Firaxis Games

XCOM: Enemy Within hands-on - encountering new enemies in Operation Devil's Giant

Tom Senior at

POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT - this reveals a new type of alien for turn-based tactical add-on, XCOM: Enemy Within. If you've already decided that you're getting the expansion and would rather encounter and adapt to it yourself, give this preview a miss. This hands-on focuses on one particular encounter, for additional in-depth overview of Enemy Within's new features, you can also check out our other hands-on account.

All rise to salute the fallen. Sergeant Balls, start the bagpipes. AHEM. Lt. April "Congo" Palmer, slain by a Floater's light plasma rifle in Operation Devil's Giant. Eleven kills to her name. Squaddie Eric Stevens, mauled to death trying to taser a Chryssalid at melee range during Operation Flying Skull. My, my, what a mess that was. Lt. Shaojie Zhang, slain by a Thin Man at range in Operation Dark Vanguard. Rookie Dieter Kohler, strangled to death by a flying metal octopus During Operation Devil's Giant.

Wait, flying metal octopus? Balls, stop the bagpipes. Colonel Jenkins, stop crying. Nobody told me anything about a flying goddamn octopus.

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Firaxis discarded an "awful" XCOM prototype before developing Enemy Unknown

Omri Petitte at

Speaking to Edge, Firaxis Lead Designer Jake Solomon said the developer's early efforts of crafting an XCOM reboot back in 2003 turned out "awful." Sounds harsh, but considering the polish and personality of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, we're glad for the do-over.

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XCOM's Slingshot DLC gets trailered ahead of today's release

Phil Savage at

XCOM's Slingshot add-on will be available from later today, presumably once the Steam engine rumbles to life and starts pumping out releases. The pack adds three new China-based Council missions that will integrate into your campaigns. In preparation, Firaxis have released this video teaser of what those missions involve.

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XCOM creator bestows blessing upon Firaxis

Omri Petitte at

When XCOM: Enemy Unknown producer Jake Solomon told us he considers original XCOM creator Julian Gollop as a "personal hero," it heralded the steep reverence Firaxis charged into Enemy Unknown's eerily glowing roots from the 1994 turn-based favorite. Strong sales and review accolades vindicated Firaxis' efforts, but in a Eurogamer report, Gollop himself declared the studio did "a great job" interpreting XCOM its own way.

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Incoming XCOM: Enemy Unknown patch fixes hanging issues, makes Easy difficulty easier

Omri Petitte at

2K Community Coordinator Marion Dreo issued a pre-deployment briefing yesterday for XCOM: Enemy Unknown's second patch. Assembling in the hangar are a few fixes for game-hanging encounters during Alien Activity and UFO interception as well as improved multiplayer netcode and roof visibility during Abduction missions.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Warspace Extension mod rebalances darn near everything

Omri Petitte at

Taken out of context, "Warspace Extension" sounds like the subject of a cheeky spam email to a military general. For XCOM: Enemy Unknown commanders, it's the name of a mod overhauling weapons, enemies, armor, squad performance, and practically everything else housed beneath Firaxis' turn-based Sectoid-slayer. Commence Operation: Righteous Replay.

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Civilization Online in development "for the Asian market"

Tom Senior at

Take Two have dropped word that a 100-strong team of developers in South Korea are building a dedicated online version of Civilization. It's being built for release in Asia, but if it does super-well there's always a chance it'll travel. The XLGames team is headed up by ex-Lineage designer, Jake Song. "A genius? That would be nice to hear, but I'd rather be called a craftsman," he says on XL's comically po-faced front page.

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Firaxis comments on XCOM: Enemy Unknown modding plans

Omri Petitte at

Firaxis hit the deployment hangar for its DLC plans rather fast with its announcement of the Slingshot mission pack yesterday, but it's yet to give a go-ahead for full modding support. Speaking to Joystiq, Firaxis Producer Garth DeAngelis stated modding wasn't one of their "core pillars" during development.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Slingshot DLC heads to China, adds new squad character

Omri Petitte at

Yesterday we let our speculation over XCOM's inevitable DLC run as rampantly as a panicked Sectoid, but 2K and Firaxis have their own vision for XCOM's post-release content. Today they announce the impending deployment of Slingshot, a tri-Council-mission campaign set in a besieged China featuring a new playable squad character, enhanced customization options, and a couple research shortcuts.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown mod enables "Second Wave" advanced campaign options

Omri Petitte at

When helplessly watching your squad of veterans get disemboweled for the umpteenth time feels like a dull affair in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it's time for a psi-blast of extra variety with Second Wave. First scoped by hawk-eyed gamers on the Nexus modding network forums, Second Wave was a planned feature by Firaxis to furnish extra gameplay options and tweaks for commanders starting a new single-player campaign after completing it once. And most of it is recoverable.

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