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Tag: Turn-Based Strategy

  • ‘XCOM: Enemy Within’ Gameplay Revealed in New Video

    Earlier this week, 2K Games and developer Firaxis further teased XCOM: Enemy Within, the first expansion for the popular turn-based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The contend features new enemies, new weapons, and, above all, new upgrades for soldiers. The upgrades include genetically engineered bioweapon powers and full cybernetic mech suits.

    Today, Firaxis has provided a full gameplay video for the new content. Enemy Within’s lead designer, Ananda Gupta, narrates the gameplay video seen below. The video begins by showing off the mech trooper, which can wreck aliens with brute force and a mini gun. The genetic powers are then revealed, including superhero-like athletic feats and psychic firewalls. Of course, enemies have gotten upgrades as well, and the video ends with a pending mech-on-mech battle.

    XCOM: Enemy Within is scheduled for a November 12 release in North America, for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 consoles.

  • XCOM Mechs Teased in New ‘Enemy Within’ Trailer

    With the launch of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified now a quickly-fading memory, 2K has turned its attention back to the main XCOM strategy game franchise. The publisher and developer Firaxis recently revealed the first full expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, titled XCOM: Enemy Within.

    Enemy Within will feature all-new weapons, enemies, and soldier upgrades. Those soldier upgrades are where the real gameplay twists will come in. Players can now upgrade soldiers using two different upgrade paths: genetic engineering or cybernetic augmentation. The genetic path upgrades soldiers with bioweapon capabilities, giving them powers through enhanced limbs, eyes, skin, and brains. The cybernetic path upgrades soldiers using a new “Mechanized Exoskeletal Cybersuit” (MEC). That’s right. Enemy Within will have mechs.

    A new trailer for the content was released this week. It shows off both of the new upgrade paths, as well as the new extraterrestrial enemies that make these upgrades necessary:

  • ‘XCOM: Enemy Within’ Officially Announced

    ‘XCOM: Enemy Within’ Officially Announced

    2K Games released The Bureau: XCOM Declassified this week, to mediocre reviews. Now that the publisher has finished promoting that strange amalgamation of strategy and third-person shooting, it has now turned its attention to the game that revitalized the XCOM brand last year.

    XCOM: Enemy Within was officially announced this week at Gamescom. The title is an expansion to last year’s hit XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It will feature new weapons, soldier upgrades, and enemies. 2K and XCOM developer Firaxis claim that seeing all the new content will require “three to four” playthroughs. Enemy Within launches on November 12 (November 15 in Europe) for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

    “The incredible critical and consumer response to XCOM: Enemy Unknown inspired us to offer new content that would deepen the strong bond that has been created for our XCOM brand,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Firaxis Games is renowned for delivering massive, highly immersive PC expansions in the Civilization series, and XCOM: Enemy Within builds on that lineage and expands the experience for console gamers as well.”

    A new resource, called “Meld,” is collected from aliens on the battlefield to unlock the new content in-game. New upgrades include mech suits and genetically-engineered powers for soldiers.

  • Massive Chalice Kickstarter Ends With Over $1.2M

    Double Fine, the developer behind games such as Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, ended its second big Kickstarter campaign today. The Massive Chalice Kickstarter raised $1,229,015 – well over its goal of $725,000.

    Massive Chalice is being described as a tactical strategy game in a fantasy setting. Players will defend their territory, complete requests, and build their kingdom using customizable heroes. The heroes can also be retired and married off to produce bloodlines filled with progressively more powerful heroes that will inherit epic “Bloodline Relics.” The game’s production is being helmed by Brad Muir, who is best known for being the project lead on Iron Brigade.

    Double Fine is still working on completing its first big Kickstarter project, Broken Age. That game is a point-and-click adventure game in the style of classics such as Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island.

    Over the course of the Kickstarter campaign, Double Fine has been producing numerous video updates and discussions of the ideas behind Massive Chalice. In the video below, Muir and other Massive Chalice developers talk about the design decisions that will go into the game:

  • XCOM is Coming to iOS on Thursday, June 20

    Last year, Firaxis Games and 2K Games reinvigorated the turn-based strategy genre with XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The polished, tactical gameplay won over critics and even gamers not familiar with strategy games in general. It ended up near or at the top of many best-of-the-year lists for 2012 video games.

    Almost three months ago, Firaxis promised to bring the XCOM experience to mobile platforms. As far-fetched as it sounded, the developer promised to bring the full XCOM: Enemy Unknown game to Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices. Now, Firaxis is only days away from releasing the game on iOS.

    XCOM: Enemy Unknown will hit the iTunes App Store on June 20th. It will be priced at $20/€18/£14 – expensive for an iOS game, but half as much as the game sells for on PC.

    The game has been optimized to use a touchscreen interface and uses Apple’s iCloud to sync game saves across different devices. Multiplayer mode will not be included in the game at launch, though Firaxis has promised to patch in in later as a free update. The game will function on iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, and iPad mini devices, as well as the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and latest iPod touch.

    XCOM: Enemy Unknown should, in theory, work better than for some other games ported to mobile (Grand Theft Auto III comes to mind), as the PC version of XCOM could be played entirely with just a mouse. As XCOM designer Jake Solomon demonstrates in the video below, all the functionality of the PC and console versions seems to have made it into the mobile version:

  • Wasteland 2 Development Video Update Released

    In general, the gaming industry is fairly secretive. Developers rarely reveal much about their games until a few months before the launch day, other than the requisite teaser trailer.

    With the rise of Kickstarter-funded game projects, however, that sort of black-box development could (and should) change. Developers who take money from fans upfront owe it to their investors to keep them informed of how the project is coming along, and to seek out input from them.

    InXile Entertainment appears to be doing just that with its Kickstarted Wasteland 2 RPG. The developer this weekend released an early developer preview video for the title.

    Wasteland 2 was kickstarted almost one year ago. InExile was asking for only $900,000 for the project, but received nearly $3 million.

    The developer video includes a look at the customizable UI, combat, skills, and the dialogue system. There is also a blog post that provides an overall update on the game’s progress. As of right now, the developers are “just past the halfway mark.”