Blogs
on December 15, 2025
What We Said: "At the end of the day, XCOM 2 is the poster boy of the modern turn-based strategy game. The game can feel unfair at times, but Firaxis has crafted a dynamic experience with virtually limitless replay value and a constant level of challenge. Fans of the series will find plenty of enjoyment watching the XCOM troops struggle to protect mankind once again, and Firaxis can pat themselves on the back for making one of the most addictive and rewarding strategy games of all ti
Creating badass alien destroyers is a major part of the fun of the X-COM series. The customization option present in the vanilla version of the game is nice, but it lacks a lot of depth — even with the free DLC they released a while ago — leading to a lot of similar-looking grunts. User Stenchfury, though, really kicks the customization up a notch with his modular helmets and arm
There is some town exploration in the demo. However, it is truncated. Most of the time it seems players will click on a map icon in order to in initiate a battle, or a cutscene. In-between some battles or story beats intel can be gathered but these exploration moments are very brief. This lack of full exploration is common for tactical RPGs so it understandable why the full slg game reviews would not add this feat
Why You Should Play It: Tom Clancy’s The Division has experienced some soaring highs and crushing lows since its launch, but either way it’s hard to discredit the hype surrounding the game. Exploring evacuated New York City and collecting loot was an instant appeal to the game, and the promise of a deep endgame experience kept us grinding away. If nothing else, the introduction of The Division ’s Dark Zone should stand out as a unique approach to PvP and one that we hope more games "borrow." Yes, the game has struggled to keep its players happy, but great strides have been made to improve the core experience. And now there is a lot of content for newcomers to expl
The game purposefully left the fate of Doctor Vahlen, the chief scientist from Enemy Unknown , a mystery throughout the game. While she was mentioned briefly, it looks like XCOM have been unable to establish communication with her. In the prequel novel for XCOM 2 , it was revealed that Vahlen escaped a brutal ADVENT attack on a research outpost by taking a boat to the sea. We have little doubt that Firaxis left her fate open for a reason, and we suspect she has been one of the first to work out that a new threat is due to emerge from the dep
Why You Should Play It: Movie tie-in games are notorious for feeling like shameless cash grabs, but Ratchet and Clank bucks the trend by sticking to what the franchise has always done well. Better looking, more refined, and as entertaining as ever, this rebooted Ratchet and Clank origin story is pure platforming goodness. Don’t let the look fool you, Ratchet and Clank packs a lot more action and excitement than many of the other 2016 releases out th
A rather simple UI change, all this mod does is add an "evac all" option on the normal taskbar at the bottom of the screen when in the evac zone. Maybe not a game-changer exactly, but this is the kind of quality of life update that all large games could use. Truly, anything that reduces what would be 12 clicks with a full squad down to one is fantastic. It almost makes folks feel bad for XCOM 2 players on PS5 and their insane load times . No speed adjustments for them, the poor so
In the meantime, Firaxis is supporting XCOM 2 with what ultimately amounts to a Season Pass. Players have the option to purchase the Reinforcement Pack DLC, which will release three bonus collections of content between Spring and Summer later this year. In the meantime, modders are actively supporting the title with puppy-based weapon
The final nail in the coffin for story upgrades that this game needs is a better balancing act. One would think Square Enix would be more interested in showing off its gameplay rather than its text for a demo. It seems someone was thinking the opposite because the few battles in here are about an hour apart each. Hopefully the final game won’t burden players so much with too much story all at o
The story in this game is dense. There are a lot of characters and terms used that can be hard to follow. This is just the demo too so who knows how complicated the main game will get. It would be nice if these conversations had text logs. To bring up Persona 5 Strikers again, that game lets players hit a button in order to scroll back through what characters just said accompanied by voice work if it was already th
They can do some decent melee damage, but the Ranger and Templar do significantly more. They're like a jack of all trades but master of none in a game where the classes are all specialists in a different fi