Lorene Wooley

Astute gamers will have realized that Terror From The Deep was set in 2040 in the original canon. Seeing as XCOM 2 takes place in 2035, it looks like Firaxis is poised to continue their tradition of taking the general XCOM timeline and modifying bits and pieces of it. Terror From The Deep already fits into this timeline pretty nicely, and we fully expect a heavy influence from this title in their next g What We Said: "Independent of the hype or the series’ legacy, Uncharted 4 is worth the recommendation on its own merits. From the tremendous environments to the incredible character work to the globetrotting story, the design of the game is second to none, setting a new bar for interactive experiences. It’s true that Naughty Dog puts a lot more stock into story and character, but even then Uncharted 4 is pure, unadulterated fun . Those who want to dig deeper, however, will find a story that’s engaging, mechanics that are refined, animations that are technically excellent, and writing that’s mature but also playful. In every way the game feels like the perfect send-off to a beloved character and a major Sony mascot. Uncharted 4 is the best game of this generation, proving once again that Naughty Dog is filled with master storytellers and brilliant designe The Gears of War series has been known for its intense third-person action since its debut on the Xbox 360. Gears Tactics slows this down for a more strategic experience. Taking cover is still a big part of the gameplay, but that's because it plays like XCOM and Wasteland 3 . It is available for Xbox consoles too, but playing it portably offers an opportunity to take on some of the side quests on a bus or tr Firaxis has continued their exemplary work on the XCOM franchise with the release of XCOM 2 last week, and many hardcore fans have already beaten the unforgiving title. While the game introduces plenty of brand new gameplay elements into the fold , veteran players will find many nods to the original series hidden within XCOM 2 . The most notable reference to the original series came at the very end of the game, and we'd like to take a moment to speculate on what this means for the future of the XCOM franch These robotic horrors can mean death to entire squad if the player is not careful. Cyberdiscs have very strong armor and a lot of hit points; this is made worse for the player by the presence of drones that can repair Cyberdiscs. Their main cannon will usually kill a soldier without heavy armor. Cyberdiscs can also lob grenades across the battlefield; which means seeking cover isn’t as effective against them. Lastly, don’t get too close or a Cyberdisc will use their "Death Blossom" attack that does severe damage in a 360° So we added concealment, squad-based concealment which is really cool and is a different mechanic. A lot of that again is from user feedback where every time you stumbled on the aliens, they got the jump on you, so we wanted to turn that around on them a bit and address it. There’s also hacking, there’s loot, and there’s all sorts of cool stuff added. On top of that, we tried to take all the characters, whether they’re enemies or soldiers, and really push them apart. We didn’t feel like they were different enough in Enemy Unknown. We wanted to create separation and contrast between all the different elements of the game. That’s sort of how we approach the art side, too, with all the different environments, we really pushed them as far apart from them as we could to offer different experiences, so they’re dramatically different spaces. That’s kind of our approach, both on the design side and the art side. What do you think XCOM 3 will bring, Ranters? Firaxis may be injecting their own original pieces to the plot, but the series is still heavily intertwined with the original vision from MicroProse. Only time will tell if this influence will help shape the future of the rebooted ser A soldier with a fully loaded assault rifle could potentially attack eight times in one turn, and players would have to manually activate every attack. Thankfully, Musashi thought of all the suffering gamers out there and made this simple UI change that adds a Lost Autofire option , permanently, to the action bar. Sit back and relax as hordes of Lost are cleared out with two simple cli Even though the XCOM games are famously difficult , they are all turn-based. As a result, players have plenty of time to plan and think about their moves. XCOM: Chimera Squad is currently only on slg Pc games, so Steam Deck looks to be a great way to play this beloved title . XCOM: Enemy Unknown is available on the PS Vita, but it plays poorly. XCOM 2 is available on Nintendo Swi These are the leaders of the Sectoid soldiers, and besides having higher base stats they also have devastating psionic attacks. Sectoid Commanders have four psionic abilities: Mind Control, Mindfray, Greater Mind Merge, and Psi Panic. The Mind control is especially nefarious, as it gives the Sectoid Commander complete control of a soldier in the player’s squad for three turns. Most mind controlled soldiers do not survive the mission. The Mind Merge gives all Sectoids in battle decent bonuses to Will (morale), health, and critical hit chance. The worst aspect is it is very difficult to distinguish commanders from normal Secto