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XCOM 2 (PC/Mac/Linux, Firaxis, November 2015) announced [Up: New info/screens in OP]

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L

LurkerPrime

Member
I'm sure it's known, but the classic X-Com 'do is in XCOM 2. Its presence pleases me greatly.
Nete said:
Three years ago, Polygon published a fantastic article about this and XCOM EU development.

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/1/31/3928710/making-of-xcoms-jake-solomon-firaxis-sid-meier
Click to expand...

Oh, cool. Polygon also had an article on XCOM: Declassified's troubled development. (spoilers: it was such a disaster that it made 2K rethink their "hands off" method of publishing/development.) I think those two specific articles are where I got most of the info (though I scarcely remember the XCOM: EU one). Edit: Lol, nope. XCOM: EU's situation was far more dire than I remember.

Polygon can do some good work.


Alright, now... my hype and general fervor is reaching critical mass. halp
 
A

anddo0

Member
I pre-ordered about a half hour ago.

I'm guessing my laptop with a 7970m should be able to run on mostly high settings.
 
S

Sblargh

Banned
LurkerPrime said:
I'm sure it's known, but the classic X-Com 'do is in XCOM 2. Its presence pleases me greatly.


Oh, cool. Polygon also had an article on XCOM: Declassified's troubled development. (spoilers: it was such a disaster that it made 2K rethink their "hands off" method of publishing/development.) I think those two specific articles are where I got most of the info (though I scarcely remember the XCOM: EU one). Edit: Lol, nope. XCOM: EU's situation was far more dire than I remember.

Polygon can do some good work.


Alright, now... my hype and general fervor is reaching critical mass. halp
Click to expand...

Very good article, indeed. Also, crazy respect for Sid Meier. He always sounds like a genuine wise person.

Relevant:
In the pitch video, you can see the beginnings of a train wreck. Solomon's design adheres to the hardest of hardcore strategy components of the original XCOM and then adds more. There are tons of soldiers, shot modes and time units. But perhaps what would eventually cause the most drama and confusion over the next few years was the one thing Solomon wanted in the game more than anything else: random maps.

"If you can imagine the image of me out there marching forward alone, nobody behind me, for a long time, until I had to turn around ... I wanted random maps in the game," he says.

Solomon carried that flag for a long time. He wanted the game's levels to be procedurally generated, so that players could play the game forever, essentially, and never once see the same map. The programmers told him it couldn't be done. There was tension.
Click to expand...

He finally got it. T_T

Also relevant. Which of the two games this strategic view reminds you more of?

jake_solomon_image13_700x409.jpeg
Click to expand...

It's Jake's original(ish) vision for EU; before it became what it became.
You have the skyranger on the map, suggesting that it matters where it is right now and you have all these lines suggesting that its movement is limited.
Maybe everything else is more like EU, but this screen alone is totes XCOM 2 in my opinion.
 
P

Psychoward

Banned
ThoseDeafMutes said:
Look at the steam min requirements. It's not looking promising for my surface book with 940m.
Click to expand...

yeah as much as it pains me i'm gonna hold off and try the steam version first

I just don' t understand how a $1k laptop that i bought in late 2015 can't run a turn based strategy game :/

I'm playing through dead space 3 right now on high-ultra without issue but xcom 2 is gonna bring it to its knees? firaxis pls
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Sblargh said:
Very good article, indeed. Also, crazy respect for Sid Meier. He always sounds like a genuine wise person.

Relevant:


He finally got it. T_T

Also relevant. Which of the two games this strategic view reminds you more of?



It's Jake's original(ish) vision for EU; before it became what it became.
You have the skyranger on the map, suggesting that it matters where it is right now and you have all these lines suggesting that its movement is limited.
Maybe everything else is more like EU, but this screen alone is totes XCOM 2 in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I noticed that, too. It seems like XCOM 2 is everything Jake & the team had to abandon the first time around. By all accounts it will be a game we can play forever, thanks to the added randomness and rebalancing.

Speaking of, I love what Jake says about complexity vs complications in that article:
"It's hard to even describe now," Solomon says. "I don't know what I was thinking. It was the original game, and then over the top of that I had put ... soldier abilities ... a cover system ... new alien abilities ... new weapons. It was ... incredibly complicated — not complex. Complex is fun, complicated is bad. This was a very complicated game. It was more complicated than the original."
Click to expand...
It really hits the heart of what makes strategy games shine so bright.

It's also amazing to see how much of the prototype stuff made it into the final game. Like the skyranger dropping onto the map or touches of the cinematic stuff during the second video. And speaking of the second video... that dude surviving a berserker's charge with only his knife reminds me of XCOM 2's rangers.

It's just all around cool to see.
 
M

MotionBlue

Member
Digital Deluxe for this is 95 fucking dollars in Canada. I want this so badly, but I'm having a hard time justifying such a huge cost. I put 40+ hours into the first game, and loved every bit of it.
 
L

Lingitiz

Member
P

Psychoward

Banned
Lingitiz said:
Damn at that article. Looking at XCOM EU and how it kind of came from nowhere when it was announced and turned out excellent, you would have no idea it had that troubled of a development cycle. Jake Solomon sounds like one hell of a dedicated and talented guy.
Click to expand...
It's crazy 2 is out in less than a week, I still remember reading the initial GI stuff of EU and being cautiously optimistic at how good it sounded.

Random17 said:
If I can run Battlefield and Xcom on my Intel HD 2500, you can run Xcom 2 with a 940m.

Game was playable but graphics were on minimum settings at 720p.
Click to expand...

Yeah but I had a performance bug or issue with EW that made the framerate about 15 fps worse so I had to downscale the resolution so who knows.
 
E

exmachina64

Banned
Fuck it, I went ahead and bought the digital deluxe edition. XCOM was one of the first games I played on PC when I reentered PC gaming three and a half years ago, so this feels right.
 
S

Sblargh

Banned
Yeah man, I'm a hardcore industry-destroyer "I'll buy it on the sale" steam user, but this game. Jeez.

Funny tidbit, the last game I have preordered was Bioshock Infinite and part of what made me do it was a promotion on some website that made it bundled with both EU and Spec Ops: The Line.

Both the "bonus free games" went on to become my some of my favorites evah and the game I actually paid the big bucks for was... meh, all right.
 
E

exmachina64

Banned
johancruijff said:
For those who preordered on GMG, did you already receive the key?
Click to expand...

Sblargh said:
I never preorder stuff. Given the release is friday, should I already be waiting on receiving the key? (I preordered it from nuuvem)

Also, is the reinforcement pack stuff like a season pass?
Click to expand...

You should expect the key on Thursday or Friday (U.S.); the reinforcement pack appears to be the Firaxis equivalent of a small season pass, but I'd expect at least one expansion, depending on sales.
 
M

Makikou

Member
Beaglerush will be streaming XCOM 2 as soon as review embargo drops over at miss_jamball's channel.

Reinforcement Pack seems bigger than just a small season pass imo. Well, atleast the 2 later ones:

ANARCHY’S CHILDREN is a rebellion themed DLC featuring more dramatic soldier customizations. (To be released in Spring 2016)
ALIEN HUNTERS introduces new soldier customizations and gameplay themed around XCOM as an elite alien hunting unit. Face off against “Ruler” aliens with new, more powerful weapons and armor. Experience a new dramatic mission & confrontation. (To be released in Summer 2016)
SHEN’S LAST GIFT introduces a new soldier class with unique upgradeable weapons, armor and customization features, and a new narrative-driven mission and map. (To be released in Summer 2016)

I won't have access to Steam preload but i actually plan on using the good ol' pirates as they usually release the Preload files from Steam as torrents. So when i get my Steam Key i can use the preload files to install the game!
 
S

Sblargh

Banned
Makikou said:
Beaglerush will be streaming XCOM 2 as soon as review embargo drops over at miss_jamball's channel.

Reinforcement Pack seems bigger than just a small season pass imo. Well, atleast the 2 later ones:

ANARCHY’S CHILDREN is a rebellion themed DLC featuring more dramatic soldier customizations. (To be released in Spring 2016)
ALIEN HUNTERS introduces new soldier customizations and gameplay themed around XCOM as an elite alien hunting unit. Face off against “Ruler” aliens with new, more powerful weapons and armor. Experience a new dramatic mission & confrontation. (To be released in Summer 2016)
SHEN’S LAST GIFT introduces a new soldier class with unique upgradeable weapons, armor and customization features, and a new narrative-driven mission and map. (To be released in Summer 2016)
Click to expand...

Nice. But I hope he keeps skipping cutscenes; if I feel like it will be too spoilery, I don't think I'll watch. :(
 
M

Makikou

Member
Sblargh said:
Nice. But I hope he keeps skipping cutscenes; if I feel like it will be too spoilery, I don't think I'll watch. :(
Click to expand...

I dont know man.. I know i will only have 1 day to play before i have to enter civil service and i wont have a PC for a month! So for me it'll be good. I wouldnt mind being unspoiled though but still..
 
A

Artdayne

Member
Okay, I've never played the first X-COM but I've heard some very positive things about it. After seeing the total biscuit video, this is now a day one purchase for me. This just looks fantastic.
 
S

Sblargh

Banned
hooijdonk17 said:
Looks like XCOM2 is actuallt the original XCOM vision. Brilliant.
Click to expand...

I think the key difference is that still is not a complicated game though.
I was reading that article and thinking that I wanted to know the exact meeting where they decided to do away with time units in favor of the "two actions per turn" mechanic; which really is, to me, the great turning point that made the game accessible. And Jake was obviously in love with the time unit mechanic for a long time.

If you take all the squad/turn-based games today, they all have this clear EU influence. Shadowrun Returns have the character-based system; Massive Chalice have the no-cover/melee-ish thing going on; Renowned Explorers have the maze of buffs/debuffs; but all of them work in the frame of "you move, then you attack and that's your turn". I genuinely don't know where that particular thing came from, but after EU it clearly became the norm.

You can flavor your game however you like, but whatever you do, that's how the characters behave: one action you move, the next action you either move further or attack/defend/buff/debuff. The notion that the industry standard wasn't in many of the prototypes of the game that made it a standard is incredible.
 
M

Mikeside

Member
Nete said:
Three years ago, Polygon published a fantastic article about this and XCOM EU development.

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/1/31/3928710/making-of-xcoms-jake-solomon-firaxis-sid-meier
Click to expand...

LurkerPrime said:
Oh, cool. Polygon also had an article on XCOM: Declassified's troubled development. (spoilers: it was such a disaster that it made 2K rethink their "hands off" method of publishing/development.) I think those two specific articles are where I got most of the info (though I scarcely remember the XCOM: EU one). Edit: Lol, nope. XCOM: EU's situation was far more dire than I remember.

Polygon can do some good work
Click to expand...


These are both great articles.

I love the earlier ideas that were lost in the development of The Bureau - mysterious, amorphous enemies & collecting research about them sounds like a fantastic, original game. Unfortunately, I totally get why it didn't work

As for Solomon and Meier, both great designers & fantastic to hear an in-depth story about a game studio that isn't driven by headbutting and dysfunction, but creative people who work together on trust & respect. Major props to all those a Firaxis
 
M

Makikou

Member
I can confirm that Beaglerush will be showing cutscenes on stream, but tutorial and anything endgame/lategame is strictly off limits.
 
C

CloudWolf

Member
This is coming out this week already? Fuck, I really can't afford to buy any more games this month.

But on the bright side, I just bought a new desktop, so this will run wonderfully.
 
B

B00TE

Member
It needs to be Friday already. I'm usually on a media blackout besides trailers, but I started watching the archived streams the Firaxis team was doing and it just looks so good. So many nice little adjustments and general improvements (like waypointing your movement), and all that awesome soldier customization. And those new skills, hnnnnnnng.

A friend and I just got my brother to try EU/EW in the last month, and he ended up liking it so much he preordered 2 last week. Always awesome to listen in on someone's first playthrough, their first terror mission, etc.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
mr teaspoon said:
940M here, I hope you're right! I mentioned this earlier, but I like to think that if my machine could run EW/EU on medium-high settings, it ought to be good to go for XCOM 2.
Click to expand...

Random17 said:
If I can run Battlefield and Xcom on my Intel HD 2500, you can run Xcom 2 with a 940m.

Game was playable but graphics were on minimum settings at 720p.
Click to expand...
Hopefully. I can run EU around 30 FPS on High on my Intel HD 5500, so I'm remaining optimistic for 2. I don't mind if I need to play on low setting though
 
R

roadrunn3r

Member
Wot I Think: XCOM 2

It’s such an astonishingly intelligent sequel that, in hindsight, the first game seems like a test run. Every element has been rethought and retooled, and while it was the strategic layer that required the most attention, it’s in the tactical layer that the genius of the design shines through most brightly.
Click to expand...
 
R

roadrunn3r

Member
Damn it I'm really hyped now and quite annoyed that I have to wait 4 more days. I've NEVER been so sure about the quality of a game pre release.
 
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