Xenonauts 2 received its biggest update yet last night, adding a bunch of new things to the early access X-COM-like that will be sure to please your rude Chief Science Officer Gaius Baltar James Callis whatever his name is SMUG FACE. Alongside a brand-new Cruiser UFO to pilfer for new technology to help fight back against your alien invaders, the Milestone 3 update also brings new story missions, weapons and vehicles, extending the campaign's play time from 180 in-game days all the way up to 260.
]]>It is a truth universally acknowledged that when aliens threaten to exterminate your home, only the world's most insufferable, unhinged scientists can help you save the day. XCOM knows it, and now Xenonauts 2 is following suit. Case in point, yer man up the top there. Look at that smug mullet and his unimpressed raised eyebrow. He doesn't give two hoots you're here to save the world from extinction, leading (probably several) teams of nine (unwitting) brave souls into the unknown (i.e.: repeated death by alien overwatch). He's got research to do. Organs to pickle. Dead alien carcasses to splice. Yeah, the same ones you literally strapped into your troops' tactical belts in the last mission so you could bring them home. We had stinking brain monsters wrapped round our torsos, guy! The least you can do is deign to make us a nice cuppa when we get back. Honestly. You can't get the staff these days...
]]>Xenonauts was a great spiritual successor to the old-school strategy machinations of X-COM (or UFO: Enemy Unknown), back when the genre was more hyphenated. That unofficial spiritual successor now has an actual successor with Xenonauts 2, which is out in early access now.
]]>Fans of clicking on little men (and aliens) will be pleased to hear that Xenonauts 2 is releasing via Steam early access on July 18th, packing a mildly modernised dose of old school XCOM from back when turn-based action was more gritty and hyphenated. You'll futz about with fighter planes, build listening posts around the globe, and send hapless soldiers to get their faces torn off. Merry Xenonauts!
]]>Steam Next Fest is back with a veritable truck ton of fresh game demos to sample, and we've been plunging our eager little mitts into the latest batch of indie delights to unearth some handy recommendations for you to hit first. Running from now until February 13th, there are always oodles of demos to try in a Next Fest, so sometimes it's nice to have a helping hand in working out what's worth sinking your time into. Below, we've rounded up 16 of our favourites so far, and we'll be writing about plenty more demos we've yet to try over the coming week.
]]>It's inevitable that as soon as you make a list of your most anticipated games for the year, more excellent games start getting announced the moment you hit publish. Case in point: Goldhawk Interactive's long-awaited Xenonauts 2 has just been confirmed to be heading to Steam early access later this year. Huzzah! The original Xenonauts was an excellent homage to the hyphenated school of X-COMs / UFO: Enemy Unknowns of old, so I'm feeling pretty pumped to find out how its sequel builds on its classic, squad-based tactics.
]]>Kickstarter is always a risk, but so is X-Com. Even a 99% shot has a chance to miss, but you go for it anyway, and I'd say that Xenonauts 2 is in with a pretty dang good chance of being a solid squad tactics game. The fact that it's halfway to its £50,000 funding goal within two hours of appearing on Kickstarter suggests that their audience agrees, and if you're still not convinced, there's a single-mission playable demo to poke around, hosted on GOG.
]]>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.
]]>When X-COM cast off its hyphen and complexity to become XCOM, Xenonauts was handily here with old-school alien-busting. Now you can see how its sequel is shaping up, as developers Goldhawk Interactive are releasing development builds of Xenonauts 2 [official site] for free. You can play one single mission right now, then Goldhawk plan to expand this pre-alpha demo fortnightly. They'll start charging money once the game's in good enough shape but paying with feedback is peachy-dory for now.
]]>As Old Father Time grabs his sickle and prepares to take ailing 2016 around the back of the barn for a big sleep, we're looking to the future. The mewling pup that goes by the name 2017 will come into the world soon and we must prepare ourselves for its arrival. Here at RPS, our preparations come in the form of this enormous preview feature, which contains details on more than a hundred of the exciting games that are coming our way over the next twelve months. 2016 was a good one - in the world of games at least - but, ever the optimists, we're hoping next year will be even better.
]]>XCOM 2 is out this week and I'm pretty flipping excited. But what of people whose hearts yearn for X-COM, the bedashed original series Firaxis rebooted and dedashed? Good news: Xenonauts 2 [official site] is definitely happening. Bad news: it'll arrive in 2017 at the earliest.
Goldhawk Interactive's Xenonauts, which came out in 2014 after years in early access, is essentially a tweaked unofficial remake of UFO: Enemy Unknown (or 'X-COM: UFO Defense', whatever). It's pretty great! The sequel will be a bit more adventurous, taking more liberties with the X-COM formula as it also switches from sprites to proper 3D.
]]>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.
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