to build that 4K g-sync setup, there will be some other new tech that's just "a couple years away" from being affordable. If you've already got a solid setup, then by all means, wait until the tech is enough of an upgrade to be worth the money. But if you have nothing, and are always looking ahead to "that next cool thing," you'll never actually build. Sometimes you've just got to suck it up and go. People have and will continue to be perfectly happy gaming at 1080p and 60+ fps. Don't let the constant promises of "the next big thing" scare you away from building if you want to build.

This is the same thing you gotta consider when buying a car, TVs, refrigerators, or whatever. Something else cool is always on the horizon. That something else cool is likely going to be more expensive than the stuff you can buy right now, both in actual price and opportunity cost. Where you really can get yourself in trouble is when you wait so long that what you have breaks down and then you have no real choice but to buy without the opportunity to shop around, and then you pay way more than you should just to make the problem go away.

If what you have isn't currently up to snuff and you think you're going to need something this year, go ahead and buy. The fact that things are about to see a switch over to new platforms means that vendors are happy to clear stock. If you wait until November or next April to buy all the new stuff, you're going to pay a premium in time and money. Money because it's all new... and time because even if Intel announces that a new platform is available to the public on Monday doesn't mean that it's actually in the supply chain. That may take a while... weeks to months depending on who gets what allocation and how much of that top end stuff they can actually produce. You're also competing against the wealthy early adopter crowd who are more than happy to do whatever they need to do to be the first in line.

 

[Brainsaw]

At the end of the summer, I'm either building a gaming PC or getting an Xbox One. If I get an X1 I'll ride out this gen on consoles and build a PC a few years from now.

It seems like a bad time to build a PC, I've been wanting to do it for years and can finally afford it but it seems like the smart thing to do would be to wait a few years and build a PC when there's a single GPU that can do 4K at a high frame rate and Gsync monitors are less expensive. Then I could build an awesome setup, whereas right now the GTX 980 Ti can't hit high framerates at 4k and likely won't be able to play games like Witcher 3 and Batman at 60fps at 1440p (what I'd be playing at) with all the bells and whistles turned on. Kind of sucks to drop $1,500+ on a PC and not be able to max everything out of the gate. In the mean time I'd get an X1 to play Cuphead and the other X1/ PC exclusives.

But all that said, this game is really making me want to build a PC.

Well to be fair, that Xbox One is never going to achieve 1440p @60fps either (much less 4K). Heck, how many games are actually reaching reaching 60fps consistently there? Not that I'm hating on the Xbox here, but it seems weird to me that you're willing to settle for a lot less on Xbox than on a PC.

I suggest you take a different angle and see what a $500 PC is capable off. I'm willing to bet it will at least be on par with the Xbox. From there you can gradually increase the budget until you find something that reaches 1080@60fps or 1440@60fps, whatever feels like the best deal.

Speaking from personal experience, trying to reach the max is hardly ever worth the money. Sure it'll be fun for a bit, but then you notice how fast hardware prices drop and how few games actually are capable of PC feats (most are developed with console limitations in mind). Then you start wishing you'd save money on the initial build and just use that to upgrade after a year or so.

In the end, framerates are worth more than resolution, especially past the 1080 mark. And let's not forget free online and lots of game sales that will save you money to boot

 

[Poodlestrike]

Gaaaah. What's the point of this IGN slow drip if we don't even get new info daily? I want moar nao. Like what's the rest of the classes, at least?

Anyway, here's all the E3 screens. This one is new to me:

 

[Fragamemnon]

There's only one class we don't know at this point.

The real unannounced stuff right now is the strategic layer and I expect we will hear about that in a couple of months. There's also some new aliens to talk about and will be drop-fed to us over time.

 

[Poodlestrike]

There's only one class we don't know at this point.

The real unannounced stuff right now is the strategic layer and I expect we will hear about that in a couple of months. There's also some new aliens to talk about and will be drop-fed to us over time.

Def. agree about the strategic layer, but I'm so curious about that last class.

The aliens I suspect will be held back so they come as a (nasty) surprise at launch.

 

[Arjac]

There's only one class we don't know at this point.

The real unannounced stuff right now is the strategic layer and I expect we will hear about that in a couple of months. There's also some new aliens to talk about and will be drop-fed to us over time.

Really? Because I've only seen 2 of the 5 classes detailed, Ranger and Specialist

 

[bjaelke]

MEET THE XCOM 2 ADVENT SOLDIERS

 

[Funky Papa]

MEET THE XCOM 2 ADVENT SOLDIERS

Jesus. Talk about milking it. You could write the entire series devoting one paragraph to each article, tops.

 

[Poodlestrike]

MEET THE XCOM 2 ADVENT SOLDIERS

Huh, I hadn't noticed the yellowish blood before. Think they're still human looking under those helmets? Or have the aliens begun doing their super-extensive-genetic-modification thing?

 

[Funky Papa]

Huh, I hadn't noticed the yellowish blood before. Think they're still human looking under those helmets? Or have the aliens begun doing their super-extensive-genetic-modification thing?

Those faces sure are well covered.