The widely admired studio behind XCOM and Civilization, Firaxis Games, have undergone a round of layoffs affecting around 30 employees, according to a report from Axios. Publisher 2K Games later confirmed the news and said the job cuts were due to a “sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our talent against our highest priorities."
]]>Over the last week and a bit, we've been steadily releasing a bunch of stories from our big, hour-long chat with XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns director Jake Solomon that took place at this year's GDC. It was a wide-ranging interview, looking at what Solomon plans to do next now that he's left Firaxis, and how he feels about his 20+ year career there. You can read the condensed version of that interview here, but as a treat for RPS supporters, I thought you might like to read our chat in full. There's still a lot I couldn't quite squeeze into separate news stories here, and I think (and hope) you'll find it interesting to read as a whole. So here it is. All 8760-odd words of it. Enjoy.
]]>When I meet Jake Solomon at GDC, it's his third day of unemployment. The XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns director and designer announced he was leaving Firaxis back in February, but his final day at the studio where he made his name and worked for more than twenty years was still very fresh in his memory. "It's surreal," he says. "For probably the next ten years, I'll refer to it as 'we' when we talk about Firaxis, and it's sad to think it's not the right pronoun anymore. It's exciting, but a little terrifying."
On the face of it, that panic might seem unfounded. Over the last decade, Solomon has become one of the most revered names in turn-based strategy games. Having cut his teeth on many of Sid Meier's Civilization games in his early years at Firaxis, he went on to become the designer who spearheaded the revival of XCOM with Enemy Unknown in 2012, before going on to direct its even more beloved sequel XCOM 2 and its War Of The Chosen expansion a few years later. Most recently, he was creative director on Marvel's Midnight Suns, which allowed him to marry his life-long love of Marvel comic books with the thrilling tactical combat he's so well known for.
Solomon's next adventure, though, won't have the certainty of Midnight Suns' supercharged attack cards, or even the tease of an XCOM hit percentage backing him up. For not only is it Solomon's third day of unemployment when we speak; it's also the day after he revealed his plans to leave turn-based tactics games behind altogether. Instead, his sights are now set on the life simulation genre, a move that, at first glance, seems at odds with his career as a strategy designer. But over the course of our hour-long chat, it becomes increasingly clear that life sims have been a life-long obsession for Solomon, and he might have even made one by now had the development of XCOM 2 gone a little differently.
]]>Welcome to the latest edition of The RPS Time Capsule, where members of the RPS Treehouse each pick one game from a given year to save from extinction while all other games fizzle and die on the big digital griddle in the sky before blinking out of existence. This time, we're turning our preservation mitts on the year 2012, a year absolutely stacked with some pretty stellar releases. But which ones will make the cut and be safely ensconced inside our cosy capsule for future generations? Come on down to find out.
]]>Earlier this month, we asked you to vote for your favourite strategy games of all time to celebrate the launch (and glorious return) of several strategy classics this month, including Relic's WW2 RTS Company Of Heroes 3, Blue Byte's The Settlers: New Allies and Cyanide's fantasy Warhamball Blood Bowl 3. And cor, I've never seen such love for individual expansions and total conversion mods among mainline RTS games and 4Xs. As with all strategy games, however, there can only be one victor - and you can find out what that single strategy game to rule them all is right here. Here are your 50 favourite strategy games of all time, as voted for by you, the RPS readership.
]]>Anyone who's played one of Firaxis' XCOM games in the last ten years will have a story about missed shots. Shots that, even with a 90% chance of hitting their target, still end up going wide and punching a hole in your carefully laid plans. In the moment, they induce feelings of white hot injustice, but for many, they're an integral part of what makes XCOM, well, XCOM. Looking back on his time making XCOM 2, however, Firaxis' creative director Jake Solomon tells me that he, too, now feels the pain players have felt for close to a decade.
"It was really interesting for me to return back and play XCOM a couple of years ago, and man, when I missed shots, I was unbelievably frustrated. I felt the ghosts of everybody everywhere looking over my shoulder," he says.
]]>A small group of former Firaxis developers who worked on the XCOM games, led by the series' art director, have opened a new studio dedicated to making turn-based tactics games. Bit Reactor is their name, and turn-based tactics really is their only type of game. They haven't announced any specific game yet but say they have several titles in development.
]]>Ordinarily with games, something grabs me, I become dangerously obsessed with it to the exclusion of all else, and then suddenly abandon it for no reason a fortnight later.
That hasn't happened lately. I have, however, been playing Stirring Abyss, and in the interests of being fair, I must make it clear upfront that I've enjoyed it, and my choosing not to go into detail about it shouldn't be taken as a mark against the game itself. With that said, I want to thank it for prompting me to raise a longstanding grievance I have with turn-based tactical games: We have a problem, friends, and that problem is overwatch.
]]>Show me someone who says I'm not a fan of our excellent VidBud team, and I'll show you a liar. Recently, VidBud Matthew got an in-depth demo of Gears Tactics, a turn-based tactical entry into the Gears Of War series, and my admiration only grew.
Set 10 years before the events of the very first Gears Of War game, you'd be forgiven for thinking this'd have more in common with the alien-sniping fun of XCOM than the big, boot-stompin' FPS action of the Gears games. But in his excellent video, Matthew explains why Tactics will win hearts among both long term XCOM fans and die-hard Fenix stans alike.
]]>It's been an eventful decade for PC games, and it would be hard for you to summarise everything that's happened in the medium across the past ten years. Hard for you, but a day's work for us. Below you'll find our picks for the 50 greatest games released on PC across the past decade.
]]>My favourite XCOM is XCOM: Enemy Unknown*, a pure and direct, no mess/no fuss modern-day remix of metagame-augmented turn-based tactics. My second-favourite XCOM is the polar opposite, XCOM 2 DLC War Of The Chosen, an absurd explosion of superheroics that throws internal logic to the wind.
]]>Standard-issue XCOM 2 is probably my least-favourite of the four different flavours of XCOM now available to us (i.e. including the Enemy Within and War Of The Chosen expansions), but that's a bit like saying I don't enjoy 29 degrees of heat quite as much as 26, 27 and 28 degrees. They're all great! Make it like that all the time, please. Only, y'know, without the heat-death of the planet. And, yeah, keep on releasing more XCOMs.
If you've avoided Firaxis' reimagining of The Greatest PC Game Of All Time (If You're An Old Man Like Me), XCOM 2 can be a rather full-on point of entry. On the other hand, it's currently free all weekend (and 75% off if you want to keep it forever), which is the easiest point of entry of all.
]]>Six years ago, Firaxis pulled off the impossible with XCOM, re-envisioning a DOS classic - next week, they're celebrating this feat with the Tactical Legacy pack for XCOM 2: War Of The Chosen. It's pure fan-service of the less-sexy kind (unless Carapace armour turns you on, in which case fly your freak flag high), featuring old favourite equipment and environments used in a new series of tactical mini-campaigns. Better still, it'll be initially free to owners of War Of The Chosen. It's out next week, October 9th. Check the reveal trailer below.
]]>Is six years within 'fashionably late' territory? Better late than never, at least. Today, Firaxis's alien-bothering turn-based squad tactics revival, XCom: Enemy Unknown has launched on GOG after over half a decade of the PC version being Steam-exclusive. Rather than divide it up, GOG are only selling the Complete edition of the game, including two minor bits of DLC and the rather more significant Enemy Within expansion.
]]>Do you wish that XCOM has a bit more Merlin influence? Perhaps that Mario vs. Rabbids took a Tolkienish slant? Well, wish no more, fair game-wisher! Fort Triumph has arrived on Steam Early Access to provide the resolution to all your needs. The tactical RPG from Cookie Byte Entertainment raised $78k in a Kickstarter campaign last May, and the Early Access version is currently discounted 10% to encourage gamers to give this Fantasy XCOM a spin.
]]>Snapshot Games, lead by David Kaye and X-Com creator Julian Gollop, is a runaway success. Or at least I would think $100k a month in pledges would give a game studio some breathing room. But Snapshot isn't sleeping at night. The prevalence of cheap games and promotional bundles has the studio spooked because, while this is a time of incredibly bounties for consumers, not every game can have the financial safety net of, say, Sea of Thieves. This makes creating a game of the scale of Phoenix Point exceptionally perilous.
]]>The mutant spider queen ripped through another building and I knew my team was dead. This didn’t bother me, I’ve played enough of nu-XCOM to accept the loss of humanity’s last hope. But there’s something more unsettling than being impaled by a large arachnid in Phoenix Point. Its the game’s uncanny and unnerving resemblance to its XCOM cousins. It’s like seeing a doppelgänger of your mate suddenly appear behind him, walking to the bar. You sit there stuttering, looking over his shoulder, wondering who's really sitting in front of you.
]]>Fallen cities swarming with the dangerous remnants of their human populations, alien battlefield commanders who resemble fantastical heroes, new rulesets for friendship and fear, and an actual active resistance out on the Geoscape. XCOM 2 [official site] is changing.
The War of the Chosen is "definitely the biggest expansion we've ever done", lead designer Jake Solomon told us at E3. Introducing unique enemy champions doesn't strike me as an obvious move for XCOM, so I asked Solomon how the concept of the expansion had developed, and whether he'd drawn any inspiration from Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system. And whether we can expect any terrors from the deep in the future.
]]>As expected, Firaxis announced a full-fat XCOM 2 [official site] expansion at the E3 2017 PC Gaming Show, promising "new environments, new enemies and new XCOM forces". It's called War of the Chosen and the trailer shows those Chosen, the "ultimate enemies of XCOM". They are three champions - nemeses perhaps - and they will grow up in strength through the game, learning new skills and abilities.
On top of that, there are resistance groups to win over, new zombie-like hordes that will attack aliens and humans alike, and a whole lot more. It's "twice the size" of the original XCOM's expansion.
]]>The original X-COM (UFO: Enemy Unknown), Julian Gollop tells me, "succeeded in spite of itself". I asked him how he felt about the game now, twenty three years after its initial release, and particularly about the way it's often placed on a pedestal. He didn't expect it to be a success and certainly didn't think he'd be making a game heavily based on its legacy almost a quarter of a century later.
Yet here we are. The crowdfunding campaign for Phoenix Point [official site], a sci-fi horror strategy game about an alien onslaught, has just begun. Gollop is back where many people feel he belongs, and this time round he seems extremely confident in his game's design.
]]>I think Adam has been at the air conditioning again, because there’s a lot of XCOM in the air today. First came news of lookalike Shock Tactics and now we’re talking Xenonauts 2 [official site]. The sequel to the first strategy homage, inspired by Ye Olde X-COM With A Hyphen, has been dropping free public builds of the game as they work. This is their alternative to early access, developers Goldhawk have said previously. “The game is currently free because we don't think it is good enough to charge money for,” they said. “Don't expect too much!”. If you’re still into it, however, an update for the build has just added the reaper alien, introduced new weapons, fixed bugs, and reworked some of the maps.
]]>The melodrama, combat and man-handling of XCOM has left a mark on many a game, but Shock Tactics [official site] looks to be covered in such marks. You’re managing your troops, building a base and fighting the bad ones (mostly human beings this time) on isometric maps plastered with cover. It was released yesterday, so here's a video filled with, uh, familiar sights.
]]>Oh sure, it's basically been pennies for years, but nothing motivates the merely curious like free-free-free. For that is the case for X-COM: UFO Defense aka UFO: Enemy Unknown, the 1994 alien-bothering strategy game that kicked off a series now made something of a household name by Firaxis' remakes. Only until tomorrow, though.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Tfw you invent a cure for cancer and it becomes an unstoppable disease that starts to kill everyone on the planet. One Chance is a short scrolling story game that puts you in the role of that scientist man, John Pilgrim, as he tries to fix his own research team’s mess by making daily decisions about what to do next. If you haven’t heard of it and don’t want the entire point of the story taken away from you, then just go play it. It's quite good. Otherwise, read on.
]]>Many people thought that the comprehensive and tough as nails Long War mod was the best thing to come out of XCOM: Enemy Unknown so the news that the team behind it would be producing mods for the sequel, in partnership with Firaxis. If only they were working on a full-blown Long War mod though for XCOM 2 [official site], wouldn't that be something?
Well, they are. Intriguingly, the announcement comes from Firaxis rather than Pavonis, the team formerly known as Long War Studios. Whether that means this will be a super mod with in-house assistance or a full-fat expansion (the difference between those two things might be nothing more than a pricetag) we don't know, though more info is due "in the coming weeks".
]]>That headline may be a bold claim but the only way I can imagine it being false is if you're already playing Cogmind [official site]. It's a sci-fi game in which you control robots that can repair and reconfigure themselves by picking up pieces of fallen enemies. It has a relatively friendly interface for such a complex game (you don't need to learn a thousand key inputs) and even though it's still in alpha, the latest build is extremely solid.
]]>The Long War is one of the great mods, expanding Firaxis' XCOM reboot in ways that called back to the campaign of the original game while also building on what was brilliant in the new version. The team behind it formed a studio and are now working on their own aliens vs Earth game, Terra Invicta, as well as Firaxis-approved mods for XCOM 2 [official site]. The first set of mods arrived on launch day and two more appeared a couple of days ago. One of them is good, the other is spectacular.
]]>Five months and one day, in fact. XCOM 2 was a big huge hit at release, and mostly very well-received - although, variously, there were complaints about performance, difficulty, time-wasting and the opacity of its complicated systems. The picture's a little different now we're here in July. There have been three DLC packs, a bunch of patches, a mod community and most of all, plenty of time for repeat visits to see how it feels now we know how all the pieces fit together. I've just emerged from the requisite sleepless nights to wage the main part of another campaign, and I have indeed found a significantly changed game - for reasons both good and bad.
]]>One of the most exciting games in Los Angeles this week won’t be featured at press conferences or on the showfloor. Phoenix Point [official site] is the new tactical-strategy hybrid from Julian Gollop, the creator of the original X-COM, and we met yesterday to discuss its procedurally generated alien threats, simulated human factions and much more. Here’s the world’s first in-depth look at the game.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Dear God, why?
]]>In my intro to Silent Storm, I mentioned both modding scenes and UFO (used to distinguish the 1994 original X-COM from the 2012 Firaxis one, and not only out of increasingly sad Eurocentric obstinance) without tying the two together. That, it turns out, was stupid, because X-Piratez, a UFO mod in active development by Dioxine, is the best total conversion for any game I've ever played.
Based on OpenXcom Extended, a long-running open source clone of UFO, it takes the story and gameplay structure of the original, and a huge stock of resourcefulness, and turns them into something that's simultaneously very similar and completely new. The result is a dangerously addictive compound of comfortable old UFO with constant surprise, discovery, and content.
]]>Happy Saint Paddy's Day one and all! A day for dressing up in garish green hats, novelty glasses, and orange wigs. Which is what I assume we'll be able to do in the latest XCOM 2 [official site] expansion, Anarchy's Children, which promises "100 new exotic customization options for your soldiers, including new hair styles, face paints, armor, lower face props, decals, helmets, masks and more." I guess we'll find out either way when it launches later today. Top o' the mornin' to ya, Advent soldiers.
]]>Well, in fairness, they've still got a week to squeak out a much-needed fix for the otherwise great XCOM 2 [official site]'s assorted technical issues before the Anarchy's Children DLC arrives next week. They might yet do right by us. Leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth to even be talking about flogging extra content before the base game's fully ship-shape, though - especially as said extra content makes me twist my lips into a sort of bemused pout. I really dig XCOM 2's current and generous character customisation options, which manage to be playful without capsizing into arbitrary weirdness. I'm not sure the same can be said about the Anarchy's Children pack of cosmetic add-ons.
]]>In which Adam and I sit down with XCOM 2 lead designer Jake Solomon to dissect the strategy sequel. We discuss what it does well and some of the complaints levelled at it, hear about ideas tried and discarded during development, why story had more of a focus this time around and the continued importance of the original X-COM games.
]]>XCOM 2 was made significantly more difficult late in its development cycle after playtesting suggested it was too easy, says the game's lead designer. "I remember saying 'you know what, we're going to make the game a lot harder. We're going to go back and make the game a lot harder on every level, because this game is not engaging people the way it should,'" Firaxis' Jake Solomon told RPS. "Of course it triggered a fairly mad rush to balance things out, but I think when the game got more difficult then you started to see people engaging, you felt that spark of life."
However, he acknowledged that some players might be struggling with the game as a result. "There were definitely moments of 'is this too much?' and how do we cater to people that maybe don't want that experience?"
Solomon also felt that the presentation of the game's difficulty settings might be to blame for this frustration. "I made a mistake, I think, by calling the lowest difficulty Rookie".
]]>The year is young but we've already had the pleasure of welcoming two gruelling tactical slaughterfests into the world: XCOM 2 [official site] and Darkest Dungeon [official site]. We've written a great deal about Firaxis' latest already and our ongoing diary has just hit the point where the alien threat starts to chip away at our beloved squadmates. Darkest Dungeon is more obviously punishing, every element built to communicate a sense of hopelessness and despair.
But how do the games compare, in their treatment of failure and death, both mechanically and thematically?
]]>I'm playing and diarising XCOM 2 [official site] on Commander difficulty in Iron Man mode, using characters based on the staff of RPS, replaced by readers as and when they die or go out of action. Full explanation and the story so far here here, and you can download the characters for your own game here.
And I was doing so well (thanks in part to my own advice). As complacency crept in, an RPS writer fell in battle - and they're not the only casualty of my recklessness. Bloody Sectoids, basically.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Well, 'tis the season and all that. What with XCOM 2 currently overheating a few million graphics cards across the world, it seems a fine time to think back upon Firaxis' original attempt to reboot Julian Gollop's classic strategy+everything game for a new generation. (And for an old generation. Primarily an old generation, maybe).
There is a very real chance I've played XCOM more than any game other than Quake III, World of Warcraft and City Of Heroes. Granted, part of that is chance and timing: previews, reviews and expansion packs, then doing the whole thing over again on iPad during paternity leave (baby in one hand, the lives of a dozen pretend soldiers in the other), but part of that is because I wanted to.
]]>It’s been 20 years since the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and while you’re sat there wondering where it all went wrong, the alien occupation of the world as we know it is A Thing now. I saved the world the last time round, did I not? I hear you mumble under your breath. No, no one did and that’s the end of it. Get it over it, man.
The aliens are here, they’re up to no good, and now it’s time to get rid of them. This list is the best mods XCOM 2 [official site] has to offer so far and should help you achieve that goal, or at least help you to fail (again) in style. This list is also best served alongside Alec’s XCOM 2 Guide: How To Survive And Thrive.
]]>I've played around 300 hours of XCOM 1, and 50 of XCOM 2 [official site], for my sins. I know full well that this does not make me any kind of expert but I'm experienced enough that XCOM 2 has not yet kicked my flabby little bottom. A lot of people are finding the game very punishing though, so I thought I'd try to help - both by sharing my own advice on how to keep your soldiers alive for longer and by inviting anyone else to share their own tips in comments.
This isn't a definitive guide, but instead a grab-bag of assorted wisdom, both early and advanced, that I'm certain will help if you're having a tough time with this wonderful (if sadly malfunctioning) strategy game.
]]>A big ugly fly in XCOM 2 [official site]'s deliciously deadly ointment is that Firaxis' game runs like a Psy-Zombie on quite a few folks' PCs - even those with relatively monster systems. It's not universal woe - for instance, it runs fine for Adam, hence his only mentioning passing problems in his review, but on my slightly superior PC I can't even hit the golden 60 frames at minimum settings, while high sees it drop to single digits. In either case there are huge, frustrating lag-spikes throughout, and my PC's running so uncharacteristically hot that I'm pretty sure I could roast a marshmallow over the rear vent.
I'm far from alone, as a glance at the Steam forums, official boards or Reddit will very quickly reveal. It's a damn shame, crossing the line from ultimately meaningless visual sacrifices into actively annoying slowness. Firaxis and 2K aren't giving anything away about what the problem is or when a fix will land, though they do tell us that they're "aware some players have experienced performance issues" and that they're looking into it. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do in the meantime - including one particular off-the-beaten-track fix which damn-near doubled my own frame rate.
]]>Firaxis have unveiled an XCOM 2 [official site] stat-tracking page that shows how many soldiers have died, how many aliens have been killed and other such details. Four and a half million XCOM soldiers dead in less than a week since launch. Good work, Commanders. Five percent of those soldiers met their end at the hands and teeth of a zombie. Really great work, Commanders, seriously. You are nailing it. The stats page currently tells me that none of you have managed to complete the game but that is, apparently, an error.
]]>It’s tradition now: when an XCOM game comes out, you recreate your friends, colleagues and record-collection-stealing former lovers then send them out to be murdered by aliens. Basically, it’s the Sims with Sectoids rather than sex.
So let’s do it again: an XCOM 2 [official site] Iron Man/perma-death diary starring the staff of RPS, who you can download and add to your game below.
But they'll only star briefly. Whenever someone dies, they’ll be replaced by one of this site’s readers. Who will also almost certainly die. That’s how much we love you.
]]>XCOM 2 [official site] isn't just a big pile of tactical brilliance, it's also a big mod-friendly pile of tactical brilliance. Theoretically, that means someone will iron out the things that annoy you and build on the things you love. It also means we can expect anything from an increase in moustache variety to a revamped campaign or series of total conversions.
To kick things off, Firaxis commissioned the clever folks who made the Long War mod for Enemy Unknown to produce three day-one mods for XCOM 2. They are neat additions but, more than that, they're signposts toward an exciting future.
]]>I don't mean "I'm excited that this videogame sequel is coming out," but rather that the game itself works so hard and does so much to create a constant sense of near-euphoric drama. In an age where sequels=darker, because far too many people believe that The Empire Strikes Back is the highest watermark of popular culture, XCOM 2 [official site]s lurch towards brightly-coloured celebratory heroism is a welcome one - and it does this even though, thematically, we're talking a post-alien-invasion Earth and all the horror that implies. It wouldn't be unfair to invoke Independence Day comparisons, but it wouldn't be quite correct either: XCOM 2 does have that hoorah-heroism, but fortunately it's bereft of flag-waving. This is the bright dystopia, the heroic rebellion rather than the forlorn resistance.
When I play XCOM 2, I feel incredibly excited most of the time, and it's not just because of soaring military march soundtrack - there are dozens of tiny things it does to make me feel like an action hero (or a least a commander of action heroes).
]]>I visited Firaxis in 2014 to see Civilization: Beyond Earth and it was impossible not to wonder which closed doors were hiding the XCOM 2 [official site] team. The game hadn't been announced but surely somebody was working on a sequel. Would it follow the path of the original games and take to the Lovecraftian depths? Would it reach toward the stars and a battle on various alien homeworlds? Would it take risks or rest comfortably on well-earned laurels?
The answer, as we now know, didn't quite fit any of the above. These are happy times for the XCOM devotee but I'm hoping for an apocalyptic future. Here are a few ideas and hopes for what the game's first expansion might be.
]]>In 2012, Firaxis took on the seemingly impossible task of reviving one of the most beloved PC games ever made. The original X-COM is widely considered to be one of the masterpieces of the nineties golden age, and since its release there have been sequels, spin-offs and unofficial revivals, but Firaxis' XCOM was a complete, licensed reinterpretation. It was also rather good. Now, with XCOM 2 [official site] ready for release, Firaxis aim to improve on the formula that made Enemy Unknown such a triumph. Here's wot I think.
]]>Alec hasn't been the same since he returned from the Long War. The celebrated XCOM mod turns the base game's wee scrap into a gruelling war, chewing through your forces and your resolve with relentless difficulty. Some days we find him simply sitting in a chair by the window, staring out to sea, his bottom lip quivering.
The folks who made Long War are working on their own strategy game now but, also, have teamed up with Firaxis to make a few mods for XCOM 2 [official site].
]]>While Adam is larking about in XCOM 2, I'm replaying XCOM: Enemy Within to demonstrate how totally fine and unbothered I am that he has access and I don't. It's still really fun! Last night I ordered a cyberlady to punch a robodino so hard it exploded.
If you want to join in with not feeling bitter, the latest Humble Bundle is a cracker. It's a big merry load of cheap Firaxis strategy games, with your XCOMs and your Civilizations and your Pirates! and your Starships and so on for not very much money at all. We can all be unbothered together.
]]>Nobody gets left behind. That was my XCOM: Enemy Unknown rule and it was a rule that I adhered to in almost every one of the hundreds of missions I oversaw. If a squad fell in combat, they fell side by side.
XCOM 2 [official site] has made me break my one rule. Repeatedly. Deviously. Tragically. It's hard as nails, and superbly distorts the tactics and strategies that were successful in its predecessor. I'm smitten.
]]>XCOM's Long War mod [official site] is, to many, the definitive version of Firaxis' reboot of the alien-repelling strategy classic. As the title suggests, it extends the length of the campaign, making the fight against the invaders into a gruelling conflict rather than a streamlined series of missions. The campaign structure isn't the only thing the mod changes - it's like the biggest and most delicious expansion imaginable - and you can find all the details here, as well as download links.
Now, the team behind the mod have formed a studio and begun work on "a grand strategy game in which the player leads the defense of Earth during an alien invasion".
]]>It's been a while! Over November and December, the RPS community have indulged in tonnes of different games. Read on to find out what we've been up to in Clicker Heroes [official site], Guild Wars 2 [official site], PlanetSide 2 [official site], Terraria [official site] and more.
]]>It's the RPS Horacetide lunch and beverage session today, which is why the entire site smells like eggnog and reheated turkey twizzlers. Here's an early pressie in the form of a video showing the XCOM 2 [official site] character customisation suite in action. This is taken from my recent hands-on session - I'd made the rather fabulous lady above and she'd survived one outing. I decided to give her a new gun, and ended up giving her a new face and outfit as well.
]]>Procedural maps, randomised weapons and chain-smoking soldiers. In XCOM 2 [official site], the rules have changed. One seemingly minor addition to the tactical combat might have the greatest impact of all though. In our recent hands-on, we had a chance to test out the new concealment mechanic. It removes one of XCOM's few frustrations and creates an entirely new scouting phase as each mission begins.
]]>With XCOM 2 [official site], Firaxis are not resting on their laurels. The studio's reboot of the license had a great deal to prove – primarily, it had to satisfactorily answer the question as to why the much-loved series needed to be revived at all.
That obstacle overcome, the sequel is on safer ground and it might have been enough to reskin and reshape ever so slightly. A new setting, a new gang of aliens, and a few new weapons and hairstyles for the defenders of the Earth. Instead, there's a degree of role-reversal, with the player now attempting to take the planet back from an occupying force rather than protecting it from invaders. There's a new approach to the strategic side of the game, the return of randomised maps and an in-depth suite of soldier customisation tools.
After a couple of hours with the sequel, I'm more excited about XCOM than I've been since the announcement of the reboot.
]]>An XCOM fan on Reddit has created a rather robust version of XCOM that is played using the spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel. Dubbed EXLCOM, this reimagining of the science fiction turn-based strategy game is far from complete, but that doesn't mean you can't sink a few hours enjoying the fact that the program you use to budget your weekly spending allowance can be used to build a fully functional video game. I spoke to its creator about the hows and whys.
]]>"Wild West XCOM" is about as good an elevator pitch as you could wish for. After a short delay, as of today we can find out whether Hard West [official site] can possibly live up to its glorious high concept. I played an earlier build a few weeks back - some thoughts, plus a launch trailer, below.
]]>Just a PSA, as we already mentioned this a few weeks before it happened: Chaos Reborn [official site], the successfully Kickstarted remake of/sequel to classic Spectrum wizard-bothering strategy/bluffing game Chaos, has left Early Access and gotten a full Steam release. Much as I can't help but include "OMG made by the guy who invented X-COM" excitements in any coverage, I really should stress that Chaos Reborn is a clever and tense game of magical battles in its own right.
]]>I've started to feel a degree of sadness when games leave early access and embrace a full release. It's like watching your kids get older and go to college - there's that point where, one day, their growing up is done. You know who they're going to be. There's pride, sure, but all the what-ifs are over and done with. Julian Gollop's turn-based wizard-battler Chaos Reborn [official site] (currently on Steam Early Access), for instance, is no longer a great unknown - the X-COM co-creator's latest (and first independent) game will be released on Steam at the end of the month. It's not that its journey is over, but the guessing and hoping stage is. That great question which has floated around PC parts for years - what would it be like if Julian Gollop made a new game? - is answered.
]]>XCOM 2 [official site] is a hugely exciting prospect (so much so that I'm genuinely grumpy about the delay), but XCOM and X-COM are so very different things by now that it's unlikely to slake anyone's thirst for a true-blue, Gollopy experience. Fortunately, sounds like we might also be in for a sequel to unofficial X-COM spiritual sequel Xenonauts [official site], 2014's Cold War-set alien invasion strategy title.
]]>I... Uh. Erm. Must be polite. As much as I love it, I don't know if I'm into XCOM/X-COM for the fiction? Like, at all? It certainly didn't work for me when they wrote a tie-in book for the original 90s game. But, here we go. XCOM 2: Resurrection is a whole damned novel which explains what happened between XCOM 1 and XCOM 2 - i.e. how the aliens ended up in charge of the Earth and besties with humanity. I feel like an introductory cutscene might have been enough to explain that, but then again I'm pleased that XCOM is clearly enough of a success that it's getting spin-offs.
]]>Is it you? No? What about you? Or you over there, with the... oh God, what is that on your face? Oh, sorry, you've just been at the cronuts again, haven't you? Well, I know it's one of you. One of you hasn't played XCOM: Enemy Unknown [official site] yet. Just the one, though. This means that this post will surely be our lowest-trafficking of all time, but I shall write it anyway as a public service. XCOM's free on Steam this weekend.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Oh no! XCOM 2: Be The Baddie has been delayed until next February. If you're anything like me that wait is agony. There is no stronger recommendation I can give to get through it than XCOM 1 mod Long War.
]]>A message, beamed into the RPS mobile base from an unknown source:
"Hello, Commander. In light of our desire to ensure that the upcoming extraterrestrial reign of terror is a significant improvement on the gloriously successful incursions of 2012, this council of developers has convened to approve the activation of the XCOM 2 Delay Project. You have been chosen to spread word of this initiative. To oversee our first... and last* change to the release date. You may believe that releasing this year would have made all of your planet's dreams come true but we are looking to the future. We urge you to keep that in mind as you proceed."
Actually, I spotted the news on Twitter. XCOM 2 [official site] won't be with us until February 5, 2016.
]]>Once a week most weeks, team RPS gathers, eyes itself warily across the table then debates. Sometimes it's about SCANDAL, like slow-motion Batman or No Man's Sky hype, other times it's about perennials, like best levels ever or if Early Access means the end times.
This week, we're discussing the pitfalls and merits of platform exclusives, in the wake of Everybody's Gone To The Rapture being PS4-only, despite its devs making their name with the PC-only Dear Esther. In recent months similar has happened with Tomb Raider, and of course there's a long history of this sort of thing, from your Marios to your Halos. Is this right? Is it sensible? And what about the other side of the coin, with XCOM 2 being PC-only? Not so grumbly then, are we? Let's see if we can figure this one out, eh?
]]>I suspect our Adam will be filing a fulsome hands-on XCOM 2 report from the Gamescom frontline before too long, but as my frail vegetarian body couldn't possibly cope with another week of watching people eat sausages, all I have to go on in these here 19 screenshots and a video. They're particularly exciting screenshots for me, however, because they focus on soldier customisation, what goes on back at base and how the aliens are now essentially playing XCOM themselves. I want it I want it I want it, and I've written some thoughts about what's been revealed below.
]]>XCOM 2 [official site] looms, but despite its many enticing changes it seems unlikely it'll take Firaxis' X-COM reboot much closer to the Golloptastic source material. As such, complicated, hardcore and remarkably extensive mod Long War is, I suspect, going to remain your best bet for a game which furthers the uncompromising, unsympathetic spirit of the original games. It expands so many elements, introduces many more, remixes almost everything, makes an XCOM campaign ten times longer and, if you so wish, repeatedly bloodies your nose in the process. And now, several years and 15 major releases later, it is more-or-less finished. Next, its makers will turn their hands to their own "grand strategy alien invasion game."
]]>It's a good day for watching videos of exciting upcoming games that isn't polluted by jibber-jabber. Getting to appreciate the sound design of No Man's Sky was a fine thing, and now I can see some of my most-anticipated game this year, XCOM 2 [official site], without interruptions from interviewers and soundbyteers. This ten minutes of alien-bothering appears to offer a meaningful glimpse of how a mission can play out. It looks significantly more XCOMy than some of the talk about big changes - especially in terms of role-reversal - might have suggested but, I think, in a good way.
]]>Another lifeboat for me reach out to in the endless sea of E3 hype is Firaxis' XCOM 2 [official site]. Clearly it's hardly a dead cert they'll get it right, especially given that Civ Beyond Earth eroded some faith that the studio is willing to go outside its comfort zone, but there's no game in vidyaland that I'm more excited about right now. Even though all we've been given so far is context. That's just changed: here's footage there's footage footage now hooray footage
]]>What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day one of the sale.
]]>Here at RPS, we like XCOM: Enemy Unknown so much that we named it the 12th best strategy game of all time. When Firaxis announced the sequel, the entire RPS team smiled, simultaneously for the first time since 1992. That doesn't mean we'll be happy with more of the same though and when we asked strategy expert Rob Zacny to contemplate the best possible XCOM 2, he made some bold suggestions. Bring back the fear, he says, and if your game is about insurgency, learn from the best.
]]>I should have been there. I should have been there. But I wasn't. I was busy toddler-wrangling when XCOM 2 was announced yesterday, so only now can I say my piece about the follow-up to my most-played game of the last decade (at least). I've watched the trailer several times over, and I have these things to say about it, in a vaguely shot-by-shot breakdown sort of way.
]]>In all our excitement about the announcement of XCOM 2 [official site] yesterday, we missed the cinematic trailer showing XCOM rebels battling snakecops in a futurecity. Perhaps it was for the best: Adam's happy little dance might've gone on so long he ground his legs to stumps had he seen that too. Me, I'm too achy to dance today, so I can safely post about the trailer.
Are you okay to watch it? I accept no liability for any stumpings that may occur.
]]>It's happening. We suspected it would but that hasn't prevented a swift happy dance before posting of the news could commence.
XCOM 2 [official site] is coming in November of this year. No underwater shenanigans and no race into space. Instead, Firaxis are proposing a grim future in which the alien invasion was eventually successful, leaving humanity as second-class citizens on their own planet. A couple of decades after the war, XCOM re-establishes itself as a hidden force of freedom fighters, striking back against the new world order. Procedural levels, new soldier classes, a mobile base, deeper modding support and more more more. Screenshots and details below.
]]>Maybe it's just a symptom of getting old, but increasingly I want to revisit games I feel I could yet get more out of far more than I want to play something new. I've got these two awful tendencies: one is to run away from something if it's too demanding, and another is to be so preoccupied with collecting or unlocking everything that I don't stop and smell the flowers. I deny myself appreciation for and insight about some games because I'm too worried that I'm missing out on some infinitely more ephemeral aspect of them, like whatever's behind that door or what that high-level spell does. So these are just a few of the games I want to play again, in an impossible world where I had the time to.
]]>My word, check you out, Chaos Reborn [official site]. Don't you get bigger and prettier every time I take a look at you? I quite like the stark, neon outlines it used to depict its assorted bestiary back in the old prototype, then I liked the later move to Fantasy-Tron-With-Figurines, and now I like the ornate, characterful land its latest Early Access update presents even more. X-COM co-creator Julian Gollop's Chaos Reborn always felt like a boardgame in videogame's clothing, but its tailor has done so fine a job this time that it's increasingly hard to see the boardgame beneath it all. Also new as of this update is a whole lot more equipment stuff, so you can unlock customise your wizard as you play. In other words, the metagame has begun.
]]>I think this was the game Jim suggested I try out a while back, given it's an XCOM-like with steam-powered magical robots. I like XCOM. I like robots. Steam's okay, I guess. Sadly, a few hundred nights of being repeatedly screamed awake had destroyed my ability to remember anything at that point, particularly when it came to the exact name of a game with 'war' in the title. Fortunately, today brought news that there's a free demo of WARMACHINE: Tactics, prompting my bruised brain to offer a sleepy "hey, yeah, man, that might be it, y'know?"
]]>PAGE ONE, PANEL ONE
Graham lies in a crumpled heap beneath the looming figure of DOCTOR NO IDEAS.
CAPTION: This looks like a job for…
PAGE ONE, PANEL TWO
Pip, dressed in a (heroic) frog costume, sits typing at a computer.
PAGE TWO, PANEL ONE
A closeup of a Gchat window with the text "G, are there any games which do violence as well as comics?"
]]>Hello youse. With XCOM being a game that is significant in the history of PC gaming, I thought I would do something a bit different with my coverage of XCOM: The Board Game on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Often, when a board game supports solitaire play, I'm asked how well the single-player aspect works. And I'm often unable to answer, because I rarely play board games alone. But with XCOM, I thought I would make an effort. The PC game series is a real single-player, one-mind-against-the-machine experience. How does the board game stack up?
]]>Sid Meier and Firaxis' new thing, Starships, was announced last week, but all we got to see was a cinematic. Fortunately, Unca Sid did a talk at PAX South a couple of days back, in which he showed off the game proper. Those who could not drag themselves to a sweaty hall in Texas may now be similarly indulged. There are some bits and pieces of Civ in there - perhaps striving for commonality with Beyond Earth, which it shares a setting/fiction with - but primarily it's about customising spaceships then making 'em fight.
Meier also tackles the thorny question "how do you put maps in space?" and clarifies that people who call themselves 'marauders' don't tend to be terribly friendly.
]]>Raised By Screens is probably the closest I’ll ever get to a memoir – glancing back at the games I played as a child in the order in which I remember playing them, and focusing on how I remember them rather than what they truly were. There will be errors and there will be interpretations that are simply wrong, because that’s how memory works.
As I said in the last chapter, I had no conception at the time that UFO: Enemy Unknown was or would be an especially important game to me. Instead, it grew in stature in my mind over time, and it wasn't until I began writing about games for a living that I even became aware that it was similarly treasured by many of my contemporaries. Over time, UFO's repute has snowballed in my mind. I think my own fondness for it may even have been exaggerated across the years - this false belief that it was some 'lost' game that only an elite few ever knew of, that it created a standard that nothing since has ever matched.
]]>Raised By Screens is probably the closest I’ll ever get to a memoir – glancing back at the games I played as a child in the order in which I remember playing them, and focusing on how I remember them rather than what they truly were. There will be errors and there will be interpretations that are simply wrong, because that’s how memory works.
Here we are, then. The big one. The game of games. The game that made me, that defined me, that opened my mind to new frontiers and possibilities.
Except it isn't.
]]>In the fag-end of 2014 I managed to have a chat with X-COM creator Julian Gollop about the (early access) release version of his new game Chaos Reborn, but as the many demands of a festive season hosted at home hurtled towards me I flat-out ran out of time to give the game itself more than a cursory look. Now that I no longer need worry about which brand of cranberry sauce is best, putting tinsel high enough that a toddler can't hang herself on it and whether those vacuum-packed chestnuts are a substitute for fresh ones, I've been able to put good time into Gollop's remake of classic Spectrum turn-based strategy game Chaos. Here's what I made of it.
]]>It's a pleasant fantasy to think that holidays mean long weeks of playing games, but in reality there's trains and planes to be boarded, family to be visited, lives to be unavoidably lived. Gaming during holidays is therefore similar to gaming at any other time, about stealing moments to sneak away to a quiet corner and catch up on backlogs or curl up with comforts. Some of you told us what you played over the break yesterday, but here's what RPS played between the parsnips and presents.
]]>Hello there, best keep your distance, for I am ill. Not just 'bit of a sniffle/put a bigger pullover on, you great ninny' ill, but 'noxious substances violently erupting from everywhere' ill. My daughter started going to nursery about three months ago, and has been bringing back a delightful cocktail of viruses and bacteria ever since - it's been a relentless assault on my immune system, and while I'm oddly proud of how long it stood against this microbial siege, it has now collapsed in gruesome style.
It's OK, I don't want your pity. Unless it's a special magical form of pity that renders me instantly able to eat again. I want to talk about games.
]]>Well, he eventually rebooted and remade war of wizards Spectrum classic Chaos Reborn, which I've had a lot of fun with over the last few days, and which took to Steam Early Access yesterday. You can read more about that here. But what happened to the co-creator of X-COM, Laser Squad, Magic and Mayhem, Rebelstar and more over the last ten years or so? While so many long-standing developers have seen their stars rise and rise, Julian Gollop seemed to fall out of sight. In this concluding part of my big interview with him, we talk about where he's been, why he turned to Kickstarter for his comeback, how he was doing Early Access long before it ever existed, his thoughts on latter-day X-COMlikes such as Xenonauts, Invisible Inc and Mordheim, and the pressing question of whether we'll ever see a new X-COM or Laser Squad=style game with him at the helm.
]]>X-COM creator Julian Gollop did have plans for his own new version of the legendary strategy game, but abandoned them in the wake of 2K's well-received XCOM. "I seriously considered that before Firaxis announced their XCOM," he told RPS in an interview published today, "but of course once they announced it I thought, well it’d be a hopeless cause because it’s just not going to get the same traction."
"I may have been completely wrong in thinking this by the way," he added. When I suggested that he'd probably have succeeded nonetheless, he added that "I probably could have. I don't know." The Laser Squad and Chaos developer, who yesterday released wizard-battling strategy remake/sequel Chaos Reborn on Steam Early Access, hasn't entirely ruled out an X-comeback of his own, however. "Well, we’ll see. Got to finish Chaos first."
I think it's on all of us reading this to let him know below that that a new Gollop-made XCOMlike is far, far from a hopeless cause, eh? Also below: the game Julian Gollop almost made instead of Chaos Reborn.
]]>Today, X-COM creator Julian Gollop's new game Chaos Reborn launches on Steam Early Access. The Laser Squad dev ran a successful Kickstarter for the remake of his ZX Spectrum wizard-battler earlier this year, but he was by no means convinced that he'd pull it off. "It was a bit scary," he told me in an interview last week (and available in full here). "The biggest problem with Kickstarter is the fact that you are making promises based on not very much."
]]>After some time out of sight, X-COM creator Julian Gollop returned earlier this year, with a successful Kickstarter for a remake of/spiritual sequel to his beloved Spectrum strategy game, Chaos. (That being the one where wizards battle each other to death, with the help of various summoned beasties). An early, multiplayer-only version of Chaos Reborn takes to Steam Early Access today, so ahead of that I had a chat with the Laser Squad dev about how it all happened, what's changed, how much of a purist he is about his old work, his thoughts on Kickstarter and what's planned for the forthcoming singleplayer mode.
]]>Marie Curie deals massive area of effect radiation damage on death. Isaac Newton emanates a magnetic field which inexorably drags other units towards him. Darwin just ripped up the terrain, which I realise isn't an evolution thing, but I'm totally onboard with Darwin As Militant Terraformer. This is Super Sagan RPG, a free tactical, turn-based squad battler which stuffs history's greatest minds into mech suits and has them battle to death.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Everybody seems to have an opinion about Terror From The Deep, the first sequel in the original X-COM series. I've heard people dismissing it as a reskin or complaining that it is too difficult, while its defenders will happily gurgle about the Lovecraftian splendour of it all. The third game, X-COM Apocalypse, receives less attention than either of its predecessors but has always been a worthwhile addition to any library of games.
]]>Are there any fans of Falling Skies out there? I have vague memories of a trailer for the first season but it left about as much of an impression as a gnat on a trampoline. As the end times approach for the sci-fi show about the end times that follow an alien invasion, some enterprising developers have released an XCOM total conversion that takes place following "the destruction of an Espheni tower at the end of season 3". Quite how DreamWorks will feel about this use of their intellectual property is...
Oh. It's not an XCOM mod. It's an officially licensed game based on a series about an alien invasion that looks a bit like XCOM. And by 'a bit', I mean 'almost exactly'.
]]>It's been almost two years since XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and even with the Enemy Within expansion in between that's too long a time to live without a new XCOM game to play. We can therefore justifiably lust over the just-announced XCOM board game coming from Fantasy Flight. It's called XCOM: The Board Game, it requires a digital companion app to play, and it's due out before the end of the year.
Cor, look at all the little cardboard pieces in the image above. I could roll around in those all day.
]]>Xenonauts is a spiritual successor to UFO: Enemy Unknown, which means that it’s also a spiritual successor to many of the most tense and glorious hours of my teenage years. Following a successful Kickstarter and a period in Early Access, the game has been available for almost a month now. With its loyal approach to the original design, Xenonauts doesn’t step on XCOM’s toes, but I wondered if it could succesfully muscle in on the original game's territory. Several days of playing later, I have the answer. And some anecdotes about intra-squad romance.
]]>Rarely do I effusively recommend a bundle made up entirely of games I already own, but it's kinda hard to argue with every BioShock, Spec Ops: The Line, Mafia II, The Darkness II, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, among others. The Humble 2K Bundle does come with a slight catch (a flat rate of $20 if you want a couple of the more recent games), but even then it's a formidable deal. Unfortunately, this will technically count as purchasing The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, but don't worry: I won't tell anyone.
]]>What happy times we live in for fans of old-style X-COM, the way your Gollopmother used to make. The awfully X-COM-y Xenonauts left early access and launched properly only a fortnight ago, and now "open-source clone" OpenXcom has hit version 1.0 after five years of development ("This is your father's X-COM" goes the tagline in an alternate universe with softer copyright laws).
It's actually more of a replacement engine for X-COM: UFO Defense, mind, requiring the original game to drop in its data files. As well as improving the interface and fixing old bugs and whatnot, it adds mod support. And with that, you can keep playing new old X-COM for ever and ever and ever.
]]>I am glad. Against all odds, Firaxis' XCOM revival was actually a great turn-based strategy that captured the spirit of the original Gollop games. It wasn't entirely bereft of blindspots, though. The art style wasn't super menacing and didn't allow imagination to fill in the gaps, the game sort of got easier as time went on, tension dissipated over time, etc. Sometimes, you just need a straight-up remake in order to account for everything. In the case of classic X-Com, that game is Xenonauts. Alec has both written and blathered as much before, and really, is there any greater endorsement? Alec hates everything, even rainbows and my youthful naivete. Someday I'll earn his approval. Maybe if I become turn-based and prominently feature permadeath, he'll finally love me too.
]]>"Why am I playing XCOM through for the sixth time?" is a question I've asked myself several times over the last week. There are so many other games I should and would like to play, yet I find myself once again knee-deep in something I by this point know every aspect of. One of the answers to that question is that the game just had a belated Android release, so I found my way to it in waiting rooms and bathroom breaks. Much as it's a surprisingly natural fit for phone play, the combination of camera control issues, not being able to change the colours of my soldiers' armour and no Enemy Within expansion drew me to firing up the PC version yet again instead.
Only this time, I switched things up, and have had a completely different experience. A rather more Gollopy experience, one might say.
]]>Once upon a time Julian Gollop was one of the principle minds behind the original X-Com. Yes, with a dash. A dollop of Gollop's design wizardry spawned a legendary strategy series, and now - somewhat fittingly, I suppose - he's making a game about actual wizards. Chaos Reborn is mere days away from casting off its mortal Kickstarter, so Gollop and I are going to play a few rounds of a recent prototype while discussing the ups and downs of running a Kickstarter, the power (and lack thereof) of legacy, what made people fall so madly in love with X-Com, and which of said secret ingredients Chaos Reborn does and doesn't apply. Expect a heady brew of history and reflection with a powerful note of fuuuuuuture. We're kicking off at 10 AM PT/6 PM BST.
Update: We're done! And we ended up roping in a special guest: XCOM: Enemy Unknown lead designer Jake Solomon. What followed were some great Chaos Reborn matches followed by an excellent discussion between two of the brightest minds in the turn-based strategy business. Catch it all below.
]]>Statistically speaking, you are probably not Ken Levine. That's fine. I'm not him, either. And neither is Graham. But thanks to all the silicon and electricity and stuff, you can at least be a bit like him. One of the ways in which he's been special recently is in the role of cheerleader for the Chaos Reborn Kickstarter, where he's been championing Julian Gollop's return. He has already played (or should that now be 'Let's Played'?) the hexy beast, and now you can too. Head here to grab the time-limited prototype of the strategic wiz thing, and bring some friends.
]]>
.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp "שחרורו של Assassin's Creed Shadows נדחה למרץ כאשר מועצת המנהלים של Ubisoft שוקל מכירת חברה")
