The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent
vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums
here.
We now return to our regularly scheduled PA Forums. Please let me (Hahnsoo1) know if something isn't working. The Holiday Forum will remain up until January 10, 2025.
Posts
Man this looks good. I'm going to be on this as soon as I have some spare cash to throw at it.
One week to go. Wonder what their last Tuesday promotional push will be.
Oh, maybe a poster compilation video?
It's something about Challenge Mode which is like combat/predator rooms in Batman or some rift types in Diablo 3 and so on.
desert maps! sewers, tunnels, highways! MORE MAPS ARE WHATS FOR DINNER!
Looking again I'm totally wrong. Maybe it's a bonus for finishing under par? But regardless, half an hour seems like a decent amount of time for what should be a quick drop in drop out mode.
thats cute and all, its not the same thing.
And yeah he had it on baby Veteran difficulty and was still gold-moving rookies into the fog of war and getting them flanked on three sides.
As an Englishman, I am appalled.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
I'm just not that hardcore into the game to care about that, so I really enjoy watching TB play. Incontrol and Angry Joe too for that matter.
Then again I usually just play on normal or veteran, I'm not interested in impossible.
Hey, at least he owns his shame here. (paraphrased)" He prefaced his lets play with im not good, dont play like i do and leave now if bad play will annoy you. Im bad at this. "
The new
Also they're giving wayyyyy more reasons to field medics than they used to.
(As expected!)
PCGamer also sound positive http://www.pcgamer.com/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-review-in-progress-an-exciting-arduous-expansion/ but not returned a final verdict as of yet
RPS also keen
Hopefully the crashes are review code and fixed/able but we'll see I suppose
watch a stream. It loads in seconds vs a minute or two. also smooth fps throughout.
everything looks promising.
Streams probably not on consoles, but the fact that they have finished loading before Bradford is done talking is pretty encouraging.
XBone got delayed a couple weeks; not hard to believe that there was some last-minute optimization.
I probably won't get the expansion right away, since I've got lots of love for the original still and can use that cash elsewhere, but I'm also super excited about the expansion. My brother will day-one it, so I'll have good feedback from him; I'm hoping it holds up to all the hype.
The dog. He was fucked. How could you, Firaxis?
It's just something that gets under my skin when I see a person playing a game under my level of ability. That itch that makes me want to slap his hands away from the keyboard and do it myself.
It's much much worse when you're watching preview material for a game series you have an eclipse-causing boner for.
Just five more days.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
WotC adds an option called "Integrated DLC" which makes it so Rulers are tied to individual strongholds (ie Avatar speedbumps) in the world and don't show up until you attack their facility and they escape. After that happens, that Ruler can surprise you, but you can't get a Chosen and a Ruler on the same mission. You also get the Ruler weapons as a one time build project, rather than an object to scan on the map. (Upgrades as normal as I understand it.) For the Shen's Last Gift, you just get to build SPARKs right from the off.
The catch is that it removes the narrative missions that came with the DLC originally. Curiously it seems like the associated commentary is still on, eg Bradford talking about how the Rulers are a project by REDACTED. So if you want to have that story, you have to kind of counter-intuitively turn off the integration option. (though this is a bit like avoiding Rulers by leaving the DLC "on" and just not doing the starter cave mission.
On the plus side the nerfs to Rulers (ie reactions being toned way down) and the buffs to SPARKs apply either way you play so it's a fair choice and you don't have to pick between gameplay and story.
Source:Reddit & (FXS_ArticPyre is a community rep for Firaxis afaik)
Buffs to sparks?
On TotalBiscuit's video his mission, a terror mission mind, one of the "busier" missions with lots of assets and units to load, loads in about 2 seconds. Even assuming he's got some kind of super beefy PC, that's impressive.
Also, a change from his video that I hadn't seen mentioned elsewhere; the resistance actually fights back instead of just standing there on Terror missions now. Which I can only assume means the difficulty of these missions has been bumped up to compensate.
TB was playing on Veteran and the Resistance Fighters barely needed help.
That's just initially. They get outclassed pretty badly by late-game enemies, pinging Berserkers for 2 health at a time, each. Heck, the only reason they don't just all die immediately is that the Berserkers do like 16 damage to 4 health targets over and over again.
On another note, is there anything more painful than watching bad XCom players stream XCom? Was watching JP stream it late last night while I was doing some work, and it was just so agonizing. In particular, how he dithered over each character's actions, even after basically committing to a strategy after using half his team's actions. (Or the reverse, just performing actions each turn without figuring out his full strategy that turn.)
Cool. Anyone got any good ideas for how to use SPARKs? I remember using mine as pretty much a grenadier, they don't really fill any important roles. Biggest problem was that I had one, and their upgrades are super expensive.
Well, it's not out yet, so none of us can provide an informed opinion, but every review I've seen has been very, very positive, and the general consensus is that, if you played the shit out of XCOM 2 but feel like you mined everything you could from the experience already, War of the Chosen basically breathes new life into the whole deal.
Like, what most XCOM players want is more random factors to create emergent stories... more maps, more mission types, more classes, more enemies, more customization options, more power upgrade options, etc. WotC gives that, sure, but it also adds a bunch of systems to deepen the experience, like soldier bonds, covert actions with unique rewards, and evolving boss enemies. And then there's the most important new thing: the photo booth, which gives you the ability to make your own propaganda posters starring your soldiers. All of it is tailored to make you feel closer to your squad, and not treat them like disposable killbots.
So yeah, worth buying. If you haven't played XCOM 2 before, you may want to get it vanilla first and play a couple of runs that way first so you can appreciate the upgrades and aren't overwhelmed by the complexity.
SPARKS aren't as good as their MEC forefathers, but they definitely have use in one of two roles: walking high cover or mobile flanker. If you take the high cover option, you can place them to protect endangered soldiers. They're not super tanky until you get some other upgrades for them, but they can take a hit for a wounded soldier or allow a ranger out in the open to Conceal. If you go with Adaptive Aim instead, the thing to do is run them behind enemy lines, Overdrive, and unload two shots at close range. Alternatively, they can take high ground easily with their rocket boots, and three shots from above can be brutal.
Their rocket attack can be devastating under normal conditions, but the Rainmaker upgrade is +2 damage and a wider area of effect, which is very effective in clearing out groups.
The main thing about SPARKs is that they're a little of everything. They can snag objectives at range like a Specialist (hack scores are pretty abysmal, though), are mobile like a Ranger (but aren't as flexible), have a big boom like a Grenadier (but don't have as many of them), and get a lot of actions like a Sharpshooter (but not the accuracy). All that wrapped up in a package with armor and a lot of HP. And the expansion is buffing them to give them more HP, higher accuracy, the ability to use weapon mods, and theoretically the ability to buy into both of the skill tree paths (though I haven't seen this confirmed). I still think they should be allowed to use ammo buffs, but that's just me.
Previously, the best thing to do is get the free SPARK, either from the DLC mission or from the Proving Ground project and just use that one, and only build more if you have the continent bonus halving the cost of projects, because goddamn those things are too expensive. Remains to be seen if they are cost effective in the expansion.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
and they were buffed hugely in the expansion. better aim and damage. and they CAN use weapon mods.
They dont get injured, they cannot feel pain and they hate aliens too.