XCOM 2 Catch-All

i just signed up for the Game Pass for PC since i don't own an Xbox. Gears Tactics is listed on there to be released the same day as Steam, April 28. Help me understand why someone would buy it on Steam other than having another launcher? Is it due to is being on Game Pass temporarily and if they want to play the game again in the future, they can't on Game Pass if they pull it from there?

I'm hoping this title is more to introduce us to the world of XCOM 3, rather than introduce us to the new gameplay style of XCOM 3.

It could end up a cool little intro to the fact that we saved the world and aliens now live among us "mostly" peacefully. Or maybe it'll end up being an intro to how the game will function. Or both. Or XCOM 3 doesn't exist. We'll see.

whispa wrote:

i just signed up for the Game Pass for PC since i don't own an Xbox. Gears Tactics is listed on there to be released the same day as Steam, April 28. Help me understand why someone would buy it on Steam other than having another launcher? Is it due to is being on Game Pass temporarily and if they want to play the game again in the future, they can't on Game Pass if they pull it from there?

Short answer: Same reason you'd buy a movie that's on Netflix.

Slightly longer answer - a lot of games aren't on Game Pass indefinitely. That said, Microsoft-published games probably will be (and Gears Tactics is one of those).

Jonman wrote:
whispa wrote:

i just signed up for the Game Pass for PC since i don't own an Xbox. Gears Tactics is listed on there to be released the same day as Steam, April 28. Help me understand why someone would buy it on Steam other than having another launcher? Is it due to is being on Game Pass temporarily and if they want to play the game again in the future, they can't on Game Pass if they pull it from there?

Short answer: Same reason you'd buy a movie that's on Netflix.

Slightly longer answer - a lot of games aren't on Game Pass indefinitely. That said, Microsoft-published games probably will be (and Gears Tactics is one of those).

Thanks, that makes sense.

Also using XCOM 2 as an example, the Steam Workshop hosts over 5,000 mods for that game alone. Mods that are single-click installs, update automatically, and are in a bin that you can sort by type, popularity, most downloads, recency, etc.

MS PC Game Pass titles are encrypted so beyond not having a landing site like Steam Workshop, manual modding is only possible on a game by game basis if the developer enables the specific game to search for mods. I believe this is also true for EGS/Ubi, etc.

Yeah i prefer Steam for most of my games, and not to derail but the Gears Tactics game I read will not have mod support so it made it an easier choice for me to get the Game pass since the mod community is huge in XCom2 which extends longevity and replayability.

I had no idea there was all this extra content. All I have is War of the Chosen and the Tactical Legacy pack.

I had a good WotC run through last time I played. If I was going to go for another run at this game, would the Reinforcement pack be considered basically essential?

The mods for XCOM 2 can make it seem like a new game. Seriously. Just watch some of the latest Christopher Odd videos if you're only familiar with Vanilla and WOTC. You'll be watching like, "what is this? What is that? What is THAAAAT?!"

It's pretty amazing what mods have done to this game.

I'm getting pretty close to canceling Xbox gamepass. Seems like most things from there eventually show up on Humble Monthly, and I'd rather own than rent in most cases. (Though it sure was great to be able to play The Outer Worlds when it was new, despite being broke at the time.)

skeletonframes wrote:

I'm hoping this title is more to introduce us to the world of XCOM 3, rather than introduce us to the new gameplay style of XCOM 3.

My wild-ass guess from the outside: this is Firaxis going HAM on all the ideas they got playing Mario + Rabbids. They're throwing it into a smaller release so they can see what works and what doesn't before they get on with a proper XCOM 3.

polypusher wrote:

I had no idea there was all this extra content. All I have is War of the Chosen and the Tactical Legacy pack.

I had a good WotC run through last time I played. If I was going to go for another run at this game, would the Reinforcement pack be considered basically essential?

If I were returning I'd go straight to TLP >Legacy Ops.

You don't need Reinforcement for that.

Quick overview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bkT...

I've just started a vanilla XCom2 run. I think I've only ever done this once without WOTC.

I'm having a lot of "Wait.. where's the.??" moments.

I'm approaching the end of my second ever run without WOTC now and confirming my opinion that WOTC is one of the highest value DLCs in all of gaming. It is a massive improvement. The Faction additions of both staff and missions, the redo of additional abilities being available and, of course, the Chosen themselves all add so much to the game.

I've just got a couple more golden path things to go and the final mission has me a little concerned. I don't think my various Colonels are quite the same massive wrecking balls they usually are when kitted up with the full set of Alien Ruler armors and Chosen weapons. We shall see how I go.

Bruce wrote:

I'm approaching the end of my second ever run without WOTC now and confirming my opinion that WOTC is one of the highest value DLCs in all of gaming. It is a massive improvement. The Faction additions of both staff and missions, the redo of additional abilities being available and, of course, the Chosen themselves all add so much to the game.

I've just got a couple more golden path things to go and the final mission has me a little concerned. I don't think my various Colonels are quite the same massive wrecking balls they usually are when kitted up with the full set of Alien Ruler armors and Chosen weapons. We shall see how I go.

I only have vague memories of Vanilla XCOM2 but as I recall, I had several powerful psi operatives and we f*cking wrecked that mission.

Yeah, I found that psionics was definitely necessary in vanilla XCOM2, but not nearly as important with WOTC.

I needn't have worried.
But I remember why I usually mod out repeaters.

First run Vanilla, having an absolute blast - but it seems there was a psi room I never cared to built.

And even the idea of a 2 - 3 hour final mission gives me the 'I will never finish this'-feeling.

I probably am a bad, sad person. But I love Xcom2 but will never finish it.

Peoj Snamreh wrote:

First run Vanilla, having an absolute blast - but it seems there was a psi room I never cared to built.

And even the idea of a 2 - 3 hour final mission gives me the 'I will never finish this'-feeling.

I probably am a bad, sad person. But I love Xcom2 but will never finish it.

You are not alone, my friend! The moment it starts to feel tedious, save your game and stop. Spend a couple of days doing something else, like reading or playing a different style of game. When your mind starts to wander back, fire it up and see how it feels. I have anywhere from 6-10 games I'm playing that I drop when I feel bored and then pick back up a few days, weeks, months or even years later. It helps that almost half of them are Final Fantasy games, though.

Grenn wrote:

You are not alone, my friend! The moment it starts to feel tedious, save your game and stop.

I just recently finished my first XCOM 2 run, and this was the trick for me. Was playing a handful of other games that I could just turn to instead, whenever I found myself exhausted at the idea of the battles (didn't help that I both jumped in straight from having replayed XCOM: Enemy Within, and that I found the set pieces still a bit too samey).

Grenn wrote:

I have anywhere from 6-10 games I'm playing that I drop when I feel bored and then pick back up a few days, weeks, months or even years later.

This is totally me too - a complete XCOM run takes me close to a year.

Yeah it was months, maybe a year, of a break for me with this game. Finally finished one run. Never got the expansion because I couldn't see replaying with so many games on the pile.

I love the idea of XCOM. I just don't have the time for it.

Stele wrote:

Yeah it was months, maybe a year, of a break for me with this game. Finally finished one run. Never got the expansion because I couldn't see replaying with so many games on the pile.

I love the idea of XCOM. I just don't have the time for it.

This, and then I start a game of feature-creep ridden Football Manager to take my mind off thing. Tinker the training and fire op CIV, HOMM and LogistiCAL

Bunch of masochists we are...

Stele wrote:

I love the idea of 75% of games. I just don't have the time for it.

Fixed for me, personally.

Can sharpshooters only be female? I'm about 6 hours in and all (4) sharpshooters I've "rolled" so far have been from female recruits.

Math wrote:

Can sharpshooters only be female? I'm about 6 hours in and all (4) sharpshooters I've "rolled" so far have been from female recruits.

No.

Not XCOM3 news (sorry) but the team behind the Long War mods have bought their new game, Terra Invicta to Kickstarter

It’s basically XCOM but as a grand strategy game, not a tactical TBS game.

Sorbicol wrote:

Not XCOM3 news (sorry) but the team behind the Long War mods have bought their new game, Terra Invicta to Kickstarter

It’s basically XCOM but as a grand strategy game, not a tactical TBS game.

Good luck to them, I'll likely love that, but at this point, I put "doing a Kickstarter" in the same vein as "I'm totally gonna lose those 20 lbs this year". i.e. call me when you're done.

$25 isn't too big an investment for just the game.

$25 is too big an investment for an idea of a game.

I'm still waiting on a game I "pre-ordered" early in development in 2013, so I'm out of the pre-boarding on the hype train game.

Backed. Kickstarter always a gamble, but I like their premise, track record with Long War, and that they've already had funding to get development off the ground. Supporting that is worth $25 to me. If it ends up crap, it'll still be a better gamble than Underworld: Ascendant was.