XCOM: Enemy Within announced - a huge expansion to Enemy Unknown

The rumours were true . While manually cranking the website in preparation for the coming day's news, a mysterious and silhouetted figure appeared on the screen. "Commander..." he began, before I pointed out he probably had the wrong computer. "Well, I'm here now," he shrugged, clearly invested in the moment, "so I may as well tell you that XCOM: Enemy Within has been announced." A strange way to start the morning, but it's hard to complain when the result is a giant expansion to the excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown . It will add new units, enemies, maps, weapons, equipment, and features. And a robotic exoskeleton.

A second transmission is coming through:

A here's the feature debrief:

• "New Soldier Abilities: Research a new alien technology to advance the capabilities of operatives:

• "Gene Mods: Construct the Genetics Lab to physically enhance operatives' abilities, including augmentations to the chest, brain, eyes, skin and legs.

• "MECs: Build the Cybernetics Lab to enable the construction of the new Mechanized Exoskeletal Cybersuit, or MEC. The new MEC Trooper class has specialized abilities and each suit can be upgraded with new weapons including the flamethrower, grenade launcher and more.

• "New Weapons and Equipment: Give operatives an extra tactical edge with new projects from the engineering team in the Foundry;

• "New Enemy Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter the threats from a host of new enemies, including the Mechtoid;

• "New Strategic Resource: A valuable new alien resource, known as Meld, has been discovered. Secure it on the battlefield and use it carefully back at base to unlock new research and upgrades;

• "New Tactical Challenges and Maps: Face new tactical challenges, on nearly 50% more maps;

• "New Multiplayer Maps, Units and Abilities: Create custom squad from a wider array of options and dominate opponents in intense, one-on-one, turn-based matches."

An attached note says "burn after reading". Wait, no! Don't set fire to your monitor. Just copy everything down onto a piece of paper, read it, and burn that. Tactics, see?

We'll have more soon, including a big feature in the next issue of the magazine.

XCOM: Enemy Within is due out November 12th.

We've tracked the source of the broadcast to Germany. Keep an eye on our complete Gamescom coverage to learn about the latest transmissions.