Is Xcom 2 currently best game of this generation???????????

The comment was a generalization for sure, there are western story driven games like your witchers or bioshocks that I play and enjoy. My feeling is that western rpgs like fallout have a greater focus on having the player feel like they are in the world. I dont play much blizzard or relic games granted, but in my opinion the best stories and characters are from Japanese properties.

Outside of the performance problems (that mindfart the aliens sometimes have, where they are thinking forever to what they should do) is a tad frustrating, had a single carsh in my (so far) 17,5 hours. Not great, but somewhat acceptable.

Slowdowns in general are not that common for me, so the game must like my hardware, or be VERY CPU intensive.

Story is good enough, it is servisable, but I will state out front that due to the more random nature of XCOM2 you can start the wrong place, and be served 3 really rotten missions in a row, and you are done.

@MirkoS77:

You are absolutely right. I like NuXCOM but that is one area that I felt a little let down.Everything else made up for it but yeah, that feeling of dread as your troopers stepped outside the relative safety of the Skyranger troop transport. It was sorely missed.

You know what, have you seen their first ever gameplay pitch concept for NuXCOM 1? It was far more foreboding (even the music). It was pretty awesome imho. Somehow along the way, they dropped it and went for more flashy brighter(with a more heroic soundtrack) look. Its worth taking a look and for old Xcom timers you would probably think this was a missed opportunity. I figured they worry they might alienate the gaming "masses" but as Demon's Souls proven, thats not entirely true.

XCOM Pitch Concept

Bayonetta 2 and The Witness

I just flanked someone on the first mission 92% chance to hit, fail. Another one was 89%, fail. I think there was another that was like 84-83%, also fail. I also just started watching the Let's Play by Zemalf and he just missed in the first mission a 96% and another like around 86% on his first try. I think that just like Enemy Unknown there is something wrong with the dice roll that they will eventually fix behind the scenes on some future patch.

Got wiped on first playthrough (ironman-veteran) aced the second. Good game, although a bit too short, and poorly optimized.

Agreed, saying the same stuff over and over is something an Idiot would do :)

its turnbased.....

That's pretty disheartening, I was hoping for a far longer experience.. Its kind of inexcusable that it is so short when it heavily relies on procedurally generated maps...

Nope, The Witcher 3 is. We all know Tc loves The Witcher 3.

And? Turn based allows some of the best, most complex gameplay there is...

Between camera issues (that hte UI doesnt mitigate or compensate for), lack of information on the UI, some rather poor menu navigation... The UI in this game is pretty poor.

In tactical. Why is there no way to better know which units you can target, since often when there are differing elevations. It becomes nigh impossible to keep both the tile you want to move to and the enemy on the same screen.

In Character customization, why cant you select a preset while customizing a unit?

@sSubZerOo: It's about the length of EU/EW, give or take. For me personally it's a solid game, I wanted that extra "oomph" regarding story and length, there's certainly replayability in harder diff levels and ironman... but it lacks something, to be honest.

How is the writing atrocious? It is much better than Enemy Unknown and actually, the three avenger characters are very well written, with the new Shen being a great character on her own right.

The timed missions aren't even that bad, especially ones where you have to hack something. People need to actually learn that the Gremlin can hack things at long range. And most missions are not timed.

Swordsmen a FAR from useless. And the heavy gunner is better than the demolitionist (but I use both). Pure phantoms are really only good for if you want to solo a mission with an evac and play pure stealth.

The Swordsman tree skills beat the Phantom skills in all but the last one....where Rapid Fire is much better than Reaper as you need to take down boss aliens quickly at the end of the game. The sword really on comes with Bladestorm, which kills Vipers who even dare to grab a Ranger. And Run and Gun and Untouchable are just too good to pass . A tier 3 Sword (but NOT below that) user can wipe out an entire pack of Chryssalids with his or her sword. A good well played sword ranger still uses mostly a shotgun, only uses swords to bladestorm.

Heavy Gunners have Shredder Ammo, Holo Targeting, and Rupture....and in the final mission, outperform the demolitionist.

This place is crawling with tree huggers.

You so funny.

Swords were fine at the beginning of the game, but later on the shotgun dmg once again gets so absurd there's little to no use for swords

Except for Bladestorm......but really the Assault tree is more than just Swords. Run and Gun and Untouchable work so well with Shotguns, as is the skill to avoid overwatch.

yes they are both amazing run and gun + untouchable, the high crit + extra dmg on flank shots with shotgun + rapid fire in the end of the game puts some ridiculous numbers out

XCOM 2 isn't an SRPG? It's not an RPG at all. It's a turn based strategy game. Also the worst XCOM is better than the best Disgaea game. Disgaea games are average at best.

Japanese games have by far the worst stories to me. Fallout 2 in particular has a better story than almost any other game around.

I dont think so

1. Being better than shit doesnt mean it isnt shit.
2. What difficulty are ytou playing on? On lower difficulties swords are fine, if not total beasts, but on higher difficulties, scouts become better, as you cannot afford to miss.
3. Swords are LESS accurate than shotguns and deal less damage. Less likely to crit too and from what I have seen don't get any flanking bonuses. I never said the assault line was useless, but regardless it still pales in comparison to the phantom line. On Legendary you cannot afford to miss, and as it happens, the scout bonuses not only let you scout ahead, but also makes it much easier to take out priority targets (due to hit and crit bonuses). Some of the Assault skills are still really good, and I used some of them for my scouts. But overall, they still generally favor the scout tree.
4. Shredder armor is great, and I put it on all my demos, but otherwise, those skills pale in comparison to completely shredding the cover of multiple enemies, then getting flanking shots on them all, more or less instakilling them with my assault and their crazy shotgun crits.

@faizanhd: No, 90 % of JRPG games do have better story than Western RPG games. It's always the main focus. I play both though but I love JRPG's more. There's only a handful of good Western RPG's I can think of and they're all action oriented.

LOL

This is how I know you have no idea what you are talking about and have probably played 2 RPGs in your entire life.
So badly translated games based entirely on anime tropes and cliches have better stories than games like Planescape:Torment, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Fallout, Witcher, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Pillars of Eternity ?

Sure thing kid.

@faizanhd: Of what you mentioned, Fallout and Elder Scrolls are the only good ones. I'd throw Fable and Mass Effect in the mix too. And no, there are plenty of JRPG's not based on anime shows. The only one based on a show that was even decent was Sword Art Online but that's hardly a great game. It sounds like you never even played a JRPG before besides maybe Final Fantasy. I'm not as biased as you, I give everything a fair shot.

Okay. That confirms it. You've never touched a mouse and keyboard in your life. Ever actually even heard of the games I mentioned ?

Also is English your 4th language or something ?

@faizanhd: Keep in mind that I'm talking about story here. STORY. Before you start hyperventilating, read the fine print here. You're comparing pc rpgs to console jrpgs, 2 completely different demographics.

1. How is it shit? XCOM2 works because the characters work

2 and 3. Scouts suck on longer missions or missions where you are not immediately concealed (which makes their first skill absolutely useless). Assaults are far superior for long term gameplay. Assault skills are more than just swords. In fact, the only real skill that the Phantom wins at in overall use, not specialized use, is Rapid Fire while Implacable is just useful as Bladestorm. The scout is better at cheesing certain missions by stealth soloing them. And, oh boy, do scouts suck at the final mission outside their final skill. Here is the thing, scouts are made for certain missions and excel for them, but assaults excel in all missions. Scouts are better as the second Ranger.

4. Once again, lets go over this. Demolition Expert have limited uses. Once their Grenades are used, they are a liability. They are best uses for short missions. Heavy Gunners are superior major alien killers. Rupture rules in the late game, devastating to Gatekeepers and Sectopods. Hell, a full Heavy Gunner in one Rupture attack, increases the damage done to the enemy by 3 in all attacks, shreds their armor considerably, and adds holotargeting. So the entire team takes down the big boss alien in one turn and have enough shots for the weaker aliens. The only skill that a Heavy Gunner could use instead is Demolition, as Suppression is less useful, which strips aliens of their cover. Demolition experts are better as the second Grenadier and are less useful in the final mission, especially with the special character you get.

Again. Can you actually read ? Look at the games I mentioned.

Who the hell plays RPGs like that for gameplay ? They are entirely about story and most of their mechanics are just D&D mechanics.

JRPGs are based entirely on tropes and cliches with dialogue that only a 12 year old would think is "written well". Only exception that comes to mind is the Mother series and Souls games (if they can even be considered JRPGs).

Has anybody used a Leader class yet? You can only use one at a time on a mission, but they allow a unit to buff his team and in the final skill, can use a buff that varies on his class. Upgrade the Guerilla Ops school for it.

And who finds PSI Ops not very useful? Too much of an investment.

I want to beat legend+ironman before starting to use mods that make the game easier, tho I do use show health values / free camera angle but those are just QOL

@faizanhd: EVERYONE uses tropes and cliches. Anything with conflict against governments, villains and monsters is a cliche. This is where extreme fanboyism overlooks the actual facts. You just keep derailing and hitting flaws that don't even exist. There is no such game with 12 year old story telling, that's as ridiculous of a claim as saying Star Wars was written by monkeys. I might not like Star Wars but I'm not gonna sit here and spew bs about crap like poor directing and character development.

Western rpgs focus more on immersion, gameplay and then story. Japanese rpgs focus on story, gameplay, then immersion. Like Planescape, it's just a measly dungeons and dragons game. But that's aside the point. You shouldn't be so close minded about something you don't even play. I actually play both genres, and I don't hate either one of them. Two sides of the same coin and they both generally focus on different areas. Anyone who plays jrpgs and Western rpgs could tell you the same comparison.

Nigh impossible keep the tile and enemy on the same screen? Dude just hit Q, E, T, G to move the camera where ever. Plus this game is super modifiable. Go to the steam work shop and click install on some of the mods like "free camera" if you hate it so bad. Are you new to PC gaming?

You bring up mods...

My point stands. The fact is, Firaxis did a terrible job with the camera and UI. And yes I do move the camera around, but various issues with elevation still makes it impossible. Thankfully a mod made it possible to zoom out more. But mods doesnt excuse the base game. As characters gain more HP, telling how much HP is remaining is needlessly difficult, the original solved this issue with rows of 5 (though this caused other problems later on).

The problem with the two new characters is that they are monotone as hell. The scientist's "muh past" and the engineer's "muh dad, I dont trust the commander just yet" schtick got old really fast.

When most missions are only 2 to 4 skirmishes long, the long term viability isnt a particulary compelling argument. While an assault unit is better than the scout in some niches. For general use, the phantom is the better soldier.

The grenadier will eventually probably carry 4 explosives with him. which would translate in a worst case scenario to 1 explosive per skirmish. That one explosive is enough to completely demolish the cover. While I agree that Rupture is the better endgame skill. It doesnt change the fact that the majority of Demo skills are better.

Blast Padding < Shredder

Demolition > Suppression

Heavy Ordinance >> Holo Targetting

Volatile Mix > Chain Shot

Salvo > Hail of Bullets

Saturation Fire < Rupture

The gunner while still perfectly viable, pales in comparison to the Grenadier, since the grenadier excels at making the rest of the people in your squad NOT miss while still doing acceptable AoE damage. The less you miss, the less enemies shoot back at you. In fact, with the grenadier and Phantom, it is not uncommon for me to win skirmishes before the enemy even get their turn.

For the record, I use both an Assault and a Phantom in my main squad. But the phantom generally outperforms the Assault. The assault is really good at what he does (general combat), but he lacks the awesome utility and target killing of the Phantom.

NO

Lots of bitter consolites voting it seems.

I can't be the only one amused by the fact that the majority of the most popular contemporary multiplatform franchises originated on PC: GTA, The Witcher, Fallout, XCOM, The Elder Scrolls Series, Battlefield, COD, Crysis, Unreal, Doom, etc.

There's a handful of popular Xbox titles and Sony weeb titles, but their distribution base appears to be dwarfed by these giants born on PC and later brought to consoles.

I honestly don't think that the current gen consoles could support the newest XCOM due to its procedurally generated maps, combined with their lack of processing power/RAM and outdated HDD technology, but there may yet be hope:

Bring XCOM 2 to Consoles

@LuminousAether: agree to disagree

Wow, nobody mentioned Bayonetta 2?

Deep action games are dying fast. It's all about action RPGs (bigger world = better). Sad but true.

Jjxchimpxs mentioned it, it's just, nobody bothers reading others posts. And his are massive.

Long term viability is a compelling argument when in the final mission, you can face up to 40 enemies.

Holo Targeting rules, Chain Shot is absolutely devastating with a flank shot, and Hail of Bullets is an ensured hit. Chain Shot can eliminate the armor of a Sectopod and a Gatekeeper in one turn. The Demolitionist will basically get replaced by someone better in the final mission and someone who has unlimited uses. And not all cover can be destroyed.

The Phantom is only real good a target killing twice at most, and he sucks in big missions like the Avenger Defense and the final mission. His stealth bonuses suddenly become useless when stealth isn't available. Its the scout that is the niche solider. He is only great for missions you begin in concealment.

Pocketgamer begging for a mobile port.

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/XCOM%3A+Enemy+Unknown/feature.asp?c=68959

These people are scum, it's not right.

My friend, sadly, the begging for the best game of this console generation is unlikely to cease, and, unfortunately, the ones doing the begging fail to realize that Firaxis went back to those that put them on the map in the first place and played to their strengths; like Rockstar did with their most recent, long overdue, apology.

The would-be beggars simply lack the powah required to deliver the authentic XCOM 2 experience.

As many times as I have read it, this has nothing to do with the UI or controller support.

This is more of a: you must be of X processing/RAM power to take this ride without compromise (it's also, current year, and having an SSD certainly doesn't hurt).