XCOM 2

[Wingflier]

It was a mod for the original game that expanded it (a lot). You could say it's an "inofficial expansion".
http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/?
Never played it, though.

I don't know how much they worked on XCOM2 because clearly they weren't lead devs. They released however three mods right at release, one that adds leaders for your team that give squad buffs (but you can have only one leader at the same time in your squad).
Another adds a new alien type. I forogt what the third did but I think it was a new weapon.

thanks that looks like the sort of thing id love if I had xcom also one particular part of the q and a amused me greatly.
Q: I'm fairly new to xcom. What difficulty should I start with?
A: Normal.

Q: I'm an XCOM veteran. What difficulty should I start with?
A: Normal.

Q: But I'm really awesome at --
A: Sorry to interrupt, but just start with Normal. We don't have easy difficulties in this mod that hold your hand while you learn the ropes and we've removed every bit of code we can find that cheats for the player on the lower difficulties. It's going to be hard. The other difficulties are just harder versions of Normal; feel free to move up when you get a handle on all the new mechanics. XD

I made the mistake, the first time I tried Long War, of starting with the second difficulty (out of 4). I paid so dearly for that decision.

Both XCOM: Long War and Xenonauts are insanely challenging, on any difficulty. I have a running offer for any of my close friends of $50, to anybody who can beat Xenonauts on EASY, save scumming allowed.

[Shrugging Khan]

Some info on The Long War:

The Long War is a mod that adds a great deal of new features, items, abilities, game mechanics, balance changes, fixes and other little tweaks to XCOM:EW.
It is also really, really well made. The design choices they made are excellent. They let you adjust many settings to suit your preferences. It generally feels like they picked up where the devs left the game and polished it to perfection (within the limitations of a very mod-unfriendly game).

For the details I'd just link to the wiki, but it's currently got database problems. Huh.

The Long War is also perfectly happy to punish you for mistakes. It gives you dozens of new tools to use though, so it's not like it's just hard - it's just less forgiving. For both the player and the aliens. And...oh god, I can't really explain it well enough. It's BIG. It's GOOD. It's also somewhat complex. It's definitely not a mod that's easy to get into, if only because of how hard it hits and how many new things and changes it introduces. But it's a far better overall experience than the base XCOM, if you're willing to accept that you may well fail, and be beaten, and have to accept losses very frequently (unless you savescum).

[crazyroosterman]

Some info on The Long War:

The Long War is a mod that adds a great deal of new features, items, abilities, game mechanics, balance changes, fixes and other little tweaks to XCOM:EW.
It is also really, really well made. The design choices they made are excellent. They let you adjust many settings to suit your preferences. It generally feels like they picked up where the devs left the game and polished it to perfection (within the limitations of a very mod-unfriendly game).

For the details I'd just link to the wiki, but it's currently got database problems. Huh.

The Long War is also perfectly happy to punish you for mistakes. It gives you dozens of new tools to use though, so it's not like it's just hard - it's just less forgiving. For both the player and the aliens. And...oh god, I can't really explain it well enough. It's BIG. It's GOOD. It's also somewhat complex. It's definitely not a mod that's easy to get into, if only because of how hard it hits and how many new things and changes it introduces. But it's a far better overall experience than the base XCOM, if you're willing to accept that you may well fail, and be beaten, and have to accept losses very frequently (unless you savescum).

sounds like the sort of thing I would play xcom with if it worked on my laptop which I know for a fact it doesn't since I tried it on a free weekend once and it just straight up shat it self and didn't work.

[keith.lamothe]

Your laptop was defending you.

[crazyroosterman]

Your laptop was defending you.

I'm going to take it that you didn't particularly like xcom its not like I was really interested in getting it I was just testing it while I had the chance.

[keith.lamothe]

Oh I enjoyed it immensely. But it involves lots of losing.

[TheVampire100]

I remember streaming XCOM EU on the highest difficulty and failing hardly. The viewers laughed their asses off.

[Mánagarmr]

Both XCOM: Long War and Xenonauts are insanely challenging, on any difficulty. I have a running offer for any of my close friends of $50, to anybody who can beat Xenonauts on EASY, save scumming allowed.

I'm not sure Xenonauts is insanely challenging on normal. Yes, you will lose some soldiers and sometimes you just make bad decisions and leave your squad in the open and wipe. It's up to you if you wanna reload or train a new squad at that point. Both are equally doable. It's only how much effort you yourself wanna put it, and that's what I like. The option to go full hardcore is there, but it's not enforced.

[Mánagarmr]

I remember streaming XCOM EU on the highest difficulty and failing hardly. The viewers laughed their asses off.

This is streaming in a nutshell. Viewers always laugh their asses off.

Case in point.

[eRe4s3r]

Just beat the game, holy shit that final mission... It was pretty intense. The final room would be quite a challenge on its own even if you didn't have to run the long gauntlet to get there.

Spoilers are following

I actually found that mission fairly "ok" , 2 hours OK.. 2 hours and 11 reloads "ok"

So first off I had great fun "beating" xcom 2 on Veteran.

Mission that actually drove me insane? Defend the Avenger. I got it literally like, 2 hours before I started the final mission. The enemies I met there were the highest tier, Gatekeepers, Andromedons etc., and there were a lot of them of "normal" hard stuff (37, I counted!).. now I didn't know that when the mission started, and skulljacked the first codex I encountered, needless to say that was the worst idea I ever had. I still won though, 9 people injured, 3 of them had 1 Hp left, all turrets destroyed. Managed to get the objective thanks to squadsight and a hacked robot...


XCOM 2 was kinda fun to play through. But I also think this game has a severe problem with writing and believability/suspension of disbelief. The first time I saw a terror mission I asked myself "Who exactly am I rescuing here, and Why do they all wear pjyamas and why don't they have guns, and why don't they run away. I've seen many great movies about Guerilla fighters, and the resistance in XCOM2 may very well be the absolute most ineffective collection of sleepwalking asylum inhabitants that ever graced the earth. Heck, they are a danger more to themselves than to others! The world would be better off without them (so actually, you can ignore these missions ... barely any penalty ;p)

What are the resistance and Aliens even *doing* ?
20 years have supposedly gone by since Advent won.. 20 years in which they apparently didn't manage to complete their Avatar project, something they can do easily in less than 3 MONTHS after you start the game. Not just that, but the primary and most precious result of their research just sits in a blacksite facility in the boonies or in a DNA clinic in an advent city protected by (literally looking at the start mission) 5 guys is all they have to protect their most important strategic asset.

So you see my point is this. The story in XCOM 2 makes no sense. If they need humans to produce Soylent Green why the hell would they build up the cities and establish a neat and underhanded solution to finding right and matching candidates? The Aliens had won, Xcom was dismantled, and in 20 years they rebuild the cities from the ground up, construct DNA clinics that cure you from all disease and chip all humans in the cities? (but also check whether you are a match for the Solyent Green program)?

Talk about least effective Alien Invaders in the history of Alien invaders. They needed 20 years just to establish a bureaucracy that even failed doing it's primary "thing" since the ending of XCOM 2 spells out something that makes even less sense, (it links to XCOM TFTD)

[Mánagarmr]

*words*

Welcome to AAA games, where story is most of the time dumb for heroic and "cinematic" reasons.

[eRe4s3r]

*words*

Welcome to AAA games, where story is most of the time dumb for heroic and "cinematic" reasons.

Seems to me this has more to do with Firaxis. Civ Beyond Earth is also such a shallow weirdly incoherent and half-assed thing that just sits there mocking you with it's inconsistent writing. I'd even say Beyond Earth and XCOM 2 were written by the same person. That is totally strange to say, but it feels that way. Weirdly dumbed down, shallow like puddle and .. not well thought out.

[Mick]

*words*

Welcome to AAA games, where story is most of the time dumb for heroic and "cinematic" reasons.

Seems to me this has more to do with Firaxis. Civ Beyond Earth is also such a shallow weirdly incoherent and half-assed thing that just sits there mocking you with it's inconsistent writing. I'd even say Beyond Earth and XCOM 2 were written by the same person. That is totally strange to say, but it feels that way. Weirdly dumbed down, shallow like puddle and .. not well thought out.

Just how I like it. I loathe when game writers take their lore too seriously.

[Shrugging Khan]

Just how I like it. I loathe when game writers take their lore too seriously.

Which ones do that?

[eRe4s3r]

*words*

Welcome to AAA games, where story is most of the time dumb for heroic and "cinematic" reasons.

Seems to me this has more to do with Firaxis. Civ Beyond Earth is also such a shallow weirdly incoherent and half-assed thing that just sits there mocking you with it's inconsistent writing. I'd even say Beyond Earth and XCOM 2 were written by the same person. That is totally strange to say, but it feels that way. Weirdly dumbed down, shallow like puddle and .. not well thought out.

Just how I like it. I loathe when game writers take their lore too seriously.

In one way you are right. Because XCOM2 does not list a lead writer in the credits. ^^ Which means they didn't just not take it serious, they literally hired NOBODY who writes for a living to work on this (or they all refused to be listed, hah)