PCGamesN reports that the multiplayer service for XCOM 2 will be shut down:

XCOM 2’s multiplayer will be shut down this month

XCOM 2 multiplayer and challenge mode is going away

It’s now six years after XCOM 2 released on Steam, and one of the best strategy games on PC is about to lose two big features. In a new update, developer Firaxis Games reveals it will shut XCOM 2's multiplayer and other online modes by the end of this month.

XCOM 2 is one of the best turn-based strategy games ever made, but it seems like the online side of the game may not be that popular. XCOM 2's multiplayer consisted of players taking control of humans and aliens to mix-and-match a squad, similar to the first game. An online leaderboard-based Challenge Mode was also added with the War of the Chosen expansion.

[...]

Thanks Henriquejr!

PC Gamer reports that XCOM 2: War of the Chosen got an overhaul mod:

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen gets its very own Long War overhaul

The Long War of the Chosen mod makes extensive changes to the 2017 XCOM 2 expansion.

In 2017 we described the Long War 2 as "a must-play reinvention of XCOM 2" that changes up the brilliant turn-based strategy game in ways that both slow and deepen the campaign against the alien occupation of Earth. As the title suggests, it was a followup to the Long War, an also-excellent mod for the 2012 XCOM: Enemy Unknown. And now the sequel has a sequel, as Long War of the Chosen, a port of the Long War 2 mod for the XCOM 2: War of the Chosen expansion, is live on Steam.

Just like its predecessors, Long War of the Chosen makes major changes to the vanilla game:

• Build up the resistance by contacting regions and recruiting rebels in their havens
• Use those haven rebels to detect missions for you, which you must then infiltrate before they expire
• Send out multiple squads at a time, adjusting the equipment and composition to make sure they can infiltrate in time
• Watch as ADVENT reacts to your actions by strengthening regions (making missions more difficult) and sending retaliatory strikes on your havens
• Grapple with much more challenging versions of the Chosen both in the strategy layer and in retaliation missions (they no longer randomly spawn on missions)
• Discover a new research tree with several new techs and a bunch of new Proving Ground projects
• Make use of eight new soldier classes that have three ability choices per rank and an extra rank (eight instead of vanilla's seven)
• Get up to two of each faction soldier class, all of whom have been completely reworked from War of the Chosen
• Train up officers that provide powerful buffs and abilities for your squad    
• Play with buffed-up SPARKs and more challenging Alien Rulers if you have the corresponding DLCs installed
• Encounter entirely new enemies that force you to adapt your tactics

[...]

Thanks Henriquejr!

PC Gamer reports that a free XCOM DLC will close the gap between Enemy Unknown and War of the Chosen:

Free XCOM 2 DLC will bridge the gap between Enemy Unknown and War of the Chosen

Firaxis celebrates XCOM's six year anniversary.

What on Earth happened between XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2? The canon fiction says that the player loses the Enemy Unknown campaign and the aliens take control of the planet. But how did XCOM 2's resistance form? 

A new Legacy Ops mini-campaign should answer that question, featuring reimagined maps, weapons and armour from Enemy Unknown. The four-mission campaign is the heart of the Tactical Legacy Pack, which releases on October 9. It will be free to all XCOM 2: War of the Chosen players for the following eight weeks. After the free grace period is up, players will be able to buy it for $7.99/£6.49. You need to own XCOM 2 and War of the Chosen to get the pack gratis.

The pack includes an offline challenge mode to let you play through War of the Chosen's daily challenges whenever you like, and a series of escalating missions called Resistance Archives. You also get new soundtrack options that will let you play  War of the Chosen with the Enemy Unknown soundtrack or with a brand new soundtrack inspired by the original X-Com: UFO Defense.

[...]

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Thanks henriquejr!

GameWatcher reports that another DLC expansion for XCOM 2 could be on its way.

Fans have spotted that Firaxis seem working on something within XCOM 2, and going by Steam Database they've opened a new DLC entry for the game - suggesting a new expansion for XCOM 2 similar to War of the Chosen may be on the way.

There has been a lot of activity around XCOM 2 within Steam, which suggests that Firaxis are preparing something major for the game.

[...]

@PCGamesN Want the Red Dwarf crew for your next XCOM 2 run? Look no further than Red9's mod which provides the voices of the crew, as long as you own the War of the Chosen expansion.

...

As long as you own XCOM 2’s expansion, War of the Chosen, you can download the Red Dwarf Voice Pack from the Steam Workshop. The mod contains over 1000 voice lines from the show’s main cast, with plans to introduce more lines for the main cast and some more for minor cast members.

 

You can check out a trailer of the five in action, with some extremely well-designed models (other than Holly, who in the show is quite regularly forced to go planetside on what looks like a 90s TV), below. Alternatively, you can check out some more great XCOM 2 mods.

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[...]

Gamewatcher reports that XCOM 2 could be getting another expansion.

Fans have spotted that Firaxis seem working on something within XCOM 2, and going by Steam Database they've opened a new DLC entry for the game - suggesting a new expansion for XCOM 2 similar to War of the Chosen may be on the way.

There has been a lot of activity around XCOM 2 within Steam, which suggests that Firaxis are preparing something major for the game.

Fans have also noticed that a new DLC entry for XCOM 2 has appeared on Steam, although that hasn't been updated in a couple of months - but then it's not out yet, so it wouldn't be.
[...]

PCGamer have selected XCOM 2: War of the Chosen for best expansion of 2017.

PC Gamer's Best Expansion of 2017 is XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, as selected by our global team. Below, its biggest fans on the team offer some commentary on their experiences with the game. Find the rest of our 2017 GOTY Awards and personal picks here. 

Tom Senior: In just five years Firaxis has successfully resurrected XCOM and explored a bunch of different takes on the formula. War of the Chosen is the most inventive yet, filling out the world with new friendly resistance factions and bitter rivals in the form of the Chosen themselves. The blue bad guys are obviously a focus point, but I love the resistance heroes even more, though, for their amazing, almost game-breaking abilities. The reapers get the cool long coats, but I came to love the templars the most because they look like they’ve dived out of Mass Effect to stab everything with electricity.

 

Bo Moore: War of the Chosen took one of the best games of 2016 and made it even better—by adding campy, moustache-twirling villains that mock you at every turn. The titular Chosen give a voice (more than Simlish-like gurgling) to your alien adversaries, and in that voice, the game's enemies finally have some personality. It feels awful when they ambush your squad, taunt your forces, and kidnap your soldiers. But it makes vanquishing them all the more sweeter.

[...]

Henriquejr spotted spotted a change-list for the new XCOM 2: War of the Chosen patch:

Fall 2017 XCOM 2: War of the Chosen Update Deploys

The Fall 2017 update for XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is available now on PC and coming soon for Mac, Linux, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

This new update institutes multiple bug fixes and optimizations that will facilitate a better overall experience for players. Challenge Mode has been updated to include new stats on the leaderboard, new player-to-player tracked events and retooled notifications.

Head below for the full list of changes.

Good luck, Commander.

Gameplay – Strategy Layer

• Beta Strike now is applied to XCOM soldiers if the tutorial is enabled
• Scientists and engineers can no longer be used while deployed on Covert Actions
• Fixed base game soldier promotion abilities not being free in the Training Center if a cross-class ability is purchased first
• Fixed a visual issue with the inventory menu after selecting a Grenadier's utility item or grenade slot in the Hangar
• Fixed Resistance Order card duplication
• Fixed a navigation issue caused by empty Resistance Order card slots
• Tutorial: Players can now re-enter the Research screen if they’ve tried to exit during the tutorial.
• Fixed an issue that prevented soldiers from being dismissible after completing Lost and Abandoned with the Tutorial enabled
• Fixed the conventional weapon breakthrough tech causing "+1 Damage" to display on the claymore when viewed in the Armory
• Soldiers in the Character Pool now generate with a background
• Scavengers Resistance Order now only applies to resource-based POI rewards
• Weapon color defaults to 20 now instead of -1 to prevent mismatched color previews
• Camera outline and poster display update on screen change
• Fixed an issue with SPARKs getting permanently stuck in a wounded yet "Available" state after going on Chosen Stronghold missions
• Fixed the Lost World Dark Event to expire correctly
• Fixed lingering cohesion glow after creating a new bond
• Fixed an issue where faction soldiers in the Training Center promotion screen would not appear when cycling through soldiers
• Removed references to Resistance HQ from strategy notifications
• Removed the ability for soldiers to gain positive traits as part of the AWC post-mission negative trait recovery mechanic
• Soldiers on Covert Actions no longer drop their equipped items when the player enters the squad select screen
• Fixed Rescue Soldier missions sometimes appearing with no reward if you fail it the first time
• Adding additional text to the Reaper's Silent Killer ability description
• Fixed weapons with mods attached not upgrading to the next tier for soldiers who are deployed on ambush-able Covert Actions

Gameplay – Tactical Layer

• Chosen will be activated only if someone on XCOM team has been revealed
• Fixed a bug where the fog of war fails to update or disappear when the player's Codex creates a clone during a mission
• Fixed an issue where detection tiles would disappear for faction soldiers after loading a save while in concealment
• VIPs using hunker down no longer break concealment
• Berserk Rangers no longer attack squadmates
• Fixed visualization of Archon patrol pathing
• Units now take claymore damage when a claymore is detonated underneath them while on a destructible floor during tactical gameplay
• ADVENT Priests triggering Sustain while standing in the evac zone no longer fails the mission
• Alien Rulers get a 1.5X HP boost when Beta Strike is enabled
• Fixed an issue where Purifiers became unresponsive after their clone made from Shadowbind was destroyed
• Bladestorm and Retribution excludes teammates as valid targets
• Enemy reinforcement visual indicator no longer disappears
• Chosen can no longer turn into cocoons from Chryssalid poison
• Spectres hit with Stasis will no longer prevent shadowbound units from recovering when the Spectre is killed
• Fixed missing flyover for Lightning Reflexes
• Gremlins only reveal hidden units after a hack attempt is made
• Changed Skirmisher Ionic Ripjack stun chance to 25%
• Darkclaw now gains the effects of equipped ammo
• Brutal Chosen strength temporarily decreases soldier Will
• Fixed ambient lighting not being applied in some non-tactical areas
• Targetable enemy indicator refreshes correctly after navigating tactical menus
• Fixed an issue where help text and other pop-ups would not trigger during the tutorial
• Units provided by the Volunteer Army & Double Agent Resistance Orders will no longer count as units lost during a campaign
• Updated Mimic Beacon behavior for Purifier, Priest, Spectre, and shadowbound units
• Added AI AoE finder updates to enable AoE attacks on Mimic Beacons
• Fixed an issue preventing Mimic Beacons from being attacked more than once by purifiers
• Skulljack now kills units instantly if Beta Strike is enabled
• Shredded armor no longer reappears after reloading a save
• Fixed an issue where Skirmishers could use Wrath to move to an area, but not perform a melee attack
• Fixed infinite visualization hang when X2Action_WaitForAnotherAction fails to receive the event trigger it is registered for
• Fixed issue with claymores not being immediately targetable by the Reaper
• Reduced Chosen Hunter pistol range
• Skulljack no longer prevents a unit from becoming concealed
• Supply Extraction loot now recovered if XCOM evacs from the mission
• Fixed a loss of functionality caused by simultaneously entering a rescue circle and triggering a Lost pod during a Rescue Stranded Resistance Agents mission
• Fixed crash caused by too many Lost on screen at one time
• Restricting spawns in the corners of some parcels to prevent Chosen from being stuck if they spawn in the corner of a map
• Slightly reducing the aim of Retaliation civilian militia and Volunteer Army soldiers
• Shadowbound units don't get abilities granted from Sustaining Spheres.  This matches up with shadowbound units not getting built in Sustain ability from units either
• Prevent Chosen Kidnap / Extract on special units that come from HQ via Double Agent or Volunteer Army
• Fix for an indefinite hang when a unit gets the burning status effect when moving for a Skullmine action during tactical gameplay
• Holy Warrior effects no longer persist after the Priest is removed from the mission
• Chosen Sarcophagus health displays correctly after loading a save game while the shield is up
• Bluescreen Rounds no longer affect destructibles
• Updated Shadowbind to remove the Parthenogenic Poison from the target
• Decoupled GameStateUnit and asynchronous pawn load requests to prevent hung levels and crashes on level load
• Fixed crashes related to GetAllViewersOfTarget
• Fixed crashes related to GetAllVisibleToSource
• Fixed crashes related to GetAllViewersOfLocation
• Fixed crashes caused by for large block of LoadMap crashes
• Fixed GetWorldInfo crashes on RenderThread
• FixedProtection against IsAudible crashes from effects

Challenge Mode

• Added new event notifications:  5 Enemy Kills, Concealment Broken, First Soldier Wounded, Killed a Sectopod or Gatekeeper, Lost a Sectopod or Gatekeeper, and Completed Mission
• Challenge Mode replay improvements: show the reaper roll, skip challenge points banners, disable mission narratives
• Added user score and total players to Challenge Mode squad select screen
• Changed Challenge events to display completion percentages of total players for an event
• ADVENT soldiers now take an action when their shadowbound clone is killed
• Enemy units will now move or take actions when the player Shadowbinds another enemy unit in the same pod
• Challenge Mode replays will now automatically start playing
• Fixed an issue where Focus drops were not occurring in Challenge mode
• Additional score break down and stats to leaderboard
• Consolidated the objective and enemy score decrease messages into one message when appropriate
• Fixed an issue causing Challenges to auto-complete

Misc

• Modding - Added files to improve compatibility between the game and uncooked content
• Character Pool now checks base game and expansion directories for available pools
• Fixed Character Pool lighting when on Stronghold shell screen
• Fixed a crash with the Character Pool trying to access a version of a unit that no longer exists
• Added a button to open the local Photobooth directory from the game
• Class pose filtering is skipped when doing a memorial shot
• Additional crash and bug fixes

PC Gamer loves the villains of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

XCOM 2's Chosen are the best videogame villains since the Nemesis system

If you’d asked any of us if XCOM 2 would be better with mustache-twirling villains when it came out, we’d likely call the strategy game police. As goofy as XCOM’s Advent enemies are—a motley crew of little green men, snake people with boobs, and shape-shifting slime monsters—we’d cry out, ‘Strategy games are driven by cold, hard logic, not emotion!’ And yet, here we are, all angry at our own purple bad guys. Now we can blame our losses on the Chosen, three characters introduced in the recent War of the Chosen expansion that have hijacked XCOM 2 completely. They’re the best thing to happen to the series since its reintroduction, and some of the greatest videogame villains since Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system. We had to talk about them.

Tim Clark: I've honestly been blown away by the Chosen. Literally, on many missions, but figuratively by how fun they are to fight. Prior to jumping into the expansion, I had vague concerns that being menaced on already stressful missions by super aliens would be like getting sand in your spacesuit. But although the Chosen are irritants by design, there's such a thrilling build-and-release of tension to beating them that I actually looked forward to the encounters. Like all the best pantomime villains, the Chosen are chatty sallys—yammering on during missions, and even spilling over into the menus, telling you how much you suck and how you're doomed to failure.

[...]

Henriquejr spotted an XCOM 2 - War of the Chosen Review at PC Gamer:

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen review

Just when you think life in XCOM is hard enough, the aliens send super-powered specialists to steal your money, take your soldiers and taunt you while they're doing it. War of the Chosen adds three characterful bosses that harass you in missions and on the campaign map until you manage to hunt them down and hit them at home. You have to deal with them in addition to your normal XCOM 2 duties—contacting new continents, researching the alien threat and beating back the Avatar project. This is a huge, rich expansion, albeit one for experienced commanders already comfortable with XCOM 2's vanilla campaign.

[...]

XCOM 2 is all about pushing you onto the back foot and making you fight out of a tough corner, and mandatory missions and dark events are part of that. However War of the Chosen simply piles more on top of your old problems, to the point where the push to new technology, five and six-person squads, a built-up Avenger feels like admin rather than the desperate fight-to-fight survival experience of early XCOM 2 playthroughs. Matters improve as you move out of the early game and all the resistance heroes and Chosen warriors have been introduced—at this point you start chasing the cool new resistance abilities—but the pace of the game has been substantially altered.

This isn't entirely bad. The campaign drags at times, but the quality of the new resistance super-soldiers and obnoxiously chatty blue supervillains makes it a must-buy for avid XCOM 2 fans, and the increase in missions gives you more opportunities to play with the new gear. If the rhythms of XCOM 2 feel stale now, the expansion does enough to shake things up, just expect a slightly slower pace as you systematically pull apart those new alien champions.

Score: 80/100

XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen has been released.

XCOM 2: War Of The Chosen Now Available on PC

PC gamers, the wait is over. XCOM 2: War of The Chosen deploys to PC today! The Xbox One and PS4 versions are also on the way, launching shortly on September 12.

From what we've seen so far, though, critics are already taking up arms to join the fight.

Game Informer says XCOM 2: War of The Chosen (9.25/10; "The Pièce De Alien Résistance"[www.gameinformer.com]) is "One of the most rewarding strategy games in years" and that it's got "Nearly a game's worth of new content."

Rock Paper Shotgun (Recommended) declared it's "The first time that an XCOM or X-COM game can be truly described as an epic." Meanwhile IGN (8.8/10) loves how the game "Restores a fear of the unknown."

For those of you who've been following along since we announced the XCOM 2 expansion in June, we hope that you enjoy it. It's a whole new experience we're layering on top of the game that had already racked up numerous Strategy Game of the Year awards in 2016.

[...]

Henriquejr spotted the first reviews for XCOM2 - War of the Chosen:

IGN:

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is a broad and deep expansion that restores a fear of the unknown.

Score: 8.8/10

Eurogamer:

War of the Chosen is a generous expansion that's bustling with brilliant new systems that's a must for anyone who's completed XCOM 2.

Recommended

Rock Paper Shotgun:

I said right back at the start that ‘DLC’ desperately undersells War Of The Chosen, this fat and bursting sausage of turn-based splendour. I think I might have found XCOM 3 a mite more appropriate.

Gameinformer:

War of the Chosen contains so much new content that it could almost have been called XCOM 3. Every mission dishes out a new enemy, mission type, or environment, which allows the game to remain fresh for several dozen hours. War of the Chosen’s wealth of interwoven systems might overwhelm newcomers, but strategy nerds willing to master the nuances will be treated to one of the most rewarding strategy games in years. I don’t know how Firaxis could make a more complex yet gratifying strategy game, but I can’t wait to see them try.

Score: 9.25/10

Gameplanet:

War for the Chosen adds a huge amount of content and a number of new mechanics to an already brimming game. It's a generous package that ought to please and frustrate (in a good way!) XCOM devotees.

Score: 8/10

PCGamesN reviewed XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen.

...
While Firaxis are wise to double down on their capacity for systemic storytelling, I’m a little less sold on War of the Chosen’s expanded cast of scripted characters. Joining the beloved Bradford, Shen, and Tygan are three rebel faction commanders, plus another three bigshot aliens - the Chosen of the title. It's an approach that lumbers the very early part of the game with an excess of dialogue that doesn’t play to the studio’s strengths. The introduction of the Chosen in particular feels one dimensional - three snarling characters defined by their chosen weapon, a barely repressed desire to murder each other, and not much else.

Thankfully, these thinly drawn characters are the faces of some elaborate new ideas that weave directly into XCOM 2’s existing campaign. The Chosen, as you've probably heard by now, are Shadow of Mordor-inspired recurring bosses with unique powers and weaknesses that develop over the course of a campaign. I can confirm they have a habit of kidnapping your best soldiers and gloating over comms on the world map (seriously, who gave them the ship’s number?)
[...]

XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen will provide new strategy options.

DETAILS: XCOM 2: War of the Chosen's Covert Actions and a Whole New Strategy Layer

[...]

COVERT ACTIONS
These are essentially non-combat missions. You're allocating resources and soldiers to ferret out information seek out perks that'll benefit XCOM, or rescue captured soldiers. A successful Covert Action can mean additional resources, new soldiers, a new mission, or information leading to a Chosen stronghold. Once players successfully complete three Covert Actions to locate and gain intel on a stronghold, that Chosen's final mission will be available. But don't think that this is simply a matter of you choosing a mission, then waiting for timers to tick down.

Covert Actions can - and will - go sideways. Each mission has a chance of seeing your soldiers get wounded. Worse, a mission could devolve into an ambush. When this happens, the game immediately changes focus from the Avenger to the soldiers deployed on the Covert Action. The player has to move the soldiers to an extraction zone and safely get them out of the ambush. The odds, however, are stacked against you. You won't have a full squad - usually two, maybe three soldiers - and you'll be fighting off enemies as well as ADVENT reinforcements.

Of course, there are ways to mitigate risk. When setting up a Covert Action, you will sometimes be able to add additional soldiers and staff (scientists and engineers) to improve the odds of mission success. Or you'll be able to employ Resistance Orders. We'll get to that in a minute.

INTEL: Examples of Covert Actions

Some of the missions you may undertake in our fight against ADVENT.

Hunt the Chosen: Three separate missions that will lead you to a Chosen Stronghold.

Rescue Soldier: Only available after a soldier has been captured by the Chosen.

Locate Faction: Always available at the start of the game, used to meet the Factions and gain one of their soldiers.

Recruit Faction Soldier

Counter Chosen Activity: Prevents the Chosen from performing their scheduled monthly activity

Breakthrough Research: Activates one of the new breakthrough research techs

Resistance Order: Gives the player another Resistance Order card for the Faction

RESISTANCE ORDERS

Think of Resistance Orders as modifier cards used in CCGs. According to XCOM 2's Senior Producer, Garth DeAngelis, "Design leveraged the foundation of a tried-and-true card system to provide that variability from a mechanical standpoint. These Factions are unpredictable, just like the game itself, and you never know what services they can offer in a given playthrough."

In addition to gameplay depth, unique narrative context was given to each of the new Factions based on those services. The accurate Reapers may allow your squad to insta-kill Lost if you hit them at all, while the Skirmishers may strong arm the Black Market into offering you more favorable deals - it's your choice to take advantage of what you want.

INTEL: Examples of Resistance Orders

Once you gain the trust of the Factions, you may earn policy cards. Here are a few examples, by Faction.

Reaper

Infiltrate: On timed missions, the timer does not begin until the squad has lost concealment.

Volunteer Army: There is a chance that a Resistance soldier will join the XCOM squad for the duration of the mission.

Skirmisher

Bomb Squad: Experimental Grenade and Heavy Weapon projects are completed instantly in the Proving Grounds.

Modular Construction: Facility construction speed is increased by 25%

Templar

Mental Fortitude: All battle madness (panic, obsession, berserk, shattered) only lasts one turn.

Machine Learning: Research breakthroughs are twice as likely to occur.

Something to consider when you start playing the game: Maximize Resistance Orders by thinking ahead. If you know you're going to be excavating or building several new facilities, use cards that help speed the process up. Did you just unlock a new weapon tier and know you're going to use most of your resources to purchase them? Apply cards that will give you additional resources during a supply drop, reduce costs of facility actions, or give you bonuses that would usually cost money (ex. getting additional Resistance contacts).

Making use of these new features will give you more control in the Avenger to execute the perfect strategy in your fight against the Chosen.

That's it for this update. Be sure to follow XCOM on Twitter and Like XCOM on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest information on XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. If you're looking to enlist with the Resistance, join the 2K Forums!

This video of the XCOM2 expansion War of the Chosen explores new types of enemies:

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen - Inside Look: New Enemies

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Get an in-depth look at the new enemies you will encounter in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

Thanks henriquejr!

This video for XCOM2 expansion War of the Chosen explores The Lost.

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Get an in-depth look at the Lost, one of the many new challenges you will encounter in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

This video for XCOM2 expansion War of the Chosen explores The Hunter:

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen - Inside Look: The Hunter

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Get an in-depth look at one of the Chosen tasked to take on the resistance: The Hunter.

This video for XCOM2 expansion War of the Chosen explores The Templar:

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen - Inside Look: The Templar

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Get an in-depth look at one of the new Resistance Factions joining the fight against ADVENT: The Templars.

Thanks Farflame!

PC Gamer reports that the XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen comes with 12 new features:

12 new features in XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen

Hero characters, new enemies, personality traits, and more.

I recently sat down with XCOM boss Jake Solomon and played through a mission from War of the Chosen. This expansion adds an enormous amount of new stuff—both frivolous and game-changing—to Firaxis’ brilliant sci-fi strategy game, to the point where it almost feels like a sequel.

And while I was taking notes on my laptop as Solomon explained the expansion’s new features, I noticed he seemed to be remembering something new every few minutes. So here are as many things as I managed to scribble down during my demo, between actually trying to play the thing.

If you want to read a thorough rundown of everything I got up to in my playthrough, diving deep into the new enemies and altered campaign structure, you can read all about it in the next issue of PC Gamer.

1. The Chosen are crazy powerful
2. Assassins can kidnap your soldiers
3. The Chosen have traits
4. There are friendly heroes too
5. Heroes have their own upgrade tree
6. Your soldiers will have more personality
7. Soldiers can form bonds
8. Sitreps make things more interesting
9. There’s a new enemy type called The Lost
10. There are three kinds of Lost
11. The Lost are neutral
12. You can create your own propaganda

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Eurogamer tried out XCOM 2: War of the Chosen in this 80 min video.

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XCOM 2: War of the Chosen gameplay with Eurogamer's Chris Bratt and the game's designer, Jake Solomon.

Subscribe to Eurogamer - http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c...

This video for XCOM2 expansion War of the Chosen explores The Warlock.

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Get an in-depth look at one of the Chosen tasked to take on the resistance: the Warlock. SUBSCRIBE for Inside Looks at new characters and enemies, features and insights from the XCOM 2 development team: http://2kgam.es/XCOMYT

This video for XCOM2 expansion War of the Chosen explores The Skirmisher.

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Get an in-depth look at one of the new Resistance Factions joining the fight against ADVENT: The Skirmisher.

This video for XCOM2 expansion War of the Chosen explores The Reapers.

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Get an in-depth look at one of the new Resistance Factions joining the fight against ADVENT: The Reapers.

This video for XCOM2 expansion War of the Chosen explores the assassin.

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Get an in-depth look at one of the Chosen tasked to take on the resistance: The Assassin. SUBSCRIBE for Inside Looks at new characters and enemies, features and insights from the XCOM 2 development team: http://2kgam.es/XCOMYT

@PCGamesN Jake Solomon talks about the XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen and shares his thoughts on Phoenix Point.

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@GameRant XCOM 2s expansion War of the Chosen will release August 29th.

As the below trailer demonstrates, War of the Chosen will introduce three main enemy figureheads across the traditional storyline. The Chosen were designed to be the ultimate leaders, and each has a distinct personality and fighting style: The Assassin utilizes a sword and is honor-bound to serve her creators, the Hunter is a long-rage attacker, and the Warlock will evidently use psionics against XCOM forces. These leaders will learn and grow as the game progresses, which will lead to multiple showdowns against the new leaders.

Of course, these three aren’t the only threats introduced in what is poised to be the XCOM franchise’s biggest expansion yet. Gamers can take a look for themselves in the video below:

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[...]

RockPaperShotgun reports that XCOM 2 will soon have an expansion pack set to be revealed at this years E3.

I'd been glumly thinking it was all over for XCOM 2 [official site], as we've had a clutch of DLC followed by the officially-endorsed Long War mod. I figured it'd now be all quiet on the Solomonian front for a couple of years, until such time as Firaxis broke cover with a full new XCOM game. But no! Something is stirring. XCOM 2 is making an E3 reappearance next month, showing off something being referred to with the slogan ‘the real war begins.' It could even be a title, you know. Whichever: it's beginning to look a lot like expansion pack Christmas.

This is the SURPRISE TWEET ATTACK which seems to have suddenly brought XCOM 2 back to life:
[...]

PC Gamer recommends the Long War mod for XCOM 2:

The Long War 2 mod is a must-play reinvention of XCOM 2

New classes, weapons, and a reworked campaign map successfully refresh this excellent strategy game.

The word 'mod' undersells The Long War 2. 'Mod' implies an aesthetic tweak, a UI correction, a new weapon perhaps. In fact this is XCOM 2 as developed in a parallel universe. The Long War 2 does add lots of new weapons, classes and skills, but all these service a set of bespoke design aims that turn XCOM 2 from a survival strategy game into a gradually paced army and territory management sim with expanded combat encounters.

For players that have mastered XCOM 2's story and power arcs, or now find them predictable, Long War 2 is an essential download. The mod forces you to break out of your habits and re-engage with the game again at the most basic level. Even soldiers are valued differently. You can field up to ten in a mission, and you start with a large roster. Consequently, losing agents isn't the body blow it can be in trad XCOM, and you have more room to experiment with ability and weapon combinations across your force.

Your whole stance as resistance commander feels different to ordinary XCOM 2, which forces you into a reactive position with must-fight emergency missions. In The Long War 2 missions are more like leads that you can choose to spend time and resources to follow up. Ordinary missions are precluded by an infiltration period that asks you to devote a squad to a location for a variable number of days. If they achieve a high degree of infiltration (represented by a percentage marker that ticks upwards with each day), they face weaker forces in that mission.

[...]

The changes bring a dose of 4X strategy to XCOM 2. This slows the pace considerably—this is the Long War, after all. This dilutes the impact and drama of an XCOM 2 campaign to an extent. The way the core game gives you a narrow stream of high-stakes decisions is one of the reasons I loved it so much when I reviewed it last year. However I've found it fascinating to see how XCOM's core mechanics work in this new context. The Long War 2 is a thoughtful and effective reworking of the XCOM 2 formula, and the new weapon, class and mission additions are slick and well-integrated—they could have come from Firaxis.

Speaking of Firaxis, it's great to see studios work with modders, particularly in instances where the mod team wants to substantially rework the studio's original vision. The result is a neat Earth-B take on the concept that unlocks hundreds of hours of extra playtime. The Long War 2 is out now, and it's free.

Eurogamer talk to the makers of the 'Long War 2' Mod Pavonis Interactive.

But let's be honest, when we talk about the Long War mod, we inevitably talk about its difficulty. Very few people have completed a full campaign on Impossible difficulty, as it requires such consistent, smart play over such a gruelling number of missions.

"The original Long War's DNA was that of a hardcore mod," said Lumpkin. "And while we made plenty of effort to open it up for a wider playerbase once its popularity grew, it kept its reputation as being very challenging. This go-round, we've tried to broaden our appeal by keeping the lower difficulty levels of Long War 2 more accessible to casual players who would still like to take part in an extended campaign experience.

"Those difficulties probably still harder than the unmodded game in the sense that we've added a bunch of mechanics for the player to figure out and master, but the gameplay is set up to be more forgiving to players as they learn the ropes. And make no mistake, the higher difficulties are still things even experienced players should very much lose.

@SteamCommunity Long War Studios has changed its name to Pavonis Interactive and announce the 'Long War 2 Mod' as well as something else ambitious.

Long War 2 Mod Coming to XCOM 2 on PC
6 January - Hinkle2K

Long War Studios, the development outfit responsible for great XCOM 2 PC content such as the Alien Pack[xcom.com] and the Perk and Laser Pack[xcom.com] mods, has a new name: Pavonis Interactive, and a new web site[www.pavonisinteractive.com]. And the team has been working on something ambitious. We'll be sharing more in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

In the meanwhile, make sure you're following the XCOM 2 Steam Community hub so you don't miss any future announcements on XCOM 2. Knowledge is power, Commander.

Be sure to follow XCOM on Twitter and Like XCOM on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest information on XCOM 2. If you're looking to enlist with the Resistance, join the 2K Forums[forums.2k.com]!

Henriquejr spotted that XCOM 2 has controller support on the PC now:

Controller Support Deployed for XCOM 2 on PC

Hello, Commander.

Starting today, XCOM 2 on PC can now be played using a controller. XCOM 2 has plug & play compatibility with both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 controllers. Alternate controller options may require additional user adjustments. Fans have been requesting controller support and we’re glad to deliver.

We have been hard at work tailoring the interface specifically for controllers so that it provides a level of comfort and accessibility that our players expect. The intel below shows exactly how controllers will work both in the strategy layer, as well as on the battlefield. 

[...]

@DSOGaming A tactical co-op mod for XCOM 2 has been released by Team Dragonpunk. Current support is limited to two players but up to twelve players is planned pending approval by Firaxis.

In order to play this mod, both you and your co-op buddy will have to install this mod. Then, both of you will have to load a save (any save will do the trick) and head over at Squad Select screen.

Afterwards, the one who will be hosting the game will have to load up a mission and get to the Squad Select menu. He'll then have to set up the team accordingly and then remove 1 of the soliders. A new button under "Select Soldier" named "Invite Friend" will appear. After clicking on this button you should have the Invite Friend Steam Overlay popup.

Invite your friend, click the return to game button at the bottom right, and click accept.

Those interested can download the mod from here.

XCOM 2 has some new mods to play with from the makers of the Long Wars Mod, Long War Studios. The mods are titled "Perk Pack" and "Laser Pack"

"Perk Pack" Mod

• Choice of three perks per promotion rank instead of two
• More than 70 new and reworked Abilities that can be assigned to soldiers, gear or aliens
• Reworks the four base classes into seven, including the assault, gunner and shinobi, or create your own class
• Adds ten new PCS items, each granting a unique ability
• Support for more than 15 active abilities in the tactical UI

"Laser Pack" Mod

• Adds a new laser tier of XCOM weaponry, which includes a new variant for the assault rifle, shotgun, cannon, sniper rifle, pistol and SMG, plus all attachments
• Mod includes models, textures, particle effects and sounds
• Tier exists between magnetic and beam tiers, with two new technologies

Rock, Paper, Shotgun takes a look at the state of XCOM 2, five months after release.

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.

I’ll start with performance, as I was one of those who was blighted by lousy and wildly-spiking framerates both at launch and after the initial patch. The good news is the worst issues have been resolved – where once I was seeing my frame rate drop to sub-30 on a GTX 970 even with most settings at absolute minimum, now I’m seeing it range between 40 and 60 when almost everything is maxed-out, and at 1440p too. (Full SSAO, as opposed to the lesser and not hugely different Tile SSAO still takes a big toll). It’s never dropping below 30, it’s smoother and I can get the magic 60 if I compromise on a few things. I can’t prove this, but I swear it looks a little prettier than it did too. Or perhaps I’m just able to appreciate it a little bit more now I’m not seething about jerkiness and worrying that my poor graphics card is running at the temperature of the sun.

The aggravating delays between certain actions have been toned down too, although there’s still an unwelcome amount of heel-dragging as various animations or reactions play out, maddening when one is keen to know the consequence or action a riposte. This is compounded by a sometimes unbearable-feeling regularity of interruption on the strategy map side of the game. Already a beeswarm of nags and forced deviations from one’s R&D plans, with the two story-led DLC packs (the third is purely aesthetic) in the mix it’s off the scale in the early game.

Read more.

PC Gamer has some great suggestions on how to properly optimize your XCOM 2 experience.

There's new XCOM 2 DLC out, and you can probably guess what that means—we've got the itch. The itch to kill more Sectoids. To rage at RNG. To feel our hearts pound as we line up a do-or-die shot. It's time for a new run. And why should we play vanilla XCOM since there are now more than 1800 mods on the Steam workshop?

You can browse through the Workshop’s thousand-plus mods from start to finish and find all sorts of tweaks and enhancements you never knew you needed. If you don’t have that kind of time, however, here’s a short list of excellent mods to get you started on your next world-rescuing campaign, broken down into four specific categories:

Optimizing XCOM 2: small changes and tweaks like an improved line-of-sight indicator. Quality of life improvements that make XCOM 2 a better game without dramatically changing it.
Adding more content: More map packs, custom soldier classes, and customization options.
Difficulty mods: Fun ways to make XCOM 2 easier or more challenging by changing AI behavior, grenades, and more.
Gameplay overhauls: Big changes to how XCOM 2 plays, including new mission types and reworks of the mission timer and overwatch.

The June 2016 patch for XCOM 2 is out - it's neccesary for the DLC Shen’s Last Gift:

The XCOM 2 team continues to work to improve your XCOM 2 experience and have fixed a number of bugs in both the base game and the Alien Hunters DLC. New balance changes have been added including additional bonuses to swords to make your Rangers more effective in combat. Downloading this patch will also install the hooks needed for players to access the new SPARK class and narrative-driven mission in Shen’s Last Gift.

Gameplay – Base Game

• Fixed an issue where units would not have their mission starting abilities and Gremlins would not follow
• Fixed an issue with Wet Work where kills were not being tracked for the correct unit
• Fixed an issue where Burning and Poisoned damage was causing free kills
• Damage caused by Psi abilities will now ignore armor
• Faceoff may now only target units that are not mind-controlled (by the shooter’s team)
• Fixed damage preview for abilities that modify damage based on incoming damage amount
• Fixed an exploit where replacing a PCS would not always remove the value it gave when equipping
• Magnetic Swords are now referred to “Magnetic” rather than “Conventional”
• Fixed an issue where the unit flag would not properly show a unit as concealed when loading a save game
• Fixed a crash that could occur after selecting an AOE ability and then another (disabled) ability
• Fixed an issue where Proximity Mines were not damaging every unit in a group move situation
• Blademaster grants +10 Aim to melee and Hunter’s Instinct grants +15 to melee crit
• [MP] Matches will no longer immediately end for the user when winning during the transition before their turn

Gameplay – Alien Hunters

• Fixes instances of Alien Ruler soft hangs
• Avenger Defense no longer fails if a Ruler is in the evac zone
• Fixed an issue where the Skulljack objective caused MECs to stop appearing in tactical
• Fixed a crash that would occur after the Archon King completes an Icarus Drop
• Alien Hunter weapons have range bonuses/penalties applied
• Fixed an issue where Alien Rulers were missing health after increasing the difficulty during a playthrough
• Fixed an issue where Alien Hunter weapons would be lost after upgrading through GTS
• Central can no longer bleed out on the Nest mission due to it causing a soft-fail state
• Removed Freezing Lash’s minimum range of 3 tiles which prevented units from using the ability when standing next to an enemy
• Berserker Queen’s Faithbreaker ability no long targets robotic units
• Removed “Return to Resistance HQ” button from the Hunter Weapons POI complete popup to prevent players from getting into a state where project times are incorrect

Performance Improvements

• Fixed an issue with Effects being ticked twice a frame
• Optimizations to path solving memory footprint and performance
• Fixed an issue where unnecessary game states were created on the Geoscape

System Support

• Updates to allow Steam Workshop DLC to be enumerated before native script packages are loaded. Will allow mods that override XComGame.upk to work through Steam Workshop

Steam Controller

• Removed button labels in save/load list that are not hooked up to anything

Modding

• New flag bForceReselectAllGroupsForSpawn for use with multi-part mission schedules
• Armor hit rolls have been deprecated as the game treats armor as 100% chance to absorb damage
  • Armor is now handled directly by ApplyWeaponDamage
  • ApplyWeaponDamage now has a bIgnoreArmor flag so that psionic abilities properly ignore armor

• Tactical Quick Launch menu now supports the grenade slot correctly
• Debug command X2ShowFullObject to display a game state object’s data
• Bonus weapon ammo (e.g. Heavy Ordnance and Field Medic) is now handled through a delegate on ability templates: GetBonusWeaponAmmoFn
• X2DownloadableContentInfo has new hooks: 
  • AbilityTagExpandHandler, so new localization tags can be added
  • FinalizeUnitAbilitiesForInit, which allows special manipulation of a unit's ability list before the abilities are created in a tactical match

• Effects now have the ability to be redirected from their initial target
  • EffectShouldRedirect figures out who gets the redirected effect

• New character template flag, bDiesWhenCaptured
• Character templates can now have forced first, last, and nick names
• Character templates can implement the delegate GetPhotographerPawnNameFn so as not to be forced to use soldier pawns for pictures in the strategy game
• Countries can now be hidden from character customization
• Deprecated X2AbilityMultiTarget_SoldierBonusRadius (though it continues to work for now). Base classes X2AbilityMultiTarget_Radius, _Cone, and _Line now support increasing the AOE range based on passive abilities in a generic fashion.
• Effects may add projectiles to a volley conditionally by registering in the EffectsForProjectileVolleys array and implementing the function GetProjectileVolleyTemplate. Effects that are always on should still use the perk system, but this callback allows for game state checks to add or not add the projectile to a volley.
• X2Effect_GenerateCover can now generate cover for mobile units, instead of forcing it to disappear when the unit moves

The Alien Hunters DLC for XCOM 2 has been released on Steam:

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Alien Hunters also includes a compatibility patch for XCOM 2. This patch will include authentication for Alien Hunters, as well as general bug fixes, balancing in the single player, performance optimizations and a rebalanced multiplayer experience for the base game.

Alien Hunters requires XCOM 2 to play and is available now for $9.99. If you already own the Reinforcement Pack, do not purchase this DLC separately as you will be charged for it.

The second DLC for XCOM 2 will be released on May 12/13:

Alien Hunters, the second DLC pack coming to XCOM 2, adds exciting new gameplay content to your campaign. Available on May 12 for $9.99 or as part of the Reinforcement Pack, Alien Hunters features a narrative-driven mission, new weapons and armor, a new “Hunter’s Lodge” update to the Avenger’s Armory, plus three new “Ruler” alien units to combat.

These new Rulers, including the Viper King, are quite formidable, Commander. They will show up at random in your campaign, once you’ve completed the new narrative mission, and each will have their own unique behavior and tactics, so don’t expect them to act like their subordinates. If you can’t take out a ruler quick enough, the alien will escape to fight another day. We believe these rulers are incredibly intelligent and are pursuing your soldiers across the globe.

You won’t be without help in this new fight, however, as Alien Hunters also includes four new one-of-a-kind weapons: the Bolt Caster, a high damage single-shot weapon; the Hunter’s Axe, a powerful new blade weapon that can be thrown at enemies or used to dispatch foes at close range; the ShadowKeeper pistol, which has the Shadowfall ability that is guaranteed to hit and will place its user in concealment if the enemy is killed; and the Frost Bomb grenade, which is able to temporarily freeze targets. Chief Shen has asked us to point out that each of these weapons is a prototype, so if a soldier equipping any of these weapons falls in battle, be sure to physically carry them to the Skyranger or else you’ll lose the weapons forever.

On top of the new weapons, there are also three new suits of armor that can be unlocked in Alien Hunters. Each armor set is created from the corpse of a Ruler alien, and provides unique tactical abilities for the wearer. Each unique armor set also strikes fear into the subordinate alien caste. For example, the Icarus Suit is outfitted with powerful boosters that allow its wearer to fly around the map for maximum mobility.

Alien Hunters will also include a compatibility patch for XCOM 2. This patch will include authentication for Alien Hunters, as well as general bug fixes, balancing in the single player, performance optimizations and a rebalanced multiplayer experience for the base game.

Alien Hunters requires XCOM 2 to play and launches on May 12 (May 13 for Asia) for $9.99. If you already own the Reinforcement Pack, do not purchase this DLC separately as you will be charged for it.

PC Gamer highlights a new mod doing the rounds for XCOM 2 that adds relationship buffs for your soldiers. The mod is titled RealityMachina's Squad Cohesion.

According to the mod's blurb, "leveraging a 'squadmate score' system left in by Firaxis" allows Squad Cohesion to "give small buffs for squads that trust in each other." In practice, this grants buffs (and debuffs) to squad members who forge strong fighting relationships by way of cohesion points. For example, saving vulnerable comrades from seemingly inevitable death, healing them, or dragging their unconscious asses to extraction points, enables soldiers to accumulate points and thus makes those particular partnerships stronger.

But before you get all mushy on me, let's take a moment to consider the pain felt in the aftermath of mismanaged tactics. You know, those operations that result in the death one of your best soldiers. Horrible, isn't it? Now imagine how your digital squad feels. You've forced these relationships upon them, and your tactical inadequacy has directly resulted in the death of their BFF.

Alex Donaldson of RPGSite has reviewed XCOM 2:

XCOM 2 Review

I've held off on reviewing XCOM 2 for quite some time now - mainly because I wanted to give the game a little time to settle in with a patch or two, given that the game appears to have suffered from some performance problems for some users. Instead, I wrote about why RPG fans should care about this brilliant tactical strategy game - but at this point I've gone as far as I can without putting a score on it.

[...]

Even with those smaller issues noted, it's telling of the quality of XCOM 2 that I put some 80 hours into it over such a short period of time. It twists what players know about the series in brilliant new ways but also remains familiar enough that it certainly isn't throwing the baby out with the bath water. It takes one of the best games in recent years and makes it better on almost every front. Even if you have to endure performance issues, what XCOM 2 has to offer is well worth fighting through them for.

Score: 9/10

Jake Solomon explains the careful use of randomness in XCOM 2:

“Play forever.” According to lead designer Jake Solomon, that was the mantra that echoed through Firaxis during the development of XCOM 2.

While confident in the core systems of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, tackling the sequel meant creating a more mercurial set of challenges, ones that wouldn’t be the same from player to player. “If we were to use one word to describe our tactic, it would be the idea of unpredictability,” said Solomon. “I think what’s valuable as a player is that when you go into a game, the challenges you’re confronted with are unpredictable.”

[...]

Thanks Eye!

The first major patch for XCOM 2 has been released.

*Required User Action: If you have mods enabled after installing the patch, launch it once, close the game, and launch it again. Players will only have to do this once. After the restart, the game will have initialized the patch to work with mods. While the majority of mods will operate in harmony with the patch, some mods may conflict with patch updates and will need to be updated to take advantage of the patch improvements.

Performance

• Added Zip Mode gameplay option. While Zip Mode is enabled animation (like step outs & gremlin movements) speeds are significantly increased. Normal movement animations are moderately increased
• Fixed an issue where shadow rendering during glam cam shot transitions was slowing down performance
• Support for nVidia SLI and AMD Crossfire
• Removed MSAA options from default presets and adjusted autodetect to target 40FPS instead of 30FPS
• Reworked Light Clipping Manager
• Particle Vertex Buffer Reallocation
• Optimization to shadows in the Avenger
• Enable triple buffering to fix VSync performance
• Shadowed light fade out within Avenger; Disabled Post & Pre Mission cinematic lights not being used
• Disabled shadow casting from character lights w/in Avenger
• Reduced High Shadow Resolution - Reduce shadow resolution when set to HIGH to 1536, instead of 2048
• Reduces the impact count of the Avatar Rifle
• Removed a hitch that occurs when the camera enables/disables building visualizer
• Deferred profile saves to next tick. This prevents multiple calls within the same frame from creating multiple requests to save the profile
• After changing graphics settings, based on the selected preset, extra crew will be capped
• Character head mesh optimized

Balance

• Mimic beacon rebalance: Price increased to 75
• Mimic beacons can no longer take cover, and are guaranteed to be hit by enemy shots
• Wet Work is no longer retroactive
• Graze is no longer a chance for 100% shots. Targets being shot by a concealed attacker cannot dodge

[...]

The first DLC for XCOM 2, named Anarchy's Children is going to be available on the 17th of March.

Anarchy’s Children features over 100 new exotic customization options for your soldiers, including new hair styles, face paints, armor, lower face props, decals, helmets, masks and more. Your soldiers will strike fear into ADVENT and its alien overlords with menacing tactical styles that run the gamut from post-apocalyptic to the downright deranged.

If you don’t already own the Reinforcement Pack, which includes Anarchy’s Children and two future pieces of DLC, you can purchase Anarchy’s Children individually for $4.99 when it releases next week. If you have already purchased the Reinforcement Pack, do not also purchase Anarchy’s Children on its own, as you will be charged for it.

Additionally, we’re preparing a patch that will include performance optimizations and gameplay bug fixes. We will have more info to share on this very soon.

Jake Soloman shares his thoughts on XCOM 2 with Alec Meer @rockpapershotgun.

Alec: I read some particular complaints that you can't have everything all the time in base mode, you always have to spend more than you can earn. I don't agree, but the concern was that there wasn't enough pay-off for your struggles.

Jake Solomon: Personally as a designer my experience is that all feedback is factual, so when you do hear feedback like that my instinct is not to say ‘you are incorrect.' My reaction is always to say ‘ok, does that have to be at odds with the other people who are enjoying the difficulty, and if not, how do we find a way to make both people happy?'

It's interesting, because obviously if you're not spending more than you're bringing in... it's a standard strategy design, it's in XCOM particularly but Sid [Meier] does this too. You give the player five all options, all of which seem viable and seem cool and seem necessary, but you only let them pick one. Then by the time they buy that one, we've added two more which are ‘these are also cool.' You're trying to offer the player things that are all beneficial things that the player wants, they just can't afford all of them at once.

[...]

Adam: The biggest difference in XCOM 2 is the classes, the soldiers feel much more like a toolset in themselves. You said early that XCOM isn't a puzzle, and I agree, it almost feels more like an RPG as well as a strategy and tactical. There are some many points where I look at the situation and I've got so many options, whereas in the original it was which guy isn't going to shoot now? It's a more intricate strategy game.

Jake Solomon: That is definitely a distinct thing. Making all of the soldier abilities do something not big, but obvious, so that the player can mentally map them out, so you can look at your soldiers and their abilities, and they always do something that is simple and the tactical benefit of it is obvious. It's not like +15% to something, it's you get a free move when this happens or the ability Untouchable - if you kill someone, the next attack against you is guaranteed to miss. People were like "even explosives?" and I said "yes, just make it simple because that's the only way that as a player you can manage all these different characters and their abilities."

In that sense it is kind of like a Tetris puzzle where you can slot things together. In some senses it becomes a challenge because you only have so many knobs you can turn: you've got moves, you've got actions, you've got aim percentages, you've got cover. They all slot together in fairly interesting ways, hopefully, no matter who it is you've brought on your squad. In that sense it does sometimes feel puzzle-ish.

@PCGamer, they list the best mods for XCOM 2. Some examples below.

Soldier voice packs
Deadpool
Download Link

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This mod mines the plentiful dialogue from High Moon Studios' 2013 Deadpool game to great effect, with barks like "I AM THROWING A GRENADE" (grenading) and "Guns need bullets to work" (low ammo) slotting in cleanly with every soldier action.

[...]

Free camera rotation
Download link

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Adds the ability to rotate the camera using the Q and E keys, lets you zoom with the T and G keys, and enables free camera movement controlled by your mouse. You can also remap the keybindings and configure the zoom and step speed. Now there's all sorts of new ways to watch your squad die horribly.

RPS is offering some help in playing XCOM 2.

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.

We Got This Covered has reviewed XCOM 2:

XCOM 2 Review

Say what you will about their inherently slower pace, but the tension that goes hand-in-hand with turn-based strategy games makes for some truly exciting, and occasionally awesomely rewarding moments. I understand why people will always be drawn to real-time, on the ground, (usually) first person shooters; the fluidity of today’s shooters offer up exciting gunfights, and even when you might die during a round of Call of Duty, respawning is just a button click away.

Still, there’s something truly special about planning and ordering units around, taking in the map and viewing it from up on high, and making decisions that might spell the end of a soldier or unit. If typical first person shooters are an energetic blast of coffee or cappuccino, turn based strategy games are a calming cup of tea, or a comforting cup of hot chocolate. As a good friend of mine would say, “it’s chess, not checkers”.

[...]

If you’re anything like me, and are willing to look past some glaring technical shortcomings, XCOM 2 will undoubtedly surprise and draw you in, whether you’re a series greenhorn or an XCOM veteran. The newfound strategic options stand out as a series’ highlight, and the adoption of procedural and randomly generated elements provide enough to justify keeping XCOM 2 installed on your computer for a long while.

Score 4.5/5 Fantastic

Technical issues aside, XCOM 2 stands as an outstanding sequel to an already amazing strategy game.

Here are a bunch of reviews for XCOM 2.

GamesRadar, 4.5/5

Foibles aside, XCOM 2 is still a wonderfully engrossing strategy game that can very easily leave you spellbound throughout 2016 and beyond. The myriad of tactical options at your disposal - from new soldier classes to the various weapon upgrades - is delicately balanced against the ever-changing extraterrestrial monstrosities. You'll constantly discover new, better ways of honing your craft, and XCOM 2 will happily meet your challenge in kind.

Gamespot, 9

Every once in a while, however, XCOM 2's difficulty surpasses challenging, and becomes unfair. For the most part, enemies abide by the same restrictions we do. But sometimes, they shoot through walls and dodge point-blank shotgun bursts. The cards are already stacked against us in most campaigns, and part of the fun is overcoming those odds--but when the enemy AI ignores the rules, the game loses its appeal. Furthermore, XCOM suffers from certain technical glitches: the action halted during action-camera sequences, and in certain cases, I felt as if the game was overwhelmed. My soldiers' reaction shots didn't trigger when they should have, and enemies' attacks happened all at once, or weren't shown at all.

Eurogamer, Essential

Everywhere you look, you see the same kind of micro-surgical thinking. The game is always keen to see you moving promptly, acting before it's too late. The aliens are always up to something and there's always a big, red, doomsday-styled counter ticking away at the top of the screen. Why? Many of us, I expect, were guilty of holding off on assaulting the alien base in Enemy Unknown until we'd finished a few extra research projects, or kitted out our squad in just the way we liked. Despite being repeatedly told how urgently the planet required us to complete that mission, we did a bit of grinding first. It was all-out war, but did we really feel the pressure?

Gameinformer, 9.5

Rock Paper Shotgun, Recommended

PCGamer, 9.4

ShackNews, 8

IGN, 9.3

Polygon, 9

VG24/7,

Internation Business Times, 5/5

The Escapist, 4.5/5

GameTrailers

XCOM 2 is now available.

Firaxis' sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, simply titled XCOM 2, is now available on Windows, Mac and Linux PCs. The title can be found on the Steam store -- although keys can also be purchased from stores such as Humble Store -- for €49.99/$59.99/£34.99. We're eager to hear your opinions on the title and bring your more news about it, but in the meantime, here's the launch trailer:

Source.

PC Gamer provides a quick guide telling you nine things to do and look out for when you start a new game of XCOM 2.  Obviously, the following link will contain spoilers.

XCOM 2 shares many elements from its predecessor, but there’s plenty of differences that’ll catch even a veteran player off guard. For this guide, I’m assuming you have a basic familiarity with XCOM—knowing important basics such as ‘What is Overwatch?’ and ‘Are aliens good or bad?’ Read on for nine things you should know before kicking off your campaign.

More.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun tells us 14 reasons why XCOM 2 is really exiting to play:

XCOM 2 Is Ridiculously Exciting

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).

Screw it, I’m doing a list. It’s either that or weirdly disassociated paragraphs.

[...]

RPG Site explains why RPG fans should give XCOM 2 a try:

Why RPG fans really should give XCOM a try

Before I push live a review of XCOM 2 to the site, I feel I have to explain myself. The XCOM series isn't really an RPG series, of course - it's a strategy series in the finest tradition of PC classics now coming from the makers of another strategy classic, Civilization.

There's a catch, though. Where Civilization feels like a more clinical and 'pure' a take on strategy, XCOM is quite different - it asks you to invest in your cast of characters and the narrative deeply, and bolsters this suggestion with a raft of features that are surprisingly RPG-like. The core of XCOM might be absolute strategy, but bubbling beneath the surface is an undercurrent of RPG mechanics that make the game seem a natural fit for fans the genre - especially those who've enjoyed tactical or strategy driven titles. Here, ahead of XCOM 2's launch, I explain why.

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Henriquejr spotted two more XCOM 2 reviews:

Gamespot:

Survival of the fittest.

Time is always fading in XCOM 2, and it's never on our side. As we train our next soldier, drop them into battle, and fight for humanity's survival, we can only make the best of the minutes we have left. We'll probably fail. But we'll move on anyway.

Following in the footsteps of 2012's XCOM: Enemy Unknown, its sequel is a brutal, unforgiving turn-based strategy title played on a strategic world map and isometric battlefields. XCOM 2 places us in command of the human Resistance as they rise up against the Advent, an alien regime that has governed Earth for 20 years. As opposed to the soldiers of Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2's rebellion is on the offensive. We're no longer staunch defenders--we're a desperate guerilla force.

[...]

Score: 9/10 Superb

IGN:

XCOM 2 Review

There’s an air of white-knuckle desperation about XCOM 2’s post-apocalyptic setting, and it only enhances the tension. Taking place 20 years after humanity shockingly lost the war we played in 2012’s excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown, we’re now fighting to overthrow a decades-long alien occupation of the planet. It’s a very thematically appropriate scenario for a game about taking four to six-person squads into battle against initially-superior alien forces, and a great backdrop for these unpredictable, tactically deep, and addictive battles.

[...]

The Verdict

With a focus on variety and replayability, this sequel has an answer to most of my complaints about 2012’s excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and aside from some mostly cosmetic bugs, it comes together brilliantly. Thanks to a new spin on the same great tactical combat, plus unpredictable maps and randomized objectives and loot, XCOM 2 is an amazing game I’ll easily put hundreds of hours into

PC Gamer wants to play XCOM 2 forever:

XCOM 2 Review

Deep inside your flying base is a bar dedicated to fallen soldiers. It has a list of each soldier’s name, time of death, and the operation they died in. It’s a trigger for dark memories. Reading down I remember one soldier crushed to death by a giant snake, another burnt to death in a ruined office. Another shot dead then psychically resurrected to fight her friends. Operation Dismal Window was a bad day for rookie Neel Mehra. Sergeant Flynn Hudson bit the dust in Operation Half-Eaten Tears. If it wasn’t obvious from XCOM’s ominous naming convention for operations, this is a tough gig. But these are the heroes you’ll remember when the lasers stop. These are the fallen stars in this gruelling, outstanding strategy game.

[...]

Score: 94/100

Exceptionally tough, rewarding strategy and a masterful reworking of the XCOM formula. We’ll play this forever.

Long War Studios talks to Eurogamer about some XCOM 2 mods they're working on - ones that will apparently be playable from launch.  We posted about this earlier, but now we have more details.

Long War Studios, not coincidentally the team behind XCOM's celebrated Long War mod, has made a bunch of day one mods for Firaxis' imminent strategy sequel. This we learned ten days ago, but until yesterday we had no idea what those mods would be exactly.

Now we do. There will be three mods available for XCOM 2 on February 5: a mod that adds submachine guns to the game, a mod that adds a set of leadership perks, and one that introduces a new enemy, the Muton Centurion. Eurogamer has gleaned a few morsels of info about these mods from the Long War team themselves—here's an image of the Muton Centurion looking fairly angry.

More details.

At the XCOM site there has been an announcement about a partnership between Firaxis and Long War Studios. Expect more details on the mods soon.

We are happy to announce Long War Studios, the developers behind the Long War total-conversion mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Enemy Within, has partnered with Firaxis Games and 2K for XCOM 2.

The Long War Studios team, which is comprised of John Lumpkin, Rachel "Amineri" Norman and James "JCLewis" Karlson, is currently hard at work on multiple mods for XCOM 2. These mods are currently slated to be available at launch on February 5, 2016. We'll have more information about the content of these mods soon.

Going to PAX South? Don't miss the Firaxis Megapanel on Saturday, January 30th at 12:30pm CT (10:30am PT/1:30pm ET) for EXCLUSIVE live gameplay of XCOM 2, as well as information on the mod tools from the developers and Long War Studios' John Lumpkin. Not at PAX South? You can watch the panel LIVE at http://twitch.tv/pax.

XCOM 2 is promising scarier aliens and a more frightening experience.  PC Gamer has more.

I’m in trouble. I need to put a soldier on the back of a flatbed truck, so I can hack the device it’s carrying and abscond with the alien secrets inside. As it happens, the truck is on fire. It shouldn’t be, but I used a grenade to take out the Advent trooper standing next to it and things sort of got out of hand. I’ve got three soldiers left—the fourth having died earlier—and I don’t want to lose another to a fire I’ve made them stand in. Sadly, I can’t see an alternative, so I pick the XCOM agent with the most health and tell them to burn themselves alive. That’s when the Sectoid shows up.

“The aliens are brutal in XCOM 2,” says lead producer Garth DeAngelis. “I’m really proud of that. If you look at the Sectoid, for instance, of Enemy Unknown versus XCOM 2, the Sectoid in Enemy Unknown could mind-merge and they could shoot their gun. They can shoot their gun in XCOM 2 as well, but they can also do an attack called ‘mind spin’, which will panic or disorient you. Or mind control you. That can happen as well. The first alien in the game can mind control you.”

That isn’t what happens in my playthrough. It’s the second mission, and, after battling through Advent troops, I’m now experiencing my first alien encounter. One of my soldiers is now on fire. The Sectoid waves a hand, and a psionic purple tendril reaches out to a dead Advent soldier. He gets up. It turns out Sectoids can reanimate people, too. This is bad. The zombie has the drop on my burning soldier. I have been outflanked by a corpse. My soldier is able to take down the reanimated agent, but not before he removes a significant chunk of her health. A turn later, uniform aflame, she succumbs to the fire.

DeAngelis smiles as I recount my experience. “That’s great to hear,” he says. “You have the Advent administration on the front lines. They’re tactically interesting to fight, but we want the surprise—the really cool stuff—to come from these aliens that are emerging from the shadows as the XCOM resistance grows stronger. In this world they’ve always been behind the scenes. Humanity doesn’t really know if the aliens are there or not. They just know there’s this Advent administration that are their saviours. And now XCOM is pulling these more sinister aliens to the front, and you have to fight and face them.”

More information.

PC Gamer gives us a look at how XCOM 2 will compare with Enemy Unknown.

We recently described XCOM 2 as "more of the same, just bigger and better," but that's not to say nothing substantial has changed. In fact, quite a bit about how you play, promote characters, and upgrade your base requires a fundamentally different strategy than before. So much so that special guest Maxwell McGee of the GamesRadar+ parish decided to break down the big differences between XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its upcoming sequel. Watch the video above to see the biggest changes between the two games.

You can also watch our in-depth look at the character customization here, and the see the 10 most important things we discovered after spending time with the full game here.

More information.

Henriquejr found this video about the XCOM 2's extensive character customization.

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The character customization options for XCOM 2.

The Escapist has played XCOM 2 and penned down their findings.

There are numerous gameplay changes that make the experience distinct from its predecessors, but the most obvious and impactful is the strategy layer. While base building is largely the same as before, the actual map (Geosphere) brings some important changes. You're still scanning to pass time, but there will be options for what you're scanning on the Strategy layer. Whether you're contacting a resistance cell or searching for a supply drop, you're no longer simply waiting for a new alien craft to shoot down. Some combat missions are still a binary choice - do one and fail the other - but others like Supply Raids are another cost/benefit situation. Is it more valuable to get that resistance group on board for more funding this month, or get a payout from the Supply Raid mission?

Though base building itself is largely unchanged, you start with minimal research and engineering facilities, putting an emphasis on collecting scientists, rather than constructing laboratories. Engineers aren't just for building anymore, as some of the new structures can use an engineer for additional perks. The Proving Grounds, for example, can develop new equipment - completing the Experimental Ammo project can yield items like Tracer Rounds, which give an accuracy bonus to a soldier - but assigning an Engineer to the room will halve the time it takes to complete a project. You'll find most of your one-off gear here, which tends to be a bit more powerful than the general upgrades that are automatically available to all soldiers. EXO Armor is just too powerful to give for free to every soldier.

USGamer's Kat Bailey talks to XCOM 2 director Jake Solomon about the game's design, the death of interceptors, iron man mode, and what's next.

Also, check out Examiner's exclusive about new features, a console release, and more.

USG: It seems like you’re taking the original game and just piling a ton of new systems on; it almost feels like the success of the original has given you the confidence to be like,"Yeah, we’re not worried about the complexity, we’re going to make this even deeper."

Solomon: That is very true. It’s interesting because when you make something like when we were making – three years ago, let’s say; we were making Enemy Unknown – whether or not there was even an audience, we didn’t know for sure, right? They obviously didn’t have the feedback – they haven’t been able to say, "We don’t like this, we don’t like this…" And so making that game is very different because you just start guessing, like "What’s too much? What’s not enough? I don’t know, we’ll just have to use our own values." But with XCOM 2, we're now where it’s like, "Okay, millions of people have played the game and now we have their feedback," and so now we can say, "They were happy with it, it had some success, and so now it’s a much safer place to say, "Well, we can respond along the lines of all this feedback we got; the things they like, the things they didn’t like, we can actually make something we think people are okay with." And you’re right, a lot that has come out is our feeling that, "Okay, we don’t have to worry about peoples’ reception to something that is that deep and that complex, like that’s something that didn’t turn out to be a problem for anyone at all."

USG: I remember in the original game you expanded your base as you went, right?

Solomon: Yeah.

USG: But this base seems ready-made.

Solomon: Well, it’s – so yeah, you’re right. It’s fewer slots, it’s twelve slots, so the way it changes is that you’re still excavating parts of the ship, clearing out old alien debris to put your stuff in there. The way it works is that you have fewer slots for facilities, more optional facilities, and then the facilities themselves can be upgraded. So now you have to choose: you have facilities, and you have to upgrade them, and then on top of that is the staffing element. So then you can also upgrade them by putting staff in them, so now the game is more about staff and moving your staff around and upgrading certain facilities and things like that.

More information.

Firaxis aims to make XCOM 2 more unpredictable, forcing players to take greater risks, says Jake Solomon, XCOM 2's creative director. Examiner gets the scoop.

When it comes to a good strategy game, the concept of unpredictability plays an important role. To strategize and develop new tactics are vital to being successful in strategy games as the enemies test your intellect and Firaxis wants the player to take risks when it comes to XCOM 2. Examiner.com recently spoke with Jake Solomon, creative director on XCOM 2, about the types of strategies players will be able to use, the unpredictable elements the title has to offer, and how players will need to cycle their soldiers to ensure a strong squad.

We asked Solomon whether or not players will be able to utilize similar strategies that they may have used in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, or if XCOM 2 would force the player to think of new tactics. Solomon told us that the development didn’t want players to play XCOM 2 and feel that things are completely different, but also didn’t want players to feel that everything they learned from Enemy Unknown would be effective to use in XCOM 2, either.

“Part of the joy of strategy, tactical games is that element of encountering a new system and learning it,” said Solomon.

As a result, Firaxis sought to eliminate the bad strategies that were forced on the player in Enemy Unknown. By doing so, Solomon says that they have been able to add a lot of unpredictable elements to XCOM 2.

“That’s why we’ve added a lot of unpredictable elements because we need them to take risks. When they take risks, that’s when they create situations that are memorable,” shared Solomon.

More information.

Couch spotted the official "Retaliation" Trailer for XCOM 2:

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Earth has changed and is now under alien rule. Facing impossible odds you must rebuild XCOM, and ignite a global resistance to reclaim our world and save humanity.

The XCOM 2 site continues its series of screenshots from areas of the games. This time it is about the Shanty towns.

Thanks Eye.

The XCOM2 site shows some screenshots of what a small town looks like.

So far, we’ve shown you two sides of XCOM 2’s environmental spectrum: the densely populated ADVENT City Centers, and the open fields and derelict shelters of the Wilderness. Small Town areas offer a combination of residential neighborhoods and commercial businesses, and are generally populated by people who have not completely bought into the promise of life in the City Centers.

Thanks Eye.

The XCOM2 site is showing a visual tour, by means of screenshots, of the wilderness in XCOM2.

Last week, we showed you the urban landscapes of the ADVENT City Centers. This week, we’re leaving the cities and heading into the outskirts of the Wilderness.

Wilderness maps in XCOM 2 are easily recognized by their dilapidated buildings and overgrowth. You may encounter some ADVENT architecture, but the administration’s hold on the Wilderness areas is tentative at best.

Thanks Eye.

The XCOM2 prequel novel, Resurrection, that bridges the gap between XCOM: Eneymy Within and XCOM2 is now available.

XCOM 2: Resurrection, the official novel bridging the gap between the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, is now available for purchase from publisher Insight Editions.

Written by acclaimed sci-fi and fantasy author Gregory Keyes, XCOM 2: Resurrection follows newly-minted resistance fighter Amar Tan as he and his squad combat ADVENT forces outside of Gulf City. Throughout the novel, Tan and his group will encounter Sectoids, Chryssalids and numerous ADVENT troops as they work to uncover a secret that could shift the tides of the alien war forever.

A preview of the novel can be found at the above link.

Thanks Eye.

More info about the Advent and the Archon can be found on the XCOM2 site.

In XCOM 2, the ADVENT rules the world with a carrot-and-stick approach. The carrot is the gleaming, pristine city centers, with gene clinics that “cure” humanity’s diseases. The stick is the ADVENT and their troops. When playing XCOM 2, the ADVENT are some of the first enemies players will encounter in the game, and will continue fighting them throughout the campaign. On the art team, we wanted to create a look for the ADVENT that made them stand out from XCOM’s resistance soldiers. The XCOM troops are a guerilla group with a variety of looks and equipment, and so the ADVENT had to look starker and more uniform as faceless minions of alien masters. Overall, the ADVENT look was inspired by the angular shapes and matte blacks associated with stealthy military units. The basic colors of black, white, and red let us make stark, contrasting visual designs and differentiate the different types of ADVENT troops. With this, our gameplay objective is met, and that the ADVENT are visually distinctive from XCOM’s soldiers, while saying something about the world and how the aliens chose to make their soldiers look intimidating.

In other news, if you pre-purchase the game you get the resistance warrior pack as a bonus.

Customize your squad of resistance fighters with bonus outfits, headgear, and custom facial war paint. Instantly unlock a survivor of the old war as a recruit in your barracks.

Thanks Eye.

Eye spotted another monstrosity out of XCOM 2 - the Andromedon:

We regret to inform you that the Muton and the Berserker are not the only hulking monstrosities you’ll encounter in XCOM 2, Commander. Our operatives in the field have relayed intelligence on the Andromedon, a new hybrid enemy unit combining the intelligence of organics with the strength of machinery.

Each Andromedon sits inside of an advanced Battlesuit, which our scientists believe helps them survive Earth’s atmosphere. The Battlesuit provides tactical benefits to the Andromedon: it can tear down most walls with ease and devastate XCOM soldiers with powerful melee strikes. Rangers, take note!

The Andromedon’s Battlesuit also has an internal coolant that corrodes organic tissue, and our recon teams have witnessed the creature launch this acidic liquid at its enemies. On impact, the liquid splatters and pools, further damaging any XCOM soldier caught within it.

Our observations have also revealed the Andromedon is immune to fire, poison and acid, so don’t bother wasting your enhanced ammunition when encountering this elite alien unit. We’ve even heard sporadic reports that the Andromedon’s Battlesuit can act independent of its host, though we’re unable to confirm at this time.

The Escapist talked to XCOM 2 senior producer Garth DeAngelis about the game and how they plan to maintain the same sense of danger and urgency while making humanity the aggressors.

"If you let too much of the [alien progress] build, you'll eventually lose the game," DeAngelis told The Escapist. "The aliens are unearthing their ultimate plan." This system effectively replaces Enemy Unknown's Terror Track, with a key difference: Commanders can take proactive steps to sabotage alien efforts. Certain missions available in XCOM 2's strategy layer reduce the alien progress bar, earning you more time to develop the resistance effort. "There's alien facility missions that aren't on a schedule ... you can go and sabotage those facilities to mitigate loss."

That's not to say neglecting the alien's progress is the only way to lose the campaign. Now that XCOM's base consists of a flying Avenger unit, defending it from UFO attacks is paramount. "At a given moment, if your Avenger gets taken down by a UFO, and you fail that mission, it's game over for you."

Since these risks in mind, players constantly need to weigh the long and short-term consequences of each mission. Do you destroy alien facilities which slow their overall progress, or take on side missions that reward valuable resources and supplies? "You're constantly adjusting your plans," DeAngelis said. "You have all these different resources that the game is giving you... it may be elerium or supplies. So the faucet for those resources is missions - Systemic missions where you may go to a small town and have to hack a workstation, or you may have a Special Council mission in a city center where you have to neutralize an alien sympathizer. And if you succeed at those missions, you'll get a big drop of specific resources."

Thanks Eye.

On the XCOM2 site an article can be found on the Dark Events - ADVENT counter-operations.

ADVENT has everything to lose in XCOM 2, Commander. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Dark Events - ADVENT counter-operations that take place within the strategy layer of XCOM 2.

Dark Events aim to hinder XCOM’s progress in XCOM 2. As you, the Commander, start to reclaim Earth from ADVENT, Dark Events will surface. These Dark Events initiate random modifiers to your gameplay experience, and run the gamut from something as small as improving ADVENT soldiers’ gear in the field to more dramatic gameplay changes such as deploying a UFO that will hunt the Avenger.

And there is info on Dr. Tygan.

It’s true that Dr. Tygan once worked with ADVENT, but his expertise in the medical field is thankfully now being put to good use as XCOM’s Chief Scientist. His areas of expertise are chemistry and biotechnology, which you can read about in his overview here.

Here you’ll find his full cosplay guide, available for reference to any cosplayer who may wish to portray one of XCOM’s most brilliant minds.

Thnaks Eye.

In quite a lengthy article Explorminate give their view on XCOM2 and also did an interview with XCOM 2 lead producer, Garth DeAngelis.

As far as I can tell, XCOM 2 doesn’t happen on an alternate Earth or in some other reality. It happens in the same world where XCOM: EU/EW occurred. Only, instead of winning the game, it appears that the XCOM group failed to repel the invasion and takeover that shortly followed. Maybe during the base invasion they were defeated or even later on when the reinforcements (I think) arrived. Either way, the XCOM organization lost and the Earth governments surrendered. In the 20 years following the alien takeover, these intergalactic critters have reforged and improved human society. Or so they led the general populace to believe. The human insurgency is what the sequel is all about. We’re finally taking back our world. HELL YEAH!

Let’s begin with the inclusion of procedural map generation. No more of the same gas station or pizza joint appearing in Mexico, Japan, and Africa. This isn’t the Matrix after all. With these new maps, we’ll get new tundra, arid and temperate biomes. We will get to see rainfall and snowfall particle effects, but I’m not sure if weather will actually impact the gameplay. It would be great if they did, though.

Thanks Eye.

Eye rounded up several newsbits about XCOM 2 a while ago, which weren't posted yet, so here they are:

PCGamesN explains how concealment works.

But Firaxis have taken the idea further with XCOM 2. Now cast as the underdog revolutionary force on a captured Earth, the player is forced to rely on guerilla tactics to overcome greater numbers than before. A concealment mechanic shown at E3 allowed a squad to sneak around the map unseen by their enemies, but it wasn’t clear just how powerful that tool was. Had XCOM gone full Invisible, Inc.? We asked lead producer Garth DeAngelis.

Also at PCGamesN, information about why Firaxis is redoing the strategy layer.

From the beginning, the XCOM 2 team had a design goal to make the global strategy layer more open-ended. What they came up with was the Avenger: a repurposed alien transport ship and mobile base. Players could research, engineer and train, but they were no longer waiting for blips to appear on the geoscape - they were jetting off to new continents, establishing contact with pockets of resistance around the world.

Shacknews has info about mod support and procedural levels.

Mods are one standout feature of XCOM 2, and one major reason it's a PC exclusive. The studio plans to release the Unreal editor it used to build the game, along with 50 GB of art and design assets. With the designers opening up so much of its work to the mod community, I wondered if it would follow suit if any downloadable content was released. While the team was careful to note it couldn't confirm any DLC coming, it did suggest it would be just as open in that eventuality.

On the XCOM site is some info about the dangerous Archon deity.

As witnessed during the invasion in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the aliens unleashed hordes of Floaters to attack and subdue the human population; however, the aliens quickly found out that humanity did not respond well to the Floater’s horrific marriage of flesh and robotics. Something had to be done.

And so the Archon, an evolutionary step forward, was born. Archons were designed to be more regal and present humanity with a god-like visage, but behind that countenance is a calculating killer.

Joshua Vanderwall (theEscapist) takes a closer look at the gameplay mechanics of
XCOM 2:

XCOM 2 is What Happens When You Lose Enemy Unknown

While I've been excited for XCOM 2 since it was announced, there was one thing that's bugged me about it from the outset; the entire premise assumes you failed to fend off the invasion in Enemy Unknown. Though I didn't win every game, I beat Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within no fewer than a dozen times, so seeing the sequel predicated on failure seemed odd. It turns out, to very little surprise, that I wasn't the only one to take umbrage with this, and the team at the Firaxicon panel took a moment to address it.

The replayability of XCOM has always been important to the game, and being able to restart from scratch and have a wholly different experience lends itself to a parallel universe situation, where every playthrough is true in one of the infinite possible universes. XCOM 2 is based on those times - few though they may be - that you failed to fend off the invasion. It's a redemption of your losses, rather than a retcon of your wins. They went so far as to address folks who may never have lost, in that you're cleaning up other players' messes.

While replaying previous iterations of XCOM offered a unique experience, those of us who played through more than a couple of times are all too aware of the repetition of tactical maps. Previously, every encounter map was designed by hand, so there wasn't significant variation in combat encounters over the long-term. You might not notice the repeats in your first or second playthrough, but you'll see them after a while, and then you'll see nothing but the repetition. It's certainly effective to know the best lines of attack for any given map, but the surprise factor of a new map is more fun.

XCOM 2 fixes this issue with procedural combat maps, which, it turns out, aren't as easy to implement as they sound. The topic naturally came up while I was chatting with Creative Director Jake Solomon, who expressed the difficulty of creating a system that could intelligently piece together the pre-designed "parcels" of map into something not only cohesive, but navigable and survivable. For 20 years now, keeping your soldiers behind cover has been integral to the entire XCOM combat system. When combat maps are crafted by hand, it's simple to check cover density by eye, and adjust it later to finer specifications. Asking a computer to do so in any meaningful way, however, is a far more arduous task.

[...]

Gamespot talks to XCOM 2 designer Jake Solomon about new things in the game:

Thanks Eye!

GameSpot has a three part series on X-COM 2. For the first video they focus on the history of the X-COM series. They just have part one available for now. Video is embedded so follow the link.

The Crazy History of the X-COM Series

In part one of our three part series on XCOM 2, we dive into the history of the franchise. The instant classics, the forgettable disasters and everything in between!
by Danny O'Dwyer on October 6, 2015

Shacknews has information on two of the enemies in XCOM 2, the Archon and Shieldbearer.

The Shieldbearer is a heavy tank unit with a bulky set of armor. He's hard to take down on his own, but his special ability makes him even more of a threat. He can activate shielding within a radius around him, which will buff any other enemy units inside of it. The team said during the presentation that he'll often need to be the first priority, because once he armors up his allies the battle gets that much more difficult.

Then there is this video interview on another enemy, the Faceless.

And this video interview on the Grenadier class.

Thanks Eye.

The Stun Lancer is, according to the devs, the most psychotic unit in XCOM 2.

This ADVENT soldier has no regard for his own safety. He will sacrifice everything to get close to your soldiers, Commander. Then he will stab them … with an electrified blade. ADVENT’s most aggressive soldiers are more than willing to sacrifice their own lives to crush all resistance to the regime.

In an interview more information is provided.

Thanks Eye.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun informed us a while ago that there will be a prequel novel for XCOM 2 that fills the gap between the upcoming game and XCOM: Enemy Within.

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.

Here’s the blurb:

“XCCOM: Resurrection tells the story of Amar Tan, a promising recruit in the barely-hanging-on guerrilla resistance network that still dares to combat ADVENT outside of Gulf City. Amar and his squad find their lives irrevocably changed one day when they stumble upon an SOS signal from an enigmatic man who claims to know a secret that could change everything. Can Amar and his squad survive encounters with Sectoids, Chryssalids and scores of ADVENT troopers hell-bent on stomping out all resistance?”

You can find out on November 10th, a date which I suspect means a whole lot of people at Insight Publishing were shouting “you basts!” at 2K when they announced that XCOM 2 was delayed until February.

Resurrection’s author is one Greg Keyes, who’s previously written licensed Elder Scrolls, Star Wars and Babylon 5 novels in addition to his own fiction. History really is repeating itself. Anyone ever read any of his stuff? Any good?

You can pre-order the novel here, but you know the rule by now, don’t you?

Thanks Eye

Take a look at another new fearsome XCOM 2 creature here.

The aliens’ power of genetic manipulation knows no bounds. Operatives have discovered that the Faceless transforms from a seemingly ordinary looking human into the towering monstrosity you see pictured above. In its transformed state, the Faceless stands nearly two stories tall, with an exaggerated reach and strength relative to its full form.

Thank you for the info, Eye.

News from the Fireaxis teams behind XCOM 2 and Rising Tide at PAX Prime:

During PAX Prime, the Firaxis Megapanel brought together the teams working on XCOM 2 and Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide. Sure, we spoke to a packed room on varying approaches to design, but we also went deeper into what's coming up. There’s a closer look at Rising Tide's new diplomacy system and Hybrid Affinities, then we took PAX-goers further behind the front lines of XCOM’s fight against ADVENT forces in XCOM 2.

Thanks, Eye!

Jake Solomon, Creative Director on XCOM 2 dives deeper into the strategy layer of the game.

Thnaks Eye.

From the XCOM website

Hello XCOM fans,

We want to give you an update on the release date for XCOM 2. We've set a high bar for the sequel and the entire team has been working hard to make sure we deliver a great follow-up to Enemy Unknown. We just need a little more time to make it the best possible game.

With XCOM 2, we want to have more depth, more replayability, and more investment in your soldiers and this extension will give us the time we need to deliver on our promise to you.

We appreciate your patience and continued support as we move towards February. Good luck, Commander!

-The XCOM 2 Dev Team

November was looking too busy anyways.

This interview examines the 'strategic' half of the game. Base building, research, engineering & the geoscape. There's a whole lot of new XCOM 2 details here.

IGN asked Garth DeAngelis (Senior Producer, Fireaxis) at GC 2015 about the strategy layer of the upcoming XCOM 2 game:

Gamespot gives an overview of all new XCOM 2 classes and aliens that have been revealed so far.

Kevin VanOrd (Gamespot) asked XCOM 2 lead producer Garth DeAngelis some questions about the Chryssalid:

It came from outer space.

If you’ve played an XCOM game in the past, then you know the Chryssalid, the most frightening-looking alien the games depict. In XCOM 2's multiplayer, you will get the chance to command one of these extraterrestrial meanies for yourself, but most of the time, you will face a chryssalid as an opponent. Developer Firaxis hopes to make this gruesome unit an even more intimidating force in the upcoming strategy sequel, and lead producer Garth DeAngelis recently divulged how the team is doing just that.

GAMESPOT: So the chryssalid returns, but outside of multiplayer, there's no chance of somehow recruiting one to join the XCOM forces, I presume?

DEANGELIS: The chryssalid is very much still one of the alien occupiers of Earth. They are against XCOM. They will never become a part of your army.

We had to have them come back. They've been a staple of XCOM, harkening back to the original UFO defense. A couple of decades have taken place since you lost in Enemy Unknown. A lot of the enemies have evolved. Now, the chryssalid, they're a little bit too crazy of a species to integrate human DNA into them, but they have evolved. They've received some upgrades. What they did in Enemy Unknown, is they implanted XCOM with something that would then breed another chryssalid out of them, if you remember. It was a pretty terrifying sequence. Design said, "How can we make this crazier?" [...]

PC Gamer found out that Firaxis' PC-exclusive XCOM 2 will put a lot of emphasis on character customisation:

"We've actually pushed character customisation further," says senior producer Garth DeAngelis. "You have to be able to name your characters, that's personally one of my favourite parts. You've got to create your own stories, and character customisation has been pushed. We've doubled down on character customisation. There's so much more you can do with it, there's so many more knobs you can turn now that feed into the resistance theme."

According to DeAngelis, players will also be able to set the gender and nationality of their soldiers. "All of that stuff that you couldn't do in Enemy Unknown gives even more agency to the player-it gives them exactly what they want."

Captain Shack of TGN presents the top 10 features of XCOM 2 to be excited about:

During E3 John Jahn of Gaming Nexus sat down with Garth DeAngelis, the lead producer on XCOM 2, and talked about XCOM 2 - some snippets:

What was the biggest thing you learned from developing the last XCOM game that you are applying to second one?
That's a great question. So we learned a lot with Enemy Unknown and there is a foundation that we got a lot of good feedback on. Certainly the game move between strategy and tactical. You can't lose the foundation of combat, the two turn system, the fog of war, the cover system. It's a tricky proposition to say what we want to change for a sequel to innovate more but those things we want to keep. We thought they worked really, really well when we looked at the core of what XCOM's about. But we said we definitely need to improve the game and how can we make it better and when you look at something like the procedural aspects like that we're adding to the game. We learned a lot on Enemy Unknown. failing that early. We tried random levels and finishing XCOM Enemy Unknown allowed us to have a lot of clarity for how to do it right. So we took a lot of those lessons with hand crafted maps and said OK, let's subdivide those, let's still design and hand place elements of maps but then we'll plug them into this procedural system that will make the game better. And so now you'll never see the same layout twice and we're super excited about that.

OK, cool. So, how are you tweaking and streamlining the core mechanics of the game?
Yeah the biggest thing that we're changing is the procedural maps but that there's a lot of tweaking happening with even just core combat. There are things like, now when you drop into a mission, since you are this resistance force that is sort of working from the shadows, the enemies don't know you're there because you're sort of invading their cities right? They've occupied Earth. So now you can sneak up on them and set traps and ambushes before they sound the alarms and know you're there. That's at its core, XCOM combat. That's a really good example of taking that foundation of combat and sort of twisting it a little bit to make it more interesting and different without losing the spirit of the original.

Alex Donaldson (RPG Site) likes XCOM 2 and considers it as Strategy RPG:

Rebel Yell: XCOM 2 Impressions

It only took a few minutes from XCOM 2's announcment before somebody uttered the fateful words in the RPG Site staff channels: "Should we cover it?" For me, the answer was immediately yes - I always felt our decision to skip coverage of the original XCOM reboot was a mistake - and now we can right that.

But why? Well - when you actually look at it, XCOM's turn-based, grid-driven gameplay featuring permanent death, statistics, hidden dice rolls and skill trees at the forefront isn't that dissimilar to the greats of the Strategy RPG genre - and so here we are.

What a time to start coverage, too - XCOM 2 looks more than a little brilliant.
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Most of the improvements in XCOM 2 appear to be evolution rather than revolution - the game looks and moves slicker, while small touches - such as what appears to be a lot more mission-relevant dynamic dialogue from squad members each recorded with the appropriate geographical accent for that character - make the game feel that much deeper.

As alarms blare, I catch a glimpse of a few new elements for this release. Panicked, the human guards unleash a dangerous new snake-like alien beast to help combat the team - and later, I see that same enemy taken down with the sword, a new and appropriately improvised weapon for the more budget-constrained XCOM soldiers.
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We also didn't get to see any of the mission preparation, some of where XCOM's larger RPG elements come in to play - but even with those facts noted, it was hard not to be impressed by XCOM's E3 demo. Where the previous game and its expansion played it relatively safe by recreating beloved elements from the classic, XCOM 2 seems to take the best of the series and twist it in an interesting new direction that leaves me excited to see more of what's new and different.

Seemingly slicker, smarter and cooler, XCOM 2 seems to be pressing all the right buttons. We'll be able to find out if it does so as well as its predecessor when it lands on PC - and PC only - come November. XCOM 2 is coming for PC this November.

IGN live at the E3:

Firaxis' Garth DeAngelis guides us through a mission against Advent soldiers, a deadly Viper, and three new enemy types, followed by Q&A with IGN's XCOM expert Dan Stapleton.

Thanks Couch for spotting this!

“We're going all-out with modding on XCOM 2” told Creative Director Jake Solomon Dan Stapleton (IGN):

Either day-and-date with XCOM 2’s November launch or soon thereafter, Firaxis intends to release a full suite of modding tools – an Unreal Development Kit (UDK) and the editor the developers use to create content – that will enable modders to run wild with XCOM 2.

Solomon wisely sees supporting modding as a win-win situation for both Firaxis and gamers. “Because we're a Firaxis game, we're committed to this idea of player value. We want our players to play our games forever, and so we want to have this sort of vibrant community around the game,” he said. “We want people to talk, to communicate with us, and for our games to have this really long life cycle, because that increases the value of our games.”

Brandin Tyrrel (IGN) explains the difference between 'random' and 'procedural':

The words procedurally generated spark the idea of endlessly interchangeable combinations of parts linked together in hundreds of different ways, creating something unique that may never be seen again. At its heart, that’s not terribly far off the mark, but as Firaxis Games discovered during the production of its 2012 reboot, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, there’s a gulf between random and procedural. And traveling from Enemy Unknown to XCOM 2 has meant discovering how to bridge that long divide.

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The first rule, according to XCOM 2 Art Director Greg Foertsch, is striking a balance. “Random’s not fun,” Foertsch declared. “That’s the lesson we learned. The procedurally generated levels in Enemy Unknown, they were more random.”

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However, with the addition of mod support in XCOM 2 -- which we’ll be diving into next week -- and the modular nature of building design and creation, there’s no telling how many different variations and original buildings you’ll soon be blowing holes through. But in the meantime, Firaxis is planning plenty of variety in each map layout.

“You might get a gas station next to a park, next to a parking lot in one playthrough, and that's your experience,” DeAngelis said. “Even though the ‘quilt’ is the same, all of these elements are procedural, mini set piece bases.”

The plot portion of that system comes into play in the space between our buildings. At the risk of mixing our metaphors, think of the plots as the connective tissue that links one parcel to the next. The plots could be a street, or a park area, or train tracks, or a river bed, or an empty tract of land, et cetera. When you begin a mission, the map reaches into a bank of options and fills it up.

(...)

But the procedurally generated approach of XCOM 2 doesn’t stop with the patchwork environments and battlefield locales. For the first time, your squad will not only be tasked with exterminating the aliens in the area, but secondary mission objectives which will cater to the procedurally generated settings. “It might be blowing up one of these buildings to spark the resistance,” Foertsch said. “It might be hacking a workstation, or protecting a device. All these different things you can do that can show up and in dozens of different buildings and areas. And you don't know what you're going to get.

Eurogamer: XCOM 2 Trailer Reaction - Did we lose the war?

Well it seems 2K Games has officially announced XCOM 2 today. Here are the details.

XCOM 2 Officially Announced; First 1080p Screenshots Revealed

As teased in the past few days with the Advent site, today 2K Games officially announced with a press release XCOM 2, sequel to the critically acclaimed XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and successor to the classic XCOM series.

The game will be released in November exclusively for PC, and it will be developed by Firaxis Games like its predecesorr. It’s twenty years into the future, after humanity actually lost the war against the aliens.

“In XCOM 2, the roles have been reversed, and XCOM is now the invading force. They are hampered by limited resources and must constantly evade the alien threat in their new mobile headquarters. Players must use a combination of firepower and stealth-like tactics to help XCOM recruit soldiers and build a resistance network, while attempting to expose the evil alien agenda and save humanity. XCOM 2 will introduce gameplay features such as procedurally-generated levels, which will make each experience unique to the player, as well as offer a much deeper level of modding support. Additionally, XCOM 2 will offer a variety of new content including five updated soldier classes, increased soldier customization, more alien and enemy types, evolved tactical combat”

2K Games President Christoph Hartmann accompanied the press release with a comment:

“Firaxis proved they could reimagine a beloved franchise with XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a Game of the Year award-winning title. With XCOM 2, the team is breathing new life into the series by adding an epic narrative and challenging players to overcome near impossible odds.”

Creative Director Jake Solomon also promised that the game will be solidly based on feedback from the fans received after the first game:

“The feedback from the passionate XCOM community played an important role in the development of XCOM 2, driving us to push the visual, gameplay and replayability boundaries of what a strategy game can be. We’re thrilled to implement long-time fan requested features such as procedural levels and modding support, as well as adding more of what makes XCOM great like new aliens, enemies and soldier classes.” 

And here is the announcement trailer that IGN got to release first.

Thanks, Couch!