The Bureau: XCOM Declassified covers up radial wheel, exposes permadeath

The radial wheel is one of those strange oddities of PC porting. There's nothing particularly wrong with having one - a benefit of the mouse as an input device is that we can click anywhere on the screen, including on a slightly too big wheel of abilities that has no real correlation to our control setup. But it is one of those telling markers of the care - or potential lack of - put into a conversion. So it's nice to see that XCOM spin-off The Bureau will ditch the circular eyesore in favour of a flat row of bars to click/hotkey through.

If that wasn't reason enough to celebrate, a recent developer diary explains some of the features of the upcoming tactical third-person shooter. Among them is an explanation of how permadeath will ensure a continuation of the series' tradition of punishing ill-thought or risky actions.

This is all sounding intriguingly faithful. The graph charting my interest in the game has been on a slow and steady climb of late. Let's hope it doesn't sharply drop off come the August 23rd release.

Hat tips to PCGamesN and Polygon .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.