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XCOM: Enemy Within |OT| Your Soldiers Never Asked For This

It doesn't change the game's name on Steam - you have to start it up and pick EW on a really weird window (at least it was on my PC).

I'm not seeing options anywhere. It just gives me the difficulty options and starts up a regular game.

edit: nevermind, i'm an idiot. It's not out in the uk for another two days. goddamnit. :-/
 

Jintor

Member
Normal gets piss-easy with all the new tech around June or May. I mean, XCOM has always had a difficulty hump, but this is even greater than normal.
 

Dylan

Member
I didn't buy EW but I'm noticing EU is auto-downloading a massive update. This may actually inspire me to continue the game as I only got a few missions in and quit forever when Australia bailed on me.
 

epmode

Member
I'm not seeing options anywhere. It just gives me the difficulty options and starts up a regular game.

edit: nevermind, i'm an idiot. It's not out in the uk for another two days. goddamnit. :-/

Gotta wait for those bits to make it over the Atlantic. PC gamers are so entitled.
 
Happy to report that line of sight bugs, where you haven't activated the enemy yet but they still move and take shots, seem to still be in, as I'm down a squad now. Bugs and this more difficult early game is really not making me want to play Ironman.

I'm not sure if this is specific to the first mission of Operation Progeny or not, but it seems like MEC Troopers cannot interact with civilians you need to rescue by entering the radius around them. Whether it's a bug or intentional, I'm not sure, but just a warning. Time to scrap this playthrough and start over.
 

Jintor

Member
Happy to report that line of sight bugs, where you haven't activated the enemy yet but they still move and take shots, seem to still be in, as I'm down a squad now. Bugs and this more difficult early game is really not making me want to play Ironman.

Damn, badness. I didn't run into anything like that at all...
 
Is this game region-locked on the PC? I would like to buy it of Amazon(US) to use on my Australian steam account.

I still have XCOM Enemy Unknown(US) from Green Man Gaming, however now 2k got to them and they are charging a separate ANZ price.($49.99,$44.99 with the pre-order 10% discount)

Region-pricing is BS...especially Digital, this is why I love Amazon as all I have to do is put in a US billing address and away I go.
 

Jintor

Member
Is this game region-locked on the PC? I would like to buy it of Amazon(US) to use on my Australian steam account.

I still have XCOM Enemy Unknown(US) from Green Man Gaming, however now 2k got to them and they are charging a separate ANZ price.($49.99,$44.99 with the pre-order 10% discount)

Region-pricing is BS...especially Digital, this is why I love Amazon as all I have to do is put in a US billing address and away I go.

I got mine off Amazon US and it's working right now. Go for it. GMG have an ANZ coupon you can enter though, I think you can probably find a code through google if you need, there's always one active.
 

JoeBoy101

Member
Holy Crap, some of these EW missions are tough. I'm not sure if the Newfoundland Fishery was in one of the DLCs or if part of the expansion, but I can't imagine doing it with MECs. I was panting by the end of the mission.

Mission Spoilers Ahead:

So, you have to find out what happened to a small fishing town and the first team sent it. When you get there, you find a smattering of zombies and Chrysalids. Okay, yeah. Took them down not to bad. You still have to find the source of where the Crysalids came from though. You get to the end of the map and find a crashed fishing trawler. Inside, a whale. A whale infested with a motherfucking Crysalid NEST! There are dozens of pods erupting from it.

You then have to go up to the controls up top, drop a transponder up there, and have 6-8 turns to get back to the extraction zone or the airstrike you ordered will kill everyone remaining. All the while, Crysalids start erupting each turn, with one extra for each ongoing turn (so 2 on turn 2 after finding it, 3 on turn 3, etc). Just managed to get out with only losing one rookie, but the rest of the team headed for the infirmary.

Overall, expansion is great. The Genetic Augmentations are 'meh', but can make some really good combinations like, mimetic skin which makes a soldier invisible when in hard cover. Couple that with a high ranking sniper who treats all cover as hard cover, and you get to have some real fun. The MECs though are real awesome. No cover, but they carry sweet guns and the rocket punch never gets old.

Course its no longer cool when the aliens start deploying their own mechs.

The EXALT aspect is a bit underwhelming so far, but its a nice switch fighting humans.
 
I got mine off Amazon US and it's working right now. Go for it. GMG have an ANZ coupon you can enter though, I think you can probably find a code through google if you need, there's always one active.

Cheers man, I found the 30% off coupon code,however I decided to just wait for a sale,I'm not in a rush to play and X Rebirth is coming out soon, besides not in a habit to support greedy Publishers!
 
Cheers man, I found the 30% off coupon code,however I decided to just wait for a sale,I'm not in a rush to play and X Rebirth is coming out soon, besides not in a habit to support greedy Publishers!
I dunno, in this case, buying the expansion at/near full price seems like it would be a slap in the face of the publisher, because they bet that the game that became The Bureau would be a big success critically and commercially, while Enemy Unknown became the critical and fan darling.

Plus EXALT look like the guys from The Bureau, so you can metaphorically piss on that game as you play Enemy Within.
 

Skunkers

Member
Holy Crap, some of these EW missions are tough. I'm not sure if the Newfoundland Fishery was in one of the DLCs or if part of the expansion, but I can't imagine doing it with MECs. I was panting by the end of the mission.

Mission Spoilers Ahead:

So, you have to find out what happened to a small fishing town and the first team sent it. When you get there, you find a smattering of zombies and Chrysalids. Okay, yeah. Took them down not to bad. You still have to find the source of where the Crysalids came from though. You get to the end of the map and find a crashed fishing trawler. Inside, a whale. A whale infested with a motherfucking Crysalid NEST! There are dozens of pods erupting from it.

You then have to go up to the controls up top, drop a transponder up there, and have 6-8 turns to get back to the extraction zone or the airstrike you ordered will kill everyone remaining. All the while, Crysalids start erupting each turn, with one extra for each ongoing turn (so 2 on turn 2 after finding it, 3 on turn 3, etc). Just managed to get out with only losing one rookie, but the rest of the team headed for the infirmary.

Overall, expansion is great. The Genetic Augmentations are 'meh', but can make some really good combinations like, mimetic skin which makes a soldier invisible when in hard cover. Couple that with a high ranking sniper who treats all cover as hard cover, and you get to have some real fun. The MECs though are real awesome. No cover, but they carry sweet guns and the rocket punch never gets old.

Course its no longer cool when the aliens start deploying their own mechs.

The EXALT aspect is a bit underwhelming so far, but its a nice switch fighting humans.

Yep, the fishery level was completely insane.
All of my troops survived (barely), but narrowly made it to the extraction on the last move of the last turn. Now that I've played it and know how it works, I suppose it would be much easier on future playthroughs to just sacrifice a rookie and rush him on the ship alone to give the rest of the team a head start back to the extraction. What makes it hard is having to make time back to extraction, but having to kill Chrysalids along the way; and the problem with that is shooting usually wastes time staying in one place allowing more Chrysalids to catch up. I hope that particular mission doesn't have follow ups lol.
 

Grimsen

Member
Probably already discovered, but found a new secret character that wasn't in Enemy Unknown.

William "Old Timer" Carter

Unlocked the same way the previous secret characters were.
 

alazz

Member
Pretty good expansion. I'm only a couple hours in, though. Nothing feels radically new, but it feels better and it seems as if it'll offer a ton of new tactical options once I develop more tech. My one gripe is the building/floor controls are still terrible. They need to implement a hard raise/lower floor button that hides walls and ceilings as it's used because the mouse wheel works terribly; something like the Sims 3 uses.

This 'Very Difficult' mission is kicked my ass on Classic. I turned on all the Second Wave options that I could, and I was on a roll until this one abduction. I was unscathed until the last two enemies remain, and then all of the sudden I'm wiped. I think I'd be fine if it weren't for the Damage Roulette. It sounded fun, but when half my attacks deal half damage, and half the enemies' deal double...Yeah, I don't think I'm good enough at this to keep doing this until I get over the hump. I might restart without Damage Roulette.
 
Man, I played for the better part of today and am only in month 3, with Exalt to have yet to make their appearance. It feels to me like they've added more missions per month such that the campaign seems longer. Time will tell whether this just gives me more opportunity to overlevel my soldiers earlier.
 

Jintor

Member
Beat EU on Normal, but so far I'm getting my ass kicked in EW on Classic as early as the second skyranger mission. Any tips?

Speaking generally, thin men are more deadly on normal because of a couple of factors, not least of which is the -1 to HP on all xcom units so a crit can kill them instantly. You'll want to use hunker down and smoke grenades a lot more. Be wary of outsiders.
 
Man, first wipe in C/I after fairly stellar opening missions. Fucking thin men with their stupid 7 damage crits...

Seekers seem like they're pretty easy to get rid off, but their strangulation does give them more or less guaranteed damage. Soldiers at 1 health can easily be picked off. Still better than thin men though.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
Oh wow, they added a bunch of new hats for soldiers. Berets! Beanies! Berets with sunglasses! Baseball caps! Backwards baseball caps! Backwards baseball caps with headsets!

But wait there's not an option for a backwards baseball cap with a headset and sunglasses what the hell I want a refund.
 

Grimsen

Member
Already scrapped my first C/I game after two nasty wipes against thin men. The second was the first part of the second set of scripted counsel missions.

Doing better on my second game, but I still haven't reached MECs or mods yet. :/

I played on a fantastic urban small UFO crash site, though.

I also think MELD is great. Such a tough choice sometimes on Ironman.

Medals are a really nice touch as well.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
My very first mission took place at a convenience store in South Africa. My second mission was an alien abduction at... a convenience store in South Africa. My first UFO was shot down over South Africa, and it apparently crashed in an urban area and the Skyranger touched down outside of a convenience store.

South African 7-11 franchise owners deserve hazard pay or something, this is ridiculous.
 
I didn't buy EW but I'm noticing EU is auto-downloading a massive update. This may actually inspire me to continue the game as I only got a few missions in and quit forever when Australia bailed on me.

Ah Pffft. Don't sweat it if you lose a country or two.
Tip: have some satellites ready to launch when a country is very panicked . . . that drops the panic level down a couple notches.



Ah . . . . it feel soooo good to play some XCOM again. Even though most of it has been pretty much the same except different maps and one new alien so far . . . it is nice to be playing XCOM again.
 
Fuck that fishery mission and those endless waves. Such complete and utter bullshit.

I will never consider ironman and classic, knowing that mission exists so early in a play through. It should be near endgame stuff.
 
Speaking generally, thin men are more deadly on normal because of a couple of factors, not least of which is the -1 to HP on all xcom units so a crit can kill them instantly. You'll want to use hunker down and smoke grenades a lot more. Be wary of outsiders.

Thin Men bring to the table 10% increased accuracy on Classic and Impossible, and already had high accuracy to start with thanks to Plasma Carbines. The best tactic-and I have fought legions upon legions of them-is to displace back and try to set up overwatch traps if you trigger a pack of them. You will not actually win a fight w/ thin men with ballistic weapons/Kevlar with you in heavy cover vs. them in light cover.

You realistically can't aggressively push for meld into Thin Men and expect to live through it until you get more health and decent armor unless you rocket the piss out of them. Hunkering down just gets you poisoned and runs a significant risk of panic per tick of the poison.
 

Jintor

Member
Poison at least is curable. Ain't no cure for a facefull of critical plasma.

Fuck that fishery mission and those endless waves. Such complete and utter bullshit.

I will never consider ironman and classic, knowing that mission exists so early in a play through. It should be near endgame stuff.

Easily manageable so long as you concentrate on GTFOing (and don't mind losing a rookie/using a sprinting support to trigger)
 
My fishery mission was like a damn movie. One lone assault poisoned with one HP left hit the button before being overrun. The rest of the team survived because of his sacrifice.
 

cripterion

Member
This comes with the original game? I'll guess I'll pick this up on a steam sale, never bought the original cause I felt it was ridiculous not to have a coop mode for this.
 

patapuf

Member
This comes with the original game? I'll guess I'll pick this up on a steam sale, never bought the original cause I felt it was ridiculous not to have a coop mode for this.

Only the console versions come with the original (and they are more expensive)

On PC it is a traditional expansion.
 
Yep, the fishery level was completely insane.
All of my troops survived (barely), but narrowly made it to the extraction on the last move of the last turn. Now that I've played it and know how it works, I suppose it would be much easier on future playthroughs to just sacrifice a rookie and rush him on the ship alone to give the rest of the team a head start back to the extraction. What makes it hard is having to make time back to extraction, but having to kill Chrysalids along the way; and the problem with that is shooting usually wastes time staying in one place allowing more Chrysalids to catch up. I hope that particular mission doesn't have follow ups lol.

Newfoundland is goddamn amazing on so many levels. Atmosphere, cinematic, gameplay.
 

AxeMan

Member
You guys are making me test my resolve on not spending more than $25 on this.

I need to stop reading this thread
 

Raytow

Member
Man I thought MEC were cool, fielded my first one got trashed by 3 thin men in one turn =/, can you use a cyborg soldier without the MEC suit?
 

iratA

Member
Anyone have the PS3 version of Enemy Within? I need to know for certain if all of the content is on the disc or are there DLC codes in the box?
 
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